Practice makes more practice.

Album

By Kay Ryan

Death has a life

of  its own. See

how its album

has grown in

a year and how

the sharp blot of it

has softened

till those could

almost be shadows

behind the

cherry blossoms

in this shot.

In fact you

couldn’t prove

they’re not.

 

What does this poem mean?  Why so?

 

 

 

Groups and reading of essays....

 

 

Project introduction

 

HW-  Researching the project-- guiding question.

HW-  Writing C/C essay....

First Project

1.  If you had to describe to another what we're trying to do in here, what would you say?

1.5.  Quick lesson-  IT'S the SAME THING!

"Daddy"

You do not do, you do not do   

Any more, black shoe

In which I have lived like a foot   

For thirty years, poor and white,   

Barely daring to breathe or Achoo. 

 

This passage shows that Ms. Plath is intimidated by her father.  She calls her father a "black shoe," then she    states she has lived there "like a foot / for thirty years, poor and white, / barely daring to breathe or Achoo." 

 

TOPIC PLUS WHAT.

 

  Readers can infer she is intimidated by her father because she describes that she has been living like a foot in a shoe.  This means she has no room and is trapped, the way a foot could feel in a shoe.  Further, the shoe is black, and this implies darkness and as we know, some people are intimidated by the dark.  

 

THE WHY!

 

 

 The last two lines of the stanza, though, are the ones that really help explain how she her father intimidates her.  When she says that she lived "Barely daring to breathe or Achoo," readers can feel how intimidated she was because...  

 

THE WHAT, Cont.

 

(YOU FINISH THE WHY and conclude the paragraph.)

2.  Groups and essays. Out loud first, then pairs reading quickly-  turn in if satisfied.

3.  HW-  C/C essay-  Rocking Horse and Necklace.  Draft due Friday.

4.  C/C Notes... How to set up the essay?

5.  Project introduction....

What is happiness, and how can people create a lasting happiness in their lives?





She barely dares to breath or Achoo.  It seems as if she is afraid to do normal things around him, like breathe or sneeze.  Since she is doesn't want to even breathe or sneeze around him, she must be intimidated by him.  When the images of the confining black shoe and the fear of being a normal human combine, it is fair to say that Plath is intimidated by her father.

1.  Attendance.

2.  Journal-  What in your life is most important to you?  Make a list from most to least important.  "In The Rocking Horse Winner," what is most important to the family?  Where does this rank on your list?

3.  Essay Check, MLA format.

4.  Groups and reading essays.

5.  HW-  Return with your finished essay. 

6.  Reminder:  Books.
 

0.  Quiz-

1.  Who is the author of the story?
2.  What is the title of the story?
3.  What does Losiel's husband do?
4.  What special event does her husband give her an invitation to?
5.  What does her husband not buy so he can by his wife a dress?
6.  When she gets the dress, what else does she want?
7.  What happens to the item loaned to her?
8.  How long does it take Losiel and her husband to pay back the loans?
9.  How does Losiel change in the time period they are paying back the loans?
10.  What is the surprise at the end?



1.  Journal- 

Summarize the story we read in class, and describe for me a theme in the story.  Explain why you consider it a theme.

2.  Groups and essays-  Reading with others.

3.  MLA format introduction/review.

4.  HW-  Reading this story and writing a short essay about theme.  In MLA format, please.  Due Monday.

1.  Journal-  If someone paid you a million dollars to get As in all classes, could you do it?  Why?  Are you getting all As now?  Have you gotten all As?

2.  Journal-  Alternate.  What is the most important role you play in your life?  Why so?

3.  See here for reference.

Some notes...

 

1.  Intro + thesis-  In SP poem “Daddy,” SP creates the theme of Anger by using descriptive language.

2.  Minimum of 6 quotes with explanation.

3.  Conclusion to wrap it up and remind us of your point.

4.  Reading essays.

5.  Groups and essays.

6.  HW-  Return with a final draft on Friday.

7.  Read:  This short story...and be ready for an in-class quiz and writing topic.

8.  Reminder:  Novels are due  March 2nd.  Test in class that day.

1.  Journal-

When people say a high tide raises all boats they mean that if one team, the Seahawks, say, are good, then all the other teams around them will be better for it.  So, it means that one great thing will help make other things connected to it better.  It means this because....


2.  In Class Reading and HW-

3.  HW-  Sylvia Plath's poem, "Daddy,"

       Write a 3 paragraph essay about the poem in which you select a theme and explain what the theme is and how you know it is one of the themes of the poem.

       The essay should have an introduction, body to explain, and conclusion.  Due on WED.


