Block Day: Midsummer

* Open

• Nor hath Loves mind of any judgement taste
  Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste
  And therefore is Love said to be a child
  Because in choice he is so oft beguiled

• Note: I lengthened the memorization passage so that it would end at a sentence break.  

* Quiz

* This Day in History: StoryCorps

* "Thank you" note or email

* Work on Journal 7

• Act I and II Reading Questions: at least 10 questions answered per act (handwritten). 
• Check out the best text by Henry Hudson:
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (at the top when you click here)
• PDF version of the same text for annotating

* Continue the video

HW: Outside Reading  (BGT Questions will be due Dec. 12)

Joaquin De Luz and Maria Kowroski in George Balanchine’s ballet “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Photograph by Paul Kolnik

Wednesday, 11/20/13: Midsummer

* Open

• Grammar
• Do this on a new piece of paper in pencil:
• Things base and vile holding no quantity
  Love can transpose to form and dignity
  Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind
  And therefore is wingd Cupid painted blind
• The punctuation will be a bit funky

* Midsummer continues

HW: Read Act II; review your Antigone notes and tragic terms

Tuesday, 11/19/13: Midsummer Rains Down Upon Your Pates!

* Open

• Grammar
• "Four days will quickly steep themselves in night
  Four nights will quickly dream away the time
  And then the moon like to a silver bow
  New bent in heaven shall behold the night
  Of our solemnities" (1.1.6-11)
• Memorization: A Midsummer Night's Dream

* Collect Journal 6

* A Midsummer Night's Dream

• See Study Guide on Focus
• Perrine's pg. 1463
• The Text at MIT
• Begin the Play Together

HW: Read Act I on Your Own

Helena and Hermia were as close as sisters since their youth.

Monday, 11/18/13: Antigone to Midsummer

* Open

• Grammar: punctuate (all one sentence)
• "Now fair Hippolyta our nuptial hour
  Draws on apace four happy days bring in
  Another moon but O methinks how slow
  This old moon wanes" (1.1.1-4)

* Work on Journal 6

* Essay Choice (Schwager)

• #1 Compare the characterization (focus on the detectives) and atmosphere of "The Eternity Ring" (Foyle's War) and either "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" or "The Blue Cross." 
  
  #2 Coming-of-age: Compare a coming-of-age experience of your own with that of any single protagonist in our recent reading.  You must include at least one other key term from our story unit as you compare the experiences (irony, plot, atmosphere).  

• Irony: make sure you treat this in detail in at least one paragraph of your essay (consider a structure that moves from innocence to experience to wisdom)
• Plot: make sure you treat the key points of a plot line (exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion)  

• #3 Compare-Contrast: Compare and contrast two of the recent coming-of-age stories you've read, focusing on at least one of the literary elements from our story unit: plot and its elements, irony, atmosphere and tone, or symbolism.

*  Let's apply what we've learned:

• What happens when government law conflicts with religious law or moral law?  Consider specific modern situations. 
• When is civil disobedience the right course of action?

* Transitioning to Midsummer: Have your actions (or inaction) ever been radically misunderstood?  Have you ever had to bear a penalty unjustly?  Antigone's actions were interpreted by Creon as boastful and contemptuous ("Here she again displays her proud contempt—/having done the act, she now boasts of it" lines 546-547).  In A Midsummer Night's Dream, a father (Egeus) overreacts to his daughter's (Hermia's) disagreement with him over two suiting men.  Hermia acts less honorably than Antigone, but Hermia, too, is at odds with a fickle authority.  Let's discuss this a bit.  

* Extra Credit: If you saw the school play, see your teacher; you will receive a little bit of extra credit.  For anyone who could not see the play, you may get extra credit if you produce any artistic response to our play between now and when we finish A Midsummer Night's Dream (that gives you about three weeks).  Please tie your artistic work into a specific line or lines from the play that inspire you (you could use the quote as a title for your painting if you do not want it on the visual surface).  Here are some ideas:

• Painting
• Comic
• Movie trailer
• Song performed in class
• Recast a scene to perform in class

HW: Finish Journal 6

Block Day, Week 14: Antigone...then onward and upward!

* Open

* Grammar

• Shakespeare arguably the greatest playwright the world has seen wrote tragedies comedies and histories but unbeknownst to many he also wrote over one hundred and fifty sonnets a poetic form that showcases his genius.

* Antigone

• Work on Journal 6 in pairs: Antigone
• Your teacher will set these for you.
• Let's apply what we've learned:
• What happens when government law conflicts with religious law or moral law?  Consider specific modern situations. 
• When is civil disobedience the right course of action?

