Grammar - Indirect and Direct Objects
Satire - a Modest Proposal + Questions
Quotation Analysis will happen in-class tomorrow. Bring your hand-out on How a Quotation has significance.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Oops, missed some posts
I can't imagine how time got away so quickly, but it seems I missed Thursday and Friday's posts...
Today, we had SURF, then you handed in your thesis outline resubmissions. We did one grammar lesson, then I read you a story. Tomorrow, we'll talk a little bit about satire, and then you will try your own creative attempt at satire of whatever genre you choose.
Thursday and Friday I showed you exemplars and handouts to help improve your quotation analysis.
Today, we had SURF, then you handed in your thesis outline resubmissions. We did one grammar lesson, then I read you a story. Tomorrow, we'll talk a little bit about satire, and then you will try your own creative attempt at satire of whatever genre you choose.
Thursday and Friday I showed you exemplars and handouts to help improve your quotation analysis.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Wednesday Grammar and Quotation Analysis
So - I hope I created a really painful review class for you - I do my best:
We reviewed Parts of Speech, 5 Necessary Elements of a Sentence, and Four Most Common Sentence Structure Errors. You will have a test on these on Friday. We did this review at the beginning of the semester, but most people didn't seem to know it, so the test should help to solidify your learning. I've posted a sheet on conjunctions for your further edification.
We also covered Clauses and Sentence Construction. This information will not be on your test, but you should know it because understanding clauses and sentence construction does help you to eliminate most of your sentence structure errors.
I also handed back most of the assignments, and I'll return the ones which came in today on Thursday. You will be resubmitting these for an actual evaluation on Monday. One friendly reminder that your final essay copy will be submitted on April 9th. Keep working at this so you don't get stressed out at the end.
We reviewed Parts of Speech, 5 Necessary Elements of a Sentence, and Four Most Common Sentence Structure Errors. You will have a test on these on Friday. We did this review at the beginning of the semester, but most people didn't seem to know it, so the test should help to solidify your learning. I've posted a sheet on conjunctions for your further edification.
We also covered Clauses and Sentence Construction. This information will not be on your test, but you should know it because understanding clauses and sentence construction does help you to eliminate most of your sentence structure errors.
I also handed back most of the assignments, and I'll return the ones which came in today on Thursday. You will be resubmitting these for an actual evaluation on Monday. One friendly reminder that your final essay copy will be submitted on April 9th. Keep working at this so you don't get stressed out at the end.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Tuesday
Today we had a bit of a juggle at the beginning of class. You handed in your thesis outlines (most of you). We all wrote the grammar quiz and those students who didn't hand in their chapter notes yesterday wrote the Gulliver's Travels quiz today.
After that was finished, we turned to a study of Part II - Voyage to Brobdingnag. We looked at how Part II is a complete reversal of Part 1, including Gulliver being ridiculously pompous about his mighty Kingdom, just as the King's advisor had been with him. I then had you get into groups and compare what Gulliver is actually saying to the King versus what is really being said to the King. You could use the king's response to Gulliver to help you to understand what Gulliver is not aware he is saying.
We'll continue with this comparison tomorrow.
After that was finished, we turned to a study of Part II - Voyage to Brobdingnag. We looked at how Part II is a complete reversal of Part 1, including Gulliver being ridiculously pompous about his mighty Kingdom, just as the King's advisor had been with him. I then had you get into groups and compare what Gulliver is actually saying to the King versus what is really being said to the King. You could use the king's response to Gulliver to help you to understand what Gulliver is not aware he is saying.
We'll continue with this comparison tomorrow.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Welcome Back - Thesis and outline due tomorrow
A little bit of grammar to begin - reviewing the first unit in preparation for the quiz tomorrow. Also tomorrow is a content quiz for those students who did not hand in the chapter summary notes in class today.
Finally, we discussed, at a fairly superficial level, the difference between satire and parody, defining humour and sarcasm to start with. You should be aware that parody is imitative, generally amusing, and intended to ridicule, whereas satire is not necessarily funny (often quite deadpan), generally political or social in nature, and is intended to reveal problems in order to bring about change.
Thesis and outline are due Tuesday, March 24th, as per my blog posting of Friday, February 20th.
Finally, we discussed, at a fairly superficial level, the difference between satire and parody, defining humour and sarcasm to start with. You should be aware that parody is imitative, generally amusing, and intended to ridicule, whereas satire is not necessarily funny (often quite deadpan), generally political or social in nature, and is intended to reveal problems in order to bring about change.
