Monday/Tuesday

Choose one of the following (or devise one of your own) to present individually or in teams of two:

1. With a partner or not, make a case for or against

Boy Willie's rights to the piano

Berniece's rights to the piano

    Introductory arguments (generalities that you intend to prove)

    Presentation of evidence

    Visual aid to enhance arguments (not to replace or substitute for them)

    Closing arguments

2. With a partner or not, present an argument detailing the roles of dreams, visions, and mysterious monologues in the play. You must present with a visual aid that enhances your argument but does not replace or substitute for it. You must build a case for a purposeful role.

3. With a partner or not, present an argument detailing the role of songs in the play. You must use a visual or audio-visual aid. You must build a case for a purposeful role.

4. With a partner or not, present an argument detailing Berniece's role in the play with regard to her various relationships. You must use a visual or audio-visual aid.You must build a case for a purposeful role.

5. With a partner or not, develop a case on a topic of your own device. You must use a visual or audio-visual aid. You must build a case for a purposeful role. (ghosts? trains? prison? money? whiskey? marriage?)

6. With a partner or not, present an argument detailing the role of competing world/spiritual views in the play. You must use a visual or auido-visual aid. Build a case for a purposeful role.

Presentations should last for 8-10 minutes.

If you have wishes or desires to contribute to the rubrics and timelines, think of them for next class (Wednesday/Thursday). This will be a major grade for the nine weeks. Presentations due November 21-26.

ALERT

Blog assignments must be done by grade deadlines – before tomorrow, Friday!

Tuesday/Wednesday

What is the importance of music? Think of your personal experience with it and with your understanding of its effects on groups of people. Does it have a...purpose?

Wednesday

3. Classify the characters who have appeared so far with a brief description and some evidence of their character cited from the text. (Boy Willie, Lymon, Doaker, Berniece, Maretha, Avery, Wining Boy)

4. What or who are the "Ghosts of the Yellow Dog"?

5. Compare and contrast Boy Willie's attitude toward the piano with Berniece's.

6. Compare and contrast Doaker's railroad speech on page 18 with Avery's speech about the three hobos. Let your thoughts dwell here a while. Note the content and images of each speech. Which one seems to you the most authentic? Then look at Doaker and Wining Boy's convesation on Pages 28-30. Then read Wining Boy's "piano" speech on page 41. What conflict is Wilson setting up among these various viewpoints?

7. How does the allusion at the end of the scene influence your evaluation of Boy Willie's attitude toward the piano?

8. Combine with at least two others. Determine the crux of Act 1.i -- the absolute central moment. Then, with the others, prepare a tableau of the scene.

Tuesday

Vow today upon a stack of all you find holy never to say "it's basically saying" again in your life.

A commentary is not about what a poem "basically says" but about all the poem suggests during the process of the reading experience and then all it suggests in its totality after reading -- and it must be done with an emphasis on craft: HOW does it do that suggesting?

Tuesday

Today we tried a timed commentary. Good efforts, it appeared...

Next class meeting, have the play read and plan a TABLEAU of what you consider the most important part of the first scene (pages 1-28).

Monday

Consider what you find to be the very center, the crux, of the play's first scene. That is SCENE.

Plan a still-life demonstration of the tensions and stress-points in that moment. It is called (thanks, Mr. Chrismon!) a TABLEAU!

Tuesday

Today we finally completed class efforts at a practice oral. Expect a timed written commentary on October 8. We will meet as an entire class in the auditorium to conduct the commentary.

Next class period we begin work on August Wilson's play The Piano Lesson.

A video of educational interest

Orals

It is important that your commentary be continuous: do not stop the recording to doll it up. Keep the recorder going the whole time, keep looking at the poem, and keep talking about it.

 

Send me the file. Listen to your own oral and assess yourself.

 

After that, you are clear to delete the file from your phone.

Tuesday

Today we discussed and annotated "Love's Alchemy." Students then annotated "Song" and will perform an oral commentary on it Thursday.

Thursday Deadline Alert!

We can discuss the final explication due date when I have returned the second drafts! They obviously will not be due on the 23/24.