 * Midsummer? 

HW: Review terms for a quiz sometime next week.

Extended Chapel

Wednesday Woes: That Crazy City of Thebes Attacks you with Questions

* Open

• Grammar 
• "Oh the profanity of what I planned                                           1410
   Alas my son you died so young
   a death before your time" (1409-1411)

* Finish watching Antigone

• Literary Lore: It appears that Athenian playwrights were not allowed to set their plays in the city of Athens, perhaps to keep some objective distance.  Who would want an Oedipus trilogy about Santa Cruz or Gilroy?  

• 1961 Video in 8 Parts with English Subtitles (oh, yeah!) 

Journal 6: Antigone (BG&T Condensed): Grab a book (horror of horrors!) or use this online text (1352 lines)

• 1.  (Short) Context: (Who wrote it? Where? When?)
  
  2.  (Short) Tradition: Name a specific story from the Bible or other great literature that Creon or Antigone's character and actions remind you of.  Explain the relationship briefly, and cite the scripture (though you do not have to quote it).
  
  3. (Short) Composition: Copy down your favorite line from the piece.  Describe the grammar, syntax, and compositional structure employed by the author in this work.
  
  4.  (Short paragraph) Distinction: What are the key images of the work?  Which one is the most memorable? Why (please don't answer that "the reader could just see and feel it so clearly because of the way it was written")?
  
  5.  (One to two paragraphs) Understanding: Discuss Antigone as the protagonist and Creon as her antagonist.  Use all of the tragic terms to discuss them.  At least one will best apply to Creon. 
  
  6.  (Short paragraph) Judgment: What is a central, important truth that this play teaches high school students today?  Include at least one quote from the play as you explain your answer.  Give at least one good reason why this tragic drama has sailed through over 2,000 years of opinion to land in an obscure classroom in Watsonville, Ca. 

HW: Finish Watching the Play

Tuesday, 11/12/13: Antigone

* Open

• Grammar: Proverbs 12

* Video

* If we finish: Outside Reading

HW: Outside Reading

Veterans Day Schedule

First 8:10 8:55 45 minutes

Second 9:00 9:45 45 minutes

Assembly 9:55 10:30 35 minutes All HS students will head for gym to attend the

Break 10:30 10:40 10 minutes

Third 10:40 11:25 45 minutes

Fourth 11:30 12:15 45 minutes

Lunch 12:15 12:50 35minutes

Fifth 12:55 1:40 45 minutes

Sixth 1:45 2:30 45 minutes

Seventh 2:35 3:20 45 minutes

Block Day, Week 13: Antigone

* Open

• Grammar: Proverbs 8:8-9

* Check Outside Reading

* Antigone

• Define all terms from Dr. Wheeler, please.

• tragedy
• Aristotle's Poetics
• hubris (pronounced hyoo-bris)
• hamartia
• catastrophe
• peripeteia  
• anagnorisis
• catharsis

* Video and discussion

HW: Outside Reading; see the play (by the end of the run)

Wednesday, 11/6/13: Antigone

* Open

•  Grammar:
• The feer of the lord is the begining of knowlege but fools despize wisdom and instruction.

 * Please take notes on the following background information:

• Sophocles (our playwright)
• What are the approximate years of Sophocles' life?
• What did Sophocles do differently than other playwrights of his day (as well as those that preceded him)?
• What makes Sophocles deeper than and richer than many other playwrights?
•  If we finish early, begin defining terms (we will continue this on block day)
• Define all terms from Dr. Wheeler, please.
• tragedy
• Aristotle's Poetics
• hubris
• hamartia
• catastrophe
• peripeteia  
• anagnorisis
• catharsis

HW: Finish notes if you did not do so in class; please get evidence of your outside reading novel (the book, ebook, or receipt of purchase)

Tuesday, 11/5/13: Antigone

* Open

• Answer these questions in your notes based on last night's reading: How does Antigone view Ismene?  Why?  How does Ismene view Antigone?  Why? 

* Antigone

• Out-of-iPad Experience: Your teacher waxes eloquent as he tells you the sad, sad story of Oedipus and the way it exemplifies the doom that inevitably flows from a religious source that holds no true mercy, no freeing forgiveness, no ultimate comedy in the world's weaving. 

 * Look over our resource page: Antigone together

*  Continue reading: Online Text

HW: Read through line 709

Antigone in front of the dead Polyneices by Nikiforos Lytras

Monday, 11/4/13: Essay, Antigone

Bunnies don't have to write essays.  People do.  Lucky bunny.

