Over Vacation

1. Post a substantial, thoughtful, specific, and exploratory comment on the middle section (pages 84 to 168) of As I Lay Dying by the end of the weekend (pumpkin time Sunday 4/15). (Comments will be richer, I think, if you read what your peers have already written before posting your own comments.)

2.  Finish reading and taking notes on As I Lay Dying.

3. Mr. Cook's class needs to finish AP English Literature packet #3.

4. Be prepared to write a term four independent reading and research proposal during the week after vacation. You'll need a thesis, a plan for supporting the thesis, and a description of a creative project.

*******
Other:
For those of you who signed up to take the AP English Language and Composition exam in addition to the AP English Literature and Composition exam. Click here for resources. 

Here you'll find the AP English Language course description (including sample multiple choice and essay questions). I recommend taking a look at the readings and multiple choice questions.

Here you'll find more information about the exam including all of the recent essay questions, scoring guides, and sample essays.

*******
Other other:

All of you have written poems. Please send those poems to the Elicitor editors who are currently putting together this year's print issue.

Send your poems to ghselicitor@gmail.com.

If you want to check out the online version of the Elicitor. Click here (TheElicitor.blogspot.com).

As I Lay Dying Responses

Respond to sections of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying in the comment section of this post. The sections are:

Pgs. 1-84
Pgs. 85-168
Pgs. 168-end

The due dates for these blog responses may vary between the two classes.

For these responses, you should focus on motifs (repeating objects, ideas, concerns, language patterns, etc.) much as you did with King Lear, only this time you need to establish what the motifs are yourself, and you must also create your own understanding of how they interconnect with each other and how they support the overall meaning of the novel as you see it.

Don't be afraid to explore or think through a motif that isn't immediately accessible or doesn't appear to connect to anything (those cakes! They turned out real well, and they didn't cost Cora anything . . .)

Independent Reading & Research Term Three

Now you can turn more of your attention to your independent reading and research project.
You'll turn in evidence of the reading on or before March 23.You're expected to read between 500 and 1000 pages or so by the end of the term. (If you're reading difficult experimental fiction you'll likely read closer to 500 pages and if you're reading popular children's fiction you'll be expected to hit 1000.)
The goal of this reading is to prepare for the paper you will write during the fourth quarter. The notetaking and writing you do about the reading you are doing during third quarter will help you a lot when you write the paper.

There are three different ways you could show evidence of your reading and thinking.
Option 1: Keep a quotation response journal. You should have a quotation and response for every twenty to thirty (20-30) pages or so. Your responses should often relate to the central question and/or thesis in your proposal.

Option 2: Keep a double-entry notebook. Take notes -- quotations, paraphrases, other information -- on the left side of your notes & on the right side write down your thoughts about the information on the left side. What you write on the right side should often relate to the central question and/or thesis in your proposal. You should have a page of notes for every twenty to thirty (20-30) pages or so of your reading.

Option 3: Write short, informal, exploratory essay responses (300-500 words or so). You should write an essay for every fifty to sixty (50-60) pages or so of reading. These responses should discuss the reading in terms of your central question and/or provisional thesis.

King Lear Motif Assignment

Reading King Lear

1. Take notes on the following motifs by marking down the motif(s), speaker(s), act, scene, lines.

Example notes from 1.1:

Gloucester, parenthood/sex/unfaithfulness, 1.1.8-24

Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, saying v. truth, 1.1.60+

Cordelia, Lear, “nothing” 1.1.96

Lear, appetite/savagery 1.1.131, 136

Kent, loyalty, madness, flattery, wisdom, emptiness, hollowness,161-174  

What is the relationship between literal and figurative imagery, on the one hand, and thematic development on the other?

Is what is said understood? Is what is said true? (flattery, lies, etc.)

Is what is seen or (otherwise sensed: touched, smelled) understood? Is it true?

(Eyes are very important!)

What is natural? What is unnatural (or monstrous)?

What is sane? What is mad?

What is wisdom? (What is reasonable?) What is foolishness? (What is excessive?)

What is loyalty and faithfulness? What is betrayal and unfaithfulness?

What is kindness? What is cruelty?

How are these related to age and youth?

How are these related to parents and children?

How are these related to rank and status?

How are these related to property and wealth?

How are these related to the line between animals and humans?

How are these related to storms and calms?

How are these related to planets, stars, fates?

