Assignment Sheet

 

 

Date

Agenda

Homework

Wednesday 8/13

Seating chart/check schedules/reflection

 

  1. Describe yourself as a learner.  How do you learn best?
  2. What are your strengths? (academic and life skills)
  3. What are your weaknesses (academic and life skills)
  4. What are your short term and long term goals?
  5. How can I help you be successful in this class? 

Review Syllabus and procedures

Metaphors for America/Introductions

Syllabus signed by Friday 8/15

Writing assignment due by Monday 8/18

Thursday 8/14

“What is an American?”  (cluster map/ read essay/writing/discussion)

  1. Assignment #1 for packet Cluster Map—What thoughts and phrases come to mind when you hear the words America and Americans?  Make a cluster map. 
  2. Read Crevecoeur’s essay “What is an American?” on pages 290-291 of textbook.  There are copies of this essay in the back of the class. 
  3. Assignment #2 for packet--Thoughtfully answer the following questions: 
  1. Do you agree or disagree with how de Crevecoeur sees America and Americans?  Explain.
  2. De Crevecoeur says an American is “either a European or the descendant of a European.”  Is this true?  Who is he leaving out and why do you think that is? 
  3. De Crevecoeur feels that Americans should “love this country [America] much better than that wherein either he or his forefathers were born.”  Do you think people should love this country more than the country they or their ancestors came from?  Why or why not? 
  4. Critics have noted that when de Crevecoeur writes, “Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race,” he anticipates the “melting pot” metaphor commonly used to describe America.  Do you think “melting pot” is a good metaphor for this country?  Why or why not? 

 

Discussion

Signed Syllabus due Friday

Writing Assignment due Monday 8/18

Friday 8/15

Read Steinbeck essay “America and Americans:  Is the American dream even possible?” (see handout in the back of the class)

Assignment #3 for packet--Pick two passages from the essay that resonate with you in some way (Do you agree or disagree with the passage?  Etc.)  Copy each passage (use ellipses if it’s a long passage) and respond in a paragraph for each one. 

 

Assignment #4 for packet--Paradoxes in America and Americans—List in small groups/Discussion 

 

 

Writing Assignment due Monday 8/18.  If you’re absent, e-mail your essay to me at zaragosa.edler@gmail.com during your class period or have someone bring it in to me during your class period. 

Monday 8/18

SSR logs

Read Langston Hughes’ poem “Let America Be America Again”

 

Assignment #5 for packet--  Prompt:  What is the poem’s perspective about America?

Come up with a thesis statement that answers the question and gives your opinion.  Underline your thesis.  Use concrete details (actual lines from the poem) and commentary (your interpretation of those lines) to support what you are saying. 

Bring SSR book by block.

 

America & Americans packet due Friday. 

Tuesday 8/19

Read Wallace Steven’s “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”

Assignment #6 for packet—

In groups of 2-4 (or on your own), write your own version of the poem: 13 Ways of Looking at America.  It needs to be 13 stanzas.  One paper per groups

Bring SSR book by block.

America and Americans packet due Friday.  Points deducted for late packets. 

Block

SSR/SSR Log

Optional—for participation points, you can read your 13 Ways of Looking at America poems to the class

 

Assignment #7 for packet--

American Mind Art Assignment

What –to you—is the essence of the American mind?  It’s an ambiguous and complex question, to be sure.  It’s not easily answerable, and isn’t meant to be.  Make a collage or draw a picture in pencil, ink or color that explores how you perceive the essence of the American mind.  Capture the ambiguity and complexity of this question.  Provide a written explanation on the back.

 

 

 

 

American Mind Art assignment due Friday.

 

America and Americans packet due Friday.  Points deducted for late packets

Friday 8/22

Turn in packets

Share American Mind Art Assignments with the class

 

Monday 8/24

Native Americans

 

Assignment #1--Cluster map:  What do you know about Native Americans? 

Assignment #2--Read Iroquois creation myth “The World on the Turtle’s Back”

1.        What the most important things you learned about the values and way of life of the Iroquois from reading this myth?  Think about their attitude toward nature, their view of their gods and the role of men and women.’

