Historical Research Essay introduced, "Mitty" Revisited

English 11--Common Summative Assignment

Historical Research Essay

Prompt: Choose a significant moment in American History from before 1990.  Describe the historical background leading up to that moment, explain the significance of the moment itself, and trace the cultural implications since then.

Process Checklist (steps to be completed as the first portion of the assessment)

q  The nature of the topic is one that has cultural significance and researchable impacts and roots.

q  Topic is narrow enough for a 5 page paper, but broad enough to find sources.

q  (Following preliminary research) A thesis statement focuses on both causes and effects.

q  Five or more reliable and credible sources have been identified on an annotated source list that includes sufficient information needed for later MLA formatting.  District electronic databases (Gale, ProQuest, eLibrary) are used when appropriate to topic

q  Notes show evidence of summarizing, paraphrasing and direct quotations.

q  Note taking preserves the intent of the original text.

q  Notes provide sufficient information for a 5 page paper.

q  Proposed organization of the paper appears on an outline, graphic organizer or other means.

q  All drafts must be word-processed.

q  Thorough revision in drafting is evident in preliminary versions.

Deadlines:

o   On a note card:  Identify topic and five researchable questions (Due 1/7/14)

o   Research Process #1:  (Due 1/13/14)

o    Find and print (or record on Evernote) 4-5 sources.

o   Evidence of note taking (highlighting, summarizing, paraphrasing, etc.)

o   Annotated bibliography (Due 1/21/14)

o   Research Process #2:  (Due 1/21/14)

o   Define Cultural Significance of Topic

o   Graphic Organizer of paper structure

o   Research Process #3: (Due 1/27/14)

o   Formal Outline of Essay, including thesis statement (topic + cultural significance)

o   Work on Direct quotations or paraphrased information (with source designated) inserted into outline. (Due 2/3/14)

o   Research Process #4:  (Due 2/3/14)

o   Direct quotations or paraphrased information (with source designated) inserted into outline.

o   Works Cited Page (also include as final page of essay)

o   First draft of paper (peer edited)  (Submitted to turnitin.com by class time 2/10/14)

o   Second draft of paper (teacher edited) (Submit to turnitin.com by 2/14/14)

o   Final draft of paper (Submitted to turnitin.com by 2/24/14)

"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," James Thurber (782)

With a partner or group of three, choose one of the following options:

1.      Draw a comic strip representation of one or more of Mitty’s daydreams, including the events before and after the daydream.

2.      Prepare and perform a dramatic interpretation of part of the story (this could be acting it out, interpretive dance, song, etc.).

3.      Write an excerpt from “The Secret Life of Mrs. Mitty.” What might her daydreams include?

4.      Create another creative response you have approved by Ms Johnson.

Due by the end of class Friday, December 20.

Modern Poetry comics

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Receive books and reading assignment (Ch. 1-3 due Thursday, 1/9)
• Assign Chapter Experts presentations

Modern Poetry Final Activity
Go to stripgenerator.com and click on Create New Strip.

Create a comic strip version of one of these poems (click on the link to see the full text):
"Images" by Richard Aldington
"The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot
"The Garden" by Ezra Pound
"The River-Merchant's Wife: a Letter" by Ezra Pound
"The Emperor of Ice-Cream" by Wallace Stevens
"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens
"Poetry" by Marianne Moore
"hate blows a bubble of despair" by E.E. Cummings
"Doveglion" by E.E. Cummings
"but the other" by E.E. Cummings
"because i love you" by E.E. Cummings
"Morning at the Window" by T.S. Eliot
"Hysteria" by T.S. Eliot
"A Girl" by Ezra Pound
"An Immorality" by Ezra Pound

Assignment:

• Choose the number of frames for your comic strip to best reflect your poem.
• You must include the text of the full poem in your comic strip.
• You are not required to have characters speaking the lines--it could be a nature scene with no characters and only the text.
• Remember, these poets are striving to create a clear, specific image in the minds of the reader. This is what you should do when creating this strip. The image needs to be central in its connection to the text.
• PRINT your poem comic strip when you finish.

