For freshmen advancing Pre-AP English II next year, please read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card at least once. Twice, or even three times, would be preferable. Be familiar with the plot, characters, and to the extent possible, the novel's major themes (you'll have to decide what those are).In a brief paragraph explain whether Graff told Ender the truth or if everything he said was a lie. Support your response with evidence from the text.
Jane Eyre
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book 1:
In class we began identifying information to complete a 3-way Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting Ralph, Piggy, and Jack. (If you lost your handout, click and print the image to the left of this text.) To complete the assignment, follow the four steps, below.
Which essay (if either) do you agree with and why? Support your response with at least two well-chosen pieces of embedded text evidence.The assignment is due on the day of your course ACP (periods 1 and 2, 5/24; period 4, 5/28).
As mentioned in some classes today, you have an opportunity to get 24 free audiobooks this summer. Check out the Download Schedule and sign up for text/e-mail reminders.Do you think the way words are added to the dictionary (as per the two articles) is fair? Support your reasoning with evidence from one or both articles.Please do likewise.
Practice bringing your copy of William Golding's Lord of the Flies to school every day next week by bringing it to school tomorrow!The article discusses ways to use psychological manipulation to harm others. Please identify and describe one way you could use the ideas contained in the article in a CONSTRUCTIVE way.
.jpg)
What about Jim's death is the narrator unaware of?
He opened the bedroom door.Remember, tone is how the author feels about his/her subject. It is separate from how the protagonist feels, as well as from how the reader feels (though it may be aligned with either or both). It is revealed primarily by the connotations inherent in the author's word choice (diction) as well as the author's selection of literary devices (metaphor, simile, hyperbole, irony, etc.). Consider using the following stem(s) in writing your paragraph:
It was like coming into the cold marbled room of a mausoleum after the moon had set. Complete darkness, not a hint of the silver world outside, the windows tightly shut, the chamber a tomb-world where no sound from the great city could penetrate. The room was not empty.
He listened.
The little mosquito-delicate dancing hum in the air, the electrical murmur of a hidden wasp snug in its special pink warm nest. The music was almost loud enough so he could follow the tune.
He felt his smile slide away, melt, fold over, and down on itself like a tallow skin, like the stuff of a fantastic candle burning too long and now collapsing and now blown out. Darkness. He was not happy. He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of affairs. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.
Without turning on the light he imagined how this room would look. His wife stretched on the bed, uncovered and cold, like a body displayed on the lid of a tomb, her eyes fixed to the ceiling by invisible threads of steel, immovable. And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind. The room was indeed empty. Every night the waves came in and bore her off on their great tides of sound, floating her, wide-eyed, toward morning. There had been no night in the last two years that Mildred had not swum that sea, had not gladly gone down in it for the third time.
The room was cold but nonetheless he felt he could not breathe. He did not wish to open the curtains and open the french windows, for he did not want the moon to come into the room. So, with the feeling of a man who will die in the next hour for lack of air,.he felt his way toward his open, separate, and therefore cold bed.
The tone of the passage is [tone]. Bradbury makes this clear by choosing [quoted diction/literary devices], which make it clear [explanation].
How does Roderigo help Iago? Why? Support answer with embedded text evidence.If you were in class today and would like another shot at earning a 70, re-try the questions above. If you would like to possibly earn an 85, answer the following question, as well:
Summarize the “conversation” Iago and Roderigo have with Brabantio. Support answer with embedded text evidence.
In Act 1, Scene 2, line 58, why does Iago challenge Roderigo to a duel with the line "You, Roderigo! come sir, I am for you"? Support your answer with evidence from Act 1, Scene 1.
Summarize Montag’s relationship with Clarisse McClellan. Support your answer with embedded text evidence.If you were in class today and would like another shot at earning a 70, re-try the questions above. If you would like to possibly earn an 85, answer the following question, as well:
Describe what happens to the woman Montag tries to arrest when the firemen arrive at 11 North Elm St. Support your answer with embedded text evidence. (In other words, why doesn’t he arrest her?)
Describe two pieces of household technology mentioned in the beginning of the novel. What are they similar to in our world.
