January Calendar

Reflecting on Monsters Assignment

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Reflecting on Monsters

As we read Frankenstein, a closer look at the novel suggests deeper questions to careful readers: What is it to be human? What is the meaning of life? What is consciousness? Why do we believe? How do we fear? Why is beauty in the eye of the beholder? What is ugliness? Why? Why not?

These kinds of questions that ask people to look beneath the surface of everyday thinking. This kind of deeper thinking is called reflecting or introspection. The purpose of the following activity is to get you to reflect on the topic of monsters and their makers.

But instead of just asking you to begin reflecting, search the internet to find something to spark your thoughts. You’ll use the Web to get your mind tuned to the topic.

Follow the natural twists and turns of your thinking as the most important approach to the topic. Look at the rubric to understand the requirements of the writing.

An Opening Occasion
The world around us often sends a “wake up call.” Sometimes this is in the form of a new idea or powerful emotion. Sometimes it is in the form of a news story that breaks your heart or sharpens your perceptions.

What do you fear?

We all have had irrational, imaginary fears. But we also have very rational fears that inspire our daydreams and influence the way we live our waking lives. Fears might include: Cancer, global warming, cloning, mad cow disease, terrorism, famine, nuclear power, endangered species . . .

Use the chart below to list five fears you have. What quickens your heart or chills your blood—in real life?

Fear Reason










Choose one of the above fears. Search the web to explore your fear. When you find it, write a solid paragraph that describes the event, example, information, or image related to that fear that was most powerful to you. Use the following websites to begin your search:
CNN.com
msnbc.msn.com
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Second Reflection
Looking more deeply at the description you just wrote, find the abstract idea that is at the heart of your exploration. In other words, what underlying concept or cause are you really writing about? What is at the root of your fear? War, hunger, environment, technology, ignorance, poverty, death or simply fear itself?

Write a short paragraph that explains and highlights an abstraction you’ve drawn out of your opening occasion paragraph.
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A Closer Look
Not everything is as we first think. The important ideas, themes, and emotions that play through what we call the Human Condition are complex and subtle. Monsters are recurring symbols throughout history and across cultures. They just take different shapes. Myths abounded with monsters.
• For the Ancient Greeks, it was Scylla or Charybdis, embodying the forces of nature.
• In the Bible, written in agrarian (farming) communities in the ancient Near East, it was the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death who were the omens of the end of the world.
• For Dark Age British warriors in Beowulf, it was Grendel, a warrior monster.
• For Mary Shelley during the Age of Reason, it was Frankenstein’s monster, science gone too far.
• For the Japanese who experienced the horror of nuclear bombs in World War II, it was Godzilla, a radiated prehistoric monster.
DRAW AND WRITE
What is your monster? What symbol, character, or image would you select to embody your fear? Draw a picture of your monster, then write a paragraph describing your monster and its meaning. What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses?

















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An Exploration of Modern Monsters
An exploration of the symbolism of monsters, beginning with the introductory section about children and fear. Watch for technological monsters such as Frankenstein’s monster; human monsters including vampires, freaks and zombies; ecological monsters—Godzilla, King Kong, werewolves; and others.
Go to:
http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html/Monstrosity/intropage/homepage.html
Which type of monster is most frightening to you? Why?
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Finding a Universal Truth
We began by describing a rational fear and went on to pull out one abstract idea to focus on. Further reflection asked you to synthesize your thoughts into a symbol. Now, look at the big picture and explore what you believe is the universal truth, or the one that’s most always true.
• If we have created monsters, from our earliest folk tales to today’s entertainment, do they play an essential role in the way we make sense of the world?

Do we need monsters?
Keep the deep thinking going and avoid the temptation to come up with a quick and easy answer. These are hardly ever accurate and do not reflect you. Write out your ideas in a short paragraph.
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Reflecting on Monsters Link

http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html/Monstrosity/intropage/homepage.html

Cut and paste this address to link to the website.

"Top of the Food Chain" by T. Coraghessan Boyle

TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN
T.C. Boyle, in Without a Hero and Other Stories
THE thing was, we had a little problem with the insect vector there, and believe me, your tamer stuff, your Malathion and pyrethrum and the rest of the so-called environmentally safe products didn't begin to make a dent in it, not a dent, I mean it was utterly useless-we might as well have been spraying with Chanel Number 5 for all the good it did. And you've got to realize these people were literally covered with insects day and night-and the fact that they hardly wore any clothes just compounded the problem. Picture if you can, gentlemen, a naked little two-year-old boy so black with flies and mosquitoes it looks like he's wearing long johns, or the young mother so racked with the malarial shakes she can't even lift a diet Coke to her lips-it was pathetic, just pathetic, like something out of the Dark Ages.... Well, anyway, the decision was made to go with DDT in the short term, just to get the situation under control, you understand.
Yes, that's right, Senator, DDT. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane.
Yes, I'm well aware of that fact, sir. But just because we banned it domestically, under pressure from the bird watching contingent and the hopheads down at the EPA, it doesn't necessarily follow that the rest of the world-especially the developing world-is about to jump on the bandwagon. And that's the key word here, Senator: developing. You've got to realize this is Borneo we're talking about here, not Port Townsend. These people don't know from square one about sanitation, disease control, pest eradication -or even personal hygiene, if you want to come right down to it.
It rains a hundred and twenty inches a year, minimum. They dig up roots in the jungle. They've still got headhunters along the Rajang River, for god's sake.
And please don't forget they asked us to come in there, practically begged us-and not only the World Health Organization, but the Sultan of Brunei and the government in Sarawak too. We did what we could to accommodate them and reach our objective in the shortest period of time and by the most direct and effective means. We went to the air. Obviously. And no one could have foreseen the consequences, no one, not even if we'd gone out and generated a hundred environmental-impact statements-it was just one of those things, a freak occurrence, and there's no defense against that. Not that I know of, anyway....
Caterpillars? Yes, Senator, that's correct. That was the first sign: caterpillars.
But let me backtrack a minute here. You see, out in the bush they have these roofs made of thatched palm leaves-you'll see them in the towns too, even in Bintulu or Brunei-and they're really pretty effective, you'd be surprised. A hundred and twenty inches of rain, they've got to figure a way to keep it out of the hut, and for centuries, this was it. Palm leaves. Well, it was about a month after we sprayed for the final time and I'm sitting at my desk in the trailer thinking about the drainage project at Kuching, enjoying the fact that for the first time in maybe a year I'm not smearing mosquitoes all over the back of my neck, when there's a knock at the door. It's this elderly gentleman, tattooed from head to toe, dressed only in a pair of running shorts-they love those shorts, by the way, the shiny material and the tight machine-stitching, the whole country, men and women and children, they can't get enough of them.... Any- way, he's the headman of the local village and he's very excited, something about the roofs-atap, they call them. That's all he can say, atap, atap, over and over again.
It's raining, of course. It's always raining. So I shrug into my rain slicker, start up the 4X4 and go have a look. Sure enough, all the atap roofs are collapsing, not only in his village, but throughout the target area. The people are all huddled there in their running shorts, looking pretty miserable, and one after another the roofs keep falling in, it's bewildering, and gradually I realize the headman's diatribe has begun to feature a new term I was unfamiliar with at the time-the word for caterpillar, as it turns out, in the Than dialect. But who was to make the connection between three passes with the crop duster and all these staved-in roofs?
Our people finally sorted it out a couple weeks later. The chemical, which, by the way, cut down the number of mosquitoes exponentially, had the unfortunate side effect of killing off this little wasp-I've got the scientific name for it somewhere in my report here, if you're interested-that preyed on a type of caterpillar that in turn ate palm leaves. Well, with the wasps gone, the caterpillars hatched out with nothing to keep them in check and chewed the roofs to pieces, and that was unfortunate, we admit it, and we had a real cost overrun on replacing those roofs with tin . . . but the people were happier, I think, in the long run, because let's face it, no matter how tightly you weave those palm leaves, they're just not going to keep the water out like tin. Of course, nothing's perfect, and we had a lot of complaints about the rain drumming on the panels, people unable to sleep and what-have-you....
Yes, sir, that's correct-the flies were next. Well, you've got to understand the magnitude of the fly problem in Borneo, there's nothing like it here to compare it with, except maybe a garbage strike in New York. Every minute of every day you've got flies everywhere, up your nose, in your mouth, your ears, your eyes, flies in your rice, your Coke, your Singapore sling and your gin rickey. It's enough to drive you to distraction, not to mention the diseases these things carry, from dysentery to typhoid to cholera and back round the loop again. And once the mosquito population was down, the flies seemed to breed up to fill in the gap-Borneo wouldn't be Borneo without some damned insect blackening the air.
Of course, this was before our people had tracked down the problem with the caterpillars and the wasps and all of that, and so we figured we'd had a big success with the mosquitoes, why not a series of ground sweeps, mount a fogger in the back of a Suzuki Brat and sanitize the huts, not to mention the open sewers, which as you know are nothing but a breeding ground for flies, chiggers and biting insects of every sort. At least it was an error of commission rather than omission. At least we were trying.
I watched the flies go down myself. One day they were so thick in the trailer I couldn't even find my paperwork, let alone attempt to get through it, and the next they were collecting on the windows, bumbling around like they were drunk. A day later they were gone. Just like that. From a million flies in the trailer to none....
Well, no one could have foreseen that, Senator. The geckos ate the flies, yes. You're all familiar with geckos, I assume, gentlemen? These are the lizards you've seen during your trips to Hawaii, very colorful, patrolling the houses for roaches and flies, almost like pets, but of course they're wild animals, never lose sight of that, and just about as unsanitary as anything I can think of, except maybe flies.
Yes, well don't forget, sir, we're viewing this with twenty-twenty hindsight, but at the time no one gave a thought to geckos or what they ate-they were just another fact of life in the tropics. Mosquitoes, lizards, scorpions, leeches-you name it, they've got it. When
the flies began piling up on the windowsills like drift, naturally the geckos feasted on them, stuffing themselves till they looked like sausages crawling up the walls. Where before they moved so fast you could never be sure you'd seen them, now they waddled across the floor, laid around in the corners, clung to the air vents like magnets-and even then no one paid much attention to them till they started turning belly-up in the streets. Believe me, we confirmed a lot of things there about the buildup of these products as you move up the food chain and the efficacy-or lack thereof-of certain methods, no doubt about that....
The cats? That's where it got sticky, really sticky. You see, nobody really lost any sleep over a pile of dead lizards-though we did the tests routinely and the tests confirmed what we'd expected, that is, the product had been concentrated in the geckos because of the sheer number of contaminated flies they consumed. But lizards are one thing and cats are another. These people really have an affection for their cats-no house, no hut, no matter how primitive, is without at least a couple of them. Mangy-looking things, long-legged and scrawny, maybe, not at all the sort of animal you'd see here, but there it was: they loved their cats. Because the cats were functional, you understand-without them, the place would have been swimming in rodents inside of a week.
You're right there, Senator, yes-that's exactly what happened. You see, the cats had a field day with these feeble geckos-you can imagine, if any of you have ever owned a cat, the land of joy these animals must have experienced to see their nemesis, this ultra- quick lizard, and it's just barely creeping across the floor like a bug. Well, to make a long story short, the cats ate up every dead and dying geckos in the country, from snout to tail, and then the cats began to die ... which to my mind would have been no great loss if it wasn't for the rats. Suddenly there were rats everywhere-you couldn't drive down the street without running over half-a-dozen of them at a time. They fouled the grain supplies, fell in the wells and died, bit infants as they slept in their cradles. But that wasn't the worst, not by a long shot. No, things really went down the tube after that. Within the month we were getting scattered reports of bubonic plague, and of course we tracked them all down and made sure the people got a round of treatment with antibiotics, but still we lost a few and the rats kept coming....
It was my plan, yes. I was brainstorming one night, rats scuttling all over the trailer like something out of a cheap horror film, the villagers in a panic over the threat of the plague and the stream of nonstop hysterical reports from the interior-people were turning black, swelling up and bursting, that sort of thing-well, as I say, I came up with a plan, a stopgap, not perfect, not cheap; but at this juncture, I'm sure your agree, something had to be implemented. We wound up going as far as Australia for some of the cats, cleaning out the SPCA facilities and what-have-you, though we rounded most of them up in Indonesia and Singapore-approximately fourteen thousand in all. And yes, it cost us-cost us upfront purchase money and aircraft fuel and pilots' overtime and all the rest of it-but we really felt there was no alternative. It was like all nature had turned against us.
And yet still, all things considered, we made a lot of friends for the U.S.A. the day we dropped those cats, and you should have seen them, gentlemen, the little parachutes and harnesses we'd tricked up, fourteen thousand of them, cats in every color of the rainbow, cats with one ear, no ears, half a tail, three-legged cats, cats that could have taken pride of show in Springfield, Massachusetts, and all of them twirling down out of the sky like great big oversized snowflakes....
It was something. It was really something. Of course, you've all seen the reports. There were other factors we hadn't counted on, adverse conditions in the paddies and manioc fields-we don't to this day know what predatory species were inadvertently killed off by the initial sprayings, it's just a mystery-but the weevils and whatnot took a pretty heavy toll on the crops that year, and by the time we dropped the cats, well, the people were pretty hungry, and I suppose it was inevitable that we lost a good proportion of them right then and there. But we've got a CARE program going there now, and something hit the rat population- we still don't know what, a virus, we think-and the geckos, they tell me, are making a comeback.
So what I'm saying is, it could be worse, and to every cloud a silver lining, wouldn't you agree, gentlemen?

