February 2, 2015 - February 6, 2015 Agenda for Contemporary Composition

Monday, February 2nd: 

1st Period:
8:00 - 8:15 Review the following pages for your The Bluest Eye time line:
Page 158 - 163
Read The Bluest Eye; pages 164 -
For homework tonight, do the time line (page number, brief summary and a quotation which sums up the events) for the pages we read today in class.
"Chasing the Motif": look for any motifs which you encounter today in your reading.  Follow the format of the graphic organizer to write the motif, the context of the motif, the quotation and the analysis of the motif.

2nd Period:
Today you should be finished with your "Chasing the Motif" graphic organizer.  A model can be found on last week's agenda for this class.
We will go over the format of the essay today, which will include:
The theme
The motifs
How the motifs reveal the theme

The structure of the essay:
The Introduction
The Body Paragraphs
The Conclusion

The essay topic is:
How does the motif  reveal the theme of The Great Gatsby
The choice of themes can be:
The Pursuit of the American Dream will end in despair.
The Weak will be Destroyed by the Careless


The essay will be due on Friday, February 6th.

Tuesday, February 3rd: 

 1st Period:
8:00 - 8:15

8:00 – 8:20

Review pages 164 – 176 in The Bluest Eye

Write a brief synopsis (Summary) of the events, and a quotation which sums up the events in the scene.

Vocabulary: 

Write a definition for each of the following words and which part of speech each word is. Then write a sentence using each of these words. 

Antipathies

Misanthrope

Disdain

Fastidious

Dallied

Residue

Contemplate

Diffident

Sloven

Anglophilia

Figurative Language:

Metaphor:

Page 172: “…wrapped each in a shroud  stitched with anger, yearning, pride, vengeance….”

Explanation: the people who come to Soaphead Church are covered, buried in their anger, their needs, their pride and their desire for revenge.

Read The Bluest Eye

Pages 176 – 183

During your reading of The Bluest Eye, watch for appearances of your chosen motif. Be sure to use your graphic organizer to write the motif, the context (what is the scene, what is happening in the scene, who is in the scene, why is this scene important?), an important quotation regarding the motif, and your analysis of the motif.  This will be the basis of your body paragraphs in your essay. 

For homework tonight, do the time line (page number, brief summary and a quotation which sums up the events) for the pages we read today in class.  This will be due tomorrow

Continue reading The Bluest Eye

2nd Period:
Continue working on the essay for The Great Gatsby

Wednesday, February 4th: 

1st Period:
8:00 - 8:15

Review pages 176 – 183, the letter Soaphead Church wrote to God.

Please answer the following questions:

1.     What is Soaphead Church’s argument with God?

2.     What is his justification for his actions?

3.     Do you agree with Soaphead ‘s arguments and his justification?

Why or why not? Please answer in complete sentences.

4.     What figurative language (metaphors, simile, imagery, personification) does Soaphead use in his letters?

Be specific. Write the quotation. Do these metaphors convey the full idea or feelings Soaphead means to convey?

Read The Bluest Eye; pages 187 – 204

Discussion: the third eye; anecdotal evidence to support the power of belief: shaman places a death curse on someone, the person will die. Schizophrenia.

For tomorrow: Finish reading The Bluest Eye
Rubric for the Time-line for The Bluest Eye

Do the final time line for The Bluest Eye, which should include the page numbers, a brief summary and a quotation which sums up the events of the pages.
As part of your grade, you will create a poster with your time line. The poster should have the following:
The poster should be poster sized, which you will be furnished.
The individual events which you have been recording.
Photos, drawing, or illustrations that are pertinent to the events of the story
Quotations from the book that are relevant to the themes of The Bluest Eye

After we finish The Bluest Eye, you cannot turn in late time lines. You may still do the time line poster, but I will not  correct the individual time lines you were to have turned in at the time they were due. 

This will be due on Friday

2nd Period:

 

Mr. Fox taught the class today.

