Note About Final Projects

All final projects need to be posted to your blog by the time your class´s final exam would commence. I will be grading them during that exam time.

While posting, keep in mind: CCOA, presentation, etc. This should not just be a place to dump a homework assignment. You want it to look like it fits on your blog. 

If your project cannot be digitized, please give it to me in class.

Post Exam Final Project Rubric

The same rubric will be used both formatively on Wednesday or Thursday this week (whenever we have class) and summatively on the day our Final Exam is scheduled for your Final Projects.

All projects either need to be uploaded to every group member´s blog or for analog projects handed in physically in the inbox in H301. 

Here is the rubric. 

Model Projects from the Past

Here is an example of a video game analytic walk-through. Beware the spoilers in this one!

Here is an example of a discussion of Eligible.

After the Exam

Juniors and Sophomores: Choose one of the following options to work on for the duration of class. You´ll be assessed once formatively and during our final exam day summatively. You can choose to work in a group of 2-3 if applicable.

- Translate a short story or poem or series of poems (length will be approved by teacher).

- Create a graphic novel of a short story. You can use computer software on campus for this, however I prefer people that are more artistically inclined do so.

- Create a graphic novel of a few poems by the same poet.

- Create a zine.

- Adapt a full poem to a full song or write a song

- Write a sonnagram

- Write a song with lyrics.

- Create a new version of a short story we´ve read.

- Create a short film version of a short story we've read together.

- Read a series of graphic novels by the same author (Lynda Barry, Alan Moore, Alice Bedchel (mature content), Charles Burns (mature content))

- Create a series of concrete poems or sound poems with a motif.

- Purchase and read the modern version of Pride and Prejudice, Eligible

- Read Margaret Atwood´s The Handmaid´s Tale and watch the new TV series based on it.

-Watch and write movie reviews of several films about poetry (parental permission needed due to mature content of films) Kill All Your Darlings, Howl, Dead Poet´s Society, Total Eclipse, Bright Star

- (Whole class only) Perform a one-act play (comedy or tragedy) only for other Lit sections. (Zoo Story, or All in the Timing, or God by Woody Allen)

-  Purchase and play the video game narrative everyone is talking about, Gone Home. You can either write a brief essay (2-3 pages) that analyzes the video game, or create an analytic walk through video that focuses on one part of the story. You can play the video game in class.

- Purchase and play the video game narrative everyone is talking about, Walden. You can either write a brief essay (2-3 pages) that analyzes the video game, or create an analytic walk through video that focuses on one part of the story. You can play the video game in class.

- Paint the new AP Lit mural for H301

Senior Final Assignment

Edwidge Danticat graduating from Barnard in 1990

Seniors will have two options for their Senior Final Assessment. Choose one of the following:

- Imagine that you have been invited to read a poem to the Class of 2018 during graduation. As experts in poetry, you will choose one of these forms to write your poem in: sonnet, villanelle, sestina. It may be an ode, an elegy, or a lyric poem. This is the corresponding rubric.

Keep in mind your performance will be graded rather than your actual poem, so you'll want to practice your performance.

- Discuss the poem "Graduation" by Dorothea Tanning. Here is the rubric. 


These assessments will be conducted in class, during your Final Exam, whenever scheduled. This will also be our send-off for your, so feel free to bring in snacks and refreshments. 

Review Day

For those that can make it, the best way to study for our AP Lit exam is to come to class on Monday or Tuesday. We´ll be playing an all-class trivia game.

Re-Testing Multiple Choice Full-Length Summative

For those that scored a 2 or lower, you can re-assess your multiple choice skills on Friday afterschool during my Opportunity Day.

You need to email to let me know how many copies to make.

English Literature SAT Subject Test

If you're attending university in the US, you may consider taking an English Literature SAT Subject Test. The college counselors have advised that you do so in May, while you're at your peak performance.

Summative Timed Writing

On April 24th and 25th you will complete a prose analysis summative timed writing assignment (Question 2). This way, we'll be able to compare your performance to model papers and receive feedback in time for the exam.

Pre-20th Century Prose Check-in

While we continue to read our novels, we´ll have some formative check-in´s to prepare for our Summative Open-Ended Question (Q3) in which you´ll need to write about your novel. 

As I look around, I don´t see that we´re annotating as we should be.

This is the rubric I´ll use.

Full-Length Multiple-Choice Exam (Summative)

On our full-length multiple-choice exam you will have sixty minutes to complete fifty-five questions See April Lesson Calendar on sidebar for dates.

