Wednesday, August 29, 2018

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.

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