TODAY IN CLASS
1.  The college essay prospectus papers were returned.  (3rd and 6th, I have one related task for you to do tomorrow in class.) 
2. 1st and 3rd got started on "Granny Weatherall" with general discussion of several characteristics (varied with each class); 6th period met in groups--covered their own subject well, did a partial jig-saw to find out the key ideas from two other groups.  And 1st period looked at two related poems (Emily Dickinson); 3rd and 6th will pick that up later.
3. And 6th got some further application info from a Cornell admissions lecture . . . 1st and 3rd will get that tomorrow.

As you can see, this was mostly to keep me aware of who has done what.

FOR TOMORROW
No new reading/writing.  Consider tonight a "get started on your essay" evening.

TODAY IN CLASS
1) Collected:  the personal essay prospectus.  Suggestion:  don't work on your essay tonight.  You'll get these back on Thursday.

2) Reading Check quiz on "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"

3) Completion of "Miss Brill" (albeit abbreviated) in 1st and 3rd.  Close but not there yet in 6th.

FOR TOMORROW
Written work:  Write one page that applies the literary element that you were assigned for this story to "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall." Depending on element, some people will have to work hard to pack in the most essential information; you will need to be streamlined and concise. 

• Typed work appreciated, but not required.  If you type, double-space.  If you don't, make it legible and reasonably neat (a cross-out or two OK--overall sloppiness is NOT)
• Do not take up space with a 4-line double-spaced MLA heading.

The groups were listed in the hand-out you received on Friday.  However, they are re-stated here:

For  Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” (76 ff.)    (and 6^th Compact pages for other sections)

A – Character  75-77

B – Setting  105-108

C --Tone and Style 138-141; also see Irony, 157-158

D –Theme  173-175

E – Symbol  189-191

F -- Point of View 25-29

Senior Culminating Project
I am required to approve your work before it's submitted to the Career Center.  Their deadline is Oct. 15th, but their message is "the sooner the better."  But I won't "approve" if it is not worthy of a high-school senior representing Issaquah High School to the community.  Be warned.

1.  Unless you are going straight into the job market full-time after graduation, your resume should be academically-oriented as complete as possible re: education data, school and extra-curricular activities (with substantial lists appropriately sub-divided, and leadership roles clearly set forth), volunteer experience, work experience, and outside interests). Format in a eye-pleasing and professional manner, and PROOFREAD carefully.

2.  Your typed-out response to Question #1 should be 250-350 words, and must address all parts of the question:

• Summarize your preparation for your education and career goals.  what further steps must you take to achieve your goals?  Describe yow your plans relate to your skills, strengths, interests, and values.  Include a realistic financial plan for achieving your goals.

TODAY IN CLASS
Some final words re: the application process (particularly the new pooling policy for the UW), and then "Miss Brill" close-reading questions.  And some responses/discussion.  But mostly questions. . . By the end of class, 1st and 3rd had just gotten to the paragraph beginning "Two young girls in red . . "; 6th period didn't even get that far (we are at "The old people sat on the bench, still as statues"). 

FOR TOMORROW
1) You must show up with the typed-out prospectus.  I will collect them when the bell rings.  If they are not available to collect at that time, they will not count as completed for points.  However, no essay draft will count until your prospectus is approved.  So you might as well be prepared and receive the points.

2) You were told on Friday's hand-out to have "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall " (p. 76 ff.) read for Tuesday.  Well, today we didn't get to it.  But have it read for sure for Wednesday.

3) Yes.  We will finish "Miss Brill."

The Senior Personal Essay

A.K.A. The College Application Essay

The complete assignment is linked here:
https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=12of2z4dZf7RuISRKikRPG97bdda8xuHhLmzHw-WQ_rU&hl=en&authkey=CJvt5eoD

The first deadline is for the prospectus (described on the hand-out):  Wednesday, Sept. 29.

Day 2 of the Great Voice-Out

TODAY IN CLASS
But today it didn't really matter; we had the scheduled timed-write on Atonement.  If you were absent today, you'll need to schedule 45 minutes after school Monday or Tuesday; Wednesday a.m. is the absolute deadline. Let me know.

