Siegmund's English Weblog

Unit Nine: Modernism

2011-10-24T10:08:00.003-04:00

Once you finish, you should be able
to explain how this image fits the unit.

Opening: Take a moment or two to review the Georgia Performance Standards and Essential Questions for this unit. I have found that students who are more deliberate in this step have a much easier time with the material because they have set expectations for their learning.

ELAALRL3.1.b.iii The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods. The student relates a literary work to the characteristics of the literary time period that it represents: Modernism

Essential Questions:

What is the American Dream -- Can you define it?

Is the American Dream a Reality for all Americans?

Key Terms:

Disillusionment ( Make sure you can tell me all about this)
The Harlem Renaissance
The Jazz Age
Regionalism
Local Color
Dialect
Psychoanalysis

On your blog:

1. After reviewing the standards, essential questions, and key terms, write a paragraph or two in which you explain your expectations for this unit. Some students choose to provide answers to the essential questions, or you may want to investigate some of the key terms as well.

Mini-Lesson

The Great War (World War One) lasted from 1914 until 1918, and The United States became involved in 1917. The war was fought to protect humanity around the world, but became a bloodbath before long at all. Nearly 1,000,000 soldiers were killed in the Battle of Verdun alone. This was one of the first times modern technology like airplanes, poison gas, tanks, and other machinery were used to kill large numbers of people. World War One was a turning point for America and the rest of the civilized world, and it had major effects on the literature of our country.

One of the biggest themes of Modernist American Literature is disillusionment. Disillusionment is defined as freeing oneself, or getting away from an illusion, or getting away from ideas that have no logical basis. One of the most common targets of disillusionment was the American Dream -- the idea that the United States of America was a land of opportunity and that all its people were virtuous. Many writers were beginning to see that this wasn't all true, and they were not afraid to attack this ideal in their work.

This idea of disillusionment set the stage nicely for the Harlem Renaissance, when African-American artists were beginning to enjoy some mainstream success. These artists expressed the illogical nature of the American Dream since they especially were not permitted to enjoy the lifestyle it seems to guarantee. Many black soldiers who came home after serving in Europe immediately recognized that they were not treated with the same respect in their own homeland as they were in Europe. Many of these artists were the children and grandchildren of former slaves, and they too were ready to show that the American Dream was not quite the reality people thought. In their writing, music, and painting Harlem Renaissance artists either focused on the inequities that black Americans faced or celebrating the black American culture many people had not seen in art until this time.

Throughout the United States there was increased interest in the field of psychology, and this also showed up in the new literature. Look for instances where the author is inviting readers to look inside the minds of the charaters to figure out what may have contributed to their struggles.

The United States government also decided that alcohol was central to the social evils in the country, so they made its distribution and manufacture illegal in 1919. This contributed to the prevalence of speakeasys (illegal bars) and gangsters who became good at distributing illegal booze. You have probably heard these people refered to as "bootleggers". This shows up in Modernist literature as well. Many people call this the Jazz Age, and you can see many examples of speakeasys, jazz music, and an illegal lifestyle that was pretty common amoung social Americans.

Many American artists who had served in Europe during the war decided that Europe had more to offer than the United States. These people thought that the American Dream that they had heard about so much was not true, and they enjoyed the more lively and inexpensive lifestyle in Europe. This group, who chose to live mostly in France included writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Earnest Hemmingway, and Gertrude Stein came to be known as the Lost Generation.

Please post the following to your blog:

2. Choose one of the Modernism themes named above that you are most interested in studying: Disillusionment, the Harlem Renaissnace, The Jazz Age, or Phychoanalysis. Write a paragraph that describes why you made this choice and how you expect to see the topic you chose represented in the literature you are about to read.

3. Read the story that coresponds to the theme you chose. Chose a topic according to your interests, not the length of the story. Choosing a story because of its length is not the wisest way to approach this assignment.

Disillusionment -- Soldier's Home by Earnest Hemmingway

The Harlem Renaissance -- Sweat or The Gilded Six-Bits by Zora Neale Hurston can be found here.

The Jazz Age -- Choose a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald here.

Psychoanalysis -- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber

When you are through reading, you should type a two-paragraph response to the story you read, and then provide another two paragraphs in which you analyze the theme you chose and how it is represented in the story. Take time to explain how the author features the theme you chose, and go deeper and explain what you believe he or she is saying about America. This will require you to provide examples straight from the texts as well as some synthesis on your part (drawing your own conclusions).

4. Read the following poems. When you study poetry, it is a good habit to read each selection MORE THAN ONCE.

Richard Corey by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Mending Wall by Robert Frost

A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes

The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes

Incident by Countee Cullen

Chicago by Carl Sandberg

Write a paragraph response to each poem in which you explain your opinions about what is being written as well as identify one of the elements of Modernism in each. These paragraphs must contain direct evidence from the poetry to support whatever claims you make. Please be thorough enough in this section so not to have to go back and make adjustmetns after I read your work.

SELF-EVALUATE YOUR WORK!!

Closing:

5. Review your response to number 1 in this unit. Then explain how you have addressed the Georgia Performance Standard you said was a challenge for you. You should support this claim with evidence from your own work.

Once you have completed all of the above, leave me a comment to remind me to check your work.

Unit Eight: Realism

2011-10-12T08:09:00.002-04:00

Opening:
To begin a new unit of study, it is always helpful to review the Georgia Performance Standards, Essential Questions, and Key terms associated with the research and learning you will conduct. Please take a moment to do so:

ELA11C2.c The student reflects appropriate format requirements, including pagination, spacing, and margins, and integration of source material with appropriate citations (i.e., in-text citations, use of direct quotations, paraphrase, and summary, and weaving of source and support materials with writer’s own words, etc.).

ELAALRL2.d The student analyzes and compares texts that express universal themes characteristic of American literature across time and genre (i.e., American individualism, the American dream, cultural diversity, and tolerance) and provides support from the texts for the identified themes.

ELAALRL4 The student employs a variety of writing genres to demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of significant ideas in selected literary works. The student composes essays, narratives, poems, or technical documents.

Essential Questions:
1) Does our imagination ever accomplish anything?
2) How do we address social problems?
3) Which is more effective, detail or abstract?

Key Terms:

Realism
Social Problems

On your blog:

1) After reading the GPS, Essential Questions, and Key terms take a moment to explain your expectations for this unit. What do you think will be important? How will this unit be different from those that we have already completed? You may choose to provide answers to the essential questions if you wish.

Mini-Lesson:

The Rationalists thought the Puritans did not use enough of their scientific minds. The Romantics thought the Rationalists did not use enough of their imagination. How do you think the next group thought about the Romantics?

How would you feel about someone who was always stuck in their imagination?

The Realists came into fashion in the 1840s and 50s, and they did not think all the Romantic writings were doing much for people. The Realists saw social problems all around, and didn't think turning ones back on them would do much. Instead, they thought more could be accomplished by having readers face the ugly facts in their worlds.

Have you ever seen Boyz in tha Hood? It is an excellent example of realism. Boyz in tha Hood shows people who have never been to South-Central Los Angeles what life is like for the people who live there. When people see the blood and violence in the film, it should make them more aware of the social problems in that area than just being told about it. The realists felt the same way about slavery, the brewing civil war, women's rights, and many other social issues that they felt were not getting the attention they deserved.

Realists did not want readers to use their imagination, so their work is extremely detailed. These details can be the ugly facts they are trying to disturb their readers with, or they may be extremely descriptive explainations of how things look or what a character does. Think again about Boyz in the Hood. It is meant to disturb people. When people are disturbed, they are more likely to try to fix a problem.

I have another theory . . . Realism emerged at the same time photography was becoming popular. Think about the difference between a painting and a photograph. When you view a painting, you are encouraged to use your imagination, but when you look at a photograph, that isn't as necessary. Think painting=imagination=Romanticism / photograph=detaill=realism. Reading realism is much like looking at a photograph; they provide all the details so you do not need your imagination.

Your tasks:

2) Read "A Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. You should be able to indentify the following in this story:

a. details that specifically explain a characters actions, or detailed descriptions of a setting

b. a social issue that Chopin wants to solve

Write a paragraph respone to a and b in which you explain how this story includes these aspects of realism. Each paragraph should have some direct evidence from "A Story of an Hour".

3. Read "The Battle with Mr Covey" by Frederick Douglass. Follow the same directions for #1. Go further on this one to explain what you think Douglass' purpose was for writing this. Your response should be three paragraphs.

4. Provide a modern example of realism (Boyz in tha Hood, and Menace II Society, for that matter are off-limits). This can be music, a movie, a television show, a book, or whatever you may choose. You need to explain how it is realism, and provide an example from your choice (a lyric, description of a scene, quote, etc.)

5. The fun part - - -

a. Decide what you like best, Dark Romanticism or Realism.

b. Create a short piece ( a poem or very short story) of whichever you choose.

c. Explain (with at least a paragraph or two with direct evidence from your own example) how it is a good representation of Romanticism or Realism. Keep in mind that you are proving how your story fits whichever idea you choose, so discussing the idea itself is necessary.

Closing:
6. Explain (with DIRECT EVIDENCE FROM YOUR OWN WORK) how you have met (or exceeded) at least two of the standards listed in the opening. Explain how your learning and your work relate to the expectations you set in number one. Be sure to self-evaluate your work using the rubric provided on the right, and once you are comfortable with your work, leave me a comment to let me know it is time to read what you have published.

(P.S. You may also want to include these standards highlighted in other units)
ELAALRL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in a work of American literature and provides evidence from the work to support understanding.

ELAALRL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

Lit 11 Pacing Guide

2011-10-11T08:52:00.000-04:00

I have adjusted the pacing guide for Lit 11. You can see the updated version by clicking on the link on the right.

Songs of the Day

2011-09-23T10:16:00.008-04:00

11.8.11 -- http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi702586393/
11.6.11 --

11.2.11:

Watch Daft Punk - Da Funk (ipod) in Music | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

9.26.11:

The Wildest Swing Dancing - Harlem Congaroos... by Tushratta
9.23.11: Sister Nancy -- "Bam Bam"

Sister Nancy - Bam Bam (Audio MP3 Stream)

9.22.11: Phil Phillips -- "Sea of Love"

Unit 7 -- Walt Whitman and Emily Dickenson

2011-09-19T11:14:00.001-04:00

Unit Six -- American Gothicism / AntiTranscendentalism

2011-09-19T10:58:00.000-04:00

Opening: As usual, I would like you to spend a few minutes reviewing the Georgia Performance Standards, essential questions, and key terms. Doing this should prepare you for the unit, and help you understand on which aspects of the texts to focus as you read.

ELAALRL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

(you have seen this one before).

ELAWLRL1.3.a.i The student identifies and analyzes elements of poetry from various periods of world literature and provides evidence from the text to support understanding; the student:

a. Identifies, responds to, and analyzes the effects of diction, syntax, sound, form, figurative language, and structure of poems as these elements relate to meaning.

i. sound: alliteration, end rhyme, internal rhyme, terza rima, consonance, assonance

ELAALRL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in a work of American literature and provides evidence from the work to support understanding.

