Poetry Professor Handouts

Here are the handouts for the Poetry Professor Project:





And here's the schedule for presentations:

Literature Circles - Discussion Directions

Today we are in our literature circles. You will be discussing your books during this class period. I will be traveling from group to group listening in and commenting when appropriate. Your literature circles will be graded for today. I will look around throughout the class period and evaluate your level of attention to your task, as well as the quality of your conversation when I visit. I want this to be easy for the both of us. I'd like to give every group above a 90, but you guys have to make sure you're talking about what you should be talking about throughout the period.

For today, I would like the following format followed:

1. The summarizer will present information
2. Then, kind of go around the group and share what you've gathered
3. Let your conversation flow from the things you're seeing. This is where the discussion director's job is to help keep the conversation going, offering new questions for discussion, and making sure the group is on task

During the last 8 minutes of class, I'll ask a member of each group to share one or two interesting things from their group discussions.

If your conversation reaches a natural conclusion, then start to discuss a possible issue for a PSA and figure out how you'd create the PSA.

Inquiry Questions Discussion - Day One

How does fear influence how we live our lives?
How does where we come from decide what we do with our lives?

Introduction to the Poetry Project

Over the next few weeks, you guys will be in charge of presenting a poem to the class. You are going to analyze the poem for the class, and then lead a discussion. A poem and a date will be assigned to you. This work will count towards the 4th quarter.

Here are your responsibilities for this project:

• present your analysis of a poem to the class & lead discussion (5-7 minutes)(200 pts.)
• keep a poetry journal of responses to each poem (27 in all, checked at different points, handed in after the last presentation)
  
• annotate each poem (due daily)

Poetry Order

Introduction to Death of a Salesman

This week we will be beginning Death of a Salesman. It appears in your textbook.

Reading Schedule:
Act I (pgs. 1898 -1930) - By March 4th
Act II & Requiem (pgs. 1930-1969) - By March 18th

This play will give allow us to revisit tragedy. However, instead of viewing the fall of a great character, we will witness the arc in a character who represents the common man.

Literature Circles - Inquiry Questions (Post Two)

The following big questions will shape our discussions (both group and whole class) over the next month. The novels have these issues and common, and the questions provide good jumping off points for discussion. The are also located in the sidebar for future reference.

• How far would you go for your beliefs?
• How does fear influence how we live our lives?
• How much of who we are is shaped by forces outside our control?
• How does where we come from decide what we do with our lives?
• What causes an ordinary person to do heroic or extraordinary things?
• In what ways do peple conform of resist attitudes or movements in society?
• What does it mean to be on the "outside" of society?
• How does the government affect who we are?
• How do people take control of their lives?
• How do people form their identities in relation to society?
• What does it mean to be a victim?

Literature Circles - Introduction (Post One)

Today we begin our literature circles. You guys are going to meet in groups an:
* distribute roles for the first literature circle
* determine a reading schedule for the four literature circle meetings
* begin to discuss the issue your book revolves around and how you might create a thirty second commercial selling a point of view on the issue



Description of each role can be found at this website.

Rolling Stone article citation

I generated this citation fom the article we read together. Feel free to copy and paste it into your works cited page. Remember, alphabetical order, double spaced. Follow the format. I generated this using the Son of Citation Machine.

Mengestu, Dinew. "The Tragedy in Darfur." Rolling Stone 21 09 2006 23 03 2007

Works Cited Page

End of Invisible Man Discussion ?'s, etc.

Today in class you are answering discussion questions in groups. Click here for the discussion questions. Each student must hand in their own answer sheet, and these are due tomorrow.

Also, I modeled a rubric based on the one the College Board has devised for the 1996 free response question. You can find it here. I will hand back your essays tomorrow. They have been corrected, I just want to underline some things on your respective rubrics.

* * * * * * * * *
Grace, I want you to visit Sparknotes.com and read up on The Color Purple in order to augment your reading of the text. That way you'll get the sophisticated evidence for that novel too.

Jeanette, sorry, but Harvard students have yet to comprise a Sparknotes entry for No-No Boy. I'm going to try to sign you into a database to do some searching around for good stuff.

AP Lit: Makeup Assignments

Because of the conference related confusion, I am accepting makeup assignments for the following things:

Dos Passos Analysis Homework & Your Own Personal Stream of Consciousness Homework
You had two assignments, each worth 50 points:

• read Dos Passos passage from The Big Money and explain the mood the author achieves. There is a brief intro to the assignment above, and I have the paper handout on my desk
• Write your own stream of consciousness. The assignment is explained above

Prologue Analysis (50 pts) - The assignment is explained here.