"This Is Just to Say," William Carlos Williams

W.C. Williams

Read the three William Carlos Williams poems in the textbook (or click on the titles):

"The Red Wheelbarrow" (667)

"The Great Figure" (668)

"This Is Just to Say" (669)

Does Williams conform to the rules of Imagism as set out by Amy Lowell (see handout from yesterday, or this link)? Give examples of places where he does or does not follow these rules.

In a small group, read the poem you are assigned by Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, E.E. Cummings, Marianne Moore, or Wallace Stevens. 

Modern Poetry Small Group Assignment:

For your poem,

1. Describe the narrative situation of your poem(s).
2. Identify/describe each of these following devices for your poem(s).  Include the line(s) as examples.
1. Tone
2. Imagery
3. Symbols
4. Metaphor/Simile
3. Describe why your poet fits into (or differs from) the Modernist movement.  Discuss their use of free verse, imagism, symbolism, etc.  Refer to specific information from the Introduction(645-647) of from "Preface to Some Imagist Poets" where possible.

T.S. Eliot

Read "Preface to Some Imagist Poets" by Amy Lowell. Pay particular attention to the six rules Lowell sets out for Imagist poetry. As we read other Imagist poetry, consider whether each poem follows these rules.

T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (657 or follow this link)

• Read the poem twice. The first time, try to get a sense of the events Prufrock narrates as he moves through the streets, occasionally distracted by other thoughts or sights. The second time, pay particular attention to the references and figurative language Eliot includes. What purpose do these serve?
• How does the famous simile in lines 2-3 reveal that the speaker's mind or will is paralyzed?
• What is the speaker inviting someone to do in lines 1-12? What is suggested by the images of the place they are going to travel through?
• In lines 15-25, we have one of the most famous extended metaphors in modern poetry. What is being indirectly compared to what? How many details extend the metaphor?
• The self-consciousness of the speaker is nowhere more evident than in lines 37-44. What do you think he is self-conscious and worried about in these lines?
• What does line 51 imply about the way Prufrock has lived? What other measuring devices would suggest a different kind of life?
• How are the setting and people described in lines 70-72 different from those familiar to Prufrock? What might this experience with another segment of city life tell us about Prufrock?
• In lines 73-74, the speaker creates a metaphor to dramatize pointed his alienation from the rest of the world. Can you explain why Prufrock thinks he should have been a clawed creature on the floor of the sea?
• Read lines 120-125 closely. Explain how the speaker sees his role in life. Do you think he has overcome his doubts?
• In lines 125-128, the speaker thinks that the mermaids are indifferent to him, yet he is held by this romantic vision. Why might he be so fascinated by these mythological creatures, and what might they represent for him? Why does he believe they will not sing to him?
• By means of paraphrase, restate the meaning of lines 129-131. When "human voices wake us," what do we "drown" in?
• Think about this poem as a journey, a quest that begins with an invitation to join the man who makes it. In your opinion what has the journey led us to?

Writing:

• Write a dramatic monologue spoken by someone who wants to invite another person to go somewhere. Let your monologue reflect the random process of the speaker's thoughts. Try to find images that suggest the speaker's feelings and states of mind. Open with Eliot's words: "Let us go then, you and I."

Modern Poetry, Ezra Pound

Read introduction to Modern Poetry in textbook (645).

Ezra Pound

"The River-Merchant's Wife: a Letter" & "The Garden"

• Read "The River-Merchant's Wife: a Letter". Summarize the events of each of the first four stanzas.
• In line 25, the speaker says "They hurt me." Who is the "they" and why would they cause the speaker pain?
• Read "The Garden". What does the simile in line 1, comparing the woman to a loose skein of silk, say about her? What conclusions can a reader draw?
• How does the image in the second stanza directly contrast the image in the first?
• There are two definite characters in the poem, the woman and the speaker. Pound, however, is making a broader statement on the world here. What is that broader statement he is making in this poem?
• Read "A Few Don'ts for Imagistes" by Ezra Pound." Practice following the rules for poetry he sets out by writing your own imagist poem. Choose a topic about which you feel strongly (you could use one of the topics in Pound's poems: need for human contact, lost love, social classes, etc., or choose your own). Next, choose a concrete image that could convey an idea about this idea. Write a poem connecting this idea with the concrete image; it could be as short as "In the Station of the Metro" or longer like "The Garden" or "The River-Merchant's Wife: a Letter".

