Friday, December 17

Students were reminded of the Outside Reading Essay due January 7 (the week we return from the break).

Students were given the option of reading in their outside reading books or competing in the Transcendental Drawing Contest, the subject of thir artworks to be one of the following:

The Transparent Eyeball
Occult Relations Between Man and the Vegetable
Double Rainbow

HW due Friday, January 7:
Outside Reading paper (see Documents page).

Thursday, December 15

Students turned in the vocabulary assignment with words from Walden.

We reviewed and extended our understanding of Transcendentalist beliefs in the active (even creative) nature of perception, looking at Emerson's explanation of Transcendental forms in the mind as asserted by Immanuel Kant. We also looked at analogs to Transcendentalism today, and watched HungryBear9562's viral "Double Rainbow" video, and at his answer to his own question: "Oh my God, what does this mean?" ("The rainbow was the Universe or Spirit flowing through me . . ." -- echoing Emerson's "The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me.")

Wednesday, December 15

We resumed our reading from Emerson's Nature, focusing on The Transparent Eyeball and Occult Relations Between Man and the Vegetable.

Tuesday, December 14

Before resuming our reading from Emerson's essay "Nature," we explored what we mean by that word by breaking into small groups, brainstorming, writing definitions, and then reporting back to the class as a whole. After that we read further in the essay, trying to reach the notorious "transparent eyeball" -- succeeding in some sections, failing in others.

HW due Thursday:
Vocabulary assignment with "Words to Own" from Thoreau's Walden (pp. 234-44 in the textbook). For each of the ten words you are to supply
(1) the original sentence containing the word;
(2) a definition;
(3) a real-world example of the word in use in the relevant meaning; and
(4) a sentence of your own composition using the word in such a way as to demonstrate its meaning.

Monday, December 13

Students took a ten-question quiz over the weekend's reading assignment, "The American Renaissance," pp.206-14 in the textbook.

Afterwards we looked briefly at the roots of Transcendentalism, then began our reading of the excerpts in the textbook from Emerson's essay "Nature."

Friday, December 10

From the SAT question of the day, concerned in part with parallel construction, we went on to correcting examples of faulty parallelism from the essays returned yesterday.

HW due Monday:
Quiz over pp. 206-14 in the textbook ("The American Renaissance").

Thursday, December 9

Students received back their slavery essays, and we critiqued in detail some sample introductory paragraphs, some better than others.

Mr. P postponed the reading and quiz originally slated for tomorrow to Monday, and assigned for tomorrow corrections to the returned essays.

HW due Friday:
Follow the instructions at the bottom of the sheet of Proofreading and Editing Marks, numbering on the essay passages to be corrected and rewriting on a separate sheet only as much as necessary to address the problems, keying the corrections by number to the essay.

HW due Monday:
"The American Renaissance," pp. 206-214 in the textbook. Quiz over it in class.

Wednesday, December 8

We looked at students imitations of Hiawatha addressing what makes Hiawatha a Romantic poem and discussed the question. Next we read "Hiawatha's Childhood" aloud, then proceeded to another famous trochaic-meter American poem of the mid-19th century, Poe's "The Raven."

HW due Friday:
Read "The American Renaissance" on pp. 206-214 of the textbook and prepare for a quiz over it.

Monday, December 6/Tuesday, December 7

Students turned in their Hiawatha imitations defining what is Romantic (capital R) about the poem.

Students then wrote for ten minutes on what they thought Longfellow's attitude toward Indians was, in compasrison to European-Americans. We then discussed their answers, reading parts of the poem, including a passage from a section which they had not previously read.

Friday, December 3

We looked at students' homework assignments -- at least ten lines of verse in imitation of Hiawatha answering the question "What makes Hiawatha a Romantic poem?" Many students had struggled with the assignment, so Mr. P stamped the homework and allowed students to redo (or do) the assignment and turn it in Monday (Tuesday, for 4th period). Students whose HW is stamped will receive 5 points extra credit.

We explored farther what the Hiawatha meter which students are asked to imitate comes down to, and looked at an example of a successful imitation, Lewis Carroll's "Hiawatha's Photographing."

Students also received a further handout, with the ending of Hiawatha and a sheet from the National Endowment for the Arts which discusses the poem as a whole.

HW due Monday/Tuesday:
Redo today's assignment if you wish.
Read the new handout and come prepared to answer questions about it.

Thursday, December 2

Students received a handout of terminology used in analysing and discussing poetry and another handout with excerpts from Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha. We read the very beginning of Hiawatha and after reviewing how to scan a poem's meter, and practicing by scanning our own names, we set about determining the meter of the Hiawatha.

HW due Friday:
Read the Hiawatha handout and write an answer to the following question: What makes Hiawatha a Romantic (capital R) poem. Your answer must be in the style of Hiawatha -- you are to write at least ten lines of verse with the same meter and other poetic characteristics.

Wednesday, December 1

Preparatory to reading part of Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha, we reviewed certain basics of poetic rhythm and meter, then tested students' sensitivity to rhythm in poetry with a competition to see who could identify the most nursery rhymes from their rhythms alone.

Tuesday, November 30

We looked at more examples of Classical and Neoclassical architecture, then students took notes on a slideshow summary of essential characteristics of American Literature in the "Age of Reason: 1740-1800)." Afterwards we began to discuss ways in which this period and the Romantic Period which followed it were similar and the ways in which they were different.

Monday, November 29

Students took a 10-question, 30-point quiz over "American Romanticism" (pp. 138-50 in our textbook).

Afterwards we examined the Romantic Period in its relationship to the (Neo-)Classic Period (aka the Enightenment or the Age of Reason), focusing specially on architecture in its Neoclassical and Gothic styles. We looked at images of Neoclassical (e.g. Monticello) and Gothic and Gothic Revival (e.g. Suzzallo Library) buildings.

Wednesday, November 24

The quiz over the introduction to "American Romanticism" (pp. 138-50 in our textbook) has been postponed by the snow until Monday, but the assignment for the long weekend remains the same: read farther in your outside reading book -- or better yet, finish it!

Friday, November 19/Monday, November 22

Students took a quiz over the No Excuses Conventions.

We prepared for the new unit on the Romantic period in American literature by exploring the history of thr words romance and romantic, tracing them back to their origin in Roman.

HW due Monday (4th period):
Quiz over No Excuses Conventions

HW due Tuesday/Wednesday:
Read pp. 138-50 on "American Romanticism" in the textbook. Quiz over it to begin class.

Thursday, November 18

We briefly reviewed the No Excuses Conventions sheet, over which there will be a quiz tomorrow (Monday for 4th period).

