Vindicating

After starting our new mini unit of vocabulary, you were assigned a chapter from A Vindication to close read, write analytical paragraphs, and prepare a presentation. We will do all of this on Monday -- hence, the four minute time limit. Make sure you are prepped and using 9-level analysis, diction, and evidence to support your points.

Once there was a politician, a hippie, and a gypsy...

One of the best classes EVER! All of you brought creativity, allusions, and story elements to engender your character's prologue and tale. Thank you for taking this challenge and composing original, thoughtful work.

Following our bon voyage shindig, we completed the 2 part vocabulary quiz, shared allusion posters, and copied down the next 10 words to commence on Friday. Hope you are ready for Wollstonecraft...

Prose Ranging

After a quick review of vocabulary, we settled in to Ms. Wollstonecraft's introduction and her want of gender equality in morality, government, and interpersonal imbroglios. After a brief hiatus on Wednesday, we will return to Wollstonecraft, and you will be very busy analyzing a chapter (or two or three) of A Vindication.

Next, we spent some time reading and picking out flaws in rangefinders for the Estrella prompt. Overall, the class has a strong grasp of characterization and explaining a dynamic character via analogies, tone, diction, and other literary elements. Areas to improve would be transitional elements with evidence and clean, mistake-free mechanical decisions. Since AP Lang will be working on grammar and punctuation fourth quarter, I have a feeling we will be as well.

Tomorrow is the day -- to Bikini Bottom they say -- a thief tells the tale -- not sure if the character will be male. Corny rhyming! Not in iambic pentameter! This is not a preview of the prologue -- I promise it won't be that horrible.

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/spongebob/images/6/6f/The_Krusty_Krab_in_Season_3.png/revision/latest?cb=20141130004549

Dependent on the rest of the class, we will most likely sharing allusion posters and completing a vocabulary quiz.

In case any of you are interested in buzzers, tone words, and allusions, there will be a review and competition Thursday morning. Arrive between 6:50-7:00, grab your tally sheet from the wall, and begin playing. Door closes at 7!

To Whom It May Concern

When Wollstonecraft wrote her dedicatory letter, she had a specific reader in mind and a specific flaw in the French Constitution. As noted in class, Wollstonecraft wanted all of us to be "human creatures" and not socially, morally segregated due to sex. For homework, finish reading the introduction and be ready to chat tomorrow. We will also review vocabulary -- all 20 words will be on the next quiz -- and (finally) go over those pesky rangefinders. It's grading night at Chez Gianini.

Readying Wollstonecraft

After adding three vocabulary words to our vernacular, we looked at examples of feminist criticism via The Metamorphosis and Star Wars. Here is the link to the article about Rey:  http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/22/star-wars-force-awakens-rey.

Additionally, we shared our allusion posters and we met Mary Wollstonecraft and her polemical 18th century lifestyle. We will read her Vindication next week to practice our close reading skills and our understanding of literary elements, feminist theory, and Romantic milieu.

Here is the book that I read over the summer that I will be referencing a great deal:

Romantic Feminism

Let the British invasion commence!

 For this semester, we will be all Brit Lit -- focusing first on the Romantics. To begin class, you learned more about the Romantic era and its individualism, passion, intuition, instinct, rebellion, and nature fascination. Embodied by the peregrination of Wordsworth, the artistry of Blake, the albatross of Coleridge, the salaciousness of Bryon, the rebellion of Shelley, and the melancholy of Keats, Romanticism spawned a reactionary outlook to Classicism and its logical bent. Before we spend quality time with the aforementioned Romantics, we will commune with the mother of one, Mary Wollstonecraft.

Then, came the stereotypes of males and females in our society. From sandwich making women (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/25/stephanie-smith-300-sandwiches-engagement-ring_n_3990325.html to read the article about a woman utilizing sandwiches to land an engagement ring) to unfashionable men, gender and sex stereotypes abound. These stereotypes are reinforced by literature -- classical and modern.

Additionally, we will be completing Feminist interpretations of our Romantic readings. Feminist theory revolves around the patriarchal expectations of males and females in gender roles, classes, morals, and social mores. As presented in class, the main four gender roles for females are dutiful daughter, mother/caregiver, sexual/passionate, and mad/bad. To equalize matters, our male gender roles are responsible son, father/provider, sexual/lustful, and rebel/tyrant.

For Friday's class, we will continue with vocabulary, look at a Metamorphosis interpretation via the feminist lens, present allusion posters, meet Mary Wollstonecraft, and reveal the rangefinder scores. Phew.

St. Louis Poetry Contest

In case my thespians would like to enter a poetry contest and win prize money:

http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/book-blog/poetry-center-seeks-contest-entries-from-local-students/article_e5abe9da-342e-554e-8e0c-5e6256adae41.html

Prose Prompt Day

All hour was dedicated to a prose prompt, our first one of the course. Rangefinders and analysis will be later this week. We will also jump into Romanticism, Feminist Criticism, and Wollstonecraft.

Chopin/Hawthorne MC

1. We copied down our next 10 words of vocabulary from Unit 6 and Unit 7. We will start these next week.

2. We practiced MC using passages from Chopin & Hawthorne. I was quite successful with these passages, but I heard some grunts and groans on some answers. Remember, each time you miss an answer, you should return to the scene of the crime and determine why the test maker would select the correct answer.