What is the significance of nothingness, emptiness, hollowness, loss, and nakedness in the play?

What is the significance of eating, appetites, consuming in the play?

What is the significance of sex and lust in the play?

What is the significance of blood (both as a signifier of family and of violence)?

All of the aforementioned motifs interact, weaving in and out of each other to form a matrix of association. So when Lear denies Cordelia her inheritance, he doesn't say "get away from me; you're no longer my daughter" (in Elizabethan English and iambic pentameter). He evokes several motifs and images that are echoed in other parts of the play: "Thy truth, then, be thy dower" "For by the sacred radiance of the sun... by all the operation of the orbs" "paternal care" "property of blood" "gorge his appetite" "avoid my sight" (1.1.120-139).

Also be on the look out for inversions: the natural becoming unnatural, the truth that is false, the sight that is a lie, the fool that is wise, etc. & look out for parallels. ("Monster" is tagged on both Cordelia and Edgar in Act One.) Look out for motif-words with ambiguous multiple or shifting meanings (especially "nature" and "nothing"). Listen for playfulness and for echoes. Figurative associations often haunt the literal meanings. And repetitions often reveal the play's obsessions.

2. Choose a particular monologue or passage of dialogue to analyze. (1) In your analysis demonstrate an understanding of the passage’s meaning within its context. (2) Also, identify and discuss the significance of (at least two) motifs within the passage. What does the use of the motifs reveal, particularly about characters, conflicts, and themes? (3) Finally, discuss the relationship between how the motifs are presented in the passage and how the motifs are presented elsewhere in the play. Post your response below. At the beginning of your post include your name, name the motifs, and quote the passages (include act.scene.line). [Note: In the right margin of the blog you'll find links to searchable etexts of King Lear and to video recordings of performances. These resources may be of help.]

Comments on act one are due by pumpkin time on Sunday, February 5.
Comments on act two are due by pumpkin time on Sunday, February 12. 
Comments on act three are due (for Mr. Cook's class) before A-block on Monday 27Feb.

Sharing Your Independent Reading and Research

Write two blog posts below. In one post discuss the main text you have been reading independently and in another post discuss the supplemental text. It should be absolutely clear what texts you are referring to. 

This post should intelligently and insightfully (but not necessarily formally) discuss the texts and the ideas you have about the texts. Be bold. Be specific. Be thoughtful and convincing.

The purpose of this assignment is for you to share what you have been reading and thinking about with your peers.

Midyear Exam Literary Terms

Midyear Exam Literary Vocabulary

Sonnets & Poetry (21)
English (Shakespearean) Sonnet, Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet, Iambic Pentameter, Meter, Iamb, Rhyme Scheme, Volta, Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, Stanza, Octet, Sestet, Quatrain, Couplet, Enjambment, End rhyme, Full rhyme, Near/Off/Half/Slant Rhyme, Sonnet Sequence/Sonnet Cycle/Corona/Crown of Sonnets, Blank Verse

Other Types of Poems (5)
free verse, villanelle, sestina, terza rima, ballads

Other Poetic Techniques (3)
anaphora, epistrophe, inversion

Figurative Language (16)
figurative language, simile, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, personification, apostrophe, conceit, hyperbole, pun, double entendre, rhetorical question (=erotema), oxymoron, paradox, synesthesia, denotation, connotation

Irony (4)
irony, verbal irony, situational irony, dramatic irony

Narration (5)
narration, first person narration, third person limited narration, third person omniscient narration, stream of consciousness

Writing Style (9)
style, voice, diction, syntax, tone, mood, dialect, colloquialism, vernacular

Character (13)
characterization, direct characterization, indirect characterization, dynamic character, static character, round character, flat character, foil, protagonist, antagonist, tragic hero, antihero

Plot & Events (10)
Plot, exposition, inciting action, rising action, climax, denouement (resolution), flashback, foreshadowing, internal conflict, external conflict,

Other Literary Terms from First Semester (4)
motif, symbol, epigraph, epiphany

In the comment box post accurate, complete definitions; clear, relevant examples; and citation of reliable sources before the beginning of school on Monday, January 9.

A Gift of Three Poems (& far below a brief reminder of the Independent Reading & Research work)

In term two we have studied many works of art that make use of the story of Daedalus and Icarus. We've also talked about the ways other works of art make use of other old stories--not just by retelling them but by imaginatively re-envisioning them to serve new purposes. Some of you will be exploring retellings and reimaginings in your independent reading and research projects.