We explored further the shift in outlook which characterized the writers of the Revolutionary period -- the Age of Reason, as Thomas Paine and others called it, or the Enlightenment, when reason trumped faith for many intellectuals. Students received another handout with quotations regarding religion from several of the Founding Fathers: Paine, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, and we discussed their views in the context of the religious "disputations" of the time.

HW due Friday/Monday (half day schedule in effect Friday-Wednesday):
Quiz in class over the No Excuses Conventions.

HW due Tuesday/Wednesday:
Read the introduction to "American Romanticism" on pages 138-50 of the textbook. The will be a quiz over it in class.

Wednesday, November 17

Students answered five questions about the excerpts from Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, and we discussed Franklin's outlook largely by comparing it with that of Jonathan Edwards, a figure as representative of his Colonial era as Franklin was of the Revolutionary period. Franklin's this-worldly, rationalist approach, stressing the primacy of human activity, was contrasted with the God-, Faith-, and Grace-centered outlook of Edwards.

Students received and read a handout with quotations from Franklin further clarifying his religious views.

Tuesday, November 16

Mr. P read aloud the excerpts in our textbook from Jonathan Edwards's famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" while students read along and took notes on metaphors in the sermon, after which we identified the central (and not-so central) metaphors Edwards uses, and explored how they relate to each other.

HW due Wednesday:
Read excerpts from Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, pp. 86-94 in the textbook, and come prepared to answer questions over the reading.

Monday, November 15

We read the letter by a freedman (Jourdan Anderson) to his former master (pp. 194 ff. in our edition of Frederick Douglass's Narrative), the ndiscussed its rhetorical strategies, especially its sophisticated us of verbal irony, and we briefly looked at other types of figurative language.

Friday, November 12

We finished watching A Class Divided and discussed it very briefly.

Mr. P introduced the four main outside reading options and students signed out books of their choice.

HW: Start reading your outside reading book!

Tuesday, November 9

Students submitted all parts of their persuasive essays on the abolition of slavery.

In most sections students took a "race literacy test" from California Newsreel to survey what they knew about the subject, after which we began to look at the answers. Based on modern genetic science, the quiz suggests that race does not exist as a biological fact, and that it is instead socially created.

Wednesday:
Students will watch a documentary film entitled A Class Divided, about Jane Elliott's famous educational experiment in discrimination.

Monday, November 8

We reviewed the MLA guidelines for citation of sources (necessary for the essay due tomorrow) and the procedures for submitting papers to turnitin.com. Students received the turnitin Student Quickstart Guide as a handout and filled in a worksheet pertaining to MLA format and turnitin.com.

HW due Tuesday:
Final draft of the slavery essay, along with:
websearch worksheet
formal outline
first draft
peer edit sheet

Friday, November 5

Students helped each other improve their slavery essays by reading each other's rough drafts, writing comments on them, answering questions about them on a peer editing worksheet, discussing this feedback with each other, and recording detailed comments about planned improvements in the final draft, due Tuesday.

HW due Tuesday:
Final draft of the persuasive essay on slavery along with all paperwork from earlier stages.

Thursday, November 4


Students received a handout (see Documents page) concerning the integration of quotations into the text of their essays.  We reviewed three methods for integrating quotations, then practiced each by filling in the exercise on the back of the sheet.  At the end of the class we briefly reviewed the peer editing sheet students will use in class on Friday in commenting on other students' rough drafts. (See Documents page for peer edit sheet.)


HW due Friday:
Complete first draft of the slavery essay.


HW due Tuesday:
Final draft with all parts of the project.

Wednesday, November 3

The Great Debate!

HW due Friday:
First draft of the slavery essay.

Tuesday, November 2

Mr. P announced a change in the deadlines for the slavery essay.  The first and final drafts will both be due one day later than originally announced, the first draft now being due Friday (11/5) rather than Thursday, and the final draft (along with all earlier pieces) being due next Tuesday (11/9) rather than Monday.

Students received stamps on their typed formal outlines.  They are to be turned in on the ninth with the final draft; outlines without a stamp will lose 25% credit.

We divided the class between supporters and opponents of the abolition reolution (opponents and supporters of slavery) and divided each side into groups of three or four to prepare for tomorrow's debate.  Students used a printed notesheet (also due 11/9) to come up with their strongest arguments and to brainstorm possible rebuttals to anticipate (and prepare to refute) from the other side.

HW due Wednesday:
Prepare for the Great Debate.

HW due Friday:
Complete rough draft of the persuasive essay on slavery.

Monday, November 1

Students received back their thesis statements from Friday with comments.  They are to be revised and included in the typed formal outlines due tomorrow.  We reviewed expectations for the outline and for the essay, including the requirement that each essay's thesis statement appear at the end of the first paragraph, whatever strategy that paragraph may otherwise employ.

Mr. P added to the requirements for the essay the stipulation that at least one of the (minimum of three) quotations be from Frederick Douglass's Narrative.
Students also received a handout of excerpts from John C. Calhoun's 1837 speech in the U.S. Senate, "Slavery a Positive Good,"  and we reviewed the doctrine of States' Rights which underlay Calhoun's insistence that the Senate had no business even considering the question of abolition.

HW due Tuesday:
Formal typed outline of the essay on slavery. (See essay assignment sheet and the handout on outlining, both available on the Documents page of room301.org).

Friday, October 29

Mr. P announced a minor change in the schedule of deadlines for the slavery essay: the formal outline will be due next Tuesday (11/2), rather than Monday.  To assist in writing those outlines, Mr. P distributed a hanout on outlining, to be read by Monday.

Students submitted their typed thesis statements, and we put some under the document camera and critiqued them (using primarily anaonymous examples from other classes).

HW due Monday:
Read the handout on outlining.

HW due Tuesday:
Typed formal outline

Thursday, October 28

Students turned in their vocabulary assignments for the second half of  Fred. D. and took a "not too scary" quiz over some of the words.

Students were then given copies of a speech (or more accurately excerpts from a speech) given by James H. Hammond to the United States Senate in 1858 elaborating his "Mud-sill Theory," telling the Northern elites that slavery was eternal, that they had their own slaves (in fact if not in name), and that they had best leave the South alone.  We discussed the different kinds of arguments contained in the speech.

Finally, Mr. P briefly went over what he expects in the typed thesis statements to be turned in Friday: a distillation of the central idea of your essay (as you see it now), making clear whether you support or oppose the resolution to abolish slavery, and why, in one sentence or at the most two.

HW due Friday:
Typed thesis statement

HW due Monday:
Typed formal outline 

Wednesday, October 27

Students recorded concrete details from Chapter XI and the Appendix of Frederick D's Narrative, and we moved from that to a discussion of the Appendix's function as a defense against the charge that Douglass was hostile to religion.  Douglass, like most abolitionists, believed in fact that true religion condemned slavery and that God was on the side of the slaves and their allies.

