oystercatchers

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Missing Definitions

Act Two, Scene Three

Norman Conquest – the invasion of England by a French, Norman, and Breton army led by William the Conqueror

Bayeux Tapestry – a massive narrative tapestry depicting the events leading up to the Norman Conquest

Act Two, Scene Four

Walter Winchell – a famous gossip reporter in newspapers and on radio who was able to draw on a broad set of contacts to find potentially embarrassing stories about celebrities

Edgar Hoover – J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI

Joe McCarthy – the Senator responsible for leading a massive witch hunt against suspected Communists during the early days of the Cold War as part of the Red Scare

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Angels in America Homework: 2/28

Today, we went over the presentations that groups prepared. If you did not present today or if you were absent for any of the three days that this project was constructed and presented (Monday, Tuesday, and/or Wednesday), you are responsible for writing a brief paragraph (200-250 words) on the topic you were assigned to present on. If you were not assigned a topic, you may choose one freely from any of the four topics listed in the previous post.

The homework for tomorrow (Thursday, March 1st) is to read scenes one and two of Angels in America. Class will begin with a brief (2-3 question) reading quiz.

Monday, February 26, 2018

Angels in America Pre-Unit Presentation

Below are the sources you will be working with based on what your assigned topic is.

Topic One: Roy Cohn
Starting at 19:32, ending 23:19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAFar0RBmts
Read only “The biggest problem in Roy Cohn’s life…” to “mention the Holocaust” and “Cohn was rumored to have…” to “[his] anus.” https://www.thenation.com/article/king-cohn/

Topic Two: Reagan and AIDS
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/11/reagan-administration-response-to-aids-crisis
https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Reagan-s-AIDS-Legacy-Silence-equals-death-2751030.php

Topic Three: Public Perception of AIDS
https://www.cnn.com/2016/04/14/health/aids-atlanta-emory-university-the-80s/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/05/25/edmund.white.hiv.aids/index.html

Topic Four: Tony Kushner
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tony-Kushner
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/may/14/tony-kushner-interview-angels-in-america-to-love-someone-recognise-life-not-eternal-national-theatre

Below is a copy of the rubric you were given in class. Presentations will be happening tomorrow, and should be in Google Slides for ease of access.

	1	2	3	4	5
Organization	The organization of the presentation actively impedes understanding.	Slides usually do not serve a clear and distinct purpose. Information is usually presented in an unclear or illogical way. Flow is not present.	Some slides serve a clear and distinct purpose. Information is sometimes presented in a clear and logical way, and may have flow throughout the presentation.	Each slide mostly serves a clear and distinct purpose. Information is mostly presented in a clear and logical way, and may have flow throughout the presentation.	Each slide serves a clear and distinct purpose. Information is presented in a clear and logical way that creates flow throughout the presentation.
Thoroughness	The presentation does not present information from the provided sources.	The presentation mostly does not show a sense of the most important information to present, and does not include specific details to provide a deeper explanation.	The presentation somewhat shows a sense of the most important information to present, and sometimes includes specific details to provide a deeper explanation.	The presentation mostly shows a clear sense of the most important information to present, and includes specific details to provide a somewhat deeper explanation.	The presentation demonstrates a clear sense of the most important information to present, and includes smaller, specific details where appropriate to provide a depth of explanation.
Project Specifications	The presentation meets one of the three specific requirements.		The presentation meets two of the three specific requirements.		The presentation is three to four minutes, includes at least four slides, and includes at least two images.

Final Score: ______ / 15

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Thursday Friday February 8/ 9 "Spoon River Anthology"

Learning Targets: I can cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
I can determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone.

I can demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics.

I can write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Coming up: Wednesday, February 14 vocabulary quiz (handout / another copy below)
In class: Character analysis of 5 poems of your choice. Note that you will turn in 5 sheets, one for each character. (class handout / copy below)

Name_______________________________________

Choose five of the poems that appeal to you and complete a CHARACTER ANALYSIS worksheet for each.

Character Analysis for Spoon River Anthology

You will need to complete five character analysis forms. Keep in mind that these people lived close to one hundred and fifty years ago. Remember to justify all your answers with text.

Character’s name_______________________________ page number________________

Once you read poem, list any words with which you are unfamiliar and define.

Unfamiliar words:

1. ___________________________ 2. ____________________ 3._______________________________4._____________________________

5. ______________________________6.__________________________

1. In a minimum of thirty words, summarize the life of the character on the epitaph. From the text include any physical descriptors, relationships and other themes, such as revenge, injustice or justice, religion and jealousy. Were they disillusioned, disappointed? Were their secrets taken to the grave?

2. In a couple of well-written sentences reflect on how this individual is reflective on someone from a small town at the beginning of the 20^th century? (Draw on your own knowledge: historical, social (gender, economics and political.)

There are lots of poems, so skip around and browse. I know how everyone likes to work with a neighbor, but in this case, you may not have any of the same ones as the person sitting next to you. Note that language conventions- capitalization, punctuation and spelling count. No “I think”, no “wanna / gonna”. Weave in bits of text; just put them in quotations.