Below are three very different poems from the second half of the twentieth century, each of which make an imaginative re-use of the Christian Nativity narrative.

 

December 21^st                                                              Jean Valentine

How will I think of you

“God-with-us”

a name: a word

and trees paths stars this earth

how will I think of them

and the dead I love       and all absent friends

here-with-me

and table: hand: white coffee mug:

a northern still life:

and you

without a body

quietness

and the infant’s red-brown mouth           a star

at the star of the girl’s nipple…

1974

Note about December 21^st : The words in quotations, “God-with-us,” are a literal translation of “Emmanuel” and the next phrase “a name: a word” recalls Jesus Christ. The “girl” offering her nipple to the infant evokes Mary.

***

from Midwinter Day                                           Bernadette Mayer

…

Like the curtain like the moon’s oval pebbles

Under the exciting microscope

Of the Western world

                                       I speak out loud against it

Other lights in the town might be broken

By accident or widespread vandalism

But they’re too high and look like Christ

On the cross with the hands of an eye’s fluorescent fish

Like a talent unspotlit and queer

                                                          To be me is to be

Queer sleep after death, its modesty deriving

What from the eyes of the immodest living

Is offered at the cost of a ruinous leaving

Well, I have to close them

                                              This paid incandescent light

Is like the vigil of a virgin

Last to tell before my eyes I’ll end.

From dreams I made sentences, then what I’ve seen today,

Then past the past of afternoons of stories like memory

To seeing as a plain introduction to modes of love and reason,

Then to end I guess with love, a method to this winter season

Now I’ve said this love it’s all I can remember

Of Midwinter Day the twenty-second of December

Welcome sun, at last with thy softer light

That takes the bite from winter weather

And weaves the random cloth of life together

And drives away the long black night!

1982

Note: Midwinter Day is an extraordinary book-length poem written on a single day, the Winter Solstice, December 22, 1978 (published in 1982). The passage above is excerpted from the very end of the poem.

***

Christ Climbed Down                                             Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no rootless Christmas trees
hung with candycanes and breakable stars

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no gilded Christmas trees
and no tinsel Christmas trees
and no tinfoil Christmas trees
and no pink plastic Christmas trees
and no gold Christmas trees
and no black Christmas trees
and no powderblue Christmas trees
hung with electric candles
and encircled by tin electric trains
and clever cornball relatives

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no intrepid Bible salesmen
covered the territory
in two-tone cadillacs
and where no Sears Roebuck creches
complete with plastic babe in manger
arrived by parcel post
the babe by special delivery
and where no televised Wise Men
praised the Lord Calvert Whiskey

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no fat handshaking stranger
in a red flannel suit

and a fake white beard
went around passing himself off
as some sort of North Pole saint
crossing the desert to Bethlehem
Pennsylvania
in a Volkswagon sled
drawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer
with German names
and bearing sacks of Humble Gifts
for everybody's imagined Christ child

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no Bing Crosby carollers
groaned of a tight Christmas
and where no Radio City angels
iceskated wingless
thru a winter wonderland
into a jinglebell heaven
daily at 8:30
with Midnight Mass matinees

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and softly stole away into
some anonymous Mary's womb again
where in the darkest night
of everybody's anonymous soul
He awaits again
an unimaginable
and impossibly
Immaculate Reconception
the very craziest
of Second Comings

1958

***

Independent Reading and Research: Term 2

1. Some of you still need to fine tune your proposals. Make sure you've clearly stated the title and author of the main text (novel; play(s); collection of stories, poems, essays) you are reading, the title and author of the text you are reading to gain background, context, and/or a critical perspective on the main reading, and the approach you are taking. (The options are outlined in the previous post.)

2. Quotation Responses: You will complete ten quotation responses on the main text and two on the supplemental text. Consult the models on the blog and the feedback on your summer work in order to improve your work.

3. Blog posts: You will also write two blog posts. In one you will discuss the main text and in another the supplemental text. It should be absolutely clear what texts you are referring to. This post should intelligently and insightfully (but not necessarily formally) discuss the texts and the ideas you have about the texts. Be bold. Be specific. Be thoughtful and convincing.

This work will be due January 13.