Thesis and outline are due Tuesday, March 24th, as per my blog posting of Friday, February 20th.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Friday!!!!
I continued with my in-class meetings with students about thesis statements.
The major decision we came to today is that we won't have content tests on the book, but rather you will write three major point summaries for each chapter you read, and you will do this from Chapter 7 of Part I to the end of Part II. I will collect these on Monday when you return from March Break.
NB You will NOT be rewarded for writing more than 3 main points- I just want to make sure you are reading and I know the content tests are a little tricky when there is so much detail and you are reading ahead so much.
The major decision we came to today is that we won't have content tests on the book, but rather you will write three major point summaries for each chapter you read, and you will do this from Chapter 7 of Part I to the end of Part II. I will collect these on Monday when you return from March Break.
NB You will NOT be rewarded for writing more than 3 main points- I just want to make sure you are reading and I know the content tests are a little tricky when there is so much detail and you are reading ahead so much.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Bottle caps and confusable words
After a brief lecture on removing bottle caps from bottles before you dispose of them, we resumed our grammar lesson on unit one, finishing the unit with confusable words.
You will have your unit 1 test on Tuesday when we return from the break, and to prepare we'll do the review on Monday. I let you read Gulliver's Travels for 30 minutes, and then I asked you to fill in a chart with Reldresal's speech outlining the greatest conflict in the universe and then to explain how the speech is satire.
You will have your unit 1 test on Tuesday when we return from the break, and to prepare we'll do the review on Monday. I let you read Gulliver's Travels for 30 minutes, and then I asked you to fill in a chart with Reldresal's speech outlining the greatest conflict in the universe and then to explain how the speech is satire.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Wednesday
We began class with the content quiz for chapters 1-3 of Part One. We discussed the chapters and some of the underlying jokes which contribute to the satire of the work. I gave you the remainder of the class to read.
There is no grammar test tomorrow as we did not finish the grammar review today. I'll schedule it for the Tuesday after the March Break.
There is no grammar test tomorrow as we did not finish the grammar review today. I'll schedule it for the Tuesday after the March Break.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Tuesday's class
We did two lessons from the grammar book, and I collected your Reading Journals. I gave you today as a reading period for Gulliver's Travels, since I'm giving you a content quiz tomorrow.
I conducted all of the scheduled interviews for the period, plus a few other people who were ready. I spoke to some of you who need to revisit me with a more fully developed thesis.
It is seemingly increasingly unlikely that I will have your reading journals marked by Friday. They are taking a very long time to mark...
I conducted all of the scheduled interviews for the period, plus a few other people who were ready. I spoke to some of you who need to revisit me with a more fully developed thesis.
It is seemingly increasingly unlikely that I will have your reading journals marked by Friday. They are taking a very long time to mark...
Monday, March 9, 2009
Last Monday before March Break
We did the lesson on figurative language in the grammar workbook after SURF, and we took it up as well. I outlined the grammar schedule for the week, with a grammar quiz slated for Thursday.
I handed out your Interim reports, and handed back any reading journals you didn't get on Friday if you were away. Your second part of the ISU is due TOMORROW!!!
We discussed further distancing techniques in the Publisher's letter which you worked on independently. You should have a really good sense of how reliable this "true tale" is. What you don't know is why Swift wrote it, so I should remember to tell you that tomorrow. I let you use the last 20 minutes of class for reading the novel. There will be a content quiz on chapters 1-3 since we agreed that we won't read the novel aloud together, and once you get past the two introductory letters, it's actually quite easy to read. I hope you are enjoying it. I'll give you most of the class tomorrow to read it as I have scheduled meetings with students to discuss their thesis during the period in order to fit all the meetings in before Reading Week.
I handed out your Interim reports, and handed back any reading journals you didn't get on Friday if you were away. Your second part of the ISU is due TOMORROW!!!
We discussed further distancing techniques in the Publisher's letter which you worked on independently. You should have a really good sense of how reliable this "true tale" is. What you don't know is why Swift wrote it, so I should remember to tell you that tomorrow. I let you use the last 20 minutes of class for reading the novel. There will be a content quiz on chapters 1-3 since we agreed that we won't read the novel aloud together, and once you get past the two introductory letters, it's actually quite easy to read. I hope you are enjoying it. I'll give you most of the class tomorrow to read it as I have scheduled meetings with students to discuss their thesis during the period in order to fit all the meetings in before Reading Week.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Friday!!