2.       The twins in this myth represent “two ways of the world which are in all people”—the “straight mind” and the “crooked mind.”  Do you agree or disagree with this view of human character?  Explain.

 

 

 

Tuesday 8/25

Read Trickster tales (p. 40-45 and Coyote and Wasichu)

Assignment #3—Trickster tale w/partner (see handout in the back of the class)

 

Block

SSR/SSR Log

Assignment #4--Personification Review (see handout in the back of the class)

Read excerpt from Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Assignment #5—Jimi Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary” (see handout in the back of the class)

Native-American Packet due Friday

Friday 8/29

Read “An Indian Education” from Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Assignment #6—Write a 1 paragraph response to the story.  What did you like it about it/dislike it about it?  What did you think of the subject matter?  The writing style? 

Read Diane Burns’ “Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question”

Assignment #7—Write your own poem based on a stereotype someone could make about you.  12-15 lines. 

 

Tuesday 9/2

Pass out essay assignment

Take notes on American Lit Timeline

(Do this on a separate piece of paper…you will need this to study for your final exam)

Background info on Puritans, Arthur Miller and McCarthyism

Start reading Act I of The Crucible

Writing assignment due Monday September 8th.   If you’re absent, you need to e-mail me at the beginning of your class period on Microsoft Word or have someone bring it in for you at the beginning of your class period. 

Block

SSR/SSR Log

Continue reading Act I of The Crucible

Assignment #1—Crucible Vocab (see handout in the back of the class)

Writing assignment due Monday September 8th.   If you’re absent, you need to e-mail me at the beginning of your class period on Microsoft Word or have someone bring it in for you at the beginning of your class period. 

Friday 9/5

Stamp Vocab

Finish Act I of The Crucible

Assignment #2--Act 1 summary (you can just bullet the main events)

Assignment #3--Character Chart (see handout at the back of the class)

Writing assignment due Monday September 8th.   If you’re absent, you need to e-mail me at the beginning of your class period on Microsoft Word or have someone bring it in for you at the beginning of your class period. 

Monday 9/8

Turn in essays

Finish working on Act I log (this is a summary) and character chart

Start reading Act II of The Crucible

 

Tuesday 9/9

Assignment #4--Bell—thesis statements

Finish Act II of The Crucible

 

Block

SSR/SSR Log

Assignment #5--Read Margaret Atwood’s poem“Half Hanged Mary” (see handout at the back of the class) and write a one paragraph response:  What did you think of the poem, including the subject matter and the way it was written?

Assignment #6—thesis statements (ask me for the transparency if you were absent. 

Assignment #7—Partner activity

Pick a film, and a character from the film.  How does your character contribute to one of the film’s themes? 

Include a thesis statement, 3 concrete details (examples from the film…just bullet these) and commentary for each of those concrete details (just bullet these as well). 

 

Friday 9/12

Assignment #8--Act II Log

Add Elizabeth Proctor to character chart and continue working on it

Read first part of Act III of The Crucible

 

Monday 9/15

Read first part of Act III of The Crucible

Assignment #9:  Quick-write—

An external conflict pits a character pits a character against nature, society or another character.  An internal conflict is a conflict between opposing forces within a character.  What external and internal conflicts do you see taking place so far in The Crucible?  Explain.

Assignment #10—Act III log

Add Mary Warren and Danforth to your character chart

 

Tuesday 9/16

Read Act IV of The Crucible

Assignment #11—Act IV log

Crucible packet is due Monday (pts deducted for late packets….)

Crucible essay exam in class on Tuesday 9/23 (if you are absent for this essay exam, you will get a harder essay prompt…Don’t be absent!)

Block

SSR/SSR Log

Assignment #12--Pass out quick-write (see handout at the back of the class…this is due with your packet on Monday)

Start Crucible film

Crucible packet is due Monday (pts deducted for late packets….)

Crucible essay exam in class on Tuesday 9/23 (if you are absent for this essay exam, you will get a harder essay prompt…Don’t be absent!)

Friday 9/19

Crucible film

Crucible packet is due Monday (pts deducted for late packets….)

