Sonnets

· 14 lines of iambic pentameter
da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM

· Sonnets concerned with universal questions of time, death, beauty, love, moral integrity and poetry itself

English--Shakespearean
· Three quatrains (4-line stanza) and a heroic couplet (2 rhyming lines)
· Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg

Italian—Petrachan
· Octave (8-line stanza) and sestet (6-line stanza)
· Volta—the shift from octave to sestet with a dramatic change in meaning and/or tone
· Rhyme scheme: abbaabba cdecde
· can change sestet’s rhyme scheme to create a concluding heroic couplet

Choice Book and Essay

The Choice Book Unit final multiple choice exam will be held Tuesday, Dec. 16 during the shortened late start day period. The 25-question test covers the characters, plot and setting of the book that you read.

The essay on your choice book is due Friday, Dec. 19. If you are absent from school that day and have not turned in the paper prior to Friday, please email it to me by 3:10 p.m.

Here are the essay prompts and checklist:

Essay Prompts:

1. How do political situations affect the personal relationships in the novel?

2. What does your choice novel teach the reader about the key components to a successful government?

3. What is the author saying about obsession in the novel?

4. Analyze the connection between hope and despair in your novel.

5. What does the novel say about the role of religion in people’s lives?

6. What is the author saying about mental health in the novel?

7. What is the author saying about nature’s healing power in the novel?

8. Compare and contrast the choice novel with either Brave New World or Things Fall Apart in terms of theme(s) developed.


Essay Checklist

____ The essay is at least two pages, double-spaced, 12-point font, with one inch margins.

____ The essay has a creative title.

____ The introduction has an attention-grabbing device like an anecdote or relevant quotation.

____ The book’s title and author is incorporated into the introduction.

____ The thesis statement includes specific cultural components and the connection to humanity.

____ The body paragraphs have clear topic sentences.

____ Analytical statements are supported with direct quotations from the novel.

____ MLA format is used to cite all direct quotations (e.g. Shelley 24) and other sources cited.

____ The essay is free of plagiarism.

____ The conclusion leaves the reader with a lasting impression by commenting on the relevance of the topic for the reader’s life. In other words, why do humans care about the issues discussed in the essay?

Common--I Have a Dream

Thanks Ariel for sharing Common's "I Have a Dream" during class today. Here's a link to a video of the song. I love it!

And for hour 5, Hannah's favorite pianist plays The Office theme song.

Roehl's Favorite Hip Hop Artists

One of my favorite Hip Hop artists is Bryonn Bain, Brooklyn's Famed Spoken Word Poet. Bain currently teaches at Columbia University and at Riker's Island Prison. The Utne Reader claims that Bryonn Bain is one of 30 visionaries under 30 who are changing the future.


Bain first came into the national spotlight when he was falsely imprisoned by the NYPD during his second year at Harvard Law School. Following his false imprisonment, Bain wrote the article "Walking While Black" for The Village Voice, and that article earned him a Mike Wallace interview on 60 Minutes.


I took a class from Bryonn last year about the importance of Hip Hop to youth culture. Here are some ideas from my notebook:

1. Many Hip Hop artists incorporate socially responsible themes into their music; however, the music industry capitalizes on stereotypes of gangs, guns, drugs, and misogyny.


2. 70% to 80% of Hip Hop consumers are white, suburbanites.


3. Rap is something you do. Hip Hop is something you live.


4. The components of Hip Hop are the DJ, the graffiti artist, the B-Boy or B-Girl breakdancer, and the emcee (also known as the spoken word poet or rap artist).

Bain's Hip Hop lesson ideas for schools have been greatly influenced by Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. For an excerpt of Freire's book, click here.


Click here to watch a five-minute clip about Bryonn Bain.

Listen to a few of Byronn's songs, like "Ancestor's Watching," by clicking here.


For more information about Bryonn, visit his website bryonnbain.com.


Another favorite Hip Hop artist of mine is Origin. Origin, aka Jeremy Dudley, is an elementary school teacher in Albany, New York. Jeremy, like me, is a teacher working with the National Urban Alliance (NUA).

Click here to check out Origin's website and some of his songs. There's even a news video about the rapping elementary teacher.

Here's a picture of Jeremy with Evelyn Rothstein (the woman responsible for the A to Z Taxonomy, defining format, and the metacognition frame) at a workshop that I attended in Albany last summer.