The passages will be:
Sonnet 60 by William Shakespeare
Chapter 6 of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.
"Andrea del Sarto" by William Browning
"The Race" by Sharon Olds


vocabulary:
ominous
toil
dispassionate
inexorable
thwart
erudite
malelovent
reticent
ineffectual
ambivalent
impropriety
skeptical



terms:
octave
sestet
ballad
quatrain
couplet
poetic license
pastoral
epic
elegy
ode
lyric
synecdoche
onomatopoeia
hyperbole
allusion
stream of consciousness

In-Class MC Practice

Try taking this MC quiz with 14 minutes to complete.

Group Lead Literary Cenacle Discussions (formative)

Your literary cenacle will choose a passage from your pre-20th century novel with which to create questions around. Then the class will participate in four-five rounds of three-minute discussions. 

Your group is responsible for making copies of the passage you will discuss.



Groups will be evaluated on the clarity of their questions, their insight into the text and their ability to lead the conversation into profundity, rather than repeating the same inferences or observations about the text.

I will help the Candide groups to lead the first discussion.

You can find the discussion rubric here.

Q2 Student Samples

You can find student sample responses for Q2 here. 

Model Hamlet Timed Writing

While not without some flaws, this essay does a great job in connecting form and content.

Pre-20th Century Literary Cenacles

As we prepare to read our last book together, the EVL has made a webpage for some of your options should you wish to do some pre-research on each book. Check it out here. 

Bartleby Practice Prompt

Question 3
(40 minutes)

It has often been said that what we value can be determined only by what we sacrifice. Consider how this statement applies to a character from a novel or play. Select a character that has deliberately sacrificed, surrendered, or forfeited something in a way that highlights that character’s values. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the particular sacrifice illuminates the character’s values and provides a deeper understanding of the meaning of the work as a whole.

Student Samples of Q3

Take a look at some of the student samples. With your group using the scoring guide, give a grade to the first three essays.

Hamlet Videos

All productions of Hamlet must be uploaded to Youtube and linked to each actor´s blog by April 5th. Make sure you mark your videos as unlisted.

Poetry Quiz (formative)

We will have a quiz on "To the Same Flower" on Friday April 6th or Monday April 9th. This will be a formative quiz.

On the quiz the following words and terms will appear:

idyllic
apostrophe
stressed syllable
mercurial
sardonic
melancholy

Vacation Reading

With the exam quickly approaching we need to make use of all of our time out of class. You have two hours of homework over vacation. 

I´m asking you all to read the short story ¨Bartleby the Scrivener¨ by Herman Melville. I have paper copies available in class; however, if you have some sort of tablet reader (Kindle or iPad) you can download a copy for free. 

If you'd like to listen to the short story while reading (which I suggest) you can find the audio here. 

On our first day back we'll have a multiple choice exam and timed writing exam on the story. 

Reminder Task 3 and Summative Hamlet Scene

Please remember that I will be assessing your ability to deliver your lines (a mixture of memorization and understanding) Task 3 and in addition we will be filming our scenes next class. I highly recommend you prepare well for both of these tasks.

Bartleby Practice Quiz

You can find the "Bartleby the Scrivener" Practice Quiz here. 

Missing Books

We´re still missing some books.

1 copy of Drown
1 copy of Drifting House
1 copy of Krik Krak

Fencing Anyone?

I don´t know about you, but I´m seriously considering fencing classes after V.ii of Hamlet.

Previous Green Screen Adaptations of Hamlet

Re-take of make-up Poetry Quiz

For those that scored 2 or less, or have not made-up the last Poetry Quiz yet, you may re-take the Poetry Quiz next Wednesday afterschool. It´s imperative you make it, so you can get feedback before break.

It will be on ¨The Female Philosopher¨ by Charlotte Dacre.

assonance
oxymoron
hyperbole 
onomaetoepoeia


stoic
dreary
langour

Tips for Our Upcoming Summative Assessments

Remember we'll have two summative assessments next week that our formative assignments have been leading to: a timed writing essay and a filmed scene.

Here are the rubrics for both:
Hamlet Timed Writing Rubric
Hamlet Scene Rubric

The writing will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our performances will take place the last day of class.

Your last formative feedback will be your close reading for writing and your Task 3 completion for performing.

Should you wish to study over this weekend I suggest: watching an entire production of Hamlet from beginning to end; practicing with your group if possible, or at least rehearsing lines with a friend, and reading this essay about the possible meanings of the end of Hamlet.