Essential Questions:

What draws people toward things that are mysterious?
Are people generally good or generally evil?
Think about the Transcendentalists' philosophy for a moment. With which of their ideas would you disagree?

Key Terms:

Gothicism
Narrative Poem
End Rhyme / Internal Rhyme
Alliteration

MINI LESSON:Before you start:

What is original sin?
How did the Transcendentalists feel about it?

If you cannot explain these two questions, you probably need to call me over for a little conversation. It would not make much sense progressing without knowing these things and being able to explain them well.

Just like every other movement in American Literature you have studied (Puritanism, Rationalism, Romanticm, and Transcendentalism) Gothicism (also called Dark Romanticism) is a reaction to the movement that came before it. Gothicism is a little different because it coincides with Transcendentalism. Sometimes the Dark Romantics are known as Anti-Transcendentalists for this reason.

First, let's review the Transcendentalist philosophy:

1. They believed that everyone was absolutely pure and that each individual is a part of God.

2. They believed that people's thoughts and intuition were the voice of God.

3. They did not believe in institutions like government because they thought the individual human mind was the strongest power in the universe.

What would your argument to this philosophy be? Are all people good? Is the voice inside people's heads the pure voice of God?

Let's review the lives of some of the Dark Romantics to see if we can predict how they would answer these questions:

Nathaniel Hawthorne's great grandfather was one of the judges in the Salem witchcraft trials during Puritan times. During these trials, nineteen people and two dogs were hanged, and one man was crushed to death by stones all in the name of God. Nathaniel Hawthorne was embarrassed by this, so he changed the spelling of his to lessen the association with his relative, a minister and a judge who sentenced people to cruel deaths because other people accused them of being evil. Hawthorne would become famous for his novel The Scarlet Letter and short stories like "The Minister's Black Viel" and "The Birthmark" in which he criticises the Puritan culture. How would Hawthorne feel about the Transcendental philosophy? Reread thier beliefs if you need to.

Herman Melville was not a trained and educated writer like Emerson, Thoreau, or Hawthorne. He instead made his early living in the merchant marine as a sailor because of the fiancial breakdown in his family. Melville, who wanted to become a writer, was working on a ship as early as twelve years old. While sailing around the globe, Melville witnessed many things he would not have seen at his home in New York. One sight that reportedly effected him severely were the cannibals he saw in the South Pacific. Melville would write Moby Dick later in his life. Moby Dick was a novel about a ship captain, Ahab who was so obsessed with killing a white whale that ate his leg that he sacrifices his entire ship and all the men on it. Was Ahab pure of mind to sacrifice all the men he was charged with leading? Would a man who witnessed people eating human flesh agree that everyone was good and pure?

Edgar Allen Poe's mother died when he was very young, his stepfather disowned him when he went to college, and all three of his wives died from tuberculosis. Poe developed terrible addictions to opium and alcohol. By today's standards, he was probably insane. Poe's stories and poetry all feature characters who begin with a small grain of evil in their minds which eventually takes over. Many biographers argue that every one of Poe's stories represent something inside his mind.

In short, the Dark Romantics, after reviewing their life experiences thought that the Transcendental philosophy was severely flawed. They saw that people could be evil, insane, unpure, or generally not 100% good like the Transcendentalists thought. Unlike the Transcendentalists, they believed in original sin, and that it was responsible for the evil that existed inside of everyone.

Post the following responses to your blog:

2. On which side of the divide do you fall? Are you closer to being a Transcendentalist or a Dark Romantic? Explain your answer with a short paragraph.

3. Read either "The Black Cat" or "Hop-Frog", both by Edgar Allen Poe. As you read, keep the Dark Romantics' beliefs in mind because you will be asked to point out these beliefs in the story later. \

4. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the story you read. You should explain what you thought of the story as well as how well it illustrates how the Dark Romantics disagreed with the Transcendantalists. You need to provide at least a line or two of direct textual evidence from the story you chose to prove your claim.

You can also see the video a little larger here.

5. Once of Poe's most famous works was "The Raven", a poem he wrote while his second wife was literally dying in the next room. Read the poem (more than once), and then write a response (at least two paragraphs) that includes a few lines that stuck out to you. Add another paragraph or two that should explain how this poem represents an anti-Transcendental idea. As always, responses with direct evidence are always better than those that do not.

6. Look over the text of The Raven once more. Provide evidence from the poem for each of the following elements:

End Rhyme
Internal Rhyme
Alliteration

CLOSING:
7. Review your responses to the essential questions, Georgia Performance Standards, and key terms in the opening of this unit. How have you addressed these elements in your work. Explain to me how you have done this, and provide evidence from your work to support your claims.

When you are finished, review your work to be sure it contains everything I've asked for, and then leave me a comment to this post to remind me to read your work.

Self-Evaluate Your Work!!

Unit Three -- Renaissance Poetry

2011-09-13T11:03:00.001-04:00

Unit Five -- Romaticism and Transcendentalism

2011-09-07T10:41:00.002-04:00

Mini-Lesson -- Washington Irving was a straight-up pimpdaddy. Just look at him. If there was MTV then, he would have been on Cribs. He crashed parties at the White House, and he rolled the tightest whips. Most of this is true.

Irving was probably The United States’ first home-grown celebrity, and you are probably familiar with some of his stories like "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". These stories are some of the best examples of American Romanticism, a style of writing that required people to use their imaginations.

Irving was so famous that some of the stories he created are still accepted as fact today. Have you heard the story about Christopher Columbus proving the earth was round? That is fact, right? NOPE.

This myth (as well as some others) were created from Washington Irving’s stories. Irving wrote a children’s book about Columbus in which the explorer wanted to prove the world was round. The fact is that everybody already knew it was round at the time. In fact, globes were a popular thing with which people decorated their homes.

It is not hard to believe that so many people would take Irving’s stories for fact. People needed a little fiction and imagination to get away from their lives because living in the United States during this time (the 1820s-40s) was not the most enjoyable. Most people lived in large cities like Boston, New York (which quadrupled in population in twenty years), and Philadelphia. These places were nasty. People threw their trash and sewage in the street; horse droppings were everywhere; if a horse dropped dead, it would stay in the street to rot; thousands of children and adults were homeless; pirates would come ashore and rob people in the cities; gangs controlled sections of many these cities, and a cholera epidemic killed up to one hundred people a day.

Romanticism is the school of thought that emphasizes intuition over logic, and feeling over reason. You should immediately recognize how this is different from the Rationalist (Franklin / Age of Reason) school of thought. Romantics felt that reason and logic can only go so far for someone who is homeless and starving, or suffering the side-effects of the Industrial Revolution like pollution and being injured in large factories.

Be careful not to confuse Romanticism with what we commonly call "romantic" today. They are a little bit different. We call lovey-dovey movies and stories romantic today because it is a kind of Romanticism in that they depict relationships in the way we would imagine them, and not the way they actually are.

The Romantics believed there were higher truths than reason and logic, and they felt this could be accomplished by listening to one’s heart, or using one’s imagination to reach better places than where they were physically.

Many people around the world thought Americans were unsophisticated and stupid, and the Rationalists tried very hard to prove that this was unfair and untrue. Romantics, on the other hand, told stories of ordinary people, like Rip Van Winkle or Natty Bumppo who were unsophisticated and were able to rise to the level of hero. They wanted to prove that Americans were more innocent than Europeans, and that true knowledge was not found in libraries, but in adventures.

Romantics also focused on nature in their writing since they thought it was a way to escape from the loud city, as well as a way to hear ones intuition.

Work Period:Read either Rip Van Winkle or The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and then post the following to your weblog:
Better yet, listen to Rip Van Winkle as you read it. Please take the time to open the text file since reading and listening together will be the most useful, especially since you will need to find textual evidence later.
Rip Van Winkle Audio:

2. What about the story did you find particularly Romantic? You may want to reread the section on Romanticism again to refresh your memory. Give at least two examples with direct evidence for each.

3.
You can also find this video in my assignments folder in my drop box. If you view it there, you will be able to watch it full-screen. You can also view it here.

How does this poem illustrate all three of the main themes of Romanticism? Make sure you provide evidence for each claim you make.

BEFORE MOVING ONTO THE NEXT SECTION OF THIS UNIT, YOU SHOULD BE SURE YOU CAN ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

a. What is original sin?

b. How did the Puritans feel about original sin?

c. How did the Rationalists differ from the Puritans?

d. What are the main themes of Romanticism?

Georgia Performance Standard ELAALRL2 states that you should be able to identify themes and support them with evidence. I will expect that you can do this at this point.

That should have been easy.

Now we are going to investigate the central themes of another group of Romantics called the Transcendentalists.

Another Mini-Lesson:

By the mid-1800s, the United States was still in search of its literary identity. America had popular writers like Washington Irving, but they still did not have the heavy hitters to match up with some of England's poets and essayists. The United States wanted to declare literary independence from England, much like the political separation that happened almost one hundred years earlier.

It was a good time for Americans to want to assert themselves in the literary world. Learning was very popular at the time. Most Americans wanted to improve their minds in one way or the other. Some of the most popular things to do were attending lectures on topics from astronomy to botany to physics to philosophy. Groups pushing for the abolition of slavery and increased rights for women were also forming during this time.

This strive for independence began for the most part during a hiking trip and dinner with a guest list that would include some of the United States' most famous literary figures: Nethaniel Hawthorne, Herman Mellville, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. It was at this outing that these men decided that the United States should have writers as good as England's William Shakespeare, and that this would never happen unless they made an effort to do so. These men's dreams would soon be realized in two separate groups -- The Transcendentalists and the Dark Romantics, sometimes known as "anti-transcendentalists".

The Transcendentalists:

The Transcendentalists were Romantics who adopted philosophies from many other places and cultures. They believed that the individual human mind was one of the most powerful instruments in the world, and that the individual mind was connected to all others through what was known as the "oversoul", a collection of everyone's soul that we all share.

Transcendentalists believed that God spoke through people's minds and their hard work. Since they believed this, they also believed that every human was absolutely good and pure. They did not believe that the origianl sin committed by Adam and Eve made the rest of us sinners. Why would God communicate through an impure mind? They also believed that God could communicate to people through nature and a persons intuition.

Since God spoke through individuals, Transcendentalists did not belive that institutions like the governemnet or organized religion were effective. They believed that if a person was truly in touch with their surroundings, they could transcend these physical and man-made things to connect with God. The Transcendentalists' optimism and overall trust in the goodness of all people made them popular with outsiders who would often enjoy their lectures.

Please read the following (all of these can be found in the red anthology):

from "Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

from "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

5. When you are through reading, post a 1-2 paragraph response to each piece of writing to your blog. Be sure to concentrate more on what you thought of each piece of writing. Try to include at least one piece of direct evidence with each response (remember standard #1). This should be something that stuck out to you about the particular piece of writing.

6. Next, write explain how each piece is a good example of Transcendentalism by identifying the central themes I described earlier in the post. Use what you read above, and prove that each piece is a good example with a paragraph supported with direct evidence (one paragraph each).

