Monday, February 29, 2016


For Chapter Two: Asha Find two annotated connections and/or questions and write a comment or question next to them in the margin. Be prepared to share with the class.

Discuss Chapter 2

Take character quiz on chapters 1 & 2

Homework:
Read and annotate Chapter 3

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Activity 1 (5-10 mins): Turn and discuss with two other people your character chart and annotations for the prologue...Use this opportunity to corroborate and add details (e.g., character traits and page #'s) to your chart. 


Activity 2 (5 mins): Hand out and discuss BBF annotation bookmark

BBF Annotation Guide

In addition to your other annotations  
(character traits, relationships, events, questions, vocab) track the following essential questions/connection mentally - and with annotations - as you read...

Essential Questions/Connections

Chicago Connections (C&A): In what ways is Mumbai like Chicago, like America?  How is it different?

Depravity (D): How is this a story of human depravity?

Human Spirit (S): How is this a story of human strength & spirit?

Power (P): How is this a story of how power really works?  Consider the influence of the 
following on power and opportunity: money, connections, skin color/race/ethnicity/religious prejudices, police and political corruption, pollution, unbridled/unregulated capitalism)

Activity 3: In-class Reading (20 mins)

Activity 4 (Exit Ticket): (10 mins) Name, period, date. Stop reading and, on a half sheet of paper, write a paragraph with an embedded quote or two which draws a connection between some passage in chapter one and one of the  questions/connections suggested by your bookmark.

Read and annotate chapter 1 for tomorrow

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Turn in Hamlet papers
- Final Paper on top
- 2nd draft and peer feedack/self-assessment sheets in the middle
- rubric on the bottom

India's caste system - what did you learn?


Read and annotate the prologue to Behind the Beautiful Forevers (BBF) and start a character chart:
(What is the character's name, who are they related to by blood or interaction, what are their physical and personality traits, what page numbers do you find information about them)


Also,

At the top of each page, write one major event or fact from that page.
Use exclamation points to mark places that upset you
Use sad faces to mark places that make you feel bad
Use smiley faces and LOL for happy or funny moments
Put a box around character names when they first appear; 
Circle and look up difficult vocabulary words
Write questions in the margin

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Begin Behind The Beautiful Forevers

What do you think the title means?

This is non-fiction, but it reads like fiction.

What do you know about India?

A little bit about the setting of this book...17:30 point


Annawadi



Homework: Research the Indian caste system. Write down about a 3/4th of a page of notes about the major caste divisions and what status and occupations each hold.



Monday, February 22, 2016

Bring Behind The Beautiful Forevers tomorrow



Wesley Hamlet Paper Reviews

Groups of Three...

Read aloud...

After initial reading, everyone will pause and use specific language from the rubric to write down comments about each of the eight traits from the rubric.

This writing down of comments should take 5-6 minutes.

The person who just read the paper first assesses their own paper, and then the other members of the group provide their feedback.

For each member of the group, it will take about 15 minutes read their paper, give everyone time to write down their assessment comments, and then share the self and peer assessments aloud.


So, for the purpose of writing and providing feedback, everyone should have one sheet of paper per person in their group.

We are done with peer reviews.You can hand in your paper tomorrow or Wednesday. Hard copy to me, and electronic copy to turnitin.com.

When you hand in your final, also hand in today's draft and any self-assessment and peer assessment sheets from today.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Self-edit tonight...improve your paper;

1st peer review is moved to tomorrow

It will involve reading your paper aloud to a couple of other people, so at least have a complete and strong effort.


Hamlet Personal Insight Paper: Creating a holistic rubric

What do you feel would be the characteristics of a good personal insight paper? From ideas to style and everything in between, write in the characteristics that you would expect to see in a good personal insight paper.  Then write in the characteristics of a paper that is exceptional. How will you know the difference? How will you articulate that difference? Finally, what are the characteristics of a proficient paper? What makes it proficient, but not good?

