"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.   
His house is in the village though;   
He will not see me stopping here   
To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   
To stop without a farmhouse near   
Between the woods and frozen lake   
The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   
To ask if there is some mistake.   
The only other sound’s the sweep   
Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.


Choral Interpretation


Monday, 3/31: Apartheid

* Open
  • Prefixes
    • mal–, mis– = bad
    • peri– = around
    • poly– = many
    • post– = after
    • pre– = before
    • pro– = before, in front of
* Notes today from Britannica Online
* 25 minutes: Cry, the Beloved Country work in class
  • Essay Makeups
HW: CBC --10

Mandela, Nelson

Crying Over the Beloved Book

Friends,

I forgot to add chapters beyond four to my introductory scan of Cry, the Beloved Country.  Some students had ordered the book, but it had not arrived. Thus, I am changing the due date for the coming chapters so:
Monday: CBC--7
Tuesday: CBC--10

Our next in class check will be on Tuesday.

All the best,

Mr. S

SAT Essay Word Count: Shoot for 450 Words

More words do not give you a higher score, but fewer words will give you a lower score (as you cannot adequately develop your idea). 

Higher scoring essays will usually be 350--450 words in length.  For most of you, that means you should shoot for close to two full pages of writing. 

Block of Easy

Open
  • Prefixes
    • hyper– = above
      hypo– = under

      il–, im–, in–, ir–, non– = not

      inter– = between

      intra– = within
       
* Recitation

* Cry, the Beloved Country

* Essay Writing

SAT Essay
  •   “Christian thought stands outside the opposition that is presumed within either a metaphysics of ontological hypotaxis (such as any idealism describes) or a metaphysics of ontological rupture (such as postmodernism professes); it knows only the beauty of being’s parataxis, its open, free, serial, and irreducible declaration of glory; it grasps being neither as an immobile synthesis that stands over against and sublates every utterance, nor as the sheer cacophony of aleatory violence, but as rhetoric, the outward address and proclamation of the God who has eternally spoken, who speaks, and who will speak, the God who “others” himself in himself and contains and surrenders otherness as infinite music, infinite discourse.”
         –Adapted from David B. Hart’s The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth
      Assignment: Is an ontological peace defensible against postmodernism’s insistence on an inescapable ontological violence at the heart of things? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
 * Cry, the Beloved Country

HW: CBC -- 7

 

Wednesday, 3/25: Rain, rain--beautiful rain!

* Open
  • de–, ex– = out of, away from

  • extra– = beyond, outside


  • hetero– = other


  • homo– = same

 * Let's read poems and takes of beauty...and take the essay on block day.

* CBC

HW: CBC -- 7

Heller cartoon: Changes to the SAT
Source: http://blogs.denverpost.com/opinion/2014/03/16/cartoons-day-changes-sat/42796/

Tuesday: CBC and SATishness

* Open
  • circum– = around
    co–, con–, col–, cor– = with

    contra–, counter– = against
* Check J18 while you work

* CBC

* SAT Preparation Review
  • In-Class Essay Rubric (SAT, College Board)
    • Score of 6

      An essay in this category demonstrates clear and consistent mastery, although it may have a few minor errors. A typical essay:
    • Effectively and insightfully develops a point of view on the issue and demonstrates outstanding critical thinking, using clearly appropriate examples, reasons and other evidence to support its position
    • Is well organized and clearly focused, demonstrating clear coherence and smooth progression of ideas
    • Exhibits skillful use of language, using a varied, accurate and apt vocabulary
    • Demonstrates meaningful variety in sentence structure
    • Is free of most errors in grammar, usage and mechanics
    •  
  • Practice SAT Prompts
    • 2013, Prompt 4

    • Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
    • Too often, people—especially young people, who may not have settled on a firm identity yet—try to imitate others, because it is easier to do so than to develop their own unique individuality. They focus on trying to imitate what seems attractive or desirable in others. But imitating others is never a good idea: when we imitate others, all we do is harm our ability to develop our own individuality.
  • Assignment: Is imitation of others always harmful? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. 
What to focus on:
  • Pasta
    • Point of view
    • Examples
    • Transitions
  • Sauce
    • Number (word count)
    • Choice of verbs, nouns, and modifiers
    • Sentence Structures
HW: CBC -- 5 (that means read chapters 4-5 and do J18 ch. 4-5)

Prayer

Please pray that if there are any people still alive in the debris from Saturday's landslide in Oso, Washington, that they would be found and rescued.  Pray for the families affected.