NEXT . . .

Check this guy out. If you do not see the video here, you can find it in my assignments folder. I have called it Wilderness:

7. How can you apply Transcendental philosophy to the man in this video? I'm sure you could easily spend a couple paragraphs telling me how. I also know it would be easy for you to back up whatever you say with direct evidence from the texts you have already read. If you are really into it, you might read a little of Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Just choose a couple sections you think you would like.

CLOSING:

Revisit the response you made to the opening segment (#1). Explain how you feel the work you have done addresses the Georgia Performance Standards for this unit. You may also want to provide more specific answers to the essentail questions.

Self-Evaluate Your Work!!

Once you are finished, leave me a comment so I know to view your work.

Unit Four -- Autobiography and Speeches (The Age of Reason)

2011-08-25T11:02:00.035-04:00

Opening: As usual, I would like you to take a moment to review the Georgia Performance Standards, Essential Questions, and Key Terms to get an idea of what this unit will address:

ELA11w2.2.k The student uses language, point of view, characterization, style, and related elements effectively for specific rhetorical and aesthetic purposes.

ELAALRL3.1.a.ii The student relates a literary work to the seminal ideas of the time in which it is set or the time of its composition.

Essential Questions:

How do speakers and authors use reason as a persuasive tool? Can you think of any modern examples?
What is the difference between emotion and reason?
To what extent are we in controll of our own lives?

Key Terms:

The Age of Reason / Rationalism

On your Blog:
1. After reviewing the standards, essential questions, and key terms, what are your expectations for this unit? You may also choose to respond by providing answers to the essential questions. Most answers should provide some discussion about the differences between emotion and reason.

Mini-Lesson:

Why did Ben Franklin fly a kite in a lightning storm? Because he wanted to have an explanation for what lightning was; he didn't accept the Puritan notion that God was responsible for everything, and people were not supposed to concern themselves with such things. This was the prevailing idea of the 18th century (the 1700s) in America, sometimes called the Age of Reason, or the Age of Rationalism.

This philosophy started in Europe almost one hundred years before it became popular in America. You probably recognize names like Sir Isaac Newton, who used science instead of religion to explain gravity. Like Newton, Rationalists in America wanted to achieve order and explaination of the natural through science. People sought to become more educated in Mathematics, Astronomy, Botany, and Biology. Collecting fossils and plants, and peering into microscopes and telescopes became much more popular than studying the scripture.

It was during this time that many people's notion of God changed from the vengeful God in Johnathan Edwards' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, to a more humanitarian God. A popular religious movement of the time was Deism, which was a body of ideas that did not revolve around a church itself. It was a faith based on science and mathematics. Deists believed in God, but not as a power that controlled everything. They believed that God created the universe, but left it up to the people to figure out how to work it, or to figure out the natural laws.

Rationalist Men and Women also believed that human society was run by natural law. If people were able to discover and understand these laws, they would be able to improve their lives. While improvement was important to the Puritans, they pleaded with God for it, and the rationalists believed they could take a scientific approach to self-imporvement.

A Rationalist would believe that anything could be understood through science. Puritans thought this to be an insult to God since they believed humans had no business deconstructing God’s work. Think of the on-going debate over the theory of evolution, and you will have a pretty good picture of how the Puritans and the Rationalists differed.

Many of the doucments upon which our country was founded were penned by Rationalists. For instance, The Declaration of Independence makes reference to certain unalienable rights that everyone had. Puritans would have believed that God decided who had certain rights, and that some people did not have as many as others. It is interesting to see what happened to the men who signed the declaration.

Work Period:

2. Briefly (one good paragraph) describe the differences between the Puritans and the Rationalists. Please be careful not to repeat the same words you have read in this entry. Where in today's society do you see some of the ideas you have read about here represented?. (Hint -- check this out, especially the comments section.)

3. Read this excerpt from The Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin:

From The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin -- Arriving at Moral Perfection

Pay special attention to the efforts Franklin made to improve his life. Once you are finished reading, repond to the following (about a paragraph):

Explain what Franklin's purpose in writng this must have been. How is he using reason instead of emotion to meet his purpose? You may want to take it a step further by comparing the way Franklin writes (reason) to some of the more emotional strategies in the last unit (Edwards and Equiano). Show me some evidence to support what you claim.

4. If you were to make a list of thirteen virtues to improve upon in your life, what would they be? List them the way Franklin did. There are a couple more good examples here. Do you think you could reach moral perfection in this way? Explain how you feel. This should be a paragraph or two.

5. Read over this page that contains some of Benjamin Franklin's aphorisms (witty sayings that deliver some sort advice): http://www.notable-quotes.com/f/franklin_benjamin.html . Copy one of these aphorisms, and then write a short response that exaplains why this one stuck out to you, and then explain how it illustrates rationalism (The Age of Reason).

6.

Read the Text to the "Speech to the Virginia Convention"

you can also choose to listen to the speech here:

http://www.history.org/almanack/life/politics/giveme.cfm (The audio is at the bottom of the page. Choose "full speech", and be sure to read along as you listen).

When you are through with the speech, consider the following and then respond on your blog:

You should already know that Patrick Henry is using reason over emotion to persuade his audience to agree with him. My questions are these:

What is he attempting to pursuade his audience to do?
What rational (based in fact) evidence does he provide to support his argument?

example #1
example #2

Closing:

Take a moment to evaluate your own work. You should be able to identify the places where I am likely to send you back to improve areas of your work. Review what you wrote for #1 in the opening, and then explain how you have addressed the standards for this unit. You may also choose to provide answers to the essential questions if this unit has allowed you to formulate reponses to these.

Once you are comfortable with everything you have done here, leave me a comment so I can begin enjoying your work.

Unit Three -- Slave Narratives and The Puritans

2011-08-24T10:43:00.002-04:00

Imagery
Similie
Metaphor

1. Before you begin this unit, I want you to have a clear understanding of what you should be learning. Take a moment to post to your blog what you think the standard above addresses, and why you think it is important for you to master. Show me what you have written before you show me the rest.

Mini-Lesson:

Go to my drop box, and click on the Assignments folder. Watch the video called "Puritans". You should take some notes of the things that stand out to you -- direct quotes from the sermon will be helpful later. You should also take specific notice of their core beliefs:

Total Depravity - through Adam and Eve's fall, every person is born sinful - concept of Original Sin.

Unconditional Election - God "saves" those he wishes - only a few are selected for salvation.

Limited Atonement - Jesus died for the chosen only, not for everyone. Irresistible Grace - God's grace is freely given, it cannot be earned or denied. Grace is defined as the saving and transfiguring power of God.

Perseverance of the "saints" - those elected by God have full power to interpret the will of God, and to live uprightly. If anyone rejects grace after feeling its power in his life, he will be going against the will of God - something impossible in Puritanism.

The Puritans and Johnathan Edward's "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" from Dana Siegmund on Vimeo.

For some more real fun, check out some of these Puritan names.

Work Period:

2. Compare what your just heard to Native American examples from unit one. What are the differences in these two groups of people's cultures that stand out to you. How do their ideas of God differ? Do you see ways in which their cultures may clash? Post your thoughts to your blog. It should be at least a good paragraph with direct support from your example and the sermon in the video.

3. Does this sermon rely more on reason or emotion? How do you know? Provide evidence from the speech that supports your answer.

4. Johnathan Edwards relies on imagery, metaphos, and similies in "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". How well can you identify them? Provide one example of each:

Guide:

Similie / Metaphor example:

Imagery Example:

5. Read this chapter from:

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African

Once you have completed reading this chapter, post a short summary (one paragraph), and then in a second paragraph explain how Equiano uses emotion as a persuasive tool. How did he make you feel? What was his purpose in writing this narrative in the way he did?

6. Please read the following:

"To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet

Before you begin to respond to the questions below, you may want to review the Puritans' beliefs at the beginning of this post, or by watching the beginning of the video.

Can you summarize the thoughts in the poem? What tone does she take as she writes?

That should have been easy.

Now can you show me how this example illustrates what the Puritans believed? Provide a line or two as evidence to support what you say.

Closing:

Spend a few moments evaluating your work. Then once you are comfortable with what you have produced, review your repsonse to #1 in the opening, and then explain how you have addressed the Georgia Performance Standards or the essential questions. Better responses will include direct evidence from your work.

Once you have completed everything above, leave me a comment to let me know it is time to check your work.

Unit Five -- The Restoration and Enlightenment

2011-08-15T11:21:00.053-04:00

Opening:
Please take a moment to review the Georgia Performance Standards, Essential Questions, and Key Terms:

Georgia Performance Standards:

ELABLRL1.1.f: The student races the development of British fiction through various literary periods (i.e., Anglo-Saxon, Medieval, Renaissance, Romantic, etc.)

ELABLRL3.1.b.iv The student relates a literary work to the characteristics of the literary time period that it represents -- 18th Century/Restoration/Neo-Classical Period

Essential Questions:

1. In what ways does the literature of the Restoration and the Enlightenment reflect the shift in what people felt was important?

2. Why is this era sometimes called "The Age of Reason"?

Key Terms:

Satire
Rationalism

Mini-Lesson:
The Renaissance was already over for the most part when King James I died in 1625, and his son Charles I took the throne. Charles was a terrible ruler, more like an invisible dictator than a king. By 1649, people were fed up with Charles, and during this year some the most powerful people in the kingdom had him beheaded. For the next eleven years England was ruled by the Parliment while the heir to the throne, Charles II was hiding in France.

In 1660, Charles II returned to the throne, which began a period of more normal and steady life for the English. In the time between the death of James I and the restoration of the crown, England was devistated by plague, damaged by a fire that left two thirds of London homeless, and had been in the grips of a civil war for twenty years. The country was exhausted. This new period which lasted until arounf 1800 is known as the Restoration -- a period when people continued their quest for higher learning, art and philosophy.

Many people call this period "The Age of Reason" because many people began to turn to science to explain the mysteries of the universe that were precviously explained through religion. For those of you who remember the Rationalists from American literature, these periods were very similiar. Instead of asking why things happend, people started investigating how they happened. This included everything from astronomy to biology to physics. A philosophy called Deism. in which people believed God built the universe and then left it alone for people to run became more popular.

English writing went through a transformation as well. Instead of the flowery poetry of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, English writers began to adopt prose (prose = not poetry), a much simpler and planer form that was accessable to more people. New forms of writing like diaries, journals, newspapers, magazines, and novels became much more popular. This may also be due to the Puritans being successful in closing the theaters since they found them immoral. English drama would never return to the status it held in Shakespeare's day.

Work Period:
Please post the following to your blog:

1. Research The Glorious Revolution (sometimes called the Bloodless Revolution) online or in one of the textbooks. Write a paragraph summarizing what happened, and then another that explains why you think the event was so important.

2. Define "satire". Don't just copy and paste a definition from another source. Read the definition, and then explain it in your own words. Once you have done that, provide a few modern-day examples of satire (television shows, movies, magazines, etc.).