Begin with one partner, then I will match you with another group, for thee purpose of discussion

Ideas/insights; connections to book and life; style; voice; organization; conventions/mechanics


Exceptional


Good



Proficient



Developing










Student Example

Wesley
22 February 2015
Evaporating

One of my most distinct childhood memories is the scent of arugula. My backyard in
Denver was this vast expanse of territory, full of different terrains and trenches and rock
formations. There was the pine forest to the right of the house, the desert behind it with a birch
oasis in the center, and the rugged gravel pits just beyond. No matter where I stood in this small
world, I could always smell the arugula from our garden. I undoubtedly had some of the best
and most carefree days of my life in that backyard. Simply being a kid is the most envious state,
and a setting such as this only furthered my delight. But why are these memories so fleeting and
distant? Why does my backyard seem so much smaller in pictures than it ever did in person, and
why do I feel overwhelmingly sad whenever I smell arugula?

Time, I have concluded, tends to distort perception. I found this thought to be true while
reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald as well. While the aroma of a common garden
vegetable does not come close to his trials, I’d like to think Fitzgerald experienced similar
feelings of nostalgia during his life—from his failed marriage to the one that got away—that
prompted a novel deeply rooted and intent on recreating the past, in attempts to vocalize his own
shortcomings and his inherent want to somehow fix them.

Jay Gatsby mirrors this want as the poster­child for nostalgia. He attempts continuously
throughout his last five years to “recover something, some idea of himself perhaps… if he could
once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing
was” (110). Gatsby’s feelings toward his time with Daisy drive him to “recover” this former
version of himself. He has the pleasant memories but the emotions associated with them are the
exact opposite. He feels taunted by the past rather than content with what has happened, just as I
get a hollow ache when thinking about my time in Colorado. And I loved it, just as Gatsby loved
Daisy. But time warps these feelings into regret and wistfulness, challenging former emotions
and entangling them beyond recognition.

Similarly, I often find myself thinking about former friendships. I’ve definitely had my
fair share of these relationships end. Sometimes there’s a specific reason, but more often, and in
turn more painfully, they just fade without reason. I’ll pass someone in the hall and suddenly
find myself pouring over details from years ago and wondering why it’s impossible to even make
eye contact.

My best friend from third to eighth grade, Marie, is the worst instance of this. Gatsby’s
array of newspaper clippings and photographs of Daisy (93) could never compare to the
multitude of pictures of Marie and me. From all the photographic evidence, it would appear that
we were physically attached to one another throughout the course of our friendship. In all my
yearbook photos, she sits in a desk beside me. In all my birthday pictures, she is sitting next to
me as I open presents, identical radiant smiles plastered across our faces.

In moments like these I can understand why Gatsby kept clippings in Daisy’s absence.
Even though it’s arguably more painful to look at them than to forget, there is always an internal
hope that time will correct itself, that it will make up for itself, or reverse completely. Nick
Carraway puts it best after Gatsby’s initial encounter with Daisy: “I think we all believed for a
moment that [the old clock] had smashed in pieces on the floor” (87). Everyone, to some extent,
falls victim to the passage of time. In my case it is Marie who brings this out, causing me to
falter over memories.

However, where I’d like to think I diverge from Gatsby is the way I externally deal with
these lapses in logical judgement. I’m simply content to wallow in regret and self­pity whereas
Gatsby attempts to construct a meticulous empire to recreate his past. When Gatsby started
going off the deep end, no dark humor intended, is when I began to feel a disconnect with his
character. Although this disconnect is frustrating at times, it forces me to objectively consider
Gatsby. It’s one thing to wistfully remember a better time in life but to fully submerge into the
past is another. It’s obsessive, it’s unhealthy, and most of all impossible because time doesn’t
forcefully rewind. It doesn’t simply stop, backtrack and repeat itself. It’s the most final of all
restrictions, greater than anything else explored in Gatsby.

To illustrate this point, even if the extent is limited, people have control over their wealth
and social status. Gatsby proved both of these with his self­built fortune and elaborate lifestyle.
In this, Fitzgerald cleverly portrays that time is the one factor that we have absolutely no control
over. I recognize Fitzgerald’s own pain in this realization.

Of course, this seems like such an obvious statement. Why wouldn’t time be final? How
could it possibly be perceived otherwise? We all have broken­clock moments, unfortunately.
Time has a way of disfiguring things while remaining shockingly consistent with itself. With
repeated recitation I’ve begun to stomach this reality. I’ve considered its profound impact on the
way I perceive my life: as I change, so do my reactions to recollections. And as a logical person
who thrives on reasoning and patterns, the thought of giving up control to some intangible force
scares me more than anything else.