Hamlet Close Reading (formative)

You must complete one close reading of a section of Hamlet for this Friday. I suggest choosing a section that you´ve previously reflected on in a scrapbook entry. This will be a formative grade. It must be posted on your blog by the time we have class on Friday.

Here is the rubric. 

Our Literary Discussion Rubric

You can find our rubric here to grade yourself on a post-it.

Read ¨Gertrude Talks Back¨

You can read it here. 

Lit Discussion and Close Reading Next Week

Next week we'll have a graded literary discussion of a soliloquy from Hamlet. In your discussion you should be thinking about:

metaphor
enjambment
caesura
full stop
stress
alliteration

You should also use the verbs for literary analysis listed on this sheet. You may want to study them.
As usual you should be able to link these devices to the meaning of the work (form-content).

In addition we'll be having a formative assessment of a close reading of lines of your choosing. The close reading will be roughly one paragraph. We will also be assessing your use of said vocabulary.

Hamlet Scene Assignments

You can find your scene assignment here. 

Be sure to bring in photocopies of your script for next class.

Missed Class?

If you're absent while we are studying Hamlet (until CWW) you are responsible for watching as well as reading the scenes that you missed.

Check the Hamlet calendar to find the text studied. You can find it one link bar on the right as well.

Every day of Hamlet study will require one scrapbook entry.

Block 2 Hamlet Characters

Post your character photos here.

Block 6 Hamlet Characters

Upload your Hamlet pics here.

New Semester, New Opportunity Day Times

My new days of the week for help afterschool this semester are Wednesdays and Fridays.

Hamlet Scrapbook

Rather than maintaining a blog during thisHamlet, we're going to go paper - and keep a Hamlet scrapbook. The scrapbooks will stay in our classroom.

For every scene we'll study you'll create aHamlet scrapbook entry.

There are some requirements that we'll discuss first.

- cite text specifically following MLA format
- note the date and the scene and lines covered
- deal with at least one word in detail

In addition, you must choose minimum two of the following creative strategies to deal with text. Remember: the entries should be a reflection of your understand of the scene. It should also be a creative representation of your thinking:

- create a collage of a character
- demonstrate inference by animating/illustrating text
- comic book style illustration of dialogue
- paper circuitry
- summarize the scene in a paragraph written in different colors (color-coding)
- write a journal entry as a character in the scene (narrative)
- play what if: create a what if scenario and imagine what the consequences would be
-depict a close reading in illustrations of a small piece of text
- translate a series of lines to emojis (stickers)
- justify cutting the scene out of a production of Hamlet
- justify not cutting the scene out of a production of Hamlet
- re-write the scene as a children's story or children's illustrated book
- imagine the scene without Hamlet and think about its effects

Here is the rubric I will use to grade your scrapbooks (once every two weeks - formative). Be sure to keep your scrapbook up to date. If you miss class you must either come to Opportunity Day or study the scene on your own with the help of scenes on youtube.

Want some examples? While it's not exactly like what we're doingthis is more or less the same idea only with The Great Gatsby. Ours make look a little different as they'll include work with text and more traditional written approaches in addition to the visual work. 

Another place you might go to get an idea of what a scrapbook can look like is Lynda Barry's books, in our classroom and library.



While I have a booklet for each of you, you may bring in your own, if your prefer it. Just know that the book will only be dedicated toHamlet. Think of the book itself as a work of art - in progress!

Hamlet Pictures from Block 5

Post your pictures here. 

Poetry Quiz

We´ll be having a quiz on the Friday 2nd and Monday the 5th. It will be on ¨The Forerunners¨ by George Herbert. While the language is somewhat different than Shakespeare, it has many similarities. As such, it makes sense we assess our ability to interpret this kind of poetry (Hamlet is written in verse).

Vocabulary in questions:

sermon
lament
summons
refrain
an aside (theater)
epilogue
tetrameter
light verse

Model Author Study Papers

Here are some model papers from our Author Study this year. These are superior to the models I first showed, so for those revising their papers this might be a good place to get some ideas.


The papers are hyperlinked by the author that the student focused on.

Chimanda Ngozi Adichie

Suki Kim

Edwidge Danticat

Octavia Butler

Kurt Vonnegut

Writers Workshop Mini-lesson: Block Quotations

Hamlet Trailer

Here´s a trailer too if you missed our Hamlet intro class today.