Oso Community Church displays a sign reading "pray with us for our community" in Oso, Washington, on 24 March 2014

CBC Notes

Monday, 3/24/14: Novel Work

Open
  • Prefixes
    • ben–, bon–, eu– = good
      brev– = short
      caco–, dys– = bad, abnormal
      ceiv–, cept–, capt– = take
       
  • Prayer
  • Recitation
* Poetry

* Place (J17)

* Cry, the Beloved Country
 
  • Introduction
    • Just to read and note the basic situation of South Africa (note 5 facts from each)
  • Journal 18 (running for all chapters)
    • For each chapter, copy a quotation you think rich, insightful, or nicely composed.  Explain the significance of the quote in more than one sentence. 
    • Choose one word that is new or strange to you from each chapter.
      • Add the word to your vocabulary list.
      • Define it. 
HW: J18 through ch. 3 (due Tuesday)

Block Apartheid!

Open
  • Prefixes for today (find three words for each; be prepared to explain their etymology)
    • anim– = life, spirit

      ante– = before

      anti– = opposite

      auc–, aug– = increase

      aud–, aur– = hear

      auto– = self
       
  • The List of Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes 
  • Share J17
  • Introduction
    • Just to read and note the basic situation of South Africa (note 5 facts from each)
  • Read the ch. 1-2 together.
  • Journal 18 (running for all chapters)
    • For each chapter, copy a quotation you think rich, insightful, or nicely composed.  Explain the significance of the quote in more than one sentence. 
    • Choose one word that is new or strange to you from each chapter.
      • Add the word to your vocabulary list.
      • Define it. 
HW: J18 through ch. 3 (due Tuesday)

Wednesday, 3/19/14

* Open

     * Grammar: copy these prefixes and definitions into your notes.  Find and write down at least three words that illustrate their meaning: 
a–, an– = not, without

ab– = away from

ad– = toward, addition

* Poems

* Journal 17 (1 page): What is a most lovely land that you have walked?  Describe it.  

* If you finish early: Cry, the Beloved Country introductory notes.  

  • Introduction (pages below as time permits this week)
    • Just to read and note the basic situation of South Africa (note 5 facts from each)
    • Overview: United Streaming (teacher will play when all students are ready)
HW: J17

Cheese Queens!

Do you happen to have?

Book: Percy Jackson's Ranger's Apprentice?

Or an old iPhone 4 hard case you are going to throw away?

Tuesday, 3/18/14

* Open
  • Recitation
  • Pray
* Share Poems

* St. Patrick's Breastplate 

* The Joys of Satire

* Work on your Poetry Drawing

* Finish our Video (Schwager)

HW: Finish your Drawing (J16)

Monday, 3/17: St. Patrick's Day

* Open
  • New seat; new companions
  • Take Notes: Saint Patrick
  • Saints Fun Facts for St. Patrick
  • Recitation Quiz: not this week but the end of next week.
* Journal 16: Begin an Illustration that Would Fit with Your Best Poem to Share with the School.

* Upcoming Reading
  • Course Text: Please get a copy of our novel, Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (ebook or printed books are fine; this is not a free book). 
  • Course Plan 
HW: Work on J16 (should show evidence of 1/2 hour or more of work by tomorrow; blank or lined paper is fine)
 


Block Day: Party

Open
  • Grammar: Identify rhetorical techniques that strengthen the power of this passage: 
    • "We can hear him read now, just as he did that summer day, when we were busy quilting upstairs, and he lay near the door, his voice rising denunciatory and thrillin—strong and loud as the roar of wind and waves, then soft and soothing as the balmy airs that quivered the morning-glory leaves about his gray beard. His was a strange eloquence at times, and he was undoubtedly a man of genius" ("Johnny Appleseed." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 11 March 2014. Web. 11 March 2014.).
  • Recite
  • Pray
  • "On Fragments" by G. K. Chesterton 
    • In your notes, answer this question: How is bread and cheese invoked differently here than in the essay on cheese? 
* Party

* Binder Check

HW: None


Reminder

A representative from Yale will be conducting an informational session in the MSPAR (over in the middle school) from 11:40-12:15.  Please communicate with your Advisory teacher if you would like to come join us in the MSPAR.