Lord of the Flies: My Access Info

Write the essay on www.myaccess.com. Your user name is your first name (as it appears on Skyward) with your student ID #, no space in between. Example: JONATHAN1234567. Your password is your last name preceded by 999. Example: 999SMITH.

Your essay submission must be accepted by MyAccess in order to receive a grade. (Hint: If My Access will not accept the submission, you probably have not written enough sentences in each paragraph.) Remember that My Access due dates are firm; absences do not excuse you from submitting the essay by the due date.

Try to get at least a 5 score on each writing trait. If you achieve at least a 5 score on EACH & EVERY writing trait, you do not have to make another submission; that score will be entered on each submission, unless you wish to make more submissions. A 5 on each trait is not a perfect score.

If you do not achieve at least a 5 or above, you must make at least one more submission, and your score MUST improve in order for it to be accepted.
If your second submission does not receive at least a 5 on EACH AND EVERY writing trait, you must make at least one more submission, and your score MUST improve in order for it to be accepted

Sestina

Sestina
By Elizabeth Bishop

September rain falls on the house.
In the failing light, the old grandmother
sits in the kitchen with the child
beside the Little Marvel Stove,
reading the jokes from the almanac,
laughing and talking to hide her tears.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears
and the rain that beats on the roof of the house
were both foretold by the almanac,
but only known to a grandmother.
The iron kettle sings on the stove.
She cuts some bread and says to the child,

It's time for tea now; but the child
is watching the teakettle's small hard tears
dance like mad on the hot black stove,
the way the rain must dance on the house.
Tidying up, the old grandmother
hangs up the clever almanac

on its string. Birdlike, the almanac
hovers half open above the child,
hovers above the old grandmother
and her teacup full of dark brown tears.
She shivers and says she thinks the house
feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.

It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.
I know what I know, says the almanac.
With crayons the child draws a rigid house
and a winding pathway. Then the child
puts in a man with buttons like tears
and shows it proudly to the grandmother.

But secretly, while the grandmother
busies herself about the stove,
the little moons fall down like tears
from between the pages of the almanac
into the flower bed the child
has carefully placed in the front of the house.

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.
The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.
--Elizabeth Bishop

The sestina requires that six end words be repeated in a set pattern across six stanzas and that all six words be used—again, in pattern—in a three-line final stanza, called an envoi—literally, a farewell or conclusion. Certainly these are constraints. But what seems at first like a game—an impossible mathematical equation—soon helps you create an intriguing pattern of sound as you knit word repeats up and down a ladder of seven stanzas. Although seeming not to be a rhymed form, the sestina is one in that exact rhymes (the same words) sound and resound, as in Elizabeth Bishop’s sestina.

Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop

September rain falls on the house.
In the failing light, the old grandmother
sits in the kitchen with the child
beside the Little Marvel Stove,
reading the jokes from the almanac,
laughing and talking to hide her tears.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears
and the rain that beats on the roof of the house
were both foretold by the almanac,
but only known to a grandmother.
The iron kettle sings on the stove.
She cuts some bread and says to the child,

It's time for tea now; but the child
is watching the teakettle's small hard tears
dance like mad on the hot black stove,
the way the rain must dance on the house.
Tidying up, the old grandmother
hangs up the clever almanac

on its string. Birdlike, the almanac
hovers half open above the child,
hovers above the old grandmother
and her teacup full of dark brown tears.
She shivers and says she thinks the house
feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.

It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.
I know what I know, says the almanac.
With crayons the child draws a rigid house
and a winding pathway. Then the child
puts in a man with buttons like tears
and shows it proudly to the grandmother.

But secretly, while the grandmother
busies herself about the stove,
the little moons fall down like tears
from between the pages of the almanac
into the flower bed the child
has carefully placed in the front of the house.

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.
The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.





The sestina requires that six end words be repeated in a set pattern across six stanzas and that all six words be used—again, in pattern—in a three-line final stanza, called an envoi—literally, a farewell or conclusion. Certainly these are constraints. But what seems at first like a game—an impossible mathematical equation—soon helps you create an intriguing pattern of sound as you knit word repeats up and down a ladder of seven stanzas. Although seeming not to be a rhymed form, the sestina is one in that exact rhymes (the same words) sound and resound, as in Elizabeth Bishop’s sestina.

