Z+fall+2011+Pt+I

Week of 8/22 For Day 1: Chapters 1-4 of Catcher If you have not given me your letter, please do so today.

For Day 2: Write your own version of the "Where I'm From" poem--this is a draft that you will continue to modify and improve. Chapters 5-6 of Catcher

For Day 3: Journal entry: what makes an English class work? Consider classes you've had in the past and what you hope we do and don't do in this class. Write at least 11/2 pages. Chapters 7-8 of Catcher

For Day 4: Chapters 9-10 of Catcher Reading quiz

Week of 8/29 For Day 1: Bring revised "Where I'm From" poem Chapters 11-13 Catcher

For Day 2: Chapters 14-15 Catcher

For Day 3: Final "Where I'm From" due--Turn in all drafts IN CLASS. Staple drafts together with final one on top. Do not show up to class without your poem printed. Chapters 16-17 Catcher

For Day 4: Vocabulary quiz

Week of 9/5 Monday (No School--Happy Labor Day!) For Day 1: Chapters 18-20 For Day 2: Chapters 21-22 For Day 3 Chapters 23-24 Journal (1.5-2 pgs) on Antolini episode: Did Holden over react in this scene? Explain your take on this incident, including specific details to back up your interpretation.

Week of 9/12 For Day 1 Catcher finished READING QUIZ Journal (1.5-2 pgs) on Roethke quote: "What is madness but nobility of soul at odds with circumstance?" Reflect on what Roethke means here and how this idea might correspond to Holden's story. If you're not sure how to interpret the line, think on paper about it and see what comes to mind. For Day 2 Journal on lunch room experience. (2 pgs) What made it hard? What surprised you about it? Start with "I am . . ." For Day 3 Poetry assignment: Handout in class. You will work on interpreting the poems at home then have a conversation in class with one or more of your classmates about the question. For Day 4 (7th period only) No Homework

Week of 9/19 For Day 1 (We will meet in Askew computer lab.) Journal entry (at least one page): Bring in possible topics for a paper on Catcher. Mark at least TWO passages in novel you could use for your paper. You may end up changing your mind, which is ok.

For Day 3 Bring in your paper thesis and at least one body paragraph.

Week of 9/26 During this week, your homework will be working on your paper. See info below about days when you need to bring in/send in drafts. For Day 1 (We will meet in Askew computer lab.) Draft of paper on //Rye// due. You must email it to yourself for today's class. For Day 2 and 3 Bring //Seagull Reader// For Day 4 Bring in a hard copy of your draft.

Week of 10/3 For Day 1 PAPER DUE: TURN IN A COPY OF YOUR DRAFT AND A FINAL COPY IN CLASS. DO NOT SHOW UP WITH PRINTER DRAMA!!

For Day 2 No Homework

For Day 3 Journal: Write approximately 2 pages about a "Prufrockian" experience of your own. Think about the characteristics and behavior we saw in the poem and reflect on experiences that you would characterize in similar ways. Even if you consider yourself very different from Prufrock, think of a time when you didn't feel free to be yourself or struggled to speak honestly about your hopes or fears or when you wanted to take a risk, but struggled to do so. Reflect on what that experience is like and how it might help you to better understand what T. S. Eliot is writing about in the poem.

Week of 10/10 No School Monday For Day 2 (Tuesday for 7th period; Thursday for 6th period) Journal: Approximately 2 pages. In the excerpt from //Black Ice//, Lorene Cary, one of the first girls and first African-Americans to attend the northeastern boarding school St. Paul's, describes an experience of displacement. She steps into an environment that feels very foreign to her. Today we wrote about any moment from the text; now, I want you to write about your own experience of displacement, a time when you felt out of your element within the last couple of years. It might be at school, at a social occasion, a visit to a new place. What made you feel most out of place? Did it matter what you looked like, how you dressed, how you talked? Reflect on the ways you respond to such unfamiliarity and how that might correspond in some way to Cary's description of her first day at St. Paul's.
 * Also, find out something about Sidney Poitier. Be ready to provide that info in class.**

For Day 4 Journal: 2 pages Respond to the first part of //Six Degrees of Separation//: make a list of things you noticed (important moments, key lines, significant objects, your impressions etc.). Then write in more depth about on of the items you listed, considering what role it might have in the film. You might reflect on your impressions of a particular character, of Paul's speech on //Catcher//, on the art work in the film etc. 6th period: Write your letter to me and send it via email.

Week of 10/17 For Day 1 Same assignment as last journal for the part of the film we watched on Friday.

For Day 2 Respond to one of the questions on the document below. Take the time to include specifics and to give a thorough response, While I say 1.5-2 pages, you can write more than that for these questions cover a lot of ground!

//Six Degrees of Separation// Question I

Write in response to at least one of the following questions. You should write 1.5-2 pages. Try to include specific examples (lines, key moments, images) from the film as you write.

1.What does Paul want? When is he successful? How does he achieve that success? When does he fail? Why and how?

2. What is the role of imagination in the film? In Paul’s speech about //Catcher in the Rye//, he says “the imagination is God’s gift that makes self-examination possible.” He also says “it’s our passport to live in the outside world.” How might you apply these ideas about the imagination to the film as a whole?

3. What is the role of the children of the families in this story? Do all the children hate their parents? Why? How do they punish their parents? What do the children reveal about the parents and their world?

4. What kinds of crimes are committed in this story? By whom? Who gets punished?

5. How does this story use the idea of “six degrees of separation”. . . that we can connect with anyone else in the world by way of, at most, six people? Remember that Ouisa says to her daughter that you have to find the “right six people to make a connection. . . and that everyone is a door into other worlds.”

For Day 3: no homework

Week of 10/24 For Day 1 Type one page in response to one of the following questions. This page will be the start of your thinking for the next paper, which will consider the social and cultural implications of this film. You must have it printed when you come to class today. Remember to use specific examples from the film.

1. Many critics see // Six Degrees of Separation //and // The Catcher in the Rye //as critiques of unequal economic structures, but the film also addresses issues of race, gender, and sexuality. How are these issues possibly more important then the economic issues? For this question, you can focus on one issue of identity (race, gender, sexuality) and its role in the film

2. Do you think that the wealthy have a moral obligation to those of a lower socioeconomic class? What responsibilities do those of a lower socioeconomic status have to those in a higher social class? How are these issues played out in // Six Degrees of Separation? //

For Day 2 Choose the specific moments, lines, images you will use in your paper. Make sure you have them in class. If you already included all you think you need in typed page, that is fine, but think about others that might strengthen your paper.

For Day 3 Read chapter 1 of //The Great Gatsby//

For Day 4 Draft of //Six Degrees// paper

Week of 10/31 For Day 1 Read chapter 2 of //The Great Gatsby//

For Day 2 //Six Degrees// paper due