DO NOT READ DIRECTLY FROM POWERPOINT SLIDES!

Just say no! Unless it is text quoted from one of the books -- very specific and well-chosen text -- do not read your presentation from the slides. You may use note cards. Avoid big sloppy notebook paper. It's part of the "register" of the communication.

Remember that you must pass a reading check on the books you intend to do your oral presentation on. It would be awful to have a zero on the exam because of that...

Remember that you must pass a reading check on the books you intend to do your oral presentation on. It would be awful to have a zero on the exam because of that...

 

I will check the gradebook even for The Merchant of Venice and The Metamorphosis.

Thursday

Please remember to bring your books and all materials you may need to work on your oral presentations.

Tuesday

Bring any materials and books you may need for your oral presentation along with the assignment listed below. The majority of your classtime will be devoted to developing a very shiny oral presentation.

Friday

Today in B-day we regrouped to brainstorm ideas for oral presentations. Finish The Things They Carried by Thursday and have these things done:

 

• Prepare your critical concept with five essential questions to help develop it.
• Prepare, from the concept and your initial thoughts, a starting thesis (this thesis is flexible!)
• Decide what form your presentation will take.
• Schedule for any class day after May 18 to do your oral presentation. Class time will largely be devoted to working on this presentation from now until then. Some after school and school day presentations will be fine as well if you do not need the class.

See the posts below to make project suggestions for the oral presentation. Do not repeat previous posts. Bonus of five points in the language category for all who contribute.

The Things They Carried

Place project ideas as comments here. Here is the starter list:
Narrative point-of-view; situation of narrator; narrator’s stance toward narrative
Nature of truth as revealed (may be combined with above)
Transmissibility of experience
Fantastic, magical, or eerie elements within realistic novel
Juxtaposition of kindness and civility with savagery
War friends vs. home friends; the bond
Metafictive techniques
Nature of fiction as revealed in the novel
Meaning and suggestiveness of names
Revenge
Nature of nature
Richly detailed scenes for comparison
Use of language in specific scenes compared (figures of speech, comparisons, imagery, style, tone)
Appreciation of life when near death
This novel as a "true war story"
Physical versus emotional weight of burdens
Burdens in Things and Beloved

The Merchant of Venice

Place project ideas as comments here. Here is the starter list:

Pertains to play’s stance (“The play’s the thing…): Point-of-view; narrative stance
Nature of truth (focus on reported events, not seen first-hand; transmissibility of truth)
Juxtaposition of kindness and civility with savagery (other juxtapositions possible)
Parent-child relations
Play’s comment on human nature
Hypocrisy
Revenge
Nature of justice
Richly detailed scenes for comparison
Use of language in specific scenes compared (figures of speech, comparisons, imagery, style, tone)

The Metamorphosis

Place project ideas as comments here.

Narrative point-of-view; situation of narrator; narrator’s stance toward narrative
Nature of truth
Transmissibility of experience
Fantastic, magical, or eerie elements within realistic novel
Parent-child relations
Richly detailed scenes for comparison
Use of language in specific scenes compared (figures of speech, comparisons, imagery, style, tone)

Ideas for Beloved

Place project ideas as comments here. Here is the starter list:

Narrative point-of-view; situation of narrator; narrator’s stance toward narrative
Nature of truth as revealed in the novel
Transmissibility of the truth of an experience
Fantastic, magical, or eerie elements within realistic novel
Juxtaposition of kindness and civility with savagery (other juxtapositions possible)
Parent-child relations
Nature of nature
Richly detailed scenes for comparison
Use of language in specific scenes compared (figures of speech, comparisons, imagery, style, tone)
Storytelling
Different kinds of love
Isolation and community
Embarrassment and pride
War scars
Deaths of Beloved and Kiowa
Theft
Guilt from things that have happened to characters
Dependence
Family relations

Wednesday

Pre-reading The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

The things you can't leave behind...

1. Think as a poet for a few minutes. Then make three columns on a sheet of paper and head them "Things," "Abstractions," and "People."
2. In the first column, write a list of the most important things (actual physical things) to you -- the things you cannot leave behind. These things can have sentimental, superstitious, or symbolic value, such as a Christmas card from your grandmother or a special sock you wear during big games if yoiu like.
3. Next, make a list of the abstract, intangible things that are most important to you: freedom, happiness, loyalty -- and put these abstractions in the second column.
4. Next, make a list of the people who are most important to you in the third column.
5. Next, try to match the physical list to the abstract list and the people list.
6. Finally, combine these lists in an artful and creative way. This assignment is due on Tuesday/Wednesday.

Monday

Today's A-day took reading checks or fleshed out some ideas from the rest of the book. All graciousness is off on Wednesday!

I'm on page 255!

(Sunday )I can now post from my phone! Get some reading done.

Break week

Think about scars, trees, stumps, water; how Paul D's idea of Sethe's scar changes, and how the dead skin of a scar can become a living tree; how a clearing among the trees has anything to do with anything.

What does Beloved do FOR Sethe? How does she HARM Sethe? What is her effect on Denver?

Some images

Thursday

Read. Finish the book by the time you return on Monday, April 20.

Monday (Part Deux)

Look at the article linked at right on the growing possibility that medicine could "edit" your memory. What if Sethe had access to such a science?

Monday

Here are the questions for classwork/homework. I will not credit work that shows no thought!

Beloved
Chapter One (3-23)
1. Look at the imagery surrounding the pink marble. What activities are combined in the image?
2. What is the most beautiful memory Sethe has of the landscape of Sweet Home? How is this memory related to the scars on Sethe's back?
3. Garner calls his slaves "men," but find at least two important ways that Garner or his representatives create an animal existence for them.
4. What is the chief function of Chapter One: what does it establish?

Chapter Two (24-33)
1. In this section, the omniscient third-person narration enters Paul D's consciousness. Examine the importance of trees to him and explain.
2. How does the behavior of Sixo, Halle, and the Pauls establish that they are, in fact, strong, moral men -- despite Halle's wedding bed of corn stalks because Mr. Garner thought corn "was a crop animals could use as well as humans" (31), and despite the calves?
3. In what ways is Sixo distinctly different from the other Sweet Home men?
4. What does Baby Suggs's experience reveal about a mother's best chance to survive slavery and the nature of slave family life? (Stick to the first two chapters).
5. How does Chapter Two clear the way for Paul D to consider the future?
6. (No response necessary) Note that Chapter One, in its immediate present, has the following characters: Sethe, Paul D, and Denver. Chapter Two has only Paul D and Sethe. Note the first sentence of Chapter Three. Read Chapter Three (34-51) for next class, then speed up!

Friday (Saturday, really)

Read through Chapter Two of Beloved. Expect a reading check on your progress so far. Look at the links to the right to find articles on the historical Margaret Garner, the runaway slave whose story inspired Morrison's first concept of her novel.