Crucible essay exam in class on Tuesday 9/23 (if you are absent for this essay exam, you will get a harder essay prompt…Don’t be absent!)

Monday 9/22

Finish film

Assignment #13—

  1. Look at your character chart.  Which characters have changed throughout the play and how?
  2. What kinds of external conflicts and internal conflicts does John Proctor experience in Act 4?
  3. Why is John Proctor considered the most courageous character in the play?  Explain.
  4. The definition of a “crucible” is a heat-resistant resistant container in which material can be subjected to great heat.  The term “crucible” can also refer to a severe test or trial.   Why do you think Arthur Miller titled his play The Crucible? 

 

Turn in packets

 

 

Crucible essay exam in class on Tuesday 9/23 (if you are absent for this essay exam, you will get a harder essay prompt…Don’t be absent!)

Tuesday 9/23

Crucible essay exam

 

Block

SSR/SSR Log

Take notes/American Lit timeline

Assignment #1--Read example of romantic poem:  Longfellow’s “A Psalm for Life”/His philosophy of life/your philosophy of life (see handout)

Your philosophy of life due Friday

Friday 9/26

Take notes on Transcendentalism

Read excerpt from Emerson’s “Nature” and “Self-Reliance”

Assignment #2--Transcendentalism, Emerson and Fight Club (see handout)

Finish handout by Monday if you didn’t finish in class

Monday 9/29

Read excerpt from Thoreau’s Walden

Assignment #3--Aphorisms from Emerson and Thoreau (see handout)

 

Tuesday 9/30

Assignment #4--Read “Civil Disobedience” by Thoreau

Small group activity (see handout)

 

Block

SSR/SSR Log

 

Assignment #5--Finding Transcendental themes in C and H (small group activity)

 

Friday 10/3

Assignment #6--Read Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Mrs. Walker”/partner activity (see handout)

 

Monday 10/6

Crucible essays

Assignment #7—Walt Whitman (see handouts)

Revised Crucible essays  due Friday 10/10.  Absolutely no late essays accepted.    You must  meet with me if you  want to revise your essay, and you must include your original essay  with your  revised essay (or I won't grade it).  Please type your revised essay (MLA format).    If you are absent, have someone bring it in for you at the beginning of  your class period or I won't accept it. 

Tuesday 10/7

Finish Walt Whitman

Assignment #8--Whitman, Hughes and Angelou

 

  1. Fill out venn diagram.  Just focus on each poem’s view of America and Americans; you don’t have to summarize the poem.  Use bullets.
  2. What overall inferences can you make about how the perspective of America and Americans have changed through time?  (1 paragraph; write it on the back of the venn diagram)

Revised Crucible essays  due Friday 10/10.  Absolutely no late essays accepted.    You must  meet with me if you  want to revise your essay, and you must include your original essay  with your  revised essay (or I won't grade it).  Please type your revised essay (MLA format).    If you are absent, have someone bring it in for you at the beginning of  your class period or I won't accept it. 

Block

SSR/SSR Log

#9--Quick-write—(see handout)

#10—Emily Dickinson:  Small group activity—(see handout)

Revised Crucible essays  due Friday 10/10.  Absolutely no late essays accepted.    You must  meet with me if you  want to revise your essay, and you must include your original essay  with your  revised essay (or I won't grade it).  Please type your revised essay (MLA format).    If you are absent, have someone bring it in for you at the beginning of  your class period or I won't accept it. 

Friday 10/10

#11—SAT Vocab (see handout)

 

Monday 10/13

Second Quarter

 

Nonconformist Research Project explanation

Nonconformist Research Project due Monday 11/3.  If you are absent, you need someone to bring in your paper and your visual at the beginning of your class period (e-mailing your paper to me will not suffice this time).  If you don’t, 20 pts will be deducted from your project each day it’s late. 

 

 

Tuesday 10/14

Library to work on Nonconformist Research Project

Nonconformist Research Project due Monday 11/3.  If you are absent, you need someone to bring in your paper and your visual at the beginning of your class period (e-mailing your paper to me will not suffice this time).  If you don’t, 20 pts will be deducted from your project each day it’s late. 