Religion Final

The final exam for the religion unit will be Wednesday, December 3. Each student will get to choose between a multiple choice exam or a blue book exam. Students should play to their strengths and select the exam that best fits their preferred testing style.

The multiple choice exam has 45 questions covering the beliefs, practices and history of the five major religions of the world and the short literature selections that we read in class. The blue book alternative involves writing a paragraph response to three separate questions. Paragraph topics range from comparing and contrasting religions to analysing some of the literature studeied in this unit. Each paragraph is worth 15 points--for 45 points total.

What is religion?

Patterns of Religion defines “religion as a system of meaning embodied in a pattern of life, a community of faith, and a worldview that articulates a view of the sacred and what ultimately matters” (32).

Theistic Religions
Hinduism
Judaism
Christianity
Islam

Non-theistic Religions
Buddhism
Confucianism
Scientology
Transcendental Meditation


Forms of Religious Expression

Beliefs—symbols, stories, doctrines, and conduct
Morality—codes of conduct, right and wrong
Ritual—life cycle and calendrical rites
Scripture—oral and written literature
Community—social structures and institutions

Choice Book Unit

The choice book unit begins next week. You will select one of the following books:

Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Dajout
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Snow by Orhan Pamuk

You will be responsible for developing and teaching a lesson on your choice book to your book group. The lesson will cover an entire day, and you must maximize student learning and engagement.

On Monday, November 3 you will have a chance to read parts of each book to make a selection, but you may wish to do some research on the books before then.

Things Fall Apart Vocabulary

World Lit students, click on comments for this post and write the information for your assigned vocabulary word. Complete information for 4-Square vocabulary includes 1) a dictionary definition, 2) a symbol or image that represents your word, 3) two synonyms that you think that your classmates will understand, and 4) the word used in an original sentence that shows complete understanding of the word. The sentence should be about Things Fall Apart in terms of character, symbol, plot, setting or theme. NOTE: Although you are not able to post an image with your comment, simply describe the image.

Once all of the entries are made, students may wish to copy and paste the complete definition information into a Word document and print that to glue in their notebooks. Students may even want to print a second copy of the vocabulary words to make flash cards to study for the test.

Here are the vocabulary words:

egwugwu, p. 4, a masquerader who impersonates an ancestral spirit

kola nut, p. 6, (same as cola) a nut from an African tree that contains caffeine

proverb, p. 7, a short saying that expresses some obvious truth

Oracle, p. 12, any person or place believed to be in communication with a Deity (God)

agbala, p. 13, a woman; or a man who has taken no title

malevolent, p. 13, wishing evil or harm to others, “nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw.”

incipient, p. 13, just beginning to exist, “incipient laziness” of Nwoye

chi, p. 18, personal god

abomination, p. 18, something hateful and disgusting

tapper, p. 20, someone who taps trees to get the sap or oil

share-cropping, p. 22, a farmer who gives part of his profits to the landowner

cassava, p. 23, tuber (root starch) often used for tapioca

Ibo (Igbo), p. 27, an African people of Southeast Nigeria

bride-price, p. 40, the money paid by the groom’s family to the bride’s family

harbingers, p. 56, a person or thing that comes before to indicate what follows

effeminate, p. 58, having characteristics usually attributed to females; unmanly

plantains, p. 63, banana

ogbanje, p. 77, a child who repeatedly dies and returns to its mother to be reborn

More on Brave New World Test

I ran an item analysis of the test, and the vocab questions were not the hardest ones on the test. In fact, only three vocab words appeared to cause problems. Most of the commonly missed questions were on details in the book.

Anyway, your scores were posted to Edline, and I took the test out of 43 when there were 45 questions on the test. In my two classes, two students scored 44's, and two students scored 43's.

Vocab on test was tough . . .

Being personally responsible for understanding vocabulary words in the context that an author uses them is a new idea for many of you. I know that many of you are upset about the difficulty of the vocabulary section on the Brave New World exam.

I also discovered that moribund was a word on the test because it was a word used last year, and I neglected to delete it when I revised the test this fall. So for sure everyone gets one free point. I always take tests out of the highest score, and, in fact, if one student has such a high score, I often take the test out of the second highest score.

After I run the scantron exams, I will post your grades again to Edline, and you can see what the test ends up being worth for points.

With the next book, you will continue to be personally responsible for understanding the vocabulary word in the context of the novel, and you will need to build your own definition. However, we can take more time on the words, making sure you fully understand them.

