DAY 4 - CYCLE 8 - SEMESTER 2

Welcome back, everyone! Today, we reviewed the skills that you will need to master in the remaining ten and a half weeks in order to be fully prepared for junior English next year. These include:

• Maintaining use of literary present tense;
• Properly employing subject/verb and pronoun agreement;
• Properly citing in MLA format;
• Effectively proofreading and revising (no, they are NOT the same!);
• Doing close reading;
• Constructing and sustaining an argument (and avoiding plot review);
• Effectively incorporating evidence in support of an argument;
• Transitioning within and between paragraphs;
• Correctly employing literary terms;
• Effectively and accurately using new vocabulary terms;
• Accurately diagramming sentences;
• Writing a twelve sentence paragraph;
• Using vivid and concise terms;
• Avoiding banal, trite phrasing ("very," "good," "nice," "interesting," etc.);
• Effectively extracting literal and figurative meanings from texts;
• Employing efficient methods of tracking a text's basic information (characters, plot, setting, theme, etc.).
• Using this information in fruitful analysis.

To help you toward these goals, I asked you to fill out a goals sheet for fourth quarter. I asked you to take it seriously because this sheet will form the basis of our mutual expectations of one another and for our communication. On the sheet, I also asked you to identify and forces, circumstances or personal traits that may have hindered your success in the past.

After you completed and turned in the sheet, I asked you to do some sentence diagramming review, and the skills have no doubt grown rusty through disuse. Well, we're gearing up again, and picking up with vocabulary, too. PLEASE BRING BOTH YOUR VOCABULARY AND SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING WORKBOOKS TO CLASS ON WEDNESDAY!

Your homework, in preparation for the six day WWI poetry unit, is to write a list of thirty words you associate with WWI. Fifteen of them must be verbs. The other fifteen must be nouns. NO ADJECTIVES. For those of you who checked that you do your homework just to get it done, here's how you aspire beyond that state of mediocrity for which such behavior dooms you: don't accept the first fifteen that come to mind. Visualize scenes from the war and pick the most precise terms you can think of to describe them. Aspire to replace the humdrum terms with words that smack of precision and deep accuracy.

DAY 1 - CYCLE 8 - SEMESTER 2

Today, you took one of two quizzes (your choice): one containing quotes and short answers, and the other asking you to connect a picture to the novel by discussing a theme implicit in both and using three facts from the novel to back up your assertions.

We then discussed Lord of the Flies, focusing our discussion on the last section of the novel where the naval officer arrives. We considered the following questions:

• How does the description of this adult's arrival and interaction with the characters we have come to know throughout the novel change our perception of them?
• What do the adult's words and actions tell us about the adult world he represents?
• Why does Golding leave us with the image of the adult officer turning his back on crying children (so they can "pull themselves together") and looking at a military cruiser in the distance? If you consider this image as you would a painting, its symbolism becomes more apparent.
• We connected our discussion of the the above closing image to Ralph's treatment of Piggy in the opening chapters (wherein a weak, emotive boy is rebuffed with unintended cruelty).
• Some of us also looked at Ralph and Piggy's reaction to Simon's death in the hard light of day. Why do they cling to the notion of "accident"? Why do they each change their stories when both were witnesses to the other's actions?
• Henry asked an excellent question in Group 2: Do these boys form a religion during their time on the island?
• That led us also to consider whether or not Jack himself believes in the beast. While there wasn't consensus on that, we all agreed that he exploits fear of the beast for his own ends.
• Ultimately, most people liked the book; those who didn't thought it was just too darned pessimistic about human nature.

HOMEWORK:

Prepare THREE questions for tomorrow's review session on Macbeth.

DAY 5 - CYCLE 7 - SEMESTER 2

Today, Groups 2 and 6 discussed Macbeth, focusing on the journal entries used today. From this discussion, we looked at the values and worldview Shakespeare promotes--one governed by reason, moderation, and careful consideration of the past and present (it is in abdicating these virtues that Macbeth runs afoul). We considered the ongoing conflict between self-restraint and self-indulgence (which Mr. Zarwell stepped in to say is one of the defining arguments in Western thought) as it appears in Lord of the Flies and in our own lives. Our parents, teachers, and better angels of the self advocate moderation, but when simply waiting in line at CVS is fraught with temptation (key chains that squeak and light up? a supersize Caramello bar? etc.), is it really that easy to employ? We know it isn't, and this suggests why we find ourselves identifying with the monster, Macbeth (with thanks to Michael S. for pointing out the absent comma in the original post).

