May 3, 2010 - May 7, 2010 Weekly Agenda for Contemporary Composition

MAY 3, 2010 – MAY 7, 2010
WEEKLY AGENDA FOR CONTEMPORARY COMPOSITION

Monday, May 3rd:
CST released test
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

Tuesday, May 4th:
Shortened day
Using your Unit 7 vocabulary words, write five sentences using participial or gerund phrases.
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

Wednesday, May 5th:
Assign Unit 8 Vocabulary; this will be due on Wednesday, May 12th.
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRY

Thursday, May 6th:
Please bring your WRITER’S CHOICE book today; pages 521 - 522; "Infinitives and Infinitive Phrases"; exercises 12, 13, and 14; this assignment will be due on Tuesday, May 11th:
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRY

Friday, May 7th:
CST released test
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRY

Grammar: Gerunds and Participles

GERUNDS and PARTICIPLES

A gerund is a verb that ends in ing and is used as a noun.
Walking and swimming are our favorite forms of exercise.
A gerund phrase is a phrase with a gerund and any complements.
Example:
Waiting in line always makes me impatient.

A participle is a verb that ends with an ing or an ed and is used as an adjective.
Rising prices are hurting the middle class.
To rise is a verb; add an ing to it and put it before a noun and it becomes a participle.

If the verbal comes before a noun, chances are it is a participle.
Example: Katrina was a devastating hurricane.

Exercise 10; page 520; copy the verbal phrase from sentences 1 – 20; Identify it as either a gerund phrase or a participial phrase.

Exercise 11; page 520; select five of the gerund phrases from the sentences from exercise 10 and create your own sentences from them. Make sure they are gerund phrases (used as nouns) and not participial phrases (used as adjectives).

This will be due on Tuesday, April 27th.

April 26, 2010 - April 30, 2010 Weekly Agenda for Contemporary Composition

April 26, 2010 - April 30, 2010
Weekly Agenda for Contemporary Composition

Monday, April 26th:
Warm-ups:
CST released test
Finish the sharing of "The Things My Classmates Carry"
Creative Writing Assignment:
Write a paragraph modeled on Tim O'Brien's THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
Choose five high school students (they can be real, people you know, or they can be fictional) and write three things they carry in their purses or their backpacks. Each item should reveal something about themselves.
This creative writing assignment will be due on Thursday, April 29th.
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

Tuesday, April 27th:
Shortened Day
Your Writer's Choice is due today; Gerunds and gerund phrases; pages 519 - 520; exercises 10 - 11. Go over in class.
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

Wednesday, April 28th:
Warm-up:
CST released test
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

Thursday, April 29th:
Share with the class your creative writing assignment:"The Things My Classmates Carry".
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

Friday, April 30th:
Warm-up:
Write five sentences with gerunds using five words from you Unit 7 vocabulary.
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

April 19, 2010 - April 23, 2010 Weekly Agenda for 11th Contemporary Composition

April 19, 2010 - April 23, 2010
Weekly Agenda for 11th Contemporary Composition

Monday, April 19th:
CST Warm-ups
Go over Unit 7 Vocabulary
Begin reading THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

Tuesday, April 20th:
CST Warm-ups
Begin reading THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

Wednesday, April 21st:
CST Warm-ups
Bring in backpack or purse with personal items. Share with the rest of class.
Write a paragraph modeled on the paragraph in THE THINGS THEY CARRIED.
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED.

Thursday, April 22nd:
CST Warm-ups
Please bring your WRITER’S CHOICE grammar book. Gerunds and gerund phrases will be assigned today. Pages 519 - 520; exercises 10 and 11 will be due on Tuesday, April 27th.
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED.

Friday, April 23rd:
CST Warm-ups
Read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED.

