As we are closing our Short Fiction Boot Camp, let's evaluate our own literary analysis skills.
Watch the following video and then, in the comments, discuss what you've been doing lately in the context of the video. Compare! Are we doing what Ms. Harter advocates?
Treat the video as text--quote the video in your response!
Remember the rules we've discussed about blog entries. Respond thoughtfully to your peers (unless you are the first to comment, of course).
Friday, August 1, 2014
Hello, 2014-2015 AP Scholars, and welcome to your first blog post!
Tomorrow in class, we will be watching 3 clips from Beloved, the film.If you are not aware, Beloved was not particularly well-received--and it did not make nearly as much money at the box office as the production team had hoped. Oprah Winfrey, who owned the rights to the book (which allowed her to turn it into a movie) and played Sethe, has stated in interviews that she was very depressed as the result of the film's poor reception.
For your posting: you are to discuss the trailer in relation to your understanding of the novel. A trailer is a teaser and is meant to pique interest in a soon-to-be-releasted film. You know the novel--does the trailer appear to be accurate? Does it appear to be an appropriate audio-visual enactment of the text?
As with all blog posts, if you are not the first person to post, you must respond specifically to a classmate who has already posted.
As you've already seen, pages 13-17 describe Jane's imprisonment in the Red Room. Reread those pages and then answer the following question(s).
Please refer to the blog rubric posted on Edline. Make sure to interact with your previous classmates' postings. Agree, disagree, or build on their points.
Why has Bronte elected to imprison Jane in a location that is infrequently visited and that is mostly furnished in red? How do these aspects contribute to Jane's devastating reaction?
One of the biggest problem I've observed in your writing is passive voice. Some are more heinous offenders than others, but either way, I want to deepen your awareness of it. This way, you will recognize it when you see it and therefore avoid it.
I promise that your college professors will appreciate that you know the difference...my first lit/comp professor MASSACRED me on my first paper for my use of passive voice and my overuse of the verb "to be."
Passive voice is not inherently bad; there are times when you SHOULD use it (creative writing is a nice place for it). However, in analytical writing, active voice is always the best choice.
So, here's your second weekend assignment (other than reading Young Goodman Brown"):
If it doesn't come up, just type "passive voice" into the search engine. The full title is "Active and Passive Voice" by the Grammar Detective.
In the comments, either find a place where you've used passive voice and then correct it, or write two sentences--one in passive voice, and then that sentence rewritten to be in active voice.
Any issues, just jot them in the comments. I get email notifications every time one of you posts.
First of all, let me say it formally here: I am so very proud of you for taking and completing the course. I'm excited that you've taken the exam and have some time to take a deep breath. More importantly, realize that the pressure is off. We still have a few more assignments to round out the year, but I'd like our concluding activities to be reflective and pleasant.
On that note, consider this your swan song--here, in your comment (worth 15 points, but completion credit only--no rubric!) tell the 2013-2014 APE group what you wish you had known/done/realized/understood.
If you wished you had taken your work more seriously, say that. If you wish you hadn't freaked out so much, say that. If you'd like next year's bunch to known that they WILL evolve as readers and thinkers, tell them that. Think about when you were in the trenches--what did you wish someone had told you?
There's nothing like a Monday morning quarterback, and nothing like a May 10th APE student.
Hello, ambitious scholars! We must stop meeting like this.
So, the Death of a Salesman that you read was not the first draft Arthur Miller wrote (duh). In one of the original drafts, Willy says to Biff:
To enjoy yourself is not ambition. A tramp has that. Ambition is things. A man must want thingsl You're lost. You are a lost boy. And I know why now. Because you hate me you turned your back on all your promise. For spite, for spite of me, because I wanted you magnificent.
Clearly, you see a variation of that in the big ol' fight in the kitchen at the end of Act II. Now, it's not clear why Miller changed the script as he did (and elminated that particular tidbit), but Ms. Rouleau thinks it's probably because he didn't want the issue of materialism to be so heavy handed. Part of Miller's genius (and part of why DOAS is so enduring) is that the issue (problem) of American materialism isn't so in-your-face...it's lurking, quietly, in the corner.
So, here's the question: whereis materialism apparent in the version of the play that YOU read? Is the materialism in the final play as effective as those abandoned lines? More effective? Less effective?
There are several key instances where you can point out "things," physical, material, tangible "things" that address that issue of materialism, but certainly in a quieter and less obtrusive way.
Sound off in the comments, chickees. And I want textual evidence. Feel free to use the page numbers in the textbook.
So, Harold Bloom is THE expert on Shakespeare. If Harold Bloom says something, people listen. And now you'll know to pay attention to him, too. He's taught at Yale, Harvard, and NYU. Not too shabby of a resume, huh? I'd say that he's probably the most celebrated literary critic in the United States. Okay, fine, Frank Kermode said that, but, you know, whatever.
