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Sample analysis based on an example unit question for Macbeth:
Question: How does prophecy or the idea of fate affect the choices that people make? In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the protagonist, Macbeth, exemplifies the idea that a naïve belief in prophecies can rob a person of the ability to make his or her own choices. In Act 2, scene 1, Macbeth and his wife discuss murdering King Duncan. While Macbeth continues to have his doubts about killing Duncan, he envisions a dagger leading him to perform the first step of the prophecy. Macbeth asks, “Is this a dagger which I see before me,/…/I have thee not, and yet I see thee still” (2.1.33-36), and although the dagger does not actually exist, it acts as a reminder of the prophecy and also guides him on the path that he feels he must take in order to become king. Macbeth does not, for a moment, believe that he has free will and is willing to follow the imaginary path of a hallucinated dagger rather than choose not to do so.
June 13, 2018
Today we finished Macbeth! You were also told about your final project. Starting tomorrow is a work block; however, I do want to talk to you about how to structure and answer your in-class paragraph response.
June 12, 2018
Today we read up to 5.3! Tomorrow we will finish the play and will discuss your final project. June 11, 2018
Today you wrote your Act 1 and 2 quiz. We also listened up to about line 65 (88 for period 2) of Act 4, Scene 2. As discussed, while I won't be providing you paper copies of the handouts, the PDF version of the comprehension questions are available here and will stay until we finish the semester. Come see me if you have questions about the handout. Continue to keep your own notes as we listen and read in class together.
June 8, 2018
Today we finished Act 3 and did some review for your Act 1+2 quiz coming up on Monday. Review for the quiz using the handouts that I gave you and the notes that you took whenever I stopped the audio to clarify the text. Next week is the last week we'll have the textbooks - they need to go back to get re-bound. 15th is the last day to have the books. June 6, 2018
Today we read 3.1 and some of you performed your pair dialogues today. Reminder that tomorrow is the last day to do partner dialogues AND that it is Grassroots day, which means that you will have 45-minute classes. We will finish Act 3 on Friday and probably do some quick review for your Act 1 + 2 quiz on Monday.
June 5, 2018
Today we finished all of Act 2. As a class, both periods decided to have their Act 1-2 quiz on Monday, June 11. June 4, 2018
Today we went over the answers for 1.7 and we listened to the audio for 2.1. HW for tomorrow: finish the comprehension questions for 2.1
June 1, 2018
Today we went over the reading comprehension package and stopped at Act 1, scene 6. HW for Monday: finish the table for Act 1, scene 7. Monday will be homework check, going over the end of Act 1, and we will start Act 2.
May 30, 2018
Today we finished our intro to Macbeth. Here it the BBC Radio link for the play. Beware that some scenes are intentionally cut. *** DO NOT LEAVE WITH THE BOOKS. The texts need to remain in the class as both periods share them. I have signed out period 2's books since we ran out of time today. *** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljZrf_0_CcQ
May 16, 2018
Today you were given Frost's "Acquainted with the Night". You were also given your first audio dialectical journal assignment. Make sure your answers for questions 1-6 are done for Thursday. I won't go over them with you, but you need these answers to discuss with a partner. Your audio and journal is due on Tuesday, May 22. Here is help in case you don't know how to write your dialectical journal: May 09, 2018
Today we started Naomi Shihab-Nye's "So Much Happiness".
May 07, 2018
Today we started our poetry unit. For many of you, you're missing pages from the glossary that I handed out, so I will be providing those missing pages on Tuesday - not actual booklets. The complete glossary PDF is linked at the bottom of this post. We also started learning about poetry analysis using TPCASTT, which will be linked below as a file. We also started Margaret Atwood's "A Sad Child". For tomorrow, have your annotations and the summary of each stanza completed. We'll work on the rest in class tomorrow. There is a poetic terms quiz on Friday. It will be a mixture of multiple choice, matching, and fill in the blanks. *** quizzable devices: alliteration, allusion, apostrophe, assonance, caesura, connotation, denotation, epic, exact rhyme, end rhyme, figurative language, iambic, image, imagery, internal rhyme, irony, lyric, metaphor, metre, mood, overstatement, personification, rhyme scheme, rhythm, simile, sonnet, stanza, symbol, tone, understatement ***
April 27, 2018
Congratulations on finishing your final lit circle discussion! Some of you have already started planning for your essay, so again, please feel free to come and show me your outlines and thesis statements to make sure that you're on the right track. We will be getting laptops in the class on Tuesday (May 1) and Wednesday (May 2) next week. If you have your own tech, you are more than welcome to bring yours for the entirety of the coming week. We worked on thesis statements and conclusions today and the PDF is posted below. You will receive paper copies of this handout on Monday.
