'Twas the Day of Keats Birth

Happy birthday to the brilliant Keats, the poet fascinated by the imagination, Grecian urns, nightingales, the life that he would never, alas, have the chance to live with Fanny. One of his most cited poems during this time of year would be "This Living Hand" - from the quick read focusing on diction, it could be deemed a spooky representation of the holiday. However, knowing Keats frustration with a shortened life, this probably means more than a scare.

Meanwhile, as the words "guitar" and "Gorgonzola" haunt the memory, we are continuing forward with our foray into poetry and your growing ethos regarding the genre, how to interpret its meaning, and break down its structure. All classes, no matter where we are in the cycle, have your new best friend, the poetry packet, which will come in handy in the upcoming weeks and months. If you have procrastinated a bit, you have your 2 box prompts to do this evening.

2: After finishing the rangefinders for Sidney's prompt, you received your essays back, which revealed that you once did not have as strong of grasp on poetry analysis as you do now. Some big tickets items for this prompt included the paradox, the apostrophe, the alliteration, the rhyme scheme and its shift, and the complex tone of the speaker. Remember, the speaker is at the center of each poem - and that is a way to tie in persona too. To end class, we looked at different types of feet (as in meter). Tomorrow will be more with meter, structure, and poetry styles. We will be attempting to do as much of the poetry packet as we can each day.

4: Upon a second close reading, many poetic elements appeared in Sidney's sonnet - alliteration, paradox, apostrophe, rhyme shifts, complex tones. With that in mind, we scored the rangefinders to find out what makes the prompt successful (and the main reason = speaker). At the end of the hour, we looked at the 5 type of feet, which means we will be practicing identifying feet tomorrow.

7: Same as second hour - except we still need to go over the meter activity together to see how you did with breaking words into syllables, figuring out the stressed components, and identifying each foot type. More to come with that poetry packet tomorrow!

Almost Donne

In all classes today, we wrapped up Donne's sonnets and all the forced rhymes, the motifs, the color symbolism, the alliteration, the progressing acceptance of his feelings regarding the death of his wife and his eventual end. Afterwards, we looked back at your Dragon box prompts, which were not as high quality as they could be. Ergo, we discussed what are the components of successful thesis statements, body paragraphs, and concluding statements to make your next box prompts much more successful. Very appropriate timing because you have 2 box prompts (Petrarch/Donne and Songs/Sonnets) that will be due Thursday. I have all those box prompt copies, so these are available if you happened to be out of class today.

2: In addition to Petrarch and Donne, we close read "Thou Blind Man's Mark," which revealed a plethora of literary elements to analyze for an essay: structure, anaphora, repetition, sonnet structure, apostrophe, paradox, and the pervasive accusatory, cacophonous (and a lot of other adjectives) alliteration. To conclude the hour, we began the analysis of the rangefinders, which will be completed next time around. So far, we have realized that a poet who rhymes in the sixteenth century did so to be popular, which I hope none of you try to replicate in your future analyses.

We're Still Not Donne! (Sorry)

Each class is currently a variation on the theme of Donne!

2: After analyzing the Songs and the Sonnets (minus the last one, which we will get to on Monday), you received the rangefinders for "The Blind Man" prompt, which you will need to assign a score. We will talk about the poem (which should be an easier read for you now) and the scoring before the great, big poetry packet will arrive!

4: We made it through all of those Songs, which means we started the close reading of the Sonnets! We will do our partner/group share of the sonnets and their structure, of course, on Monday. In addition, you have "The Blind Man" poetry prompt in your possession in order to help you remember the poem in order to score all of the rangefinders this weekend!

7: I'm typing this early today, so my prediction is that you will be in the same case as second hour with a few Sonnets left to analyze. For additional reading this weekend, you have the rangefinders for "The Blind Man" prompt, which you will need to score for Monday's class. 

Either Donne If You Do and Donne If You Don't

Just a quick recap of Wednesday's class for second and fourth hours: we had a lot of fun ending the Petrarch sonnets, looking at multiple translations of the same poem and how it informs the tone, imagery, motifs, and thematic presentation, concentrating on persona via Petrarch and Donne's VERY DIFFERENT speakers, reviewing Donne's biographical high and low points, and enjoying Donne's "The Flea" for all of its innuendos and direct salaciousness! At the end of class, you had group time to analyze a song in preparation for Thursday's class.

2 & 4: After our vocab quiz, we returned back to the Songs and looked at all of the literary elements, sound devices, and personas available (thankfully, forced rhyme made an appearance in both classes!). We will finish the songs tomorrow and then move into the sonnets portion.