Brave New World Essay Assignment

John the Savage tells Mustapha Mond, “But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin” (Huxley 240). Brave New World includes many moments like these that point to Huxley’s commentary on culture and the essential elements of being human.

Choose two components of culture that Huxley discusses in Brave New World. Analyze what causes humans to need that cultural component and what the effects are on a society when that cultural component is either present or missing. Analyze the cultural component in the context of Huxley’s satirical novel. Your thesis statement should tie together the two cultural components by making a general statement about the lesson about life (a theme) that Huxley is teaching through his satire.

Essay Checklist

___ I have completed two multi-flow maps in my notebook that analyze the causes and effects of the two cultural components discussed in my essay.

____ My essay is two pages, double-spaced, 12-point font, with one inch margins.

____ I have included a creative title for my essay.

____ My introduction paragraph has an attention-grabbing device like an anecdote or relevant quotation.

____The book’s title and author is incorporated into a general statement in the introduction or my thesis statement

____ The thesis statement includes specific cultural components and the connection to humanity.

____ The body paragraphs have clear topic sentences.

____ Analytical statements are supported with direct quotations from the novel.

____ MLA format is used to cite all direct quotations, e.g. (Huxley 24).

_____ Body paragraphs include analysis of the point Huxley is making about being human in light of the cultural component being discussed.

_____ The conclusion leaves the reader with a lasting impression by commenting on the relevance of the topics for the reader’s life. In other words, why do we care about these topics as humans?

Brave New World Exams

On Wednesday, September 24, you will take a 45-question scantron exam on Brave New World. The test contains multiple choice questions on the plot of the book, a character matching section, and a matching vocabulary section. Remember to study your vocab words and check that the synonyms that you wrote are words that you understand.

On Wednesday, September 24, you will be given a checklist for your Brave New World essay on Huxley's cultural ideas. Come to class on Monday, September 29 with your typed essay if you want to have a homework free homecoming week.

The last day that I will accept the essays is Friday, Oct. 2, 2008.

Brave New World Film Fesitval

Since the bridge map text to text and text to word analogies impressed me so much, I have decided that we need a Brave New World Film Festival. The festival will be held next Thursday and Friday, September 18 and 19.

Working with a partner, the two of you will decide which film sequence (of no more than 5 minutes) captures a specific analogy that you made between Brave New World and the other text or world event.

If you choose a film connection, you need to introduce the film clip by giving some background on the film and the context of the clip. You will also discuss the specific analogy at a thematic, character or plot level. Then the class will watch the clip, and a brief Q & A can follow if the class has questions.

If your partnership chooses to make a text to personal life or text to world analogy, try to find a film clip on youtube or elsewhere that illustrates your specific analogy. If you can't find a video or audio clip, then you will need to display a website that discusses the relevant information.

Your partnership may select a music video or audio file that makes an analogy between Brave New World and that text.

Partnerships that select music or historical events will also include an explanation of the analogy and be prepared for a class Q & A.

Satire

Satire: "the use of humor and wit with a critical attitude, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule for exposing or denouncing the frailties and faults of mankind’s activities and institutions, such as folly, stupidity, or vice. This usually involves both moral judgment and a desire to help improve a custom, belief, or tradition."

http://www.enotes.com/literary-terms/satire

Satire: "a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorna literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn."

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/satire

Devices of Satire

Sarcasm: harsh comments that aim to hurt

Overstatement: exaggeration

Understatement: saying less than is meant

Parody: mocking a known person, literary work, movie, etc.

Irony: saying one thing yet meaning another

Pathos: going from the serious to the ridiculous quickly

Class and Color in Brave New World

Huxley uses the Greek alphabet to name the classes of people in Brave New World.

Class and Color

alpha = grey

beta = mulberry

gamma = green

delta = khaki

epsilon = black

Huxley Biography

Aldous Huxley

British Novelist

1894-1963

Key facts:

• Grandfather and brother were biologists
• Educated at Eton and Oxford
• Nearly blind so learned Braille
• Published travel books, poems, novels, plays and essays
• Huxley’s style is known for its brilliant dialogue, cynicism, and social criticism.
• Brave New World, first published in 1932, is a dark vision of a highly technological future society.
• Married twice; had one son

“Huxley scandalized millions” (Malcolm X)

Read more about Huxley on Wikipedia or at somaweb.org (a website devoted to exploring Huxley and his works complete with a discussion board).

Brave New World Reading Schedule

The date indicates the due date for the reading selection. Be prepared for class discussion and/or a pop quiz on the assigned pages.

