AP Literature Class Notes
Great discussion and map on the board today, period 2. Please check yesterday’s notes from period 5 for objectives and details.
For Monday, juniors and seniors, please make sure your draft is of substance. I’m not going to be nice with my green pen.
Have a productive weekend.
IDEA: I was talking over with a student “Payday Breakfasts” the faculty enjoys every other week when one of the department’s members each bring something tasty and wonderful to share with peers and be convivial. I was reminded of a similar idea I mentioned last semester for our own AP classes: every other Friday morning, during zero hour, we enjoy a savory bounty of (keeping it simple), donuts, muffins, bagels, juice, et cetera.
Perhaps, classes can take turns, or small groups in classes can take turns, and we’d keep a list of participants, and only those who actually bring items could particpate in the sharing, and so on. If you’re interested in doing this, please email me by the end of the weekend and I’ll develop and plan, perhaps for next Friday?
English 9 Class Notes
Fourth freshmen, please check your peers’ notes from yesterday for objectives and details. Be sure to get at your reading and note taking for Monday to prepare for your quiz, and you might take time to prepare for the extra-credit quiz Tuesday afternoon if you’re going to take advantage of the offer.
Have a good, safe weekend, kids.
Extrey-credit for English 9!
Remember that opportunity I mentioned last class? Well, I want to verify for you that the extrra-credit quiz over the fifth act of Romeo and Juliet will be offered no other time than during tutoring Tuesday, March 5. Only students who’ll be absent for school club or athletic activities or who’re excused because of illness will be able to take it at after that.
Further, students who plan to take the quiz must be in my room no later than 2:32 at which time the T-12 door’ll be closed and locked. I just don’t like students tarrying and coming in any old time they happen to be walking this way.
Dig?
Dig.
AP Language Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers 1) analyzed an author’s rhetorical strategies, and 2) (as it turned out) discussed varieties of speech communities and their particualr lexicons.
Period 5, you began by reading three current peices about the accustations of doublespeak being traded between Sens. McCain and Obama: “McCain accuses Obama of ‘double speak’” , “Free Ride for the Straight-Talk Express” , “McCain draws scrutiny over $1m loan to campaign”. These led to our discussion of the Lutz piece, which then led to a pretty lively discussion of the ways and words we use to communicate to each in our own speech communities. You came to discover that each of you is a member of and can operate comforatbly in a great number of speech communities.
The discussion got me thinking about a possible ethnographic project, perhaps something in the vein of the Ethnologue or Phonological Atlas of North America, but on a smaller scale. I’ll ponder over that before I make a decision.
Your timed-writings are in and the conference revision schedule is up. I wanted (with permission from the student-rhetor who wrote it) to mention the argument I enjoyed most from the timed-writing in support of Forster: “If one needs help because their car ran out of gas, is it their country that comes to bring extra gas?” Hmmm.
NOTE: Lest some think I was unfair to Hillary Clinton during our discussion of the Obama photo, I’d like to clarify that that her campaign quality-control has been under scrutiny for some time (“CNN debunks false report about Obama”) and continues to this day, particularly recently in TIME magazine: “Bill Clinton: The Bitter Half”. I don’t writes the news kids, I just offers it for consideration through our little class website, Mr. Girard Online.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: English 9 students 1) read independently for a sustained period of time and journaled critically, and 2) analyzed literary concepts in a poem and a short story.
Freshmen, today after reading and journaling, you took another look at “Annabel Lee” before moving on to “The Gift of the Magi” which you read and noted. Many of you completed your study guide questions; those that didn’t should come to tutoring to complete the work.
Also, many of you began your reading for for Monday; all that remains is for you to note thoroughly the readings so you be prepared for a quiz and discussion of the pieces all together at the beginning of next week.
AP Language Class Notes
You covered similar ground as your peers yesterday, period 2. Here’re a couple of follow-up for all APELCers to see from the New York Post, “Backlash at ‘Garb’age”, and “Vandals Hit Obama Campaign Headquarters in Texas”, from an NBC affiliate in Texas.
Additionally, I’m thinking about the abject umbrage felt at my repsonse to Shawn’s comment about Hillary Clinton’s control over her campaign staff, remembering that no official determination about the re-release of the photo was ever decided, but certainly considering the electioneering practices displayed by all candidates and the lengths some will go to (or let staffers go to for them) for their persuasive, that is, rhetorical ends. Their marriage aside, consider that Senator Clinton had some trouble “controlling” her husband in South Carolina, much, to what many perceived, her detriment, and how she’s handling him now.
On another note, although I didn’t get to talk about with second period APELCers, I wanted to clarify the different types of speech acts I did discuss with fifth (and maybe second can pay attention, too). The taxonomy I’m most familiar with, is a modifed version of the one I shared in class, but looks something like this (from Traugott and Pratt’s Linguistics for Students of Literature, p. 229).
