Pre-AP English II: Thematic Links between Lord of the Flies and ???

Compare one of the themes in Lord of the Flies to that of another work we’ve studied this year (see below). Summarize evidence that supports your asserted theme from both texts.

• Fahrenheit 451
• The Pearl
• A Christmas Carol
• Anthem
• Othello
• Julius Caesar

English I (Pre-AP): Of Mice and Men Tone Question

Please respond to the following question. Support your answer with embedded text evidence.

What is the tone of the final scene in the clearing, just prior to George killing Lennie?

If you don't already have this marked in your copy of the novel, this is the scene I'm referring to:

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.”
   

English I (Pre-AP): Of Mice and Men Test Preview

Tomorrow, you'll have a test on the first chapter of John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men. (If you haven't yet obtained a copy, print off the first nine pages from this online copy.)

We'll be on a shortened period, you'll have an advantage over the rest of the class, if you already know the following...

Literary Devices

• Alliteration
• Allusion
• Comparison
• Contrast
• Dialogue
• Hyperbole
• Metaphor
• Onomatopoeia
• Simile
• Third-Person Objective Point of View

Vocabulary

• Careless
• Clumsy
• Contempt
• Empathy
• Establish
• Familiarity
• Heron
• Irrelevant
• Lumbered
• Recumbent
• Skittering
• Stilt(ed)
• Willow

Mood/Tone Words

• Bleak
• Cheerful
• Inquisitive
• Sinister
• Tranquil

English I (Pre-AP): Steinbeck/Of Mice and Men Presentation

Today's presentation is on the class blog. There were a couple interesting slides at the end that we didn't get to. Check them out.

English Students: Weekend Reading Assignments

Pre-AP English II: Read through Chapter III (3) of Anthem.

English I (Pre-AP) Read the first chapter of Of Mice and Men.

Pre-AP English II: Pearl/Christmas Carol Socratic Seminar Questions

Be prepared to discuss these questions in class on Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Remember to support your answers -- even the World Connection questions -- with evidence from the book.

If you missed the seminar, submit well-thought out written responses to two questions (100%; one question=80%). You may NOT answer a close-ended question.

If you were in class and did not respond twice, use the back of your remaining half-sheets ("buns") to respond to the questions. If you respond to a question discussed in class, your response must refer to the text and add to the conversation we had. (+20 points for the first, +10 points for the second)

WORLD CONNECTION QUESTIONS
How can "differences of opinion" about employment effect a relatinship?

Do you believe in supernatural visions and/or ghosts? Explain?

What effect does a song/Christmas Carol have on a person?

What effect does being cheated have on a person?


CLOSE-ENDED QUESTIONS
How does Coyotito die?

What is Marley bound by?


OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
Why does Juana want to get rid of the pearl?

What differnces are there between what Kino loves most and what Bob Cratchit loves most?

Why is Scrooge so bitter?


UNIVERSAL THEME / CORE QUESTIONS
Why is the death of a child so troubling?

How does one keep money/materialism in perspective?


LITERARY ANALYSIS QUESTIONS
How do the descriptions of what Kino sees in the pearl/the ghosts Scrooge encounters effect the mood of the chapter/stave?

If Kino had learned the Scrooge's lesson, how would The Pearl have been different?

How does the personification of "destroying [something] before it destroys [you] relate to the themes of The Pearl and A Christmas Carol?

Pre-AP English II: IWA #2 (Better Late Than Never)

[Wasn't aware I hadn't posted this....]

Write a response to the following prompt:

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Money often costs too much.” Both The Pearl and A Christmas Carol explore the paradox that wealth can carry a great cost to an individual, a family, and/or a community. In a well-developed essay explore the literary strategies Steinbeck or Dickens uses throughout his novella to communicate this idea to the reader.

Tips to success:

Focus on only one of the novellas. Focusing on both The Pearl and A Christmas Carol will immediately result in a REDO grade (no points). If you want to use A Christmas Carol, you must complete reading it in time to proceed through the IWA process.

Do not simply recount the plot or attributes of the characters. Extensive lack of focus on literary devices/technique will result in a REDO grade (no points), not a REWRITE (70 points).

The earlier you turn in a draft that you expect to earn an 85 (only revision is needed) the more likely you are to eventually receive an 85 (your idea of what is revision-only and my idea of what is revision-only may differ) or 100 (because you’ve made the necessary revision, or you refined your essay on your own before you turned it in).

This will be the last time a 70-point grade will be given on an IWA. Last year many students who had never bothered to rewrite an essay during the first semester had a very difficult time during the second semester when an 85 was required to avoid P.A. and/or IWA n.1.

This is also the last time IWAs may be turned in handwritten. Please see the note on the bonus in the next paragraph.