Independent Reading Project

Independent Reading Project

By the end of the day on Monday (12/19) post a comment below telling us (1) what option you have picked (the options are explained below), (2) what you plan to read to get some background on your option (if it's a website post the URL; make sure it's a scholarly source), and (3) what novel, play, or other lengthy work (for example, a collection of stories or poems) of literary merit you plan to read and respond to before the end of term two.

It's become obvious to me that I need to make it more explicit that some preliminary research on your part is necessary. Wikipedia is a useful tool for preliminary research (though you should not rely on Wikipedia research in scholarly writing).

Option 1: Bildungsroman. You might continue your study of the Bildungsroman genre (1) by consulting several sources -- starting with this one -- to learn more about Bildungsromans and (2) by reading a couple bildungsromans in addition to the one's you've already studied.

Option 2: Ur*-Narratives (Sacred Texts, Myths, Fairy Tales). You might continue your study of how writers, poets, and other artists use older, archetypal stories -- Bible stories, Greek myths, German fairy tales, etc. -- to create new stories, films, poems, paintings, etc. (We've already studied how Joyce, several painters, and several poets have made use of the Daedalus-Icarus myth.) You will (1) investigate an ur-narrative (a myth, a fairy tale, etc.) and (2) explore how several writers (and perhaps filmmakers, poets, and visual artists) have made use of the original story. (You might modify the assignment to look at how a couple different myths/tales are used.)
*"Ur" is Germanic in origin. In English it is sometimes used as a prefix meaning "original" or "prototypical".

Here are a few books that are based on myths, sacred texts, or folk tales:
* Here's a link to a list of books based on Greek mythology.
* William Butler Yeats wrote several plays based on Celtic mythology and tales.
* Anne Sexton wrote Transformations, a book of narrative poems based on German fairy tales.
* John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden include many Biblical allusions. Grapes of Wrath allusions include The Book of Job, the story of Noah and the flood in Genesis, and the story of the Hebrews and the Promised Land (Numbers, etc.) East of Eden is built around the Cain and Abel story in Genesis.

Option 3: Author Study. You might continue your investigation of one of the authors we have studied so far this year: Calvino, Ellison, Rhys, Bronte, Joyce. Or you might want to study another major author. Your study will include an investigation of (1) the author's life and cultural context and (2) her/his literary output beyond what you have already read.

Option 4: Literary Movement. You might continue your investigation of a literary movement that we have touched upon this year: Romanticism, Gothicism, Victorianism, Modernism. Or you might want to study another literary movement. Your study will include an investigation of (1) the -ism and (2) representative literary works from the movement.

Option 5: Literature of a Culture. You might continue your investigation of the literature produced by a particular culture. The works we have read so far this year have come out of several cultural contexts: Italian, African-American, Anglo-Caribbean, English, Irish. Or you might to want to study the literature of another culture. You will (1) investigate the literature produced by the particular culture and (2) read representative literary works from the culture.

Option 6: Critical Lens. You might study literature using a particular critical lens: gender studies, critical race theory, queer theory, Marxist literary criticism, psychoanalytic (Freudian) literary criticism, archetypal literary criticism, ecocriticism, deconstruction, etc. (Click here for Wikipedia's "literary theory" page for more ideas.) You will (1) investigate the critical theory and (2) read literary works "through the lens" of the critical theory.

Option 7: Something else that you concoct and propose. This something else should have a research component and a literary component.

Not-for-College Essay Examples

Click here for not-for-college essay examples.

The first two were written by AP EngLit students. The first of those two includes strong narration and reflection. (It was written in response to April Monroe's non-fiction narrative "The Potato Harvest".) The second one is short but delightful, effectively illustrating the not-for-college part of the assignment. It's about skipping school.

The next three come from an e-magazine called Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction.

The final example is quite a bit longer. It's a personal narrative essay by David Gessner called "The Dreamer Did Not Exist". It's pretty darned great. 

For Mr. Cook's Class

I've decided to make the assignment a little easier for you. Look for your name below. Follow the directions and have your notes ready in class tomorrow morning.

Mai O, Patrice K, Lucas O read "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" by William Carlos Williams & "To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph" by Anne Sexton. Complete say-play-suggest (also called say-play-imply)*** notes for "Landscape" and TPCAST+Theme** notes for "To a Friend". You'll find directions for each type of notes below.