For Juniors who have missed class today, be sure to watch this TEDtalk with the intention of answering: How should we study Shakespeare? Why should we study Shakespeare?

A Dramatization of John Donne's "The Flea"

Today's Work

After today's quiz, we'll be reading "Love in LA" by Dagoberto Gilb.

Please answer the corresponding questions in our textbook.

For the Adichie Readers

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has recently been interviewed by the New Yorker. It´s a brief podcast that could be useful in your papers.

Writing Center Is At Your Service

Please don't forget that if you need extra help with your paper, you can go to the Writing Center.  Email  thewritingcenter@cng.edu to set up an appointment.

Publishing Party

We´ll be celebrating the completion of our Author Study papers on Friday or Monday. Bring in snacks and drinks - but most importantly: don´t forget your printed paper.

Contribute to Our Author Study Paper Final Draft Rubric

Please follow this link. 

Prose Analysis Quiz (formative) February 6th and 7th

On February 6th or 7th we will have a quiz on an excerpt from James Galsworthy´s A Modern Comedy. 

Terms that will appear on the quiz include:
ironic
paradoxical
juxtaposition
analogy


Some words you may not know that appear include:
austere
fecund
idyllic
aloof
obdurate

Were you left wondering about ¨A Rose for Emily¨?  This close reading by a college professor might be helpful.

Bring Back Books

When you bring in your papers this Friday or Monday, bring in all books you borrowed from our classroom library. This will be a Life Skills grade for the second semester.

Today's Short Story: A Rose for Emily

We're starting our mini-unit on love today.

We're going to listen to and read William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily". You can read it here and listen to it here.

Peer Review

If you haven´t yet completed your PeerMark peer review, you can do so starting tomorrow. It is listed as Author Study Draft 2. Remember: you must complete one full peer review.

Final Drafts of Author Study Due

The final draft of your author study paper is due — printed and stapled — in class February 2nd or February 5th.

I thought after all of the conferencing some written feedback might be refreshing. We´ll talk about it in class.

Today's Short Story: "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"

You can find the full text here. 

Special Opportunity

We rarely get a chance to see theater in English here in Bogotá. As such, I recommend you see the HS play. If you do attend, I will see to it that you are compensated for your time.

Author Study Paper Instructions

Your paper should focus on a theme or technique among at least two works by your author.

It needs to be 4-5 pages double-spaced.

MLA Citation Video Explanation

Here is a brief explanation of MLA given by my twin brother, Messi Tangen.

Here are the links that I go over:

MLA Citation Page

MLA Sample Paper

How to write in-text citations for multiple works by same author

Enroll in Turnitin.com

Use this class code: 17276714

The password is dickinson.

Peer Review

For next class turn in your paper to Turnitin.com for an anonymous peer review.

Classwork for 1.19.18

I'm training for AP Capstone scoring today.

In my stead, please complete this lesson.

The Short Story "A&P" by John Updike

You can find the short story here and the audio - if you prefer to listen - here. 

And conclusions?

Here is our mini-lesson on college-style conclusions.

Mini-lesson on Introduction Strategies

Turn to page 2 of this document.

Close Reading (formative) Rubric

Please write your input here. We´ll be using this to evaluate your close readings, as we prepare to hand in our full-length author study.

Model Close Readings

You can find them here.

Close Reading: Formative

For next class (Tuesday or Wednesday), post your first close reading to your blog. You'll be evaluated on your understanding, your incorporation of text and your use of Standard English.

Verb List for Literary Analysis

I noticed in a lot of the timed writing essays that I read that we are struggling to find other ways to say ¨talks about¨, so I want to provide you with a list of possibilities.

You´ll find them here on the second page under the ¨Literary Analysis¨ column.

Author Study Timed Writing Exemplars

Below you will find exemplars of our timed writing. I am linking them to the author of study´s last name.

Junot Díaz

Suki Kim

Edwidge Danticat

Model Author Study Papers

See a paper about Octavia Butler´s work written here.

Here is another about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Poetry-in-a-Box Claim

For anyone who would like to keep their Poem-in-a-Box, please claim them by Friday. They will be disposed of Friday afternoon.

For Next Writer´s Workshop

For our next Writer´s Workshop on Friday or Monday (depending on your section) bring in your three passages (you can take a picture, have a photocopy, or scan - but I will need to see them) from at least two works by your author. 

Remember you want to demonstrate your ability to link three close readings to a larger pattern.