In-class essay

Today the students wrote essays in response to the following prompt:

The significance of a title such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is easy to discover. However, in other works (for example, Measure for Measure) the full significance of the title becomes apparent to the reader only gradually.

Choose a work and show how the significance of the title is developed through the authors’ use of devices such as contrast, repetition, allusion, and point of view.

You MUST select one of the works listed below.

The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Klimas

The Importance of Being Earnest

In-class essay on Earnest tomorrow.

The Importance of Being Earnest

We are currently near the end of Act II. We will most likely finish the play tomorrow in class.

Passage Analysis

The students received a passage analysis assignment today. Period 6 completed the assignment in class, while period 3 was given until Monday to have it completed.

The Importance of Being Earnest/A Tale of Two Cities

We are currently reading The Importance of Being Earnest in class. Students are reading A Tale of Two Cities at home, at their own pace. It must be completed by the end of the marking period.

Cat's Cradle

Today the students completed the following assignment:

Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose a novel or a play that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.

You MUST select a work from the list below.

Cat’s Cradle

HW for Tuesday

Students are to finish the novel and write 1 sentence explaining the meaning of the work as a whole.

HW for Friday

Students are to read to page 120 of Cat's Cradle by Friday. Bring in a brief analysis of a character of your choice. Consider specifics about the character, as well as what the character may represent outside of the novel.

Cat's Cradle

Students are to read to page 60 by Wednesday and have an example of a literary device and its impact on the work.

Cat's Cradle

In class today we analyzed the passage from "The Other Paris" that was assigned as an essay. We looked at examples of good/bad essays and the students reflected on their own responses.

The students also received a copy of our next work, Cat's Cradle. We are to read through chapter 14 by tomorrow and bring in a brief write-up on something the author is satirizing.

In-class essay

Today the students completed this in-class essay.

Critic Roland Barthes has said, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” Choose a novel or play and, considering Barthes’ observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers any answers. Explain how the author’s treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

You MUST select one of the following works:

The Handmaid’s Tale