Read the poem "Images" by Richard Aldington.

• Identify the main image in each stanza.
• What theme is developed through each separate image? 

Hemingway Lit Analysis Essay

IMC Work Time on Hemingway Literary Analysis Essay. 

To see the assignment, look at Wednesday, Dec. 11.

Essay must be submitted by 11:59:59 pm on Wednesday, Jan. 8. Submit to turnitin.com.

Hemingway, cont. Lit Analysis Essay intro

Read "Big Two-Hearted River: Part II" and then answer the following questions.

1. How is “Big Two-Hearted River: Part One” different from Part Two? Why did Hemingway write them separately? 
2. How is Nick Adams (Hemingway Hero) a good example of characteristics of Modernism? 
3. What traits of Romanticism/Transcendentalism are also present in this story? 
4. How does the setting establish the atmosphere? How is the atmosphere of Part I different from Part II? 
5. Metaphor: (select one of the sections listed below) 

• Write a brief summary 
• Identify what Hemingway might be using as a metaphor in your section

Sections of "Big Two-Hearted River: Part II"

• Preparing to fish—p. 145-p. 147, par 3
• Fishing, scene 1—p. 147, par 4-p. 149, par 3
• Fishing, scene 2—p. 147, par 5-p. 151, par 1
• Fishing, scene 3—p. 151, par 2-p. 152, par 4
• Fishing, scene 4—p. 152, par 5-p. 154, par 4
• Conclusion—p. 154, par 5-end

Hemingway Literary Analysis Essay

Assignment: Write an essay in which you explain how Nick Adams is a typical Hemingway Hero and, as such, is a representative of the ideas of Modernism.  Refer to class handouts/questions and include examples from the short stories to support your answer. Use specific examples from at least three short stories, including quotations and page numbers.

Tips for writing your essay:

• Quotations should not float as their own, separate sentences. Embed them into your sentences.
• Follow this format for punctuation around parenthetical citations:

Hemingway shows the disillusionment of Modernism in the setting of “Big Two-Hearted River.” When Nick arrives at the town of Seney, he finds “no town, nothing but the rails and the burned-over country” (133).

• Write in PRESENT TENSE, not past. (See the quotation example above)
• Refer to the author by his full name or last name only. You may refer to characters within the text by first name only.
•  Do not use first-person (I, me, we, us) or second-person (you) pronouns in your essay. Use only third-person pronouns (he, she, they, one).

Essay must be submitted to turnitin.com by 11:59:59pm on Wednesday, Jan. 8.

Structure of the Essay:

I. Introduction

• Attention-getter. (Hook the reader, reel them in. See what I did there? It’s a fishing metaphor)
• Thesis. Include the author’s full name and the title of the book.

Example: In his collection of short stories In Our Time, Ernest Hemingway develops Nick Adams as the typical Hemingway Hero.

• Preview (Three) Main Points.

II. Body of Essay

• Paragraph 2 – First Characteristic of Hemingway Hero
• Explain the characteristic AND how it reflects ideas of Modernism.
• Example from one story (including quotation and page number)
• Example from second story (including quotation and page number)
• Paragraph 3 – Second Characteristic of Hemingway Hero
• Explain the characteristic AND how it reflects ideas of Modernism.
• Example from one story (including quotation and page number)
• Example from second story (including quotation and page number)
• Paragraph 4 – Third Characteristic of Hemingway Hero
• Explain the characteristic AND how it reflects ideas of Modernism.
• Example from one story (including quotation and page number)
• Example from second story (including quotation and page number)

III. Conclusion

• Restate thesis (in different words), including recap of three main points.
• Final thought (connecting Nick Adams to Modernism, or the Hemingway Hero to Modernism, or Hemingway to Modernism).

Hemingway, cont.

Finish describing Nick Adams as Hemingway Hero from yesterday.