Bikini Bottom

Our class pilgrimage is to Bikini Bottom for the opening of the Krusty Krab! I put an exclamation point as many of you have a nostalgic heart for your childhood cartoons. Alas, I do not have this ethos and will need to study up to prepare a stellar opening prologue for our journey. In total, you will create a prologue for your given character and a tale with a "moral" at its center. For next class, work on your character pre-write in order to prep for your prologue. Even if you do not use all of the character information, it will help you write a better tale.

Canterburying

So far, we have met the pilgrims -- via the voice of the narrator, the voice of Chaucer evaluating the personalities and class structure of his England -- and read the Wife of Bath's "moral" story of a knight learning a lesson regarding what women want. From the class reaction, many women in class wanted a different ending for this ungentlemanly knight.

For Wednesday's class, we will be have a wide array of items on the agenda: copying down the next 10 vocabulary words, discussing the Pardoner and the moral of his tale, selecting a location for our own pilgrimage and commencing our character selection, and checking out The Decameron and how this influenced Chaucer to create his own frame tale.

Meet the Pilgrims

After finishing our 10 vocabulary words --- review on Monday and mini quiz on Tuesday -- we began The Canterbury Tales by reading about Thomas a Becket and his tragic demise, Chaucer's lengthy resume, and beginning of the prologue.

For homework, you have been assigned 2-3 pilgrim prologues to read about and introduce to the class. This introduction should include these items: themes introduced, characterization including physical traits, occupation & class, and the narrator/author's tone towards that individual. Laura, if you would like to be a part of this, read the Pardoner's section of the overall prologue (not his prologue to his story) and be ready to chat about it.

Prompt Writing Review

During today's class, we continued with vocabulary, analyzed the two poems from the final, added to your portfolio and poetry record, and completed a review of mechanical issues in writing and citations. Who knew that would take all hour?

Tomorrow will officially commence The Canterbury Tales - we will learn about the milieu, read the Middle English version of the prologue, and meet all the pilgrims taking this lengthy journey to Thomas a Becket's shrine.

And, I am giving AP Lit first dibs on the remaining allusion posters. If you would like to do an additional one for extra credit, e-mail me the one you would like to do from the following choices. This is a first-come, first-serve type of deal, so it is not your allusion until I have given you an e-mail response. You must put in this request by January 12.

Remaining allusions:
28, 37, 136, 186, 202, 214, 220, 229, 267, 284, 293, 294, 297, 300, 302, 305, 308, 309, 312, 314, 316, 317, 318, 320, 321, 322, 324, 325, 326, 328, 329, 330, 332, 333, 334, 336, 337, 338, 340, 341, 344, 345, 346, 348, 349, 350, 352, 353

Nothing Clever

We started our vocabulary unit 6 and we reviewed the final's multiple choice passages. Tomorrow, we will look at the poetry prompt and start The Canterbury Tales. I will read to you in Middle English, which I was practicing last night.

Semester 2 - the last

I am hoping that this blog finds you not suffering from the oft-cited senioritis disease, for I need all of you to be ready to jump back into literary analysis as we prepare for the test in May. For today's class, you were assigned the allusion posters, in which you are to create mini posters of an allusion and present these in a visual, memorable light. Following that fun, we jumped on the buzzers to review lit terms and vocabulary. Ending the day, we wrote down the next 10 words of vocabulary -- from unit 6 -- which we will begin tomorrow.

Remember, we have a new meeting spot on Wednesdays. Head to the Career Center for our look at the final.

Second Semester

I thought you would like a little preview of our first week back. First off, we will have the buzzers out to review literary terms and vocabulary. As many of you are competitive, you are more than welcome to prep tonight for tomorrow's competition. Next, you will have the allusion assignment -- creating mini posters representing/explaining/exemplifying/other verbs ending in -ing that will showcase Biblical, mythological, literary, cultural, and historical references. We will then continue with analyzing the final and starting The Canterbury Tales. Rumor -- or my brain -- has it that you will have a prose writing prompt in the next week or so. This is a rangefinder one, so it should indicate how you respond to prose prompts after all the poetry emphasis of last quarter. 

If you recall from last year, Ms. Vaughn created an advertisement bulletin board for all English electives. She would like to do this again, and I would like your help. I will introduce the specifics on Wednesday, but if you would like to get a jump start on extra credit, e-mail me and I will send you the documentation. 

Lastly, we will have a change of venue on Wednesdays during January (if all works well, this will become a tradition for the remainder of the school year). Meet in the Career Center on Wednesday!

Santa Mama G helped to add to my shoe collection:

https://cdnd.lystit.com/200/250/tr/photos/b28c-2015/12/22/lamb-white-off-white-and-grey-suede-elastic-open-toe-booties-product-2-058751510-normal.jpeg

http://images.prod.meredith.com/product/d8ac07bd49e1463d02c0a3d7c857f799/1f4ad8522969ab76fd7f7c36367344caef216b015227f2737a531c50db8575bd/l/charlotte-olympia-marble-print-dolly-leather-platform-pumps-white

https://cdna.lystit.com/photos/8da7-2015/11/20/rag-and-bone-black-black-leather-monk-strap-konrad-shoes-product-0-976840169-normal.jpeg

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=144066946

None of the above compares to watching a seven-month-old bunny realize he has a ball pit, a tunnel, and an arch to play with now.

Hope you had a wonderful holiday season!