Tuesday, 3/11/14

* Open
  • Grammar: Please punctuate the following sentence:
    • "We can hear him read now just as he did that summer day when we were busy quilting upstairs, and he lay near the door, his voice rising denunciatory and thrillin—strong and loud as the roar of wind and waves then soft and soothing as the balmy airs that quivered the morning-glory leaves about his gray beard. His was a strange eloquence at times and he was undoubtedly a man of genius" ("Johnny Appleseed." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 11 March 2014. Web. 11 March 2014.).
    • Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Appleseed
  • Recite
  • Pray
  • John Chapman "Johnny Appleseed" (1774-1845)

    In 1806 the legendary husbandman began planting and tending apple trees along the Ohio River, navigating with a pair of lashed-together canoes.  He was equally interested in preaching biblical messages and, in the course of his travels.  Thomas Holme's Journal of a Year's Residences in America (1818), written while Chapman was spreading his evangelical seed, offered this reassuring firsthand observation: He once wrote, "I have traveled more than 4,000 miles about this country, and I have never met with one single insolent Native American." Chapman was quick to preach the Gospel as he traveled, and during his travels he converted many Native Americans, whom he admired. The Native Americans regarded him as someone who had been touched by the Great Spirit, and even hostile tribes left him strictly alone ("Johnny Appleseed." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 11 March 2014. Web. 11 March 2014.).
* Schwager's classes: Collect Rewrites
  • You must also submit your CWP and Rewrite to turnitin.com to receive credit.  
* Party Signups on Board

Contests


HW: Contest Entry; Organize your Binder





"We can hear him read now, just as he did that summer day, when we were busy quilting upstairs, and he lay near the door, his voice rising denunciatory and thrillin—strong and loud as the roar of wind and waves, then soft and soothing as the balmy airs that quivered the morning-glory leaves about his gray beard. His was a strange eloquence at times, and he was undoubtedly a man of genius" ("Johnny Appleseed." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 11 March 2014. Web. 11 March 2014.).

Monday, 3/10/14

* Open
  • Access your turnitin.com account
  • Recite
  • Pray
* CWP

* Turnitin.com
  •  UP to Two Assignment to Submit
    • CWP
    • Rewrite
Mr. Schwager's Students:
  • Per. 1 
    Course: 7802433
    Password: 201H
  •  Per. 3
    • Course: 7802442
    • Password: 203H 
Mr. Reno's Students:
  • Per. 4
    • Course: 7803215
    • Password: 204H
  • Per. 7
    • Course: 7803222
    • Password 207H
* Rewrites or Contest work

HW:
  • Rewrite (due Tues for Schwager)
  • Reno due dates
    • (Tues) CWP - MLA formatted hard copy (submit soft copy to turnitin.com)
    • (Wed) Rewrite - "Once by the Pacific" (submit soft copy to turnitin.com)
    • (Block) Binder check

Block of Paper Ashes

* Open

* Presentations
  • Take notes
  • Next, take notes on the presentations from the other period
* Rewrites reviewed
  • Review poem
  • Due Tuesday
  • Must submit to turnitin.com on or by Monday night
  • Typed
  • MLA format
* Work on your CWP

* Finished?  Work on your contest entry.

HW: CWP

Wednesday, 3/5: Ash Wednesday

* Open
  • Grammar: Punctuate:
    • "Yet even now declares the Lord
      return to me with all your heart
      with fasting with weeping and with mourning
      and rend your hearts and not your garments” (ESV Joel 2.12).
  • All hail Queen Katie! 
* Papers

* Present

* The Quarterly Creative Writing Portfolio (CWP) 

* Contest Work

HW: CWP; Contest Work

A few of my favorite things...

Bible Study
  • Go through the Bible in five years with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.  Four generations (grandmother Ruth June, my mother Jeannie, myself, and my children) have enjoyed his wise teaching.  The podcast series is now on Song of Solomon.  You can also get the app on your phone; if you do, you can just go to any chapter you wish.  The icon looks like this:



Some asked me about the book I read recently that I enjoyed.

It is Manalive by G. K. Chesterton.  It is free on iBooks!


Manalive

Turnitin Course Codes

  1. Go to turnitin.com.
  2. Log in with your own login information (mvcs).
  3. Now login to our course using the codes below:

Mrs. West's Students:
  • Honors English 201
    • Code: 10348725
    • Pass: mustangs
  •  Honors English 203
    • Code: 10348752
    • Pass: mustangs
  • Honors English 204
    • Code: 10348762
    • Pass: mustangs
  • Honors English 206
    • Code: 10348769
    • Pass: mustangs
  • Honors English 207
    • Code: 10348778
    • Pass: mustangs