- Representatives inlcude stating, claiming, describing, and so on and “undertake to represent a state of affairs”;
- Expressives include thanking, welcoming, condoling, and so on, and express “only the speaker’s psychological attitude toward a state of affairs” (my italics);
- Verdictives involve assessing, judging, ranking, and so forth, and are acts that ”deliver a fiding as to value of fact”;
- Directives include requesting, commanding, inviting, et cetera, and are “desigined to get the addressee to do something” (my italics);
- Commissives invovle proimising, threatening, vowing, and so on, and commit the speaker to act;
- Declaratives, finally, include blessing, firing, arresting, et cetera, and are “acts that bring about the state of affairs they refer to”.
For some brief ideas on Speech Act Theory’s applications in rhetoric, read Andrew Cline’s excerpt at Rhetorica.net; for an in-depth look at the subject, you can examine the Speech Acts article at the Standford Encyclopedia of Philsophy; and, for a thorough treatment, read John Searle’s Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language, if you dare.
Attend the homework. See you next class.
English 9 Class Notes
Period 4, you did a fine job today going over the poem like your peers did yesterday, but you’re not done. We’ll talk about your answers to your homework questions and study the text a little further next class. Until then, periods 1, 3, and 4 freshmen, take a look at James Whistler’s Poe-inspired visual interpretation of the voiceless, eponymous character of our poem below. Actually, it’s one of three pieces by Whistler to be titled Annabel Lee, this seems to be the third in a study or merely a new take years from the last.
Consider this image when we go over the poem in class
Melee!
Another gallery showing? Dig! Check out Mr. Street’s advanced digital photography students’ rhetoric in room N-207 this Thursday, February 28, from 6:00-8:00 at CDO.
AP Language Class Notes
Objective: APELCers processed a rhetorical action.
Juniors and seniors, you looked over four articles having to do with the mysterious circulation of a photo showing Barack Obama in Somali dress, its implications, and the accusations of malfeasance that followed:
- The piece that started the controversy, “Clinton Staffers Circulate Dressed Obama Picture”;
- “Obama Photo in Turban, Robe Causes Stir”;
- “Clinton accused of smear over Obama picture”; and
- “Poll: Obama Rises in Voter Popularity”.
We talked over the rhetoriity of physical action and image; you came to some conclusions about the (ostensible) act’s affects and effectiveness.
Check your class page for homework details.
English 9 Class Notes
Objective: English 9 students analyzed literary concepts in a poem.
Frist and third freshmen, after a troubling number of tardy students rolled into class and all had time to review the poem and their notes, I passed out grade reports, finally. Many of you were stunned, and that was good. You needed it. Recall that I’ve formulated an extra-credit opportunity for you that you’ll be able to take advantage of next Tuesday.
You did a good job of attacking “Annabel Lee” after our dicsussion of grades. I hope you took notes as I instructed; such notes and the skill and beahvior of note-taking will be vital to your continued success in this class and those that’ll follow.
Check your class page for homework details, and remember: Explanation, quotation, and citation.
AP Language Class Notes
Objective: APELCers completed a timed-writing.
After the timed-writing, children, I revealed the details of your next argument paper. Check your class page for details.
On an interesting rhetorical note, Hillary Clinton’s staffers are being accused of chicanery with the circulation of a photo showing Barack Obama robed and turbaned. Please have a look and a read. We’ll talk about this in class, so please process the event of the photo release. (Yes, the act of releasing the photo is rhetorical. Think it over.)
English 9 Class Notes
Objective: English 9 students analyzed literary concepts in a poem.
Periods 1, 3, and 4, you began today by taking some intensive notes on the assigned text, “Annabel Lee”, and background information on its creator. I talked a bit about grades and student progress. We’ll delve deeper into the poem next class.
NOTE: For those of you that didn’t get a personalized study guide today, I promised a link. Go to www.yourstudyguide.com/arizona to get your study guide. Remember that we will be using these in class eventually so be prepared.
Happy Rodeo!
How best to end the short week of the Fiesta de los Vaqueros? Nothing better, I think, than a quick nod to our favorite cowmonkey (rather than cowboy), Whiplash.
You may be surprised at the cross-cultural appeal of the rodeo as an institution. It certainly isn’t contained to one stereotype of participant or spectator as evidenced by the variety of rodeo networks and organizations. Apart from rodeo’s obvious appeal to simians beacuse of their primate hero, there are the professional associations such as the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, the Cowboy’s Professional Rodeo Association, the Working Ranch Cowboys Association, and the International Professional Rodeo Association, but the rodeo isn’t limited by sex (Women’s Professional Rodeo Association), age (American Junior Rodeo Association, National High School Rodeo Association, National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, and National Senior Pro Rodeo Association), orientation (International Gay Rodeo Association), race (All Indian Rodeo Cowboys Association and Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo), or nation or continent(Canadian Professional Rodeo Association, Australian Professional Rodeo Association, New Zealand Rodeo Cowboys Association, and European Rodeo Cowboy Association). (Thanks Wikipedia for much of this list.)
Find out more about cowboys and their history at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Enjoy the rodeo and support the Pride of CDO as they march in Thursday’s parade.
And one more time:
Go Whiplash, go!