Literary Terms and Root Words

LITERARY TERMS
Extended metaphor
Imagery
Paradox
Allegory
Filial piety
Internal monologue
Morality
Perspective
Stream of consciousness
Theme
Vice
First person point of view
Irony
Magical Realism
Rhetoric
Third person omniscience
Confucianism
First person perspective
Symbol
Virtue
Foreshadowing
Metaphor
Symbolism
Absurd
Figurative language
Perfect rhyme
Simile
Taoism
Tone

ROOT WORDS
Bene
Flec
Greg
Mal
Phon
Spec
Vol
Contra
Grade
Junct
Mir
Seque
String
Duct
Grat
Loqua
Mot
Sol
Tact
sens

Lord of the Flies: Chapter 12

Jack’s Point-of-View & Ralph’s Point-of-View

Answer these questions:

• What happened?
• What events does each boy have firsthand knowledge of?
• What events did each boy only hear about?
• Which actions will each boy defend the most emphatically?
• What will each boy say about the others?


Judges and other Authority Figures:
Prepare questions for both groups. In order to come to a fair judgment, what do the judges need to find out? How can they look beyond the boys' personalities and leadership styles to find an accurate depiction of what happened on the island? List at least 4 questions for each boy (Jack and Ralph).


CONCLUSION: After the Judges and Authority Figures have asked all of their questions to the Jack Supporters and Ralph Supporters, they will deliberate together and formulate their conclusion. Who is responsible for each development during the boys’ stay on the island? To what degree? Why do you hold specific boys responsible?

Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins

Introduction to Poetry
By Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
And hold it up to the light
Like a color slide

Or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
And watch him probe his way out,

Or walk inside the poem’s room
And feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
Across the surface of a poem
Waving at the author’s name on the short.

But all they want to do
Is tie the poem to a chair with rope
And torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
To find out what it really means.



From The Apple that Astonished Paris, 1996
University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, Ark.
Permissions information.
Copyright 1988 by Billy Collins.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced with permission.

Reading Logs for Chapters 9, 10, 11, and 12

Reading Log for Lord of the Flies
For chapters 9, 10, 11 and 12, please do the following:

1. Read the chapter. Be familiar with what happens. For each chapter, write a paragraph (approximately 150 words) on how the events in the chapter function as allegory. Remember that allegory is “a symbolic work: a work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically expressing a deeper, often spiritual, moral, or political meaning” (Encarta Dictionary).

2. Answer the following questions:
a) Tell about a time when you had a similar dilemma to one of the characters in this chapter. Explain what some of the similarities are.

b) Could the things in this chapter happen in today’s society? Give a specific, detailed example (i.e. bullying, morality, etc.).

3. Choose one concrete detail that you feel is significant in this chapter. Write a transition, a lead in and lead out. Remember to include the page number. If you don’t include a page number, you will not receive credit for this assignment. Write two sentences of commentary that is in-depth interpretation or explanation of the CD.

The Demon Lover

The Demon Lover
Elizabeth Bowen


Toward the end of her day in London Mrs. Drover went round to her shut-up house to look for several things she wanted to take away. Some belonged to herself, some to her family, who were by now used to their country life. It was late August; it had been a steamy, showery day: At the moment the trees down the pavement glittered in an escape of humid yellow afternoon sun. Against the next batch of clouds, already piling up ink-dark, broken chimneys and parapets stood out. In her once familiar street, as in any unused channel, an unfamiliar queerness had silted up; a cat wove itself in and out of railings, but no human eye watched Mrs. Drover’s return. Shifting some parcels under her arm, she slowly forced round her latchkey in an unwilling lock, then gave the door, which had warped, a push with her knee. Dead air came out to meet her as she went in.

The staircase window having been boarded up, no light came down into the hall. But one door, she could just see, stood ajar, so she went quickly through into the room and unshuttered the big window in there. Now the prosaic woman, looking about her, was more perplexed than she knew by everything that she saw, by traces of her long former habit of life—the yellow smoke stain up the white marble mantelpiece, the ring left by a vase on the top of the escritoire; the bruise in the wallpaper where, on the door being thrown open widely, the china handle had always hit the wall. The piano, having gone away to be stored, had left what looked like claw marks on its part of the parquet. Though not much dust had seeped in, each object wore a film of another kind; and, the only ventilation being the chimney, the whole drawing room smelled of the cold hearth. Mrs. Drover put down her parcels on the escritoire and left the room to proceed upstairs; the things she wanted were in a bedroom chest.

She had been anxious to see how the house was—the part-time caretaker she shared with some neighbors was away this week on his holiday, known to be not yet back. At the best of times he did not look in often, and she was never sure that she trusted him. There were some cracks in the structure, left by the last bombing, on which she was anxious to keep an eye. Not that one could do anything—

A shaft of refracted daylight now lay across the hall. She stopped dead and stared at the hall table—on this lay a letter addressed to her.

She thought first—then the caretaker must be back. All the same, who, seeing the house shuttered, would have dropped a letter in at the box? It was not a circular, it was not a bill. And the post office redirected, to the address in the country, everything for her that came through the post. The caretaker (even if he were back) did not know she was due in London today—her call here had been planned to be a surprise—so his negligence in the manner of this letter, leaving it to wait in the dusk and the dust, annoyed her. Annoyed, she picked up the letter, which bore no stamp. But it cannot be important, or they would know . . . She took the letter rapidly upstairs with her, without a stop to look at the writing till she reached what had been her bedroom, where she let in light. The room looked over the garden and other gardens: The sun had gone in; as the clouds sharpened and lowered, the trees and rank lawns seemed already to smoke with dark. Her reluctance to look again at the letter came from the fact that she felt intruded upon—and by someone contemptuous of her ways. However, in the tenseness preceding the fall of rain she read it: It was a few lines.

Dear Kathleen: You will not have forgotten that today is our anniversary, and the day we said. The years have gone by at once slowly and fast. In view of the fact that nothing has changed, I shall rely upon you to keep your promise. I was sorry to see you leave London, but was satisfied that you would be back in time. You may expect me, therefore, at the hour arranged. Until then . . .
K.

Mrs. Drover looked for the date: It was today’s. She dropped the letter onto the bedsprings, then picked it up to see the writing again—her lips, beneath the remains of lipstick, beginning to go white. She felt so much the change in her own face that she went to the mirror, polished a clear patch in it, and looked at once urgently and stealthily in. She was confronted by a woman of forty-four, with eyes starting out under a hat brim that had been rather carelessly pulled down. She had not put on any more powder since she left the shop where she ate her solitary tea. The pearls her husband had given her on their marriage hung loose round her now rather thinner throat, slipping in the V of the pink wool jumper her sister knitted last autumn as they sat round the fire. Mrs. Drover’s most normal expression was one of controlled worry, but of assent. Since the birth of the third of her little boys, attended by a quite serious illness, she had had an intermittent muscular flicker to the left of her mouth, but in spite of this she could always sustain a manner that was at once energetic and calm.

Turning from her own face as precipitately as she had gone to meet it, she went to the chest where the things were, unlocked it, threw up the lid, and knelt to search. But as rain began to come crashing down she could not keep from looking over her shoulder at the stripped bed on which the letter lay. Behind the blanket of rain the clock of the church that still stood struck six—with rapidly heightening apprehension she counted each of the slow strokes. “The hour arranged . . . My God,” she said, “what hour? How should I . . . ? After twenty-five years . . . ”

The young girl talking to the soldier in the garden had not ever completely seen his face. It was dark; they were saying goodbye under a tree. Now and then—for it felt, from not seeing him at this intense moment, as though she had never seen him at all—she verified his presence for these few moments longer by putting out a hand, which he each time pressed, without very much kindness, and painfully, on to one of the breast buttons of his uniform. That cut of the button on the palm of her hand was, principally, what she was to carry away. This was so near the end of a leave from France that she could only wish him already gone. It was August 1916. Being not kissed, being drawn away from and looked at intimidated Kathleen till she imagined spectral glitters in the place of his eyes. Turning away and looking back up the lawn she saw, through branches of trees, the drawing-room window alight: She caught a breath for the moment when she could go running back there into the safe arms of her mother and sister, and cry: “What shall I do, what shall I do? He has gone.”

Hearing her catch her breath, her fiancé said, without feeling: “Cold?”

“You’re going away such a long way.”

“Not so far as you think.”

“I don’t understand?”

“You don’t have to,” he said. “You will. You know what we said.”

“But that was—suppose you—I mean, suppose.”

“I shall be with you,” he said, “sooner or later. You won’t forget that. You need do nothing but wait.”

Only a little more than a minute later she was free to run up the silent lawn. Looking in through the window at her mother and sister, who did not for the moment perceive her, she already felt that unnatural promise drive down between her and the rest of all humankind. No other way of having given herself could have made her feel so apart, lost and forsworn. She could not have plighted a more sinister troth.

