Grades

A-day grades are not complete on the report cards. The district office declared that grades should be due at 11 am on the work day rather than at the end of the work day. I will supply you with a printout in the morning if you wish, but about half of you will have an incomplete until I enter a grade change, which I will do as soon as the office says I can. This incomplete will be printed on the report card, but of course the changed grade will be the transcript grade.

 

Late papers or papers without all the requisite parts (prior drafts and my printed feedback) also ended as incompletes for the quarter. Incompletes for these students are appropriate until I get to them or until they get the missing pieces in place.

 

JKoon

Friday

For your presentations next week, be sure you meet the rubric criteria!




Here is a good web site instructing you how to compose and structure body paragraphs in literary analysis -- you know, like commentary papers.

Here is a simple guide for constructing paragraphs in literary analysis. The "comment" part can be many sentences long:
1. Topic containing critical concept
2. Transition and set up: provides context for quote.
3. Quote from book punctuated correctly, or a very clear, direct reference to the literary work
4. Explanation and comment: what does your quote prove about your topic?
5. Wrap: last sentence says something worthwhile AND contains a key word from the topic sentence AND transitions forward.

Wednesday

Hope you're having a good day job shadowing (wink). See the post to the right: examine the rubric and see if you can pinpoint problelms or make suggestions on it. (The two-person and four-person rubrics are combined into one .pdf document).Otherwise, use it to structure your presentations. You might need Flash or a computer to see the embedded file. Or you can use the link right here.

Note that there is an element set aside for professional attire.

Friday -- about due dates and requirements

1. On Monday for A-day, and on Tuesday for B-day, revise your commentary drafts. Your papers are due regardless of other activities such as history tests. Bring me your papers on the due date. Late papers will be docked 20 points, and I do not guarantee in-depth feedback for them. After the due date for the final, the second draft will not receive credit at all.


2. Bring in the entire packet: your first draft, the feedback you received from another student, and the second draft. Put the first draft on the bottom, the feedback in the middle, and the second draft on top. Staple all of it together. Failure to follow this instruction means you have NOT turned in your drafts on time. Failure to staple them together in order, but with all elements present, will result in a 10-point dock for not following the assignment instructions. Why would anyone not do this as instructed?

3. Format your paper according to MLA style. I have a sample paper on the blog. It is a commentary on Arna Bontemps’ “Southern Mansion.” Better yet, you can look up “mla style” and choose “The OWL at Purdue” for a great resource on writing. There is an MLA section that gives examples and explanations, though formatting does not really require a lot of expertise. Just do it as it says. Failure to format according to MLA style, including the use of 12-point, Times New Roman font and double spacing, will result in a 10-point dock of your second draft grade. Express your individuality in the content and thought, not in your font selection.

4. On my end, I will do my best to give you in-depth, personal feedback on each of your papers in a very timely fashion with plenty of time for revision before the final due date of October 22/23.

Wednesday

For a grade: all students should have their commentary files with them or easily accessible on the web (email, web lockers, Google docs, Dropbox) so that they can work productively during class.

Wednesday

Somebody -- let's call him X for short -- has book #39...

Three of you have still not claimed any text for your commentary.

Here is my suggestion for your introduction:

The beginning should contain the title, the author, the genre, and general comments about setting and subject. It should contain the specific context of the passage you choose: This passage comes from a middle scene when Boy Willie brings a girl home from a night out and Berniece sends her out. It should contain the significance of the scene you have chosen: The extract serves to introduce the need the characters have for love and physical comfort and contrasts Boy Willie’s lively desires with Berniece’s rule-bound, self-restricted behavior. Finally, it should introduce the principles of division you intend to employ: First, this passage employs disruptive sound effects and actions in the stage directions to intrude on the peace of the house. Second, the language of Boy Willie contrasts with the language of Berniece, emphasizing the difference in their views of their own selves and their culture. Finally, the stage’s physical arrangement provides further information about Boy Willie, Berniece, and their relationships to each other and their history.

Tuesday

Hardly anyone from A-day has chosen a passage for commentary. If you simply show up on Friday with a passage, do NOT expect credit. Your parts must be run through an approval process to be sure there are not endless repetitions. Part of the reason for this assignment is to teach each other about various sections of the play. Not everyone can have the first page.

The Commentary Slideshow as Video

IB English Written Commentary from Michelle Alspaugh

First deadline

First draft of written commentary is due on Thursday 27/Friday 28. Pick your passages and some backups.