Group 4 led the 6th graders through a spell-casting activity. Using Act IV, scene i as the basis of their work, sophomores helped sixth graders develop their own 8 line spells in the same manner as the witches, matching rhyme scheme, rhythm and tone. Thank you to ALL students for making this activity so much fun. Your creations were sublime, and the 6th graders have a new crew of role models.

HOMEWORK
Study for tomorrow's Lord of the Flies quiz. It will cover material through the end of the novel.

DAY 4 - CYCLE 7 - SEMESTER 2

Today, we watched the end of Act V. Macbeth is finally conquered. We watched scenes 4-8 today, and then went over the text. We spent particular attention over Macbeth's soliloquy "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...," one of Shakespeare's most famous. Here, we see Macbeth at the natural philosophical end of the path he has chosen (or not chosen, if you think him demonically possessed)--a life empty of honor, dignity, and purpose. His words are stirring and sad. I asked you to play around with the soliloquy, looking at how emphasizing different words change the meaning.

Here is the soliloquy again:


And yet, rather than take his own life, as his wife does, he battles on. Why?

YOUR HOMEWORK:
PART 1 of 2
Write a journal entry on ONE of the following topics. Your journal entry must contain two quotations (cite them properly):

1. Why does Macbeth continue to fight, long after he knows all is lost? (Do you admire him for this?); OR,
2. How do you know in Act V that the Great Chain of Being is being restored?

PART 2 of 2
Select an important quote from each scene from scenes 4-8 and enter it on the wikispace.

COMING UP
On Tuesday, March 10th, Group 4 will be meeting with the Sixth Graders to work with them on the Witches scene. Watch your mailbox for information on Monday!

DAY 3 - CYCLE 7 - SEMESTER 2 -

Today, we watched Act V, scenes i-iii performed and read along with the performance. Then we clarified particular areas of the text. Then, in small groups, I asked you to act as clinicians, determining the following about Lady Macbeth and Macbeth:

1. What is the patient's current state of mind?
2. What is the patient's ability to reconcile with the past?
3. What is the patient's attitude about the future?
4. What is the patient's ability to adapt to present circumstances?

I asked you to identify quotes to substantiate your assertions.

Your homework is to add FOUR quotes to the wikispace for the scenes we read and watched today.

Need to see that unhuman scream again? Here you go!

DAY 2 - CYCLE 7 - SEMESTER 2

We began the day with a 15 question quiz covering Lord of the Flies through page 144 and Macbeth acts III & IV.

The rest of the period was devoted to discussion of Lord of the Flies.

Topics included answers to the following questions:

• Why do the boys not answer Jack when he seeks to depose Ralph through consensus, but then secretly follow Jack anyway?
• What is signified by the beast's words?
• According to Golding, can human beings be ruled by something other than fear and selfishness?
• What various aspects of human nature (or archetypes: the definition on this site is useful, but you have to scroll a ways down to get to it) are represented by each of the characters?
• If Simon = Fiver, who is like Hazel, Bigwig, Blackberry, Dandelion and others? Which boy is most like Macbeth?
• How does Ralph's relationship with Jack change? Clearly, they had some good moments. What led to the problems, and how does Golding reveal them?
• How has Golding's assessment views of power, leadership, followership, and effective leadership structures evolved through the course of the novel?
• How does Ralph have an impact on Jack and Piggy's relationship?
• Who is loyal to whom and why?
• What is Simon's symbolic significance?
• Why is force the most likely means of establishing order in this community?
• In order for authority to be respected, what must it be based upon?
• What is the opposite of force in terms of controlling society? Which does Golding prefer?

HOMEWORK

Keep reading in Lord of the Flies, and answer ONE of the top two polls on the left! There probably isn't a pattern, but let's just see. Be honest!