FOR TOMORROW
Either I will be here tomorrow and we will discuss "Miss Brill," or I won't--in which case there will be a class activity TBD plus some time to get going on the next story.  So in either case, you need to already have completed the work on the Mansfield story and have your book with you in class.

What WAS the work you should have done?
1) Have read the story carefully.
2) Have read the intro material on whichever group you were assigned.  For this story, the groups were
A-Point of View (and I think a few A's were not prepared to do this)
B-Character
C-Setting
D-Tone and Style
E-Theme
F-Symbol

Silence (Is Not) Golden

TODAY IN CLASS
Ah, well, we did the best we could.  For those who were gone, I'm not going to double back to the "Miss Brill' efforts--we'll just pick that up on Friday when we continue with that story.  And on the blog, I'm not going to recreate what went on in your small groups when I asked you to think through what you found in the passages noted in yesterday's post.  And I'm not going to try to repeat what all we said about betrayal, though I urge those who were gone to give serious thought to WHO ALL (and we weren't necessarily through in class) is guilty of some form of betrayal--other than, of course, Briony. However, let me throw out one very different thought about her:  what, according to the twins' note, seemed to be the thing that sent them packing? What is Briony's role in that? Does it matter?

Let me sort out a couple of additional elements here on the blog. 

  Let’s think about AUTHOR/Narrator.  And truth vs. fiction.

Think back to the issue of who "tricked" you if you felt that the sudden retraction of key events in the story was disappointing and/or unfair.  Was it Briony?   No.  It can’t be, if McEwan wrote the book.  So focus on the "nesting dolls" issue of authorship.  Yes, of course the fictional Briony is the author of the fictional Atonement from its early to its "final" draft.  But too many of you seem to overlook (judging from in-class comments as well as what you wrote in your initial response the "feeling gypped" question) the fact that Briony herself--and the entire plot--epilogue and all-- is the fictional creation of the actual author, Ian McEwan. 

So consider several things:

1)   The subject of what authors should/shoudn't do, which is a different question from what they can or can’t do.  The world they invent is ALWAYS fictional (although the boundaries blur in "historical fiction," and books like In Cold Blood seem to require new labeling altogether). But in general, for the genre of fiction, wherein lies “truth”?

2)   Look at details of the last chapter that show Briony talking about truth/non-truth of small details.  Can you find a couple of such places?  I was perhaps intentionally misleading when we first started talking about this, suggesting that there was no evidence that Briony-as-author gave us any hints that she was about to pull the rug out from under us.  (And insofar as parts I-III are concerned, I stand by my claim.)  But look at these comments:

• 
  
   "I worked in three hospitals in the duration . . . and I merged them in my description to concentrate all my experiences into one place. a convenient distortion, and the least of my offenses against veracity" (336)
• 
  
  After mentioning several corrections from the colonel's letter:  "Like policemen in a search team, we go on hands and knees and crawl our way toward the truth" (339)
• 
  
  And then reflects on them later in the car, "or rather, about my own pleasure in these trivial alterations. If I really cared so much about facts, I should have written a different kind of book" (340)

3)  THEME.  No, I won’t give it to you.  But for tomorrow, and not via the internet, THINK about what McEwan is saying in this book. About humanity. About sin and atonement.  About writing.  About the art of fiction.  About responsibility.

SO FOR TOMORROW
Know that knowledge of a book and its details is always your responsibility; even with books not "summer reading," our in-class mileage will vary.  You should have a pretty good idea by now of how well you know this book. 
Be sure to have blue or black ink and loose-leaf paper with you in class tomorrow.  (No need for the book.  You can't use it.)

And P.S.--after 3 or 4 years of doing the blog, I've gotten into some form of hanging indent today that I cannot get out of.  Sorry. 