I handed back your Reading Journals today, but of course, forgot your Progress Reports, which is a pain, since I spent my prep period yesterday finishing them. I'll hand them out on Monday. We did a grammar lesson on language register (standard, colloquial, slang) and also one on Canadian, American, and British spelling variations.
I showed you the exemplars for the second part of your ISU - quotation analysis, Frye, and your secondary source. If you don't have the sheet on how to do a quotation analysis, check my post for useful handouts and you'll find one there. I let you read chapter one of Gulliver's Travels for the rest of the period. I will tell you how much of the book I expect you to have read when you come back from March Break - it's not the entire book, but you should at the very least be using your SURF period to keep up if you won't have time while you are away.
I showed you the exemplars for the second part of your ISU - quotation analysis, Frye, and your secondary source. If you don't have the sheet on how to do a quotation analysis, check my post for useful handouts and you'll find one there. I let you read chapter one of Gulliver's Travels for the rest of the period. I will tell you how much of the book I expect you to have read when you come back from March Break - it's not the entire book, but you should at the very least be using your SURF period to keep up if you won't have time while you are away.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Thursday organization
Today I checked your homework from grammar, took up the questions, and laid out the seminar schedule for sign-up. The seminars will be in April, May, and June, but I'll give you specific dates as we get closer.
In class, we connected Frye to Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock", then moved on to Marlowe's "Passionate Shepherd to his Nymph", Raleigh's response, and finally Swift's satiric completion "Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed". Hopefully an interesting perspective on Swift, an intro to Satire, and practice applying Frye to literature.
For homework, I want you to have the answer to the question "What is Satire?". We will go over the exemplars for the ISU and continue with Gulliver's Travels.
In class, we connected Frye to Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock", then moved on to Marlowe's "Passionate Shepherd to his Nymph", Raleigh's response, and finally Swift's satiric completion "Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed". Hopefully an interesting perspective on Swift, an intro to Satire, and practice applying Frye to literature.
For homework, I want you to have the answer to the question "What is Satire?". We will go over the exemplars for the ISU and continue with Gulliver's Travels.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Persuasive Essay
Here is a great, real example of a persuasive essay which ties in with the topics you were given to discuss. I'm thinking of the technology or the alienation options specifically.
Ooops, I forgot Tuesday
Tuesday I showed you the two overheads detailing the Indo-European Languages family tree, place the English language within the Germanic Family, and then showed you two other overheads with examples of Old English and Middle English. We returned to our Grammar books for lesson one and two on the English Language - Two was for homework.
We spent the rest of the period going over the Frye piece - and you handed your reading journals in.
Wednesday, we took up Lesson Two, which most of you hadn't done, and we worked on lesson Three, which is for homework. We quickly finished Frye (for the people who were absent on Tuesday), and discussed once again the expectations for what is coming in as part Two of the ISU. I distributed Gulliver's Travels and we read through the very funny letter from Mr. Gulliver to his cousin after briefly connecting the book to the history of fantasy fiction and satire.
We spent the rest of the period going over the Frye piece - and you handed your reading journals in.
Wednesday, we took up Lesson Two, which most of you hadn't done, and we worked on lesson Three, which is for homework. We quickly finished Frye (for the people who were absent on Tuesday), and discussed once again the expectations for what is coming in as part Two of the ISU. I distributed Gulliver's Travels and we read through the very funny letter from Mr. Gulliver to his cousin after briefly connecting the book to the history of fantasy fiction and satire.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Monday March 2
We started with SURF, then skipped grammar because I want to show you an overhead of the astonishing Indo-European Languages family tree before we look at the history of the English Language.
You took turns taking up the lessons out of Echoes - make sure you are referencing the text when you respond. What is the author actually saying?
I handed you out the critical excerpt from The Educated Imagination plus the rubrics for part 2 of the ISU. We didn't have time for the exemplar, and we'll continue discussions and the exemplar tomorrow.
Reading Journals are due Tuesday.
You took turns taking up the lessons out of Echoes - make sure you are referencing the text when you respond. What is the author actually saying?
I handed you out the critical excerpt from The Educated Imagination plus the rubrics for part 2 of the ISU. We didn't have time for the exemplar, and we'll continue discussions and the exemplar tomorrow.
Reading Journals are due Tuesday.
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