Went over theme: definition; types of themes

Possible themes of The Great Gatsby

Divide into five groups of six and respond to each of the six posters with questions relating to a theme and the characters in The Great Gatsby.  Your group’s response must deal with a different character than the other groups so if a group before  you has answered the theme question on the poster using a character, then you must choose a different character to discuss the theme.

Walk around: the posters are taped to the wall and the groups walk around and read what other groups have written.

For tomorrow:

Today you will break into groups of seven people.
Each person will choose one of the following characters in The Great Gatsby:
Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, George Wilson
Each person will create five questions and five answers for her or his character.
Each person will turn in the five questions and five answers for her/his character at the end of the period.

Thursday, February 5th: 

First Period:
Work on the poster for The Bluest Eye 

2nd Period:
Hot Seat

Friday, February 6th: 

1^st Period:

Work on the “Time-Line” poster for The Bluest Eye

Rubric for ˆThe Bluest Eye:

1.     Must relate directly to The Bluest Eye

2.     Must be organized  chronologically (sequence of events)

3.     Must be neat!!!!!

4.     Must be colorful!

5.     Must have illustrations: either hand-drawn, or cut outs

6.     Must have grammatically correct sentences

7.     Must use correct spelling

8.     The events must be accurate and of importance

9.     The illustrations must relate to the events in The Bluest Eye

10. The time-time should have a brief description of the most important events

11. The time-line should have a brief quotation for each of the most important events

This assignment is worth 200 points and must meet all the above requirements to receive a passing grade. This assignment is due on Monday – NO EXCEPTION!

On Monday, February 9^th, the following questions will act as a final test. You will answer these in class and they will be due at the end of the period.

Final Questions for The Bluest Eye:

1.    How does Morrison use bird imagery to describe Pecola? Cite specific sentences Morrison uses to decribe Pecola.

2.    What was the reaction of the people of Lorain to Pecola after her breakdown? Be specific. Cite specific sentences as evidence to support your answers.

3.    A scapegoat is someone that other people blame for the mistakes  a community makes. It comes from the Old Testament where the Israelites would send a goat, symbolically burdened with the people’s collective sins from the previous year, from the village into the desert – symbolically removing the villages’ sins. How is Pecola the scapegoat for Lorain, Ohio? Write in grammatically correct answers. Thoroughly answer the question and use evidence from the book to support your answers.

4.    How did the people of Lorain use the defects, the flaws, the deficiencies of Pecola to make them feel better about themselves?

5.    According to Morrison, what kind of people did the community of Lorain become as a result of their abuse of Pecola?

6.    Marigolds represent grief and cruelty. Why does Morrison use the seeds of marigolds in this story?

7.    What does Morrison mean when she writes, “Love is no better than the lover.”

8.    Read the next the last paragraph on page 206, starting with, “Oh, some of us loved her.” What does Morrison mean when she writes, “The loved one is shorn, neutralized, frozen in the glare of the lover’s inward eye.”

Period 2

Get into  groups to create five questions and five answers for the hot seat.

Each person should concentrate on a particular character and create five questions and five answers for that particular character. The questions must be complex and delve into theme, character and important issues such as socio-economic status of the characters. The group may help the individual on her/his character:

Group #1:

Chris Ake – Daisy, Lupo Benatti – Gatsby, Joseph K. – Nick, Ty Young – Tom

Group #2:

Group #3:

Group #4:

Stephanie Kraft – Tom, Tigran Minasyan – Gatsby, Christian Polanco – Daisy, Ivette Priego – Nick, Maria Torres – Myrtle

Group #5:

Maryrose  Campos – Gatsby, Maci Greene – Daisy, Pamela Lara – Myrtle, Rebeca Olguin – Nick, Ray Reyes – Tom

 
 

January 26, 2015 - January 30, 2015 Agenda for Contemporary Composition

Monday, January 26th: 

Period 1:
8:00 - 8:20
Time Line:
Continue working on the time line for The Bluest Eye 
8:20 - 9:11
Read The Bluest Eye

 

Assignment: Do the next major event in Pecola’s life on the time line, which will be due at 8:15.

Next major event in Pecola’s life is found on page 66 through 74.  Maureen rescues Pecola from the bullying of boys who call her “Black e mo” and mock her because she has seen her father naked.