Chapter Three Homework (50 pts) - The assignment is explained here.

Invisible Man Disc. ?'s (50 pts) - The assignment is explained here.

Booker T. Washington Speech Analysis (50 pts) - Here's the assignment.

Darfur Research(y) Paper

You found the sources. We wrote part of the essay together. Now your job is to take the information you found and work it into the essay we started. Mix in information into the body paragraphs, and then write a conclusion.

If you are working at a computer, you can access the essay we wrote here. I also handed out a hard copy in class on Tuesday.

The following are due Friday:

• a final draft of your essay
• a works cited page with three sources
  
• your "Mining for Information" graphic organizers

Monday - E4 & AP Lit

As I told most of you, I will not be in school on Monday. I have to take my son to an ENT (ear, nose, & throat) appointment.

English IV - You'll be reading an editorial from The Buffalo News titled "Darfur's Misery Continues," and answering a few short questions.

AP Lit - I left the grade reports for you. (Actually, I left them on Friday as promised but from the looks of it they were not disseminated.) As I stated on the board, I will give you 50% credit for any late or missing homework assignments if you give them to me on Tuesday. If you see that I have made a mistake, let me know on Tuesday and we'll discuss it. Lastly, don't forget to bring in an index card with notes for Tuesday's timed and graded writing essay assignment.

Bryant and Stratton Field Trip

Well, I want to say I had a great time and was very impressed with the wonderfully creative ideas you guys came up with. I was equally impressed with the collaboration I saw when I peeked in on your groups. And what wonderful behavior (as usual). Anyway, here's some pics. I'll put captions later tonight and try to embed Zell's group's video for "Find It."

Don't mean to litter this collection with a picture of me, but man I have a thick red beard. Anyways...

Tie'aira sharing her views on values in seeking a profession.

Adventure seekers...

Ranking five important qualities of careers (1. money 2. money 3. money 4. money 5. money)

These answers require careful consideration.

A lull in the ball tossing.



Chris takes control of team "Speedy Pills"

Here's what we're going to do, see...

Now if that ain't a team effort, I don't know what is.

Fayvoyan, our hostess with the most-est.

The Donald.

You Gotta Find It


Future Kicks!

Speedy Pills equals good customer service.

And yes, it is amazing.

1st place.
3rd place

2nd place (and the look on Alex's face makes me wonder how you accomplished that!)

Derek makes a new best friend.

Bad hair(piece) day?


Ok...here's the video. It's hosted by YouTube, so it can't be viewed at school. I'm looking for another option right now.

Political Oppression 101

We haven't spoken about China much. Here's an interesting story about a Chinese blogger who was arrested because Yahoo has no backbone.

In Class Writing - AP Style Prompt

On Tuesday, you will do a timed writing based on the 1994 exam's free response question. Copy this prompt on an index card. You may make notes for the essay on one side of one index card and bring it to class on Tuesday. Here's the essay assignment:

In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or who does not appear at all, is a significant presence. Choose a novel or play of literary merit and write an essay in which you show how such a character affects action, theme, or the development of other characters. Avoid plot summary.

Mining for Information

Now that you have found your articles, your job is to mine for useful information. Use this chart as a graphic organizer (double sided class handout).

Existential Journey Chart

Today in class you will be working in pairs to complete this existential journey chart.

Computer Lab - Finding Sources

Hello folks. Here is what you are to do today"

1. Find and print two separate articles that give more insight into the growing problem in the Sudan. You want to be able to use information from the articles in your/our essay. (You can print the articles from the internet, or paste them into Microsoft Word and print them).
2. Create a citation for each source. To create the citation
1. go to Son of Citation,
2. choose "MLA" from the right sidebar.
3. Choose the type of "Nonprint source" you will be citing.
4. Fill in the information from the article. Note that:
1. your article may not have an author. If it does not, leave this blank.
2. Publication Title is the name of the website (MTV.com, Buffalo News, Rolling Stone, etc.)
3. Date Accessed is the last time you looked at the site. That would be today's date.
4. Copy and paste the URL (web address). It will make your life easier.
5. Then, hit submit. Copy and paste the citation into a Microsoft Word Document.
6. Repeat process for article #2.
7. Print!
   

Here's two good places to start looking:
Wikipedia
Amnesty International
Wendy B. from third period found this graphic photo essay.