7: After our vocab quiz, you worked in groups to analyze the Songs and then share with the class. Sonnets will most likely begin tomorrow.

7th Hour Donne

I don't think I have laughed so hard regarding Donne, his personas, his conceits, and his way of writing about "pests" than I have today during seventh hour. I look forward to hearing what you next to have say with his remaining songs!

In regards to seventh hour only, we started with a vocab review, which means the last vocab quiz of the semester will be next time around. And don't worry if you need to add more words to your daily vernacular - after Donne and a few "little things," we have a whole poetry packet of terms to memorize! In the analysis portion of the show, we finished our sonnet analysis of Petrarch and looked at how 2 translations of the same poem can adjust the tone, imagery, and perspective, Lady! Next, we looked at persona, the speaker's character via Petrarch's "Fame" selection and Donne's "Indifferent" example. Obviously, there is quite a juxtaposition here. After going over all of Donne's biographical fun facts, we read "The Flea" and looked at this persona as well. For homework, you have one of the songs to analyze. If you were absent, you have "The Paradox" as your selection. Make sure that beyond the close reading of the song that you also describe the persona.

A Little Team Promotion

As you may know, I am the coach of the Scholar Quiz team, our competitive trivia team that travels to schools across St. Charles County. We have been fortunate to win the Holt Invitational, win Districts for the past two years, and have competitive Sectional matches. Since the Scholar Quiz team is an extracurricular, I do not want to hijack the class or try to “sell” it to any of you or make it seem that being part of the team will influence your AP class standing whatsoever. However, some of you may not know about our team and would like a little background information.

So, if you are looking to add something to your college resume, improve your knowledge for a multitude of AP classes, work with a supportive team, compete with other schools, meet many other students from our area, and earn a letter, stick around for a bit more details regarding the team.

On the other hand, if you have a packed schedule and do not have interest in joining our extracurricular, thank you for taking the time to read the introductory paragraphs and considering any involvement.

The Scholar Quiz team is currently looking for team members to join Varsity, JV, and Novice levels. Those who join the team can have strengths in academia (literature, science, math, history), current events, pop culture, sports, or fun facts. Even if you are not an “expert,” you can become one by working with the Scholar Quiz team. Plus, you have a lot of literature knowledge that our Varsity teams need!

The time commitment is quite manageable for whatever your commitment would be to the team. So if you want to be a full time member or part time member, there are opportunities to be part of our competitive team. During a regular week, we have Trivia Lunches on C/D days (1/2 hour) and practice on Fridays (approx. 1 hour). We also have additional chances to prep and practice for competition in what I call “Random Acts of Trivia” that occur after school in ½ hour increments from time to time. For those thoroughly committed to the team, we do have bonus practices prior to big competitions.

Competitions run from late November until April. There are 6 competitions on Tuesdays (2 hours for 2 matches for players of all ability) and a minimum of 5 Saturday matches (full day and for the strongest players). If you sign up, you will communicate with the team your full availability – as in all – or if you will have a partial schedule.

If you are interested, stop by any of our trivia lunches or practices to check out the Scholar Quiz team. And if you would like to be an official teammate, pick up an availability form (it is a grandiose RSVP form) to clarify your availability for our upcoming competitions.

If you have any questions, please do ask me, our Captain Emily Sigmund, our Captain of Representative Leadership Lorraine Linson, or any team members. And, thank you for reading about our Scholar Quiz team. This is my tenth year coaching, and it has been the most rewarding experience for me to be part of such a close team (we still have our alumni showing up during the year) and to learn so much random facts like the Defenestration of Prague, the Great Emu War, or the Great Molasses Flood.

Petrarch Part III (almost Donne)!

Since you are already inundating me with puns, I thought I would start the pun party with this blog title! As noted in all classes today, the expectation of poetry analysis is to revolve your discussions and writings around structure, literary devices, and poetic devices. Paraphrasing the poem is not acceptable - especially as we further set up how to write essays for this genre.

2: After vocab experts, we made it through the analysis of the remaining sonnets and their motifs, tone shifts, voltas, alliteration, and other literary elements that create the octave, sestet, and theme. For homework, you are to compare the first sonnet on page 1 to the left sonnet on page 5. Yes, it is the same poem with 2 different translations! You are to highlight/circle/whatever form the differing words and jot down how these alterations adjust the poem's tone, meaning, whatever you want to bring up that does not involve paraphrasing! In addition, read the bios of Donne - I believe it's pages 11-13 and be ready to show off your newfound ethos next class.

