Reading Strategy: Sentence Starters

Sentence starters get you thinking more deeply about the text. Use these in your discussion of literature to get below the surface and make interpretations:

I wonder...
I began to think of...
I like the idea...
I know the feeling...
I noticed...
I was surprised...
If I had been...
I was reminded of...

TIPS
*If you get writer's block when writing/brainstorming/thinking/talking about literature, here are some things to think about:

Feelings (boring, sad, exciting, weird)
Questions (I wonder why the author put in certain parts....)
Images (pictures in the mind, sensory responses)
Favorite (or detested) words and phrases
Echoes (of other books, movies, television shows, headlines, songs, poems)
Reaction to characters or events (I can't believe the soldiers are smiling...)
Memories (people, events, places you've known)
Connections (to other ideas, people, feelings, books)

HW Due Monday, April 27

Complete your Critical Lens essay and study for Monday's test. Outline must be submitted with essay, stapled.

HW Due Friday, April 24

Complete your outline for the critical lens essay. Use the format you copied in class.

Critical Lens Quote: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

REMINDER: The two books you write about for this essay must be Animal Farm and either 1984 or The Lord of the Flies.

REMINDER

Independent reading for the Animal Farm unit is due this Friday. We will be writing two Regents task essays for which you will need to recall information from both texts. You will also need to tell how the literary elements used by the author develop the theme(s) presented in the novels.

Your choices for these essays are as follows:
Animal Farm and 1984
or
Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies

*No exceptions will be made. No extension requests will be honored.

Spring Break Assignment

Read and annotate Chapters 8, 9, & 10 of Animal Farm (on post-its)

Annotation Focus: plot, conflict, allegory, satire, dramatic irony, verbal irony, situational irony, satire, mood, tone, theme, foreshadowing

*Independent reading with annotation (on post-its)is due Friday, April 24. You will not earn credit for notes taken in your notebook or on a separate sheet of paper. I strongly suggest finishing your reading of 1984 or Lord of the Flies over the break. That way, you will be fully prepared to write your two Regents Task essays at the end of the unit (see unit calendar for details).

Tip: If you've already read one of these books, read the other one, for your own sake! They are both great stories, and if we had more time, we would have read all three books together!! The more you read, the more stories you'll be able to choose from to write about on the Regents, which you will take next January.

Another Tip: The Animal Farm unit closes with one Critical Lens essay, and one Controlling Idea essay. You are very familiar with both, and I expect that all of you will do a superstar job of them. Remember that you need to be able to discuss a wide range of literary elements while proving your thesis for BOTH types of essays. When annotating, focus on HOW the literary elements DEVELOP themes of power, rebellion, and control (do not just say that the author uses them because no one will care). You will have to use quotes, paraphrase sections of the text, and cite page numbers for reference. If you do a good job of annotating, then the essays will be both easy breezy and as delicious as pudding pie.

Homework Due Friday, April 3, 2009

Complete the 10 questions and the lettered questions on the question sheet.

HW Due Wednesday, April 1

Complete the worksheet on CHARACTERIZATION

Reminders:
- Independent reading with annotation (on post-its) is due Friday,
April 24th. Animal Farm notes will be checked regularly.

- Bollywood Banquet this Thursday!

HW 3/18/2009 / Period 7

Finish reading the Wilde's Importance of Being Earnest. To get a head start on this weekend's homework, work on your outline for the critical review we started in class. We will be working on this outline in class Friday, but anything you do not finish will be due on Monday. Get started so that you can run around in the sun on Saturday and Sunday!!!

HW 3/16/2009

Period 7 Homework: Read The Importance of Being Earnest / pages 20-40.

Period 8 Homework: Read The Importance of Being Earnest / pages 1-20.


Always be ready for reading check quizzes!!!!

HW Due Tuesday, March 10

Read Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan. Answer the following five questions (classwork) and then write a one page report that expresses Thomas Hobbes' ideas about science and self.

Leviathan
Thomas Hobbes

1. How has “nature made men roughly equal in body and mind”?

2. How does this equality contribute to our making enemies?

3. Should men be kept in a state of fear, according to the author’s opinion? What does this mean?

4. How do the ideas presented in this essay relate to the literature we have read/are reading?

5. Find statements that emphasize Hobbes’ idea that predatory passions drive both human nature and society.