3. Read "A Modest Proposal", which may be difficult at first, but if you stick with it, the message will become more clear. Once you are finished reading, you should write a short response to what you read (4-5 sentences), and explain how this is a work of satire. Be sure you can identify the social problem he is addressing in the piece.

4. Read either "from the Diary of Samuel Pepys" or "from A Journal of the Plague Year" by Daniel Defoe, both of which can be found in the purple anthology. Once you have finished reading, write a 1-2 paragraph response to what you have read. Please be sure to include some direct evidence from the text to help show what you are responding to.

Closing:
Review the Georgia Performance Standards, Essential Questions, and Key Terms before moving onto the questions below. It would also be helpful to review the responses you made to the opening question.

5. What do you think was most important to people living in this time? Write a 1-2 paragraph response to this question in which you use direct evidence from the texts you read to support whatever arguments you make.

6. Evaluate the work you have completed thus far. Explain to me, using direct examples from your work, how you have addressed the Georgia Performance Standards posted above. You may also choose to explain how you have acquired answers to the essential questions.

Once you have completed everything above, leave me a comment so I can check your work.

User Agreement

2011-08-10T08:20:00.002-04:00

Using a weblog for our classwork will require some parameters for your safety and the quality of everyone's work. First, you should recognize that your work, as well as mine will be published for the entire on-line world to see. This will ultimately make us all responsible for better and more original output than ever before. By visiting other students' weblogs, you will be able to view all their work, and it will also make it easy for me to see who is not making an effort to submit work that is original.

Once you create your own weblog for this class, I will add it to the class blog roll so everyone's work can be accessed from this page. I encourage you to look at your peers' work for ideas or inspiration, but what you submit must be your own. Language Arts lends itself well to this format since you will be asked to respond to the literature and history we study with your own ideas and opinions. There are no right or wrong answers in a Language Arts class, so looking at other students' ideas can help you. It can also create problems if you choose to be lazy.

I will leave comments about your work. These comments will usually instruct you on how you can improve your work. Please make sure you check your comments and your e-mail regularly, and make sure you are finished with one assignment before moving to the next.

Since this weblog will be part of your education at Classic City High School, any activity on your weblog should be considered school activity, even if it is done outside of school. You should feel free to create posts that are not school related, but you should also be sure to refrain from anything that could be considered inappropriate. This includes, but is not limited to: references to alcohol or drugs, violence, or gang activity, foul language, nudity, threats, etc.

Plagiarism is submitting someone else's work as your own. This can be done in many ways: copying work from Wikipedia, classmates, Sparknotes, etc. If you plagiarize your work, you will receive a zero -- no questions asked.

THE USER AGREEMENT:

1. I agree to submit original work to my weblog. I realize I will have the opportunity to view my peers' work, and I will use this opportunity constructively. I understand that if I choose to plagiarize, I will receive a zero for the work in question with no option to redo the assignment in question.

2. I agree to keep my weblog appropriate for Classic City High School. I understand that if innapropriate material were to appear on my weblog, be it from myself or an outside comment, I will be asked to remove it. Failure to do so will result in my weblog being removed from the class roll. I also understand that refereneces to illegal or dangerous activities will be reported since it is the legal responsibility of my teacher.

Classroom Procedures and Expectations
Dana Siegmund
Classic City High School

NovaNet:
You are required to score at least an 80% on all post-tests.You should take notes on all your lessons to use when you take the post-test. Pasting screen shots onto Powerpoint is not taking notes.
I will check your notebook four times during the semester, and these grades will be factored into your total NovaNet score.I will not override prescriptions after your pretest, unless it is a special circumstance.If you score lower than a 70 on a post-test, I will reassign prescriptions

Leaving the Classroom:
Please let me know you need to leave before doing so.Once you leave, take care of your business and come right back. Do not disturb other classes.If you plan to purchase anything from Jittery Joe’s, you will need the pass.If your trip is not absolutely necessary, please do not be surprised if I say “no”.If you are gone for 15 minutes of any class period, I will mark you absent.

Administrative Absences:
If you did not come to school to work, I will mark you absent and ask you to leave.You shouldn’t take this personally.
There is a waiting list full of people waiting to be a student at Classic City High School PLC, and if you are not making the best use of your spot, it will soon be someone else’s.

Great Headphone Issue:
Some people work well with headphones and others do not. If you choose to use headphones, you should have your own. I have a couple sets that are reserved for projects that require them. Students using headphones need to use them responsibly. If your headphone use is disrupting yours or other students' work (completely at my discretion), your privileges will be suspended (see Internet Use as well).

Internet Use
The Internet is an extremely useful educational tool, but it can also be misused. If your Internet use becomes detrimental to your progress (including music), your Internet privileges will be blocked. Students who attempt to circumnavigate this decision will receive an administrative absence. Food:Food is great. Pick up your trash.

Mobile Phones:
I will follow the mobile phone policy explained in the Classic City High School Handbook.The Classroom:Please leave it in the condition you found it.Push in your chairs.Put books away.Pick up after yourself.

To agree, post a comment to this message like this:
I agree to Mr. Siegmund's Weblog User Agreement as well as his Classroom Procedures and Expectations.
I will not add your weblog to the class roll until I receive a comment from you like the example above.

Unit Two -- Journal Accounts and Historical Narratives

2011-08-02T14:04:00.003-04:00

Opening:
Please review the Georgia Performance Standards, Essential Questions, and Key Terms listed below.
ELAALRL1.2.c The student analyzes, evaluates, and applies knowledge of the ways authors use language, style, syntax, and rhetorical strategies for specific purposes in nonfiction works.

ELAALRL1.2.a The student analyzes and explains the structures and elements of nonfiction works of American literature such as letters, journals and diaries, speeches, and essays.

Essential Questions:

1. How does someone's point of view affect how they portray events in a story?
2. What are the advantages of primary sources? The disadvantages?

Key Terms:

1. Primary Source
2. Objective vs. Subjective
3. Writer's Purpose

On Your Blog:
1. After reading the standards, essential questions, and key terms, write a breif paragraph describing what you feel you will address and learn in this unit. You may choose to rewrite the standards in your own words, or provide answers to the essential questions. However you choose to respond, it should be around 3-4 sentences.
Mini-Lesson:

The European explorers who led expeditions to the new world did a very good job of keeping track of their day-to-day activities in their journals. This was necessary so to keep the kings and queens who hired them informed of their progress and discoveries.

If you were responsible for keeping track of how good a job you were doing (evaluating your work) how honest would you be? I doubt you would flat out lie, but you would likely do what you could to make your accomplishments look better, right? The point it that you would be more subjective (biased by feelings and emotion) than objective (completely unbiased and factual).

These explorer journals are great sources, called primary sources because they originate from the event itself rather than someone else who was not there explaining the facts, but they can also be unreliable because it is clear that the explorers tend to embellish and exaggerate.

It only took Pocahontas one look to know this European guy was the sexiest thing she had ever seen, so she takes it upon herself to save him from having his head bashed in. Yeah, I'm buyin' it.

Work Period:
You will be reading excerpts of journals from two different explorers, Captain John Smith and Christopher Columbus. As you read, be on the lookout for ways these accounts may suffer from subjectivity, but also for how they are able to give a perspective that only someone who saw these events with his own eyes can deliver.

From "The General Historie of Virginia" -- John Smith
(Get a Copy from Me)

From "Journal of the First Voyage of America" - Columbus

On Your Blog:

2. As was discussed earlier, these journals are primary sources that are very valuable in that they provide eyewitness accounts, but they can also be unreliable becuase the writers are a bit biased because they are writing about themselves. Post some evidence from each of the writings that illustrates valable eyewitness accounts as well as some evidence that shows how subjective the writers can be.

Guide:

From "The General Historie of Virginia"

One quotation ( a sentence or two from the journal) that you think is valuable to histrory because only someone who was there at the time could decribe the event that way
One quotation where you feel he is stretching the truth

From "Journal of the First Voyage to America"

One quotation that you think is valuable to history because only someone who was there at the time could decribe the event that way
One quotation where you feel he is stretching the truth

3. Evaluate what you have read. Do you think the fact that these writings are biased in nature take away from their historical importance, or do you feel that the historical importance outweighs the way they were written? Exlpain WHY you feel this way.

Closing:

4. Review the Georgia Performance Standards, essential questions, and key terms from the opening. Once you have done that, spend some time evaluating your work.

Does your work address the standards and essential questions? How? Give examples.
Can you provide answers to the essential questions as they relate to the texts you read for this unit?

Once you have completed all sections of this unit, evaluate your work once more. When you feel you are done, leave me a comment on this post so I will know to check your work.

Unit Two: The Medieval Period

2011-08-02T11:57:00.000-04:00

Opening:
Please review the Georgia Performance Standards, Essential Questions, and Key Terms listed below:

ELABLRL1.1.f: The student traces the development of British fiction through various literary periods (i.e.,Anglo-Saxon, Medieval, Renaissance, Romantic, etc.)

ELABLRL3.1.b.ii: The student relates a literary work to the characteristics of the literary time period that it represents (the Medieval Period).

ELABLRL1.1.a: The student locates and analyzes such elements as language and style, character development, point of view, irony, and structures (i.e., chronological, in medias res, flashback, epistolary narrative, frame narrative) in works of British and Commonwealth fiction from different time periods.

Essential Questions:

1. You always hear people saying, "That's ironic", but what do they mean?
2. How does literature reflect what was really going on in the world?

Key Terms:
1. The Feudal System
2. Irony
3. Frame Narrative

On your Blog:
1. After reviewing the standards, key terms, and essential questions, take a moment to write a short paragraph (3-4 sentences) explaining what you think this unit will cover. You may also choose to provide some answers to the essential questions or rewrite some of the standards in your own words.

Mini-Lesson:
1066 is one of the most important dates in English history. In October of this year, a daylong battle near Hastings, England changed the course of history. William of Normandy, a place in France just across the English Channel, conquered King Harold of England, who was the last remaining of the Anglo-Saxon Kings. William of Normandy would now forever be known as William the Conquerer, which is fortunate since he was previously known by a name that rhymes with Billiam the Wastard. This began what is known as the Norman Conquest, and it would eventually lead to England having a single ruler, and a single language that is closer than the Old English spoken by the Anglo-Saxons to the English we speak today.

England changed drastically under William. For instance, William was able to inventory nearly every piece of property in England. He called this the Doomsday Book, and it allowed a government to tax people according to what they owned for the first time European history. William remained a duke in Normandy, which made for a alliance between England and Normandy (what we call France today). This made England a European power for the first time.

Feudalism is another one of Williams innovations that would shape the future of England. Here is a very good chart that explains the Feudal system. It does well to show what each level gave and received from the others. Feudalism operated from the king all the way down to the serfs, who were peasants who were not permitted to leave the land where they worked. Some of the most familiar figures from the Middle Ages were knights who were loyal protectors of the king.