Sept. 8: pp. 3-29
Sept. 9: pp. 30-56
Sept. 10: pp. 57-71
Sept. 11: pp. 72-86
Sept. 12: pp. 87-106
Sept. 15: pp. 107-139
Sept. 16: pp. 140-152
Sept. 17: pp. 153-185
Sept. 18: pp. 186-207
Sept. 19: pp. 208-229
Sept. 22: pp. 230-259

Aldous Huxley on Culture & World Lit

Aldous Huxley ties up the ideas of world literature, culture, and science in this video that discusses science vs. poetry or religion, why literature is important, and the impact of culture on humanity.

Definitions of Culture

According to Dictionary.com culture is partly defined as:

• the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.
• a particular form or stage of civilization, as that of a certain nation or period: Greek culture.
• the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth culture; the drug culture.
• In anthropology, the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.

Wikipedia partly defines culture this way.

"Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate") generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be "understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another."

Cultural anthropologists most commonly use the term "culture" to refer to the universal human capacity and activities to classify, codify and communicate their experiences materially and symbolically. Scholars have long viewed this capacity as a defining feature of humans (although some primatologists have identified aspects of culture such as learned tool making and use among humankind's closest relatives in the animal kingdom)."


Here's a video with a definition of culture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOwuNZqh6PU


The author of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, said this about culture:

"Culture is like the sum of special knowledge that accumulates in any large united family and is the common property of all its members. When we of the great Culture Family meet, we exchange reminiscences about Grandfather Homer, and that awful old Dr. Johnson, and Aunt Sappho, and poor Johnny Keats." --Aldous Huxley

Bubble Map Assignment

After completing your bubble map, draft one paragraph that details one of your adjectives. Remember to concentrate on one adjective to give focus to the paragraph.

The typed paragraph is due on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008 along with your completed bubble map. Your bubble map should include specific details that support the adjectives in the frame of reference. Since classmates will be reading your paragraph, be sure to keep this public audience in mind when writing.

Here is the paragraph inspired by the green adjective on my bubble map.

Roehl Seeing Green

Having grown up on a farm in Medina, I have an affinity for rich, black soil laced with a little cow manure. Such a garden that yields the juiciest tomato or the tenderest ear of corn is a thing of beauty. However, my small yard in St. Louis Park doesn't afford me the space for a large vegetable garden, so I supplement my longing for my farming ancestry by belonging to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. My CSA farmer Richard delivers one box of fresh, organic vegetables each week for my family to enjoy. I make an awesome chocolate zucchini cake and a beans and greens dish sure to please the most sophisticated Italian palette. Richard also provides my family with organic fruit that he gets from his farming friends on the West Coast and in Mexico. For nine months out of the year my produce needs are met by this buying-locally, earth-friendly CSA method which allows my family to know we are being as green as possible where groceries are concerned. I have taken this green philosophy to other areas of my life. Two years ago I began mowing my lawn with a reel mower; that's the type of push mower that's powered only by humans. Although the reel mower might not leave the most manicured lawn, I enjoy the quiet, peaceful mowing experience that saves gas and carbon emissions. Speaking of emissions, I have also reduced my clothes dryer emissions by hanging most of my family's laundry on the line. While my family was in Spain for three weeks in 2007, I noticed that most, if not all, Spanish families hang their clothes on the line from their apartment windows. I figured that if they can do it without a backyard, then I was being wasteful of the planet's resources my using a machine to dry my clothes, a machine that also pumps emissions into the atmosphere. Although being green takes a lot of work, I am glad that I have taken a few simple steps to reduce my carbon footprint.

World Lit I: Cultural Studies & the Humanities

World Literature I examines the essential question:

How do science & technology, religion & philosophy and the arts (music, poetry and the fine arts) impact culture and explain what it means to be human?

The texts in the course are organized by the following units:

Cultures Under a Microscope: Science & Technology

Guiding Question: How do science, technology and economics impact culture?
Full-length Text: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Selections: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, W.H. Auden, Shu Ting and Stanislaw Lem

Cultures Influencing Other Cultures

Guiding Questions: How do people use the fine arts to express ideas about their culture? What happens when a culture comes in contact with new ideas and a new culture? How does music bring meaning to life and unite all cultures through common influences?

Full-length Texts: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Surviving Picasso (film)

Selections: Thomas Mann's short story "The Infant Prodigy." Hip Hop songs. Excerpts of Francoise Gilot's memoir, My Life with Picasso, which is the basis of the film Surviving Picasso.