Tomorrow in class, we shall handle a few discussion topics that you received TODAY, said by Bloom. However, in the blog, TONIGHT, I'd like you to handle this idea that he presented about Hamlet:
“Part of the definitive Hamlet’s mystery is why the audience and readership, rather like the common people of Denmark in the play, should love him.Until Act V, Hamlet loves the dead father (or rather, his image) but does not persuade us that he loves (or ever loved) anyone else.The prince has no remorse for his manslaughter of Polonius, or for his vicious badgering of Ophelia into madness and suicide, or for his gratuitous dispatch of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their undeserved deaths.We do not believe Hamlet when he blusters to Laertes that he loved Ophelia, since the charismatic nature seems to exclude remorse, except for what has not yet been done.The skull of poor Yorick evokes not grief, but disgust, and the son’s farewell to his dead mother is the heartless ‘Wretched Queen, adieu.’There is the outsize tribute to the faithful and loving Horatio, but it is subverted when Hamlet angrily restrains his grieving follower from suicide, not out of affection but so as to assign him the task of telling the prince’s story, lest Hamlet bear forever a wounded name.There is indeed a considerable ‘case against Hamlet,’ urged most recently by Alistair Fowler, but even if Hamlet is a hero-villain, he remains the Western hero of consciousness” (409).
Do you agree with Harold Bloom? Make sure to look at those scenes that Bloom references, and to
reference them in your discussion. Remember the existing blog rules as well--interact with at least one of
your classmates' thoughts. And a simple "I agree with Sparkles" is NOT sufficient. Really evaluate what
Sparkles, or Mits, or Pink Chucks, or Banana, or Deanielle said about it.
Do a good job here--you're playing in Bloom's park.
As long as they're posted before our class tomorrow (BEFORE LUNCH, AHEM!) you're golden.
For this blog, take a look at the following cover art for Jane Eyre.
Your assignment is to explain (with textual evidence, mais oui) which cover strikes you as being most appropriate and most fitting, based on the parts ofJane Eyre that you have read. Also, specifically reference details on the book covers. Finally, ake sure to reference a classmate if you are not the first!
Peace, love, and Victorian-Era reform politics,
Ms. Rouleau
Oh, PS: This is due by Saturday morning at 10AM. Therefore, if you are prone to still be recumbent at that hour, I'd recommend getting this done in advance. #earlybirdgetstheworm
If you STREAM the webcast, you need 1.5 pages and answer the following questions:
1. What was the focus of Diaz's presentation?
2. What did you find the most interesting?
3. What major themes does "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" address?
A few of you came to ask: you can write this IN the blog, or type it and hand it in. Either is fine. It should be 1.5 pages, so make sure the length is there.
Also, as this isn't a blog homework, you don't need to comment on anyone's response in particular.
UPDATE! I am sitting in the auditorium waiting for it to start. If question 3 isn't addressed in the presentation, stick with the first two questions. I'm super excited and I hope you are too! Happy viewing!
I'm SUPER pumped about starting a new unit on poetry, aren't you?
(Insert awkward silence here: _____.)
In all seriousness, let's give prose a break and get acquainted with "the rhymical creation of beauty in words," to quote dear old Poe.
I have two goals for this poetry unit:
To give you the tools necessary to KICK BUTT AND TAKE NAMES on the MC and Q1 sections of the AP English Lit and Comp Exam.
To foster in you, my students, a love and appreciation for great (past and present) poetry.
The first is doable, totally doable, particulary if YOU do your homework and study. However, fostering a love for anything isn't always easy. Challenge? Accepted.
Acording to Mary Oliver (you'll know her in no time), poetry is a "way of life." And what better way for me to foster this love but by presenting poetry into a way of life familiar to you?
This is due by our class period on Friday, November 2. MAKE SURE TO SUBSTANTIATE YOUR RESPONSE WITH EXAMPLES FROM THE VIDEO AND POEM.
Check out this youtube video (yup, you read that correctly, chicklets).
Your first job in your comment--review the video. Answer one, or some, or all of the following questions: What did you think of it? What emotions did it stir in you? What have you been urged to do? Who is this video about? To whom is this video directed? (Some background info: this is a Levi's jeans commercial.)
DO THIS BEFORE DOING YOUR SECOND JOB!!!!!! DON'T DO THE SECOND JOB UNTIL YOU HAVE JOTTED DOWN YOUR REACTIONS FROM THE VIDEO!!!!!! Thanks.
Your second job: check out the full text of the poem (below), and then respond as you did to the video by answering some or all of the questions: What did you think of it? What emotions did it stir in you? What have you been urged to do? Who is this poem about? To whom is this poem directed? Keep in mind, this time I want you to substantiate your claims this time by referencing Whitman's language.
"Pioneers" by Walt Whitman
Come my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready, Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes? Pioneers! O pioneers!
For we cannot tarry here, We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! O pioneers!
O you youths, Western youths, So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship, Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost, Pioneers! O pioneers!
Have the elder races halted? Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond the seas? We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the lesson, Pioneers! O pioneers!
All the past we leave behind, We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world, Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march, Pioneers! O pioneers!