Kathleen behaved well when, some months later, her fiancé was reported missing, presumed killed. Her family not only supported her but were able to praise her courage without stint because they could not regret, as a husband for her, the man they knew almost nothing about. They hoped she would, in a year or two, console herself—and had it been only a question of consolation things might have gone much straighter ahead. But her trouble, behind just a little grief, was a complete dislocation from everything. She did not reject other lovers, for these failed to appear: For years she failed to attract men—and with the approach of her thirties she became natural enough to share her family’s anxiousness on this score. She began to put herself out, to wonder; and at thirty-two she was very greatly relieved to find herself being courted by William Drover. She married him, and the two of them settled down in this quiet, arboreal part of Kensington: In this house the years piled up, her children were born, and they all lived till they were driven out by the bombs of the next war. Her movements as Mrs. Drover were circumscribed, and she dismissed any idea that they were still watched.

As things were—dead or living the letter writer sent her only a threat. Unable, for some minutes, to go on kneeling with her back exposed to the empty room, Mrs. Drover rose from the chest to sit on an upright chair whose back was firmly against the wall. The desuetude of her former bedroom, her married London home’s whole air of being a cracked cup from which memory, with its reassuring power, had either evaporated or leaked away, made a crisis—and at just this crisis the letter writer had, knowledgeably, struck. The hollowness of the house this evening canceled years on years of voices, habits, and steps. Through the shut windows she only heard rain fall on the roofs around. To rally herself, she said she was in a mood—and for two or three seconds shutting her eyes, told herself that she had imagined the letter. But she opened them—there it lay on the bed.

On the supernatural side of the letter’s entrance she was not permitting her mind to dwell. Who, in London, knew she meant to call at the house today? Evidently, however, this had been known. The caretaker, had he come back, had had no cause to expect her: He would have taken the letter in his pocket, to forward it, at his own time, through the post. There was no other sign that the caretaker had been in—but, if not? Letters dropped in at doors of deserted houses do not fly or walk to tables in halls. They do not sit on the dust of empty tables with the air of certainty that they will be found. There is needed some human hand—but nobody but the caretaker had a key. Under circumstances she did not care to consider, a house can be entered without a key. It was possible that she was not alone now. She might be being waited for, downstairs. Waited for—until when? Until “the hour arranged.” At least that was not six o’clock: Six has struck.

She rose from the chair and went over and locked the door.

The thing was, to get out. To fly? No, not that: She had to catch her train. As a woman whose utter dependability was the keystone of her family life she was not willing to return to the country, to her husband, her little boys, and her sister, without the objects she had come up to fetch. Resuming work at the chest she set about making up a number of parcels in a rapid, fumbling-decisive way. These, with her shopping parcels, would be too much to carry; these meant a taxi—at the thought of the taxi her heart went up and her normal breathing resumed. I will ring up the taxi now; the taxi cannot come too soon: I shall hear the taxi out there running its engine, till I walk calmly down to it through the hall. I’ll ring up—But no: the telephone is cut off . . . She tugged at a knot she had tied wrong.

The idea of flight . . . He was never kind to me, not really. I don’t remember him kind at all. Mother said he never considered me. He was set on me, that was what it was—not love. Not love, not meaning a person well. What did he do, to make me promise like that? I can’t remember—But she found that she could.

She remembered with such dreadful acuteness that the twenty-five years since then dissolved like smoke and she instinctively looked for the weal left by the button on the palm of her hand. She remembered not only all that he said and did but the complete suspension of her existence during that August week. I was not myself—they all told me so at the time. She remembered—but with one white burning blank as where acid has dropped on a photograph: Under no conditions could she remember his face.

So, wherever he may be waiting, I shall not know him. You have no time to run from a face you do not expect.

The thing was to get to the taxi before any clock struck what could be the hour. She would slip down the street and round the side of the square to where the square gave on the main road. She would return in the taxi, safe, to her own door, and bring the solid driver into the house with her to pick up the parcels from room to room. The idea of the taxi driver made her decisive, bold: She unlocked her door, went to the top of the staircase, and listened down.

She heard nothing—but while she was hearing nothing the passé air of the staircase was disturbed by a draft that traveled up to her face. It emanated from the basement: Down there a door or window was being opened by someone who chose this moment to leave the house.

The rain had stopped; the pavements steamily shone as Mrs. Drover let herself out by inches from her own front door into the empty street. The unoccupied houses opposite continued to meet her look with their damaged stare. Making toward the thoroughfare and the taxi, she tried not to keep looking behind. Indeed, the silence was so intense—one of those creeks of London silence exaggerated this summer by the damage of war—that no tread could have gained on hers unheard. Where her street debouched on the square where people went on living, she grew conscious of, and checked, her unnatural pace. Across the open end of the square two buses impassively passed each other: Women, a perambulator, cyclists, a man wheeling a barrow signalized, once again, the ordinary flow of life. At the square’s most populous corner should be—and was—the short taxi rank. This evening, only one taxi—but this, although it presented its blank rump, appeared already to be alertly waiting for her. Indeed, without looking round the driver started his engine as she panted up from behind and put her hand on the door. As she did so, the clock struck seven. The taxi faced the main road: To make the trip back to her house it would have to turn—she had settled back on the seat and the taxi had turned before she, surprised by its knowing movement, recollected that she had not “said where.” She leaned forward to scratch at the glass panel that divided the driver’s head from her own.

The driver braked to what was almost a stop, turned round, and slid the glass panel back: The jolt of this flung Mrs. Drover forward till her face was almost into the glass. Through the aperture driver and passenger, not six inches between them, remained for an eternity eye to eye. Mrs. Drover’s mouth hung open for some seconds before she could issue her first scream. After that she continued to scream freely and to beat with her gloved hands on the glass all round as the taxi, accelerating without mercy, made off with her into the hinterland of deserted streets.

Losing the Senses by Rosalyn Ostler

One - It fades intermittently--
the perfume of orange blossoms
sweet in my nostrils, then a flatline
of fragrance, until a later surprise
when your face touches mine
and the scent of your rushes in.
My skin breathes your embrace,
Hording for the times of loss.

Two – I miss the taste of blackberries,
Caramel, fresh cauliflower, of shrimp,
Fried mushrooms, root beer,
Buttered toast, Hershey’s kisses.

Three – As clouds, fluttered leaves,
and butterflies dim, my mind scrambles
to preserve them. I imprint my brain
with sunsets, waterfalls, autumn colors,
saving the most precious space
for your smile.

Four – My ears strain for last sounds
Of mockingbirds, crickets and frogs,
The creek rushing through a summer night,
Tchaikovsky and Alley Cat, laughter
Of friends, your lips whispering love.

Five – And last – oh please last,
My fingers strive to remember
Their journeys across your face,
Through your hair.
My skin craves the communication
Of your articulate hands.
When numbness cloaks my fingertips,
May every touch live in their memory.

CD and Commentary Practice

Name_________________________________Date__________________Period____________

Lord of the Flies CD and Commentary

Please choose one concrete detail from the assigned chapters and write it below. Be sure to correctly document the source (page number). Include a transition (who, what, where).

CD:









Commentary: Write four sentences of commentary that interpret or explain the CD.

October Calendar

October Calendar

Reminder!!

REMINDER!!!

Please remember to read Chapters 2-4 of Lord of the Flies by Monday, October 24, 2011.

Literary Criticism

Introduction to Literary Criticism and Analysis


In general terms, literary criticism is writing that asks two questions:

What is good and bad about this text?
Why is a particular aspect of the text good or bad?

When you were younger, a teacher may have asked you to write a book review. Book reviews only have to answer the first question, what is good and bad about this text. Literary criticism goes one step further to ask why. Literary criticism is very similar to literary analysis. Literary analysis asks one main question:

Why is this text the way it is?

Several common ways of looking at that question more specifically include,
Why does this character act the way he or she does?
Why does the writer use the particular style he or she uses to convey
this text’s message?
What effect does one aspect of the text, such as the setting or a particular
trait of a character, have on other aspects of the story?

When you write literary criticism and literary analysis, you ask a lot of “why” questions. The main difference between the two is that in literary criticism, more of your opinion comes through. Literary criticism and literary analysis sometimes answer their “why” questions in recognizable ways. Those habitual ways of answering these questions are called different schools of literary theory. Literary theories are simply different ways of approaching those “why” questions. Some of those
approaches include:

Reader response theory: A text is the way it is because of how readers look at it, so any explanation of a text’s meaning needs to take into account the ways different people react to the text.

New Criticism: Texts make sense without reference to outside sources. So any question about a text can be answered by looking closely at how different parts of the text relate to each other.

Historical/biographical criticism: Texts are written by authors, who are heavily influenced by the events in their lives and in the world they live in. So any question about a text should be answered by referring to outside information about the life of the author or the history and culture in which the author lived or lives.

Feminist or gender criticism: This kind of criticism looks at the way male and female characters act in a story and analyzes how that behavior reflects the author’s cultural context and how those portrayals might affect readers’ perceptions of gender. This kind of criticism also looks at what texts leave out; for instance, if there are only stupid men in a story, a gender critic would analyze why.