AP Language Notes
Period 2, we accomplished much the same as your peers yesterday; check their notes for objectives and details.
Talk of sub-prime lending, foreclosure, and the mortgage crisis arose during discussion of our two most recent texts, and I thought it might be useful to post some links to resources through which you can inform yoursevles of America’s (and the world’s) looming financial difficulities. Learn about sub-prime mortgages at How Stuff Works, and hear about the drastic, here-to-fore unheard-of solution some home owners are volunteering for in the recent NPR piece, “Why Not Just Walk Away from a Home?” I encourage you to educate yourselves and be financially literate in these dubious times.
I look forward to reading your final argument drafts (due at the beginning of class Monday), and watching you sweat out your next timed-writing.
Have a great break.
NOTE: I recommended this listening from the Philosopher’s Zone to a couple of you to inform your arguments (Wes, Laura, especially the claim made in last four and a half minutes of the second broadcast), and thought more might benefit from it: The Emergence of Science, part 1 and part 2. Bend an ear, kids.
English 9 Class Notes
Period 4, same as your peers yesterday. We’re finally finished with Romeo and Juliet. Be ready to learn on Monday. Be productive these extra two days.
Yee haw!
AP Language Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers 1) analyzed an author’s rhetorical strategies, and 2) mimicked an author’s style.
Period 5, you attacked the Quinlend companion-piece to the Ascher text and we discussed your analyses, and continued to see how argumetns need not follow the traditional essay structure. We had a little time to begin new “Stories about…” and tried to use those ideas to mimic Aristotle from the Metaphysics:
To say that what is is not, or that what is not is, is false; but to say that what is is, and what is not is not, is true; and therefore also he who says that a thing is or is not will say either what is true or what is false. But neither what is nor what is not is said not to be or to be.
Please heed my words about the due date and time of your final argument drafts. Have a great and safe weekend.
NOTE: Here’s a piece I came across about a college graduate who had the luxury to try a daring experiment in which he really had nothing to lose: “Building a Life on $25 and a Gym Bag”. Perhaps something to read in consideration of our recent class texts.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: English 9 students 1) read independently for a sustained period of time and journaled critically, and 2) analyzed literary concepts in a film text.
And so we witnessed the film deaths of Romeo and Juliet today. You turned in the study guide for Act V, and you have no homework to worry about over the break.
Be ready for changes when we meet again.
Thank You!
This is just a quick word of thanks to my second period APELCers for the gift of the books for our family. Mrs. Girard and I look forward to reading them to Debabu and Zufan (who’ll be making an appearance at school soon, once the mumps quaratine is off).
In particular, I’m looking forward to reading Strega Nona, which seemed to win high praise from many of the juniors and seniors. As I said, your description of the story reminded me of the Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta Bowl. (Oh yeah!)
We really do appreciate your gift, kids. Really. Thanks again!
Linkjam!
With Chris Jordan’s photo series still stuck in my head, I thought it time to post the art links that have been backing up.
First, Peter Plagens asks in a Newsweek article if, with the advent of new technologies, “Is photography dead?”. Probably not, as publications such as National Geographic continue to celebrate the medium with its list of the top ten photos of 2007 (dig the cloud leopard of Borneo, third picture in). But then who needs photographic images if others can capture with paint and canvas what light imprints on treated film, such as these “9 artists who will blow your mind”.
It’s easy to be fooled by the photoreal images at the former link, but how difficult is it to fool discriminating art professionals? Apparently, not too difficult, at least not for Freddie Linsky who, according to a Daily Mail article, fooled “the art world into buying his tomato ketchup paintings”.
Perhaps art appreciation is a matter of perspective, but in the case of several sidewalk painters, perspective is everything as can be seen here: “New 3D Sidewalk Paintings”. And there’s plenty more unusual, and non-traditional art to be seen the world over; just witness these “33 Weird Statues and Sculptures Around The World”.
The sculptures at the former link may make some scratch their heads and wonder: “Do all we or others say is ‘art’ qualify as such?” Some creative graffiti (pay attention Danielle) might be argued to have artistic merit. Consider, for example, these “7 Unusually Geeky Approaches to Graffiti”.
Innovations in science, math, and technology offer other new opportunities for artistic expression. Dig these exploding nano-wires, these fractal art contest winners , and these symmetric energy pictures.
Enjoy the art, boys and girls.
AP Language Class Notes
Objective: APELCers researched and revised their drafts in liberry.
Not much more to say than is covered above. The only other item I can offer is that your papers will be due at the beginning of class next Monday, February 25. Late papers will not be accepted, except in cases where a student has experienced severe family or medical distress.
If you have any questions about formatting, style, or citing sources, please see the OWL’s MLA Style Guide, or consult the third chapter of your Bedford Reader, or acquire the Pocket Style Manual I recommended on your class page, or consult the Citation Machine, or EasyBib, or BibMe, or Diana Hacker’s “Documenting Sources” resource, or Bedford-St. Martin’s Styles Index, or any of the other numerous resources available to you. (No excuses for not having a proper ”Works Cited” page.)
Dig?
Dig!