To aid in marshalling arguments for the persuasive paper, students received a handout summarizing religious arguments both for and against slavery, and we focused on the latter (having already looked at the former).  Finally, we examined "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" as a document of militant Christian abolitionism: "As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free."

HW due Thursday:
Vocabulary assignment and vocabulary quiz.

HW due Friday:
Typed thesis statement for persuasive essay on slavery.

Tuesday, October 26

Kill a Tree Day

Students received:
(1) a schedule of deadlines for stages of the slavery essay (see Documents page);
(2) an assignment sheet for the Outside Reading requirement (see Documents page);
and
(3) a handout with excerpts from the proslaveryt writings of George Fitzhugh.
We went over (1) and (2) and began to discuss (3).

HW due Wednesday:
Read the Appendix to Frederick Douglass's Narrative (i.e., finish the book).

HW due Thursday:
Vocabulary assignment and vocabulary quiz

HW due Friday:
Typed thesis statement for persuasive essay on slavery.

Monday, October 25

After students recorded CD's from Chapters IX and X of Frederick Douglass's Narrative, we focused briefly on Douglass's attitude toward religion and less briefly on his rebellion against Mr. Covey and on slave rebelliousness in general, questioning whether white Southerners believed the slaves to be be happy children or bloody-minded revolutionaries threatening to rise up and destroy the white race.

HW due Tuesday:
Read Chapter XI

HW due Wednesday:
Read Appendix

HW due Thursday:
Vocabulary assignment, part two and vocabulary quiz.

Friday, October 22

Students received an assignment sheet detailing requirements for an argumentative essay on slavery due Monday, November 5 (see Documents page).  We went over the sheet and Mr. P answered student questions about it.

Mr P then distributed the recent vocabulary quiz, one side of which had been graded, and we graded the other side together.  Students had an opportunity to see how they had done on the quiz, after which they handed it back in.

HW due Monday:
Read Chapters IX and X and work on the vocabulary words.

Thursday, October 21
Mr. P announced changes in the second half of the vocabulary assignment, namely that the due date is postponed from Tuesday to next Thursday and that students will not be required to supply a "real world" example of each word in use.

Students turned in the websearch worksheet on arguments in defense of slavery.

Students supplied concrete details from Chapters VII and VIII of Frederick Douglass's Narrative, after which we discussed how Douglass came to rebel against slavery.  All classes agreed that learning to read was a vital factor,  We then examined closely one piece Douglass read which influenced him deeply, the dialogue between a master and a slave which he found in the Columbian Orator. 

HW due Friday:
Read Frederick Douglass Chapter IX (short).
HW due Monday:
Read Chapter X (long).
Students should do the vocabulary work as they do the reading.

Wednesday, October 20

Students turned in their vocabulary assignments for the first eight chapters of Frederick Douglass's Narrative and took a quiz over the assigned words.

We spent the rest of the period sharing information and sources from the websearch worksheets which students began working on Monday in the computer lab. 

HW due Thursday:
Completed worksheets on arguments in defense of slavery

Tuesday, October 19

We reviewed the vocabulary words which are due tomorrow with definitions and sentences (from the book, from the "real world", and from students' heads).

HW due Wednesday:
Vocabulary assignment.  Quiz in class over the words.

Monday, October 18

Students worked in the computer lab to research arguments of various types which were used in defense of slavery.  Worksheets not completed and turned in at the end of the period must be completed as homework and submitted by Thursday.

HW due Wednesday:
Vocabulary assignment covering Chapters I-VIII in Frederick Douglass's Narrative and quiz over the assigned words.

Friday, October 15

We continued our investigation of search engine techniques, focusing especially on ways of enlarging and narrowing searches in pursuit of the ideal goal: excluding all irrelevant sites without excluding any relevant ones.  Search terms which walk the line between overly narrow and overly broad, and combinations of broader and narrower searches were recommended. Intelligent combinations of operators (e.g., quotation marks and minuses) were modelled for students.

Students received a  second handout (click here) on internet research -- this one covering ways to evaluate resources we find -- the reading of which was added to the homework for Monday.

Students were reminded to be working on the vocabulary assignment.

HW due Monday:
Read Chapters 7 and 8 of Frederick Douglass.
Read the handout on evaluating internet resources.

HW due Wednesday:
First vocabulary assignment, covering Chapters I-VIII of Douglass's Narrative.  Quiz over the vocab words.

Thursday, October 14

Mr. P outlined the parameters of the first major essay of the course, a research-based argumentative (persuasive) paper either supporting or opposing a resolution calling for the abolition of slavery (the author imagining him/herself to be writing the piece in 1860).  He explained that on Monday we will be working in the computer lab to research arguments which were used in support of slavery before the Civil War.

Consequently, we spent the class today focusing on online research techniques, especially the use of the "Advanced Search" features in Google and the use of certain Boolean operators.

Students received a handout on "Implied Boolean and the Search for Wisdom."

HW due Friday:
Read today's handout (see Documents page).

HW due Monday:
Read Chapters 7 and 8 of Frederick Douglass's Narrative.

HW due next Wednesday:
First vocabulary assignment submission and first cocabulary quiz, both covering Chapters 1-8.

Wednesday, October 13
Students took either the PSAT or the ASVAB test.

HW due Thursday:
Read Chapters 5 and 6 of Frederick Douglass's Narrative.

Tuesday, October 12

Students were reminded to report to either the Library (ASVAB) or Auditorium (PSAT) first thing tomorrow morning.

Students supplied CDs from Chapters 3 and 4 of Frederick Douglass's Narrative to show they had read them.

Students received an assignment sheet for the vocabulary words in the narrative (see Documents page), and we walked through the recommended process of completing it (involving mostly cutting and pasting and a little hand work). 

We discussed some of the CDs students had adduced, with many examples of the everyday atrocities under slavery and we raised the question of how people had defended such an inhumane system.  In partial answer, we turned to Douglass's reference to the "curse of Ham" on pages five and six, examining the scriptural passage it was based on and unravelling Douglass's analysis.

HW due Thursday:

Read Chapters 5 and 6 of Douglass's Narrative.

Monday, October 11

Mr. P introduced the vocabulary assignment for words in Frederick Douglass's Narrative.  A handout will be distributed tomorrow.

As a light-hearted treatment of the confusions of American racial categories (which we discussed in a serious fashion on Friday) students watched Dave Chappelle's "Racial Draft" episode.

Next we made the connection to the first chapter of Frederick Douglass (whose genetic inheritance was half white) and we compared the racial system of the U.S. with that of Mexico, where racial mixture is the national norm and where "La Raza" -- the national race -- is an amalgam of Spanish and Indian.