Thursday/Friday

Preliminary notice of quarter assignments:

      A. Choose 30-60 lines on which to do a written commentary of 4-6 pages in length (MLA format, Times New Roman 12 point font). No more than two people may do a single extract.

AND

B. Choose one of the following (or devise one of your own) to present in teams of two or four (four people per team simply means you prepare both sides with two "lawyers" per team):

1. Make a case for or against

Boy Willie's rights to the piano

Berniece's rights to the piano

Present with an opposing team in the form of a trial

• Introductory arguments (generalities that you intend to prove)
• Presentation of evidence
• Visual aid to enhance arguments (not to replace or substitute for them)
• Cross examination of the opposing team
• Closing arguments

2. Make a case for or against

The piano as blessing

The piano as curse (you may change the dichotomy if you like)

Follow form of trial as above.

3. With a partner, 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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, money, burdens, or  others).

Presentation of trials should last for 20-30 minutes. Presentations of roles should last for 10-15 minutes.

If you have wishes or desires to contribute to the rubrics and timelines, think of them for next class (Thursday/Friday). You may also choose parts and teams on those days. These will be the major grades of the nine weeks.

for Thursday/Friday

Revise this passage, an exchange between Lymon and Avery, into correct Standard English. After doing so, think about the difference the change in language would make in the scene.

LYMON:  How you know the rope ain’t gonna break? Ain’t you scared the rope’s gonna break?

AVERY:   That’s steel. They got steel cables hold it up. It take a whole lot of breaking to break that steel. Naw, I ain’t worried about nothing like that. It ain’t nothing but a little old elevator. Now, I wouldn’t get in none of them airplanes. You couldn’t pay me to do nothing like that.


Here are the classwork guiding questions for note-taking:

Act I, Scene 1 (continued)
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. How does the allusion at the end of the scene influence your evaluation of Boy Willie's attitude toward the piano?

Tuesday

Today’s class created posters of quotes and discussed “The Social Me,” by William James. No additional work yet assigned. Please join the blog if you have not done so. There are still 24 open invitations. When I make an assignment to post on the blog, some of you will have problems if you do not get them resolved now.

Monday

On Friday/Monday, we read “The Social Me.” You are to finish up your three interpretive questions per person by next class. You have turned in your “culture” single drafts.

 

Please become a member of the blog if you have not done so already. I encourage you to put Dropbox on your smart phones and home computers.

Blythwood game

Follow this link for live updates of the South Pointe-Blytheqood game:

http://soc.li/aNsR3Ud

First day! Wednesday/Thursday

Create a response to the following:
6. What is most important to you about your own culture? How do you keep it going, and how will you pass down this important element of culture to your own children?

Also, find from any source an inspirational, funny, or powerful quote and bring it with you. Be sure to get it exactly right and remember to note WHO said it. We will make wall posters Friday/Monday with your results.

My favorite, so you can't have it:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." – Teddy Roosevelt

Find your greatness and those who can help you reach it!

Wednesday

I originally thought our last day before exams was April 30. It is in fact May 1, and you sit for English Paper One on Wednesday, May 2. That means B-day will meet as a class on Tuesday, providing B-day students with one additional day to do the recitations. The explication due date remains April 30 for everybody. ONLY the recitation for B-day has a one-day extension.

Wednesday

If you do not email me your explications, keep up with all drafts. I want to see that you have addressed my comments.

Friday

Let me clarify a little about the "oral commentary" part of your presentation. Of course, you start by presenting all the information that you have on your study guide (only you will not have the guide with you -- you have to know it). You have, as a pair, exactly ten minutes to convey your material.

I give you an extract from one of your poets. You prepare. You MAY use up to six minutes to prepare. You have a TOTAL of ten minutes for this section, so you then have FOUR minutes to fill with meaningful commentary about the extract and the poem it came from. If you really know your stuff, you might prep for four minutes and talk for six. That would be great.

Attention to dates

See your explication dates and note consequences of missed deadlines! No second drafts without the full process of the first draft. Understand this!

Grade Three (40%): complete a thorough, researched explication of one of the poems that is at least twenty lines in length. For poems longer than thirty lines, you may work stanza by stanza rather than line by line. Draw conclusions about the poem based on this close reading.
• Draft one with research sources and at least five lines attempted: March 26, both classes.


• Draft two with complete attempt, typed and formatted, my comments addressed: April 16


• Draft three with my comments addressed: April 23

• Proofread and finalize: April 30



• Graded on deadlines and response to comments. Twenty points deducted for missed deadlines; lost credit for work over a week late.

B-day situation