Still Awakening

All classes have received their prompts with varying results depending on essay structure, the incorporation of literary devices and character types, the selection of multiple pieces of evidence that are non-distracting to your own syntax, and hooks that relate to the given passage/author.

Meanwhile, on the Grand Isle, we finished our participation for chapters 2-5 and, in theory, started preparations for your group-led discussions on Tuesday, with each group having one chapter in the 6-11 range, prepping an over-analysis, and sharing the information with your classmates. Any absentees will be assigned a group on Tuesday, so make sure you have your notes ready for that section so that you will have something to contribute. Reading-wise, continue forward with chapters 12-17.

And, don't forget, looming in the near future, will be your verbal presentation on your short story and its connections to the Chopin oeuvre. You may want to make a dent his weekend in your readings.

Parrots, Hands, Cigars, Oh My!

Well, thus far into the first five chapters we have color symbolism, motifs, nonchalant characterization for everyone but Adele and Madame LeBrun, foils of motherhood and hands, nameless servants and children, and a milieu not allowing communication to prosper. With such instantaneous literary devices, you know they will be coming back to haunt the ever handsome Edna as she looks more and more to that freedom-inspiring sea. In all classes, we still have a smattering of chapters 1-5 to discuss, so that will be wrapped up tomorrow and then we will go into chapters 6-11 with a little small group discussion to mix it up a bit. 

F.Y.I. I don't have another Awakening-inspired shoe choice for tomorrow, so I hoped you enjoyed today's pair, the ones AP Lit voted for last year in honor of our darling Edna, the first of the misfit toys that we will be reading about in our future texts. 

The World of Chopin

*This is a reminder that if you are absent for any cause, you are to arrive the next class with any reading notes to indicate your participation for the missing class. This is up to you to share.

The first half of class revolved our author, our St. Louis native, our trailblazer of "vulgar" reading material, Kate Chopin. Using your notes on her biography, you participated in sharing facts of her life, painting a picture of Chopin's history that will play a part in the cultural references, characters, and settings of her novella and short stories. Following your part in the show, you received your Awakening text, the verbal essay presentation assignment, and the plans for the next 2 days of reading (Thursday Chapters 1-5; Friday Chapter 6-11) with your notes ready for discussion. To end the Chopin component, you have your own short story to read, analyze, and prep for the presentation.

The remainder of the class centered on our diagnostic prompt passage "The Birthmark" and your participation in sharing the foils, the motifs, the color symbolism, the characterization, and so forth. Afterwards, we discussed essay structure - with a few specific notes on hooks that work for AP Lit. Overall, stay with the author and text given to you, and don't bring in personal anecdotes, other authors, or comparisons that don't have any foundation to the text. For instance, we discussed using Dark Romanticism characteristics, 19th century science, Hawthorne and his penchant for red symbols that chastise women's sexuality, Pygmalion or taking an allusion in the text.

At some point in the next 48 hours, you will have your prompts back. See you tomorrow for Chopin - I'll be wearing what last year's AP Lit considers the epitome of The Awakening.

Transition Day

We are moving from introductory materials (like our Casterbridge cast of characters) to actual novellas (The Awakening) and the expectation of over-analyzing, well, everything will be across the board. To prepare for our block day, you have three items to prepare: your new vocab expert word, a rereading of "The Birthmark" with specific attention on devices and evidence from both readings, and reading/noting the biographical world of Kate Chopin.

During class today, we completed vocab quiz 1, which means if you were absent, you have 48 hours to either make up the quiz or schedule an appropriate time to do so. We read sample paragraphs for our Casterbridge characters, and we talked about college credit opportunities. 

L & EJ

After our vocab review, which means quiz on Monday, we had a lengthy discussion on the characteristics of Lucetta & Elizabeth Jane in preparation for a writing assignment. In groups, you created a thesis statement for the prompt, and then each of you selected one facet (L, EJ, or their relationship) to write a paragraph. If absent, you should select L, EJ, or the relationship and write one paragraph for Monday's class.

Not One but Two

We finished up our 15 vocab words today, which means the review will be tomorrow. If you happen to be passing a great deal in our circle, you may want to spend some quality time reviewing this latest addition to your vernacular.

In the characterization realm, we finished up our look at Tom, his socialization issues, and the literary elements that convey all the former components. So far, my favorite thesis is "Fitzgerald characterizes Tom as an insecure and inflammatory man who projects his egotistical characteristics onto his relationships, creating distrust through uncomfortable imagery, curt telegraphic sentences, and juxtaposing diction. Thanks K & H!

After that passage, one character analysis seems way too simplistic. So, why not two? Hence, we have met Lucetta and Elizabeth Jane (fourth hour figured out another connection between them, so we shall see how seventh hour fares). For homework, finish close reading - with your 2 highlighters - the saga of these two women in a very small town.

The World of Tom

I'm trying to type this in between Scholar Quiz lunches, so hopefully this will end up making some sense.

