Holiday HW

Students are to read The Taming of the Shrew over the break and complete the following assignment:

Choose a scene from the play and provide a brief analysis of how Shakespeare creates humor. Consider the use of devices such as pun and malapropism.

Any students who did not receive a copy can access the etext through the link I have provided.

Voice Thread

Students received an assignment using VoiceThread as well as their poetry blog requirements.

Go to http://voicethread.com/#home
I have a link on my blog.

Click on What’s a VoiceThread anyway?

Listen to the tutorial

Sign in to VoiceThread

Go to my VoiceThread at http://voicethread.com/#u299072.b811152.i4311609
I have a link on my blog.

Read my instructions and complete the assignment by January 20.

*let me know if you have any trouble viewing my assignment

Poetry Essay

Pd 3 completed the following assignment:

1981 Poem: “Storm Warnings” (Adrienne Rich)
Prompt: Write an essay in which you explain how the organization of the poem and the use of concrete details reveal both its literal and its metaphorical meanings. In your discussion, show how both of these meanings relate to the title.
“Storm Warnings” by Adrienne Rich

The glass has been falling all the afternoon,
And knowing better than the instrument
What winds are walking overhead, what zone
Of gray unrest is moving across the land,
I leave the book on a pillowed chair
And walk from window to closed window, watching
Boughs strain against the sky

And think again, as often when the air
Moves inward toward a silent core of waiting,
How with a single purpose time has traveled
By secret currents of the undiscerned
Into this polar realm. Weather abroad
And weather in the heart alike come on
Regardless of prediction.

Between foreseeing and averting change
Lies all the mastery of elements
Which clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter.
Time in the hand is not control of time,
Nor shattered fragments of an instrument
A proof against the wind; the wind will rise,
We can only close the shutters.

I draw the curtains as the sky goes black
And set a match to candles sheathed in glass
Against the keyhole draught, the insistent whine
Of weather through the unsealed aperture.
This is our sole defense against the season;
These are the things that we have learned to do
Who live in troubled regions.


Pd 6 completed the following essay:

The poems below are concerned with darkness and night. Read each poem carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, compare and contrast the poems, analyzing the significance of dark or night in each. In your essay, consider elements such as point of view, imagery, and structure.

Acquainted with the Night
by: Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
O luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.



We grow accustomed to the Dark

We grow accustomed to the Dark --
When light is put away --
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Goodbye --

A Moment -- We uncertain step
For newness of the night --
Then -- fit our Vision to the Dark --
And meet the Road -- erect --

And so of larger -- Darkness --
Those Evenings of the Brain --
When not a Moon disclose a sign --
Or Star -- come out -- within --

The Bravest -- grope a little --
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead --
But as they learn to see --

Either the Darkness alters --
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight --
And Life steps almost straight.

Emily Dickinson

Poetry

Tomorrow the students will complete an essay on poetry. Today we discussed sound devices.

Poetry

Today we discussed "Had I the Choice" and "To a Daughter Leaving Home" in small groups.

Poetry

Today we completed another multiple choice practice exam for poetry.

Poetry

Today we discussed "The Oxen" and "Getting Out".

Poetry Multiple Choice

Today the students completed a practice multiple choice poetry test. We will continue discussing poems from Sound & Sense tomorrow. Students are to read through chapter 14 by Friday.

Poetry

Today we discussed "Design", "The Oxen", and "Getting Out". Students are to read through chapter 14 by Friday.

Poetry

Today we discussed the poems from the essay as well as "To A Waterfowl".

In class writing

The students completed the poetry essay from the 2007 exam. The poems are "A Barred-Owl" and "The History Teacher".

This link should take you there:
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/english_lit/samp.html?englit

(Or try the exam link on this blog)

Poetry

Today we discussed the use of allusion in "in Just-" and "Miniver Cheevy"

Poetry HW

In class we discussed "in the inner city" and began analyzing "in Just-" in small groups. Students received poetry analysis tables that are to be completed for the poem "Miniver Cheevy" for HW.