Remember, for each of the seven characteristics listed, you need to include two examples--from two different stories--with page numbers. Each story must be used once in the answers.

Settings: Hemingway also uses setting to indicate something about the characters or the events of each of his stories. For example, look at the opening of "The End of Something" from In Our Time.

"In the old days Hortons Bay was a lumbering town. No one who lived in it was out of sound of the big saws in the mill by the lake. Then one year there were no more logs to make lumber. The lumber schooners came into the bay and were loaded with the cut of the mill that stood stacked in the yard. All the piles of lumber were carried away. The big mill building had all its machinery that was removable taken out and hoisted on board one of the schooners by the men who had worked in the mill. The schooner moved out of the bay toward the open lake carrying the two great saws, the travelling carriage that hurled the logs against the revolving, circular deep load of lumber. Its open hold covered with canvas and lashed tight, the sails of the schooner filled and it moved out into the open lake, carrying with it everything that had made the mill a mill and Hortons Bay a town. 

The one-story bunk houses, the eating-house, the company store, the mill offices, and the big mill itself stood deserted in the acres of sawdust that covered the swampy meadow by the shore of the bay. 

Ten years later there was nothing of the mill left except the broken white limestone of its foundations showing through the swampy second growth as Nick and Marjorie rowed along the shore." (31)

How does Hemingway mirror the later events in the story with this opening description of Hortons Bay?


Pay special attention to both the characteristics of the Hemingway Hero and the setting as you read "Big Two-Hearted River: Part I" today (133).

Hemingway, cont.

“Indian Camp” (15-19)

“The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife” (23-27)

“The End of Something” (31-35)

“The Three-Day Blow” (39-49)

“The Battler” (53-62)

Nick Adams is the typical Hemingway Hero.  Use these five short stories to give examples of each of the Hero’s characteristics. You need two examples for each question from two different stories. Reference specific story titles and events with page numbers in your answer, and you must refer to each story at least once.

1.       Physically or emotionally wounded.

2.       Alienated from traditional beliefs, values, and  relationships; a loner

3.       Believes world is filled with tragedy and irony (pain, loss, violence, death)

4.       Forced into heroic roles, does not volunteer, does not see self as heroic

5.       Master of sport, soldiering, and traditional male pursuits; finds beauty and solace in sport and its rituals; finds reward in having done a job well

6.       Ultimate goal:  show “grace under pressure,” face danger or death without cracking, complete the job capably

7.       Common metaphors symbolizing the hero’s quest: fishing, hunting, bullfighting

Ernest Hemingway Intro

Review the Elements of Modernism from the textbook (639)--these should be in your notes.

Add to your notes characteristics of the Hemingway Hero from the PowerPoint in class.

Read "Soldier's Home" and "Indian Camp" in In Our Time. Answer the following questions:

1. How does Harold Krebs demonstrate the characteristics of the Hemingway Hero?
2. What is the theme of "Soldier's Home"? What effect does the war have on young soldiers?
3. How does Nick Adams demonstrate the characteristics of the Hemingway Hero (or how do you think he will in the future, based on the events in "Indian Camp")?

Realism Skills Review

Complete the Realism Skills Review in the textbook on pp. 624-29.

Read the Modernism Intro. in the textbook.

Answer the following questions:

• How does the text define the American Dream?
• What happened to the American Dream during the Modern Era?
• How did art and literature change in the period of Modernism?

Realism Review

Read and answer the following questions from the story/poems:
“A Pair of Silk Stockings” by Kate Chopin (570)

Contemporary Connection: “Now and Then, America” by Pat Mora (576)
“Douglass” by Paul L. Dunbar (598)
“We Wear the Mask” by Paul L. Dunbar (599)

1.       Dunbar and Chopin both present admirable characters in “Douglass” and “A Pair of Silk Stockings” What similarities do you see between Mrs. Sommers and Frederick Douglass?

2.      A feminist critic might say “A Pair of Silk Stockings” is about a woman who is striving to gain personal freedom and identity. A Marxist critic might say it is about the class struggle. The critic Barbara C. Ewell writes, “The power of money to enhance self-esteem and confidence is the core of this poignant tale.” Which critic do you agree with, if any?