For homework: Find the next major event in Pecola’s life, Junior and the Cat (page 88 – 93).

Summarize the event in your own words and include a quotation which sums up the feeling or importance of the event.

Vocabulary:

Fastidious: showing care  and concern regarding details. Very attentive to details, particularly regarding appearance and cleanliness.

Solicitude: showing care and concern for another

Omnipresence: omni means all. All present

Deity: God or goddess

Strophe: the first section of a Greek choral poem

Antistrophe: the second section of a Greek choral poem

Words that end in ion and ment are nouns.

Exaltation: a feeling of extreme happiness.

Guarded: wary, wanting to protect oneself, not open, reserved in opening up  oneself to something or someone.

Read The Bluest Eye; pages 140 - 144; "Aunt Jimmie's funeral"

Period 2:
Read The Great Gatsby 
Work on the time line for The Great Gatsby 

  Tuesday, January 27th: 

Shortened Day

1^st Period:

The Bluest Eye

No one did the homework so assigned during "BIC". Review pages 88 - 93 (Junior and the Cat) and find the next major event in Pecola’s life. Write a quotation that expresses the main theme or idea of the event. Be sure to include the page number.

Event: Brief description of what happens. Who are the characters involved? Where does it happen? When does it happen? Why is this event important in forming who Pecola is?

Include a quotation and a page number

This will be due at 8:20

Read The Bluest Eye

Page 145 – 149 (Cholly is humiliated by white men while losing his virginity)

Vocabulary:

Bereaved: to be deprived of a loved one’s presence, particularly due to the loved one’s death. (Adjective)

Reminiscences: memories

Premonitions: a feeling that something bad is going to happen.

For homework: review pages 97 – 109: After Frieda is molested by Mr. Henry, Frieda and Claudia reason that Frieda is "ruined" by Mr. Henry and that she might become fat like the Maginot Line, so to keep Frieda skinny and not "ruined",  she should drink alcohol. But where can two little girls get alcohol? Pecola's father is a well known drunk, so they go searching for her to get her father's alcohol. The first place they go to is one of Pecola's favorite hangout spots,  the apartment of Pecola's neighbors, where the three prostitutes, the Maginot Line, China and Poland, live and work.  China and Poland are also prostitutes but they are not grotesquely fat like the Maginot Line, because they drink and the alcohol keeps them skinny (the girls' parents tell them that the women "are eaten up by alcohol".)  But the two sisters are frightened by the huge mass of violence and seduction that is the Maginot Line, and they go seek Pecola at the rich white family's home, where Polly works as a maid and caretaker for the family's little girl.   Claudia and Frieda find  Pecola helping her mother with the rich family's laundry. The girls are angered when the little white girl comes into the kitchen and is free to call Pecola's mother by her first name, a familiarity that is denied Pecola. When Pecola accidently spills a hot pie fresh from the oven on herself and the floor, Polly turns on her screaming, but when Polly hears the frightened whimpering of the little white girl,  Pecola's mother turns to comfort the  little white girl by holding her and calling her baby.

 Write a description of what occurs in the scene.  Who is in the scene? Where does the scene occur? Then include a quotation, which sums up the events in the story.

Period 2:

Read The Great Gatsby; pages 150 – 163

Discussion: nouveau riche versus old money, class, status, “The American Dream”

Wednesday, January 28th: 

Period 1:
 

For homework tonight:

Review pages 145 – 158 to write a brief summary of the events that occurred in Cholly’s life.  Find a quotation that sums up the events or the importance of the events.

Brief schematic of pages 145 - 158:

1.     Cholly is losing his virginity with Darlene

2.     Two white men with guns interrupt them and embarrass them

3.     Cholly’s ancestral home home is dismantled

4.     Cholly goes on a search for his father

5.     He finds his father in a back alley where he refuses him, he rejects him.

6.     After his father rejects him, Cholly, reduced to an infantile state,  soils himself.    

Vocabulary: 

Tenuous: weak, loose, a connection that is not strong

Infantilized: the root word is infant and means reduced to a state of helplessness and dependence.