Clare P & Olivia D read "Musee des Beaux Arts" by WH Auden. Complete say-play-suggest (also called say-play-imply)*** and TPCAST+Theme** notes. You'll find directions for each type of note-taking below.

Jason C & Eleanor K read "Icarus" by Edward Field. Complete SOAPStone+Theme* and Say-Play-Suggest (also called say-play-imply)*** notes. Directions for the notes are below.

Maryka G & Shae L read "Waiting for Icarus" by Muriel Rukeyeser. Complete SOAPStone + Theme* and TPCAST + Theme** notes. You'll find directions below.

Sarah Z & Tucker H read "O Daedalus, Fly Away Home" by Robert Hayden. Complete SOAPStone+Theme* and TPCAST+Theme** notes. Directions are below.

* What are SOAPSTone + Theme notes?

SOAPSTone + Theme stands for "speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, subject, tone, and theme"
What does the poem state or imply about the speaker of the poem?
What does the poem state or imply about the occasion--the dramatic situation or circumstances--of the poem?
What does the poem state or imply about the audience for the poem?
What does the poem state or imply about the speaker of the poem?
What does the poem state or imply about the subject matter or topic of the poem?
What seems to be the tone of the poem? How do you know?
What themes are developed in the poem? How?

** What are TPCAST + Theme notes?

TPCAST + Theme stands for "Title, Paraphrase, Connotation, Attitude, Shift, Title again, and Theme"
Before reading the poem write down your first impressions of the title? What does the title suggest about the poem?
After reading the poem but before doing other analysis paraphrase the poem in your own words?
Now look at the images and suggestive word choices; what are the connotations of those images and word choices?
Now consider the attitude (tone!) of the poem. Ironic, wry, enthusiastic, celebratory, grave, weary, nostalgic, etc.
Look for a shift in the poem. It might be a dramatic turning point; it might be a shift in tone; it might be a shift in style or form.
Now look at the title again. What do you think about it now that you have studied the poem?
What themes are developed in the poem? How?

***What are say-play-suggest (also called say-play-imply) notes?

What does the poem literally say?

How does the poem play with language? (Consider figurative language, suggestive imagery, repeated sounds, line breaks, rhythmic patterns, other kinds of patterns (like extended metaphors, juxtapositions, etc.), placement of words on the page, slippery tone, shifts in narrative, style, form, etc.)

What does all the saying & playing in the poem suggest or imply?

I'm looking forward to our poem discussion tomorrow.

all the best,
Mr. James Cook

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (the rest...)

READ THIS!

Here's what you've already done:
For chapters IV (four) and V (five) you have annotated passages. Some of you have used the enotes link (over there in the right margin) to print out and write on passages. Some of you have written on post-it notes or scraps of paper in your books. Some of you have jotted notes on a separate sheet of paper. Whatever your method you have made observations related to literary elements--narration, style, characterization, imagery, allusions, etc.; the whole landscape of the text--and have speculated on connections between those elements--features of the landscape--and the development, effect, and meaning of the novel as a whole.

Here's what you need to do Wednesday night before pumpkin time:
Now we'd like you to write an explication (also called a "close reading") of a passage from chapter V. (Most of you will write about the passage you have already annotated; though some of you might have been inspired by something you heard in class.)

A friend, Mr. Ryan Gallagher at Malden (MA) High School, writes, "A passage explication is an essay that takes apart the pieces of a prose passage to demonstrate how it creates meaning [on its own and in relation to the rest of the work]. Its main question can be reduced to the simple idea of 'What does the passage mean? What is its purpose? How does it create that meaning and achieve its purpose? How does it fit in with the rest of the text (if available)?'"

A further note on the etymology of explication: in Latin explicare means "to unfold," so it might be useful to imagine Joyce's text as compressed (or folded) into a particularly dense and layered package of potential meaning.

Your job as an explicator is to unfold the densely layered mass, to report on what you discover as you unfold, and to speculate upon the significance of what you discover.

Another friend, Mr. John Brassil, an AP Language teacher in Maine who is active with the College Board, talks about "close reading" as walking through the landscape of a text. What do you notice? (What is odd? What is interesting? What's similar? What's different? What stands out? What blends in?) And then, what might be significant about what you've noticed in relation to the text as a whole (or, to extend the metaphor, the landscape as an ecosystem)? We recommend that you walk through the passage from beginning to end, commenting as you go about what you notice and how it might be significant.

