Tuesday, 12/1/15

* Open
  •  Vocabulary: View the Wondrous Words
    • 1. Assigned Vocabulary:
      • Go to Week 16
      • Work on Your First Two Words
        • Word, part of speech (not given in the .pdf)
        • Definition
        • Example Sentence of Yours (with usage)
    • 2. (AP Only) For your outside vocabulary words, you will only need to define (you do not need a sentence, etc.) 10 extra words by the end of the next week.  You may simply annotate the .pdf or write them in your journal. 
* The Tempest

HW: Act II

Monday, 11/30/15

* Open

  • Answer in your journal: How do the holy days taste to you?
* The Tempest
* Work in Class

* Review the Week

* Memorization

HW: Act I

Mr. Schwager's Favorite Sentence

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."  -- G. K. Chesterton

It comes from a chapter 6, "The Age of the Crusades," of his book A Short History of England.

(Sorry MLA, G. K. C. lived before your semicolon rules.)



The Tempest

We left off at minute 36 in class.

I'm sorry that there is no free version with closed captioning.  If you can, rent it from Amazon or Netflix so that you can read it as you watch.  If that's not possible, I understand.  Please watch the rest of the movie regardless.

Thank you,

Mr. S


Week 14, Block

* Open
  • Prepare your iPad for a Quiz
    • Turn off all notifications
    • Take everything else off of your desk
    • Please keep your iPad flat or only slightly raised and on the desk
    • Good luck!
* Week 14 Quiz

* Letter From Mrs. Price

* Background and Guide

* Video

HW: Finish the Video Over Break; We Will Read it When We Return

Week 14, W18: Writing

* Open
  • Mien
* Write

HW:
  • Study
    • Vocabulary Weeks 10-14
    • Renaissance annotations
    • Apostrophes and quotation marks

Tuesday, 11/17/15

* Open



    • feign (verb): pretend to be affected by (a feeling, state, or injury)
            
      Latin fingere "to touch, handle; devise; fabricate, alter, change" 
      John's feigned injury to his ankle was shameful and obvious: "Red card for repeated simulation!" the referee announced.  

      laconic:

* Write


 HW: Outside Reading

Monday, 11/16/15: Franken-Essay

* Open
  • Discursive (adj.): digressing from subject to subject; digressive; rambling

    Latin: discursus "a running about" (same root as "discourse") 

    It's interesting that Jesus often "answered and spoke to [the crowds] in parables"; what may have seemed discursive was later recognized to be subversive (Matt. 21:1).  

    Epigram (n.):

* Review Thesis Statements
* Essay Writing
  • Begin writing your in-class essay. 
  • You will work today and tomorrow in class on this.  
  • Note your homework below.
HW: 
    • Note three things you can pick up for your own essay composition. 
      • Sample Responses
        • Read the question 2 responses (scores of 8, high; 6, good; and 4, poor) 


    Block Day, Week 13: Trial by Analysis

    * Open
    • Which is correct?
      • A. The monsters eyes shone brightly in the dark: "Its only a cat," I told myself.  
      • B. The monsters eyes shone brightly in the dark: "It's only a cat," I told myself.  
      • C. The monsters' eyes shone brightly in the dark: "Its' only a cat," I told myself.   
      • D. The monster's eyes shone brightly in the dark: "Its only a cat," I told myself.  
      • E. The monster's eyes shone brightly in the dark: "It's only a cat," I told myself.  
    * Review
    • Find three things you can pick up for your own essay composition. 
    * And a few more examples for good measure.

    * Review writing 

    HW: Plan B (if Mr. T's Debate Waxes Eloquent)



    Wednesday, 11/11/15

    * Open
    • Q. Which is the correct spelling?
      a. Veterans Day
      b. Veteran's Day
      c. Veterans' Day
       
    • Q. What is the difference between this day (Nov. 11) and Memorial Day (last Monday of May, moment of remembrance at 3:00 pm)?
      • "A. Many people confuse Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Memorial Day is a day for remembering and honoring military personnel who died in the service of their country, particularly those who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained in battle. While those who died are also remembered, Veterans Day is the day set aside to thank and honor ALL those who served honorably in the military - in wartime or peacetime. In fact, Veterans Day is largely intended to thank LIVING veterans for their service, to acknowledge that their contributions to our national security are appreciated, and to underscore the fact that all those who served - not only those who died - have sacrificed and done their duty" ( U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs).
    • Repartee (noun): conversation or speech characterized by quick, witty comments or replies.
      • French repartie "an answering blow or thrust" (originally a fencing term)
      • The famous repartee between Churchill and Lady Astor is as follows: She said, "If you were my husband I'd give you poison," and he said, "If you were my wife, I'd drink
        it."

    More repartee:

    ___________________________________
    'I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a
    friend....if you have one.'

    - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill


     'Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second.... if there is
    one.'

    - Winston Churchill, in response.

    ___________________________________

    'He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the
    dictionary.'
    - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).


     'Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?'
    - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)
     ____________________________________

    'Politicians use statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts.. . for support
    rather than illumination. ' - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

    _____________________________________

    The following is from Wikipedia:

    G. K. Chesterton was a large man, standing 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and weighing around 20 stone 6 pounds (286 lbs). His girth gave rise to a famous anecdote. During the First World War a lady in London asked why he was not "out at the Front"; he replied, "If you go round to the side, you will see that I am." On another occasion he remarked to his friend George Bernard Shaw, "To look at you, anyone would think a famine had struck England." Shaw retorted, "To look at you, anyone would think you have caused it." P. G. Wodehouse once described a very loud crash as "a sound like G. K. Chesterton falling onto a sheet of tin".