HW due Tuesday:
Read Chapter 3 and 4 of Douglass's Narrative.

Friday, October 8

We continnued to discuss questions raised by Jefferson's Blood, starting from the questions which students submitted Thursday.  The most consistent focus was on the perplexities of racial categorization in our society, exemplified by such phenomena as the white-appearing black descendants of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson.  Mr. Potratz contributed historical information about the principal of hypodescent in U.S. racial definitions and about anti-miscegenation laws in the twentieth century.

Thursday, October 7

Students finished taking notes on Jefferson's Blood as we finished watching the film.
Students then took a twenty-question true/false quiz over the film.
After that, students came up with three questions which the film left them with and one small section of the film that it would be most helpful to watch again.

HW:  If you have not finished the assignment due today (to read the first two chapters of Frederick Douglass's Narrative) you should do so by Friday.

Wednesday, October 6

Students received copies of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself and the assignment to read the first two chapters by Thursday (tomorrow).

In place of the SAT question we analyzed the distinction between the words less and fewer.

Students continued to take notes on major points in Jefferson's Blood.  We will finish the film Thursday.

HW due Thursday:
Read Chapters 1 & 2 of Frederick Douglass's Narrative.

Tuesday, October 5

We analyzed the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence ("We hold these truths to be self-evident . . .") as a masterpiece of parallel construction and sequential logic.

Students began taking notes on the central points in Jefferson's Blood, a documentary film about Thomas Jefferson and his descendents both black and white.  We watched the first twenty minutes, more or less, and will continue on Wednesday.

Monday, October 4

Students evaluated other students' SAT practice essays from Friday, without knowing the authors' names.  The assignment will be graded for completion (anyone who wrote a substantial essay will receive full credit), but students will be required to register feedback they receive.  Each student read essays by four others and evaluated them based on the following nine criteria:

1. Development of ideas.



Does the author have a clear and coherent point of view? 1 2 3 4 5


Does the author use reasoning to explain and support his/her viewpoint? 1 2 3 4 5


Does the author support his/her viewpoint with well-chosed examples


from reading, studies, experience, or observations? 1 2 3 4 5


2. Expression of ideas


Are the ideas presented in clear, logical sequence? 1 2 3 4 5


Are there clear transitions from point to point? 1 2 3 4 5


Are ideas themselves presented in a clear fashion? 1 2 3 4 5


3. Conventions of standard written English


Are sentences in the essay put together grammatically and gracefully? 1 2 3 4 5


Do sentences flow easily from one to another? 1 2 3 4 5


Does the author use standard punctuation and spelling?

Friday, October 1

Students wrote a practice SAT essay, replicating as closely as possible conditions and procedures of the actual test. 

Those few who were absent will need to come in after school one day next week and spend twenty-five minutes writing the essay.

Thursday, September 30

Students took an open-book quiz over the Declaration of Independence and we graded it together, after which we focused on the section -- deleted by the Congress before adoption -- in which Jefferson indicts George III for sponsoring the African slave trade and makes it crystal clear that he holds slavery to be a violation of the bedrock principles of the Declaration and of sacred human rights.

Friday:  We will write a practice SAT essay in class; students who are absent will be required to come in after school one day next week and spend twenty-five minutes making it up.

Wednesday, September 29

We revisited students' KWL charts (which they turned in at the end of the period), and we reviewed some of the distinctive characteristics of American slavery.  Our primary focus, however, was on establishing questions about American slavery which we want to answer as we proceed to read literary works concerning slavery (especially Frederick Douglass's Narrative).  One such question concerns how people early in the country's history justified slavery and how they reconciled that institution with the principles of the founding documents -- especially the belief that "all men are created equal" and endowed with rights including liberty.

HW due Thursday:
Read the Declaration of Independence, pp. 117-123 in Elements of Literature, in the draft Jefferson presented to the Congress with the changes and deletions Congress made.  There will be a quiz over the reading in class Thursday.  

Tuesday, September 28

Students supplied CDs from Olaudah Equiano's Narrative to demonstrate that they had read the assignment.

In connection with that narrative we worked on a "KWL chart" (see page 57) on the subject of slavery, assessing what students know and want to know about the subject and what they learned from reading the excerpts from Equiano's account.

HW due Wednesday
Complete the KWL chart.  Due at the beginning of class.

Monday, September 27

In lieu of the SAT Question of the Day we spent some time with apostrophes, in honor of the newly-posted No Excuses Conventions posters on the west wall of the classroom.

Next we returned to the Rivers of Babylon and Psalm 137, comparing the two, remarking on the absence in the song of the Psalm's vengeful ending, and stressing once again that different people may legitimately see and stress different things in the same text (whether we are speaking of scripture or secular literature).

Finally we turned to our next text, excerpts from the Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano.

HW due Tuesday:
Read pp. 56-65 in Elements of Literature, the biography of Equiano and excerpts from his autobiography.  Students will be asked to supply CDs from the text at the start of class.

Friday, September 24

We examined and compared two different uses of Psalm 137, Mary Rowlandson's quotation of it in her Narrative, and the reggae anthem "Rivers of Babylon," as recorded by The Melodians.  Using the textbook with the Rowlandson excerpts and the test of the psalm, and a handout with words of the reggae song and information about the Rastafari movement, students traced the analogies to their own situations which Rowlandson and The Melodians saw in the plight of the ancient Jews in captivity in Babylon.

The learning target included an awareness that different groups of people will use the same texts differently depending on their needs.

Thursday, September 23

We used the SAT question of the day to introduce the term and concept of "idiom."

We introduced Mary Rowlandson's Narrative by reading the prefatory material about her and the war with the Wampanoags on page 38, supplemented by the comments of "King Phillip" (Metacomet) himself on the causes for the war.  We then began reading the excerpts from Rowlandson's account, focusing especially on her use of allusions to biblical passages.

HW due Friday:
Finish reading the Rowlandson excerpts and answer question 2 on page 46 in a single typed paragraph.

Wednesday, September 22

Students received their corrected paragraphs on "The Sun Still Rises in the Same Sky." We reviewed Mr. P's system for correcting writing, including the sheet of "No Excuses Conventions" and the sheet of proofreading and editing marks. Students then spent several minutes responding to comments and corrections by fixing or improving marked passages.

HW due Friday:
Read the excerpts from Mary Rowlandson's Narrative of the Captivity (pp. 40-45 in the textbook) and write a one-paragraph answer to Question #2 on page 46.