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Vocabulary Figurative Language Terms.Quiz on Wednesday, February 14 Class handout / copy below

.Note: the first part of the quiz will be matching, as usual, whilst the the second part will require that you identify the type of figurative language device being used.

1 1. A simile is a figure of speech where two inherently different things are compared to one another using expressions like 'like' or 'as'

2. A palindrome can be defined as a word or a phrase, which begins and finishes with the same letter.

3. 3. metaphors are linguistic symbols that convey a particular image. It is a figure of speech wherein an idea is given to provide clarity by comparing or associating it to another totally different idea.

4. 4. oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two contradictory or inappropriate terms are either put together or appear side by side.

5. 5. litotes is defined as 'an ironical understatement in which affirmative is expressed by the negation of the opposite'. In this figure of speech, the usages are intentional, ironical and provide emphasis to the words. This is mainly done through double negatives. To put it in simple terms, in litotes, instead of saying that something is attractive, you say that it is not unattractive.

6. 6. A synecdoche is a figure of speech where part of a sentence describes the entirety.

7. 7. imagery is vivid descriptions and comparisons with the help of sound words, helps recreate images and emotions. This device which needs to be aided with other figures of speech like similes, metaphors and personification etc. to effectively crop a picture within the minds eyes. Always remember, the key to good imagery is evoking all the senses. There are seven different kinds of imagery; visual (seeing), auditory (hearing) kinesthetic (muscle movement / body position), tactile (touching), organic (personal experiences of a character's body, including emotion and the senses of hunger, thirst, fatigue, and pain), olfactory (smelling) and gustatory (tasting).

8. 8. An allusion is a brief reference, explicit or indirect to a person, place or event or to another literary work or passage.

9. 9. apostrophes are words spoken to a person or object which is inherently imaginary object or is an abstract idea.

1 10. personification is when we associate a human quality or trait with a non-living object.

Wednesday, February 7 "Spoon River Anthology"

Essential question: How much truth does a grave stone tell?

Coming up: vocabulary quiz on figurative language terms Wednesday, February 14. class handout / copy below

In class: vocabulary quiz: "The Outcasts 2; new vocabulary on literary terms (class handout / copy below)

Introducing: Spoon River Anthology. class handout; this is a substantial collection of poems. You may access the work on line at : Spoon River Anthology

Spoon River Anthology is a series of poems in free verse (poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter). In most of the poems, a deceased native of the fictional town of Spoon River delivers a monologue about his or her life or a specific incident in his or her life. These monologues are, in effect, epitaphs.

Background

.......Dead men tell no tales. So says an ancient proverb. But

in Spoon River Anthology dead men—and women—do tell

tales. Speaking from the grave, more than two hundred forty

deceased residents of a fictional Midwestern town, Spoon

River, each present short monologues about their lives. They

reveal their heartaches, disappointments, failures, and

unfulfilled dreams. Sometimes they tell of the moral

trespasses of themselves or of others. Occasionally, they tell

of an incident that reveals the good or bad qualities of

another person.

The Introductory Poem

The Hill

Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley,
The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter?
All, all are sleeping on the hill.

One passed in a fever,
One was burned in a mine,
One was killed in a brawl,
One died in a jail,
One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife-
All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.

Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie and Edith,
The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one?--
All, all are sleeping on the hill.

One died in shameful child-birth,
One of a thwarted love,
One at the hands of a brute in a brothel,
One of a broken pride, in the search for heart's desire;
One after life in far-away London and Paris
Was brought to her little space by Ella and Kate and Mag--
All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.

Where are Uncle Isaac and Aunt Emily,
And old Towny Kincaid and Sevigne Houghton,
And Major Walker who had talked With venerable men of the revolution?--
All, all are sleeping on the hill.

They brought them dead sons from the war,
And daughters whom life had crushed,
And their children fatherless, crying--
All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.
Where is Old Fiddler Jones
Who played with life all his ninety years,
Braving the sleet with bared breast,
Drinking, rioting, thinking neither of wife nor kin,
Nor gold, nor love, nor heaven?
Lo! he babbles of the fish-frys of long ago,
Of the horse-races of long ago at Clary's Grove,
Of what Abe Lincoln said
One time at Springfield.

Format: Free Verse.......Besides introducing characters in Spoon River Anthology, "The Hill" introduces the format, free verse. Free verse is poetry that ignores standard rules of meter in favor of the rhythms of ordinary conversation. In effect, free verse liberates poetry from conformity to rigid metrical rules that dictate stress patterns and the number of syllables per line.

Conversational Language

.......Except for a poem entitled "The Spooniad," the language in Spoon River Anthology is simple, conversational, and realistic, with plenty of local color and regional references—like the reference in "The Hill" to "the horse races long ago at Clary's Hill" (line 32). Many of the poems contain a figure of speech called anaphora. Anaphora is the repetition of a word or group of words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or sentences.