The Translations

After finishing our look at The Iliad (well, at least in second hour), it becomes more clear that the voice of the translator (or the modern day scop) influences how we the audience judge the characters and their trials and tribulations. Take, our lovely Hector, the fawn, the one who should be a blip on the radar of Homer's works. In our translator's hands, we see him as just, humble, the man who should be victor on a morally basis alone. I find translations quite fascinating as how they impact our interpretations. Ergo (I almost put "hence," but I know Abby would be disappointed in me), we will have other opportunities to look at multiple translations throughout the course.

2: We actually finished everything on the agenda today! And, you now know why I am quite bothered by people who categorize Shakespeare as Old English! Today was the completion of vocab experts, which means review and quiz are forthcoming this week. We then finished our Gilgamesh groups, looking at epic similes and motifs floating through the forests of Humbaba's guard. Last, we delved into The Iliad, prompting my babbling at the beginning of this post. For homework, you have "The Wife's Lament" to close read (there are versions of this online, but we will be focusing on the translation that I gave you in class) and Chapters 1-4 of Grendel. You will definitely see a vacillation in voice with his telling of the tale.

6: We finished our vocab experts for unit 3 and our Beowulf discussion before jumping into Gilgamesh analysis, which we almost completed. For tomorrow, you will need to prep The Iliad excerpt in your textbook and chapters 1-4 of Grendel.

Heroes and Monsters Part II

2: After vocab experts, we finished up our Beowulf interaction with the post-battle Beowulf hubris and the harrowing journey to Mama Grendel for another fight that will be hyperbolized into a tall tale like his antics in the sea. Next, we turned to Gilgamesh, starting our discussion by analyzing the protagonist, his buddy, and his unfortunate victim, the tree-loving, "just doing his job" Humbaba. We will finish up our discussion of Gilgamesh and move into The Iliad selection from your textbook during next class. If you missed out on the Gilgamesh discussion from today, then be prepared to bring up something on Monday.

6: Since our class was in multiple locations today, we had a moratorium on epic literature. We will resume on Monday - and will be doing a lot of reading and analysis next week to catch up a bit.

Who is the Monster?

Even though we should be qualifying Grendel as the most monstrous figure in Beowulf, the descendant of Cain has a more sympathetic portrayal in our translation. Who becomes the monster? Perhaps many of you would place Beowulf in that category with his penchant of bragging, tall tales, gratuitous violence, and obsession with blood, gore, and glory.

Next time around we will finish up the remaining portions of Bewoulf, look at Life in 999, and analyze Gilgamesh.

Don't forget your essay is due by 2:30 p.m. on Friday - whether you are in class or not.

Peer Evaluating with the 6

The entire hour was dedicated to peer evaluating your free response essays under the new 1-6 scoring system. Now that you have feedback, you have the option of composing a second draft or maintaining its current structure. In either case, a draft of your free response essay is due by 2:30 p.m. on Friday.

Hello, 6

After vocab experts, we moved to a new realm of grading, where the 9 no longer exists, where the 6 is a combination of 3 components: the thesis (technical), the evidence/explanation (technical/artistic), the sophistication (artistic). We will put this into practice tomorrow with your free response first draft essay!

For the block day, you have a textbook now! And with that big green book, you will read all about our new buddies, the Anglo Saxons, on pages 4-17 and jot down notes regarding culture and history. Then, you will read all about your new hero, Beowulf, on pages 18-38 and take notes regarding what you notice for analysis.

A Real 9

For our last foray into 9 grading, we read the rangefinders for the free response prompt and found out how important the setting and its historical, cultural, and social meanings are to an upper-level response (and don't forget to name-drop those lit elements).

With such impressive examples, that means only one thing on the horizon: writing your own free response prompt! Yes!

Here are the rules & regulations:

• Write an essay responding to the exact same prompt from the rangefinders. (That prompt is gold and can fit just about any text.)
• This shall be handwritten and considered a take-home "sort of timed" prompt.
• Do not have the book/play/text with you as you write (you can't cite anyway). You are welcome to review your text prior to writing, though.
• While you don't have to exactly time this essay, go for one hour or less in the writing process.
• Bring in essay for Tuesday's class for our peer evaluation -- with the new 1-6 system.

Meanwhile, second hour copied down vocab unit 3 to begin on Monday, and second hour started vocab experts for vocab unit 3.

And since we were talking about the environment, climate change, the lack of bird population, here are links to an NBC News story on how scientists in Iceland are attempting to circumvent carbon from complete contamination of the atmosphere Iceland Scientists and the concern of the Nightingale population moving towards endangerment, which would devastate my Keatsy The Nightingale. 

Speaking of my beloved Keatsy, yesterday was the 200th anniversary of his "Ode to Autumn," which Cora and I celebrated by reading outside. The majority of his works were composed and he met Fanny in 1819, so this 200 anniversary year is quite a magical one. 

The Free Response

We are wrapping up our 1-9 evaluation system and moving into the 1-6 scoring range for future essays, or unknown territory! At least we are all in this together!

2: We finished - yes, finished - the Chopin presentations! We shared our first book card! We overviewed the free response essay by looking at a prompt and having a set of rangefinders to evaluate for Friday's class.

6: Same as above, but we also copied down Vocab Unit 3, so we can start that on Friday as well.

Need a New Subject Line

In both classes, we have had the shocking tale of Desiree's Baby amongst our plethora of presentations, which are still in progress - but not for long! Presentations will end tomorrow, so if you happen to be one of the 10 people remaining, don't skip out and prolong our adjustment into the next phase of AP Lit.

Book cards are due tomorrow, so be ready to show and tell something of import from your work. These are your study guides for future essays and preparations for the AP Lit exam, so be thorough!