Here's the essay that we started together. Remember, you will be integrating your own evidence into this essay from the sources you find. Warning: This essay will change a little bit throughout the day. I am finishing it up right now (1st period).

"The Tragedy of Darfur" Comprehension Quiz

On a separate sheet of paper, answer the following questions:

1. Who are the janjaweed?
2. Who is Minni Minnawi?

Notes - Existentialism

Definition - A 20th century philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts.
(C.S. Wyatt)

Characterized by the following beliefs:

• Some things are irrational or absurd, without explanation.
• Life is suffering.
• Life is not fair.
• Individuals are alienated from themselves by the highly complex, sophisticated, technological, bureaucratic world in which they live.
• Individual alienation, the loss of a sense of identity, is perpetuated by the labels and categories we use to describe people.
• Because they are free, individuals are also responsible for their own actions.
• No determinism or fate.
• In Sartre’s formula, "existence precedes essence": we make ourselves with our decisions, our actions, and our purposes. To follow the herd is to act in "bad faith," and to limit one’s choices ("Existentialism").
  
• Nausea and sickness often represents an inner struggle.
  

For Further Reading:

• Wikipedia entry "Existentialism"
  

"Slow to Anger, Law Abiding" Speech Close Analysis

Today in class we are organizing the information based on your findings from Friday. This chart is the result of our discussion, plus more that I added last night.

Tragedy of Darfur"

Today in class we are reading an article from Rolling Stone titled "The Tragedy of Darfur," written by Dinaw Mengestu. Your job today is to develop reasons for international intervention and to mine for evidence and quotations to support this intervention.

Directions
1. In groups, you are to read this article. You may read in silently, or you may read it aloud. (Silently would be quicker.) While reading, annotate the text. You know your purpose for reading, so underline and jot down notes next to useful information.
2. My advice would be for each group to read to the break. When you see an overly large letter start a paragraph, that means that a new section is starting. When the group reaches the break, discuss possible evidence.
3. Each group is responsible for handing in one sheet of paper by the end of class. Put the name of each group member at the top. This sheet of paper should have two columns. One column should be titled "Reasons for Intervention," and the other should be "evidence." In the evidence column, jot down a little of the quote, or paraphrase the information. The reasons and evidence should encompass the whole article.
4. If your group doesn't finish, you must still hand in the sheet. However, you will only receive partial credit. You must individually finish the article for homework, and complete a separate chart of the section that your group didn't finish. So, each group will start with the same grade, but this grade would be increased with whatever you hand in tomorrow. It is possible, however, to finish the work in the allotted time.
5. You are working groups, but you must stay on task. I'll be around for questions.

Darfur: A Wikipedia Primer

Read the full article here.

The Darfur conflict is an ongoing armed conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan, mainly between the Janjaweed (translated: "devils on horseback"), a militia group recruited from the tribes of the Abbala Rizeigat (camel-herding Arabs), and the non-Baggara people (mostly land-tilling tribes) of the region. The Sudanese government, while publicly denying that it supports the Janjaweed, has provided money and assistance and has participated in joint attacks with the group, systematically targeting the Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit ethnic groups in Darfur.^[1] The conflict began in July 2003. Unlike in the Second Sudanese Civil War, which was fought between the primarily Muslim north and Christian and Animist south, in Darfur most of the residents are Muslim, as are the Janjaweed.^[2]

Estimated number of deaths in the conflict vary widely. Most NGOs use 400,000, a figure from the Coalition for International Justice that has since been cited by the United Nations. As many as 2.5 million are thought to have been displaced as of October 2006.^[3] (See Counting deaths section, below)

AP Lit: Close Reading Activity

Today we will be analyzing the speech given by the narrator which preceeded the riot at the tenement building. Your task is to explain the different techniques the narrator used in order to stir the crowd to action.

In groups, reread the passage. While rereading, focus on the language the author uses. Try to find figurative language, details, imagery, and other literary techniques the narrator uses. Jot these down on a sheet of paper.

Then, discuss amongst your group members possible explanations for these techniques. Finally, each group is required to post their findings in the comments section of this post. See me for help.

The speech starts on page 275 ("No, no," I heard myself yelling.") and continues to 280 (There was a rush against me and I fell.)

English IV - Position Paper Assignment Introduction

Assignment: Position Paper
Topic: Darfur Humanitarian Crisis

Your Task: Should the international community intervene in Darfur?