Here's what you'll do next (by Tuesday, November 29):
Write an expository essay that develops your interpretation of how a particular thread that embodies a tension in A Portrait of the Artist is significant to the work as a whole. We'll get the prompt up here tomorrow.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (chapter two and three)

Write an analysis of the passage you were given from chapter two or three. Be thoughtful. Be thorough. Be specific. Be resourceful. Be inquisitive. Take intellectual risks. Explore.(Due by pumpkin time Tuesday, November 8.)

Modernist Music (etc.)

By pumpkin time on Monday develop an open response that addresses the relationship between the modernist (and other) music you have been exposed to and modernism (and/or other movements) in other arts (fiction, poetry, film, painting, sculpture, architecture, dance, photography, etc.). Here's a list of some of the composers you have heard: Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Stravinsky, Gershwin, Shostakovic, Ned Rorem (who composed the "Minotaur" and "Acrobat on a Ball"). I look forward to your responses.

[Music played in class: (1) Chopin: Nocturne #2, E flat (1830-40); (2) Liszt: Nuagis Gris (1881); (3) Debussy: from Prelude Book I (1910); (4) Stravinsky: from Rite of Spring (1913); (5) Shostakovic: String Quartet #8 (1960). Music played by the Hausmann Quartet in the auditorium: (1) Debussy: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10; (2) Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet; (3) Gershwin: Lullaby. In the library the Hausmann Quartet played pieces of music composed by Mozart and Debussy as well as the "Minotaur" and "Acrobat on the Ball" sections of a piece by Ned Rorem. What have I forgotten?]

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (chapter one)

Extend the class discussions about James Joyce's depiction of the developing consciousness of Stephen Dedalus' by explicating a single passage in chapter one. Be thoughtful. Be thorough. Be specific. Be resourceful. Be inquisitive. Take intellectual risks. Explore. (Mr. Telles and Mr. Cook have posted comments to help. A few of the student responses already posted also serve as effective models.)

Jane Eyre 28 to the End

Extend. Explore. Examine. Respond. Revisit. Revise. Analyze. Synthesize. Write.
Walk the landscape of the text. Dig into particulars. Muse on your findings. Put it together. Assert boldly.
As the Violent Femmes song goes, "Add it up! Add it up! Add it up!" 

Jane Eyre Chapters 17 through 27

Extend. Explore. Examine. Respond. Revisit. Revise. Analyze. Synthesize. Write.

Jane Eyre Chapters 1 through 16

Extend the class discussion.

Extending the Literary Analysis Web Discussions

By class time on Monday, September 12, write responses (each 300+ words in length) to the discussion of the two works that we studied this summer that you did not create a web for. (For example, if you wrote about Wide Sargasso Sea write one response that extends the discussion of Invisible Man and write another response that extends the discussion of Invisible Cities.)

Respond! Explore! Extend! Debate! Be resourceful. Try to move back and forth between general, overarching insights and specific textual analysis. Be resourceful! (What resources do you have? Your notes from class discussion about the webs. Your passage responses. The notes Mr. Telles posted after each summer session. Comments posted about the summer sessions. The novels themselves. Click on the following links for the significant excerpts from the novels available on Google Books: Invisible Cities, Invisible Man, Wide Sargasso Sea.)

Note:
In Mr. Cook's class we didn't get to talk about Invisible Cities so here are excerpts from the Invisible Cities webs.

"[Reading Invisible Cities] we start to question our understanding of what is real and what is unreal, and if there is a difference between them, or [if they're] just what we know already and what we [have] yet to know...Kublai didn't know if the cities existed, and neither did Marco, the only thing Marco knew was that the city he described to Kublai was a possible city that he could find. The author us[es] cities as a microcosm for alternate realities." 

Here are some supporting quotations:

"Futures not achieved are only branches of the past: dead branches."

"It is a city made only of expectations, exclusions, incongruities, contradictions. If such a city is the most improbable, by reducing the number of abnormal elements, we increase the probability that the city really exists. So I have only to subtract exceptions from my model, and in whatever direction I proceed, I will arrive at one of the cities which, always as an exception exists. But I cannot force my operation beyond a certain limit: I would achieve cities too probable to be real."

"[Kublai says] 'why do you speak to me of the stone? It is only the arch that matters to me.' [Polo answers] 'without stones there is no arch.'"