April 26, 2018
Here is the marking rubric for your lit circle essay. You must also hand in your outline and edited rough draft.
April 25, 2018
Today we spent some time discussing your upcoming essay. Below is the PowerPoint that I used to help you. I would encourage you to write an outline and come sit with me to discuss whether or not it will work. I will not read rough drafts, but I am happy to help make sure that your outline works.
April 12, 2018
Period 1: Today we set up our group blogs. Thanks to those of you who already emailed me your URL. I will be posting the URLs here when I receive all of them. Tomorrow is our first discussion, so be ready with your roles done. April 11, 2018
Period 1: come to class for attendance FIRST, and then we will all go to the library at around 8:45. Those of you who are late should come straight to the library. Period 2: Thursday is your first discussion; however, I will give you the first 25-30 minutes of class to finish any last-minute reading or preparation for lit circles discussion. This class is also missing students due to the band/choir trip, so I will be sitting in with these particular groups a little longer than when I visit the rest of you.
April 9, 2018
Today we started lit circles. You know your groups and you exchanged contact information already. Please remember that we meet on Tuesday and Friday for group discussion. Tomorrow being Tuesday, we are NOT meeting for discussion; instead, you will be reading and working on collecting information for your role. On Wednesday, we will be setting up group blogs - hopefully! Those of you leaving on the band trip this week, remember to arrange things with your group so that you are not left out on Friday. *** I did say that you could switch groups, but only if you find someone to exchange books with so that you aren't throwing off the number of students per group. Also, you are responsible for any catch up in that group - you will not be exempt from a role just because you joined later - and the group will not change the length of their previously determined sections just to accommodate you joining the group. *** Here are the groups as determined: April 3, 2018
Welcome back! You were shown your marks in class today. If you have any work that needs to be handed in or in-class writing to be done, that work MUST be done before the end of this week. You need to arrange make-up dates with me - I will not chase you around for your work. Anything not done or handed in by Friday will result in a zero (0) for that assignment. Here is the PDF for your short story group project.
Anyone writing an essay, PLEASE double space your work.
March 13, 2018
I will be away tomorrow and have left instructions with a TOC. You are to use the block to work on your group project. Anyone who is not yet in a group must find one on their own. Anyone who still has not done in-class writing for me needs to email me to schedule an alternate make-up date for it. March 11, 2018
Remember that Monday is catch-up day for anyone who has not yet done one of the three in-class writing assignments. Period 1: #428600 (char. analysis + theme paragraph), #839898 (theme), #563819 (theme), #549300 (theme), #2192704 (theme), #665957 (theme), #407295 (theme), and #470520 (theme) Period 2: #839485 (theme), #694133 (char analysis + theme), #1566672 (theme), #694139 (theme), and #941363 (theme) You will get to see your mark in class tomorrow. For now, here is a list of work that I do not have from you. For some of you, it might have been that you kept your dialectical journals and didn't give them back to me, so I was unable to input the mark. Anyone with ABS(absent)/NHI(not handed in)/DND(did not do)/[blank], you have the option of handing these assignments in so long as they accompany a note from a parent/guardian that explain or excuse the missing work. March 9, 2018
For those of you who have NOT yet written your in-class assignments, next Monday is the day to do them! Requirements for the unit project (more added next week):
March 7, 2018
In a well-crafted paragraph with evidence from the text, write a double-spaced piece of writing that answers the following question: What does King try to convey to readers about communication, parent-child relationships, or identity? Choose one of the topics and then choose either “Borders” or “Trap Lines” to discuss how King achieves this message. Here are sample answers for the transitions that we worked on at the beginning of class: …using his will to disown certain people and give favour to others; however, Gramps does care about his family Despite acting as though he has total power over his family, Gramps stages his own death and changes his will to benefit his family because he cares about them. Gramps is actually caring… …yet is actually quite soft; moreover, she has certain expectations and demands them from those around her. At one point, Jakob used a coupon to buy a Hawaiian pizza from Pizza Hut, which he ate for dinner.
Harriet and Alan, who everyone called the perfect couple last year, broke up just before Christmas because Harriet got too friendly with Marcus. Last year’s perfect couple, Harriet and Alan, broke up just before Christmas because Harriet got too friendly with Marcus. Mr. Macgoo, an unmarried and stingy millionaire who wants to hold on to his fortune, will leave his estate to his kind and hard-working nephew William, the only one of his nephews that he likes.