Important Clarification of Homework

TODAY IN CLASS
1) First two sentences of "Miss Brill"--focus on style features and potential meaning.  (Clause of concession; tension of "brilliance" with the "chill"; weather/beverage similes; reference to fall, but with fractured awareness, etc.)
2) Groups designated for story elements assignments.  For "Miss Brill," we are dealing with careful notes--nothing to hand in.  For Wednesday, EVERYONE needs to read the story, then

• Also on Wednesday, Group A will be the Point of View experts.  Know what is in the 6th edition (25-29), and be able to talk knowledgeably and insightfully on specific POV issues in "Miss Brill"
• For Friday, all other groups need to have read the relevant background info in the text, and have taken notes on its application to the story.
• B  Character
• C  Setting
• D  Tone and Style
• E  Theme
• F  Symbol

3) POV for Atonement--classifying each chapter/part, with initial thoughts on why/effect, and connection to the fact that McEwan invests both the "life as story" metaphor into each character, as well as language appropriated from the sin===>atonement spectrum.

FOR WEDNESDAY
1) "Miss Brill" and A-group work
2) For Atonement, look at at least one (preferably two) of the following sections:

• Emily, Chapter 12, esp. pp. 136-143
• Briony, Chapter 14, esp. pp. 162-163
• Robbie, Part II, varied spots, but esp. 212-220 (and most concentrated in the early pages of that section)
• There are others, but they are even more scattered--you might note them if you see them

Sorry about the missing week-end post . . .

but here's what many of you missed today and what's essential for later this week.

TODAY IN CLASS
What you missed:  a full-period, information-packed presentation by the counselors (different ones, depending on period).  You will need to access the power-point on their web-site for the college application process.  Do NOT assume you know it all already.  Some aspects involve our own in-house "rules."
There were also two hand-outs:

• Your own transcript (I have them).You need to check it carefully and report any discrepancies to the counselors' office BY TUESDAY AFTERNOON.  They will be working on final rankings starting Wednesday.
• A "flow chart" for the college application process, broken down by types of schools. 

FOR TOMORROW
Atonement discussion will involve the religious metaphors (esp. for the two classes that did not really get into this), selected passage analysis, and the over-arching theme of betrayal. 
Focus groups assigned; POV group ready for Wednesday

Wednesday:  Stray Atonement, if necessary;  POV for "Miss Brill"
Thursday:  Closed-book AP style essay on Atonement
Friday:  Remaining groups prepared for "Miss Brill" in light of their assigned quality.  (For this you will need the appropriate background material in the main text.  No excuses.  No exceptions.)

TODAY IN CLASS
 . . . was sufficiently varied in the three classes that I simply don't have the time at the moment to summarize exactly where we picked up in each section.  Suffice to say that we finished "The Chrysanthemums" (though you will see that nothing in AP Lit is ever really off the table until at least the AP exam in May, and others not until the end of class in June). 

Turning to Atonement, we briefly discussed fate, accidents, human tragedy, and literary tragedy all as prelude to consideration of how Briony is not the only character whose all-too-human mixture of personality traits and predilections help produce the unfortunate sequence of events. And we are at various points of considering our early-in-the-book view of the three central characters:
1st--Briony on an earlier day; Cecilia today; we'll start with Robbie tomorrow
3rd--Have we even worked with Briony??
6th--Briony today; Cecilia and Robbie tomorrow
Robbie seems to be getting short shrift; I hope some of you review his reflections on the the fountain scene (Ch.8) even if you 've already reviewed Cecilia.

Not sure you were all prepared re: pp. 25-29 in the main text.  Fix that, please.  And be sure to have read pp. 5-16.  We'll want these basic terms/examples of genre to be "shared territory" as we launch the rest of the stories next week.

Also, I've mentioned trying to articulate specific stages between sin/guilt and atonement in several posts.  It's time to make sure you've done that.

W

TODAY IN CLASS
We were tantalizingly close to finished in all classes--that is, finishing "The Chyrsanthemums" and turning our full attention to Atonement.  I'm trying to stress two things:  there are multiple meanings and layers of significance to most of what we read, but some explanations are more powerful than others because they provide more cohesion or because their insights take us farther into the text.

At the end of 6th period, someone asked a question about the fights Elisa mentions at the end--asking if there would be blood, assuring Henry that no, she didn't really want to go, and saying that it would be enough to have wine.  Think that through--how does it fit?  (Nothing written required here, but be prepared for me to call on you without waiting for eagerly-raised hands!)