"[T]hose who strive in camps and ports exist only because we two think of them, here, enclosed among these bamboo hedges, motionless in time."

& an excerpt from another Invisible Cities web:

"The main themes that are mentioned are the value that each city holds, the support they have, the city's invisibility, the invisible cities made within Polo's mind that are then transformed into words for the Khan's ears. Throughout the whole book, Polo weaves words into his stories creating invisible cities inside the Khan's mind, allowing him to think of these cities as part of his empire, which he believes will perish at the end of his reign."

& here are a few more quotations: 

"'Memory's images, once they are fixed in words, are erased,' Polo said. 'Perhaps I am afraid of losing Venice all at once, if I speak of it. Or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little.'"

"And Polo answers, 'Travelling, you realize that differences are lost: each city takes to resemble all cities, places exchange their form, order distances, a shapeless dust cloud invades the continents. Your atlas preserves the differences in tact: that assortment of qualities which like are like the letters in a name.'"

"'This is the aim of my explorations: examining the traces of happiness still to be glimpsed, I gauge its short supply. If you want to know how much darkness there is around you, you must sharpen you eyes, peering at the faint lights in the distance.'"

"'I have also thought of a model city from which I deduce all the others,' Marco answered. 'It is a city made only of exceptions, exclusions, incongruities, contradictions.'"

Literary Analysis Web

Literary Analysis Web

Making meaning by relating the parts to the whole and the whole to the parts

The Process and the Question
In the last part of class your teachers introduced an assignment that addresses the questions: What could each of you do to show that you understand how the parts contribute to a whole? How can you show that a writer’s choices -- choices of individual events, of the order of events, of the (sometimes strange) descriptions and details, of the repeated images, of the characters and characterization, etc. -- fit together to suggest something the significance of the work as a whole?

You will answer these questions by creating a literary analysis web in response to Invisible Cities, Invisible Man, or Wide Sargasso Sea.

The Web, part one: the center
Each student will make a web. At the center of the web will be a robust paragraph (100 words to 300 words or so), explaining in your own words, your understanding of what the novel you’ve chosen is fundamentally all about. What exactly do you think the novel suggests?

(Hint: To begin thinking about the essential themes in the novels review your passage responses and the summaries of summer session discussions written by Mr. Telles.)

The "introductory" paragraph will explain your "big idea," your "bold, insightful assertion" about the novel's meaning. Spend some time with this. The GHS schoolwide rubric says that in order for such paragraphs to be considered proficient they must be clear, supportable, debatable, and insightful; the ones that are advanced will also be sophisticated and/or original . (Warning: Do not turn to the internet looking for an answer. Rely on your own interpretive skills, your own heart and mind. Each year several students ignore this warning and end up receiving no credit (0) for one or more summer reading assignment.)

The Web, part two: the threads
Then you will connect the central paragraph to interpretations of how at least four passages in the novel support your "big idea," your "bold assertion," your "central insight". Choose passages that show development over the course of the novel (beginning, middle, and end) as well as a range of choices made by the author that contribute to the novel’s development.  (Let me make it clear that four is a minimum and to create a thoroughly convincing web you might need to refer to more passages.)

These "interpretations" need to show two things: an understanding of the passage itself and an understanding of how the passage supports your "big idea," your central insight about the significance of the whole. How you show your understanding of the passage and your understanding of its connection with the "big idea" is up to you.

To show your understanding of a passage what will you do? Will you write a paragraph (in the manner of a standard essay) explaining how the passage supports the central paragraph? Will you quote the passage in one font and offer an explication (an unfolding of meaning) in relation to your big idea by using another font? Will you create a picture that shows an understanding of the passage (and its relationship with the central paragraph)? Will this picture show symbolic understanding as well as literal understanding of the passage?

To show the connections what will you do? Will you draw lines? Will each connecting line include a sentence linking the passage with the big idea? Will you use a "footnote" or "endnote" system in which you put numbers in your central paragraph that will lead to numbers which offer explanations of how passages support the central paragraph? Will you create Powerpoint slides to show connections?

And, finally, will you go beyond? Will you show not only how the big idea is connected with passages but also how the passages are connected with each other? What else might you do to show the relationship between the parts of the novel and your understanding of the whole?

Note:

I know some of you are thinking, just tell me what to do! This is too vague.

