Monday/Tuesday

Please forgive my hurry as I posted revisions to this assignment last night...I believe it's all correct now.

In class today (27/28), we discussed "The Spike" and then did the following wrap-up on "You and the Atomic Bomb":

"You and the Atomic Bomb" -- 1945

Write a one-page reaction to this essay. Consider Orwell's use of the terms "modern police state" (he includes us in that distinction), "trends of history," and "claws to the weak." Consider this too: Orwell writes, "The one thing that might reverse it is the discovery of a weapon— or, to put it more broadly, of a method of fighting—not dependent on huge concentrations of industrial plant." HAS such a method come about? Explain a little. I hope you can finish in class; if not, it's due Wednesday/Thursday along with the "How the Poor Die" work.

For Wednesday/Thursday, read "How the Poor Die." Respond in a page in a way that addresses one of the first three questions and number 4. Then extend in whatever way you think. Bring your completed work to the beginning of next class.

1. What is the worst aspect of the hospital you read about?

2. What level of medical care do the poor, the uninsured worker, and the indigent "deserve"? Think of "deserve" in terms not only of the patients' merits but of society's.

3. Are market forces alone a good way to distribute health care services? Explain your thinking with examples of patients of several types, from the very young to the very old.

4. Read this article and contrast this example of American health care to the care described in "How the Poor Die."

For interested parties, here is a link to Tennyson's "In the Children's Hospital."

Thursday

This assignment applies to B-day and is due Monday: for A-day, it will be due on Tuesday:

Read "You and the Atomic Bomb" with a pen in your hand. Mark key points.

Take "The Spike" and number the paragraphs for reference. (I numbered 35 paragraphs). Then compose five interpretive questions. First, your questions should make the responder look down into the text, not up into the sky. Responders should search for text to support their responses: the question should stimulate that search. Second, the questions should also require interpretation and thought; they should not be concretely answerable with a definitive "that's it" response. Third, you yourself should not already know the answer. A few examples follow:

Ex. 1: What advantage does Orwell's description in the first paragraph convey to his purpose in "The Spike"?

Ex. 2: According to Orwell, is poverty the fault of the poor?

Ex. 3: How can you determine Orwell's attitude toward the man he speaks with in paragraphs 20-26? What is his attitude?

Wednesday

Dropittome closes at midnight. Grades then will be entered. Hint for people who don't meet deadlines: I'm not coming back to this grade, EVER!

Naming protocol:

Last.F.WA.2841.00##
Last.F.Ref.2841.00##

Do a GREAT job on "The Spike" for next class. Orals are approaching in February.

Here is the assessment outline for IB.

Wednesday

We will work on revisions of the written assignments through Monday. Please do not put anything in the dropbox until it is all the way finished, complete, final, absolute.

Monday

We work on written assignments tomorrow! Bring your laptop if you have one and can...

Friday

In response to "Down the Mine," write your own one-page essay that reveals your interpretation of some hierarchy that exists in America today.

Read "The Spike." Find in it one descriptive passage that you think stands well as an analogy or metaphor for the state of Britain in the time of Orwell's writing. Mark it an be ready to defend your choice. Circle unfamiliar words.

Bring in your laptops if you have them: we will be revisiting your written assignments one last time before their submission. You might want to think about a scan through the books you used.

Wednesday

For "A Hanging," complete the following assignment:

1. Mark which paragraphs are predominantly descriptive; then mark which paragraphs are predominantly narrative; then mark which paragraphs are predominantly commentarial; and then mark two or three passages that seem to you the most emotionally charged or even biased. What case is the author making?

2. Discuss the role of these details: the dog, the puddle, the dialogue at the end.

3. What three sense details struck you most forcefully? Explain why.

4. Find two metaphors in "A Hanging." Are they decorative for simple visual appeal (many are) or do they convey and idea or meaning beyond the picture? Explain.

Choose one of the following. Write your pieces clearly and be prepared to present them.

5. a. You're editing "A Hanging" for space. Cut 50-75 words and defend your choice. Mark the edits on your copy and write your defense. Pretend you are making a case to the editor-in-chief, and this essay was your assignment to ready Orwell for publication in your magazine.

5. b. Describe a gruesome scene you witnessed: a robbery, fight, accident, a death. Get 15-20 sharp sense details and a purposeful metaphor into the writing.

Also, read "Down the Mine" and mark passages as predominantly descriptive, narrative, or commentarial.

Monday

For Wednesday/Thursday, complete this assignment, which was started in class today:

1. Perambulate about the premises until you find the perfect subject: an object or person you can observe minutely. As an exercise in PAYING ATTENTION, write 150-200 words describing your chosen object or person in perfectly objective language -- but with a theme.

2. In a second paragraph, write your thoughts and develop the theme overtly. Make it explicit -- clear to any moron -- what you implied in the first paragraph.

3. Effectively clench the piece with a final short paragraph that shows what you can do. I'd like to have the breath knocked out of me. (Wouldn't you?) 