Amazon is currently offering a Kindle version of Ender's Game for $3.49. Although we won't be reading it this year (due to picking up Fahrenheit 451 for The Big Read), it will be assigned either for your summer reading or in Pre-AP English II class next year.The first line of the novel is: It was a pleasure to burn. In the opening passage, draw an oval around each word/phrase that deals with pleasure, joy, sensuality, etc. (eg., the word pleasure in the first sentence and the phrase special pleasure in the second). Mark each word/phrase that deals with burning, fire, destruction, etc., with an “explosive balloon”(eg., the word burn in the first sentence and blackened in the second; some, like eaten in the second sentence will have both). When you are done, complete the answer at the bottom of the page.If you would like to annotate your copy of the novel, you may do that instead of marking up the worksheet, but you should still complete the short-answer question at the bottom.
Write an essay stating your position on which is more important: what a person thinks or what a person does. Be sure to —At the end of the essay please answer the following question: What are 2 clues in the prompt/"be sure to..." that inform you that you should write a persuasive, rather than an expository, essay? (Bullet points are fine.)
- state your position clearly
- use appropriate organization
- provide specific support for your argument
- choose your words carefully
- edit your writing for grammar, mechanics, and spelling
Write a story about the power of forgiveness. Be sure that your story is focused and complete and that it has an interesting plot and engaging characters.At the end of the story please answer the following question: Besides the word "story" in the prompt, what are 2 other clues that you should not respond with an expository essay? (Bullet points are fine.)
Online, at the No Fear Shakespeare website, you can read their edition of Romeo & Juliet for free. 
If you have the Kindle app on your computer or smart device, you may download a copy of Othello from the Amazon store for free. (You must download the book from your computer or web browser on your smart device; the book will by synced to the app the next time you run it.)
Half Price Books is running a series of special during Spring Break. If you sign up for their mailing list you'll receive a set of coupons that lower their already low prices. English I (Pre-AP) students, books you need include No Fear Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet in the Shakespeare section of the store and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
What is the tone of the final scene in the clearing, just prior to George killing Lennie?
Lennie got up on his knees. “You ain’t gonna leave me, are ya, George? I know you ain’t.”
George came stiffly near and sat down beside him. “No.”
“I knowed it,” Lennie cried. “You ain’t that kind.”
George was silent.Lennie said, “George.”
“Yeah?”
“I done another bad thing.”
“It don’t make no difference,” George said, and he fell silent again.
Only the topmost ridges were in the sun now. The shadow in the valley was blue and soft. From the distance came the sound of men shouting to one another. George turned his head and listened to the shouts.
Lennie said, “George.”
“Yeah?”
“Ain’t you gonna give me hell?”
“Give ya hell?”
“Sure, like you always done before. Like, ‘If I di’n’t have you I’d take my fifty bucks—’”
“Jesus Christ, Lennie! You can’t remember nothing that happens, but you remember ever’ word I say.”
“Well, ain’t you gonna say it?”
George shook himself. He said woodenly, “If I was alone I could live so easy.” His voice was monotonous, had no emphasis. “I could get a job an’ not have no mess.” He stopped.
“Go on,” said Lennie. “An’ when the enda the month come—”
“An’ when the end of the month came I could take my fifty bucks an’ go to a . . . . cat house—” He stopped again.
Lennie looked eagerly at him. “Go on, George. Ain’t you gonna give me no more hell?”
“No,” said George.
“Well, I can go away,” said Lennie. “I’ll go right off in the hills an’ find a cave if you don’ want me.”
George shook himself again. “No,” he said. “I want you to stay with me here.”
Lennie said craftily—“Tell me like you done before.”
“Tell you what?”
“’Bout the other guys an’ about us.”
George said, “Guys like us got no fambly. They make a little stake an’ then they blow it in. They ain’t got nobody in the worl’ that gives a hoot in hell about ‘em—”
“But not us,” Lennie cried happily. “Tell about us now.”
George was quiet for a moment. “But not us,” he said.
“Because—”
“Because I got you an’—”
“An’ I got you. We got each other, that’s what, that gives a hoot in hell about us,” Lennie cried in triumph.
The little evening breeze blew over the clearing and the leaves rustled and the wind waves flowed up the green pool. And the shouts of men sounded again, this time much closer than before.
George took off his hat. He said shakily, “Take off your hat, Lennie. The air feels fine.”
Lennie removed his hat dutifully and laid it on the ground in front of him.