We will be writing 3/5 of this paper together. We are going to look at one source as a community of readers. The source is an article from the Semptember 21st issue of Rolling Stone, titled "The Tragedy in Darfur." We will mine for evidence, organize the evidence, and write body paragraphs together. Next week your job will be to find another source and integrate evidence and information from that source into the paper we already started writing.

During this mini-project I want to talk about:

• paraphrasing
• summarizing
• quoting
• paragraph organization
• citations
• works cited page
  

McKinley Reading Initiative (for E4 & AP Lit)

What if all of McKinley read Barack Obama's Dreams from my Father? It's an interesting question. I'm devoting some extra credit points to help find out the answer. The details are below.


To get to our school's Obama blog, click here.

Hotel Rwanda Movie Review

Critics Corner

Writing a Movie Review:

What to include:
Title
Producer
Year
Actors/Actresses
Based on a true story?

Questions that need to be answered:

1. In your opinion should someone watch this movie? Why or why not? (3-5 sentences)

2. What is an accurate summary of the plot or main events of the movie? (5-6 sentences, but remember not to give away too much information)

3. How was the acting?

4. Did the movie accurately and effectively represent the subject or theme it was about?

5. What are your conclusions about the movie and your feelings about it?

Additional Components: Optional

-If the theatrics, camera angles, special effects and other additional features interest you, include a critique of them.

-if you paid special attention to the dialogue, was it real, convincing, and believable?

-include or elaborate on some of your favorite scenes and why they were so memorable.

Movie Info:
Year: 2004
Running time: 2 hours and 2 minutes
Rating: PG 13
Studio: MGM
Filmed in Johannesberg, S. Africa
Written/directed by: Keir Pearson and Terry George
Genre: Drama, politics

Actors:

Don Cheadle- Paul Rusesabagina
Sophie Okonedo- Tatiana Rusesabagina
Nick Notle- Colonel Oliver (UN)
Frank Mokoena- General Bizimungu
Desmond Dube- Dube

Tony Kgorge- Gregoire

Old Assignments

We are getting down to the last few days that you can hand in any work done during the time that I, Miss Rick, have been here. Almost all of the work and assignments I have done with you are posted on this website, but here are the last few worksheets if you still need to hand them in. They will be counted as late, but it is better to get some credit than no credit at all.

AP Lit: Invisible Man Discussion Questions Chapters 10-15

photo of Harlem linked from http://www.nonphotography.com/

Today in class I'd like to focus on some central events in the novel. In groups of three, you will be answering the discussion sheets contained in the document linked below. Open the link, copy and paste all the text into a new Microsoft Word document, and follow the directions. When you are finished, save the document with a name that I will recognize. We will discuss the questions as a class tomorrow.

Click here to download the discussion questions for chapters 10-15.

AP Lit: Invisible Man Discussion Questions Chapters 10-15

photo of Harlem linked from http://www.nonphotography.com/

Today in class I'd like to focus on some central events in the novel. In groups of three, you will be answering the discussion sheets contained in the document linked below. Download the document, open it, and follow the directions. We will discuss the questions as a class tomorrow.

Click here to download the discussion questions for chapters 10-15.

AP Lit: Blindness Motif Power Point Presentation

Here's a word document of the powerpoint presentation from last week. When you see a theme, symbol, image, action, or object repeated througout a book, which seems to have significance to the overall meaning of the work, underline and jot down the quotes so you can refer to them later.

Click here to access the Google doc version of the powerpoint.

AP Lit - Multiple Choice Practice

Friday in class we are answering some AP style multiple choice questions. By the way, I promise I'll put up that blindness motif power point and your films this weekend. Thanks for your patience.

Sample Multiple Choice Questions

Critics Corner

Writing a Movie Review:

What to include:
Title
Producer
Year
Actors/Actresses
Based on a true story?

Questions that need to be answered:
1.) In your opinion should someone watch this movie? Why or why not? (3-5 sentences)
2.) What is an accurate summary of the plot or main events of the movie? (5-6 sentences, but remember not to give away too much information)
3.) How was the acting?
4.) Did the movie accurately and effectively represent the subject or theme it was about?
5.) What are your conclusions about the movie and your feelings about it?

Additional Components: Optional
-If the theatrics, camera angles, special effects and other additional features interest you, include a critique of them.
-if you paid special attention to the dialogue, was it real, convincing, and believable?
-include or elaborate on some of your favorite scenes and why they were so memorable.