Tuesday

Today we read and studied “Holy Sonnet X” and worked on the imaginaterpretive thing, which is due for B-day tomorrow and for  A-day Thursday and B-day Friday.

Thursday

Today we studied "Holy Sonnet XIV" and worked on either explications (due 15/16) or imaginative interpretations (due 19/20).

Tuesday

I hereby submit for your perusal a draft rubric for the Imaginative Interpretation. No comment means it becomes the official scorecard. If the one requirement -- that the poem be clearly apparent either visually or aurally during the interpretation -- is lacking, you just have to apply for a do-over.

Scoring guide for Imaginative Interpretation

Time: 3-6 minutes	Over/under 30 secs	Over/under 1:00	Over/under 1:30	Over/under 2:00
20	15	10	5	0
Clear, precise, internalized understanding apparent	Good understanding of the poem apparent	Basic understanding apparent	Gaps and inconsistencies in understanding apparent	No or very little grasp of the poem’s literal meaning apparent
40	35	30	25	20
Extremely creative, brilliant illumination of poem; it creates a new insight or movingly makes personal use of it	Creative adaptations that provoke alternative  understandings	Some creative adaptations to provide some interpretation of the poem; somewhat insightful	Attempt at creative adaptation that may not lead to new understandings; flat interpretation	Standard, get ‘er done attempt to illustrate the poem; no new insights
40	35	30	25	20
Awesomeness bonus meter
5	4	3	2	1

Monday

Grades are current in the gradebook.

 

Please bring in any supplies necessary to work on your imaginaterpretive thing. A-day set a high standard with their recitations!

Wednesday

Please be sure to bring whatever materials (laptops, cameras, whatever) that you will need to prepare for your assignments in case we have a little class time we can set aside for that.

Tuesday/Wednesday

Look at the poems in the packet linked to the right as "Donne Packet." Rank about 10 of them in order of preference: one poem for a memorization, one for an explication, one for an IMAGINATERPRETIVE WORLD ROCKER THING. See the ManageBac calendar for due dates. You may have up to THREE (no more, absolutely not) working on the IWRT.

Here is the complete set of assignments for the first five weeks:

English 5 IB, Q1, Weeks 1-5

J. Koon, instructor

The first set of assignments consists of a drafted writing piece (an explication of a John Donne poem), a performance piece (a memorized recitation of a separate Donne poem), and an imaginative interpretation of a third Donne poem. For the third piece (the imaginative interpretation), students may pair or form groups of three.

First, students should prioritize their choices from the Donne packet of poems posted on my website. I will attempt to spread the assignments for maximum exposure for each poem, so students might not get their first choices for all three assignments. Have these choices prioritized by class on August 30 for B-day and September 3 for A-day.

On September 9/10, two assignments come due: students should perform their memorized recitations, and they should submit a draft of an explication covering at least the first five lines of their assigned poem. I will mark the explication drafts and return them. Students then should explicate the remainder of the poem to the best of their abilities, address all comments and suggestions from me, and turn in a typed, MLA-formatted draft attached to all previous explication work.  I will mark again and return them. Students then revise as instructed to the final, which is due attached to all previous explication work on September 23/24. Students MUST submit preliminary drafts before the subsequent ones. They must follow that process to receive credit. There is no rubric: students are finished when they have done as instructed.

On September 19/20, students should present their imaginative interpretations of a third Donne poem. The poem should be presented in its entirety as at least a soundtrack to the interpretation. Students may create video, Powerpoints, Prezis, musical scores, paintings, dances, or other creations I have not thought of. Students should be prepared to discuss their interpretive choices after the presentations.

September 9/10            *First draft (five lines) explication (Drafted essays)

                                    *Recitation performance (Performance task)

September 16/17          *Entire poem explicated in MLA style (Drafted essays)

                                   

September 19/20          *Imaginative interpretation project (Project)

September 23/24          *Explication final (Drafted essays)

           

 

Monday, B-Day

Continue the assignment started by A-day below. Be sure to add something substantive to the conversation. Some of you with interest in visuals might link or paste some Seventeenth Century art that reveals something about the poetry of Donne. Be sure to comment on it in  a way that makes it clear to us -- and REMEMBER to cite your source informally. Right, Jeb?