The shadow in the valley was bluer, and the evening came fast. On the wind the sound of crashing in the brush came to them.
Lennie said, “Tell how it’s gonna be.”
George had been listening to the distant sounds. For a moment he was businesslike. “Look acrost the river, Lennie, an’ I’ll tell you so you can almost see it.”Lennie turned his head and looked off across the pool and up the darkening slopes of the Gabilans. “We gonna get a little place,” George began. He reached in his side pocket and brought out Carlson’s Luger; he snapped off the safety, and the hand and gun lay on the ground behind Lennie’s back. He looked at the back of Lennie’s head, at the place where the spine and skull were joined.
A man’s voice called from up the river, and another man answered.
“Go on,” said Lennie.
George raised the gun and his hand shook, and he dropped his hand to the ground again.
“Go on,” said Lennie. “How’s it gonna be. We gonna get a little place.”
“We’ll have a cow,” said George. “An’ we’ll have maybe a pig an’ chickens . . . . an’ down the flat we’ll have a . . . . little piece alfalfa—”
“For the rabbits,” Lennie shouted.
“For the rabbits,” George repeated.
“And I get to tend the rabbits.”
“An’ you get to tend the rabbits.”
Lennie giggled with happiness. “An’ live on the fatta the lan’.”
“Yes.”
Lennie turned his head.
“No, Lennie. Look down there acrost the river, like you can almost see the place.”
Lennie obeyed him. George looked down at the gun.
There were crashing footsteps in the brush now. George turned and looked toward them.
“Go on, George. When we gonna do it?”
“Gonna do it soon.”
“Me an’ you.”
“You . . . . an’ me. Ever’body gonna be nice to you. Ain’t gonna be no more trouble. Nobody gonna hurt nobody nor steal from ‘em.”
Lennie said, “I thought you was mad at me, George.”
“No,” said George. “No, Lennie. I ain’t mad. I never been mad, an’ I ain’t now. That’s a thing I want ya to know.”
The voices came close now. George raised the gun and listened to the voices.
Lennie begged, “Le’s do it now. Le’s get that place now.”
“Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta.”
Ayn Rand uses the names of her characters to add to the meaning of her work. She uses symbolism and irony to help the reader understand that collectivism is based on lies.The paragraph would probably be a little better if I revised it so the theme appeared in the first paragraph, something like this:
Ayn Rand uses the names of her characters to help the reader understand that collectivism is based on lies. She accomplishes this with the symbolism and irony inherent in her characters' names.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the scene involving Equality 7-2521's visit to the Home of Scholars in Chapter VII. "Collective 0-0009, the oldest and wisest of the Council" quizzes Equality 7 about his discovery of electric light. When Equality 7 says he worked on the invention on his own, Collective 0 says, "'What is not thought by all men cannot be true.'" Clearly, this is a lie. Collective 0's name acts symbolically for the collectivist society Rand so strongly opposes. By putting the falsehood in his mouth, Rand implies that the collectivism he represents is also based on lies.To complete this body paragraph, I'd need to look at another symbolic name and link it to a lie of the collectivist society, too.
| Why are you reading the information in this box? You are wasting time. Even if there were something relevant in this box, it would not help you write your essay successfully. It would only result in your essay sounding like everyone else’s essay, and that will hurt your score. |
Novelists and playwrights often use the names of their characters to add meaning to their work.In a well-organized essay, analyze the significance of character names and name-changes in Anthem, and explain how they contribute to the novella’s meaning.Tips to success:
Darkness and light have long been used to symbolize ignorance and knowledge or sin and redemption. In a well-organized essay, analyze Rand’s use of darkness and light in Anthem, and discuss the way these symbols contribute to the overall meaning of the novella.
Sometimes people make assumptions about me when they hear I'm an English teacher. Like they think they know me. Like they think I have to behave they way they expect. But I'm not that way ... for reals.You modify my introduction, or use a variation of Sojourner Truth's, or come up with your own.
For instance, people think that I must always use proper grammar and spelling. But sometimes I don't, and ain't I an English teacher? Using slang and other colloquialisms makes the language fun, and I want my students to enjoy learning English. Still, people think that English teachers want the language to be stuffy. I'm not that way, and ain't I an English teacher?
