Emily Dickinson Addendum

Quiz for Semester 1

For those that missed class for whatever reason Friday, you must come Opportunity Day on Monday to take the exam.

Poetry Lab #1: The Blank Space

Check out this alternative style to erasure poem. This is "Melody" by Mary Ruefle.

How does white difffer from the way we've used black in the past.

Grab a page or pages from one of the old books available.

This Weekend

Complete a video discussion before class next Tuesday.

In general, be sure to discuss some vocabulary. 

Take a look at how this group approaches the word vagrant (about 15 minutes in).

This will count as a formative grade for the second semester.

Also, if you need to, complete your erasure poems. 

Assignment for Friday

Continue to make your reading goals. I may be calling you up next week to discuss your progress.

Important Note Regarding Author Study Discussions

Be sure that your video is unlisted. If it is not, make it so.

Today´s Assignments

I am ill and will not be able to attend class today.

We will pospone our discussion of ¨The Student Strikers¨. 

Instead please locate our textbook, Literature and Composition. Find the short story ¨A & P¨ by John Updike. Answer all the adjacent questions. You can also find the short story online, but you´ll need the textbook to answer the questions. You may have to share.

Meet and discuss your reading over the weekend. Add at least five new quotations to your author database.

When finished, set a new reading goal for Wednesday and begin reading in class - this will cut down on your homework, if you use your time well. Feel free to spread out and use the comfy seats.

Over-the-Weekend Assignment

This weekend we have two reading assignments.

1 - Meet your group's reading goal. Use your post-its or other electronic versions of such, as I may use these in a "Read Now" activity.

2 - Read "For the Student Strikers" in preparation for an in-class fishbowl discussion Monday. You may want to copy, paste and print out for class.

For the Student Strikers
By Richard Wilbur

Go talk with those who are rumored to be unlike you,
And whom, it is said, you are so unlike.
Stand on the stoops of their houses and tell them why
You are out on strike.

It is not yet time for the rock, the bullet, the blunt         5
Slogan that fuddles the mind toward force.
Let the new sound in our streets be the patient sound
Of your discourse.

Doors will be shut in your faces, I do not doubt.
Yet here or there, it may be, there will start,                10
Much as the lights blink on in a block at evening,
Changes of heart.

They are your houses; the people are not unlike you;
Talk with them, then, and let it be done
Even for the grey wife of your nightmare sheriff        15
And the guardsman’s son.

Writers Workshop: Transitional Phrases

Most - if not all - of you are familiar with transitional phrases. Here is a quick reminder about what transitional phrases are and why we use them.

Here is a sheet you can download and refer back to for future reference.

Remember this is something you should use in all of your classes.

When finished go to noredink.com to complete a Transitional Phrase quiz. 

Fiztgeralders! Bring back your books!

For the F. Scott Fitzgerald groups, please be sure to bring back your copies of vacation reading to H301. He is so popular among you that there are few copies.


Please do so as soon as possible. There are students that are not able to begin reading until you do.

Rubric for Author Study Discussion Video

Here you can see our rubric for this assignment. 

Quiz on January 25th

We'll have a brief quiz (formative) on Wednesday, January 25th. The quiz will be about "When men shall find the flower, they glory pass" by Samuel Daniel.

You should review the terms:
romantic ode
Petrarchan sonnet
Shakespearean sonnet
ballad
villanelle (to be discussed in class that week)

The words:
decanter
tumbler

Assignment for This Weekend

Meet your group reading goal for this weekend. Be sure to use post-its, highlights, or notes in preparation for a video discussion to be posted on your blogs, by next Thursday.

Here's a model.

Discussions should be from 15-20 minutes in length. In them you will be assessed on:

-citation of text
-discussion of vocabulary (new words and important terms)
-level of abstraction
-participation in discussion
-connections with other texts by same author
-authenticity

Tomorrow's Exam

Please don't forget to bring in the novel you read over break for our timed writing exam (summative).