IN ANOTHER COUNTRY
BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY
PAGE 579
SETTING:
MILAN: A CITY IN THE NORTHERN PART OF ITALY.
DURING WORLD WAR 1; 1914 – 1918

Examples of loneliness and isolation:
The cold wind; the dark streets, the warm glow of the restaurants filled with laughing Italian couples, which exclude the five soldiers walking in the dark on the sidewalk.
The dead animals, the “game”, the deer, the foxes and the birds hanging in the chill wind. the wind is ruffling the foxes’ fur and powdering it with snow.
The soldiers, all officers, are hated by the Italians and jeered at.
The soldiers are wounded and “no longer go to the war”. They go to a hospital each day where they work on miracle machines which will restore their bodies. But they are not working.
The three men are “hawks”. Hawks are predatory animals, birds of prey, which imply strength, courage, brutality. The narrator and the young man whose face was blown off during his first hour on the battle field are not hawks.
There is a distance within the group between the hawks and the other two.
There is a major with a withered hand who is using the machines, but he does not have much faith. The major was Italian.
The narrator was learning Italian from the major.
Why did the major continue with the treatments if he didn’t believe in them?
The machines were new and he was part of the test study.
It was a routine and it provided him with companionship.
He didn’t like it b/c if his hand is cured he will be returned to the war.
Do you do things you don’t believe in?
Why do you think the major is angry one day?
You should never place yourself in a position where you can lose something that you love. Therefore, according to the major, a man should never marry.
His wife died. She is very young.
This is situational irony. It is the middle of the war with a great deal of death, but this young, beautiful and rich woman dies – unexpectedly.
What were the photographs of?
Before and after photos of hands that had been mangled and photos of the hands after they were healed.
The photos were fake.
The machine represented repetition for the major. It was a source of comfort, a comfort zone for him. It also gave him something to do.
Existentialism: the philosophy that we are in charge of our lives; that the universe is indifferent to our lives and to our suffering; that we must find meaning and purpose to our lives. God, if he exists, will not tell us. It is our responsibility to determine our moral codes, and the meaning and purpose of our lives.

Where did the photographs come from?

Go back through the story and find one example which shows each man’s loneliness or isolation:
The three “hawks”
The fourth soldier whose nose was blown off during his first hour on the front line.
The narrator
The major.

IN ANOTHER COUNTRY ANALYSIS
Questions 1, 2, 3, and 4 on page 584; continued from yesterday:




2nd GROUP:
DEPICTION OF LONELINESS:
RELATIONSHIP OF THE MEN
THE DOCTORS LYING TO THE MEN
THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF THE MEN
SEASON: THE FALL
THE COLD
THE ITALIANS INSIDE THE WARMTH OF THE CAFÉ WHILE THE FOUR MEN ARE OUTSIDE IN THE COLD. THE MEN LOOK INSIDE AND SEE THE COUPLES AND THE FRIENDS INSIDE THE WARMTH OF THE CAFE. THE MEN ARE “OUTSIDE LOOKING IN.”
THE ITALIANS CURSE THE MEN IN THE GROUP.
THE MEN IN THE GROUP ARE NOT REALLY FRIENDS.

3RD GROUP:
THE THEME OF THE STORY, “IN ANOTHER COUNTRY” IS “WAR IS A TRAUMATIC EVENT THAT CAN DESTROY PEOPLE’S LIVES.”
OTHER THEMES:
LIFE IS FILLED WITH LOSS.
WE BLIND OURSELVES TO THE TRUTH.
WE DISTRACT OURSELVES FROM THE TRUTH.
THE MAJOR DISTRACTS HIMSELF FROM HIS PAIN, AND THE TRUTH THAT THE MACHINES DO NOT WORK.

FOURTH GROUP:
GIVE EXAMPLES THAT SHOW THE TERSE STYLE OF HEMINGWAY’S WRITING:
“HE WENT TO SOUTH AMERICA AND WORKED IN A BANK.”
“NOBODY EXPECTED HER TO DIE.”
“ON THE NEXT MACHINE THERE WAS A MAJOR WITH A LITTLE HAND LIKE A BABY.”
HOW DOES THE TERSENESS OF THE DICTION REFLECT THE THEME?
IT IS STRAIGHT TO THE POINT. IT IS NOT FLOWERY OR ORNATE. THE TERSENESS OF THE LANGUAGE FORCES THE READER TO DIG INTO THE TEXT TO DISCOVER THE TRUTH OF THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR EMOTIONS. THE TERSENESS LENDS AN EMOTIONAL DISTANCE TO THE PAIN OF THE CHARACTERS, WHICH ECHOES THE DISTANCE THE CHARACTERS EXPERIENCE WITH EACH OTHER.

