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"