Be prepared to read your piece to your classmates when you return. The final step will be to reflect on the experience. Grading will be on observed effort and not on close reading on my part. 

Today, I gave copies of "A Hanging," an essay which is to be read by next class as well.

Tuesday

Turn in poetry packages. Please stack neatly on the side of my desk or clip together. Some students might need to print. Since I am not there, they cannot use my computers for that, but allow them one or two at a time to go print in the library or in another teacher’s room.

After that, each student should get one of those green literature books that are littered about my room. Look up “Shooting an Elephant” in the table of contents of that text and read this nonfiction essay silently. Answer all questions at the end of the story in complete sentences.

Make coffee house plans!

Thursday

Here is the rubric you requested! It is for the poetry editor.

Wednesday

Please do the writing parts of the new assignment, due Dec.17 and 18, by typing it double spaced throughout.


Further, plan to present your art and poetry on A-day, Thursday, December 19, and on B-day, Friday, December 20, in a coffeehouse setting. Bring the poetry you have kept in the closet all this time, the paintings that reveal something true, the songs that will improve our day, the dramatic monologue or performance that will insert delight into the early morning of our lives. And a donut and a drink would be nice too.

Tuesday

The next assignment:

Get out all your Donne poems (or look them up on the blog), and order them according to clear organizing principles.

You are about to edit a short student edition of the poetry of John Donne. Your job for the publisher is to group Donne's poems appropriately and put them in the best order both by groups and by contents within the groups. 

I recommend three separate groupings. For instance, you might have one group called "Jack Donne, the Rake." Have clear criteria for choosing poems for this group, but of course, some of the main ones should be that all these poems reveal a young, reckless voice and regard love with a distinct physical emphasis. Within that group, decide how and why you are going to order the poems in a certain way: "The Flea" first, "Song" second, and so on, with a clear critical principle guiding your decisions.  

Once you have decided upon your criteria for ordering the poems, physically do it with the physical copies of the poems. Then write a one-page overall introduction to Donne with relevant biographical and general critical information. Next, write a one-half-page introduction to each group of poems in which you explain your criteria for ordering and grouping as you have.  Give the entire collection a title and do the same for each group within the collection. Make a table of contents that you place right after a title page. Then provide the overall intro, then the first group intro, then the first group poems, then the second group intro, then the second group poems...

Work singly or in pairs – no threes! You will receive a project grade. Pairs will share.

Friday

As a class, you are just being awesome with this poetry project.

Wednesday

For your presentations, remember to email me your FORMATTED poems in an attached document so that they will show on the whiteboard as you wrote them. That's the Donne model, your Donne emulation, and your Wilson response. Be prepared to answer questions about your artistic choices.

Monday

Look at this base rubric and see what looks good or bad about it. It is for the Donne/Wilson project:

Donne (50)
Coherence	10
Strong contrasts manifest in wit, irony, and/or paradox	5
Memory as a theme or motif	5
Shape	5
Rhyme scheme	5
Numerical meter	5
Emulation of metrical variations	5
Emulation of sentence patterns	5
Emulation of image types and figures of speech	5
Wilson (50)
Coherence	15
Strong contrasts	5
Memory as theme or motif	5
Rhyme as Donne poem rhymes (with flexibility)	5
Emulation of language patterns (omissions, verb use)	10
Truth of character	10

Friday

As we wind down the presentations, please bring in all your copies of John Donne poems. We are going to do something with them as soon as the arguments are over.

Question???

Would "Anonymous" on "Holy Sonnet 7" please email me to let me know who you are?

Wednesday, Part Deux

You may turn in revised timed commentaries (if you have met personally with me) on Monday rather than Friday. The web assignments are due when the assignment says.

Here is a copy of the flipchart with the argument topics and names. Here are the plans, such as they are, for Thursday and Friday. You will see that they require a little independence.

Wednesday

Please continue your comments on "Hymn to God My God in My Sickness" here.

Tuesday

New assignment! This one is for December 5 and 6.

• Create a "call and response" from Donne to a character in The Piano Lesson, or from the character to Donne.

• Each pair of poems should reveal a powerful CONTRAST.

• Each should contain something about MEMORY as a theme or motif.

• Choose a poem from Donne. Closely examine its form, structure, style, and yes, even the meter. Emulate his style the best you can. You may add elements of humor that are more modern, but emulate the style of your chosen poem.

• Choose a character from The Piano Lesson, and in the voice of that character, answer or respond to "Donne's" poem.

• Use a similar structure to Donne, but make the stylistic and formal changes you think would be appropriate to the character. Do your best to capture the character's voice.

• Due on December 5 and 6.

• Assessment guides???

Monday

I have linked an argument guide and rubric in the list to the right. Let me know if you want a .docx. That assignment is due on November 19.

For Wednesday, B-day students should each comment on the poem linked here as a Google Doc. Comment on the doc itself using the comment feature in Google Docs.

For Thursday, A-day students should each comment on the poem linked here as a Google Dox. Comment on the doc itself using the comment feature in Google Docs.