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(S1C7) Moving Beyond Formulaic Compositions

9/9/2015

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Today in class
After the Great Expectations quiz on Volume III, we'll discuss satire. Here are two questions for you to consider:

1, What aspects of Victorian life does Charles Dickens satirize in Great Expectations? How? Through what means? Through which characters? Situations?

2. Which characters change throughout the course of teh novel 

You can expect to receive your GE and Dracula in-class essays on Wed./Thu. and we will discuss ways to improve your analytical writing.

I will be handing you a print-out of the following packet. Please treat this as the most important handout of the year.

     DOWNLOAD: How to Write a Literary Essay (PDF)

Today is a big day in your high school English career. Today is the day I am going to begin pushing you to move beyond the formulaic 5-paragraph essay. Understanding this formulaic writing -- intro w thesis + 3 bodies paragraphs, each with a topic sentence  + a conclusion -- is important to being able to move ahead and develop your own style and tone.

College-level writing is not formulaic. You are expected to bump up to college-level writing as of today. Today, I will be returning your Dracula essays to be revised. You will treat your in-class essay as a "rough draft". Your revision, since you will be taking it home to work on over the course of a week, is expected to be a development of the ideas you put down on paper in 50-minutes. Your revision should reflect your understanding of the PowerPoint above and the "How to Write a Literary Essay" handout (see below).

First, a couple of quick tips:

1. Thesis + Evidence: Every analytical essay you write on the subject of literature will need a controlling thesis. And that thesis will still need to be clear, strongly worded, debatable (not fact), and supportable by evidence (examples, details, etc.) from the text. So, in order to prepare for the next in-class essay, you should review my handout on "How to Write a Literary Essay." Everything in that handout still applies.

2. Avoid All Redundancies / Repetitions: Part of the problem with formulaic 5-paragraph essay writing is that it 1) often sounds like a lab report, and 2) often includes a number of redundancies and/or repetitions. The rule of thumb now should be: avoid all redundancies and repetition. In order to do that, first make sure that you are varying your word phrasing. Second, you probably don't need a blueprint statement that tells the reader the subject of each of your three supporting paragraphs. Third, in the more sophisticated writing that you will be doing, you can almost always dispense with that formulaic topic sentence at the beginning of each support paragraph. Instead you should work on using appropriate transitional phrasing that leads from topic to topic. Fourth, your conclusion absolutely must not repeat your thesis. Instead, your conclusion should focus on providing some insight, tying together your various supports, and driving home your thesis  by explaining its importance.

For next class - Fri-B3/Mon-A2
    - Review Chapters 1-9 of Dracula and be prepared for a quiz and class discussion
    - Complete LRJ#3 for Dracula: "A Definitive Primer..."
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(S1C19) Frankenstein & A.P. Essay Prompts

10/14/2014

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Today in class
We'll be finishing the novel today with our final quiz. Your Biotech worksheets should already be in the dropbox. Next class, after the in-class essay, we'll talk about the second semester research project and you'll be assigned a biotech topic.

Up Next...
We'll soon be reading Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotech Revolution by Francis Fukuyama. I have seven used copies for purchase ($5) if you'd care to buy your own copy. See me.

Preparing for the A.P.-Style Frankenstein Essay -- Tues.
Finally, in order to prepare for the Frankenstein in-class essay, you should download today's in-class assignment: Open-Ended Essay Prompts for Frankenstein (PDF)and complete the assignment, which will be drop-boxed at the end of class. The Open-Ended Prompts are those included on the exams from 1970 up until this year. You will be reading through these prompts and picking three that you believe would apply to Frankenstein. Then you will justify your picks by explaining how you would organize an essay to respond to these.

Please drop-box this assignment by the end of class!

Although I will not let you know which prompts I will be giving you for the in-class essay, I will be choosing the most popular ones that you pick in class.