Aunt Jimmy was a surrogate mother. Surrogate means substitute.

Period 2: 

 Mr. Fox will teach 2nd Period class today
Grammar and vocabulary review:
Students correct six sentences in class taken from the Unit Six vocabulary test
Quick power point on opinion vs. facts
Students correct six sentences describing the major characters in The Great Gatsby. 
Students then select two characters to find two quotations from the book to support the description of the characters. 
Exit ticket: turn in the corrected sentences and the quotations.

 

Thursday, January 29th: 

Period 1:
8:00 - 8:20
Time Line:
Continue working on the time line for The Bluest Eye: 
Review pages 110 - 131, which is the back story of Polly Breedlove, Pecola's mother. This section describes her childhood, her courtship with Cholly, their marriage and their children. Write a brief description of what occurs. What are the most important events in Polly's life and why? How do these events help shape Pecola's life? Find a quotation which sums up or comments on these events.

8:20 - 9:11
Discussion of yesterday's reading, pages 


Period 2:
Finish reading The Great Gatsby
Discussion of yesterday's reading, pages 145 - 158.

Friday, January 30th: 

1^st Period:

Review The Bluest Eye; pages 110 – 130

Review those pages for the major events in Polly Breedlove’s life: her childhood, her courtship with Cholly, their marriage, the births of her children and the sour bitterness which has overcome her. Choose a significant quotation which sums up who Polly Breedlove is.
Read The Bluest Eye; pages 158 - 163

2^nd Period:

Time Line

Character Chart

“Chasing the Motif”

Motif: recurring symbol, which occurs throughout a book, music, or poetry, in order to support a theme.

Possible Motifs:

The green light

Cars

Colors: yellow, green, blue, pink

The Eckleburg Eye Glass Sign

Valley of Ashes

West Egg/East Egg

Example:

Motif	Context	Quotation	Analysis
The Valley of Ashes	Fitzgerald describes the valley of ash as a bridge between East Egg, the home of the old moneyed families of storied wealth, and West Egg, the home of the upstart nouveau riche (new money).  The valley of ash is described by Fitzgerald as a desolate place, filled with gray, colorless buildings and gray, colorless men whose work churns out the gray ash that covers and smothers and destroys both the men and the land.	Chapter 2; page 23, Fitzgerald writes: “This is a valley of ashes…where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke…and of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.”	“The Valley of Ashes” is a nightmare of industrial waste – which is the by-product of the selfish, destructive pursuit of wealth and power.  “The Valley of Ashes” is described as a bridge between two rich communities, West Egg and East Egg; the Valley of Ashes is a place where no one of consequence, of money, of status, would willingly linger. This is where the poor people live, like George and Myrtle Wilson, who are preyed upon, used, abused and discarded by the rich, like Tom Buchanan.

For homework over the weekend, please go through the book and do the following:

Choose two motifs

Create a chart for each motif

FOR EACH MOTIF, PLEASE HAVE THREE (3) ENTRIES. 

EACH ENTRY SHOULD HAVE THE CONTEXT BOX FILLED (who is in the scene, what is occurring in the scene, and why is this important).

EACH ENTRY SHOULD HAVE THE QUOTATION BOX FILLED WITH A QUOTATION (with the page number) FROM THE BOOK.

EACH ENTRY SHOULD HAVE THE ANALYSIS BOX FILLED WITH YOUR ANALYSIS WRITTEN IN YOUR OWN WORDS. (Please do not plagiarize!)

 If you are doing the valley of ashes or any other motif, then you should have three examples from the book, complete with a context for each one, a quotation for each one, and an analysis for each one. 

 

 

January 19, 2015 - January 23, 2015 Weekly Agenda for Contemporary Composition

Monday, January 19th:

No school today!

Tuesday, January 20th: 

1st and 2nd Periods: 

Grammar: 

Writer’s Choice, pages 542 – 544; exercises 9 and 10; this will be due on Wednesday, January 21st.