APRIL 12, 2010 - APRIL 16, 2010 WEEKLY AGENDA FOR CONTEMPORATY COMPOSITION



Monday, April 12th:
Warm-up: CST Released Test Questions
“In Another Country” page 584
Answer questions 1 - 5; Vocabulary Study

Tuesday, April 13th:
Shortened day
Please bring your vocabulary book to class today; unit seven will be assigned and will be due on Friday, April 16th.
Warm-up: CST Released Test Questions
Read the biography of T.S. Eliot; read “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

Wednesday, April 14th:
I will not be here today.
Read the biography of Eudora Welty; read “A Worn Path”

Thursday, April 15th:
Warm-up: CST Released Test Questions
Finish Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path”

Friday, April 16th:
Warm-up: CST Released Test Questions
Go over Unit vocabulary homework.

APRIL 5, 2010 - APRIL 9, 2010
WEEKLY AGENDA FOR CONTEMPORARY COMPOSITION

Monday, April 5th:
Break into groups of three to four students; select a poem from the Harlem Renaissance and analyze it in terms of soapstone:
Who is the speaker?
What is the occasion?
Who is the audience?
What is the purpose of the poem?
What is the subject?
What is the tone?


First Group:
A Black Man Talks of Reaping
Libby
Kacey
Ryan
Monse

Second Group:
If We Must Die
Baba
Ellada
Flor
Heady
Speaker: A slave speaker
Occasion: a time in which a slave would die an unjust death
Audience: Speaking to people who have taken them in. Speaking to fellow slaves.
Purpose: to let other slaves know what they are going through; to encourage the other slaves to stay strong.
Subject: To give African Americans hope against injustice. To give hope against a horrible death.
Tone: Urgent
Vocabulary:
Kinsman: a family member
Penned: to be closed in like an animal in a pen.
Inglorious: Not glorious; without dignity; without pride.
Mock; to make fun of
Constrained: forced

Third Group:
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Miwa
Ceci
Juan
Speaker: An old African woman or man
Occasion: Recording the lives of Africans from the beginning of civilization.
Audience: Other African-Americans
Purpose: to encourage other Africans and to let them know they have a great history.
Subject: Compares their journey to the flow of water, and to the chaos and struggles they have undergone.
Tone: Honorable; majestic, dignified.
Vocabulary:
Congo: the deepest, darkest part of Africa.
Lulled: which means put to sleep or put into a state of inattention, or to lower one’s guard by being put into a state of too much ease and comfort.
Example: She was lulled in to a false state of security.
The mother’s lullaby lulled the baby to sleep.
Lured: means to fool someone into going some place or doing something; usually by the promise of some reward.
Example: The pedophile lured the little girl into his van by offering her some candy and a puppy.
African diaspora: the scattering of a people from its homeland.
Compared the African diaspora to the flow of the rivers. The rivers are a metaphor for the blood that flows in the veins of all Africans, connecting them to their sisters and brothers.


Fourth Group:
Harlem Wine
Jesus
Pablo
Crystal

Fifth Group:
Youth
Maylasia
Ziggy
Jessica

6th Group:
Ma Rainey
Jocelyn
Dominique
Mihran

SOAPSTONES
LOOK AT THE TITLE OF THE POEM
SPEAKER: WHO IS SPEAKING
OCCASION: WHAT IS THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE POEM
AUDIENCE: WHO IS THE NARRATOR SPEAKING TO?
PURPOSE: WHAT DOES THE NARRATOR HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH? WHAT EFFECT DOES HE/SHE HOPE TO ACHIEVE?
SUBJECT: WHAT IS THE POEM ABOUT?
TONE: THE ATTITUDE THAT THE NARRATOR HAS TOWARDS THE AUDIENCE OR THE SUBJECT OR THE OCCASION.

Thursday, April 8th:
Read the biography of Ernest Hemingway
Begin reading Hemingway's short story "Another Country"
Comprehension
Vocabulary

Friday, April 9th:
Finish reading the short story "Another Country"