Preparing for the AP Open-Prompt In-Class Essay
The following download will provide you with some insight on how you might best approach the AP open prompt essay:

     DOWNLOAD: The Official AP Scoring Rubric for the Open-Prompt Essay (PDF)

Step-by-step approach to pre-writing
1. Read the prompt carefully.
2. Begin with a thematic statement that is clearly related to the prompt but is not a simple restatement.  Get right into the “meat” of your argument.
3.  If the prompt is topical, organize by topics indicated within the prompt. If the prompt asks you to analyze elements or techniques, organize accordingly.  
4. Summarize your story in THREE sentences! Rather than stating events, focus on the universal truths the author seems to be unveiling through the actions of the story .
5. Consider how the author uses literary elements or techniques to illustrate his/her beliefs. You may need to consider the direction of the prompt here (some prompts say to focus on a symbol, character, etc.) Consider the interrelatedness of some of these literary elements or techniques.  (An author’s tone/attitude is often revealed through diction, character choices or motivations, etc.) Shift your language in how you discuss literary elements  
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(S1C11) Dracula -- part three

9/18/2014

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You should come to class today with your revised and developed Dracula essay printed out and stapled to the back of your in-class draft and self-evaluation sheet.

We'll be finishing up our discussion of Dracula today with Chapters 19-27. After that we'll be working with your essays.

Victorian Presentation Submission Guidelines
All parts of your group presentation are due next class: on Monday(A)/Tuesday(B). Here are the requirements for submission:

    1. Written Paper + Works Cited: Print this out and turn this in to me.
    2. PowerPoint: You must deposit this in a specific file on the X drive as follows:
        A2: X:/Teacher Folders/Rose/Vic Presentations/A3
        A4: X:/Teacher Folders/Rose/Vic Presentations/B1
    3. Oral Presentations: Should be between 10 and 15 minutes!

IMPORTANT: Please deposit your PowerPoint by 8:00 a.m. on the morning it's due. I need only one per group!

Frankenstein
The next novel we'll be reading is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. If you want to buy your own copy, now would be a good time to do so. I have 10 used copies in very good condition for $5 each. The money goes toward the English department book budget.
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(S1C10) Dracula - Chapters 10-18 + essay stuff

9/16/2014

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As you work on revising your Dracula essay, have a read through this exemplary sample student essay, which provides a model for literary analysis. 

    DOWNLOAD: Sample Literary analysis Essay -- use this as a model (PDF)

LRJ's #1-2 should be complete before class today. We'll be discussing and working with the "Patterns of Language" LRJ responses.

Upcoming important dates:
Thursday/Friday, September 18-19: Dracula essay, revised & developed DUE

Monday/Tuesday, September 22-23: Victorian Presentations -- all materials due
Wednesday/Thursday, September 24/25: Dracula Vocabulary + Euro Geo quiz

    DOWNLOAD: Vocabulary Sheet for Dracula (PDF)
    LINK: Dracula Vocab List at Dictionary.com
    DOWNLOAD: European Geography Map (PDF)
    DOWNLOAD: United Kingdom & Ireland Map (PDF)
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(S1C9) Dracula - Chapters 1-9

9/12/2014

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Dracula Essay Revision -- Due Sept 18 (A)/19(B)
If you missed class on Thursday you should view this PowerPoint:
How to Move Beyond the Formulaic Essay 

and review this very, very, very, very important document:
"How to Write a Literary Essay."

Dracula Unit Page
Second, if you haven't already, check out the Dracula unit page on this website, especially the lovely slideshow I spent all summer preparing for you. It also includes many resources that may be helpful for you in developing your essay and on your Victorian unit exam. It also includes the vocabulary list and Euro geography maps. Remember you'll need to know all the countries and capitals by next week (September 19). Explore the page!

Dracula LRJ#2
You should have already completed LRJ#1 on "Dracula: A Primer". If you haven't already -- shame -- you should download the LRJ prompts, which are available in the previous blog post and on the Dracula unit page.

LRJ #2 on "Patterns of Language" is due on Wednesday, September 16 (A)/17(B). Important note: Although the prompt asks you to use five key words, you need only do three.

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