Exercise 9: write the adjective clause and the noun it modifies:

Example:

Ceremonial dances – they have been performing in the same way for centuries.
If there is a relative pronoun, underline the relative pronoun.

Exercise 10: write the adjective clause and the noun it modifies; then identify it as essential or nonessential.

Example:

Zoo – that we visited last week. Essential

Zoo – which has several species of rhino on display. Nonessential.

1st Period: 

Vocabulary Unit 5 is due today 

Go over Writer's Choice; pages 542 - 544; exercises 9 and 10. This will be due on Wednesday, January 21st.
Notes for the grammar homework:

Relative pronouns: that, which, who, whose, whoever, whomever, whom

The relative pronoun connects the subject or noun with the adjective clause which describes the noun or subject.

The relative pronoun almost always immediately follows the noun or subject.

Subordinating Conjunctions, such as when and where, can be used as relative pronouns which introduce adjective clauses. 

Essential or Restrictive Clauses are adjective clauses which are essential to the meaning of the sentence. If the clause is removed, then the sentence would not make sense. The essential clause is introduced by the relative pronoun "that". 

The nonessential or nonrestrictive clause may provide additional information about the noun or subject it describes, but is not essential to the meaning of the sentence. It is introduced by the relative pronoun "which". 

Read The Bluest Eye

Work on "Chasing the Motif" chart

Work on the character chart for The Bluest Eye 

Work on the time line for The Bluest Eye

Patch Work Quilt: Go through the book, find incidents in the lives of the following characters, and write the incidents (along with the page number) down on a sheet of paper and draw a box around them.

Pecola

Polly

Cholly

Claudia

2nd Period: 

Vocabulary Unit 5 is due today
FRIDAY, JANUARY 23RD, THERE WILL BE A VOCABULARY TEST!

Go over Writer's Choice; pages 542 - 544; exercises 9 and 10. This will be due on Wednesday, January 21st. See above notes. 

Read The Great Gatsby; pages 127 - 130

Work on "Chasing the Motif" chart

Work on the character chart for The Great Gatsby 

Work on the time line  for The Great Gatsby

 

--> Alex went over the vocabulary quiz which he will give on Friday.

Briefly went over the grammar homework; pages 542 – 544; exercises 9 and 10

Due tomorrow, Wednesday

Read The Great Gatsby; pages 128 – 130

Briefly went over The Great Gatsby’s character chart and time line and how to do it.

Kids squirrelly today: Hilda sitting with Rebecca, resistant to moving; Macie talking with Chuy, not listening, both resistant to moving; Chantal, Maryrose, Ivette did not have books, sitting together. Davion didn’t have book, slouched between two girls, not paying attention, resistant to moving. Tyler pushing broken stapler with her foot  in front of class, apparently for attention.  I asked her several times to pick it up and throw it away. She pushed the broken stapler with foot until it reached the waste basket, then and only then did she pick it up.

Tomorrow, give them assigned seating.

Wednesday, January 21st: 

1st Period: 

Grammar is due today: Writer's Choice; pages 542 - 544; exercises 9 and 10. 

Read The Bluest Eye

Work on "Chasing the Motif" chart

Work on the character chart for The Bluest Eye 

Work on the time line for The Bluest Eye

2nd Period: 

Grammar is due today; Writer's Choice; pages 542 - 544; exercises 9 and 10 

Read The Great Gatsby

Pages 137 - 152

Work on the "Chasing the Motif" for The Great Gatsby

Work on the character chart for The Great Gatsby

Work on the time line  for The Great Gatsby

Thursday, January 22nd: 

1^st Period:

On page 45, look for quotations regarding Pecola’s desire for blue eyes and her desire to disappear into oblivion.

Oblivion: complete state of nothingness.

Oblivious: not aware of one’s surroundings

Quotations from The Bluest EYE relating to Pecola’s desire for blue eyes (and why) and her desire to disappear into oblivion.

Stephanie: “Every night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes.”

Stephanie: “Try as she might, she could never get her eyes to disappear.”

Karla: “Please, God,” she whispered in her palm, “Please make me disappear.”

