More tomorrow.

So, I went and did it. I wrote a reading quiz and made you take it. While no one asked why you had to (and you promised you would), the reasoning I gave in class was this:

1. Some of you are motivated by grades, points, etc. While I do my best to dissuade you from this, hoping that you’ll instead enjoy the book, many of you remain steadfast. That’s cool; we have quizzes.
2. It gets us all thinking about the same scenes from the novel while maintaining our own opinions of them. In years past, I would open with “So what happened?” and someone would give a synopsis. This worked fairly well, but colored everyone’s interpretation. I want to know how each of you read it, not come to a consensus.
3. Some of you are smarter on paper, or unwilling to speak up in class. I’ve always been in the former group, so I feel your pain. Writing out your thoughts gives you a chance to organize them. For the quiet ones, you get your opinions to me, though the rest of the class misses out. I may read some of your responses in class. If you are worried about this, just let me know.

Bookmark the previous post (the reading schedule) so you don’t have to go searching every night. Some students copy it into their reading journals or on a bookmark so they always have it. Do whatever you feel is best.

“How I Came to Be a Teacher”

Fifth hour (and anyone in third hour who is interested): I’m really excited that you decided to write your own story similar to mine. It will be due Friday in lieu of an essay over the book. Remember that it does not have to be about you as a student. Here are some ideas:

• How I came to believe…
• How I decided to change my life/outlook/attitude.
• How I came to the realization that…
• How I came to be friends with…
• Post below if you come up with more.

The only parameters are that it should be about something you have achieved, or something you are doing/living now. While “How I decided to become a _____ when I grow up” would be an interesting story, focus on something that has changed in your recent past.

As always, email me with questions.

If you haven’t picked up About a Boy yet, do so. We’ll be discussing the first two chapters in class Monday. For your reference, here’s the reading schedule Read the rest of this entry »

We will begin discussing Nick Hornby’s About a Boy on Monday, Aug. 24th. There are plenty of copies under my name at Barnes & Noble on 41st:

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Read through chapter 4 and come to class prepared to discuss.

1. Pull your devices from the list below (I’ll give you the handout tomorrow).
2. Find an example “in the wild” (song lyrics are okay, but see if you can’t find an example outside of literature)
3. Think about your explanation. The objective here is to figure out why something is the way it is, rather than just pointing it out. If your explanation is “This picture of a car wash sign has a bubble that is popping, and it says, ‘Pop!’ That’s onomatopoeia!” you might want to re-think your example.
4. You don’t need to write your explanation down at this point, but you should be ready to defend and explain your choice in class.
5. Bring it to class tomorrow. If it is online, you can post a link below. If it is in your camera/phone, email it to me.

Example explanation from class:

Stewie’s sarcastic retort to the girl’s insult highlights (and draws out) the fact that it is an old reference (allusion!). By re-stating what she said in a sarcastic tone, he turns her own words against her.

• Allegory—(usually) simple story that portrays some moral through the actions of characters.
• Alliteration—repeating consonant (letters that aren’t vowels) sounds at the beginning of words. (See  consonance)
• Allusion—reference to something outside the work being read
• Analogy—comparison between two things using “like” or “as,” often used to make a logical point
• Climax—the point of highest action or development of the plot; the succession of increasingly important words, phrases, or clauses.
• One equal temper of heroic hearts,/Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will/To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.—Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses
• Conflict—opposition of forces in a work
• [Who is the main character? Who opposes him or her? Are there other forces working against the characters? Types of Conflict: person vs. person, person vs. nature, person vs. fate, person vs. self, person vs. society]
• Connotation—the meaning of a word within the context of a written work
• Consonance—repetition of consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of words. (See alliteration)
• Couplet—a pair of lines in a poem; if they rhyme, it’s a rhyming couplet
• Ex: I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies/This is the dawning of the rest of our lives (Green Day, American Idiot, “Holiday”)
• Denotation—the literal, dictionary definition of a word
• Diction—the author’s word choice
• Ex: The sentence “Adam walked quickly across the yard” seems okay, but if the author changed walked quickly to lurched, hurried, or quick-stepped, it would be a much more precise sentence.
• Flashback—device utilizing a shift in time during a narrative. Usually in order to expose the back story of a character in a way that sheds light on a current situation. We are doing a similar thing in Brit Lit—by “folding” the chronology of or books in half, we can compare current works with older ones.
• Ex: J.D. in Scrubs has a flashback almost every episode. Family Guy also contains many flashbacks, but almost always for absurd comedic effect.
• Foreshadowing—Symbol or reference in a narrative that hints at a future event. Authors use this in a way similar to flashbacks, but it is often less obvious.
• Hyperbole—dramatic overstatement. Allows us to add emotional weight to a statement.
• Ex: Chris knew the whole school laughed at him when he tripped on the first day.
• Imagery—verbal representation of sensory information; can be visual (sight), auditory (sound), tactile (touch), olfactory (smell), or gustatory (taste)
• Irony—usually humorous device in which a character says the opposite of what is intended, or an event’s outcome is the opposite of what is expected. We use irony to highlight the difference between things as they are and the things that could be.
• Metaphor—using one kind of thing to represent another without express indication of the representation
• Meter—poetic rhythm pattern; can be iambic (unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable), trochaic (stressed then unstressed), dactylic (stressed then two unstressed), or anapestic (two unstressed then stressed). As poetry was originally performed for an audience, rhythm allowed the speaker to involve the listeners—think about clapping or dancing at a concert.
• Personification—a figure of speech in which non-human things are given human characteristics.
• Ex: The television stared into the empty living room searching for attention.
• Simile—comparison of two things using “like” or “as”
• Symbol—something concrete that stands for something abstract outside the work, or recalls something else inside the work; something that means more than what it is physically used for.

Post questions or links below.