FOR TOMORROW
Review the past two posts; make sure you are up-to-date with Atonement.  And definitely start reviewing what you know or doing some informal research to account for the sequence of steps that lead to atonement in the religious sense (you select the faith--yours, not yours, one you're curious about, any one that will suggest you have examined a possible sequence).  That discussion won't be on Thursday, but tonight would be a good time to get into that.

Oh, So Late

But I really enjoyed meeting so many of your parents, and tomorrow is late start Wednesday, so all is not lost.

TODAY IN CLASS
I collected the homework (three paragraphs on specific "Chrysanthemums" questions).  If you were absent today, make sure you remember to hand it in on Wednesday. 

In 1st  period, we balanced both the short story and some reasonable time for Atonement; in 3rd and 6th, we need to do some catch-up time on the novel.  So hang on to your ideas about the ways in which Briony's character was set up in Chapter 1.

FOR TOMORROW

• We will finish our work with "The Chrysanthemums," looking closely at the "bath scene" (incorporating many ideas from the work you did on it) and trying to fit the story's ending into a cohesive sense of Steinbeck's theme. 
• Make sure that you have read the material on point of view in Kennedy-Gioia (see yesterday's post)
• Choose EITHER Cecilia's version (Chapter 2) or Robbie's version (Chapter 8) of the fountain scene.  Do the same thing for whichever chapter you select as you did for Chapter 1:  what are the overall personality traits we see in these individuals, and what about them might contribute most directly to the tragedy that ensues?

How much of that we do (after all, it's Wednesday) remains to be seen, but tonight is the time to get this done.

Upcoming--be sure to have read the Fiction/Plot intro material (pp. 5-16), and be thinking about the "atonement" process I broached today.  To recap:  for Judaism, Christianity, or another faith, use either your own knowledge or some brief research to specify the steps between a wrong-doing (a sin of commission or omission) and the possibility of atonement.  Both the possible steps or path as well as the language used to describe them varies among religions, but we are wanting to establish some sense of how this process could work.  But Ian McEwan is writing fiction--not theology--so our literary purpose is ultimately to connect the language of his text with real-world counterparts in human thinking.  We'll be looking a several different sections in which different characterize utilize a variety of religous terms to describe their secular concerns.

Multi-tracking in AP Class

 TODAY IN CLASS
We made it about a page further in "The Chrysanthemums" (Henry's compliment; Henry asking Elisa on a "date"--plus her stilted response--and the arrival of the tinker).  Slow going.  It would perhaps have helped if I had done a complete week-end blog, or had been more clear about instructions after the Atonement test on Friday.  And then we shifted gears a bit to lay out the first two focus points for the novel, which will involve the shifting narrative points of view, and how characterization is achieved in the various sections.   And for that, we will need to be very precise with terminology, including some new slants on the familiar material. 

That leaves us with three actual strands to follow at the moment, so here is the prep work for tomorrow and Wednesday:
1) By tomorrow, be SURE that you have read the complete Steinbeck story--which most people really did do for tomorrow. And then respond in writing (ink, about a paragraph each, with support) to three questions:

• Discuss Elisa’s parting “message” to the chrysanthemum shoots: why? what does she mean? what do the chrysanthemums seem to symbolize to her?
• Discuss the significance of the “bath scene" (including getting dressed afterwards) paying particular attention of how it relates to the meaning of the work as a whole.
• Explain the story’s ending—Elisa’s portion of the closing conversation with Henry and the final simile.

2) Also for tomorrow, re-read the first chapter (pp. 3-16 in most editions, I think) of Atonement, with an eye toward Briony's characterization.  Try to discern both those qualities which most seem to be traits a writer might be likely to have as well as characteristics that might help to account for what happens in the book. In other words, you are essentially trying to see how much of the adult Briony was essentially set up by the time she was 13 years old.

3) For Wednesday, be sure that you have read (carefully!) the material on Point of View in the Kennedy-Gioia compact edition, pp. 25-29.
(The opening section--on Fiction and Plot--is interspersed with some short examples and is somewhat longer:  pp. 5-16.  Please have that read by the end of the week.)