Jasmine, “It had occurred to Pecola, some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures , and knew the sight, if those eyes were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be beautiful.”

Tereza: “…she would never know her beauty. She would see only what there was to see: the eyes of other people”

Justin: “Why look at Pretty-Eyed Pecola! We mustn’t do bad things in front of those pretty eyes!”

Kamron: “Pretty eyes. Pretty blue eyes. Big blue pretty eyes.”

Christian: “As long as she looked the way she did, as long as she was ugly, she would to stay with these people. Somehow she belonged to them. Long hours she sat looking in the mirror, trying to discover the secret of the ugliness that made her ignored or despised at school, by teachers and classmates alike.”

TIME LINE:

The Incident at the Store (page 49): Pecola goes into a store to buy some candy with her three pennies, but the store owner, a fifty-year old immigrant from eastern Europe, does not “see” her. He has no interest in her. For him, she isn’t really even human, worthy of being looked at.

Stephanie: “She holds the money towards him. He hesitates, not wanting to touch her hand.”

Christian: “She looks up and sees the vacuum where curiosity ought to lodge…..the vacuum edged with distaste in white eyes.”

Stephanie: “At some point in time….there is nothing to see.”

Answers to grammar homework: adjective clauses!

2^nd Period:

Grammar Contest:

Divided class into two groups and went through the answers to last night’s homework. Team Tyler won!

Read The Great Gatsby; pages 137 – 150

Discussion of characters

Friday, January 23rd: 

1st Period: 

Read The Bluest Eye 

Work on the "Chasing the Motif" for The Bluest Eye

Work on the character chart for The Bluest Eye 

Work on the time line for The Bluest Eye

2nd Period: 

Mr. Fox will be teaching the class today.
Today there will be a vocabulary test! 

 Vocabulary Unit 5 Test

The Vocabulary Unit 5 Narrative part of the test is due today.

Continue work on the time line for The Bluest Eye

 Pages 50 - 58: Pecola visits the three prostitutes, China, Poland and the Maginot lines.

Chelsy: The women, who are outcasts themselves, are the only ones in town (beside Claudia and Frieda) who accept Pecola.  Pecola goes to the three prostitutes  because she feels safe and comfortable with them.  Pecola is like a member of their tribe – society’s outcasts – so they stick together.

Christian: It must be difficult for Pecola to be constantly met with indifference from other people’s eyes. We are social beings – we need and want the company of other people – and we are hurt when we are rejected by others who do not see us as fully human.

Question:

What sets these women apart from the other women in the town?

Answer:

Christian: The women are independent and are not dependent on husbands or fathers to pay their way. 

The women have bonded together and created their own family.

2nd Period: 

Mr. Fox will be teaching the class today.
Today there will be a vocabulary test! 

 Vocabulary Unit 5 Test

The Vocabulary Unit 5 Narrative part of the test is due today.

The Bluest Eye: Motif of Seeing and Being Seen

The Motif of Seeing and Being Seen in The Bluest Eye

Body Paragraph “Mini-Thesis” Statement:  The motif of seeing and being seen runs throughout the novel THE BLUEST EYE. The person who watches, who sees, who observes is the one who is the active participant, the one who has the power. The one who is watched, is seen, who is observed is the passive participant, the one who is powerless. Pecola, impoverished, unattractive, is looked at, but is not really seen. Her perceived ugliness keeps others from really seeing her and her humanity.  This is shown throughout the book, but none more brutally than in the following scene:

Introduction: While crossing the empty school yard, Pecola is accosted by Junior, an angry, bullying classmate of hers, who has been brutalized by his mother’s emotional neglect. Junior first taunts Pecola, and then realizing she would make a good victim, invites her to his house with a promise to see some kittens. But when Pecola goes over to his house, Junior begins to bully her, using his mother’s cat to both torment her and the cat, which he winds up killing. At that moment, Junior’s mother comes home and he immediately tells her that Pecola killed the cat. The mother looks at Pecola and sees:

Quotation or paraphrase: “...Saw the dirty torn dress, the plaits sticking out on her head, hair matted...the muddy shoes with the wad of gum peeping out from between the cheap soles, the soiled socks...the safety pin holding the hem of the dress up.... ‘Get out’, she said, her voice quiet. ‘You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house!’”