3.      Both Chopin and Pat Mora write about escape, freedom, identity, and individuality. Compare and contrast the two writers’ attitudes toward these themes. What kinds of images do they use to convey their messages? What comment on life is each making?

4.      In his poems “Douglass” and “We Wear the Mask,” Dunbar focuses on the struggles of African Americans to achieve equality.  What is Dunbar saying about the prospects for African Americans to be treated fairly?

5.      How do these three works reflect the elements of Realism (see list on p. 457)? Your answer should include the short story and examples from each poem.

Beginning English 11B

Syllabus excerpts:

Course Description

            In English 11, the major focus is American Literature, but aspects of both literature and composition will be covered.  Students will develop their writing skills by using a writing process to complete multi-paragraph essays that attend to purpose, audience, development, structure, and style.  Students will also continue to refine their research, documentation, and persuasion skills. Students will use their knowledge and understanding of literary techniques and rhetorical devices to comprehend, respond to, interpret, and evaluate fiction and non-fiction selections.  

In addition to the history of American Literature and the traditional canon that expresses the shifts in our culture, the Grade 11 curriculum provides a clear presentation of the importance of marginalized cultures.  As a way to help students identify with all dimensions of the American literary culture, the curriculum will begin with an initial assignment to explore the dreams Americans possess by examining some important values in contemporary America.  After initial work with contemporary culture, each of the collections will include work which asks students to explore the “dreams” of members of the primary literary movement and those of members of marginalized cultures of the period as demonstrated in their writings.

Units of Study:

Tri B

• The Moderns:  1914-1939
• Contemporary Literature:  1939-Present
• Research Writing; Research; MLA style/citation; Synthesis; On-Demand Writing

Course Outcomes:

Literary Skills:  Students will be able to identify and analyze the elements of literature, style, figurative language, and rhetorical devices; they will understand and apply techniques of persuasion; they will identify and analyze several genres of literature; and they will identify and interpret elements of poetry and poetic sound techniques.

Critical Lenses:  Students will use the Reader Response, Historical/Biographical, and Cultural lenses (among others) to respond to, evaluate, and interpret literature.

Writing Skills:  Students will use a writing process including multiple drafts, revision, and editing skills to reach a final product; they will write and speak in a variety of genres and for multiple purposes; they will use an expanded research process to find and analyze sources, work with online libraries and search engines, create a hierarchy of ideas, and refine a thesis; students will use appropriate support and evidence, create coherence through effective organization and transitions, effectively use reflection, and will meet specific criteria of MLA format in style and citations.

Speaking Skills: Students through seminar, will learn to have thoughtful interchanges with classmates. Students will respectfully listen to the thoughts of others and effectively share their own interpretations of complex texts to better understand the complexities of fiction and non-fiction and gather meaning. Students will also utilize effective delivery during their speeches.

Grammar/Vocabulary Skills:  Students will learn and appropriately apply (or avoid) parallel structure, passive voice, antecedents, subordinating conjunctions, sentence combining, and subordinate clauses.  Vocabulary instruction will be combined with literature.

Introductory Writing Assignment:

Choose one of the following topics:

1. Write about an object owned and valued by you or by some member of your family. Your mother may own a wicker basket brought from Hungary by her grandmother in 1822. Your brother might think his arrowhead collection is the most magical thing in his life. Your father may have saved a battered trumpet he played in a high school marching band. Your job is to look at the object, perceive it physically (sight, smell, touch, taste, sound), and to write about its special history or meaning. Lead the reader toward an insight or understanding of its emotional or personal significance.
2. Recall a particularly good or bad experience in your life caused by a single event (perhaps the night you went camping in Oregon or the summer afternoon you spent shopping with your Italian aunt). Look in detail at all the sensory elements that return to your memory. Re-create the experience in such a way that the reader can see, hear, and feel the whole of it. At the end, reflect on the significance of the experience today (which might be different than how you felt about it at the time).

This essay must be submitted by class time on Monday, Dec. 9. Submit all essays online to turnitin.com.