Tuesday, September 21

We summarized what we learned yesterday about the Puritans' tendency to see the hand of God at work everywhere in men's affairs, and about their relations with the Indians. We discovered that the Puritans did in fact regard the plague which decimated the Indians as a gift from God to grant the Puritans their land. We examined the ambivalent feeling which European Americans have often had about Native Americans, and linked those feelings to changing feelings about nature. Mr. P read from an early 20th-century history text which displayed that ambiguity.

Monday, September 20

Students wrote for seven minutes answering either question 2 or question 3 under Shaping Interpretations. We then discussed both topics (the Puritan's propensity to see spiritual meaning in daily events and the fairness of the Puritan' treaty with the Wampanoags). We then proceeded to examine the Puritan's relations with the Indians in the persons of Samoset and Squanto, investigating how it was that Squanto happened to speak English and why he was the last member of his village.

Friday, September 17

Periods 1-3:
We read (or continued to read) the beginning of the William Bradford excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation, commenting on both content and language.

Period 4:
We finished reading, and discussed, "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven."

HW due Monday (all sections):
Read (or finish reading) the excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation" (pp.28-33) and review all questions on page 35; you will be asked to answer one of those questions in class on Monday.

Thursday, September 16

Periods 1-3:
Students turned in their completed timelines of American Literature.
We concluded our consideration of Native American culture and turned to the Puritans, beginning to read the brief excerpts in our textbook from William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation.

Period 4:
We watched a few old clips of The Lone Ranger, then began to read and discuss Sherman Alexie's "The LOne Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven."

Wednesday, September 15
We continued to discuss the collsion of Native American and European culture. Depending on the class, this may have included Nootka & Makah woodcarving; the case of John T. Williams; Pocahontas and the Jamestown colony; and/or the Puritans in Massacusetts.

HW due tomorrow:
Periods 1-3 -- Timeline of American Literature (see Tuesday's entry and the Documents page).
Period 4 -- Read "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." What does this title mean?

Tuesday, September 14

Periods 1-3:
We provided context for "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" by examining a case study in European/Native American cultural interaction: the history of the totem pole in Seattle's Pioneer Square.
Students received copies of a timeline of American history, which they are to fill in t create a timeline of American literature (se Documents page).

Period 4:
Students turned in both drafts of their paragraphs, and we devoted most of the period to critiquing student paragraphs from other periods.
Students received copies of "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" by Sherman Alexie.

HW due Thursday:
Periods 1-3:
Complete the 400-year timeline by filling in names, birth and death dates and major works by 32 authors, as stipulated on the worksheet (see Documents page).

Period 4:
Carefully read and annotate the short story handed out today. Consider especially the same question as you addressed for the Bruchac essay -- namely, what does the title mean??

Monday, September 13

Periods 1-3:
We examined the punctuation of restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses.
We read and discussed Sherman Alexie's "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven."

Period 4:
Students read their paragraphs to each other and sketched out their paragraphs' structures.
We looked at images of artistic objects from the Makah and Nootka tribes over three millenia, illustrating both continuity and change in Native American culture ("The Sun Still Rises in the Same Sky.")

Period 4 HW due Tuesday:
Improve your paragraph and bring both drafts to turn in tomorrow.

Friday, September 10

Periods 1 & 3:
Students recorded CD's from "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," after which we watched old clips of the Lone Ranger and Tonto, and began to discuss the story.

Period 2:
We reviewed many items in the school planner.

Period 4:
Students checked out copies of the textbook, and we discussed the assignment for Monday, reviewing expectations regarding both the writing process and the structured writing guidelines.

HW due Monday:
Periods 1-3: Reread the story. You may have to write about it on Monday.

Period 4:
Read pages 20 and 21 in Elements of Literature (the textbook), which contain an essay by Joseph Bruchac about Native American literature, and write -- and type -- a solid, two-chunk paragraph conforming to structured writing guidelines. The paragraph is to answer the question, "What does Bruchac mean by the title of the essay ('The Sun Still Shines in the Same Sky')?"

Thursday, September 9

Per. 1: A discussion of continuity and change in Native American culture ("The Sun Still Rises in the Same Sky"), followed by examination of a student paragraph or two.

Pers. 2&3: Critiquing of student paragraphs. Mr. P passed out copies of the No Excuses Conventions and Editing Marks sheets.

Per. 4: Syllabus quiz. Students used the syllabus to answer the questions, after which we graded it and reviewed thereby many rules, procedures, and expectations.

HW due Friday:
Periods 1-3: Read carefully "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." What does this title mean??

Wednesday, Sept. 8

Per. 1
We discussed the meaning of "The Sun Still Rises in the Same Sky" by examining one student paragraph and its interpretation. Students received a short story by Sherman Alexie, "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven."

Pers. 2 & 3
We discussed the meaning of "The Sun Still Rises in the Same Sky" -- the continuity in Native American culture despite changes through the years -- by looking at various images, including photos by Edward S. and Asahel Curtis.

Per. 4
Students received the course syllabus and a letter for parents/guardians to read and sign.

HW due Thursday Per. 4:
Study the syllabus in preparation for a quiz over it.

HW due Friday, Pers. 1-3:
Read the Alexie story carefully. What does the title of this piece mean?

Tuesday, September 7

Students were introduced to the Oxford English Dictionary (available free online to all King County Library cardholders), and we briefly discussed how language (and specifically the English) has changed through the years and continues to change.

Students silently reread their paragraphs on "The Sun Still Rises in the Same Sky," then paired up and read them aloud to each other. After that they numbered the sentences in their paragraphs and labelled them as to type (TS, CD, CM, CM/CD, CD/CM, CS). They were instructed to mark changes on today's draft, then revise it to produce a final draft and turn in both drafts tomorrow.

HW due Wednesday:
First and final drafts of paragraph on Bruchac essay.

Friday, September 3

Students checked out copies of the textbook (Elements of Literature, Course 5) and received an assignment involving reading a short selection in it, concerning Native American literature and culture, and responding to it in writing.

We also reviewed the basics of structured writing as students have learned them in previous Language Arts courses at Mount Si. The assigned paragraph needs to observe the structured language guidelines.

HW due Tuesday:

Read pages 20-25 in the textbook. Reread the essay by Joseph Bruchac on pages 20-21 and type a solid two-chunk paragraph explaining what Bruchac means by the essay's title, "The Sun Still Rises in the Same Sky." Refer to items 13 and 14 in the last section of the course syllabus (see Documents page) for formatting guidlines.

Thursday, September 2

Students recorded concrete details (CD's) from two of the four stories assigned Wednesday to demonstrate that they had in fact read them.