Analysis:  Junior’s mother does not see Pecola, the child, the human. She sees only the stereotype of all the other faceless, unknown, uncared for poor children. The woman thinks she has seen little girls like Pecola all her life, “hanging out of windows over saloons”. These nasty little girls are everywhere, sleeping “six in a bed, all their pee mixing together”...”taking space from the nice, neat, colored children.”  Where they live, girls like Pecola, trash and tin cans and tires grow, but not grass. Girls like Pecola, nasty poor girls, are like flies, and this one has settled in her house. Girls like Pecola, and their blackness and their poverty, offend her sense of cleanliness, her propriety, her attempts not to be like poor blacks. Junior’s mother does not see Pecola at all. Junior’s mother does not see the abuse Pecola has endured, nor the suffering she has gone through, nor the fear, nor the hope that lies in Pecola’s face. She just sees the poverty, and the ugliness that poverty brings.  She just sees and judges what she fears and hates.

The above is a template to help you organize your notes in preparation for writing your essay on the motif (a recurring symbol in a book, play, film, music or work of art) of seeing and being seen in the novel, THE BLUEST EYE. As you are reading, you will note the instances where Pecola is being watched and judged, and fill out the empty template with the following information:

INTRODUCTION: The introduction introduces the quotation or your description of a scene or an event in the novel which will prove your thesis statement. The introduction must make the quotation or scene clear to us and help us understand why you are using this particular quotation or scene to prove your thesis statement.  The introduction should show us what has just happened or is occurring. The introduction should also include who is speaking and to whom the character is speaking. 

QUOTATION or PARAPHRASE: The quotation must be bracketed with quotation marks (" ") and should be in standard MLA format. Avoid over quoting. Limit the quotation to no more than three sentences. You may limit the quotation by using only the most pertinent parts, cutting out the unimportant by using ellipses (...). You may also use paraphrasing, which is when you use your own words to describe a scene, an incident or a character. 

ANALYSIS: This is one of the most important aspects of your essay. The analysis is your interpretation of the quotation, or scene and how it proves your thesis statement. In the above example, the analysis explains what Junior's mother is seeing when she looks at Pecola and why she responds the way she does, which in turn, explains why the quotation proves the thesis statement. 

January 12, 2015 - January 16, 2015 Agenda for Contemporary Composition

Monday, January 12th: 

1st Period: 

Pass out the syllabus 

2nd Period: 

Pass out the syllabus

Tuesday, January 13^th:

Assigned Unit 5 Vocabulary; due Tuesday, January 20^th.

Went over the Motif Graphic Organizer

Assigned the Motif Graphic Organizer

THE BLUEST EYE

Vocabulary:

Supple: flexible

Read pages 97 – 109

Questions:

How does Morrison describe the Maginot Line?

What imagery does she use?

What metaphors does she use?

What similes does she use?

Compare and contrast how Mrs. Breedlove treats her daughter and the little white girl she is paid to care for.

2^nd Period:

Assigned Unit 5 Vocabulary; due Tuesday, January 20^th

Vocabulary Words

Amnesty: a general pardon by a government towards an individual or a group of people.

Autonomy: independence; self-governing

All adolescents strive for autonomy.

An adult needs to be able to make autonomous decisions.

Vocabulary from THE GREAT GATSBY

Reveries: a day dream, an idle day dream

Passed out the Motif Graphic Organizer

Went over and assigned

Read THE GREAT GATSBY; Chapter 6

Pages 98 - 100

Monday, January 12th: Wednesday, January 14th: 

Wednesday, January 14^th:

1^st Period:

Grammar Warm-up: “Kinds of Clauses” due at 8:30

Due on Tuesday, January 20^th: Vocabulary Unit 2

The Bluest Eye

Read pages 110 – 115

Vocabulary:

Belie: to cover up

Melancholy: sadness

2^nd Period:

Assigned and went over grammar handout; “Kinds of Clauses”

Due tomorrow

Unit 5 Vocabulary due Tuesday, January 20th

Read The Great Gatsby; pages 101 – 108

Vocabulary:

Inhospitably

Cordial

Perturbed

Florid

Debauchery

Antecedents

Thursday, January 15th: 

1st Period: 

Vocabulary Bingo!