4.  HW-  Reading this and creating 10 thinking skill questions for another to answer.

Lesson Context:

We've been using the thinking skills to attempt to become better readers and thinkers and we've read narratives and functional text and literature pieces in the hopes that we could practice and apply those skills to our work.  Today we'll practice writing what we think and utilizing evidence to support what we say.

1.  Journal- 

Do you ever think about your thoughts?  Do you think about the choices you've made in the past?  Do you ever question yourself?  Do you ever lie to yourself to make yourself feel better?  Do you lie to others to impress them?

1.5. Attendance/Names Practice

1.8.  Trade HW questions.

2.  Quick discussion. Honesty and change. 

3.  Let's practice thinking and writing what we think in a way that works.

Close Reading Practice—The Why!

Some (very) brief notes about effective explication:

Good explication shows why you know what you say you know.

It refers back to the quote or fact you provided and helps readers understand how you reached the conclusion you stated.

It explains the logic you employed to create the meaning you create from the quote.

Your job is to persuade us to agree with you and understand the quote in the same way that you understand it:  we need to know how you figured out what it means.

Here is a pat way to organize explication:

1. Topic Sentence.

2. Quote to support topic.

3. What the quote means in terms of the topic.

4. How/Why you know what the quote means and how you connect it to the

     topic.

Example, Non-literary:

1.      There are many ways that someone can say you are dumb.

2.      For Example, Vanessa called me a “bonehead.”

3.      When she called me that name, she meant that I was dumb.

4.      A bonehead implies that one’s head is made only of bone.  If one’s head is composed solely of bone, then that person must have no brains.  If that person has no brains, they must be dumb, so, through metaphor, a bonehead means a person is stupid because he/she has no brain.

Practice….Your turn, non-literary:

1.      There are many proverbs that warn people not to accuse or blame others.

2.      For example, many of us have heard the quote, “Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

3.      This means that you shouldn’t point your finger at others unless you are perfect.

4.      This means this because:

Now that you have it, let’s try it with some literature- First with a group and the last two on your own.

1.       Hamlet:

Though he describes the sky as a “majestical roof” covered with “gold fire,” Hamlet explains that, really, it is no more than a “foul and pestilent congregation of vapors.”  This means that Hamlet is displeased with the world.  This can be concluded because…

3.      In this scene of R&J, Juliet proclaims that should would rather “leap” off a tower, “walk in thievish ways,” “lurk where serpents are,” be chained with “roaring bears,” or be stowed with “dead men’s rattling bones” then marry Paris.  This means Juliet abhors the idea of marrying Paris.  This can be concluded because….

5.      In this scene from Hamlet, Claudius morns the “green” memory of his brother’s death which causes the kingdom to “bear…hearts in grief.”  He also says that though his brother’s death causes the “wisest sorrow,” they should think about him with “remembrance of ourselves.”  This means that the kingdom should move on from King Hamlet’s death.  This is known because…..

HW-  Finish the last two on your own and return with them for Friday.

HW-  Answer another's questions about  "The Tell-Tale Heart"

TS, cont. Wrapping up.

1.  Journal- 

Do you know how to make something out of paper?  Write out some very clear directions for us.  If you don't, explain why writing out directions is easy or difficult to do.

2.  Groups and directions.

3.  Practice.

4.  HW-  This hard thing.

5.  HW- Reading this and creating 10 TS questions about the story.

The Mexican Cabdriver

We were sitting in traffic
on the Brooklyn Bridge,
so I asked the poets
in the backseat of my cab
to write a poem for you.
They asked
if you are like the moon
or the trees.
I said no,
she is like the bridge
when there is so much traffic
I have time
to watch the boats
on the river.

From A MAYAN ASTRONOMER IN HELL'S KITCHEN (W.W. Norton, 2000)

In a solid paragraph using evidence from the poem, please answer the following:

According to the speaker, what is his wife like?  What does he mean?  Why?   


1.  Journal-  Was a hanging  a good read?  Why/Why not?

2.  Attendance

3.  HW reminders

4.  In class writing.

5.  Reading HW.  Books or On line?

1.  Journal-  Compare and Contrast the two stories we read.  What similar themes do they share?


2. Book List Discussion

3.  Trade questions

4.  HW-  More reading and questions.  10 Thinking Skill Questions for another to answer.

5.  In class TS practice-  Hink Pinks.


1. Indigo church seat
2. Wet postage
3. Store policeman
4. Naughty boy
5. Octopus slipped
6. Icing Inferno
7. Evergreen fluid
8. Change sewing pattern
9. Black rocks dish
10. A little toy baby


 1. Plant the line
2. Rodent home
3. Rodent head bug
4. Tardy escort
5. What the frozen water costs
6. Light headed holy person
7. Communitcator mortgage
8. A tool for cutting bales of hay
9. Light red psychiatrist
10. Raised patio inspection



 1. Boat voyage
2. Boisterous assembly
3. Chew, noon meal
4. Carpet pull
5. Cliff oath
6. Close by
7. Broad playground toy
8. Brave flu
9. Cantaloupe criminal
10. Calm kid


 1. Burn insect
2. A reasonable request to God
3. A wild animal's dinner
4. Beggar buddy
5. 4 + 5 could eat
6. Where ghosts go to learn
7. Wish hill
8. Thin border
9. The most terrible craving for water
10. Street frog

Book List!