4 & 7: We did not finish all of the sonnets of Petrarch. However, all the above listed for second hour is true for your class, so make sure you are prepared to finish our Petrarch work and transition to the world of Donne.

Petrarch Part II

What a benefit to having Chiara in AP Lit class this year as she studied Petrarch, Dante, and Boccaccio (the big 3 of Italian writing) in her native language - and spent a more considerable time studying each author's intricacies. As Chiara mentioned to fourth hour today, Petrarch's sonnets can be subdivided into 3 phases: the lovey-dovey infatuation of Laura's presence in his life, the bitter agony of his feelings after her premature passing, and the eventual acceptance and religious connectivity post-death. If you look back at our first 3 sonnets, you can probably figure out at what point of his infatuation that each was composed.

All classes (how refreshing) continued with vocab to begin the hour. Then, we broke into 3 groups (sonnet 2, sonnet 3, and overall Petrarch) to analyze the sonnets and their octaves, voltas, sestets, motifs, and the like. If absent, as always, you will need to show my your close reading/notes on these sonnets.

Homework-wise, there is a little differentiation on the hours:

2: All present have been assigned one of the remaining Petrarch poems for close reading. If you were absent, you are in charge of "Ne per sereno ciel ir vaghe stelle" for close reading (that would include structural concerns, lit elements, and anything else of importance to the sonnet). On Monday, all of you will be expected to elaborate upon your given sonnet.

4 & 7: All present have been assigned two remaining Petrarch poems for close reading. If you were absent, you will need to close read these two: "L'altro et novo miracol ch'a' di'nostri" and "Ne per sereno ciel ir vaghe stelle." As your Petrarch packet is quite portable, it should not be an issue to have all the structural and literary term analysis ready for Monday's class.

The Petrarchan Sonnet

Well, if you missed today's class, you missed out on all the technical components of Petrarchan Sonnets, how to break down a sonnet for structure and probable analysis opportunities, and how iambic pentameter works in a poem. In all of the classes, we read the first Petrarchan poem on pg. 1 for its literary elements, diction, tone, and theme. Then, we looked at the structure of his sonnets via "The Cross of Snow" (yes, it is an American poem, but we are at the mercy of translations for Petrarch!). Last, we returned back to the original poem to identify the Italian rhyme scheme (Grazie to Chiara for reading the poem for us in the way it is meant to be heard!) and determine how the octave and sestet operate.

For tomorrow, you are to close read the second and third poems - you can break down the structure, the diction, the tone, the shifts, the literary elements, the overlapping habits of Petrarch in his sonnets!

All Those Free Responses

We had a bit of a transition day leading into poetry, which all of you seemed fine to do. We started off with your portfolios and your free response and New Historicist essays now held within its covers. Then, we started our Vocab Unit 4 and played a spirited round of Last Person Standing. To end, you have the Petrarch/Donne packet in your possession with the assignment to bring it back tomorrow and not lose it over the course of this introduction to poetry.

Let the Poetry Begin!

We're starting the next part of the AP Literature exam, and it is the poetry prompt! For some reason or another, many a student dreads poetry and querulously declares lack of understanding, its complicated syntax, or impatience to focus on language and not those big ticket items of character, conflict, setting, and plot. Poetry is a completely different beast from prose - and the way to mastering it all starts with patience. Yes, a "p" word that you know I don't have ready at will, but one that comes in handy with poetry.

Why does poetry "freak out" readers? Most likely, the cause stems from poetry's use of inversion to create meter and sound effects. At times, the subject is buried several words into a clause with all the descriptors, verbs, or objects mucking up standard sentence order. Solution? When diving into the poetic phrase, reorder the sentences into standard subject-verb-direct object form to understand meaning. Once you have meaning, you have theme and then all the other connective elements that make poetry beautiful.

How to approach the device issue? As with prose, poetry is still full of motifs, figurative language, paradoxes (a favorite of the AP Lit prompts for sure), and other common literary elements that were featured in our previous readings. (And, of course, there are always diction and tone shift to help with analysis.) However, if you want to boost up your poetic interpretation, you might want to go to poetic type, structure of stanzas, meter usage, sound patterns, and those quirky enjambments and caesuras. Look at all the poetry "stuff" that will be littering your brain for the next month (I guess, months) to come!

This has become an utter babble today! Overall, the main message is some of you will be strong at certain aspects of poetry and some of you will stick with the old standbys because it is not your favorite genre to pursue. In any circumstance, the plaintive "I don't know" or "I don't understand" are not phrases acceptable because on the AP exam, you have to connect to something and build an essay around it.