We detachments steady throwing, Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep, Conquering, holding, daring, venturing as we go the unknown ways, Pioneers! O pioneers!
We primeval forests felling, We the rivers stemming, vexing we and piercing deep the mines within, We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving, Pioneers! O pioneers!
Colorado men are we, From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus, From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come, Pioneers! O pioneers!
From Nebraska, from Arkansas, Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood intervein'd, All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern, Pioneers! O pioneers!
O resistless restless race! O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all! O I mourn and yet exult, I am rapt with love for all, Pioneers! O pioneers!
Raise the mighty mother mistress, Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress, (bend your heads all,) Raise the fang'd and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon'd mistress, Pioneers! O pioneers!
See my children, resolute children, By those swarms upon our rear we must never yield or falter, Ages back in ghostly millions frowning there behind us urging, Pioneers! O pioneers!
On and on the compact ranks, With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill'd, Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping, Pioneers! O pioneers!
O to die advancing on! Are there some of us to droop and die? has the hour come? Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the gap is fill'd. Pioneers! O pioneers!
All the pulses of the world, Falling in they beat for us, with the Western movement beat, Holding single or together, steady moving to the front, all for us, Pioneers! O pioneers!
Life's involv'd and varied pageants, All the forms and shows, all the workmen at their work, All the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with their slaves, Pioneers! O pioneers!
All the hapless silent lovers, All the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and the wicked, All the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the dying, Pioneers! O pioneers!
I too with my soul and body, We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way, Through these shores amid the shadows, with the apparitions pressing, Pioneers! O pioneers!
Lo, the darting bowling orb! Lo, the brother orbs around, all the clustering suns and planets, All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams, Pioneers! O pioneers!
These are of us, they are with us, All for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait behind, We to-day's procession heading, we the route for travel clearing, Pioneers! O pioneers!
O you daughters of the West! O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives! Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united, Pioneers! O pioneers!
Minstrels latent on the prairies! (Shrouded bards of other lands, you may rest, you have done your work,) Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us, Pioneers! O pioneers!
Not for delectations sweet, Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious, Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment, Pioneers! O pioneers!
Do the feasters gluttonous feast? Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock'd and bolted doors? Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, Pioneers! O pioneers!
Has the night descended? Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged nodding on our way? Yet a passing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause oblivious, Pioneers! O pioneers!
Till with sound of trumpet, Far, far off the daybreak call--hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind, Swift! to the head of the army!--swift! spring to your places, Pioneers! O pioneers!
We meet again, my darlings. Since October is synonymous with Halloween, we can celebrate by looking at the master of the macabre, the duke of the darkness, your friend and mine, Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. Poe said "meaning in literature should be an undercurrent just beneath the surface." He claimed that fiction with obvious meaning "cease[s] to be art." What better conversation to have here in good ol' APE? Take this quotation and run with it, mes petits choux. Is Poe-Diddy right? Wrong? Is art only art (and literature only literature) when it is complex? Can a simple fable or allegory be art? Please post no later than Monday (Columbus Day...10/8/12) at 7pm. I'm hoping to have your posts graded and your rubrics in the folders by Tuesday.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Welcome to your first actual blog assignment!
The Catcher in the Rye is, according to critic Robert Bennet, "one of the most widely read and discussed works in the American literary canon," and consequently, Holden Caulfield is one of literature's most beloved--and despised--characters. People either love him or hate him; there is rarely a middle ground with this character.
So, scholars of mine, here are the talking points: What is it about Holden that elicits such strong feelings in readers? What, specifically, did Salinger in his characterization process do to create such an engaging and powerful figure? Why is there such a cult fervor surrounding Holden?
So, by Saturday at 11 AM, post a comment that handles some or all of these talking points, and make sure to include a response to at least one classmate if you are not the first to comment! The blog is on Edline, but to save you extraneous mouse clicks, here it is:
_____Comment responds to prompt in an accurate and appropriate way _____First to comment! _____If not the first to comment, comment addresses at least one other student’s idea in a respectful way _____Comment is at least a paragraph in length _____Comment substantiates position by referencing topics that give weight to opinion _____Comment is free from grammatical errors
Rock on, faithful literature enthusiasts!
Friday, August 24, 2012
Hello, my fearless AP Students!
Welcome to AP English. This class is a joy to teach and I am so excited to work with you this year!
This blog is a first for me--I invite you to join me in the adventure. Increasingly, colleges courses have students participate in online forums where they post their thoughts and engage in dialogue with each other.
In order to prepare you for the rigor of college, we are giving that concept a try here on this blog.
Occasionally, we will have a conversation on the blog. I will post a topic as the blog entry, and your job is to respond to it and to your classmates' comments. Your response will count as a homework assignment, and there will be a blog rubric posted on Edline. My hope is that students who have qualms about participating in class will find a voice in writing on this blog. I respect all of your ideas and I want to hear from you--all of you.
I look forward to getting to know you and to developing our AP family. We will continue to discuss this type of assignment in class.