A sample text:
The rain beat hard against the window, as if heaven was both sad and angry at Lisa, who sat inside, safe and dry, and buried her head in her hands.

A text review (like a book review):
This text describes a girl who is probably sad on a rainy day. It is an effective text at communicating depressing emotions.

A literary criticism:
This text describes two things: rain and a person named Lisa. The text communicates
depressing emotions effectively because it applies them not just to a person but to the weather. Lisa buries “her head in her hands,” which may indicate sadness. While rain isn’t strictly speaking sad, its similarity to tears can make it seem so. The author of this text also personifies heaven and gives it the emotions of sadness and anger to explain why it is raining. Having the weather match Lisa’s mood communicates sadness or anger in a realistic way, because when people are sad or angry they are often so emotional that they cannot see the world as anything
but an extension of those emotions.

A literary analysis:
This text describes two things: rain and a person named Lisa. It describes them both in a depressing way. The text uses personification of nature, because it gives nature the emotions “sad and angry” to explain why it is raining. Giving nature human emotions can make it seem that nature matches or even sympathizes with the person in the scene, who puts her head down in her hands, a sign that she could be sad or angry too.

Note that all three texts start with a quick summary of the text they are writing about.

Note also that both the literary criticism and literary analysis shown here are primarily New Criticism, because for the most part they rely just on the text—as well as a few literary terms—to make their points.

A historical/biographical literary analysis of this text might indicate the following:
It was raining heavily outside when the author wrote this text, and that might have helped her think of rain as a parallel for Lisa’s emotions.

**Be careful to provide cited evidence from a source for the facts you use in historical/biographical literary criticism and analysis.

Reading Response Journal for Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies: Reading Response Journal
While we read Lord of the Flies, you will be required to keep a Reading Journal for each chapter. That means there will be a total of 12 typed Reading Journals. For each journal entry it is mandatory that the following information is included (you must complete all parts for full credit—25 points per entry):
Part A
Summary: In 5-6 typed—12pt font, single spaced-- lines (about 100 words) give a summary of the chapter. (No Spark Notes!)
Part B
Reflection: How did you feel when you read this chapter? What were some of the things you thought about as you read this chapter? Could you identify with the characters and their dilemmas? What part of the chapter stood out to you? Why? Did anything surprise you? Tell me about it. What did you like about the chapter? What didn’t you like about the chapter? (Grade Tip: It would be wise to answer all of these questions for each chapter, in your Reading Response Journal. As a result, your response for Part B will be the same length as the other two Part or maybe longer.)--at least 150 words.
Part C
Select a significant quote (a concrete detail) from the chapter and discuss why it is important in terms of literary quality. Make reference to setting, theme, character, symbol, simile/metaphor, or other literary device. Write a well developed paragraph, using proper MLA format—about 100-150 words. Keep in mind that your quote does not count in your word count.

"We Wear the Mask"

Name____________________________Date_____________Period________________________

We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,---
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

1. Read through the poem twice.
2. What is the tone of the “Mask” poem?


3. What do you believe this poem is about?


4. What words indicate to you the poem’s meaning?


5. According to Dunbar, what are masks?


6. Who uses masks? Give examples.

William Golding: Lord of the Flies

William Golding (1911-1993) - in full Sir Willam Gerald Golding

English novelist, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. The choice was unexpected, because the internationally famous novelist Graham Greene (1904-1991) was considered the strongest candidate from the English writers. In many novels Golding has revealed the dark places of human heart, when isolated individuals or small groups are pushed into extreme situations. His work is characterized by exploration of "the darkness of man's heart", deep spiritual and ethical questions.

"Twenty-five years ago I accepted the label 'pessimist' thoughtlessly without realising that it was going to be tied to my tail, as it were, in something the way that, to take an example from another art, Rachmaninoff's famous Prelude in C sharp minor was tied to him. No audience would allow him off the concert platform until he played it. Similarly critics have dug into my books until they could come up with something that looked hopeless. I can't think why. I don't feel hopeless myself." (from Nobel Lecture, 1983)

William Golding was born in the village of St. Columb Minor in Cornwall. His father, Alec, was a schoolmaster, who had radical convictions in politics and a strong faith in science. Golding's mother, Mildred, was a supporter of the British suffragate movement. Golding started writing at the age of seven, but following the wishes of his parents, he studied first natural sciences and then English at Brasenose College, Oxford. Golding's first book, a collection of poems, appeared in 1934, a year before he received his B.A. in English and a diploma in education.

From 1935 to 1939, Golding worked as a writer, actor, producer, and a settlement house worker. In 1939 he moved to Salisbury, where he began teaching English and philosophy at Bishop Wordsworth's School. He married Ann Brookfield; they had two children. In his private journal Golding described how he once set two groups of boys against one another. These psychological experiments most likely inspired later his novel Lord of the Flies (1954).
During World War II, Golding served in the Royal Navy in command of a rocket ship. His active service included involvement in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in 1940 and participating in the Normandy invasion. Demobilised in 1945, Golding returned to writing and teaching, with a dark view of the European civilization. Recalling later his war experiences, he remarked that "man produces evil, as a bee produces honey."

In Salisbury Golding wrote four books, but did not get them published. Lord of the Flies, an allegorical story set in the near future during wartime, was turned down by twenty-one publishes until it finally accepted by Faber and Faber after substantial revisions. E.M. Forster named it Book of the Years and in the late 1950s it became a bestseller among American readers. At the time of its appearance, Golding was 44, but the success of the novel allowed him to give up teaching. In the gripping story a group of small British boys, stranded on a desert island, lapse into violence after they have lost all adult guidance. Ironically, the adult world is devastated by nuclear war.

Lord of the Flies was followed by The Inheritors (1955), which overturned H.G. Wells's Outline of History (1920) and depicted the extermination of Neanderthal man by Homo Sapiens. Neanderthals are portrayed compassionate and communal, and when they meet the more sophisticated Cro-Magnons, their tribe is doomed. The Finnish professor of paleontology, Björn Kurténhas offered in his novel Dance of the Tiger (1978) the explanation, that the Neanderthals disappeared because they fell fatally in love with their black and beautiful Cro-Magnon neighbours. In The Inheritors, which Golding himself considered his finest work, there is no understanding or love between these two races. First the events are perceived from the point of view of Lok, a semi-human creature, and after his death, the new protagonist is a Cro-Magnon, Tuami.

Golding's most widely read work, Lord of the Flies, has been translated into many languages and filmed in 1963 and 1990. It is an ironic comment on R.M. Ballantyne's Coral Island, using also the names of its characters. The story describes a group of children, who are evacuated from Britain because of a nuclear war. Their airplane crashes on an uninhabited island, and all the adults are killed. The boys create their own society, which gradually degenerates from democratic, rational, and moral community to tyrannical and cruel. "They cried for their mothers much less often than might have been expected; they were very brown, and filthily dirty." (in Lord of the Flies)

The older boys take control, a boy called Piggy, who is asthmatic and nearsighted, becomes a target of teasing and torment. Leaders emerge, two of the older boys get killed, and they begin to hunt another, just as a ship arrives. Golding's view is pessimistic: human nature is inherently corruptible and wicked. Thus the 19th century ideals of progress and education are based on false premises. Although the boys have been taught social skills, their desire to kill is unleashed when there are no strict rules of the English public-school system to control their behavior. This is the world of freedom, that is ruled by savages and the ultimate evil, the Lord of the Flies, Beelzebub, Prince of Devils, whom the boys worship in the form of a decapitated boar's head.

source: Some rights reserved Petri Liukkonen (author) & Ari Pesonen. Kuusankosken kaupunginkirjasto 2008

Lord of the Flies Anticipation Guide

Anticipation Guide for William Golding’s Lord of the Flies

In the space to the left of each statement, write “T” for true, if you agree with the statement, or “F” for false if you disagree with the statement.

_____ 1. If someone cannot “pull her weight,” she is expendable.

_____ 2. The younger we are, the more selfish we are.

_____ 3. All wars are preventable.

_____ 4. Homo sapiens were meant to be herbivores.

_____ 5. The darkness is scary because of the unknown factor.

_____ 6. Adult supervision is necessary in every context.

_____ 7. Youth is wasted on the young.

_____ 8. Every child has some form of the “Boogie Man.”

_____ 9. There should be a “pecking order” among siblings; it is healthy, productive, and proper for the older and bigger to dominate (“survival of the fittest”).

_____ 10. Mankind is the cruelest of all beasts, because when we hurt other people, we realize they are being hurt; when cats play with and eat mice, the cat has no idea that the mouse is in pain. This makes people the least respectable of all species (concept from Mark Twain’s The Damned Human Race).

