Tuesday, 1/5/2010

MODERN PROSE

• I continued conferences with people.
• We read for about seventy minutes.
• I explained the final exam, and I showed examples of what it would look like.

AP 


Miscellaneous Entertainment

• Nick performed the lone wolf/wolf pack speech as his graduation essay.  :-)

Time

• We talked about what/how/why time is, and everyone read a sentence or two from his/her free write before turning it in.

William Faulkner and The Sound and the Fury

• We reviewed what we know about Faulkner from reading "A Rose for Emily".
• We talked a bit about how time was used in "A Rose for Emily".
• We took notes on two of Professor T's lectures about The Sound and the Fury (lectures #1 and #2).
• I talked about the narrative structure of the novel, how each book is from a different perspective, from a different story-teller.
• I talked about Benjy, how he is limited by his mental abilities.  So we need to keep in mind that his perspective is going to focus a lot on sensory details, and he's not going to understand things that are happening.  He's not going to evaluate or analyze.  He's simply going to narrate what he sees, hears, smells, tastes, and feels.
• I mentioned that Benjy is going to reference at least fifteen different events in his book.  So we're going to try to keep track of those events, and we're going to look for patterns.
• As a way of getting a foothold in the first book, I asked people to pay attention to Benjy's caretakers as a way to tell if the events were in the past, present or future. I told everyone that when VERSH is mentioned, that means Benjy is a child.  When T.P. is mentioned with Benjy, Benjy is a teenager.  And when Luster is with him, this means Benjy is an adult.
• I read aloud the first seven pages of the novel, and we stopped and talked often.

NOTE:

• I emphasized the importance of highlighting and annotating.  I'm going to be checking.  

Homework

• Read to the bottom of page 22.

CREATIVE WRITING


Homework Due:  two revised poems


Peer Conferencing

• To clarify how you're going to be graded on this assignment, I had everyone look age pages 87 and 92 to see what each portion of this assignment is weighted.
• We got organized!  We labeled our first and second drafts, and we stapled them in order.
• We read the Advice for Revising Poetry on page 86, and we starred the ones that we felt would be most helpful to us.
• Using these questions on page 86, we filled out a peer conference sheet for each of our two poem revisions.
• I showed an example of peer conference on page 89.  We looked at the comments, and agreed that Nick's was an example of a "4" peer conference.  That's what we're shooting for!
• We matched up with a partner, and we completed one peer conference (over Poem #1).
• We matched up with a different partner, and we completed a second peer conference (over Poem #2).

Porfolio

• I talked about p. 9, the requirements for the portfolio.  I also talked about what to call your Table of Contents--NOT "Table of Contents"!  :-)  See page 15.

Homework

• Revise poem #3--make and highlight at least ten changes.