To begin our first block day, we worked with 5 rounds of the cards, which resulted in varying levels of success for the hours. Then, you had a bit of time to work on your toolbox, which may come into use very shortly when we begin our first unit on Chopin and eventually have some pop literary toolbox quizzes. While the poetry terms may not be mandatory at this point, the prose and basic literary terms are givens at this point in the semester as we break down characterization and other qualities in prose works, such as our "darling" Tom and his fellow Jazz Age denizens. While each hour is in a different spot with Tom's characterization, we will be finishing up the thesis statements and discussing the categorization of his character tomorrow.

The First Writing Prompt!

The excitement in the air when it is writing prompt day. This is probably the only time all year where Lang & Lit are both experiencing a prompt day, so it ends up busy and hand cramping for you and on the boring side for me. Don't worry - I have your essays to provide me with some mental stimulation all this week.

No matter what background you have in literary analysis, this diagnostic prompt really does help set the expectations for the class. You have to be able to close read, pick out literary elements, and then write about them in a timely fashion. For some of you, this is a natural step in the literary analysis progression; for some of you, you need a refresher on how to hunt down characterization, literary elements, and not rely on purpose and syntax anymore; for some of you, you need to hunker down and learn the way literature can be analyzed. Whatever the case, novice or veteran, there is room for growth and improvement - if you choose to accept feedback, work and learn from your classmates, and have the initiative to reach for upper-level analysis. It's not really Mission Impossible!

While I was reading this weekend, I came across a quote from actress Ellen Barkin, which she mentions is from Native American ideology: "It's not the climb up the ladder that defines who you are, but the climb down." I see a lot of kids the opening classes decide not to invest the energy in a class because they do not have expert status in it. That is unfortunate because a class (in any subject) is supposed to help you become experts or at least have a strong enough ethos to succeed. There will be times - multiple, sorry, it's life - where you will not be perfect, where you will say the wrong thing, where you will not write the best prompt, where you will have flaws. It is up to you take what you learn from the harrowing nature of imperfection and climb back up the ladder with greater balance, insight, and determination.

And on something no related whatsoever to AP Lit, during my readings I also came across someone who could fulfill a modern day hero for me: Sasha Dorothy Lowuekuduk, who is head keeper of the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in Kenya. She comes from a culture that is just starting to understand the role of education for women and using her voice and her heart to save baby elephants that are orphaned whether by natural or man-made (boo) actions.

For our block day - weird already not seeing you for a couple days - we will have some time with literary toolbox terms (bring your index card holder if that applies) and characterization - namely a little character analysis of a certain brusque, rude, and entitled character from The Great Gatsby.

The Other Side of Helen

After more fun with vocabulary words, we returned back to that statue-like siren Helen and her impact on Greeks, which was emphasized by a collective speaker in H.D.'s poem. Looking at the differentiation of speaker person, diction, stanzas, motifs, rhyming patterns, and tone, we created thesis statements to answer the prompt and selected evidence from both poems to support the main idea. As noted, the thesis statement is significant to the organization of the essay, and its phrasing is significant to the level of maturity that an AP audience would expect.

Monday will be our diagnostic prompt day, a chance for you to close read "The Birthmark" and prepare for some type of literary analysis prompt. As mentioned in class, this is a bell to bell prompt, so you will not need me to tell you to begin.

Helen, Oh Helen

Vocab experts return with four new words today! Then, we played a little card games with some poetry, prose, and overall literary terms. At this point, you should know a few more terms to impress literary fans! You also received "The Birthmark," a text you are to close read for Monday's literary diagnostic prompt. To end the hour, we worked with our Helen prompt in some shape or form. Second and fourth hour dissecting "To Helen" by our dear wondering friend Poe, and seventh hour looked at the prompt and will have devices ready to go tomorrow. We're two days in, which means there's a lot more left to read.

AP Lit Land

Welcome to AP Lit Land! AP Lit Land could be considered a book club, albeit a book club that has terminology, close reads, multiple choice, and prompts. For today's class, we did not start any readings - unless you count the discipline review and the syllabus. Hence, the agenda was more on what we will be doing and how to prepare for the expectations of the class. At this point, you have the syllabus, the AP Lit terms for a toolbox (highly recommended by the way), and the 101 Texts that the College Board recommends for reading and what can be subject for your free response essay on the exam. While you will have plenty of formidable novels and plays over the course of the class, you have more recommendations here if you want something to read.

For tomorrow's class, we will be starting Unit 1's vocab experts, so make sure you have your definition, at least 2 synonyms, preferable not from the vocab book, and a memory trick to entertain and help your fellow classmates.

We will have our first class close read tomorrow, which will bring an opportunity to dissect 2 poems for all those structural, sound, and literary elements.

And, this is the blog I wrote prior to school starting last year, which gives you an idea and reminders about terminology, motifs, and random thoughts.

http://fznaplit.blogspot.com/2017/08/ap-lit-for-beginners.html

July's Novels

A little late with reporting my reading, but those are all the novels completed by the end of July. As it happens, The Favored Child bogged me down - one of those texts that annoys you to read, but you keep chugging along to see what happens - and I lost my 100 page a day momentum. We're less than a week away from school, which means my reading will shift to writing prompts! Looking forward to our 2018-19 book club commencing!