Knights strictly obeyed a code of conduct called chivalry, which included their oath of loyalty to their overlord, rules of warfare (like never striking an opponant who was unarmed), and the adoration of a particular lady which may not have been their wife. The adoration of the lady was meant as a means of self-imporvement for the knights, and they would spend their idle hours composing poetry and songs of praise. This gave birth to a new form of poetry: the romance. Though women where highly idealized in Medieval culture, they had very few rights.

The most well-known text from the Middle Ages is Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury tales. It is the original story with this format where several people from different backgrounds are forced to share the same area. In this story, the characters are going on a religious pilgrimage, and they have a storytelling contest to pass the time on the journey. The tales are often humorous, and Chaucer uses these tales to poke fun at all levels of society.

You will be reading "The Pardoner's Tale", told by a Pardoner, who is an official of the Church in charge of hearing confessions and absolving sins. This particular pardoner has a pretty dirty way of going about his business in that he asks people for large sums of money to hear their confessions, and also sells counterfeit religious relics (the bones of saints, pieces of Jesus' cross, etc.). The story he tells is one that warns of greed -- can you see the irony yet?

Work Period:

Read The Pardoner's Tale, paying special attention to the fact that this is a frame narrative that has a highly ironic ending:

Frame Narrative -- a story told within another story.
Irony -- When the outcome is much different that what was expected. Many of our jokes are based in irony because we often find it humorous when we see results we did not expect. (Verbal Irony -- Sarcasm, saying the opposite of what you mean; Situational Irony -- when something you would not expect happens, like a fireman's house burning down; Dramatic Irony -- when the audience / readers know things the characters do not)

The Pardoner's Tale

On your Blog:
2. Provide a brief summary of the tale. Be sure to point out aspects you liked as well as those you found challenging. This summary should be at least two paragraphs long.

3. Write a paragraph or two in which you analyze the irony in "The Pardoner's Tale". What makes the story, and especially the ending ironic? What did you expect when you were reading the tale. If you had a hard time identifying the irony, you may want to spend some more time with the story (or ask for help).

Closing:
Review the Georgia Performance Standards above. It may also help to review your interpretation of them you created in the opening.

Review your work, and explain how you have addressed these standards. If you find that your work does not address these standards, you may need to make improvements. Have you grasped an understanding of the key vocabulary? Have you formulated answers to the essential questions.

Please make specific references to your work when answering these closing questions. For instance, you should tell me exactly where in your posts I would find these things.

Self evaluate your work, and when you feel as though you have completed this work, leave me a comment on this post so I know it is time to view your work.

Unit One: Origin Myths and Oral Tradition

2011-08-02T10:12:00.000-04:00

Opening:

Please spend a moment or two reviewing the following Georgia Performance Standards and essential questions. The unit you are about to begin will be centered around these items:

ELAALRL1.1.e: The student analyzes the influence of mythic, traditional, or classical literature on American literature.

ELAALRL1.1.f: The student traces the history of the development of American fiction.

ELAALRL1.3.c: The student traces the historical development of poetic styles and forms in American literature.

Essential Questions:

1. How can we use oral stories from ancient cultures to discover what was important to them?
2. What oral traditions do we use, and what does it reflect about our culture?

Key Terms:

Oral Tradition
Creation Myths

On your blog:

1. After reviewing the standards, key terms, and essential questions, take a moment to write a short paragraph (3-4 sentences) explaining what you think this unit will cover. You may also choose to provide some answers to the essential questions or rewrite some of the standards in your own words.

Mini-Lesson:

Many people would like to believe North America was an empty place with no people or cultures when the Europeans started arriving in the "New World", but this is not so. Native Americans were living in very diverse societies and had very developed cultures before the explorers arrived.

When studying the folktales and myths of the Native Americans, it is important to remember that most of these cultures did not have a written language, so every bit of their culture had to be delivered orally.

Oral Tradition: The act of delivering important cultural information (myths, customs, history, etc.) by word of mouth.

One of the most common folktales we see in many cultures is the creation myth. Creation myths are the type of tale that explains something that cannot be completely understood. In this case, they explain how the world was created. Do we use any creation myths in our culture? Do we use other myths to explain things that may not be understood (think about Santa Claus, or telling a child where babies come from).

Creation Myth: A folktale that explains how the world was created. These vary from culture to culture, and can be a good way to understand what they felt was important.

Work Period:

On your blog:

2.Since we are starting at the beginning of American literature, we should start at a time before where we live was called America. Use your favorite search engine to find an example of Native American Literature (a poem, short folktale, or a prayer will work best). Read a few before you choose one. You need to be familiar with the example you choose because you will need to answer some questions about it. Copy and paste the example into your blog post.

3. What do you think of your example? What is it about? Write a 2-3 sentence response to what you chose.

4. Read the following creation myth and then post responses to my questions on your blog. Your response should be at least one short paragraph.

The Earth on the Turtle's Back

We can use the myths a culture tells to discover what was important to them. Can you tell what was important to the Onandaga people (the culture who told this story)? How can you tell? Paste a line from the story that proves what you say.

5. Choose one myth from this site to read and then respond to my questions on your blog. Your response should be at least two short paragraphs.

http://www.crystalinks.com/nativeamcreation.html

Briefly summarize the myth you read and identify the culture from which it came (one paragraph).
What was important to the culture who created the tale you chose? Provide evidence from the story to support what you claim. Do you see any similarities between the myths you have read in this unit? Are there any similarities to our culture? (another paragraph)

Closing:
Review the Georgia Performance Standards above. It may also help to review your interpretation of them you created in the opening.

Review your work, and explain how you have addressed these standards. If you find that your work does not address these standards, you may need to make improvements. Have you grasped an understanding of the key vocabulary? Have you formulated answers to the essential questions.

Please make specific references to your work when answering these closing questions. For instance, you should tell me exactly where in your posts I would find these things.

Self evaluate your work, and when you feel as though you have completed this work, leave me a comment on this post so I know it is time to view your work.

Unit One: Native Cultures and Colonial Periods

2010-11-23T09:20:00.002-05:00

Expository Writing Example

2010-04-15T12:03:00.000-04:00

When Special Delivery Meant Deliverance for a Fugitive Slave

Analytical Writing Example

2010-03-25T08:56:00.002-04:00

Five Ways Facebook Changed Dating (for the Worse)

Individual Novel Project

2010-03-16T16:28:00.000-04:00

The first thing you need to do is choose a novel. I would prefer you read something British since Lit 12 is a British Literature class. You can get ideas from lists here, here, and here here,
It is very important that you make a wise decision since this project will count as two grades and it will take you several weeks. Making a good choice of a novel will make this easier for you. Do not choose a book just because you think it is short; this often makes things more difficult. Do not try to get away without reading the book. This is a novel project -- you need to READ a novel.

Step One: Choose a novel from the list, and then talk to me about your choice before you begin. You may want to have several choices since I won't approve everything.

Step Two: Read the Georgia Performance Standards and write a proposal -- Read the standards I have copied below, and then create a post on your blog titled "Individual Novel Project Proposal". In this post you should explain to me how you are going to address these standards in your work. It may help to explain the standards in your own words before explaining how your project will address them.

Keep in mind that this can be done many ways. If you need help understanding the language of the standards, looking at the key words for each can be helpful. Your proposal should have something in it addressing how you plan to respond to the novel as you read it (this does not mean you will write one long response at the end, and it also does not mean you will be writing a summary). Shooting for three responses while you read the book is a good idea. Those who have difficulty remembering what they read may want to do 5-6 shorter responses. Once you finish your proposal, post it, leave me a comment, and wait for my approval. Please do not hesitate to ask for help!

The Standards:

ELABLRL1 The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence (i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism, plot events, main ideas, and characteristics) in a variety of texts representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay, editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for interpretation.
ELABLRL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in a work of British and/or Commonwealth literature and provides evidence from the work to support understanding.
ELABLRL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.
ELABLRL4 The student employs a variety of writing genres to demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of significant ideas in selected literary works. The student composes essays, narratives, poems, or technical documents.
ELABLRL5 The student understands and acquires new vocabulary and uses it correctly in reading and writing.

Step Three: Read your novel. Once again, trying to complete this project without reading your novel is foolish. I expect you to post at least three separate responses to your novel as you read. These responses need to be at least four complete paragraphs. These responses are an excellent way to address the standards as you read. You should not wait until the end to do this (keep in mind that Blogger puts a date on all your work). You may want to look over your book and plan where you will write your responses before you begin.

Step Four: Once all the elements from your proposal are complete, post your work on your blog and leave me a comment. You will have one chance at a revision before your work is final.

Expository Writing Example

2010-02-24T14:43:00.002-05:00

What does this SHOW you?

User Agreement

2010-02-16T16:02:00.001-05:00

Using a weblog for our classwork will require some parameters for your safety and the quality of everyone's work. First, you should recognize that your work, as well as mine will be published for the entire on-line world to see. This will ultimately make us all responsible for better and more original output than ever before. By visiting other students' weblogs, you will be able to view all their work, and it will also make it easy for me to see who is not making an effort to submit work that is original.

Once you create your own weblog for this class, I will add it to the class blog roll so everyone's work can be accessed from this page. I encourage you to look at your peers' work for ideas or inspiration, but what you submit must be your own. Language Arts lends itself well to this format since you will be asked to respond to the literature and history we study with your own ideas and opinions. There are no right or wrong answers in a Language Arts class, so looking at other students' ideas can help you. It can also create problems if you choose to be lazy.

I will leave comments about your work. These comments will usually instruct you on how you can improve your work. Please make sure you check your comments and your e-mail regularly, and make sure you are finished with one assignment before moving to the next.

Since this weblog will be part of your education at Classic City High School, any activity on your weblog should be considered school activity, even if it is done outside of school. You should feel free to create posts that are not school related, but you should also be sure to refrain from anything that could be considered inappropriate. This includes, but is not limited to: references to alcohol or drugs, violence, or gang activity, foul language, nudity, threats, etc.

Plagiarism is submitting someone else's work as your own. This can be done in many ways: copying work from Wikipedia, classmates, Sparknotes, etc. If you plagiarize your work, you will receive a zero -- no questions asked.

THE USER AGREEMENT:

1. I agree to submit original work to my weblog. I realize I will have the opportunity to view my peers' work, and I will use this opportunity constructively. I understand that if I choose to plagiarize, I will receive a zero for the work in question with no option to redo the assignment in question.

2. I agree to keep my weblog appropriate for Classic City High School. I understand that if innapropriate material were to appear on my weblog, be it from myself or an outside comment, I will be asked to remove it. Failure to do so will result in my weblog being removed from the class roll. I also understand that refereneces to illegal or dangerous activities will be reported since it is the legal responsibility of my teacher.

Classroom Procedures and Expectations
Dana Siegmund
Classic City High School

NovaNet:
You are required to score at least an 80% on all post-tests.
You should take notes on all your lessons to use when you take the post-test. Pasting screen shots onto Powerpoint is not taking notes.
I will check your notebook four times during the semester, and these grades will be factored into your total NovaNet score.
I will not override prescriptions after your pretest, unless it is a special circumstance.
If you score lower than a 70 on a post-test, I will reassign prescriptions

Leaving the Classroom:
Please let me know you need to leave before doing so.
Once you leave, take care of your business and come right back. Do not disturb other classes.
If you plan to purchase anything from Jittery Joe’s, you will need the pass.
If your trip is not absolutely necessary, please do not be surprised if I say “no”.
If you are gone for 15 minutes of any class period, I will mark you absent.