I sense that it is the same innate fear that drives Gatsby to near insanity. It causes him to
perpetually extend himself towards that green light, to act as though “the past [was] lurking here
in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand” (110) as he tries to convince himself of
Daisy’s solidarity. And until the end, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that
year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to­morrow we will run
faster, stretch out our arms farther” (180). Fitzgerald leaves me with this surprisingly personal
and harsh statement regarding time. He tells me that we won’t stop, “boats against the current,”
and will continue to yearn for something, anything, because the present will never suffice.
Nostalgia is ever­present, a constant and singular reminder of the encompassing control of time.
I find this a difficult concept to agree with, though.

So now I turn to music for reassurance and a second opinion, as usual, in these lyrics
(translated from Portuguese) from Evaporar by Little Joy:

We've got as much time as we give it
Whatever happens
Whatever it takes
We give as much time as we have
It takes the things that happen
Whatever the things that happen cost
Only now I realize that what I got from the time I lost
Was learning how to give
And I still chase that time
I was able not to run from it
[I was able to] Find myself
Ah, it didn't move
Hummingbird in the air
The river stays there
The water that ran [into the sea] gets to the tides
[The river] becomes sea
It's as if dying was like debouching
Like spilling over the sky
Like a self­purification
Like leaving behind salts and minerals
Like evaporating.

It is in these broken­clock moments, I have ultimately concluded, that time distorts
perception. It is in these moments when time simply hangs there like a “hummingbird in the
air.” For Gatsby it’s when he thinks about Daisy. For me it’s when my mind races back to
Denver with the tangy aroma of arugula and the pine and birch trees suddenly extend their limbs
towards me. It’s when I can’t quite mimic the smiles on my face in pictures with Marie because
the emotions are forever locked in the frame. Evaporar gives me closure that Gatsby failed to
provide. It reveals that time does indeed control us, but it’s only when we concede to this fact
that memories can fade. This voluntary surrender is what Gatsby failed in and why I felt so
disconnected from him. I now know that eventually, unlike Gatsby, I will allow these memories
to gradually dissipate and be replaced. I’ll leave them behind like salts and minerals;

evaporating.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Deconstructing the prompt and the example paper...

Page 2: Don't force rhetorical strategies and devices; treat that section as an encouragement to try a variety of techniques. Because of the nature of the assignment, most of you will probably use anecdotes and/or allusions to literature or current events/history, etc, but also consider rhetorical questions or repetition or parallel structure or metaphors. 

Let's go through O'Rourke's essay and see what she is doing in each paragraph, and how she explores the topic of grieving from several different angles.


Thursday, February 4, 2016

Hamlet Act 4 acting
Wesley
February 4-8, 2016
Note 1:  I am cancelling log # 10; your personal insight paper proposal due tomorrow replaces that
Note 2: Act 4 quiz will be only 5 questions for a total of 10 points.
Note 3: Hand in logs 7-9 now!
Act 4 Acting Objectives:
·         To explore Act 4 through scenes that involve a variety of characters – not just Hamlet.
·         To do close reading of the lines, so that we understand them in depth.
·         To have fun with the movement and language of a Shakespearean play
Roles: Actors and Master of Ceremony
·         Actors (self-explanatory)
·         Master of Ceremony:  Dramatically introduces the scene, providing a summary of what will happen, and any additional info that will be needed by the audience to help them understand the scene.  Assemble
Directions:
Today
1.      Assemble with your group. Introduce yourselves.
2.      Read the scene a number of times (at least three) round-robin style - stopping between readings to review line meanings, vocabulary, look up words in an online Shakespearean dictionary -  to get familiar with the gist of it.
3.      Decide who will play what role.
Tonight:
·         Write your personal insight proposal paper.
·         Practice your lines tonight. You want to know them well. You don’t have to memorize them by Monday, but you should have them close memorized so you can be really fluent and deliver them in the dramatically appropriate tone, pace, and volume. The delivery of your lines should sound natural.
·         Think about props and costumes and corny and/or subtle movements and pantomimes that will help convey your scene to the audience.
Tomorrow:
·         As a group, write a fairly detailed summary of the scene to  be presented dramatically (or at least loudly) by the narrator/master of ceremony.
·         Rehearse the scene, making sure to really think about how people will move, stand, kneel, lose their tempers or minds, etc.  How can you use desks/ chairs/ podiums as props? What props will you bring in? How will your costumes convey who your characters are?
Weekend:
 Continue rehearsing and finding prompts and costumes
Read through Act 5.1-2
Monday:
Perform scenes
Group 1: Four people
Period 7:__Kay, Brenden, Lara, Stephanie
Period 8:___Paul, Frannie, Cullen, 
4.1 Gertrude tells the King about Polonius’s death
King, 34; Queen, 12; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, 0
4.2 Hamlet refuses to tell where Polonius’s body is
Hamlet (21), gentleman, 1; Rosencrantz, 8; Guildenstern, 1

