Course Description

 Each class day please bring in a new revision of your research paper. During class we will be working with peer reviews, rubric scoring, and assembly lines for correcting documentation and formatting errors. Before Thanksgiving, print out an extra copy of your paper to give to me. Write your name, email address, and cell phone on the top of the paper in case I need to reach you with information that can't wait until after the holiday. Currently the final deadline is Dec. 1 and 2. If this changes, I will let you know before Thanksgiving.

 If you missed class or were unprepared for class, you should complete the following with a partner from your English class.  You can do this at home or after school in my room or in the library, but you must spend at least one hour doing it.
1) Read each other's draft for the big ideas.
2) Read "Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge" and talk to your partner about what kind of feedback you are ready for.
3) Reread the partner's paper with a pen in your hand and ask questions in the margin.
4) Answer the Self Evaluation Questions on P. 17 of the syllabus about your paper.
5) Answer the Peer Evaluation Questions on p. 17 of the syllabus about your partner's paper.
6) With your partner, get out three highlighters.  Together, highlight assertions (thesis and topic sentences) in one color, concrete details in a second color, and commentary in a third color.  Discuss what you are highlighting and agree which color is appropriate for each sentence of your paper.  
7) Discuss your peer evaluations and your next steps for your paper.
8) Turn all of this in to Mrs. Hailey for full credit if you were absent and part credit if you were unprepared for class.

If you need help after school, you can come in any day.  I am usually here until 3 P.M. five days a week unless I have a meeting.  I am also here on Tuesdays and Thursdays until 4 P.M.
 
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Thanks,
C. Hailey

 What is the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest?
Now in its forty-seventh year, the contest is sponsored by Hollins University and awards prizes for the best poems submitted by girls who are sophomores or juniors in high school or preparatory school.

What are the prizes?
First place (one winner)
$200 cash prize 
Free tuition for the university's two-week Hollinsummer program where a creative writing class is offered
Publication in Cargoes, Hollins’ student literary magazine 
Ten copies of Cargoes 

Second place (six winners)
$25 cash prize 
Publication in Cargoes 
Two copies of Cargoes 

What are the requirements?
Students must submit their poem(s) online. Students must have a faculty sponsor.
No more than two poems by any one student may be submitted, and manuscripts cannot be returned (Microsoft Word or text document only) 
Please label additional pages with the author's name, title of poem, and page number 
Each entry must include the following information on the poem(s):
o Author's name
o Author's mailing address
o Author's phone number and/or e-mail address
o Year of author's high school graduation
o Faculty sponsor's name and e-mail address
o Author's school
o Address of author's school 
o Phone number of author's school 


What is the deadline for entries?
November 15.

Who chooses the winning poems?
Winners are chosen by students and faculty members in the creative writing program at Hollins.

When are winners notified?
March 2010.

Who was Nancy Thorp?
Nancy Thorp, Hollins class of 1960, was a young poet who showed great promise when she was a student. Following her death in 1962, her family established the Nancy Thorp Contest to encourage the work of young poets.

Want to know more about Hollins’ creative writing program?
Hollins University’s creative writing program is nationally recognized as one of the best in the country. The program has received acclaim in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Southern Living, and Esquire for the work of its graduates and for its distinctive approach to teaching. To learn more, click here. To learn more about Hollins' undergraduate program in English & Creative Writing, click here.

For a list of the more than 1,000 books by Hollins alumnae/i: www.hollins.edu/grad/eng_writing/books/bookfrm.htm

We have continued with the seminars on CiR.  We will have one more next class, and we will take a quiz on the book.  I will cover the last two chapters next week.   If you haven't earned many participation points for the discussions of other seminars, you could do a DEN for the chapters you're missing or write a response about the significance of the chapters if you want. 

 

For the research paper, we have a typed introductory paragraph due next class.  The hook should follow one of the types of introductions from p. 15 of your syllabus (but not inquisitive) or some other creative approach.  The thesis should be the last sentence of your introduction.  Between the hook and the thesis you should provide the most necessary background information.  Remember if you have a lot of "statement of fact" to include, you might need to detail that in the second paragraph.

 You will also have an opportunity to take a retest for the Writing Process Quiz if you stay after school Thursday, Friday, or Monday.  I will be in the computer lab on Thursday to help anyone who is behind.  Any student who is at school and is behind on research paper steps should go to the library after school.

 

 November:  Only on Fridays with Jordyn Bushong, Curtis Goad, Renfred Harper, Kevin Sullivan

January: Above the Sky with Rodrigo Castellanas etc.

We still need bands to play in March and May! See Mrs. Hailey to apply or make a suggestion.

The first Unplugged Eddas Coffee House will be Wednesday, October 21st. Sign up to read your original writing, perform music or dance, and display artwork. Registration forms are in the Eddas Room 1000. Please submit writing or lyrics along with the form. Costumes are encouraged at this coffee house, and the winners of the Halloween Horror Contest will be announced. If you're still working on an entry for the contest and you can't finish it by today, please email it to eddassubmissions@yahoo.com by Monday. We will continue the judging Monday and Tuesday after school, so we will need Eddas members to stay after for judging.

Eddas 2009 Qualia is on sale now!
Cost:  $12
 Purchase in the Eddas room or outside the cafeteria when sales are set up.

Eddas 2010 can be pre-ordered for $10.  It will cost $12 when it arrives in June.