Friday, A-Day

Some of you have not complete the first blog assignment!

Do a little research. Document it informally. Report it as a comment on the blog. Someone volunteers to go first. Then, the next post should provide a clear and MEANINGFUL transition that connects his post to the previous one. Say, for instance, that Dara starts with. "According to William Benson in 'A Poet's Life,' John Donne was born to Catholic parents in 1572." Then Morgan follows with, "Although Dara reports that Donne was born Catholic, according to 'The Life of Donne' in The Literary Journals of the Seventeenth Century by James Jones, he later renounced his faith." Due Tuesday.


Connections to investigate

Henry VIII to Elizabeth
Catholic/Protestant tensions
relations of Donne with Thomas More (who was Thomas More?)
relations of Donne with Anne Moore (who was Anne Moore?)
relations of Donne with Ben Jonson (?)
contempory critical responses to his poetry
family life

Thursday

Do the same thing as assigned to A-day on Wednesday, but put your comments after this post. Also, in the same comment box, tell which quote from a classmate is your favorite (after your own, of course). You may choose from either A-day or B-day quotes.

Wednesday

Look into any source you want and find a quote from a smart person that you find very striking, profoundly true, or highly inspiring. Post the quote, spelled and punctuated exactly right, as a comment under today’s post.

Exam!

Focus on HOW, not what.

How do the writer's choices (of image, metaphor, subject, structure) develop meaning and emotional effects?
Only analysis -- no paraphrase! No paraphrase. No paraphrase. This note is especially for prose selections.
Write with awareness of speaker/narrator perspective.

How is the piece organized?
Open up metaphors. What is compared to what? Add to what has come before and develop meaning.
What is the subject and predicate of each sentence? Read to see the relationships within the sentences as a way of understanding other relationships in and beyond the poem.

Honor what the sentences actually say.
Overwrite and edit afterward.
Write sensibly, create meaning, and make sense of vagueness and ambiguity.

Good luck! You are ready. Write confidently.

Wednesday

Here is the blog with a teacher's attempt at "July Man." It might help you prep a little. I responded to the link as well. It is much easier managed on a phone or iPad than with a computer, which will ask questions before opening the commentary.

Good luck on the exam. My best hopes are with you.

Thursday Room Change!

MY BAD!

 

We will again meet in Room A123 tomorrow, Thursday, to accommodate HSAP testing.

Tuesday

Good start on the presentations. Meet in A123 tomorrow. Back in regular room Thursday. Keep calendar and deadlines in mind. Who's going to be the first to recite?

Monday 2

B-day Tuesday and A-day Wednesday, meet in Room A122. Isn’t that Mrs. Koon’s room?

Monday

The explication, due as email on Tuesday, must show a good response to my comments, cover the entire poem in detail, and make use of at least one named, published critic.

Thursday

Second draft explications are due Tuesday. I am relaxing my grip just a little because of prom. HOWEVER, study guides for both classes are due as hard copies on MONDAY.

I prefer electronic files for the explication. Hard copies for guides, e-files for explications.

I will check email often this weekend since I am missing Friday.

Your recitation is due sometime before the exam. Don't all be at once!

Re-post: Basics of reading

Basics of reading a poem:


1. Identify the speaker. What can you tell about the speaker? You may not know a name or gender or anything else, but identify the perspective: poems, at some level, will always have a consistent perspective if they have nothing else. The lines do not drop from the sky but from a perspective.

2. Identify the audience. Often the audience is the general reader, but just as often there is an audience for the speaker within the poem, a person or idea that the speaker addresses. Occasionally, as in Hughes, the audience will be white Americans or black Americans specifically. Determine which, and be clear and consistent.

3. Identify the subject. The subject of the poem is literal and clear. Be sure you recognize it and give it a name.

4. Identify the plot. In a poem, this task can be a little tricky, and the plot, or narrative, might not be very strong or complete, but something happens. What?