Group 2: Four people
Period 7:_Lyrik, Niko, Emily, Tara, _
Period 8Claudia, Morgan, Isaac, Rachel, Kim

4.3  Claudius sends Hamlet to England
King, 46; Rosencrantz, 4; Hamlet, 27
4.4 Hamlet encounters Fortinbras
Fortinbras, 8; Captain, 12; Hamlet, 47; Rosencrantz, 1

Group 3: Eight people
Period 7: ____Ben, John, Vicki, Albert, Brandon, Jack, Mary, Jacob P, Chloe, Nick
Period 8: Sarah, Griffin, Erica, Marina, Michael, Alexis, Maddie, Kelsey, George, Megan
4.5 The appearance of the mad Ophelia is disturbing to Laertes, the King, and Gertrude
Queen, 16; Gentleman, 15; Horatio, 3; Ophelia, 75; King, 71; Messenger, 11; Laertes, 50; Others, 2

Group 4: Four People
Period 7:___Jacob B, Becca, Kyle, Alison, Maiya_
Period 8:___ Sam, Dan, Maeve, Colin,, Emilio  


4.6 Horatio receives a letter from Hamlet
Horatio, 27; Gentleman, 2; Sailor 5
4.7 Claudius and Laertes plot to kill Hamlet in a duel
King, 146; Laertes, 47; Messenger, 6; Queen, 22



Wednesday, February 3, 2016


Wesley 4AP: February 3, 2016

Reading Day today:  Read 4.6-4.7
Do log #9 this evening.

Tomorrow, February 4:
Will collect logs 7-9 tomorrow
Some of you will need to take the Act 3 quiz
Watch Hamlet

Friday, February 3, 2016:

Act 4 quiz Friday: 10-15 quote identification questions - no fill in the blank plot questions.


Personal Insight Paper Proposal Due on Friday (3 points - no late proposals accepted unless due to illness): Must be typed and should fill a page (12 point font, Times New Roman, 1" margins). Some questions you should consider: What do you plan on writing about? What is your point of view on the subject? What angle can you bring to it which is personal in terms of your thinking and/or life experience?  Include portions of one or two key quotes which are connected to your paper's topic and briefly explain your response to them in relation to your topic? Basically, you are thinking out loud - well, on paper - about an idea or insight about life sparked by your reading of Hamlet and something going on in your life or in the world around you which is really on your mind.  Find a meaningful topic in your life - stress, ambition, betrayal, dishonesty, trust issues, difficulty with decision-making, grief, relationships with friends, boyfriend/girlfriend/parents, depression, the afterlife, etc - and chances are this play has something to say about it.  Consider using both your annotations and the internet to find Hamlet quotes which speak to your issue.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Amendments to the calendar
2/1

3.3 and 3.4 and log #7 are due
Act 3 Quiz

View Act 3 and prepare for

Read 4.1-4.4 and do log # 8

 

2/2

Act 3 quiz

Then…

Finish 4.1-5 and do log # 8 for tomorrow


2/3
School Improvement Day (11:30 dismissal)

4.1-5  and log # 8 are due (for 4.5)

Read 4.6-4.7 and do log # 9 for tomorrow
2/4
4.6-4.7 & log # 9 due
Collect logs 7-9

Personal Insight Paper Proposal Due: What do you plan on writing about and what scenes and quotes might you cite in your paper?
2/5
Viewing Day
Act 4 quiz
View Act 3

Prep for Quiz

Act 3 Quiz is 30 question: Know the plot, but also know who said what because over half of the of the quiz will be quote identification. Make sure you have read the actual play (not only the No Fear Shakespeare version)