_____ 11. Good authors can provide endless thinking opportunities; without them, life would be dull.

Once you have completed answering these statements, please go to this website:

Additional Lord of the Flies

On a seperate piece of paper, and with your shoulder partner discuss the statements found on this website. Give your reasoning why you choose your answer(s). Be prepared to discuss them with the class.

Keynote

Sophomore Keynote Presentation for Monday, October 10, 2011

Group One: What is the significance of jungle/tropical islands?
Group Two: What are types of civilization?
Group Three: What are characteristics of boys ages 5-11?
Group Four: What are the characteristics of a utopian and dystopian society?
Group Five: Does man need authority?
Group Six: Is war necessary to have a successful society?
Group Seven: Is man innately good or evil?

The Keynote presentation must have three slides.
• Slide 1 : Definition of your topic
• Slide 2: What does it look like?
• Slide 3: Make a connection to our society.
• Use a graphic or picture for each slide.

Argumentative Essay Checklist

Name_____________________________________Date__________________Period__________

Argumentative Essay Checklist

Opening Paragraph
 General sentence introducing the topic, also called a “hook”
 Outside example of topic (NOT anything about Macbeth! Think books, movies, political events, news stories, etc.)
 Transition from outside example to Macbeth
 Two part thesis statement (must be arguable, supportable and specific. Do not write “Macbeth kills lots of people, including Banquo and Macduff.” Thesis statement must be underlined.

First Body Paragraph
 Topic sentence about the thesis position
 Transition to first point of thesis (who, where, what, when)
 1st concrete detail from Macbeth. Must be embedded in the sentence and include a lead-out.
 Underline CD and include act and scene numbers (ex: IV, iii, 132-133)
 Include a MINIMUM of two sentences of commentary. Commentary is interpretation or explanation of the CD and IS NOT summary!!
 Transition to second point of thesis (who, where, what, when)
 2nd concrete detail from Macbeth. Must be embedded in the sentence and include a lead-out.
 Underline CD and include act and scene numbers.
 Include a MINIMUM of two sentences of commentary, NOT summary!
 Concluding sentence

Second Body Paragraph
 Topic sentence about the thesis position
 Transition to outside source (CD). Tell who said it OR the title of the article/website. (ex: Harvard professor, Dr. David Neiman, explains, “Lady Macbeth was a product of her time” and that it wasn’t her fault she was homicidal (32).
 Commentary (minimum of two sentences)
 Transition to second outside source (see above)
 Commentary
 Concluding sentence

Third Body Paragraph
 Topic sentence
 Counter argument – can use an outside source for this. If so, it needs to be embedded and contain a parenthetical citation.
 Refutation – can use an outside source for this. There needs to be ONE outside source (minimum) for this paragraph with detailed explanation.
 Concluding sentence

Closing Paragraph
 Restate thesis and summarize claims. Do not just cut and paste your thesis/arguments here.
 Universalize – why do we care about this topic? What does it have to do with our current lives? Do NOT use sweeping statements, i.e., “If Macbeth had only had a true friend none of this tragedy would have occurred.” Or “We should all be friendly to everyone.”
 Clinching sentence – sums everything up in a powerful closing sentence.

Works Cited Page
 Is on its own page
 Title says Works Cited. Nothing else.
 Includes Macbeth as a source
 Contains three other sources that are academically sound
 Is alphabetized
 Is double-spaced
 Left hanging margin on first line of each source. Additional lines are indented five spaces.
 Double-check format of each source. You are accountable for the correct format. If you have questions, ask before the essay is due.

Organization
 Cover sheet with original, creative title, your name, date and period. Must be typed.
 Final essay
 Works Cited page
 Edited rough draft
 Peer edit sheet with name of peer editor
 3 Research Logs


REMEMBER:
 Use third person throughout the essay
 Document your sources correctly
 Include a Works Cited page
 Underline thesis and all CDs
 Do not include questions in the essay

Counter-Argument Example

First, I will state my assertion. How about: Schools should make hot chocolate available to students in the morning and at lunch time.

Second, brainstorm supporting arguments: Hot chocolate contains lots of milk which is full of calcium and protein. Growing kids should have three servings of dairy each day. They can be served hot or iced, so they would be appealing both in summer and winter. They are a popular drink among older teens and adults whom students are likely to emulate. Hot Chocolate would replace sodas for lots of students, improving their nutrition. Hot Chocolate seems more ‘special’ than canned sodas or juice, so maybe it would make students feel more positive about school.

Third, decide on a couple of main arguments to include in my thesis statement: I think I’ll include the nutrition aspect and their popularity. So, my thesis might be ‘Schools should make hot chocolate available to students in the morning and at lunch time because they would improve students’ nutrition and they are popular.’ That’s kind of long. I’ll shorten it to ‘Schools should serve hot chocolate because they are nutritional and popular.’ I’ll start with that.

Fourth, identify an audience: I’ll try to convince parents.

Fifth, think of the concerns or arguments parents might raise. (These will be the counter-arguments I will answer in my paper.) Well, I know parents might argue that kids shouldn’t have too much sugar. They might think of the hot chocolate with whipped cream on top and say hot chocolate has too much fat. They might be concerned that they are messy—more likely to be spilled than a soda with a lid. No, I think that would be more of a concern if I were writing for the administrators; I’ll leave that one out. Maybe parents would worry about how expensive the drinks are.

Sixth, think of answers to the parents’ concerns and counter-arguments. Well, for the too much sugar argument, I could recommend sugar-free hot chocolate. I could also compare the amount of sugar in a hot chocolate with how much is in a soda. I could also check and see if it was the same kind of sugar: I have read that the high fructose corn syrup in sodas is worse than regular sugar. That would take a little research, but it should be easy to find out. What else? Oh, yes – fat. Everybody has heard of "skinny" hot chocolates made with non-fat milk, so I could include that in my recommendation. Now for the last one: expense. Hot chocolates are kind of expensive compared with a soda. How could I answer that concern? If students learned
to make them and ran a student stand in the cafeteria, they wouldn’t be so expensive; there wouldn’t have to be a profit built in – although I suppose the equipment is expensive. Maybe instead of some of the other prizes and awards that the parent club buys, they could pay for hot chocolate tickets to give out as incentives or awards. Ok, I think that is enough to start with.

Seventh, write down an outline. Ok. First, I have my thesis statement.

Then, my first section is going to be Improved Nutrition. Under that I can include the calcium, protein, the nutritional needs of growing kids, and the substitution for the "empty calories" in soda. I think this would be a good time to put in the counter-arguments related to nutrition. My second section will be about Popularity of Hot chocolate. I could even take a short survey of students and use a statistic to show that more kids would drink milk if it were in hot chocolate instead of a regular ol’ carton. I could put in how they can be served in summer or winter and about how kids aren’t likely to "outgrow" them because they are popular with older teens and
adults. This could be where I answer the counter-argument about expense with some ideas about kids being willing to work at a student-stand and about giving out tickets as awards. Now I need to enter the counter-arguments related to nutrition. I could say ‘Some parents might counter that hot chocolate is high in sugar, and fat. However, those arguments fail to take into consideration the fact that hot chocolate can be made with sugar-free flavorings, and non-fat milk – or even soy milk.’ I could add ‘Also, when one considers the sugar content of the sodas they will be replacing, this argument seems even weaker." Then I could I answer the counter-argument about expense with some ideas about kids being willing to work at a student-stand and about giving out tickets as awards.

And my paper is practically written at this point!

Counter-Argument Activity Directions

Counter-Argument Activity

I. Once you are in a group, identify a topic about which you know enough to take and support two or more positions. Here are some possible idea-starters:
• Community issues involving bike paths, bus routes or schedules, parks, recreation opportunities for teens, etc.
• School issues such as electives, schedules, lunchroom conditions or offerings, extra-curricular programs, social groups or activities, behavioral or discipline issues, rules, policies, etc.
• Individual issues such as health, leisure, career planning, etc.

In the River’s Edge Park example, the topic is Developing a Park.

II. When you have picked a topic, ask questions about it until you come up with at least two positions you can support with reasons today. (In your argumentative essay on Macbeth you have had the opportunity to do research to build your support.)
• You might start by asking questions that begin with “How can we ...?” or “What should we do about …?” These will result in several possible positions.
• Questions that begin simply “Should we …?” will result in only two positions -- for and against.

In the River’s Edge Park example, the question was “What kind of development should take place?” or “What kind of a park should it become?” Although only one position is presented, we can guess that other positions might have been: It should become a sports-oriented park; it should appeal to a wide variety of users; it should attract the greatest number of users possible; it should reflect the history of the area, etc.

III. Next, divide your group into half. We’ll call these two half-groups Thesis Teams. Each team will take a different position on the topic. Your team will write a thesis and outline the support you would use in a argumentative paper, including anticipating counter-arguments.

