Friday/Monday

For Tuesday/Wednesday, complete the questions at the bottom of “To His Coy Mistress” on a separate sheet of paper: give full and complete responses. The final question need not be typed.

Thursday

Students reviewed "The Coronet" and prepared notes and thoughts on "To His Coy Mistress." Both poems are from Andrew Marvell. In addition, they received passages for a written commentary to be held Friday for A-day and Monday for B-day.

Tuesday

Students received progress reports with their orals included on them.

Today's class will go as yesterday's: see the Monday post.

Expect a "timed essay," actually, in IB terms, a written commentary, on Friday/Monday. It will consist of an old IB exam commentary. Students will have overnight to prepare. 

Monday

Congratulations on finishing the orals!

Today, first, choose a group of five. Ms. R, assign each group a poet: Andrew Marvell; John Keats; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; or Sylvia Plath. Then take a quiet field trip to the media center and do 20 minutes worth of research on one of the poets to present on Wednesday. Come back to class after 20 minutes.

Then, read this poem and respond to it in one thoughtful, text-dripping page. At the very end, explain the colon, comma, and semicolon use in the first! second sentence of these instructions.

Friday

Those who have not yet completed their oral commentaries, PREPARE YOURSELVES! Except for Will, finish the practice assignment as well, or combine today's preparation with the practice commentary.

Thursday

Continue your work on the practice oral. I have not received everyone's! Will alone is exempt. (And by the way, read the file naming instructions!)

You may, if you are HL, turn your focus to Donne poems that are between 20 and 30 lines long. Discuss the commentaries with those who have already gone and spend the block making yourself better at preparing. Remember, focus on the HOW not the WHAT. How does the author get 'er done?

Those who have already completed your oral, please be helpful to those who have not. I didn't say "cheat": be helpful!

Tuesday

We are in it now!

Please record an 8-minute commentary based on your self-chosen extract from Orwell or Wilson. Use the notes from your organizer. Please do not stop the recording unless you are taking it from the top and going all the way — no editing, please! Name the file Lastname.Firstname

Your partner should assess your work on one side of your rubric. Clearly label the rubric: 

Commentary by SPEAKER'S NAME

Assessment by ASSESSOR'S NAME

Length: 7:55

Put the exact length of the commentary on the rubric (it will also show in the recording). The speaker himself should assess his own work on the other side of the rubric and clearly label it in exactly the same way (SPEAKER AND ASSESSOR WILL BE THE SAME THIS TIME, BUT LABEL IT!)

You should perform and assess your own commentary: you should listen and assess your partner's commentary. 

Send that recording to me by email or by going to 

Dropittome.com/jkoon and placing the file in there. The password is turnin.

If you have an iPhone 5, you can Airdrop it to me.

Also turn in your extract, the completed two-sided rubric, and your notes when you return to class.

Here is a pdf with both the HL and the SL oral commentary rubrics. They are also linked in the links list to the right.

Tuesday

Here is a copy of the sample organizer from 1984.

Choose your extract and complete the sample organizer in preparation for a practice commentary during your next class meeting.

Monday

Complete the responses to Bloom's Taxonomy. Work neatly and completely.

Choose a 30-40 line segment from Wilson or Orwell that you find rich with meaning and texture. Clearly identify it and, if at all possible, print it. We will practice orals next class period.

Friday

Respond clearly, fully, and neatly to the student-generated questions applying Bloom's Taxonomy to "Shooting an Elephant." Choose one question from each of Bloom's levels: one "remembering," one "understanding," and so on.

Six of you have not chosen a time for your oral. Ms. Hall needs to inform the faculty, so please sign up!

Wednesday

WOW! Congratulations Meagan, Loftin, and Gabe on your athletic scholarships.

Just for fun:

Think like Orwell: how could patients improve their bargaining power in their own health care?

Do patients need "claws" to combat the overwhelming industrial plant of the medical oligarchy?

For real life work: Turn in your writings from "Politics and the English Language."

Open up your new copy of "Shooting an Elephant." Reread it, perhaps. (Remember, it is also linked in the list to the right of this post). As you do so, compose questions according to Bloom's taxonomy. Write two meaningful questions for each level of knowledge in Bloom's taxonomy. Questions from all levels above "remembering" should be open-ended, allowing various argumentative responses.

Friday/Monday

Read "Politics and the English Language." Find one other Orwell essay and write a one-page critique of it by applying the criteria Orwell presents in "Politics and the English Language." First, perhaps you should jot down the criteria in a list of three-five things: then apply those criteria in an orderly fashion. Does Orwell meet his own standards?

A schedule is on the door for oral commentaries on February 19, 20, and 21. A-day students, please use shaded slots. B-day students, use unshaded slots (to insure that neither class has a great advantage at seizing all the preferred times).

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.