Administrative Absences:
If you did not come to school to work, I will mark you absent and ask you to leave.
You shouldn’t take this personally.
There is a waiting list full of people waiting to be a student at Classic City High School PLC, and if you are not making the best use of your spot, it will soon be someone else’s.

Great Headphone Issue:
Some people work well with headphones and others do not. If you choose to use headphones, you should have your own. I have a couple sets that are reserved for projects that require them. Students using headphones need to use them responsibly. If your headphone use is disrupting yours or other students' work (completely at my discretion), your privileges will be suspended (see Internet Use as well).

Internet Use
The Internet is an extremely useful educational tool, but it can also be misused. If your Internet use becomes detrimental to your progress (including music), your Internet privileges will be blocked. Students who attempt to circumnavigate this decision will receive an administrative absence.
Food:Food is great. Pick up your trash.

Mobile Phones:
I will follow the mobile phone policy explained in the Classic City High School Handbook.
The Classroom:Please leave it in the condition you found it.
Push in your chairs.
Put books away.
Pick up after yourself.

To agree, post a comment to this message like this:
I agree to Mr. Siegmund's Weblog User Agreement as well as his Classroom Procedures and Expectations.
I will not add your weblog to the class roll until I receive a comment from you like the example above.

Analytical Writing

2010-02-02T15:39:00.000-05:00

Wayne's new world: A track-by-track breakdown of Lil Wayne's 'Rebirth'

Exemplary Work

2010-01-20T14:30:00.000-05:00

Please take a moment to review some of the excellent work your classmates have been submitting this term. Play special attention to how well each of these examples address the Georgia Performance Standards.

Jasmine Sigman -- Dark Romanticism and Realism

Shuntavia Smith -- Native American and Colonial Periods

Laura Benevides -- Romanticism and Transcendentalism

Short Story Project II -- Non-Fiction

2009-12-14T09:04:00.009-05:00

OPENING: Just like you did with your last literature project, you will need to review the Georgia Performance Standards this unit addresses. This will help you understand what you are supposed to take away from this lesson. Take a few moments to read the following standards, keeping in mind that you may need to read them more than once:

ELA10RL1 The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence (i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism, plot events and main ideas) in a variety of texts representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay, editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for interpretation.

ELA10RL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

Mini-Lesson: For your next short story project you will read some nonfiction. Nonfiction can take many forms: magazine stories, newspaper articles, memoirs, and essays are all examples. You will read at least two different examples for this project.
The first thing you will need to do is to pick a memior or a personal narrative of an event. The gold and green textbooks have several good examples.
Some Suggestions:
It Can't Be Helped from Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston -- page 355 in green anthology;
R.M.S. Titanic by Hanson W. Baldwin -- page 390 in green anthology
A Presentation of Whales by Barry Lopez -- page 432 in green anthology
When I Lay My Burden Down from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou -- page 357 in gold anthology
Haven't I Made a Difference! by James Harriot -- page 407 in gold anthology
If you plan to choose a different memoir or personal narrative, please show me what you plan to use before you begin. Please remember that stories that are very short often make your task harder in the long run.

Work Period: When you are finished reading, post the following to your blog:
1. Write a 2-3 paragraph summary/response to what you have read. Please be sure to consentrate more on your feelings about the story rather than simply summarizing what happened.
2. Explain what you think the author's purpose was for wrinting this story. What do you think he or she wanted readers to come away from this story thinking? Your answer should be between 2 and 3 paragraphs, and the best responses will include some direct evidence from the story.
3. Why do you think it is important to read about moments in other people's lives? Why are these stories so popular? Are there instances in your life that would be helpful to other people to read about?

Closing: Review what you wrote about the Georgia Performance Standards in the opening part of this unit. Now, provide specific evidence from your own work to show how it addresses these standards. If you are having difficulty with this, let me know.

Lit 10 Writing Assignments

2009-11-09T14:07:00.003-05:00

Before looking at the actual writing assignments, lets begin by identifying the Georgia Performance Standards they will address as well as the process we will use in this class.

The Standards:

ELA10W1 The student produces writing that establishes an appropriate organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader, maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals a satisfying closure.

ELA10W2 The student demonstrates competence in a variety of genres.

ELA10W3 The student uses research and technology to support writing.

ELA10W4 The student practices both timed and process writing and, when applicable, uses the writing process to develop, revise, and evaluate writing.

As you compose your rough drafts, you should always keep these standards in mind. They will also be instrumental in our editing process.
The Writing Process:

You will receive three grades for each of the four writing assignments you will complete:

Rough Draft -- have two pages of double-spaced Times New Roman 12-point text by the day it is due for editing.
Editing -- You will edit with one of your peers. This is a timed exercise, and it should be easy to earn a high score on this portion of your writing process.
Final Draft -- This will be my evaluation of your writing. You may complete more drafts to earn a higher score if you choose. Any essay scoring below an 80 will need to be revised.

Your Writing Assignments:

Writing One: Autobiographical Writing -- I don't think you can fit your entire life into two double-spaced pages, so you should focus on one important moment that sticks out to you. You should also spend some of your essay explaining why this moment was so important, as well as how it may have changed you, taught you something, or made you appreciate (or dislike) something.

Writing Two: Persuasive Writing --Persuasive writing is a form with which you are probably very familiar. It appears in newspapers and magazines, and you are likely to have already written your fair share of persuasive writing. The topics for the Georgia High School Graduation Writing Test are usually persuasive in nature.

Persuasive Writing is a piece of writing in which you try to persuade someone to agree with you or to convince them to share your opinion of something.
You may choose a political issue like immigration, upcoming elections, state graduation tests, drivers' licence policies for teanagers, or the war in Iraq to attempt to get others to share your feelings on the issue.
You may choose to argue that your favorite entertainer, athlete, team, television show or movie is the best.
You may choose to convice people that something going on today needs to be changed.
You can read some good examples of persuasive writing here, here, here, and here.
EVIDENCE is one of the most important elements of persuasive writing. If you are attempting to change someone's mind, or influence their opinion, you need to provide examples of why you feel the way you do.

Some Student examples that may be helpful to you:

Curt Cobain did not Kill Himself -- Morgan Chapman

Immigration -- Carlos Baires

Monopoly at McDonald's is not a Rip-off -- Anisha Hayes

The Attendance Policy is Dumb -- Toikia Hancock

Lit 9 Writing Assignments

2009-11-09T14:03:00.001-05:00

Before looking at the actual writing assignments, lets begin by identifying the Georgia Performance Standards they will address as well as the process we will use in this class.

The Standards:

ELA9W1 The student produces writing that establishes an appropriate organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader, maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals a satisfying closure.

ELA9W2 The student demonstrates competence in a variety of genres.

ELA9W3 The student uses research and technology to support writing.

ELA9W4 The student practices both timed and process writing and, when applicable, uses the writing process to develop, revise, and evaluate writing.

As you compose your rough drafts, you should always keep these standards in mind. They will also be instrumental in our editing process.
The Writing Process:

You will receive three grades for each of the four writing assignments you will complete:

Rough Draft -- have two pages of double-spaced Times New Roman 12-point text by the day it is due for editing.
Editing -- You will edit with one of your peers. This is a timed exercise, and it should be easy to earn a high score on this portion of your writing process.
Final Draft -- This will be my evaluation of your writing. You may complete more drafts to earn a higher score if you choose. Any essay scoring below an 80 will need to be revised.

Your Writing Assignments:

Writing One: Narrative Writing -- A Narrative is simply a piece of writing that describes a series of events. Think of the people we call "narrator" in a story, play, or movie -- their job is just to explain what is going on. For your narrative, you can choose to describe a series of events that you experienced firsthand, something that happened to someone else, or you can create a piece of fiction.

This should be a good opportunity to get your wheels turning without having to worry about evidence or other more complex elements.

Writing Two: Persuasive Writing --Persuasive writing is a form with which you are probably very familiar. It appears in newspapers and magazines, and you are likely to have already written your fair share of persuasive writing. The topics for the Georgia High School Graduation Writing Test are usually persuasive in nature.

Persuasive Writing is a piece of writing in which you try to persuade someone to agree with you or to convince them to share your opinion of something.
You may choose a political issue like immigration, upcoming elections, state graduation tests, drivers' licence policies for teanagers, or the war in Iraq to attempt to get others to share your feelings on the issue.
You may choose to argue that your favorite entertainer, athlete, team, television show or movie is the best.
You may choose to convice people that something going on today needs to be changed.
You can read some good examples of persuasive writing here, here, here, and here.
EVIDENCE is one of the most important elements of persuasive writing. If you are attempting to change someone's mind, or influence their opinion, you need to provide examples of why you feel the way you do.

User Agreement

2009-11-02T15:58:00.001-05:00

Using a weblog for our classwork will require some parameters for your safety and the quality of everyone's work. First, you should recognize that your work, as well as mine will be published for the entire on-line world to see. This will ultimately make us all responsible for better and more original output than ever before. By visiting other students' weblogs, you will be able to view all their work, and it will also make it easy for me to see who is not making an effort to submit work that is original.

Once you create your own weblog for this class, I will add it to the class blog roll so everyone's work can be accessed from this page. I encourage you to look at your peers' work for ideas or inspiration, but what you submit must be your own. Language Arts lends itself well to this format since you will be asked to respond to the literature and history we study with your own ideas and opinions. There are no right or wrong answers in a Language Arts class, so looking at other students' ideas can help you. It can also create problems if you choose to be lazy.

I will leave comments about your work. These comments will usually instruct you on how you can improve your work. Please make sure you check your comments and your e-mail regularly, and make sure you are finished with one assignment before moving to the next.

Since this weblog will be part of your education at Classic City High School, any activity on your weblog should be considered school activity, even if it is done outside of school. You should feel free to create posts that are not school related, but you should also be sure to refrain from anything that could be considered inappropriate. This includes, but is not limited to: references to alcohol or drugs, violence, or gang activity, foul language, nudity, threats, etc.

Plagiarism is submitting someone else's work as your own. This can be done in many ways: copying work from Wikipedia, classmates, Sparknotes, etc. If you plagiarize your work, you will receive a zero -- no questions asked.

THE USER AGREEMENT:

1. I agree to submit original work to my weblog. I realize I will have the opportunity to view my peers' work, and I will use this opportunity constructively. I understand that if I choose to plagiarize, I will receive a zero for the work in question with no option to redo the assignment in question.

2. I agree to keep my weblog appropriate for Classic City High School. I understand that if innapropriate material were to appear on my weblog, be it from myself or an outside comment, I will be asked to remove it. Failure to do so will result in my weblog being removed from the class roll. I also understand that refereneces to illegal or dangerous activities will be reported since it is the legal responsibility of my teacher.

