Upcoming deadlines are as follows:

Finish your novel of choice (The Bluest Eye, Beloved, The Color Purple, or Their Eyes Were Watching God) by Dec.12 at the very latest--I recommend finishing it earlier. 

Literary Terms 1-5 DUE 12-9 (see assignment details at the right)
Literary Terms 6-10 DUE 12-16
Literary Terms 11-15 DUE 1-6
*all 15 terminology examples should come from the book YOU are reading for the African-American Literature Circles project.


Novel presentations will take place on Wednesday, December 14

DUE DATES COMING SOON:

11-16 Extra credit poems are due by 3:30pm TODAY (hardcopy or via email).

11-28 Midterm is due at the beginning of class. No excuses, no exceptions. You may turn it in EARLY if you wish. 

11-30 Completed, TYPED quote assignment for DWS is due (see requirements at left). 
We will also be having a Socratic Seminar in class on this day. 

12-2 All revisions/rewrites of the PWB and TFA essays are due. You must have BOTH the original essay and the rewritten essay turned in together to receive a new score. 

In-class essay on Things Fall Apart on MONDAY. See topics at the left.

Have a copy (checked out or purchased) of A Dry White Season BEFORE you come to class on Wednesday, Nov. 2.

12 quotes on foreshadowed culture clashes are due (from Part 2 only) on MONDAY as well. 

UPCOMING DEADLINES:

Your REVISED timed write (1 of the three in-class timed writes) is due on MONDAY, Oct. 3 at the beginning of the period.

PRESENTATIONS based on Foster's 4 major allusion categories begin on FRIDAY, SEPT. 30. Be sure you email me your presentation by Thursday evening! The second set of presentations is on WEDNESDAY, OCT. 5, and the third set, MONDAY, OCT. 10. TALK TO ME NOW if you have questions or concerns.

The final essay for this unit is on OCTOBER 7. You will get the prompt on Oct. 5.

Welcome! 
Check back for info at the end of the week!

Missed class on Monday, May 16? 
Plan on coming to the makeup session after school on Tuesday, May 17 at 2:30 in B225. Due to a pre-planned absence, I will not be posting materials on the blog until Tuesday afternoon.

Brave New World Reading Schedule (reposted here for convenience)

For HOMEWORK:
Ch. 1-2 May 9
Ch. 3-4 May 11
Ch. 5-6 May 13
Ch. 7-8 May 16
Ch. 9-10 May 18
Ch. 11-12 May 20
Ch. 13-14 May 23
Ch. 15-16 May 25
Ch. 17-18 May 27

Next class we will spend HALF of the period completing our one-pager responses to MOTIFS in Hamlet. Plan for just 45 minutes to complete a well-organized and visually compelling piece. You may work on this outside of class. Due at the end of the period (Wednesday).

We will also be working on poetry analysis in small groups and getting some exposure to the variety of approaches the AP test-makers have used in the past.  

9 days until the AP test! Only 2 class days!!!

We are having a "AP bunch brunch" on Friday, May 6th. I will provide drinks. You bring the food--enough to share--while we talk about what is next in class. 

Have the novel A Brave New World (it's in the library) by Monday, May 2nd. 

If you missed class on Friday, April 1, check out the links on the left for classwork. 

ALSO, I handed out an alternate Poem Explication guide and an AP prompt comparing the Sirens passage from The Odyssey to Margaret Atwood's poem "The Sirens." We are going to discuss ways to approach a comparison essay for these two on Monday. 
Weren't there? At least look up the two passages so you can participate in the discussion. 

We will also be discussing quotes from Ch. 17-19, focusing on Romanticism.

Upcoming Deadlines: 

IN-CLASS ESSAY (on a specific literary influence) or SOCRATIC SEMINAR (on the ethical questions raised by Shelley's novel) on April 6th. 

PURCHASE OR CHECK-OUT Hamlet by April 6th, so you have a copy on Friday, April 8th. It is called "4 Tragedies," if you choose to check it out from the textbook center in the library.

AP EXAM on May 4th (AM portion). Some practice materials will be provided over the next few weeks, but you are expected to use outside resources (online or from the library, etc.) to augment your understanding of the test itself. The class has already prepared you for the types of strategies you will need to employ on the test itself. 

REMEMBER--the literary terms for poetry are due on Friday.

I went over several of the more difficult ones in class on Wednesday--for instance, syllogisms are hard to find if you don't know what to look for in poetry, so I covered the poem "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell. 
The minor premise is signaled by the word BUT,  and the conclusion is signaled by AND THEREFORE.
You can use that poem as an example.

I also handed out an additional poem packet (Keats and Donne), which is posted under Poetry Break #2. For the term Prosody, pick a short poem from the packets and analyze how three aspects (such as enjambment, alliteration, and rhyme scheme) contribute to a single meaning. 

MONDAY is an in-class essay on characterization in Jane Eyre.  

Revised quickwrites from Jane Eyre are due on Wednesday, Mar. 16. All the quickwrites are posted on the blog after we do them. Be sure it is a REVISED, polished example of your analysis.

Check out or purchase Frankenstein before Wednesday's class. 

FOCAL POINT IN YOUR READING HOMEWORK 2-29: 

notice the author's use of fire/warmth and ice/cold in her description of people, places, and attitudes. Be prepared to discuss examples in class on Wednesday.

REMINDERS FOR WEEK 5:
 
Don't forget to bring a clean copy of your REVISED quickwrite from the Modernism unit to class on MONDAY for a grammar exercise. 

Keep up with the reading (SCHEDULE AT LEFT) to fully participate in class and to earn those nebulous participation points.

Handouts are being uploaded as quickly as I can--a few need to be scanned. Most are already on the LEFT.

As always, if you have questions or concerns, come conference with me on Tuesdays or Thursdays after school.

Your TIMED WRITE REVISION (one polished piece from the 3 timed writes we have done in this short story unit) is due on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at the beginning of class (preferably typed). 


Finish reading "Cathedral" for homework over the weekend and be prepared to discuss it on Wednesday. 

Also remember we need to check out or purchase Jane Eyre before Feb. 22 for class.

Welcome to Semester Two and congratulations on a job well done for our "Literary Museum" at the conclusion of the first semester!

We now enter a period of practicing more strategies you will need to master for the AP test through shorter pieces--short stories and poems, before we return to the remaining three longer pieces that come before the AP test in MAY. Links, as always are available on the LEFT for class handouts and notes.

While, as I stated in the syllabus, this class is not a test prep course, we will be doing some in-class practice along the way. You are expected to plan for, and prep for, the AP test outside of class as well. There are many helpful study guides out there (and they are available at the Public Library as well). See me if you have a particular concern.