 

We will be in the computer lab working on a "dump draft" and an outline following the classical argument.  We'll start by writing for 15-20 minutes without notes in response to the following overall questions:  What do you believe about your topic?  Write as if you are trying to convince someone who doesn't know much about your topic to take your position on the topic.  Write as fast as you can without stopping.  If your fingers slow down and want to stop, then write I don't know what to write next until you think of something better.  Include whatever facts or approximate facts you remember, but don't worry if they are accurate at this time.

 

Once you do that, print it, and read it over.  Highlight the most important ideas you find in your writing.  Compare these ideas to the arguments you wrote on your first outline.  Should you add more arguments?  Should you revise your thesis?  Should you group your arguments in a different way?  If your thesis is three pronged, do those three prongs represent the best three subtopics or arguments to support your thesis?  Think about these questions as you move to the next outline step.

 

Type the word Outline at the top of a page.  Type the word Thesis followed by a colon (:) Type a revised thesis.  Then begin an outline based on the five parts of classical discourse:

I Introduction

A. Hook (Ingratiate yourself with your audience and catch their attention.):

B. Thesis (Inform readers of your perspective/point of view/arguable point on your topic in a single declarative sentence.)

II. Statement of Fact (Background Information, Definition of Terms and/or Criteria, Explanation of the Problem  (Will all of this fit in the introductory paragraph between your hook and your thesis?  Or will your paper require a second paragraph that expands the Statement of Fact?

A

B

C

Etc.

III. Refutation (How will you refute the opposition’s arguments?  Will you offer any concessions? (accept that the opponent is right to some extent about anything?  Will you address all refutation early in your paper, or will you address different points as you proceed through your paper?

A

B

C

Etc.

IV. Affirmation (What are your major arguments in support of your thesis?  How will you support each of your arguments with evidence from your research?

A

B

C

D

Etc.

 

V. Conclusion

A. Remind readers of your major arguments

B. Reflect on the significance of ideas in your paper.

C. Relate out to your audience.

 

 

 The Great Gatsby Responses & DEN’s for Class Discussion
The entire collection of responses & DEN’s should be submitted on the Chapter 9 due date. We do insist that you write each assignment as you finish each chapter. Do not read the entire novel and then do all the assignments. Double-Entry Notebook assignments must include 10-12 items with commentary & page #’s. You should rank items according to the strategy of the literary seismograph. Response assignments should be a minimum of 300 words. Embed brief quotes from the text in your responses.

Chapter 1 DEN w/ seismograph numbers
Chapter 2 Discuss the ideas of breeding and social class in chapter 2.
Chapter 3 Discuss the development of Nick’s perception of Gatsby in chapter 3
Chapter 4 DEN w/ seismograph numbers
Chapter 5 Analyze the passage at the end of chapter 5 that begins with “As I went over to say goodbye,” and goes to the end of the chapter. Draft an essay that explains the significance of the passage in relation to major themes in the novel and describes the stylistic techniques Fitzgerald uses to get his point across. Remember to integrate your discussion of theme and techniques rather than addressing them separately. Since this is an AP practice assignment, try to limit your time to 40 minutes.
Chapter 6 Discuss how this chapter sheds light on Gatsby’s character.
Chapter 7 DEN w/ seismograph numbers
Chapter 8 DEN w/ seismograph numbers
Chapter 9 In Gatsby, Nick makes the observation that “No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.” In other words, reality can never measure up to the dreams we create for ourselves. Drawing on your own reading, observation, or experience to develop your position, defend, challenge or qualify Nick’s assertion.

OCR Set 1
The article for the first in-class response will be provided in class. You will write a longer response, more like an in-class essay, in 40-60 minutes, depending on time available. Dates will vary for each class.

OCR Set 2 
 Entry: Romanticism – After reading “Thanatopisis” and “The Raven,” identify the meter in which the poems are written and discuss the effect of this choice on the reader. The text will help you if you need a review of meter. Also discuss any other sound devices (alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme, slant rhyme, onomatopoeia, etc.) you notice in the poems. Additionally, all three of these authors are part of the Romantic movement. Review the definition of “Romanticism” from the notes you took in the first quarter and discuss how these authors’ works embody aspects of that definition. Consider each of the characteristics of Romanticism mentioned in the textbooks.
o Bryant: “Thanatopsis” [277] (150 words min.)
o Poe [gold 450-453]: “The Raven” [330] (150 words min.)

 Entry: Henry David Thoreau—During his life Thoreau wrote a great deal about individuality, society, and nature. Drawing on your own knowledge and experience, write a carefully reasoned essay defending, challenging or qualifying one of Thoreau’s quotes below:
o Any man more right than his neighbor constitutes a majority of one.—Civil Disobedience
o It takes two to speak the truth, one to speak and another to hear.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
o The perception of beauty is a moral test.—Journal. June 21, 1852
o That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.—Journal, March 11, 1856
o Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.—Walden. I, Economy
o Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.—Walden. I, Economy
o There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.—Walden. I, Economy
o To be awake is to be alive—Walden. II, Where I lived, and What I lived For
o Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.—Walden. XVIII, Conclusion
 Entry: Transcendentalism—Read the following, and be prepared to write an in-class response.
o Emerson: “Self-Reliance” [online; see Documents]
o Thoreau
 from “Civil Disobedience” [416]
 from Walden [406]

APLC Course Syllabus & Handbook--Everything You Wanted to Know about AP Language & Composition