5. Identify the big structural components of the poem. Does it have a beginning, middle, and end? How do you know where the poem progresses from one part to another? There might be more than three parts. What does each part do, or what is its function?

6. When identifying structural components, explain how the poem works as it progresses from one part to another. If “God” appears in the first part, and “Lucifer” appears in the next, explain the connection, or how the first part moves into the second with contrast or opposition as one organizing principle.

7. Identify key small structural components. Are there patterns of line length, of repetition, of rhyme? What patterns do you notice at the “micro” level, and if they have an effect you can identify, make that effect explicit and explain.

8. Identify the theme. How does the poem’s concrete language suggest universal abstractions or social commentary? (Social commentary is a poet’s judgment of some aspect of society).

9. Identify the mood. The mood can shift as the poem progresses. A definition of mood and a great many words to describe mood can be found here. Explain how you know the mood using evidence from the poem.

10. Identify the tone. Tone is usually quite consistent. A definition of tone and many useful words for describing it are also here. Explain how you know the tone using evidence from the poem.

11. What part do musical devices (sound devices, like alliteration, assonance, consonance, repetition, internal and end rhyme, caesuras, end stops, line length, meter) play in accomplishing any of the poem's effects? Do not emphasize these without pointing out their effects!

Tuesday

I'll miss you today! Good luck!

Saturday

For the explication, you need critics on the poem you're investigating. Essays with titles like "Chick Fleas: Extended Metaphors and the Rhetoric of Love in the Poetry of John Donne." School library has several collections edited by Harold Bloom and a big reference set on poetry. Winthrop and the state system (jstor and others) would have all you need. You can use Wordsworth's own "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" as one source on Wordsworth. That's a critical essay explaining what he and Colerige intend.

Use ESSAYS and BOOKS by legitimate critics, not Sparknotes. Are SNs referenced? If so, sure, use them to find other sources and for first ideas, but don't rely on SN as a critic. You are not looking for background but for the opinions of educated, published, "expert" readers on your chosen poem. You use little short, perfect insights from the critics to enrich your explication, to make it a little bit of a conversation between you and a few critics -- a few other readers -- rather than a monologue. Cite their published, copyrighted words as research using MLA style.

Monday

Bring in your Hughes and Wilson books.

Tuesday addendum

Review “Poem to a Dead Soldier,” “Open Letter to the South,” and “Dark Youth of the U.S.A.” Here is a .pdf of the IOC rubric.

Tuesday

Game day tomorrow! Here is the pack of notes from your fellow students. It has all notes turned in today, including those from late in the class period.

Thursday

Please bring your Langston Hughes book to class tomorrow, A-day. Everybody, work on your assigned poem for next class.

Orals begin Wednesday.

Monday

Read “How the Poor Die” for next class. Expect a reading check!

Monday

Complete your guide on “Down the Mine” and read “The Spike” for next class.

Friday

Read and annotate "Down the Mine."

Alert: Your free eight-minute section of your oral commentary WILL BE ON HUGHES. The twelve-minute discussion will be on Wilson and Orwell.

Wednesday

For those students who insist that the handout for "A Hanging" is not on the blog, please check the previous posting labeled "Wednesday, January 9" and click on the text "A Hanging." HA HA HA.

Wednesday

Prepare for your essay on Thursday (report to the TOK room) and for your orals Friday, Monday, and Tuesday.

Here are the handouts from Wednesday concerning "A Hanging" and "Marrakech" for those who might have been absent.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nkp4g7st5edm4rb/Marrakech.pdf

Monday part deux

Finish writing your Orwell emulation.

 

Read “A Hanging” and note how Orwell makes a persuasive case.

Monday

You will all meet with me on Thursday, January 10, for the timed essay. You are responsible for all we have read this semester.

Orals begin Friday.

See the links at the right of this page for the entire Orwell packet consisting of seven essays.

Thursday

We are about to begin the Orwell essays. Be sure to sign up for a time for your oral commentary: the sign-up sheet is on my door.

Remember that we all meet together on January 10 for the timed essay.

Hughes interview, views on communism

Watch Langston Hughes on PBS. See more from KCPT.