Part of AP English Lit & Comp is learning how to be a critical, creative, resourceful, and independent reader and writer. I want you to show me that you don't need to be led by the hand but can come up with appropriate, innovative solutions to challenges. In this case I've given you a few parameters (write a central assertion of a, connect that central assertion to an understanding of at least four passages). I've given you some examples of how you might complete the assignment. I've left the rest up to you.

The Web, part three: teaching your peers
You will be creating a physical object -- a web -- and you will be called upon to explain the web at some point during the second week of class.

Due Dates
The physical "web" in whatever form you create is due the Tuesday after Labor Day, September  6, 2011.
The "teaching your peers" part of the assignment will take place during the week of Tuesday, September 6 through Friday, September 9.

Grading
Advanced webs will offer an insightful, sophisticated, perhaps original understanding of the novel as a whole. This overall understanding will be linked to persuasive, nuanced understanding and interpretation of how at least four passages drawn from key moments throughout the novel support your understanding of the whole. These webs may go "beyond" the parameters of the assignment in some significant, meaningful way.

Proficient webs will offer a clear, thoughtful, plausible, understanding of the novel as a whole. This overall understanding will be linked to a reasonable understanding and interpretation of how at least four passages from the beginning, middle, and end of the novel contribute to the whole. The webs are generally considered to have succeeded in fulfilling the assignment but not to have exceeded expectations for a student entering an introductory college-level course at a competitive college or university.

Webs that need improvement may not offer a clear or plausible understanding of the novel as a whole. The central paragraph may point out themes but may not offer interpretation or insight as to the meaning of the themes in the novel. These webs refer to at least four passages but may not adequately show an understanding of the passage or of how the passage contributes to the work as a whole. The understanding and connection of some passages may be effective The passages may not be drawn from the beginning, middle, and end of the novel. In general these webs do not meet the expectations for a student entering an introductory college-level course at a competitive college or university.

Webs that receive warning status may include the weaknesses cited above but also fail to adhere to the basic parameters of the assignment. They may show little to no understanding of the novel or of the passages.

Any web that includes language or material taken directly from another source will receive a zero.

Wide Sargasso Sea

We began our discussion of Wide Sargasso Sea by noting that the book does not make it easy for the reader to become situated. The beginning of the novel is disorienting, and we need to be patient and look hard for cues about things like the socio-historical context of the book, narrative voice and the interrelationships between characters. We all agreed that this is a deliberate choice by the author, and started to explore other choices that Jean Rhys makes: for instance, moving the historical period of the book to post-emancipation (which is not exactly consistent with the period of Jane Eyre), deliberately delaying contextualization, and providing two principal narrative voices. How do these choices affect our understanding or experience of the novel as a whole?

As for themes, students identified issues of power and control were at work throughout the novel. Each character appears to be clinging to some means of power and trying to assert some control over their world, whether it be through money, mob strength, magic or cultural domination. Often these attempts at gaining power and control lead to deep entanglements and misunderstandings between characters, gulfs that they can not cross in order to truly connect with each other. Antoinette is problematic in regard to power and control, however, as it is not clear where she is drawing her power or by what means she is trying to control her experience (if she is at all). We noted that she is never at peace, and one student very shrewdly pointed out that she moves from one safe space to another, as each safe space is successively destroyed. Ultimately, she becomes attached to the latent sense of threat that she experiences on the island, although she is careful to point out that she feels at home within this feeling of dread or threat as long as it is divorced from people. Threat or menace from people or society is unbearable for her, but she can and must live within the threat from natural world of the island. Is this where she finds her power or control, living in the teeth of dread? Isn’t this paradoxical?

Another student noted a pattern of color in the book but was uncertain what to make of it. Mr. Cook and I appreciated that she brought this up, even tentatively. We have been encouraging students to make bold and pointed assertions about the books we’re reading, but we can not shy away from making tentative observations and allowing ourselves to spiral back through themes and ideas that we casually observe on our way to something we think is more substantial.

Another pressing question: why the return of Tia in the very last sentences of the book? What is it about this character that resonates so strongly in the book’s climactic moments?

This book will be crucial as we discuss Jane Eyre in the first semester. I have sent around an email with two due dates (one for the web assignment, one for your final independent reading) so please look closely at your email. Add a comment to this post if you were not able to get to the meeting, and we will be seeing you in a few days! Mr. Telles.