If you have your book, you can certainly use it for the Steinbeck story.  If you don't, you need to access this link and PRINT OUT THE STORY.  Everyone will need to have a copy (book or print-out) in class on Monday.

http://www.nbu.bg/webs/amb/american/4/steinbeck/chrysanthemums.htm

Test on Friday

 . . . over Ian McEwan's Atonement.  Remember that the test covers the BOOK, not the film. 

TODAY IN CLASS
If I have time later, I will try to elaborate on what we covered today.  Suffice to say that we spent the full class period on the original excerpt on the hand-out.  First period got their quick-write back from yesterday, and papers from 3rd and 6th were collected today. 

FOR TOMORROW
Just the summer reading test.  I think I would rather have everyone at the same point with the story, so we will simply wait until after the test to go ahead.

Barely a Blog

Not much to post today:
1) Do your best to get the turnitin.com account set up and your Self-Definition into the folder. 

• see yesterday's post or class notes from today for the number/password
• save using your last name, first initial + brief title of choice

2) "Chrysanthemums" -- yes, I'll collect materials from 3rd/6th tomorrow

Self-Definition Due on Wednesday!!

Timed Write Make-Up Reminder: 
If you did not come in after school on Tuesday (four people did!), be sure to be here on Wednesday morning at 8:40 a.m.  Have loose-leaf paper and a blue or black pen. . . .

TODAY IN CLASS
First, there was a change-of-schedule announcement:  Due to a religious holiday on Thursday, the first significant Atonement assessment will be on Friday, Sept. 10.

1. Then we got started on what was intended to be the main event of the day--before I found out on Friday that we would be getting planners today. 

• Hand-out:  the opening section of John Steinbeck's story "The Chrysanthemums"
• Instructions:  first, notice the "color scheme" of just the first two paragraphs (I think I might have told 1st period just the first paragraph; that's OK).  Then read/lightly annotate the rest of the hand-out, and write a short paper (a paragraph or two) about the most salient stylistic features you notice.  Include the use of colors for sure--otherwise it was up to you.
• Problem:  Because of the planner presentation, we didn't have the full 25-30 minutes I wanted you to have to spend on this.
• Solution:  Yes, you need to spend the 15-18 minutes at home that your section "deserves" as additional time.

2.  Planner Presentation:  If you were absent, you will need to go to the office to get your planner, because you are required to sign a list.

FOR TOMORROW
As noted above, finish up and bring "The Chrysanthemum" quick-writes.

But the main thing for Wednesday is the Self-Definition:

• Be sure that you have followed the directions, particularly with respect to formatting. If you have lost the instructions, you can access them here:
• https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1HVTgrBNnXa5YnoK5QvTZULqguKQLSCZHNDajz_Xjdac&authkey=CJuuhOQG&hl=en&pli=1#
• Turn in the stamped resume with the Self-Definition
• If the stamped version was hand-written or merely a typed list with no formatting at all, you need to type up at least a draft in resume format, and turn them BOTH in.
• If you needed to make additions to the original resume, it's OK to just make them by hand, and you can revise it more fully by the time the Career Center requires it later this fall.  You don't need to "make it pretty" for this assignment
• Be sure that you have saved your Self-Definition as a single document.
• Turning it in to turnitin.com--because of the planner presentation, I didn't deal with this in class today. Therefore it is not required for tomorrow.

HOWEVER--some people like to be pro-active. Here is what you need if you are used to doing turnitin.com. and want to get it set up and your paper submitted this evening.
First here's the link for instructions:
http://www.ihs.issaquah.wednet.edu/LanguageArts/Using%20TurnItIn.doc

And here is the actual information for each class:
AP English-Per.1; Course number 3469977; Enrollment Password = purple1
AP English-Per.3; Course number 3470007; Enrollment Password = purple3
AP English-Per.6; Course number 3470026; Enrollment Password = purple6

PLEASE remember what e-mail account you use, and what your personal password is for that account.