Cherry Orchard    Tartuffe   Uncle Tom's Cabin   Illiad   Iliad: Poem of Force

  

Real Women Have Curves   Zoot Suit    1984

Memoirs of a Geisha   One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Invisible Man   Pride and Prejudice   Slaughter House 5    To Kill A Mockingbird

In Cold Blood   Huck Finn    Moby Dick   Geography 3   Life Studies   Ariel

Crying of Lot 49   All The King's Men    Red Badge of Courage

Catcher in the Rye   Of Mice and Men      Great Gatsby       Old Man and the Sea

Things Fall Apart    Lord of the Flies    Catch 22        Things They Carried

Lolita        Bless me Ultima          The Sun also Rises

The Bell Jar  100 Years of Solitude    20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair

Ceremony        Lamara Villa             The Alchemist

Life of Pi          The Kite Runner         A Wild Sheep Chase      1000 Splendid Suns

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas            On The Road     Howl

Captain Corelli's Mandolin          The Stranger         Monkey  A House for Mr. Biswas

The Tale of Genji 

TS, Cont.

Fun TS questions.

1. A graduate applying for pilot training with a major airline was asked what he would do if, after a long-haul flight to Sydney, he met the captain wearing a dress in the hotel bar. What would you do?

2. A man built a rectangular house, each side having a southern view. He spotted a bear. What colour was the bear?

3. If you were alone in a deserted house at night, and there was an oil lamp, a candle and firewood and you only have one match, which would you light first?

4. What can you put in a wooden box that would make it lighter? The more of them you put in the lighter it becomes, yet the box stays empty.

5. Which side of a cat contains the most hair?

6. The 60th and 62nd British Prime Ministers of the UK had the same mother and father, but were not brothers. How do you account for this?

7. How many birthdays does a typical woman have? Why can't a man living in Canterbury be buried west of the River Stour?

8. Is it legal for a man to marry his widow's sister?

9. If you drove a coach leaving Canterbury with 35 passengers, dropped off 6 and picked up 2 at Faversham, picked up 9 more at Sittingbourne, dropped off 3 at Chatham, and then drove on to arrive in London 40 minutes later, what colour are the driver's eyes? 
10.  
11. A woman lives on the tenth floor of a block of flats. Every morning she takes the lift down to the ground floor and goes to work. In the evening, she gets into the lift, and, if there is someone else in the lift she goes back to her floor directly. Otherwise, she goes to the eighth floor and walks up two flights of stairs to her flat. How do you explain this?

11. A window cleaner is cleaning the windows on the 25th floor of a skyscraper, when he slips and falls. He is not wearing a safety harness and nothing slows his fall, yet he suffered no injuries. Explain.

12. The Zorganian Republic has some very strange customs. Couples only wish to have female children as only females can inherit the family's wealth, so if they have a male child they keep having more children until they have a girl. If they have a girl, they stop having children. What is the ratio of girls to boys in Zorgania?

13. John's mother has 3 children, one is named April, one is named May. What is the third one named?

14. You are running in a race. You overtake the second person. What position are you in?

15. In the same race, if you overtake the last person, then you are in what position?

16. Using just ONE straight cut, how can you cut a rectangular cake into two equal parts when a rectangular piece has already been removed from it?

17. A man and his son were in a car crash. The father was killed and the son was taken to hospital with serious injuries. The examining doctor exclaims: "But, this is my son!".
    How can this be?

18. You have to choose between three rooms.
    The first is full of raging fires
    The second is full of tigers that haven’t eaten in 3 years.
    The third is full of assassins with loaded machine guns.
    Which room should you choose?
19. Name three consecutive days in English without using the words Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday

21. What's unusual about this paragraph? Just how quickly you can find out what is so funny about it. It looks fairly ordinary and plain that you might think nothing is wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is highly curious though. Study it and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you could just find out. 
22. 
      A businessman had just turned off the lights in the store when a man appeared and demanded money. The owner opened a cash register. The contents of the cash register were scooped up and the man sped away. A member of the police force was notified promptly.