Steps for the Thesis Group

1. Formulate your position on the issue.
2. Brainstorm possible evidence you could use to support your position. (Turn this in too).
3. Decide on two or three main supporting arguments and incorporate them (and your position) into a thesis statement.
4. Identify the audience you want to persuade. (e.g. parents, teachers, coaches, etc. No “preaching to the choir” allowed!)
5. Brainstorm possible counter-arguments or concerns your audience might have. (These would be their “Yeah, but…” responses.)
6. Jot down possible answers to your reader’s counter-arguments.
7. On a piece of paper, write a brief outline of a paper, incorporating your supporting arguments and your answers to the reader’s counter-arguments.
8. Turn in your completed outline (2 outlines for 1 group—remember you’ve split yourselves into 2 teams at this point) to your Period’s In-Box in the classroom, or email to MrsLarson322@gmail.com

Counter Argument: Park Planning

Criteria for Good Thesis Statements

1. Arguable – Reasonable people could disagree
2. Supportable – Can be backed up with evidence, reasons
3. Specific – Not vague, not too general, not too broad
4. “Maps out” the paper – Gives the reader a guide to the organization of the argument
5. Third person – No “I” or “me” in the paper



Park Planning for River’s Edge Park

Tucked away among neighboring houses along the Willamette River is a small pocket of nature: Blackberries ripen under the great trees; ivy runs down the bank, obscuring the remnants of trails down to the gravel bar; an osprey lifts off from its nest in a dying treetop. This is River’s Edge Park, a small parcel of mostly overgrown land, forgotten for decades by most of the city. Now, plans are being made to develop this corner as part of a master planning process for all of the city parks. The question is, What kind of development should take place? Taking into consideration the size and natural features of the park and the interests of the immediate neighbors, it is clear that the best plan is for a relatively undeveloped, mostly naturalized park with limited amenities and parking.

The size and physical features of the park are the most limiting factor. Barely 10 acres, only the top half of the park is flat and well above the annual winter high water. Only this area is suitable for siting any permanent structures, and its small size argues for the simplest of amenities: A picnic table or two, benches, a viewing platform, a play structure, and a small lawn will fill the area. Some may insist on adding more parking spaces here. However, to do so would require either removing the spreading maples that give the park its character and beauty or eliminating the lawn and picnic area.

Down a steep and unstable bank lies the other half of the park. This is gravel bar, flooded each winter and overgrown with young willows. This part is best left to nature. Some may argue that this is the jewel of the park and should be cleared and made more accessible. However, while a trail may be cleared to the water each spring, any attempts at developing this part will be thwarted each year by the high water. A winter channel cutting close to the bank creates an island of the lower half. Each year’s flood chokes the area with massive debris. Since heavy equipment is not allowed in such a riparian area, the effort and expense of clearing it each year would exhaust the Park Department’s maintenance budget – as well as its personnel.

Finally, the park is currently and will continue to be designated a neighborhood park – not a city or regional park. So, the interests of the neighbors should weigh most heavily in any decisions. Their preferences range from leaving it exactly as it is to adding small improvements. They favor one or two tables, a play structure, and clearing back the brush on the upper level. Any grand ideas for changing this park aren’t coming from the people who actually use it.

In conclusion, River’s Edge Park is already very close to what it should become: A natural area where people can picnic in view of the river, neighborhood children can play, and the adventurous can traipse down the bank and skip stones or wade. And perhaps we can help nature along a bit by adding a nesting pole for the osprey against the day that the winter storms take down that dying fir tree.

DIRECTIONS:
In a Google Doc, highlight the thesis. Underline the counter-arguments.

ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS:
1. How does the writer support his position? Explain.
2. How is each counter-argument answered or refuted? Explain.

Brainstorm and Research Log

Brainstorm and Research Log
From the brainstorming work we did during class, think about three topics that interest you. Write them below.

1.

2.

3.

Choose one of the above topics and find an article from an academic source and fill out the form below. This will be the format used for all three of your research logs.

Name__________________________

Date___________________________

Research Log # ____________


Complete MLA format for the source used. You may use Easybib.com and Citationmachine.net, but you are still accountable to make sure the format is correct.





Brief summary (approximately 100-150 words) of the article. Remember to use attributive tags (the author’s last name) and include main points only. Do not include any of your thoughts or interpretation of the material.











Brief Reponse (approx. 100-150 words). These are you thoughts, feelings, and interpretations of the article. WHat did you feel was useful? What information was lacking? Where will you look next? WIll you stay on this train of thought, or will you shift directions?

What is Argumentative Writing?

Express your judgment, not your opinion. In middle school they call it "persuasion"; in college they call it "argumentation"—so what’s the difference? Expectation. Your instructor is less interested in what side you take than in how you take that side, how you analyze the issue and organize your response. Forget about whether you’re right and someone else is wrong; writing a good paper is not a competition. Instead, focus on your “line of argument”—how you develop your paper by meeting your audience’s needs, integrating solid evidence, and demonstrating a solid understanding of the topic.

The following steps will guide you through the writing process:

1) Choose your topic—carefully. Check your ideas against the following three criteria before finalizing your topic:

•Your topic must be arguable. The phrase “everything’s an argument” is not quite true—most things are, but not everything. Take the common high school editorial topic of “cliques are bad”: it’s a common opinion, sure, but who really disagrees? Your topic needs to be debatable; there has to be a clear opposing argument that others support. Ask yourself: who would oppose me? Why?
•Your topic must be contemporary and relevant. Arguments do not exist in a vacuum; they arise because people of varied beliefs interact with one another every day (or just bump heads). Your essay, even if it is about the past, should connect to values and ideas of the present. Look to current events or issues for inspiration—what’s going on in the world that’s inspiring discussion and/or disagreement? Ask yourself: does my topic matter to people right now? Why?
•Your topic must have value to you. Given the hours you’ll need to invest in the paper, your topic needs to be more than “interesting”; it has to be knowledge you want to pursue for your own personal benefit, not just a grade. However fascinating cloning may be, for example, if you’re not interested in science or ethics—two fundamental sub-issues of the cloning debate—your essay will be a chore to write. Choose a topic you care about and are invested in. You’ll write better and research deeper because of your personal investment.

2) Analyze your audience. Your understanding of your audience—yes, even your teacher—is integral in determining the development and organization of your argument, as well as the stylistic techniques you can utilize in your writing. For example, if you are writing to your instructor, consider what he/she expects from students on such an assignment—a formal tone, large amounts of evidence integrated into the paper, analysis of these ideas, right?

3) Research wisely. Google is quick and easy; everybody uses it. So does your professor, who is rather justified in his/her skepticism of website credibility—lots of the readily accessible data via Google is inaccurate and risky. Make sure your online sources are from established educational/professional sites.

Also use your library’s subject-specific databases to find professional journals covering your topic. With a narrow and focused topic, searching should be a breeze. And use the “snowball” research technique: once you find a helpful source, look at its references/bibliography to get new leads on evidence for your paper. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

4) Dig deeper. A meaningful topic will tap into underlying values and issues of modern society. Look for the themes or big ideas of your issue. For example, consider whether or not cities should limit or ban national chain stores from expanding in their respective communities. On one hand, yes, a paper might address the positives and negatives of Wal-Mart or Subway. Yet an excellent argument will also discuss the bigger conflicts at play: convenience vs. community identity, job creation vs. environmental damage. Seeing the “big picture” adds depth to your argument.

5) Complexify your argument. There are several rhetorical “moves” or patterns writers can utilize to enhance their argument and demonstrate critical thinking about their topic. Here are short summaries of six of them:

•Cause and effect: discuss what has led to your topic becoming an issue and why the issue is affecting people.
•Qualification: “qualification” here means to limit your position to specific contexts or situations, a “yes, but…” perspective. Qualifying not only can demonstrate that you understand the complexity of an issue but can show you have a unique perspective on it.
•Examination of the opposing argument: know thy enemy. Analyzing other perspectives on your topic has three key advantages: you demonstrate a broad understanding of the issue; you can strengthen your position by comparing it to others; and you’ve given yourself plenty more to write about.
•Concede a little, as necessary: it’s perfectly okay to admit your position is not perfect; in fact, breaking down what works and what doesn’t about your topic can enhance your analysis. Anticipating and alleviating your reader’s concerns can be incredibly persuasive.
•Propose a solution: a logical and feasible solution to your issue provides authority and credibility, and it can make for a strong conclusion.
•Examine the implications: what effect will this issue have on individuals and/or the world? Discussing what lies ahead for your topic also makes for a strong approach to a conclusion.

6) Revise, revise, revise. Talk is cheap—and so are papers littered with clichés, illogical arguments, and grammar mistakes. Find a peer who disagrees with your position and have him/her read your paper. Discuss your ideas, your approaches, and your writing style with this naysayer; take the feedback and advice seriously. Read your paper out loud to yourself during later revisions. Be sure to check if you’ve cited your sources correctly. Edit for grammar and spelling only after you are comfortable with what you’ve you written and how you’ve written it.

**Information acquired from: http://www.enotes.com/topics/how-write-argumentative-essay

Argumentative Assignment

The objective of the argumentative essay is to explain to the reader why the writer takes the position she/he does on a particular topic and to demonstrate why her/his judgments and arguments are valid.