March 5, 2018
I have made note of who submitted their second dialectical journals today. Those of you who are handing in the journals late and have not received an extension will get a grade but no comments or explanation for your mark. On Thursday, you will have an in-class writing assignment and you will be asked to write a theme paragraph. The following is an example of what you should aim for to start your theme paragraph. You are, of course, allowed to use a hook prior to introducing the work and author. March 1, 2018
Remember that most, if not all future collab Wednesdays will be dedicated to grammar. Your second dialectical journal for "Borders" is due Monday, March 5. Please remember to hand in a hard copy if you typed your work.
February 27, 2018
Thank you to those of you who handed in your dialectical journal today - I will be more lenient in marking your work. The rest of you must hand in your work tomorrow at the start of the block. If you typed your work, I will only accept printed copies, so print before you get to class. February 26, 2018
Your dialectical journal for "Trap Lines" is due tomorrow before the end of class.
February 22, 2018
Tomorrow is the day to finish your "Trap Lines" worksheet. *** those who have NOT yet written the in-class character analysis for either Sylvia or Doctor Remenzel, you will do it in class on Friday, Feb.23. *** If you have not yet written "The Lie" quiz, you NEED to do it this week or you will not do it at all - we are going over it together as a class on Friday.
February 20, 2018
You will do an in-class write up about either Sylvia or Doctor Remenzel. No silent reading - we will start as soon as we can. What you are allowed to bring in: PERIOD 1 class analysis on Eli:
In Vonnegut’s short story, “The Lie”, Eli is powerless, coddled, and unintelligent. In the beginning of the story, readers find out that the Remenzel family is driving to enroll Eli at Whitehill Academy, a prep school for boys. Eli comes from a long line of successful Remenzel men who previously attended Whitehill and it is this expectation, the fact that “Doctor Remenzel and his wife had no doubts whatsoever about their son’s getting into Whitehill” (244), that make him powerless to choose his own education. His mother, Sylvia, even tells Eli that she and her husband “have always made [him] feel that he had to go to Whitehill, that nothing else would do” (251), and this constant expectation and pressure to meet standards is what causes Eli to lie to his parents about the rejection letter. However, Sylvia, in particular, treats Eli in ways that he cannot help but lie - she babies and spoils him, and even tells her husband that she “wants Eli to have a room with a fireplace” at Whitehill despite the fact that he would be a freshman and cannot choose his own room (241). Moreover, Sylvia knows about Eli’s progress in primary school and seems to overlook the fact that acceptance into Whitehill requires nothing but intelligence. Eli, however, is a boy whose grades in elementary school “[ranged] from medium to terrible” (249); therefore, he “cannot possibly do the work that is required of Whitehill” (250), which is written in a rejection letter from the school’s Headmaster. This letter is the same one that Eli throws away because he thinks his parents will be upset with him. In the end, the family suffers a sense of shame, not for Eli’s lie, but the fact that Doctor Remenzel tried to use his connections to get Eli accepted into a school even though he is incapable of meeting the academic standards. Eli’s lack of power inevitably makes it impossible to attend Whitehill like the Remenzel men before him, but it is also his lack of intelligence and the fact that he is coddled which all work together to make him an undesirable candidate for such a prestigious school. PERIOD 2 class analysis of Eli:
In Vonnegut’s short story, “The Lie”, Eli is powerless, unintelligent, and coddled. In the beginning of the story, readers find out that the Remenzel family is driving to enroll Eli at Whitehill Academy, a prep school for boys. Eli comes from a long line of successful Remenzel men, and his parents “had no doubts whatsoever about their son’s getting into Whitehill” and that “nothing else would do” (244, 251). His parents have clear expectations for Eli, and they have already planned his future, which leaves him powerless to make his own decisions. Despite the fact that Eli is unable to make his own decisions, his lack of knowledge prevents him from achieving the goals that his parents set for him, which is to go to Whitehill. Eli happens to be a boy whose grades in elementary school “[ranged] from medium to terrible” (249); therefore, he “cannot possibly do the work that is required of Whitehill” (250), which is written in a rejection letter from the school’s Headmaster. This letter is the same one that Eli throws away because he thinks his parents will be upset with him. Although Eli does poorly in school, his parents do not see this as an issue, especially, his mother, Sylvia, who babies and spoils Eli. She even tells her husband that she “wants Eli to have a room with a fireplace” at Whitehill despite that fact that he would be a freshman and cannot choose his own room (241). Even though the lie is revealed at the end, Sylvia continues to coddle Eli and “cr[ies], thinking of the hideous trap that Eli had caught himself in” (250). At the end of the story, readers realise that Eli truly does not fit into Whitehill because his parents raised him to have no sense of power or intelligence, and they have smothered him to the point that he chooses to lie instead of face the truth. Sample character analysis paragraph from Ms. D'Angelo on Charlotte's mother from "The Metaphor"