Classroom Procedures and Expectations
Dana Siegmund
Classic City High School

NovaNet:
You are required to score at least an 80% on all post-tests.

You should take notes on all your lessons to use when you take the post-test. Pasting screen shots onto Powerpoint is not taking notes.

I will check your notebook four times during the semester, and these grades will be factored into your total NovaNet score.

I will not override prescriptions after your pretest, unless it is a special circumstance.

If you score lower than a 70 on a post-test, I will reassign prescriptions

Leaving the Classroom:
Please let me know you need to leave before doing so.

Once you leave, take care of your business and come right back. Do not disturb other classes.

If you plan to purchase anything from Jittery Joe’s, you will need the pass.

If your trip is not absolutely necessary, please do not be surprised if I say “no”.

If you are gone for 15 minutes of any class period, I will mark you absent.

Administrative Absences:
If you did not come to school to work, I will mark you absent and ask you to leave.

You shouldn’t take this personally.

There is a waiting list full of people waiting to be a student at Classic City High School PLC, and if you are not making the best use of your spot, it will soon be someone else’s.

Great Headphone Issue:
Some people work well with headphones and others do not. If you choose to use headphones, you should have your own. I have a couple sets that are reserved for projects that require them. Students using headphones need to use them responsibly. If your headphone use is disrupting yours or other students' work (completely at my discretion), your privileges will be suspended (see Internet Use as well).

Internet Use
The Internet is an extremely useful educational tool, but it can also be misused. If your Internet use becomes detrimental to your progress (including music), your Internet privileges will be blocked. Students who attempt to circumnavigate this decision will receive an administrative absence.

Food:
Food is great. Pick up your trash.

Mobile Phones:
I will follow the mobile phone policy explained in the Classic City High School Handbook.

The Classroom:
Please leave it in the condition you found it.

Push in your chairs.

Put books away.

Pick up after yourself.

To agree, post a comment to this message like this:
I agree to Mr. Siegmund's Weblog User Agreement as well as his Classroom Procedures and Expectations.
I will not add your weblog to the class roll until I receive a comment from you like the example above.

Before Unit One -- The Standards (Lit 9)

2009-11-02T14:19:00.001-05:00

Let's start this class with something you will be doing in every single unit you complete -- a discussion of the Georgia Performance Standards, and what they actually mean. Below you can see I have copied one of the standards for American Literature (Lit 11):

ELA9RL1 The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence (i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism, plot events and main ideas) in a variety of texts representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay, editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for interpretation.

Read it one more time.
I wanted to start with this one since it is one that covers much of what we will do through the course of the class. Think about what it means. I realize this is not written in the way we usually talk, so let's work on translating it.

Your task:
Create a post on your blog called "Georgia Performance Standards", and then simply explain what you think the above standards mean. It should not take you any more than three sentences. Once you are done, you may want to add why mastering a standard like this is important.

Next:
Take a look at this standard as well:
ELA9RL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to contemporary context or historical background.

Once you have reviewed this one, follow the above directions one more time. Keep in mind that you are explaining what you think this standard means, and that there are no right and wrong answers at this point.

Once everybody has finished, we will have a brief discussion.

Short Story Project -- THEME

2009-11-02T13:55:00.001-05:00

OPENING: This project will specifically address the following Georgia Performance Standard:

ELA9RL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in literary works from various genres and provides evidence from the works to support understanding.

Take a moment to read it a few times while thinking about what it might mean. Then create a post on your blog called "Short Story -- THEME", then post the following:

1. Translate this standard into your own words, and then add a sentence or two describing what you expect from this project.

MINI LESSON:

"Theme" is the central idea of a work of literature. This does not mean "theme" is the same as the subject of a piece of writing. The subject of a piece of writing can be described in a word or two, "baseball", "farming", or "The Holocaust" to list a few examples. The theme is what the author wishes to reveal about the subject.
Some Examples:
Romeo and Juliet:
Subject: Young Love
Theme: Young love is often more important than family
Boyz in tha Hood:
Subject: Life in South-Central Los Angeles
Theme: Gang life is dangerous even for those who do not actively engage in it.
Back to the Future:
Subject: Time Travel
Theme: Though many people would like to change their pasts, their lives may end up worse if they did.

WORK PERIOD:

For this project, you will need to select a short story to read. Below are some suggestions of stories that are good for discussing theme:
Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird by Toni Cade Bambara -- page 266 in gold anthology
Independence by Ruth Sasaki -- page 278 in gold anthology
American History by Judith Ortiz Cofer -- page 290 in gold anthology
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson -- page 34 in green McGraw Hill anthology
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor -- page 86 in green McGraw Hill anthology
If you would like to read another story that is not on this list, show it to me before you begin.
When you are finished reading, post the following to your weblog:

2. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the story you read. Please focus more on how you felt about the story than writing a summary.

3. What was the subject of the story? What was the theme? Look at the examples above if you need to. What do you think about what the author was trying to reveal about the subject? Do you agree with the author? Answer these questions in a short paragraph.

4. How does the author's words support the theme they are trying to convey. In other words, how can you tell what the author thought about the subject, and how can you tell what the author was hoping you would think when you finished the story. Make sure you provide some direct evidence from the story to support you r response.

5. Think of your favorite movie. Explain the subject of that movie, and then the theme. How does the person who created this movie deliver the theme? Describe the themes that let you know how the author feels about the subject and convinces viewers to feel the same.

CLOSING:

Review the standards I have listed below, and with direct evidence from YOUR work, explain how you have addressed at least two of the three.

ELA9RL1 The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence (i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism, plot events and main ideas) in a variety of texts representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay, editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for interpretation.

ELA9RL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in literary works from various genres and provides evidence from the works to support understanding.

ELA9RL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to contemporary context or historical background.

When you are through, self-evaluate your work with the help of the Rubric for Weblog Posts, and then leave me a comment to this message telling me you are through.

What do you think?

2009-10-07T13:49:00.001-04:00

Cobb County teen told he can't dress like a girl

Read the article, and then join the conversation and work toward mastering the following:

ELA11LSV2 The student formulates reasoned judgments about written and oral communication in various media genres.

Unit Four -- Modernism

2009-09-22T14:40:00.002-04:00

What is the American Dream?

Can you define it?

Is the American Dream a Reality for all Americans?

OPENING: Discussion of Georgia Performance Standards

Take a moment to view the following five standards:

ELAALRL1 The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence (i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism, plot events and main ideas) in a variety of texts representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay, editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for interpretation.

ELAALRL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in a work of American literature and provides evidence from the work to support understanding.

ELAALRL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

ELAALRL5 The student understands and acquires new vocabulary and uses it correctly in reading and writing.

ELAALRC2 The student participates in discussions related to curricular learning in all subject areas.

ELAALRC3 The student acquires new vocabulary in each content area and uses it correctly.

1. Create a new post on your blog called "Unit Four", and then explain which of the above standards you have had the most difficulty mastering. Make specific references to the work you have done in this class in your response.

Mini-Lesson

One of the biggest themes of Moderist American Literature is disallusionment. Disillusionment is defined as freeing oneself, or getting away from an illusion, or getting away from ideas that have no logical basis. One of the most common targets of disillusionment was the American Dream -- the idea that the United States of America was a land of opportunity and that all its people were virtueous. Many writers were beginning to see that this wasn't all true, and they were not afraid to attack this ideal in their work.

This idea of disillusionment set the stage nicely for the Harlem Renaissance, when African-American artists were beginning to enjoy some mainstream success. These artists expressed the illogical nature of the American Dream since they especially were not permitted to enjoy the lifestyle it seems to guarantee. Many black soldiers who came home after serving in Europe immediately recognized that they were not treated with the same respect in their own homeland as they were in Eurpe. Many of these artists were the children and grandchildren of former slaves, and they too were ready to show that the American Dream was not quite the reality people thought. In their writing, music, and painting Harlem Renaissance artists either focused on the inequities that black Americans faced or celebrating the black American culture many people had not seen in art until this time.

Please post the following to your blog:

Disillusionment -- Soldier's Home by Earnest Hemmingway

The Harlem Renaissance -- Sweat or The Gilded Six-Bits by Zora Neale Hurston can be found here.

The Jazz Age -- Choose a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald here.

Psychoanalysis -- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber

4. Read the following poems. When you study poetry, it is a good habit to read each selection MORE THAN ONCE.

Richard Corey by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Mending Wall by Robert Frost

A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes

The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes

Incident by Countee Cullen

SELF-EVALUATE YOUR WORK!!

5. Review your response to number 1 in this unit. Then explain how you have addressed the Georgia Performance Standard you said was a challenge for you. You should support this claim with evidence from your own work.

Once you have completed all of the above, leave me a comment to remind me to check your work.

Another Example of Analytical Writing

2009-09-10T14:03:00.002-04:00

This piece is a little long, but I think it is very captivating. Look at all the ways the author as well as the people in the story are analyzing the situation.

Trial by Fire:
Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?

More Examples of Analytical Writing

2009-09-09T09:33:00.001-04:00

Here are some more examples from past semesters that may be helpful to you.

Analytical Writing -- Kayla Fortson -- Rhythm and Blues
Analytical Writing -- Andrea Coleman -- Reggae
Analytical Writing -- Caleb Pope -- Emo Subculture
Analytical Writing -- Jeff Green -- The Magic of Athens

Analytical Writing Example from this Week:

2009-09-08T12:39:00.002-04:00

http://onlineathens.com/stories/090809/foo_490723981.shtml

You may have already read it.

How is this writer breaking something into pieces to help form a greater understanding of what happened?

Unit Three -- Dark Romanticism and Realism

2009-09-03T14:37:00.004-04:00

Opening: A discussion of a new Georgia Performance Standard:
ELAALRL4 The student employs a variety of writing genres to demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of significant ideas in selected literary works. The student composes essays, narratives, poems, or technical documents.

Read the standard at least twice and begin thinking about what you may be asked to do before you are through with this unit. Once you are done thinking:

1. Create a post on your blog titled "Unit Three", and then explain what you believe the above standard means, and then go further by explaining what you think you will need to do to meet this particular standard.

Short Review:

1. What is original sin?

2. How did the Transcendentalists feel about it?

If you cannot explain these two questions, you probably need to call me over for a little conversation. It would not make much sense progressing without knowing these things and being able to explain them well.

Mini-Lesson:

Just like every other movement in American Literature you have studied (Puritanism, Rationalism, Romanticm, and Transcendentalism) Dark Romanticism is a reaction to the movement that came before it. Dark Romanticism is a little different because it coincides with Transcendentalism. Sometimes the Dark Romantics are known as Anti-Transcendentalists for this reason.

First, let's review the Transcendentalist philosophy:

a. They believed that everyone was absolutely pure and that each individual is a part of God.

b. They believed that people's thoughts and intuition were the voice of God.

c. They did not believe in institutions like government because they thought the individual human mind was the strongest power in the universe.

What would your argument to this philosophy be? Are all people good? Is the voice inside people's heads the pure voice of God?