* Open

• (Schwager) Grammar: From Proverbs 1 (see board)
• (Reno) Grammar:
• Their’s no suffering
  no shame no ruin not one dishonor which I have not seen in all the troubles you and I go threw.
• Course Plan
• Outside Reading

* Schwager Essay: Time to Write
* Reno: Antigone

HW: Read through line 185

Essay Writing Notes

 * Five Paragraph Essay

• Notes
• History
• The essay began as a humbler creation, more of a thought experiment on a given subject.  You can blame the French (Michel de Montaigne in the late 16th century) for the curse of the essay (see a list of essayists here).  Early essays tended to be brief (one to two paragraphs) meditations written by well-educated people (here are some essayists you'll read senior year).  
• For more college context, see Purdue:
• Though the word essay has come to be understood as a type of writing in Modern English, its origins provide us with some useful insights. The word comes into the English language through the French influence on Middle English; tracing it back further, we find that the French form of the word comes from the Latin verb exigere, which means "to examine, test, or (literally) to drive out." Through the excavation of this ancient word, we are able to unearth the essence of the academic essay: to encourage students to test or examine their ideas concerning a particular topic.
  
  Essays are shorter pieces of writing that often require the student to hone a number of skills such as close reading, analysis, comparison and contrast, persuasion, conciseness, clarity, and exposition. As is evidenced by this list of attributes, there is much to be gained by the student who strives to succeed at essay writing.
  
  The purpose of an essay is to encourage students to develop ideas and concepts in their writing with the direction of little more than their own thoughts (it may be helpful to view the essay as the converse of a research paper). Therefore, essays are (by nature) concise and require clarity in purpose and direction. This means that there is no room for the student’s thoughts to wander or stray from his or her purpose; the writing must be deliberate and interesting. (Purdue)
   
• The five-paragraph essay became a standard in schools. 
• That form also has real limitations:
• It can also hinder rich thinking

• The archetypical school essay structure:

 

From the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill:

• Thesis Statements 
• Argument
• Introductions
• College Writing (when to and when not to write in the five-paragraph form)
• Paragraph Development
• Transitions
• Conclusions

Peer Editing

Peer Editing Paragraphs

* Now let's peer edit your individual essays.  Please write in pen directly into your peer's composition book.

• Introduction
• How could you improve the opening line?  Do it. 
• Do we get our bearings (title, author, basic situation?).  We should as we do not want plot oozing through all over the other paragraphs.  
• Things that could go wrong with the thesis:
• Is the theme culled from the story too general?  If it fits most stories you can think of, it's too general.
• "...shows the reader that good is better than evil"; almost every story shows this. 
• "...teaches the reader how one grows up"; too general. 
• "...shows the reader how to be patient"; too general.

• The elements don't actually support the theme. 

• Are there elements you can think of that would work better than the ones the author chose?  Tell them. 

• Is this written in first or third person?  Let's stick to third here.

•  Body
• How could you improve the topic sentence and transition into the first body paragraph?  Do it. 
• Even though this is not a plot summary, the elements should work in such a way that we treat the ideas chronologically.  Is that happening here, or are we dealing with a climax or conclusion when we we'll need to hike back to the bottom of the expositional hill later?  Tell them the order you think would work best with the elements chosen. 
• Are there two--three short quotes from the story that support the topic sentence?
• Are there commentary sentences following the quotes that tie things back to the topic sentence and thesis by the end of the paragraph?  Tell them if they need more commentary or didn't tie back to the topic sentence and thesis.
• Is the writer repeating in any back-to-back sentence set?  Repeating verbs?  Phrases?  That makes for boring writing; strike things out. 

The Honors English II Outside Reading List

Here is your list of awesome books to choose from. If you wish to read another book, no sweat, just make sure you check with your teacher to make sure it fits our criteria.  Otherwise, peruse, purchase, and prepare to be peppered.  There are three lists below in order of difficulty. 

Our criteria:

• Morally decent (no glittering, sexy vampires smooching all over themselves)
• Reasonably long (over 100 pages)
• Well-written work (ideally, a work of what the AP test would call "recognized literary merit").  That doesn't mean it has to be an old classic, but it should be the kind of book that, read a second time, yields greater returns because it's considerately crafted.  

The Writing Assignment:  Beautiful, Good, and True Questions (due May 15 or sooner; typed, printed on paper, turned in to your teacher, and submitted to turnitin.com)