Still with Chopin

Kudos to the majority of you who are going in-depth with your analysis of the Chopin short stories, connections to her other works, and aligning Chopinesque qualities in other literary figures. Some of these short stories, ones that are fairly limited on the surface for literary elements, are now exploding with minute details building character, milieu, and theme. I am looking forward to the rest of the presentations - especially since all of you will have a lot of evidence with citations and fulfill the assignment's 7 requirements (hint).

Since we should - will? - finish these on the block day, have your book card prepared for that day. Following our Chopin work (yes, you will have to say goodbye to your book), we will be in teh world of free response essays and then the Anglo-Saxon realm of epic heroes.

At Least We Started Presentations

In both hours, we are in the midst of presentations with the objective of completing at least 5 on each A day and the remainder on the block day. These will not go on forever - even though with so many interruptions, who knows? Kudos to Megan M. for starting off our Chopin short story analysis today - even with a tornado drill in the midst of her thought process - should that have happened with Brendon's "Storm" analysis instead? - and still bringing insightful, thorough, and engaging observations on a short story normally brushed aside. I'm looking forward to all of your perspectives in the upcoming days!

The Count 2019

Congratulations to Rhyen for coming closest to the shoe count this year! While some of you definitely overshot the estimate (I probably should have mentioned that I have been cleaning out my shoe walls this summer), the number at this time (barring the pair that may have been lost in a fire at the shoe repair man) totals to 412.

Look Another 2 Days to Prepare!

Well, we didn't make it nearly as far as I imagined in my fantasy-world of fast-paced vocab quizzes, prompt meetings, book card assignments (second hour), and presentations. What does that mean? Friday will be full of whatever was mentioned and not attained in our given time limit, and that your presentations over Chopin's short stories should have more panache, specificity, evidence, and whatnot to score a higher evaluation.

The Eternal Swim

Some of you were quite flustered by The Awakening, so I can just imagine what the presentation of the short stories will be! Class revolved around individual topics regarding the end of the novella and its connection to the entire text. Ocean! Bird! Clothing (or lack thereof)!

We have lots to do tomorrow - vocab quiz, paper meetings, presentations! Oh my!

The Continuation of Edna and the Birthmark, Respectively

2: After reviewing our vocab for the upcoming quiz, we spent some quality time with Edna in the pigeon house and reviewing what an AP-level prompt would need to include to score in the upper echelon. Bring back your portfolio - decorated or not - for tomorrow's class, which will be one busy hodgepodge of finishing The Awakening with your solo points regarding the text's conclusion, the vocab quiz, the return of your prompts, and paper meetings (as needed).

6: After finishing our vocab experts (a day behind second hour), we then merged with second hour's agenda.

A Rob-in or A Robin

Oh, Edna, substituting your feelings of "love," or hair affection, with a lesser man that does not mean much to anyone, other than his obligatory "scamp" status deemed by our beloved doctor and his clear view of human nature. Today's class, after vocab work, was about chapters 23-31, or when Edna kind of confuses her need for the "light" with Robert and starts lollygagging about with Alcee Arobin. Now, you can pronounce that the French way, but I always like to break it down a little differently. It could be a rob-in, as in taking what is not yours, i.e. a brigand. Or, could it be a robin, another bird trapped in a some sort of gender role cage? In either circumstance, names are fun.

In class, specifically, we had groups take charge of chapters for analysis. If you were absent, prep for chapter 31, which you will be in charge of next class.

Completion of the Awakening is expected for Tuesday.

The Awakening of the Presentations Less Than a Week Away

In both classes, we continued forward with our individual close reads, which are either quite close to completion or finished, depending on your class size. In either circumstance, we will finish chapters 12-22 tomorrow to set up the new reading for Friday, which happens to be chapters 23-31. Monday will be any leftover analysis from the aforementioned chapters, the return of your prompts with reminders and brief meetings, and some time to formulate more of your presentations, not that you don't have all of your readings, materials, and notes ready to go. Tuesday will be the last day of the Awakening, so the novella needs to be read and noted by that time.

In regards to the presentation, those 7 bullet points are the required areas of analysis. You may choose to do those 7 areas in the order given or mix and match into an order that better fits your story and presentation style.

With all of the analysis, evidence identification, and overall characterization of Edna and her fellow cast throughout our class discussion, group discussion, individual close reads, you should very comfortable with your abilities to formulate a literary analysis. You are surrounded by a like-minded, encouraging classmates that are (I would hope) looking forward to hearing more about Chopin and her other tales and less about Edna at this point!

The Close Reads Continue

So far, we have seen a move in our close reads to a new milieu (hello, New Orleans), a lack of familiar characters (bye bye Robert), a continual back and forth of frustration (yep, Edna and her awakening, or semi-awakening, or troubled sleeping patterns)., and wait, wait, wait - zeugma in the form of bit/biting!

We will attempt to finish the close reads tomorrow with anything remaining on Friday's class. Since you have not had any reading assignments lately, I hope you have taken the chance to work on your short story and presentation, which is right around the corner, once we have finished The Awakening. The chapters are short, so you know it's not too far away.

And while I was hearing another brilliant guitar solo by John Mayer last night, I started connecting the lyrics of "Gravity" to our dear Edna, especially with the emphasis of "light" that seems to have left Edna now in her time of loneliness and Robertlessness (new word). I don't know what it is about Edna, but her story, Chopin's overwhelming motif usage, and the constant play of the word "awakening" sure bespeaks to a great deal of other artistic forms: Gravity by John Mayer.

Individual Close Reads

At this point, we are all in process of vocab unit 2 and the individual close reads for chapters 12-22, which will continue for the next couple days (according to class size, length of close reads, and further volunteer participation following each one - keep at it!). Since that will be filling our school hours, it only makes sense to be working on your short story and your eventual presentation regarding Chopin and her writing at home.