We took an informal poll of which stories most matched students' preconceptions of what Native American stories are like. (The consensus was "How Mosquitos Came to Be" and "The Raven.") We used the answers to this to explore what we do expect of such stories: such features as mythical accounts of how things came to be, with supernatural events and transformations of people into animals, and vice versa. Essentially realistic stories like "The First Ship," set in recent times and featuring contact with European-Americans were deemed outside the mold. And yet, as Mr. P pointed out, contact and exchange with Europeans and their culture has been part of Indian life for half a millenium!

No HW for Friday, but students are advised there will be an assignment due after the long weekend.

Wednesday, September 1

Students took a brief quiz over the course syllabus, using the syllabus to answer fourteen questions about curriculum, rules, and procedures. We then graded the quiz together and in the process reviewed the syllabus in some depth.

Students received a thin handout with several very short Native American stories of quite different sorts.

HW due Thursday:
Read the stories in the packet carefully, and prepare to answer questions about them, orally and/or in writing, in class Thursday.

Tuesday, August 31

Day 1

Students received a course syllabus and a letter to take home to their parents or guardians.

We started with the big picture: what do we mean by American Literature? And to begin with, what do we mean by American?

Students took a brief pretest with questions including "When was the place we now call America first settled?" Those who answered 1492 (when "Columbus sailed the ocean blue") or the like were reminded that Columbus found people already here when he arrived. The answer -- at least 10,000 years ago -- revealed that what we most often mean by "American literature" or "American history" is actually European-American literature and history. Mr. P acknowledged that our course will be primarily that, but students learned that we will be starting with a brief unit on Native American literature.

HW due Wednesday:
(1) Read the syllabus carefully. There will be a short quiz over it on Wednesday.
(2) Go over the syllabus with your parents and/or guardians and have them read and sign the
the accompanying letter. Return it by Friday.

Thursday, June 10

We listened to Act IV of The Crucible and briefly discussed the play afterwards, concentrating especially on Miller's comments prefatory to the action at the beginning of the Act I. Students were advised that these parts, and all the material of the play, whether spoken dialogue or unspoken commentary, will ne fair game for the final exam. The commentary was also recommended as a rich vein for the character booklets.

Day of Final:

Bring textbooks (and any other books still out) and completed booklets.

Wednesday, June 9

Mr. P lectured briefly, reviewing the historical background (which we learned about in the documentary film previously) of Arthur Miller's writing of The Crucible, focusing especially on the importance of "naming names" to satisfy the anti-Communist interrogators, a matter which is especially important to understanding Act III.

Then we proceeded to listen to the recording of Act III as students read along and worked on their character booklets.

Tuesday, June 8

Students were reminded that on the day of the final exam they will be required to turn in:
*their textbooks,
*their Crucible character booklets, and
* their exams.

The exam will cover The Crucible, The Crucible only, and all of The Crucible (not just the dialogue). The many sections Miller added to the play as published are also essential, and will be valuable in doing the character booklet.

We listened to Act II of the play, and read along silently.

Monday, June 7

Students turned in their Outside Reading asignments. Papers turned in Tuesday will lose 10%; papers turned in Wednesday will lose 20%. No papers will be accepted after Wednesday, and no one can pass the class without at least one star's credit, no matter what grade they may have. Wednesday is also the last day for submitting Outside Reading papers to turnitin.com.

We discussed the characters introduced in Act I of The Crucible and students began to fill in their character booklets. Afterwards we listened to more of the play while students read along.

Booklets will be due the day of the final exam, which will cover The Crucible only and will require a detailed knowledge of the play.

HW due Tuesday:
Read through Act III.

Friday, June 4

We listened to most of Act I of The Crucible while students read along silently (escept in Per. 6), where we watched parts of yesterday's video.

HW due Monday:

(1) Read Act II of The Crucible.

(2) Final deadline for the Outside Reading Assignment. (See Documents page for a copy of the assignment sheet.)
The assignment must be turned in to turnitin.com as well as to me.


Thursday, June 3

Students watched part of a documentary film on The Fifties as background to The Crucible. Arthur Miller wrote the play in response to what he and many others regarded as the anti-communist witch hunt in that period.

Wednesday, June 2

Students took the Gatsby unit test, consisting of two essay questions, one chosen by Mr. P, the other by each individual student. At the end students turned in their books (Gatsby) and motif booklets along with their tests.

HW due Friday:
Read Act I of The Crucible, to be found in our textbook.

HW due Monday:
Outside reading assignments.

Tuesday, June 1

We prepared for tomorrow's unit test (see Friday entry below) by examining representative passages, themes and motifs.

HW due tomorrow:
Unit test on Gatsby. Bring books and booklets.

Friday, May 28

Mr. P projected and explained the unit test on The Great Gatsby, which students will take on Wednesday. That explanation follows:

On Wednesday you are to bring your books and completed booklets to class for the unit test on The Great Gatsby. There will be two questions, one of my choosing and one of yours.

Each question will require you to show how an important theme of Gatsby is expressed through a certain motif.

For the first question I will select a passage from the book which expresses a theme and specify a motif, or cluster of images. You are to show how the specified motif works to convey the theme, citing examples (CDs) you have noted in your booklet, with accom-panying commentary (CM). You must cite page numbers for your quotations.

The second question will be the same except that you must select the quotation and specify the theme.

Students were advised that if they wish to be sure to write on a given question of their own devising they should prepare two in case their first choice overlaps with the required question.

Students were also reminded that searching the text of Gatsby online over the weekend may be very helpful in supplementing the entries in their motif booklets, which are due in class Tuesday. The recommended source is:
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/f/fitzgerald/f_scott/gatsby/

Once their students can choose to either download the text as a file or to link to a single online file of the novel and do a 'find' search for given words and phrases.

HW due Tuesday:
Motif booklet with at least 80 entries

Friday, May 28

Mr. P projected and explained a description of the unit test on The Great Gatsby which students will take on Wednesday.

Thursday, May 27

Bogie to Noir

We explored the significance of Humphrey Bogart as an icon through a Hitch Pod video called "Bogie Noir" which contains numerous homages to Bogart from European (mostly French) films. We read and interpreted a short piece on Bogart by Alastair Cooke examining Bogart's role as "the only possible idealisdt" -- a hard-boiled, anti-establishment one -- in the WWII era.
Then we looked briefly at the French infatuation with not just Bogart but "film noir" and we began to explore what is meant by that term.

Thursday, May 27



Gatsby's grail: his corruption and his incorruptible dream. We started with Jelly Roll Morton's "Beale Street Blues" and looked at Gatsby's flashback to Louisville days (Chapter 8).

HW due Tuesday:
Motif booklets with at least 80 entries

Wednesday, May 26

Students wrote down CDs from Chapter 9 of Gatsby for three minutes.