 

 

Block

SSR/SSR Log

Library to work on Nonconformist Research Project

Nonconformist Research Project due Monday 11/3.  If you are absent, you need someone to bring in your paper and your visual at the beginning of your class period (e-mailing your paper to me will not suffice this time).  If you don’t, 20 pts will be deducted from your project each day it’s late. 

 

 

Friday 10/17

Library to work on Nonconformist Research Project

Nonconformist Research Project due Monday 11/3.  If you are absent, you need someone to bring in your paper and your visual at the beginning of your class period (e-mailing your paper to me will not suffice this time).  If you don’t, 20 pts will be deducted from your project each day it’s late. 

 

 

Monday 10/20

Library to work on Nonconformist Research Project

Nonconformist Research Project due Monday 11/3.  If you are absent, you need someone to bring in your paper and your visual at the beginning of your class period (e-mailing your paper to me will not suffice this time).  If you don’t, 20 pts will be deducted from your project each day it’s late. 

 

Packets due Friday 10/24.  Points deducted for late packets.

Packets due Tuesday 10/21

Tuesday 10/21

Dead Poet’s Society

Nonconformist Research Project due Monday 11/3.  If you are absent, you need someone to bring in your paper and your visual at the beginning of your class period (e-mailing your paper to me will not suffice this time).  If you don’t, 20 pts will be deducted from your project each day it’s late. 

 

Packets due Friday 10/24.  Points deducted for late packets.

Packets due Tuesday 10/21

Block

SSR/SSR Log

DPS

Nonconformist Research Project due Monday 11/3.  If you are absent, you need someone to bring in your paper and your visual at the beginning of your class period (e-mailing your paper to me will not suffice this time).  If you don’t, 20 pts will be deducted from your project each day it’s late. 

 

Packets due Friday 10/24.  Points deducted for late packets.

Packets due Tuesday 10/21

Friday 10/24

Finish DPS

Assignment #12

 

  1. How does Dead Poet’s Society reflect the ideals of Romanticism and Transcendentalism?  Use examples from the film to support what you are saying.  (1 paragraph)
  2. In your opinion, do you think Mr. Keating is in any way responsible for Neal’s death?  Explain
  3. What do you think the message of the film is? 
  4. Show me the heart unfettered by foolish dreams

And I’ll show you a happy man

                                    --Tennyson

But only in their dreams can men be truly free

It was always thus and always thus will be

                                    --Keating

 

Do you find yourself agreeing more with the Tennyson quote or the Keating quote?  In other words, are you a romantic or a realist or a combination of both?  Explain.

   5.  Evaluate the film.  Did you like it?  Why or why not? 

 

 

 

 

 

Nonconformist Research Project due Monday 11/3.  If you are absent, you need someone to bring in your paper and your visual at the beginning of your class period (e-mailing your paper to me will not suffice this time).  If you don’t, 20 pts will be deducted from your project each day it’s late. 

 

 

Monday 11/27

Poe and the American Gothic

 

 

Assignment #1--Read Poe’s “The Black Cat”/handout

Nonconformist Research Project due Monday 11/3.  If you are absent, you need someone to bring in your paper and your visual at the beginning of your class period (e-mailing your paper to me will not suffice this time).  If you don’t, 20 pts will be deducted from your project each day it’s late. 

 

 

Tuesday 11/28

Assignment #2—Quick-write

 

“Yet just as I am sure my soul lives, I am sure that perverseness is one of the basic urges of the human heart.  It is one of the primary emotions that shape a person’s character.  Who has not, a hundred times, found himself doing a shameful or stupid deed just because he knows he should not?  Aren’t we always inclined to disobey the Law, just because we know it is the law?”—from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”

 

 

Do you agree?  Why or why not?  

 

Read Poe’s “The Masque of Red Death”

 

Assignment #3—Perfect Poe paragraph (see handout)

 

Nonconformist Research Project due Monday 11/3.  If you are absent, you need someone to bring in your paper and your visual at the beginning of your class period (e-mailing your paper to me will not suffice this time).  If you don’t, 20 pts will be deducted from your project each day it’s late. 