thesis statement conclusion point 1: idealistic point 2: manipulative point 3: arrogant In Budge Wilson's short story, "The Metaphor", Charlotte's mother is idealistic, manipulative, and arrogant. To Charlotte's mother, everything in her life, from her home to her daughter, must be perfect. Her house is scrubbed clean of any possible dirt, and everything is perfectly in its proper position. As a teenager, Charlotte is forced to put away everything after its use. Looking around, Charlotte sees that "the hall table [is] polished, antique, perfect" and that the tiled floor "[shines] in the sunlight" so brightly that it seems "unmarked by any sign of human contact" (Wilson 70). Charlotte's mother is manipulative, and she is capable of controlling what Charlotte does, not by force, but by simply convincing her to do so in a sweet tone of voice. At an earlier age, Charlotte takes out her toys to play with them, but her mother convinces her otherwise. She tells Charlotte, "I'm sure... that you don't want to have those blocks all over the carpet. Why not keep them all in one spot, over here behind Daddy's chair?" (72). Charlotte obeys and moves herself and her toys. The most negative quality about Charlotte's mother is her arrogance. Believing that she is superior to everyone, she openly criticises Miss Hancock's appearance and personality. Even after Miss Hancock's death, Charlotte's mother claims that "[Miss Hancock] got exactly what she deserved" (80). Charlotte's mother is so concerned with the flawlessness of her own life, and she is so controlling of her daughter's actions, that she has become uncaring. She lacks empathy for others, which is why her relationship with Charlotte is not a loving one. February 19, 2018
11s, you will probably get your quizzes back on Wednesday. HW DUE TUESDAY: the character analysis work sheet + make sure you have quotes and/or references to the text for your descriptions of Doctor Remenzel, Sylvia, and Eli. We will be writing a character analysis paragraph on Eli as a class, and then you will do one EITHER on Sylvia or Doctor Remenzel. ** to prepare further, you may want to take a look at paragraph #3 on the worksheet from today and try to take it apart to see what makes it work as a paragraph that analyses a character. **
February 15, 2018
We have a reading quiz on "The Lie" on Monday. Anyone who did not do the in-class writing assignment MUST come to B318 (your normal period 1/2 EN11 class) at lunch to write. This is the only time that will work for most students. We may be able to send you to the learning centre so that, in case you need more time, you can stay there to finish February 14, 2018
The work ethic today was not there for both classes. Remember that your handout for "The Lie" is due BEFORE class tomorrow. HOWEVER. We are going to be attending a performance in first period in the library. Come to class where I will take attendance and then we will head over to the library as a group. Try not to be late. Second period, we will be doing the same. Here is the link to tomorrow's guest: http://www.ivancoyote.com/ Please remember to be respectful of them. That means no phones allowed, and basically don't act like Charlotte's classmates! February 13, 2018
Good job doing your first in-class writing assignment! I hope to get them marked and back to you by next Monday at the latest. You will have time in class tomorrow to work on the questions, but we will also be doing some further work on the story. Make sure you've read the story for Wednesday!
In-class writing topic changed!
>> What is the biggest issue at the school? What could have been done or what needs to be improved within the school community? Make reference to the text, although quotations are not required. << Here is an example of what I created for my role as the principal. You DO need at least a few quotes to support what you've decided to create for your character.
February 8, 2018
Today was Day 1 of our process drama. You should have received a role and most of you finished creating your character. In case you forget your role or what you need to do, here is the character assignment. Tomorrow, you will get between 5-10 minutes to prepare.
February 6, 2018
FOR WEDNESDAY: Try to have at least half of the worksheet done. You will get the first half of Wednesday's block to finish.
February 5, 2018
FOR TUESDAY: Choose FIVE people in your life. They can be family, friends, classmates, coworkers, or anyone you interact with on a regular basis. February 2, 2018
Today we finished reading "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" and we also worked on comprehension questions for the story. These questions should be completed for Monday as preparation for discussion.
February 1, 2018
EN11 AM classes - We read up to the 3-dot divider on page 320 of "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" today. Your job tonight is to make your own vocabulary list. If there are words that you don't know in the story, keep a list of them and learn the definitions so that you understand what you're reading. You are free to start Freytag's Pyramid for the story so far. You can also read ahead if you like. EN11 PM - we will start our story on Friday.
January 31, 2018
Your About Me poster and written work is due at the beginning of class on February 1, 2018. Wednesday is your last work block. On Thursday, we will start our short story unit. January 29, 2018
Welcome to English 11! Homework for tomorrow: EN11 FIRST and SECOND period: laptop carts for class on Jan30-31st. EN11 FOURTH period: we're in the library Jan. 30 and in Computer Lab B206 on Jan. 31!
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