    Chesterton usually wore a cape and a crumpled hat, with a swordstick in hand, and a cigar hanging out of his mouth. He had a tendency to forget where he was supposed to be going and miss the train that was supposed to take him there. It is reported that on several occasions he sent a telegram to his wife Frances from some distant (and incorrect) location, writing such things as "Am in Market Harborough. Where ought I to be?" to which she would reply, "Home". Because of these instances of absent-mindedness and of Chesterton being extremely clumsy as a child, there has been speculation that Chesterton had undiagnosed developmental coordination disorder or attention deficit disorder.

    * Annotations in Class

    HW: Annotate Sample Student Essays

    • Find three things you can pick up for your own essay composition. 
    Good reminders:

    HW: Finish Your Annotations for the Renaissance

    Tuesday, 11/10/15

    * Open

    * Vocabulary

    • incendiary (adj.): (of a device or attack) designed to cause fires
      • Latin incendiarius "causing a fire" 
      • Jesus' attribution of "snake" and "viper" for the scribes and pharisees--combined with his question, "How will you escape the condemnation of hell?"--are bold, incendiary indictments.  Jesus was gentle with his power but not with his rhetoric. 
    • magnanimous (adj.)
    * Renaissance Notes

    HW: Renaissance Annotations

    College Application Essay Advice

    Here is advice from Stanford, Berkeley, Georgetown, Yale, University of Virginia, Dartmouth, and Brown admissions officers.

    Monday, Week 13: Thesis Goodness

    * Open



    • Survey (if you were absent on block day)

    • Week 13 Vocabulary: Incorporate quotations and apostrophes into your sentences.




    1. analogous (adj.): comparable in certain respects, typically in a way that makes clearer the nature of the things compared

    • Greek analogia "proportion," from ana- "upon, according to" + logos "ratio," also "word, speech, reckoning". A mathematical term used in a wider sense by Plato.
    • Jesus' idea that unless you "hate your father and mother" you cannot be his disciple is analogous to his idea that if your "right hand causes you to sin, cut it off": both are masterful examples of hyperbole.  

    2. brigand

    * Review the Thesis .pdf for a Few Minutes

    * Now, the hard part!
    • Handwritten on a sheet of paper
      • Title it in the MLA fashion
      • In a group, make a good prompt for Dickens OR Sir Gawain the Green Knight.
      • On your own, compose an excellent thesis statement.
    •  A little help:
    •  Passage Prompts
      • How would Dickens work?  Look especially in the 2000s. 
     
    • 20 points
      • 5 points for a good prompt
      • 15 points for a good thesis (5 points each)
        • Provides an interesting argument (death to Sparknotes)
        • Answers all aspects of the prompt
        • Is grammatically correct
    * Work on Mrs. Price's Card

    HW:Prompt and Thesis; Card
     

    Did you know that if you don't learn how to use the apostrophe, you will be cursed with having to compose grammatically incorrect signs in discount shopping malls for the rest of your life? 

     funny-grammar-mistakes-on-signs


    funny-grammar-mistakes-on-signs 

    Or worse:

    Block Day, Week 11: Survey, Prompts, and Thesis

    * Open
    • Please take an online survey of my teaching and this course.  
      • The survey will go to my overseers (Mr. Davis and all other head administration), so I will not see your name associated with any of this.  They will use it to give me feedback about my teaching. 
      • Here is the survey: http://goo.gl/forms/1sbfVFL8Ne
      • Thank you!
    • Copy and correct the following in your notes:


    * Prompt work
    •  Passage Prompts
      • How would Dickens work?  Look especially in the 2000s. 
    * Writing

    * Mrs. Price's Card
    • Any and all by Monday, Nov. 9
    HW: Outside Reading
    • Write a card for Mrs. Price











    Wednesday, 11/4/15: Analysis

    Open
    • Scintillate: emit flashes of light; sparkle
      • Latin: scintilla "spark"
      • Chesterton's idea makes my soul scintillate: "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." (Per MLA, you wouldn't have that comma after "thought" because a dependent clause follows, but the Brits sprinkle their sentences with greater liberality than we Americans do, and it does help distinguish the two ideas from one another, so we'll leave it under the "add commas when needed for clarity" rule.)
     * Review Answers

    * Consider Prompt
    •  Passage Prompts
      • How would Dickens work?  Look especially in the 2000s. 

    HW: Choose one open prompt for Sir Gawain OR create one on your own for the multiple choice Dickens passage you took for a practice quiz.  Write them down in your journal on paper (so, you will come to class with one prompt on paper)

    Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

    The Empty World of Social Media

    Here's an interesting article I found in the BBC News. 

    Tuesday, Nov. 3: Analysis


    Open
    • Vocabulary
      • Malady (n.): a disease or ailment
        • John Dryden noted that "love's a malady without a cure."  
        • Amos Alcott said, "To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant. "
      • One for you: Nuance
    * Analysis 




    Practice Examples

    HW: 
    • Finish Annotations  (see yesterday's HW link)
    • Dickens M.C. Work