Paper should be about two-pages long, handwritten, or one-page long, typed, double spaced, 12-point Times New Roman (or Garamond, if you’re fancy). Five bonus points will be awarded to properly typed essays.


Daily P.A. for submitters not having achieved a 70 begins Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Drop-Dead (“For Reals”) Deadline: Tuesday, January 8, 2013.

IWA 2.1 and Daily P.A. will be assigned on to students who do not successfully complete this assignment begins Wednesday, January 9, 2013.

Pre-AP English II: Pearl Chapter 4-6 Test Preview

Tomorrow, you will have a test on Chapters 4-6 of John Steinbeck's The Pearl. Be prepared.

If you do not already know what the following literary terms, mood/tone words, and vocabulary words mean, please take this opportunity to (re)familiarize yourself with them.

Literary devices/techniques

• Anaphora
• Antithesis
• Foreshadowing
• Hyperbole
• Irony
• Oxymoron
• Paradox
• Personification
• Symbolism

Mood/Tone words

• Apprehensive
• Desperate
• Disdainful
• Jovial
• Mournful
• Ominous
• Reflective
• Resigned
• Reverent

Vocabulary words

• Condemnation
• Cunning
• Livelihood
• Persevere
• Prevalent
• Swindled

Pre-AP English II: Symbolism Presentation and Assignment

If you missed class today or just want to revisit the fun, check out the presentation below.

Assignment: Complete the grid below (click to enlarge). You need to only do one of the three (dog, rifle, canoe), but you must do "the pearl." Running through the "how do I determine what symbol may mean" slides in the presentation to help you think through the process.

Due date: Monday, December 10.

Pre-AP English II: Pearl Vocabulary

I've created a set of vocabulary flashcards over at quizlet.com. Load them onto your digital device and show me by Friday for extra credit. (Or go old-school and copy onto 3x5 cards.)

You can also view the flashcards below and play vocabulary-based games (no extra credit, but it's fun).

Pre-AP English II: Pearl Chapter 1-3 Test Preview

Tomorrow, you'll have a test on Chapters 1-3 of The Pearl. Among the many things you should know are:

Literary Devices:

• Alliteration
• Allusion
• Analogy
• Anaphora
• Antithesis
• Contrast
• Foreshadowing
• Hyperbole
• Metaphor
• Mood
• Onomatopoeia
• Personification
• Situational Irony
• Symbol
• Theme

Tone Words:

• Anxious
• Apathetic
• Apathetic
• Contemptuous
• Indifferent
• Paranoid
• Reverent
• Sarcastic
• Sinister
• Tragic
• Tranquil

Pre-AP English II: Six Weeks' Test Preview

If I mentioned that your test tomorrow would be multiple choice ... psych!

It'll be an essay thematically linked to The Pearl.

Pre-AP English II: Pearl Chapter One Open-Ended Questions

Thoughtfully respond to the following prompts. Support your answers with text evidence.

Responses should be no longer than 10 lines long. (#4 and the best response from #1-3 will be taken for a grade.)

1. Contrast the character Juana from The Pearl with Mildred from Fahrenheit 451. (You may generalize for Mildred, but please embed specific text evidence for Juana in your response.)

2. Describe an Internal Conflict (person vs. self) and an External Conflict (person vs. other, nature, society, etc.) that occur in Chapter One of The Pearl. (Embed specific text evidence.)

3. Discuss two ways colonialism (Spanish colonizing Mexico) transformed the lives of native people like Kino and his family. (Embed specific text evidence.)

4. How does the introduction of evil (the scorpion) into the story transform the good characters (Kino, Juana, and Coyotito)? (Embed specific text evidence.)

Pre-AP English II: Steinbeck and The Pearl

Today's presentations on John Steinbeck and The Pearl are below. If you missed class or some of the info, add this to your notes.

John Steinbeck

The Pearl

Quickwrite: As mentioned in the Steinbeck presentation, migrant workers were paid for their stories, which Steinbeck incorporated into his novels. In 3-5 sentences, please explain your feelings about the rightness/wrongness of someone profiting from someone else's stories if it's the only way for that person's stories to be heard.

Pre-AP English II: The Pearl for Cheap

Word is that copies of The Pearl are hard to find. If you find yourself stuck without a copy, don't despair. You can find the text free at Scribd.com. If you want to subscribe to their service, you can download a .pdf or .doc file.

Oooorrrr you can copy the text and paste into your own MS-Word (or equivalent) document. From there you can either print it out (you might want to adjust margins, columns, and font size to save on paper) or upload it to your digital device. (If you have a Kindle or Kindle app, Send to Kindle is a free PC/Mac app to easily upload a .doc file.)

To get credit for Friday, print at least the first chapter and bring it with you to class.