Thursday, 3/5/2009

AP

Homework Due

Highlights on Professor Brown's essay, "Tragedy After Aristotle".

Tragedy Discussion

We talked about the big ideas in last night's reading--

• Why fight?  Why fight a battle you're pretty sure you can't win?
  
• What is the value in suffering?
  
• Why do we want to watch people suffer, on the movie screen, on tv, in our readings?
  
• Does wisdom really come from suffering?
  
• Wisdom--do we really need it?
  

We didn't answer these questions, just raised them.  We will talk about them more tomorrow and Monday, and we'll write about them in our personal philosophy essay (in-class) on Tuesday.

Professor Foster

• Read and highlight the chapter, "It's Greek to Me", to prepare for Friday's discussion.
  

Individual Conferences

• I called people back one at a time to talk about their chapter seven outlines.  I talked with people about why outlines are important at the college level (making our own meaning; condensing the reading to a manageable level for review purposes).
  

Literary Terms

• We got with partners, and we defined the purple and orange cards.
  

Homework

• Read Arthur Miller's essay, "Tragedy and the Common Man" (pp. B19-B21), and answer the RJ questions.  We'll discuss this essay and your RJs tomorrow in class.
  

CREATIVE WRITING

We started REVISING today!

• We looked at page 79 and asked--and answered--the Big Questions for this unit.
  
• We practiced the four kinds of revision (addition; subtraction; transposition; substitution) on page 80, and then we compared our revisions on the Big Screen with the whole class.
  
• We read Tony's first draft and final draft of his revised memoir (pp. 81-2), to show us what a revised prose looks like.  We read it in partners, and then as a whole class we discussed the changes (revisions) he made.
• We looked at page 83, and we each starred FOUR QUESTIONS that we think will help us revise our first prose piece.  We talked a bit about what questions some of us were asking.

Writing Workshop

• I put up the directions for Writing Workshop, and we had thirty minutes to work.
  

Homework

• A REVISED SECOND DRAFT of your PROSE REVISION #1, with AT LEAST TEN of your revisions/changes highlighted.
  

TACW

Homework Due

• Character Reel
  

Discussion

• We went around the room and each shared details about one of our supporting characters.
  
• I made a few notes about character.
  
• I talked with people who needed a good talking to about their short story proposals.  :-)
  
• I explained the storyboard--it will be the place you sketch out your major plot events.
  

Celebration

• We sauntered to Kum and Go for refreshment, as the day was quite lovely, and aside for some small traffic incidents and some squinting, a good time was had by all.
  

Writing Workshop

• We had about forty-five minutes to work on our storyboards OR our stories.
  
• I passed back the Character Reels and chatted briefly with each person about his or her story.
  

Homework

• Storyboard and Short Story