Homework for Wednesday 11/30

Book review:

Please bring into class a copy of a book review of the book from your independent reading over the holiday. Try to find a credible, published source (such as the New York Time Review of Books or a journal article - check JSTOR on the library website) rather than something like a blog. Also, bring in a copy of a book review of your choice. We will spend time in class on Wednesday discussing book reviews and their structure.

Along with the published book reviews, please bring a draft of your own book review with you into class, modeled on the style of the reviews you have found. We will spend time in class peer editing the reviews. The review should be 1-2 pages long, single spaced (12 pt Times New Roman font), or 3-4 pages double spaced.

Homework for Thursday

Hi all:

As mentioned in class, for Thursday please do the following:

1) Finish and post your quarterly reflection on your informal blog by 12am Wednesday
2) Finish reading the stories by Ambrose Bierce - we will discuss them further on Thursday
3) Select your book for Thanksgiving reading - here are your choices once again:
       One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest - Ken Kesey 
       All the King’s Men - Robert Penn Warren
       Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick
       The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula LeGuin
       Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
       The Color Purple - Alice Walker

Homework for Thursday's class

There will be an in-class writing assignment on Kindred on Thursday. Please prepare for this assignment by spending the next couple of days going over your notes and re-reading parts of the book. Also, please read the critical essay by Robert Crossley at the back of the book - this will help you think more critically about the book in preparation for the assignment.

Homework for Thursday

Hi all:

Thank you for keeping up with the reading over the last week. We'll take a small break from reading the book for Thursday and focus on the questions I raised in class:

What is the purpose of the "third" narrative in Kindred (i.e. the part of the story where Dana recalls the development of her relationship with Kevin)? What purpose does this narrative play in the overall story? Why are we being shown how Dana feels about how she met and married Kevin? How does it contribute to the other parts of the story?

Spend a some time re-reading these parts of the book and then think about these questions. Bring into class at least a page worth of notes on these questions as we will discuss it further in Thursday's class. I will ALSO collect your notes to read from (they won't be graded but you will get a check mark for completion).

Also, as a heads up, you will be finishing the book for Tuesday - I'm letting you know now so you can plan the reading accordingly...

Good luck,

Mr. Twomey-Smith

Homework for the weekend

Hi all:

Sorry about missing you last week - was out sick and still not feeling the best.
Homework for the next class - read the first two chapters of Kindred for discussion on Monday.

Homework for Wednesday - continue working on your Whitman-esque poetry and post by Wednesday evening. We can talk about your progress Monday, as you were expected to work on it in last Thursday's class when I was out.

See you Monday!

Homework for next week

Please study hard and do well on the PSATs!

Also, re-read the Whitman poetry, consider his style and ideas, and begin to think about how you would model this in your own poetry, which we will do as an informal writing assignment next week.

Good luck this weekend!

Homework for Friday

For next class, please start a draft for your next formal assignment.  The question for this assignment is the following:

With reference to the Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, what are the implications of considering autobiographies as either historical “truth” or narrative “fiction” of a life’s journey? In your response, think about the goals of autobiographers (specifically Douglass, but also consider your own goals/motives when you wrote about your own “journey”), in terms of why they wrote the piece and who their expected audience would be. Also, does the fact that Douglass possesses multiple narrative voices in this novel - his past voice and his present voice the two dominant voices  - highlight the problem of memory and motive in writing autobiographies?

Bring in at least one page of your draft. We will continue our discussions of Frederick Douglass and this question in particular Friday. You will be working on this draft over the weekend and hand in a formal draft on Wednesday.

Those of you who have not had a chance to do a second performance, also practice for your recital!