We discussed Jay Gatsby as a self-made man, an exemplar of the American Dream, in the more mundane (non-Platonic) terms of Chapter 9, then discussed the novel's ultimate disgust with the reality behind that dream and Nick's final verdict on Tom, Daisy, and their class. We connected their "carelessness" with Jordan's careless driving and that entire motif which culminates in Myrtle's death.

Tuesday. May 25

Students provided CDs from Chapter 8 of Gatsby, after which we examined the passage on page 117 where Gatsby sees the ladder and creates Daisy as the incarnation of his vision, as well as the passage on page 104 in which Jay Gatsby is presented as springing from "his Platonic conception of himself." Plato's Ladder of Love (from The Symposium) was presented in explanatiion of these puzzling -- and central -- passages.

Mr. P announced that booklets must be completed by a week from today, Tuesday, June 1 (6 of 11 categories crammed full: at least 80 entries total).

The deadline for Outside Reading papers was moved to Friday, June 4.

HW due tomorrow:
Finish The Great Gatsby. CDs from Chap. 9.

Monday, May 24

Students took a quiz over Gatsby, Chapters 1-7. Students will receive one grade between the two quizzes (this one and the quiz last Monday). Whichever score is higher will be kept, the other discarded.

Mr. P announced that students can earn 10 points extra credit by going to the school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and turning in their ticket; they can earn an additional 10 points by submitting a one-page review of the production.

Starting from Myrtle Wilson's violent death, we discussed the motif of careless driving in the novel, looking especially at the discussion Nick and Jordan have on the subject -- and its larger implications -- on page 63.

HW due Tuesday:
Read Chapter 8. Students will be asked to produce CDs on a chosen topic from the chapter.
HW due Wednesday:
Read Chapter 9 (finish the novel). CDs on that chapter.

Friday, May 21

Students in each class spent three minutes writing CD's in answer to a question about Chapter 6 which was projected on the screen. Afterwards we used those questions as a starting point for a brief discussion of aspects of Chapter 6.

Mr. P announced that grades on last Monday's quiz have been posted (with 10 points added to bring the average to a C!). He also announced that students would have an opportunity to raise that grade, in the form of a second quiz on Monday, this time to cover Chapters 1-7. The quiz will be easier than the first, and students will try harder to be prepared. The lower grade of the two quizzes will be thrown out; students will keep the higher mark.

HW due Monday:
Quiz over Gatsby, Chapters 1-7. Keep filling up your motif booklets.

Wednesday, May 19
We looked at the way the narrative of Gatsby is structured, with some of the most important scenes of the story told in flashback -- specifically, we reviewed Jordan's account of Daisy's wedding, the letter she receives the night before, and her decision -- soon retracted -- to "change her mine." Mr. P argued that the scene is all the more powerful for being told indirectly and by implication. ("Tell all the truth but tell it slant.)

HW due Friday:
Read at least through Chapter 6. (Pop quiz possible.)

HW due Monday:
Read at least through Chapter 7. (Quiz possible.)


Tuesday, May 18
Mr. P stamped students' motif booklets while students listened to part of Chapter 4. We then read and discussed further portions of the chapter, including the moment when Gatsby is "delievered from the womb of his purposeless splendor" for Nick.

Monday, May 17

Students took a brief quiz over the first five chapters of Gatsby.

We then returned to Chapter 3 and picked up where we left off. We discussed Owl Eyes in the library and connected him with Dr. T.J. Eckelburg.

HW due Tuesday:
Motif booklets with at least thirty entries will receive a stamp.

Friday, May 14

Students were reminded to submit their Whitman/Dickinson essays to turnitin.com by the end of today.

We reviewed briefly, via the Fitzgerald documentary, what we know about Zelda Sayre and Scott Fitzgerald and raised the question of their relevance to, or correlation with, The Great Gatsby.

Mr. P projected a map of Great Neck (aka West Egg) and Manhasset Neck (aka East Egg), Long Island, from the 20's showing houses of the rich and famous, including that of the Fitzgeralds. We used the map as an entree into Gatsby's milieu and the mix of people attending his parties, from the Eggs and from elsewhere. We then read a very little bit of the book (more of Chapter 3).

HW due Monday:
Read at least through Chapter 5 in Gatsby. Quiz over Chaps. 1-5 on Monday.

HW due Tuesday:
Booklets with at least thirty entries (to be stamped).

Thursday, May 13

Students were reminded that anyone needing to finish the Junior Writing Assessment can come in after school either today, Monday, or Tuesday, or can talk with the teacher individually outside of class and negotiate a different time.

We began by reviewing the part of Chapter 2 in Gatsby which we listened to yesterday, including the appearance of important images of Dust and Ashes (The Valley of Ashes), Ghosts, Phantoms, and Death (George Wilson), and both Eyes and Seeing and Disembodiment (the etes of T.J. Eckleburg).

Then we listened to the end of Chapter 2 and the beginning of Chapter 3.

HW:
Due Monday -- Read at least through Chapter 5 in Gatsby. Quiz over the first five chapters.
Due Tuesday: Booklets will be stamped again. At least 30 entries needed to qualify for a stamp.

Wednesday, May 12

Before listening to a recording of Chapter 2 in Gatsby and adding significant details to our motif booklets, we shared details from Chapter 1.

Students were reminded that they must upload their Whitman/Dickinson esays to turnitin.com by the end of the week. Most students should not need the class codes and password this time around, but for those who do, they are as follows:

Period 1 2922079
Period 4 2922081
Period 5 2922082
Period 6 2922084

The password for all periods is room301.

Tuesday, May 11

Mr. P announced that Outside Reading papers will be due Wednesday, June 2, and that in response to complaints about too few points having been assigned to that paper first semester the assignment will be worth 75 points (in addition to the function of determining eligibility for A's, B's, etc.).

Mr. P also announced that students need to submit their Whitman/Dickinson essays to turnitin.com by the end of this week (codes to be given tomorrow). Also, students who are afraid they may have used other people's words impoperly in their papers -- i.e., without putting them in quotes and citing the sources -- will be allowed to take back their papers and resubmit them after checking them. Anyone interested needs to talk with the teacher individually outside of class.

Students received stamps on their Gatsby motif booklets while they listened to a recording of the remainder of Chapter 1. Afterwards, we brieflly discussed the chapter and added some images to the booklet.

HW due June 2:

Outside Reading papers. See Documents page of the website if you have misplaced the assignment sheet.

HW due Friday:
Submit Whitman/Dickinson essays to turnitin.com.

Monday, May 10

We read more in Chapter 1, focusing on the imagistic way in which Tom, Daisy, and Jordan are introduced in their natural habitat, and adding images to our motif booklets.

HW due Tuesday:
Student booklets with at least a dozen entries covering Chapters 1 through 6 will receive a single stamp.