Langston Hughes mini-biography

Monday

To ensure that your files open on my computer, I advise you “save as: filename.rtf.” An “.rtf” is a Rich Text Format document, and in that format, you can open it almost anywhere.

 

.pdf is also a good choice.

Monday

Read below for the list of poems and the order of presentation. The flipchart page is linked in the November 16 post below.

Friday: The Basics of Reading a Poem.

Basics of reading a poem:


1. Identify the speaker. What can you tell about the speaker? You may not know a name or gender or anything else, but identify the perspective: poems, at some level, will always have a consistent perspective if they have nothing else. The lines do not drop from the sky but from a perspective.

2. Identify the audience. Often the audience is the general reader, but just as often there is an audience for the speaker within the poem, a person or idea that the speaker addresses. Occasionally, as in Hughes, the audience will be white Americans or black Americans specifically. Determine which, and be clear and consistent.

3. Identify the subject. The subject of the poem is literal and clear. Be sure you recognize it and give it a name.

4. Identify the plot. In a poem, this task can be a little tricky, and the plot, or narrative, might not be very strong or complete, but something happens. What?

5. Identify the big structural components of the poem. Does it have a beginning, middle, and end? How do you know where the poem progresses from one part to another? There might be more than three parts. What does each part do, or what is its function?

6. When identifying structural components, explain how the poem works as it progresses from one part to another. If “God” appears in the first part, and “Lucifer” appears in the next, explain the connection, or how the first part moves into the second with contrast or opposition as one organizing principle.

7. Identify key small structural components. Are there patterns of line length, of repetition, of rhyme? What patterns do you notice at the “micro” level, and if they have an effect you can identify, make that effect explicit and explain.

8. Identify the theme. How does the poem’s concrete language suggest universal abstractions or social commentary? (Social commentary is a poet’s judgment of some aspect of society).

9. Identify the mood. The mood can shift as the poem progresses. A definition of mood and a great many words to describe mood can be found here. Explain how you know the mood using evidence from the poem.

10. Identify the tone. Tone is usually quite consistent. A definition of tone and many useful words for describing it are also here. Explain how you know the tone using evidence from the poem.

11. What part do musical devices (sound devices, like alliteration, assonance, consonance, repetition, internal and end rhyme, caesuras, end stops, line length, meter) play in accomplishing any of the poem's effects? Do not emphasize these without pointing out their effects!

Friday: Instructor rubric

Here is the "Instructor for a Day" rubric. Please LOOK at this rubric as you prepare.

Here is the list of poems and instructors and their order. I have updated this list to include the numbers for B-day, which had originally been written outside the margins of the flipchart page.

Thursday: Daily rubric

Here is the daily rubric, which I will use to determine 20% of the quarter grade -- along with other daily grades that may come up from time to time.

Poetry choice for absentees

If you want to claim a poem, email me. See the final list on the earlier post, and you may not teach a claimed poem. A-day claims are in orange, B-day claims are in red.

Wednesday

A-day made poem choices. All choices are shown here.

Tuesday: Final 20

B-day has finalized the twenty poems by Hughes, and here is the list with each student's choice to teach. "Instructor for a Day" begins on November 20. A-day students may teach the same poem as B-day students.

Monday: Poetry choices

Here is the flipchart (in .pdf format) with B-day's choices on the first two pages highlighted in yellow. There are twenty of them. On the third page are A-day's choices. The poems both classes chose are highlighted in orange. A-day's other chosen poems are highlighted in yellow.

See, B-day picked twenty, A-day picked twenty, and there were six poems on both lists. Those six are in, no further debate. Twenty minus six equals fourteen. Half of fourteen is seven. Therefore, A-day picked, from its original twenty, seven more poems. Thirteen poems are now in the final list. Now B-day should, from its original twenty, select its seven favorites to complete the final twenty.

Monday

Here is today's handout on "Harlem: Whatever Happens to a Dream Deferred?" and "Dreams."

Friday

Here is B-day's list of titles from Langston Hughes. The twenty finals are highlighted in yellow.