Read THE BLUEST EYE

Pages 114 - 126

THE BLUEST EYE Vocabulary:

Foaling: the verb to describe when a mare (female horse) gives birth.

Foal: a new born horse

Oberlin: a city in Ohio

Affinity:  a liking for; feeling a kinship with something

Watching/Observing Motif: page 123; Pauline watching Clark Gable and Jean Harlow films

2^nd Period:

Grammar Handout due today!

Vocabulary Bingo

THE GREAT GATSBY

Read pages 108 – 120

Vocabulary:

Trimalchio: a character in the 1^st Century book, SATYRICON. Trimalchio came from an extremely modest background, and through hard work amassed a fortune, which he used to throw huge, lavish parties – much like Gatsby.

Graphic Organizer: Car motif page 113

Friday, January 16th: 

Friday, January 16^th:

Period 1

Motif:	Context	Quotation	Analysis
Watching/Observing	Polly starts going to the movies where she notices the extreme beauty of the stars and compares them with the looks of the ordinary people around her.	(Page 123)

Assigned today:

WRITER’S CHOICE; page 542 – 544

Exercises 9 and 10; exercises 9 and 10 will be due on Wednesday, January 21^st

THE BLUEST EYE

Page 126 – 135

Figurative Language:

Simile: comparison between two unlike things using like or as.

Allusion: Reference to another piece of literature, such as the Bible, or plays by Shakespeare or to mythology.

Example: She bore Cholly like a crown of thorns and the children like a cross.

This is a reference to the Bible, specifically to Christ and the crucifixion, and the crown of thorns he was forced to wear during his crucifixion.  This is saying that Polly saw her husband and her children as burdens and punishment which she must bear, much like Christ had to bear the cross and the crown of thorns.

Vocabulary:

Slovenliness: sloppiness. A state of sloppiness, carelessness.

Reveling: to enjoy, to bask in, to glory in,

Period 2:

READER’S CHOICE; pages 542 – 544; Exercise 9 and Exercise 10; due on Wednesday, January 21^st.

Read THE GREAT GATSBY; pages 120 – 127

Vocabulary:

Boisterously: to do something in a loud, noisy, unrestrained manner

Gauge: a meter which measures the levels of liquids, as in gas in a car. Before you put the car in drive, you should always check the gas gauge. (Pronounced like “gage”.) Can be used as a verb which means to check the volume, magnitude or levels.

Contingency: provisions for an emergency, or an unexpected event.

Abyss: a deep bottomless pit or chasm

Proprietor: the owner of a piece of property

Inexplicable: unexplainable

Sensuous: having to do with the senses, the pleasure of the senses: touch, smell, taste, sight, sound

Motif	Context	Quotation	Analysis
Dr. T.J. Eckleburg’s Spectacles	It is a blistering hot summer day and Tom has just realized that his wife is in love with another man.  The drunk party of five are on their way to New York and Tom has stopped at George Wilson’s garage to put gas in Gatsby’s car.  George tells him that he needs money so that he can move him and his wife out west. Nick, who is riding in Gatsby’s car with Tom and Jordan, narrates that:	Page 122  “Then, as Doctor T.J. Eckleburg’s faded eyes came into sight down the road, I remember Gatsby’s caution about gasoline.”	George Wilson’s garage sits in “the Valley of Ashes” – a nightmare of industrial waste – which is the by-product of the selfish, destructive pursuit of wealth and power.  This is where the poor people live, like George and Myrtle Wilson,  who are preyed upon by the rich like Tom Buchanan.  The advertising sign’s silent eyes of the long defunct Dr. Eckleburg’s  clinic observes, watches and judges the sad, pathetic endeavors of the inhabitants and visitors of the valley of ash.