If you were absent today, you have the diagnostic poetry prompt to do. This is a 45 minute spectacle that can be made up in study hall (best choice), after school (second choice), or during class (if only option).

Tomorrow will start up Vocab Unit 4. I hate to disappoint my vernacular-lovers, but this is our last vocab unit for this semester. Gasp! We'll do 4 more in the spring. With all of the poetry terms about to infiltrate your lives, you will need your brain power on that memorization!

End of Quarter!

When you wake up in the morning and flip on the television to watch Princess Eugenie's wedding and you see that see is wearing the extraordinary Peter Pilotto and the best shoe designer ever (I do have opinions on some things), Charlotte Olympia, the hope for an engaging Friday become that much greater!

In all classes today, we copied down the next vocab unit and played class card games. Unsurprisingly, the struggle with poetry terms was greater than prose, which makes sense since we will be starting our poetry work next week!

New Historicist essays should be in my possession by 3:45 p.m. as this will be the last major grade of the quarter and the final assessment for our Anglo-Saxon, epic poetry, and prose work, or everything we worked on first quarter.

Peer Eval Day

In groups of 3 (or maybe 2 if we have awkward division), you audibly and visually peer evaluated the New Historicist essays for the entire hour. If you were absent, you missed out on the opportunity to have feedback from your class. While that may or may not be a determent, you still have the final draft in hard copy form due by 3:45 p.m. on Friday.

Our Friday's class is going to be a little low maintenance with a hodgepodge of activities going on, which seems like something appropriate for the last day of the quarter. Poetry will dominate our next few weeks of class with Petrarch, Donne, and Shakespeare leading the way. In addition, we will start MC work soon to practice close reading skills (as always) and MC strategies for that portion of the exam.

"I'm a boulder! I'm a tree!"

Kudos to our winning interpretations of Grendel from seventh and second hours. In seventh hour, we witnessed an unconventional therapy session between Grendel and his "patient" Unwerth, who had a bit of a chip on his shoulder regarding apples. In second hour, we had Grace becoming a boulder and a tree to take down that poor, determined goat. Hopefully, these will be memorable showcases of the novel and inspiration to write your first draft of the New Historicist essay for Thursday's class.

Beyond live-action staging, we also talked about MLA format, the Works Cited Page, and citations in the essay - all in preparations for the aforementioned first draft.

Fourth Hour Acting Awards

Well, fourth hour definitely started off the dramatic interpretations of Grendel with creativity, props, and inadvertently bringing a principal into the concluding scene. Awards-wise, we have to celebrate the best usage of props by Morgan & Bailey. Who knew a sweet-looking goat had so much paper confetti bursting from its confines? And, how heartbreaking to see it torn in half as Grendel finishes his rock-throwing contest. For most dramatic acting in a scene, we have Alaina and Rachel's Beowulf and Grendel showdown involving a lot of sword play and screaming in utter sadness and abandonment. And, the winner for most creative skit, the one with props, acting ability, and flinging of doors into unsuspecting hallway dwellers, would be Sierra and Caleb. Taking a creative approach, they strayed from the given text and, instead, brought the ideas of miscommunication, hero-worship, and apple-throwing in creative dialogue and diction (Dude) and physical action. Kudos to you all!

Grendel in Acts 6-12

Since we are now acting out Grendel's final chapters, it makes sense to consider this text in acts like a play. All classes are in the midst of prepping for performance or performing scenes from Gardner's interpretation of Grendel as his kismet leads closer to Beowulf (ever notice how Grendel is just as much in awe of the B-man as the majority of humanity?).

Since I have checked outlines for the New Historicist essay, that means the first draft is next on the docket, due for Thursday's class as a Google doc for peer review. On the block day, we will go over the Works Cited page and recap MLA format so that you may put the final touches on your first draft - and do so correctly! The due date for the final draft of the essay is Friday at 3:45 p.m. Hard copy only unless absent for the entire day (with expectation of digital sharing by the given time). This is the last major grade & assignment for first quarter, so the completion of this essay - whatever its state - is mandatory if you want to maintain or raise your overall grade.

2: Groups have a chapter and the hour focused on clarifying 5 observations (with evidence and analysis, of course) from the given chapter and deciding on the most important scene in the chapter and prepping a performance of it for next class. For the absent students, you have chapter 12, which means you need to have observations and ideas for a performance ready to go for next class. While groups were deeply concentrating on Grendel and his cohorts, I checked your essay outlines to make sure you were on the proper track for the essay. 