The First Timed Write

This just in (as the old news bulletins used to begin):  We WILL be getting planners in English class on Tuesday, Sept. 7.  (The resolution to the mystifying e-mail, to the 6th-period folks who heard me comment on it, was that grades 9-11 will receive planners in their social studies class.)

Yes, indeed, the first timed write.  Those of you who were absent today need to make it up ASAP:  after school on Tuesday or at 8:40 a.m. on Wednesday are the offered times. 

No concrete homework over the week-end, but remember the Self-Definition assignment due on Wednesday.  (And a handful of you are still reading Atonement . . . .)

Enjoy your Labor Day week-end, whether you are doing something active outdoors, going to Bumbershoot, relishing the start of football season, or whatever it may be.

The Self-Definition

TODAY IN CLASS
ID Pictures.  Over and done.
Resumes: 
There were many effectively organized and attractively presented examples, but some people need to think in terms of some fairly significant revision before the Senior STEP materials are due (sometime in October).  The only people who need to make changes before the Self-Definition is due on Sept. 8 are the following:

• anyone whose resume was hand-written rather than typed
• anyone whose typing was either one long list of activities or just long descriptive paragraphs. 

Self-Definition Assignment:
The hand-out you received in class was originally meant to be self-explanatory, but I tried to be a little more explicit in class.  The way you develop either section really is up to you--there is no mandatory content.  Just try to be interesting, informative, and insightful as you try to lift the reader off the page and into your world.  Just make sure to follow the basics:  the first section must focus on something that definitely shows up on your resume (and would probably be noticed by anyone who reads the resume), and the second section can be either something that shows up on the resume only in a very minor way, or is not actually mentioned at all.  Take special care to make sure you follow the formatting instructions on the hand-out, and do not forget to hand in the stamped copy of your resume as well.   Due:  Wednesday, Sept. 8.

FOR TOMORROW
Be sure to bring loose-leaf paper and the proper writing implements (blue or black pens!) to class on Friday.  You will do your first  timed-write passage analysis for AP Lit and Comp. 

TODAY IN CLASS
First, I collected the print-out that proved you found the blog.  (6th period, you will get yours back. . . I just forgot at the end of class.  I actually wanted you to have a copy of the next 8-10 school days.)

Most of today was devoted to the world's first internet special-characters "poem."   I will usually not usually try to capture our whole discussion in the blog (especially as it rambles across three class periods), but I was pleased by the range of ideas people offered--and surprised by how quickly certain connections were made.  Overall, my purpose was to hope that you at least saw patterns and structure in the visual appearance,  that the "sound" once the words/terms were added provided another dimension of structure (rhyme, rhythm, metrical patterns) and that many of you found "meaning"  both within the immediate context of the poem as well as in ways that connected the meaning of the work as a whole to aspects beyond the poem itself.  Along the way we utilized a variety of familiar terms (onomotopoeia, connotation, figurative language, metaphor, allusion, and more) that will continue to be the mainstay of our literary study.

So what does the poem really mean?  I don't know.  Someone suggested that the symbols were literally symbolic of the meaninglessness of life, leading ultimately to death--the ultimate systems crash. (I think Macbeth said something similar in his "Out, out, brief candle. . . " speech.) Others talked in various ways of the implications of technological overload on modern society; later we'll look at Wordsworth's sonnet beginning "The world is too much with us . . ."  Others thought maybe we were reading too much into it and offered simpler, more direct explanations. And one person asked a question that honed in on the discrepancies between studying the text "as is" and raising questions about authorial intention:  what did the author or poet "intend" to do?  That issue will haunt us throughout the course, but we will try to think about it a bit more tomorrow.

FOR TOMORROW
1. Bring your resume to class. As mentioned yesterday, it does not have to be "finalized" and professional-looking, but you SHOULD try to get as much information down as you can that describes your varied school, work, and community activities and interests over your high school years. Check the link in yesterday's post for ideas if you don't even know how to begin.


2. Remember all the school info material that was announced (twice) today--you need to turn in all those forms before having your picture made in order to actually get your ID. (They will still take your picture tomorrow; you just won't be able to have the ID until the forms are in.)