Tuesday

First, if you have not done so, read the post below called "Monday 2."

Students received word of a new interpretive project, one I have named, in the scholarly tradition, Imaginaterpretive Thingy. It is due on October 15/16. The rubric is here.

Remember your quiz Thursday on the "Meaning" items on your Literary Terms list.

Monday 2

1. Drafts of "drafted writing" should be fully formatted according to MLA style before you submit them to me.
2. Deadlines refer to the time a paper should be submitted. Henceforth, that time is 8:00 A.M. By 8:00 A.M. of the due date papers must be labeled "Lastname.firstname.tag," in MLA format, and dropped in the Dropbox. Email me by 8:00 if you need the paper printed. Papers not submitted by that time, formatted as instructed, or submitted without following that naming protocol will not be accepted as timely and will receive no more than 80% credit. See the published grading policy. At the end of one week, the grade drops to zero.
3. Drafts should represent your full effort. I do not wish to waste my time making suggestions that you would come up with on your own if you only tried. That practice would simply represent your success at shifting work you can do onto me, a practice I do not want to enable. Further, I do not wish to compose another rubric for drafts, and I do not think that is required of me. I am going to judge your work at this stage on the basis of my own experience -- experience that cannot be so easily codified. I will decide whether your paper is a good-faith effort (100), a partial effort or a searching one that is somewhat developed (80), or an undeveloped paragraph or two tossed in my general direction (50). 
4. If you see and understand, respond to me in an email before you come to your next class with the following text: "This is ___your name___, and I understand."

Monday

Students provided peer assessment of each others' drafts today. A student capably taught aspects of "The Triple Fool."

Friday

Here is a pdf of the literary terms list from which I will take all of your quizzes. A-day, for Tuesday of next week, prepare for the words under the "Meaning" heading. For B-day, make that Wednesday.

Let's make that Thursday for everyone. We will all meet together on Thursday because you will have a history test on Friday.

Today's poem was "The Triple Fool."

Thursday

Today's poem was "The Undertaking." Students annotated the poem and helped make reasonable meaning of it. B-day's first TYPED, fully developed draft is due Monday.

Interesting comments on meter in "The Triple Fool."

on "The Sun Rising"

Wednesday

Today's poem was "The Undertaking." After that reading, students worked on individual written commentaries. Those commentaries are due on Friday, typed, formatted, and fully developed.

Tuesday

Today was much like A-day Monday, but students had less time to work on their own commentaries. Bring necessary things to work on those commentaries with you to class on Thursday.

Monday

Today was A-day, and students received "Song" and worked out personal responses to it. They had about 30 minutes to work on their own chosen poems for the written commentary due on Friday/Monday. They also took a literary terms quiz.

Friday

Today students in B-day class chose their poems for written commentary. They also finished discussing main ideas and comprehension of "Love's Alchemy" and started such work on "The Good Morrow."

There will be a quiz on Tuesday for B-day on the literary terms listed below under Thursday's post.

B-day's first due date for a solid, well-constructed draft of the commentary is Monday, September 29.

Those students who were not in TOK received progress reports.

Thursday

The new poem was "The Good Morrow." Students chose their poems for written commentary. The first draft is due for A-day Friday, September 26 and for B-day Monday, September 29. There will be a quiz on literary terms Monday/Tuesday, September 22/23.  Here is the list of terms you should know by then:

speaker

tone

rhetorical stance

meter

rhythm

structure

sound

imagery

diction

metaphor

simile

analogy

irony

conceit

paradox

hyperbole

personification

allegory

apostrophe

wit

These are not "terms" but still could help with your commentaries:

intellectual emotion; emotional intellect

earthly things for intellectual or spiritual ideas

argument

Wednesday

Same as yesterday: we did not quite finish reporting on "Love's Alchemy," so we will take that back up on Friday. TOK students, make arrangements to get notes on this 20-30 line poem.

As Tuesday's post says, prioritize at least three poems from the Donne pack. Each must be between 20-30 lines in length. You are choosing this poem as the subject of a written commentary. This paper will go through drafts. It will be quite heavily weighted in the grade book.

Tuesday

A-day turned in oral commentaries. The new poem is "Love's Alchemy." Find a 20-30 line poem in the Donne pack. Actually, prioritize a list of several. Just have it selected and read for next class.

Monday

Today the class heard most of the remaining presentations and turned in the oral commentaries.

Friday

Prepare a five-minute (it really MUST be five minute) oral commentary to present for critique on Tuesday.

1 min : Intro with author, title, overview of general meaning (no specifics), and key focal points for the commentary. I suggest, for the whole commentary --

 

Intro:  1 minute

·      Structure:       1 minute (sonnet, quatrains, couplet, octave, sestet); rhyme scheme suggesting  a blend of Petrarchan and English forms, leading to how structure affects meaning –

·      Diction and imagery (2 min): look at each quatrain. Note the diction and imagery come from blacksmithing. The second, it is from war and politics (look up words you do not know, students!) The third, it is from love and marriage. What is the effect as the poem progresses through these patterns? How does the couplet “wed” the last two quatrains?

·      Rhythm and meter (2 min -- Help us, O Justin) – do a scansion of the first quatrain. Point out the effects of the spondees and caesuras. How do they reflect, amplify, or otherwise affect the poem? Note the enjambments at lines 1 and 12. Effects? Does the sentence “bend – or break”?

Thursday

I was out today and a substitute replaced me. Students studied "Batter My Heart." Their assignment is to prepare a five minute oral commentary on that poem to present for critique on Monday. I encourage students to work together to flesh out the commentaries and learn how to go about this type of test.

Wednesday

We finished presentations today. The poem for the day was "Sonnet XIV: Batter My Heart, Three Personed God."

Tuesday

Remember that Wednesday is a late start day. School begins at 10:30.

Thursday/Friday

Today's poem was "Holy Sonnet 10." Presentations and posters are due Monday/Tuesday.

Tuesday/Wednesday

The A-Day prevailed upon me with their argument, and I yielded like a maiden with a flea bite. Presentations and posters are now due on Monday/Tuesday with the additional requirement that they be drop-dead awesome.

We reviewed "The Bait" in class today.