4: I'm typing this up prior to class today, so this should, for the most part, be accurate of all the dramatic happenings. First, I checked your essay outlines while you finished your last minute performance preparations. There happens to be a prop already in my room for your class, so I'm assuming that will involve a dramatic reenactment of Grendel's "conflict" with Unferth or another mere human. The class completed the performance portion first and then jumped into the observations from each chapter. Whatever was not completed today will be on Wednesday.

7: We started off class talking about the Dragon and his role in Chapter 5, which was our last old-fashioned discussion of the novel's proceedings. Then, for the remainder of the hour, you worked with your group to prepare 5 observations on a chapter and the plans for a performance of the most significant scene of the chapter. Depending on how much time the aforementioned items occurred in class, we may or may not have prep time on the block day. If absent, you will be added to a group next class, so if you are up-to-date on your reading and notes, you should be fine. However, you will be jumping into the fray very quickly! While prep timed was going on, I checked your essay outlines, which should be the guiding force in your essay.

Outlining

For all classes, you have the outline for your New Historicist critical essay due on Monday.

Meanwhile...

2: You heard all about the essay assignment, the sample essay, and the outline. Then, we had a discussion of brevity regarding Chapter 5 and the dragon (imaginary? father figure? mentor? unhinged elder?).

4: You had all of the class to prep for your partner chapters and the observations and performances that will occur on Monday.

7: We continued talking about the essay assignment by looking at a sample and the outline procedure. Due to seventh hour assembly schedule, we shelved any Grendel discussion for Monday, which means we will have a lot to do that day.

Box Grendel

If for some reason you have missed the box prompt from any hour, you will have 48 hours to take this assessment or schedule a time to do so.

2: The box prompt began the class and, with its 40 minute timing, filled the majority of the class. At the end of the hour, you had in your possession the New Historicist essay assignment, a sample essay, and an outline for the essay. Bring all of that back tomorrow - we will be looking at these elements and then returning back to Grendel analysis, which means you need to finish the novel for tomorrow's class. It's the last reading assignment of the quarter, so you might as well finish it up now and not have that worry over the weekend. 

4: After perusing a sample essay and how to outline the New Historicist essay, you are to complete your essay's outline for Monday's class. Meanwhile in the land of the dragon (if he's there or not), we discussed the role of this patriarchal/father figure/mentor/multiple personality/elder dragon that influences Grendel and his mentality towards life, human interaction, and time. To wrap up the hour, partners chose what chapter they will be creating 5 observational points for and a scene performance.

7: The box prompt was the majority of the class, and the end of the hour gave you a sample New Historicist essay and an outline form -- to bring back tomorrow for chatting purposes. You will also need to finish Grendel, finding out his outcome, which should not be a surprise from your previous Anglo-Saxon readings. 

Baby Grendel Meets the World

2 &7: We added to our Anglo-Saxon ideologies list for The Iliad and the Wife's Lament and then spent a nice time analyzing the first 4 chapters of Grendel. At the end of class, we talked about New Historicism Criticism and how that will tie in with our Anglo-Saxon studies. More to come regarding the lens and future essay! For next class, read Grendel 5-7.

4: A surprise to start today's class, a box prompt to complete to practice our analysis and how to convey it is a pseudo-essay form. Afterwards, we discussed New Historicism and the overview of the essay you will be writing in this lens for the Anglo-Saxons. For next class, read Grendel 8-12, the end.

The Wife

2: After finishing up our Gilgamesh groups, we identified what Anglo-Saxon qualities are found in the text. Then, we had our Vocab Quiz 3, which will then commence our moratorium from vocab to wrap up our Anglo-Saxon texts. Following the quiz, we had Iliad groups to analyze those epic similes, character decisions, heroic actions, and tones. For reading, you have The Wife's Lament and Grendel Chapters 1-4 for next class.

4: We covered the analysis of The Wife's Lament and Grendel chapters 1-4 today. That means Grendel 5-7 for next time.

7: We wrapped up that egotistical Gilgamesh's quest with our group discussion, which focused on Enkidu, Humbaba, epic similes, and overall motifs and Anglo-Saxon ideologies. Continuing through Anglo-Saxon literature (or at least popular tales that would find their way to the British shores), we looked at The Iliad and its similes, character choices, gods and goddesses, and tones. We will work with The Wife's Lament tomorrow. In the meanwhile, you now have Grendel in your possession, and you have chapters 1-4 to prep for class.