Thursday, May 6

We continued reading in the opening chapter of The Great Gatsby and adding notes to our motif booklets under categories of Locations and Geography (West Egg and East Egg), Colors (the white palaces of East Egg), and Time, Clocks, and Seasons (live beginning again with the summer), for example.

Tomorrow: Mr. P is going to Lake Forest and students (with Mr. McCormick) will show students the beginning of Winter Dreams, a PBS documentary about Fitzgerald. Students are to take notes on the film and put them in the tray as they leave.

HW due Monday:
Read through Chapter 3 of Gatsby, adding notes to the motif booklet as you go.

Wednesday, May 5

Students received a four-page booklet in which to collect motifs, images and other significant details which make up the intricate patterns which Fitzgerald referred to in his famous letter to Maxwell Perkins.

We then explored what is meant by a "motif," using examples from architecture and music (Beethoven, Wagner, and Prokoviev), and we entered our first examples under two categories in the booklet.

Tuesday, May 4

Students learned that they will be going to the auditorium 4th period tomorrow (after going to class for attendance) to hear a presentation by Sam Green, Washington State's Poet Laureate, unless their teacher instructs them otherwise. Everyone attending the reading will take 3rd lunch.

Students checked out copies of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and we began reading the first chapter, focusing on Nick Carraway's habit of reserving judgment of people and his praise of Gatsby's sensitivity to the promises of life.

Monday, May 3

Students finished the Writing Assessment.

Any students who were absent for one or more days of the Assessment will need to finish work on it after school Tuesday, Wednesday, and/or Thursday, and will need to speak with Mr P individually outside of class time.

Tuesday, April 13

We read "I heard a fly buzz when I died" in every period but the fifth, in which we read "Tell all the truth but tell it slant: and "The Soul selects her own society."

HW due Thursday:
Complete typed first draft of the Whitman-Dickinson essay.
Final draft due Monday.

Monday, April 12

Mr. P put several student thesis statements and outlines under the document camera and we critiqued them together. Atthe end of class students redeived their papers back with comments (except for period 5).

Mr. P announced one final change in the deadlines for the paper. Rough drafts are now due on Thursday (they will be stamped), and final drafts on Monday, April 19. Final drafts turned in this Friday will receive 5 points extra credit.

Friday, April 2

Students submitted their thesis statements and outlines.

We read "Because I could not stop for Death" and discussed Dickinson's presentation of her feelings about death in that poem. (In fifth period we also read "I heard a fly buzz when I died.")

HW due Thursday, April 15:
Final draft of the poetry essay.

Thursday, April 1

We read and answered questions about Dickinson's "Apparently With No Surprise."

HW due Friday:
Thesis statement and formal outline of the essay comparing Whitman's and Dickinson's poetic treatments of death. Typed.

Wednesday, March 31
Following up on yesterday's prompt and response, we examined once again the curious fusion of personal and public in the poems of Walt Whitman. We then contrasted Whitman's public stance with the intensely private, introspective nature of Emily Dickinson's work.

HW due Friday:
Thesis statement and formal outline for the essay comparing Whitman's and Dickinson's treatment of the theme of death. To be typed.


Tuesday, March 30

Mr. P was out of class. Students watched the conclusion of the PBS Walt Whitman documentary, then briefly responded in writing to the following prompt:

"Speaking of Leaves of Grass, Karen Karbiener has said, Whitman 'really wanted this book to be written by the nation, for the nation.' In what ways does Whitman believe himself to embody or speak for of the nation as a whole?"

HW due Friday:
Thesis statement and formal outline for the essay comparing Whitman's and Dickinson's treatment of the theme of death. To be typed.

Monday, March 29

Grammar Day!

We completed and went over two worksheets on subject-verb agreement.

HW due Friday:
Thesis statement and outline for the Whitman/Dickinson essay.

Friday, March 26

In some periods we completed small group presentations not given on Thursday; in most periods we watched a bit more of the Whitman documentary and discussed questions of Whitman's sexual orientation, if he was homosexual, and why he denied it if he was.


Mr. P announced a slowing down of the essay assignment. Students still need to be reading Emily Dickinson and beginning work on the paper, but the original due date of next Friday will be the due date for the thesis statement and outline, not the final draft. The final draft will now be due Thursday, April 15. Beware the Ides of April!

Thursday, March 25

Mr. Potratz read aloud a poem by Walt Whitman entitled "Live Oak, With Moss," after which students worked in small groups to discuss the question "What sort of love do you think is depicted in the poem?" and to prepare a short presentation of their views -- with CM and CD's -- to the class as a whole.

HW due Friday, April 2:
Essay on death in Whitman and Dickinson. Students need to be reading the Dickinson poems in the textbook.

Wednesday, March 24

We watched the first half of a PBS documentary on Walt Whitman. Students took note of (1) three interesting facts and (2) two major points which the film makes about Whitman.

HW due Aprpil 2:
Dickinson-Whitman essay.

Tuesday, March 23

Students received an assignment sheet for a six-chunk essay due Friday, April 2 (the last day before spring break) and a handout with selected sections of "Song of Myself" which are especially relevant to the essay. That essay is to discuss the theme of death in Whitman and Dickinson's poems. (See Documents page for a pdf with the assignment sheet and the Whitman poetry.)

We then continued reading parts of "Song of Myself."

Monday, March 22

Students turned in their paragraphs on the main characters in their outside reading novels.

We read from Whitman's "Song of Myself."

Friday, March 19

We looked at a brief passage from Emerson's essay "The Poet," which inspired Whitman to become a poet, and read the very beginning of the first edition of "Song of Myself," with Whitman's distinctively sensual version of the love of Nature.

Students were advised that if they feel that reading poems which are sometimes somewhat sexual, and not always entirely heterosexual, will offend them or make them uncomfortable they should talk with Mr. Potratz to receive alternate assignments for next week.

HW due Monday:
One typed, well-written paragraph describing what of importance you have learned so far about your outside reading book's main character. What is he or she like? What motivates him/her? What questions has the book raised about the character?

Thursday, March 18

Using the students' definitions of poetry and the definitions students gathered from elsewhere, we discussed different views of what poetry may be.

Wednesday, March 16

In the first half of the class we observed St. Patrick's Day by saluting our Irish-American President O'Bama and by examining the racism which Irish people encountered in this country in the 19th century.

In the second half of our extended class period we finished our examination of "O Captain" by observing how disruptions in the poem's meter are used to evoke the poet's uncontainable grief, and we considered more generally how sound echoes sense in poetry, referring to the important passage on that topic in Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism. Then we began to share our homework papers (Mr. P did one too) with their definitions of poetry from ourselves and other leading authorities.