Midterm Review Time

First, the schedule:

Period 4/5: Day 2(1/31) 10:00am-12:00pm

Period 11: Day 4(2/4) 7:55am-9:55am

Period 12: Day 4(2/4) 10:00am-12:00pm

Here's what you will need to know. Get organized and review!


Review the following concepts/terms/stories:

· Voice/Tone/Literary Devices
· Thesis Statements
· Dos and Don’ts of Writing
· Hallmarks of good persuasive writing
· Reading logs/thinking like a writer
· Tragic Hero-Definition
· Oedipus Rex as Tragedy/Oedipus as Tragic Hero?
· Themes/Major Events/Characters of  Oedipus
· Close reading/annotation

Tonight, you type and read.

Tonight's homework:

-Read this story and mark ANY and ALL literary devices you see.  "Like the Sun"

-Type your essay.  Do not put your name on the top.

Tomorrow, we will do an activity to test your "voice" and we may start our story activity...it all depends on our progress with your essays.

By the way, if you feel uncomfortable sharing your essay with your class, let me know during an off period or privately before class.  We can figure out another way to evaluate you.

Have fun!

Tonight's Common Homework

Hey.  Here it is.  The common app essay prompts.  Choose one tonight, and prewrite.  Make a list of five ideas that you want to include in your completed essay.  No, you cannot change your topic once you walk in tomorrow.  We'll be writing during the first fifteen minutes of class.




•Option #1: Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
•Option #2: Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?
•Option #3: Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?
•Option #4: Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?
•Option #5: Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

My example:

Prompt #1

1.  My dad is a no-show.

2.  Mom left when I was 11.

3.  Lived with my brother from 11-19.

4.  Experienced extreme poverty that affected school life.

5.  Eventually, chose to overcome my circumstances.

Oh, Oedipus...You So Tragic!

Your assignment: Find a parallel tragic hero in modern history, literature, movies, television,etc.

Complete a full, written sketch of your modern tragic hero. Follow Aristotle's definition. You have a chart(which we will discuss tomorrow) that very nicely illustrates these qualities. Use the chart!!!

Yeah, you can probably Google this. You can find millions of professor-given examples online. But c'mon, this isn't so hard. Utilize your interests to get this done. Me, I love celebrity gossip, so I'm likely to pick some sad starlet. Or Steve Jobs. Maybe.

Is anyone off-limits? Of course. Actual tragic heroes, from literature? Off-limits. And what constitutes modern, you may ask? For me, it should be a figure that existed or was created anywhere from 1900 to the present. That's a pretty big window.

This can't be emailed to me because I'd like it to be pretty. I'd like a picture of your hero, surrounded by their Aristotlian, (is that a word?) tragic qualities. You should be as specific as possible. If every hero needs a flaw, for example, you should name that flaw. Maybe even give an example of it in action. If I was doing Steve Jobs(ahem...this another no-no for you guys), then I may say his flaw was his ego. That ego was deadly, in fact, because it led to him believing he could cure his cancer without modern medicine, which, in turn, killed him. Tragic stuff.

Here's my pathetic example...here

I only completed one of the six characteristics, but I hope you get the point. Contact me at any point before the due date(January 2nd!) if you have a question.

Rock out.

The Day Room 230 Stood Still...

It was so empty today.

I did show up, three times, to teach my kids.  We read Oedipus for the second time, and I think it only gets better.  I had such a great time today in class; days like today remind me why I love my job so much.

If you weren't there, it was awesome and the story progressed a bit.  Oedipus talked to a prophet, Tiresius(who happens to be blind) and was incensed that Tiresius wouldn't tell him all he knew about the murderer in Thebes.  Tiresius and Oedipus insulted each other for pages until finally, Tiresius told Oeddy that he knew something about his family that would devastate him.  That's where we left off.

This weekend, read and annotate the following article.

Tragedy and the Common Man

If you can't print, please take notes instead of annotating.  We'll discuss the article AND continue reading on Monday.

I'll be posting a few other tidbits this weekend.  Until Monday, enjoy: )

Oh, What a Day!

Sorry 11th and 12th.  Rain did our period in.  The good news?  Tomorrow, we'll have regular class, just like period 4/5 did today!  Yay!

Period 4/5, on the side of your blog is a blank reading log, the literary terms packet, and a sample log.  Please take your song lyrics, mark the devices we found today, and put them into a blank log.  YOU DO NOT NEED TO FILL OUT THE COLUMN THAT SAYS 'TEXTUAL ANALYSIS.' We will do this all together next week.

Period 11 and 12, we will talk about all of this tomorrow and you will find the devices and fill out the log over the weekend.

All kids:  I won't be here on Monday.  I have a Professional Day going to a Shakespeare workshop.  Your assignment has to do with Great Expectations.  It's our last goodbye.  I will collect your books on Tuesday.

A word on grading.

I'm back.  Well, kinda.  I hardly feel like Emily Rock, but I think with my lack of sleep for the last four years, it's been about that long since I've really felt like myself.  But enough about me, let's talk speeches.

Tomorrow, I'll be going over odds and ends, setting up an order, and quelling any fears that may have developed since we saw each other on Wednesday! of last week.  We'll also make a vocab schedule and talk about what our next mountain/hill is to climb--and that, my friends, is the hill that begins with literary terms.

I'm leaving you a link to the rubric for our speeches.  It's a basic/stolen rubric from a well-respected rhetoric class.  The sections in red indicate where I'll be grading your written speech; the rest of the sections are the delivery itself.

Enjoy your Sunday.  Tomorrow we shall meet again.

Rubric