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.)