 

Gothic packet due block

Block

SSR/SSR Log

Gothic short story w/ partner(see handout)

Nonconformist Research Project due Monday 11/3.  If you are absent, you need someone to bring in your paper and your visual at the beginning of your class period (e-mailing your paper to me will not suffice this time).  If you don’t, 20 pts will be deducted from your project each day it’s late. 

 

 

Friday 10/31

No school--Happy Halloween!

Nonconformist Research Project due Monday 11/3.  If you are absent, you need someone to bring in your paper and your visual at the beginning of your class period (e-mailing your paper to me will not suffice this time).  If you don’t, 20 pts will be deducted from your project each day it’s late. 

 

 

Monday 11/3

Nonconformist research project presentations

 

Tuesday 11/4

Nonconformist research project presentations

 

Block

SSR/SSR Log

Finish presentations

Self-evaluation

  1. What are the strengths of your paper?  Your presentation?
  2. What did you struggle with in your paper?  Your presentation?

 

As you answer the questions regarding your paper, think about how you did as far as providing meaningful research pertinent to your thesis, writing insightful commentary, organizing your research and ideas, citing sources consistently throughout your paper, and proofreading and editing.

 

As you answer the questions regarding your presentation, think about how prepared you were.  Did you present your research and ideas, citing sources consistently throughout your paper, and proofreading and editing. 

 

As you answer the questions regarding your presentation, think about how prepared you were.  Did you present your research in an organized and informative way that made it easy for your audience to follow?  Did you maintain eye contact with the class and project your voice?  Were you able to present without having to rely too much on your notecards?  Was your poster visually pleasing and did it enhance your presentation? 

 

Pass out Huck Finn books and reading schedule

 

HF #1—Is censorship ever justified? 

Give examples of when it’s justified and/or when it’s not. 

 

Def. Of censorship:  the action of stopping transmission or publication or access to matter considered objectionable. 

 

Friday 11/7

Huck Finn and American Realism

 

American Lit timeline/Def. of satire

 

Read Mark Twain’s “The Damned Human Race”/Assignment #2-

 

  1. What is Twain satirizing in “The Damned Human Race?”  What’s his point?  Explain.  Do you agree with his view of human nature?  Why or why not? 

 

Pass out Essential Questions handout/Background info on Huck Finn

 

Check reading schedule

Block

SSR/SSR Log

Assignment #3

What TV shows and films use satire to get their point across?  Explain how each show or film uses satire.

 

Irony—What is it?  (and what is it not?)/Examples

 

Assignment #4—

Write a short story that uses irony to highlight a theme of your choice OR write 5 scenarios that use irony.

 

Check reading schedule

Friday 11/14

Assignment #5 Ch 1-5 Writing/Discussion

 

Note that Huck Finn is an example of an unreliable narrator-- one who does not understand the full significance of the events he describes and comments on.  Huck is not intentionally unreliable; his lack of education and experience makes him so.  Much of the humor in the first chapters comes from Huck’s incomplete understanding of the adults around him and their “sivilized” ways.

 

  1. Describe Huck in detail.  Find a passage that supports your assessment of his character. 

 

  1. Make a T-graph that explores Huck’s struggles with “sivilization.”  On one side, list ways that Huck is expected to be “sivilized” and on the other side, list ways that Huck rebels against “sivilization.”

 

  1. Describe Pap.  Find a passage that supports your assessment of his character.  Describe his relationship with his son. 

 

 

  1. Analyze Mark Twain’s use of humor.  Find a passage that supports your description of his humor. 

 

Assignment #6

 

Find and list examples of satire and irony in The Simpsons

Check reading schedule

Monday 11/17

Assignment #7

 

Mark Twain Bio/take notes

Check reading schedule

Tuesday 11/18

Finish #6

Assignment #8

Look at Pap’s speech on p. 26 and 27.  How is it ironic?  Explain.  What do you think Twain thinks of Pap? 

Censorship Project

Check reading schedule

Block

SSR/SSR Log

Censorship Project

 

Check reading schedule

Friday 11/20

Censorship Project

Check reading schedule

Monday 11/24

Censorship Project

Check reading schedule

Tuesday 11/25

Censorship Project Presentations

Check reading schedule