For this assignment, choose either "California Blues" or "The Pets we Love--and Drug" (both found on this blogspot) to read in their entirety. As you read the article, locate the thesis of the paper. (If it is not explicitly expressed, what do you think the writer hopes to prove with his paper?) Also, look for the arguments that the author makes throughout his article to support his thesis.

After you have completed reading 1 article, copy the article and paste it into a Word Document or a Google Doc. Then, highlight or underline the thesis and the arguments found within the article. Once you've located the arguments you must write whether or not each one is using Pathos, Logos, or Ethos. You will be graded on whether or not you're able to locate a thesis (central point or idea) and how many arguments you're able to fine.

Email your completed assignments to: MrsLarson322@gmail.com In order to receive credit, your assignment must be submitted by 3pm on Thursday, September 29th.

Any questions? Please ask.

Sports Illustrated: Argumentative Essay

California Blues

The Pets we Love--and Drug

BY: Matthew Philips

Fluffy is getting old. Going on 13, she's geriatric for a Rottweiler. And like many people past retirement age, she takes a lot of pills—steroids for her bad hips and pinched nerve, a chewable tablet for her underactive thyroid, even Benadryl for her allergies. Her owner, Kelly Dowd, is happy to pay the $75 monthly. But to date, there has been no pill to treat Fluffy's most serious ailment—at 110 pounds, she's 25 pounds overweight, borderline obese.

Next month this will change when Slentrol, the first diet drug for dogs, hits the market. Developed by Pfizer and approved by the Food and Drug Administration late last year, Slentrol suppresses a dog's appetite and limits fat absorption. Although Dowd says she'll try to cut the amount of food Fluffy eats before resorting to drugs, at a cost of nearly $2 a day Pfizer believes the owners of at least 17 million dogs will be willing to try Slentrol. That could be a conservative bet: about one third of the 74 million dogs in the United States are overweight (5 percent are obese). And, increasingly, Americans are willing to open their wallets for Fluffy and friends, spending nearly $40 billion on their pets last year, double what they did in 1994.

Perhaps that's because pets have become more prominent members of the family. "We've shown an increasing willingness to spend money on our pets as they've become a bigger part of our lives," says Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. This is partly because a decade ago, most pet owners were parents, but now more are owned by people with no children at all—empty nesters, gay couples and single adults. In many households, pets aren't just presents for children—they are surrogate children. "Two thirds of homes in the U.S. have a pet," says Vetere. "Twice as many [as those] with children."

Whether we worry that our pets are eating tainted, potentially lethal food—or that they're simply eating too much—we've made pet health a priority. In 2006, 77 percent of dogs were given medication, compared with 52 percent in 2004. According to APPMA, spending on pets' surgical procedures and dental care—including floss and teeth whiteners—has also risen. Pet products now make up more than half an animal-health market once dominated by products for livestock, fueling what in 2005 was a $5 billion industry. "The companion-animal sector has snowballed into this unstoppable force," says Richard Daub, who covers the industry for the trade publication Animal Pharm.

Not surprisingly, some of the world's largest drugmakers are pouring resources into their animal-health divisions in hopes of capitalizing on this emerging market. The FDA has approved more than two dozen new drugs for pets since 2002 alone. Along with Slentrol, Pfizer has a drug to treat motion sickness in dogs that's due out in August. Eli Lilly just launched a new companion-animal division, and plans to develop six drugs in the next four years, in part by reconstituting drugs developed for humans, targeting not physical but psychological ailments. Lilly's new flagship pet medication, Reconcile, approved by the FDA in January to treat separation anxiety in dogs, is the same compound as its antidepressant Prozac. "The cost of developing a new drug is so high, they're crazy not to reuse molecules developed for humans," says Nick Dodman, director of the Animal Behavior Clinic at the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Based on research done by Dodman, a British firm, Accura Pharma, recently bought a patent to develop the first antiaggression drug for dogs.

Some pet owners say medication has improved their pets' lives dramatically. Mark Musin of San Francisco gives his Jack Russell, Murphy, Prozac to keep him from fixating on reflections and shadows. "Without it, he obsesses over them," Musin says.

But others see pet drugs as a quick fix that fail to address the root of a bigger problem. Pets are often cooped up indoors and left alone for much of the day, under-exercised and overfed—is it any wonder they're aggressive, anxiety-ridden and fat? "We're absolutely projecting our neuroses and bad habits onto our pets," says Dr. J. P. O'Leary, a veterinarian outside Pittsburgh who says that of the 400 animals he sees a week, half are obese and many have behavioral issues. Rather than spending the time and energy working with their pets to correct them, though, "people would rather throw a pill at it," he says. O'Leary hesitates when asked if he plans to prescribe Slentrol to clients with overweight dogs. "Only as a last resort," he says. "The problem can be solved by regulating their food and getting more exercise." That's advice plenty of humans could use, too.

Macbeth: Character List

Macbeth: Scottish general ambitious enough to commit regicide to become king
Lady Macbeth: His wife; ambitious; later remorseful
Banquo: General, murdered bu hired killers
Fleance: Banquo's son
Duncan: King of Scotland
Malcolm: Eldest son of Duncan, Prince of Cumberland
Donalbain: Youngest son og Duncan
Macduff: General, dedicated to the good of Scotland
Ross: Cousin to Macduff
Lennox: Nobleman, loyal to Duncan
Three Witches: Predict Macbeth's ambitions will soon come true; later predict his downfall

Possible Themes in Macbeth

As you read Macbeth, some possible themes you may come across are:

a) blind ambition
b) power corrupts
c) supersition affects human behavior
d) things are not what they seem

Obviously, there are many more themes and motifs within the play, so please freely mark anything that you think pertains to a theme found in Macbeth.

Macbeth: Act III

For Macbeth Act III we will be working in groups and reading assigned sections of the text. While in your groups you are expected to complete the following:

1. Translate your scene into "modern" English.
2. Mark at least 2 literary devices per page. (This can include evidence of specific themes and motifs found throughout the play).
3. Create a detailed summary of the events that transpired in your assigned section.
4. Answer any Study Guide questions that may be contained in your scene.

In order to get full credit for this assignment, you must participate.
As a group, you will turn in your detailed summary and translation. You will present everything to the class, including your markings for each page and the answers to any study guide questions.

As you listen to other groups, it is your responsibility to make sure that you know and understand what is taking place in the other scenes. You are still required to know what happens in the complete Act. In addition, it behooves you to write down the markings that they other groups marked in their sections, as well as the answers to any study guide questions.

Lastly, please remember to participate. We are watching and we know who is working hard, and who is hardly working...please come see us if you have ANY questions.

Calendar of Assignments

Please remember to check this calendar frequently for any changes to the schedule.

September Calendar

Anticipation Guide: Macbeth

Instructions: Discuss the statements below with a small group. Write "A" next to statements with which your group agrees. If you disagree with the statement, write "D". If your group can not come to a consensus, write "NC."

_____ 1. People who are striving to get ahead often step on other people.

_____ 2. You shouldn't put too much faith in fortune-tellers and other who claim to be able to predict the future.

_____ 3. Being powerful usually is the same thing being happy.

_____ 4. People who are involved in criminal activities can still feel love, fear, and concern for other people.

_____ 5. Everyone is capable of murder under the right circumstances.

_____ 6. If you commit a crime and don't get caught, it doesn't really matter because your guilt over what you have done will destroy you in the end.

_____ 7. In feudal times, power over a kingdom usually passed peacefully from father to son.

_____ 8. One mistake can often lead to another.

_____ 9. The forces of good and evil are always locked in a struggle and probably always will be.

_____ 10. Witches have always existed; they still do today.

Macbeth, the play you are preparing to read, is one of Shakespeare's famous tragedies. From what members of your group know about tragedy as a literary form, what are some things which you might expect to find in this play?

Beowulf Webquest

Below you will find a link that will take you to an interactive website about Beowulf. Please read the information on the website and answer the following questions. You may answer the questions on a seperate sheet of paper. Don't forget to turn in your answers at the end of the class period! Tip: Copy the questions and paste them into a Word document for easy access.

Exploring Beowulf

1. Beowulf is considered an epic poem. What makes it different from other narratives?

2. Name the three periods that the English language has been divided into.

3. What letters are NOT included in the Anglo-Saxon alphabet?

4. Compounding is the combing of two words to make a new word. From the information given on the website, why might Compounding be done in Beowulf?

5. Of the five translations given, which one would you prefer most to read? Why? What is the name of the translator?

6. Where does Beowulf take place? In terms of modern day locations, where is Beowulf's kindgom? Where is Hrothgar's kingdom?

7. What type of material were the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, containing Beowulf, written on?

8. What were the four other pieces of that were included on the Beowulf manuscripts?

9. Why is translating a subjective, rather than objective task?

10. When was the title, Beowulf, added to the text? *Hint: the answer is found under the Overview section, in the Significance tab.*