Religion & Philosophy Impact Culture

Guiding Question: How does spirituality (either an organized religion or a life philosophy) become an essential element of a culture?

Selections: World Masterpieces philosophy pieces from Plato, Blaise Pascal, Dante, Rumi, and Albert Camus. Literary analysis of sacred texts found in World Masterpieces will include selections from Genesis, Pslams, Upanishads, Rig Veda, Bhagavad-Gita, and the Koran.


Student Choice Literature Circles

Guiding Question: What does your choice novel say about culture and being human in terms of science, religion, philosophy, art, music and poetry?

Select one of the following full-length texts:

Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Dajout
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Snow by Orhan Pamuk

Capstone Cultural Study

Guiding Question: How do you synthesize cultural influences on your personal journey to find yourself?
Full-length Text: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse


NOTE: In addition to the short selections listed above, World Literature I integrates an ongoing study of poetry, including examining standard poetic forms such as Chinese Shih, Japanese Tanka and Haiku, and sonnets.

Supplies Needed

World Literature students use a single subject, composition notebook to showcase much of their work for class. Notebooks need to be in class every day! Use a Sharpie to write your name on the notebook and bring it to class every day starting Thursday, September 4, 2008. Fully prepared students also come to class with a pen, pencil, and highlighter.

In fact, you need to bring the following supplies to class on Thursday, September 4, 2008 as a required 3-point assignment:

1 composition notebook
1 pack of two glue sticks for use as a common classroom supply

You may also bring one of the following items for use as a common classroom supply to receive two points of extra credit:

a box of Kleenex
a ruler
a scissors
a pack of markers
a box of #2 pencils

Copies of Brave New World are also needed.

Student schedule changes over the summer resulted in increased enrollment for World Literature this fall, and the English department finds itself short copies of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

We begin reading the novel this week, so please consider purchasing your own copy of the book for your personal library. Not only will you help out the class by being a good citizen, but also you will be able to mark your book, keeping track of key thematic quotations, summarizing events at the top of key pages, and creating a character tree map in the front cover. You could also check your bookshelves at home. This book is such a classic that many of you may have the book readily available from your home library. And some students have even found a copy of the book in an older sibling's room, and that sibling had me as a teacher and the novel is marked up already with key quotations.

Students have found copies of Brave New World for as low as $2 at Half Price Books in Miracle Mile Shopping Center.

Did you know?

Welcome to World Literature

Congratulations on selecting World Literature for your senior English class! I hope that you will not only enjoy learning about what the world loves and hates through the literature we study this year, but also that you will leave high school a little bit more prepared to succeed in the increasingly connected global society.

I want you to challenge yourself to take your study of the world seriously. Read, talk, write, think, cooperate, and know your world! My World Literature vision statement, "Know Your World," aligns closely with the school district's mission statement.

"The mission of the E------ Public Schools, working in partnership with the family and the community, is to educate individuals to be responsible, lifelong learners who possess the skills, knowledge, creativity, sense of self-worth, and ethical values necessary to survive and flourish in a rapidly changing, culturally diverse, global society."

Since World Literature is a senior only class, students discuss literature and its mature themes courageously and respectfully. Sometimes controversial conversations may generate sharp disagreements or strong emotions. However, the most productive of these types of conversations are courageous, civil, respectful, and adult.

I will also guide you in your quest to become an increasingly autonomous, adult learner so that you feel better prepared for life and school beyond high school. Part of our time together will be spent on how you learn; I won't just rush you through the course content. This year I will also challenge your notion of what the term "word literature" means. A quick scan of our common textbook, World Masterpieces, reveals that world literature goes beyond novels, poems, plays, and short stories to also explore the realms of philosophy, religion, and the fine arts.

To strive for cultural literacy today, I feel that you need to expand your notion of literature, so during the fall semester, you will encounter "texts" beyond the traditional English class genres. You will notice in the World Literature I course overview, that fall semester also covers a quick study of the five major religions of the world--Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Students who took World History should have a strong academic background in the five religions; however, we will do a quick review so that our class will have a common understanding of ideas to discuss the World Masterpieces selections.

In case you were wondering, studying religion in a public high school is not a violation of church and state laws. The Supreme Court has ruled that public schools may not sponsor religious practices but may teach about religion. (Engel v. Vitale (1962) 370 U.S. 421.) This serves the academic goals of educating students about history and cultures.