Let's review the lives of some of the Dark Romantics to see if we can predict how they would answer these questions:

Post the following responses to your blog:

2. Which side of the divide do you fall? Are you closer to being a Transcendentalist or a Dark Romantic? Explain your answer with a short paragraph.

Work Period:

4. Write a 2-3 paragraph response to the story you read. You should explain what you thought of the story as well as how well it illustrates how the Dark Romantics disagreed with the Transcendantalists. You need to provide at least a line or two of direct textual evidence from the story you chose to prove your claim.

You can also see the video a little larger here.

6. A symbol is something (usually an object) that stands for a much larger idea. Poe uses symbolism very weill in "The Raven". Can you identify it, and then support what you say with some evidence and analysis? I know you can.

7. Check these out. If you are doing what you should, you are addressing all three (and even more) in this unit. Using your word as DIRECT evidence (cut and paste from your own post) tell me how you are meeting these standards.

Self-Evaluate Your Work!!

Click Here to continue on to Realism

Unit Two -- Renaissance Sonnets

2009-08-19T12:52:00.003-04:00

Opening:
As always, we should take a look at the Georgia Performance Standards this unit will address. Please take a moment to read the standard below published by the Georgia Department of Education:

ELABLRL4 The student employs a variety of writing genres to demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of significant ideas in selected literary works. The student composes essays, narratives, poems, or technical documents.

You will also address some of the standards we have seen in the past unit: ELABLRL1 and ELABLRL3. You should remember what these standards addressed. If you do not, you should call me over so we can have a little chat.

1. Create a blog post titled "Unit Two" and explain what you think the above standard (ELEBLRL4) means. What kinds of expectations does it give you for this unit?

Mini-Lesson -- Renaissance Sonnets:

The sonnet was the most accepted form of written art during the Renaissance. People loved them then, but today they can leave us scratching our heads. I was often confused by sonnets and their flowery language, but once I learned how to read them, they became much easier to understand.
.

IF YOU PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS POST, SONNETS WILL BE EASY FOR YOU TOO.

This will come in handy since you will be writing one of your own.

First, it would be important to define a sonnet as a fourteen-line poem composed in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is the beat of the poem, and it essentially means that each line is made up of five pairs (penta) of syllables -- the first one unstressed, and the second one stressed. Here is an example of a line of iambic pentameter from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

But soft! - What light - through yon - der win - dow breaks?

Now imagine you are a poet writing a sonnet, and if you were a poet in the Renaissance, sonnets and plays (also written in a certain meter) were the only accepted forms of literature. Imagine how dificult it would be to choose words with exactly the right stress as well as number of syllables. You see, these poems weren't written the way they were just to give you a hard time.

Next, we need to talk about rhyme scheme. This is pretty simple. Check out my example below; it is one that may also help you with geometry:

Pythagoras had a good ruse (A)

With a rule just for triangles to use (A)

"Add the squares of each side," (B)

He said with some pride," (B)

That's the square of the hypotenuse!" (A)

The rhyme scheme of this poem is AABBA. All you have to do is look at the last word on each line. I start with ruse, and since it is the first line, I assign it an A. Then I look at use, and see that it rhymes with ruse, and so it is an A as well. Then I look at side, and see that it does not rhyme with ruse or use, so it is a B. Pride rhymes with side, so it is a B as well. At the end, when I see hypotenuse rhymes with ruse, it is an A. That makes the rhyme scheme ABBA.

It is important to understand rhyme scheme when reading a sonnet. If you pay close attention to the rhyme scheme, it can help you divide the poem into sections which will make it much easier for you to comprehend.

Let's look at an example of a sonnet from the two most popular sonateers, William Shakespeare and Edmund Spencer. These poets use two different rhyme schemes in their sonnets. Shakespeare uses a ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme, and Spencer uses ABAB BCBC CDCD EE. I will draw lines to show how the rhyme scheme divides the poem into four sections.

Sonnet 18

William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (A)

Thou art more lovely and more temperate. (B)

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, (A)

And summer's lease hath all to short a date. (B)

___________________________________

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, (C)

And often is his gold complextion dimmed, (D)

And every fair from fair sometimes declines, (C)

By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed. (D)

___________________________________

But thy eternal summer shall not fade, (E)

Nor lose possesion of that fair thou owest, (F)

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade (E)

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st. (F)

___________________________________

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, (G)

So long lives this, and gives life to thee. (G)

Sonnet 30

Edmund Spencer

My love is like to ice, and I to fire; (A)

How comes it then that this her cold so great (B)

Is not dissolved through my so hot desire, (A)

But harder grows the more I her entreat? (B)

________________________________

Or how comes it that my exceeding heat (B)

Is not delayed by her heart frozen cold, (C)

But that I burn much more in boiling sweat, (B)

And feel my flames augmented manifold? (C)

________________________________

What more miraculous thing may be told (C)

That fire which all thing melts, should harden ice, (D)

And ice which is congealed with senseless cold, (C)

Should kindle fire by wonderful device? (D)

________________________________

Such is the power of love in gentle mind, (E)

That it can alter all the course of kind. (E)

:Work Period:
Continue by adding the following to your Unit Two post

2. Examine the difference between the rhyme scheme Spencer uses and the one Shakespeare uses. Explain the difference. Which one do you prefer? (If you are unable to give a good answer to this question, it is time to come talk to me.)

3. The rhyme scheme divides sonnets into four sections. The first section is a question asked from one point of view, the second is the same question asked from another point of view. The third section is called the turn. The turn is a shift in focus or the thoughts of the first two points of view. The last section is the conclusion. Use this method to explain the message in each of the four sections of the two poems above.

4. Choose one more of Shakespeare's sonnets as well as another one of Spencer's sonnets. You can find these all over the Internet. Post each poem on your blog then: a. Label the rhyme scheme like my examples; b. explain the message in each of the four sections like you did in question #2.

5. Come get an amatuer sonateer form from me, and then complete both sides.

6. When you have finished, post your completed sonnet on your blog.

Closing:

7. This unit has addressed the following Georgia Performance Standards:

ELABLRL1 The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence (i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism, plot events, main ideas, and characteristics) in a variety of texts representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay, editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for interpretation.
ELABLRL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.
ELABLRL4 The student employs a variety of writing genres to demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of significant ideas in selected literary works. The student composes essays, narratives, poems, or technical documents.

Using your own work as evidence, explain how you have addressed at least two of the standards above. Better responses will have evidence of all three.

SELF-EVALUATE YOUR WORK!

Peer Editing

2009-08-17T09:08:00.007-04:00

Editing with your peers will further address the following Georgia Performance Standard:

ELA11W4 The student practices both timed and process writing and, when applicable, uses the writing process to develop, revise, and evaluate writing.

One of your grades for each of your writings will be for completing a peer editing exercise. This should not be a very difficult activity, but it does require that you remain on task for the duration since the person whose writing you are evaluating deserves your best work.

Becoming a good editor is a great way to become a better writer. No one expects you to find every error in a piece of writing, or to make it perfect. The key here is to help your writer improve their writing any way you know how.

Some tips:

This is not about finding misspelled words and missing commas. If you see them, mark them, but you are after more important improvements.
If something is not clear, write your questions on their paper so they can see what needs to be clarified.
Add to their paper. Do they need examples? additional sentences? Treat their paper like it was your own.

The Editing Process:

Find another student with whom to trade papers. Do not try to edit your own paper since it would be very hard to satisfy the requirements of this exercise with your own work.
Read and edit the other student's paper for a full 30 minutes. Read it as many times as time will allow, and make as many marks, suggestions, questions, or adjustments as you see necessary. Remember, the more you mark, the more you help your writer.
When the 30 minutes are over (I will let you know), look at the following Georgia Performance Standard: ELA11W1 The student produces writing that (1)establishes an appropriate organizational structure, (2)sets a context and engages the reader, (3)maintains a coherent focus throughout, and (4)signals a satisfying closure.
Turn your writer's paper over and write the following sections on the back of their draft, making sure to leave yourself enough room to make note of at least two things your writer is doing well and two things your writer needs to work on for each of the four elements in the standard above:

Organization
Context / Engagement
Focus
Closure (conclusion)

Step 5. For each of the above elements, write down notes for your writer. Your notes should include at least two things the writer is doing well, and at least two things they should work on to improve.

Example:

ORAGANIZATION:
1. You have done well to divide your essay into unified paragraphs.
2. The organization of your paper makes it easier for me to understand.
3. There are a couple sentences in your third paragraph that do not really belong there. I would move them to your fifth paragraph since they fit there better.
4. I think your second paragraph is really your introduction. I would think about moving it up.

Step 6. When you are through, you should have a brief discussion with your writer.
Step 7. When you get your paper back, it is wise to make adjustments immediately since you are in a writing / editing frame of mind.
Step 8. Rename your file so that the word "final" appears in the file name, and put your adjusted draft in my drop box. Hand me your edited paper draft so I can make comparisons and see how your writing has developed.

Unit Two -- Romanticism and Transcendentalism

2009-08-12T13:48:00.004-04:00

Opening: Let's start where we always do -- with a discussion of the standards this unit will address. Take a moment to read the Georgia Performance Standard I have pasted below:

ELAALRL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in a work of American literature and provides evidence from the work to support understanding.

1. Read it again. What is a theme? Would you know one when you saw it? Could you provide evidence to support what you say? Take a moment to post to your blog what this standard might mean, and while you are at it, what this thing called theme" is.

Mini-Lesson -- Washington Irving was a straight-up pimpdaddy. Just look at him. If there was MTV then, he would have been on Cribs. He crashed parties at the White House, and he rolled the tightest whips. Most of this is true.

Irving was probably The United States’ first home-grown celebrity, and you are probably familiar with some of his stories like "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". These stories are some of the best examples of American Romanticism, a style of writing that required people to use their imaginations.

Irving was so famous that some of the stories he created are still accepted as fact today. Have you heard the story about Christopher Columbus proving the earth was round? That is fact, right? NOPE.

This myth (as well as some others) were created from Washington Irving’s stories. Irving wrote a children’s book about Columbus in which the explorer wanted to prove the world was round. The fact is that everybody already knew it was round at the time. In fact, globes were a popular thing with which people decorated their homes.

It is not hard to believe that so many people would take Irving’s stories for fact. People needed a little fiction and imagination to get away from their lives because living in the United States during this time (the 1820s-40s) was not the most enjoyable. Most people lived in large cities like Boston, New York (which quadrupled in population in twenty years), and Philadelphia. These places were nasty. People threw their trash and sewage in the street; horse droppings were everywhere; if a horse dropped dead, it would stay in the street to rot; thousands of children and adults were homeless; pirates would come ashore and rob people in the cities; gangs controlled sections of many these cities, and a cholera epidemic killed up to one hundred people a day.

Romanticism is the school of thought that emphasizes intuition over logic, and feeling over reason. You should immediately recognize how this is different from the Rationalist school of thought. Romantics felt that reason and logic can only go so far for someone who is homeless and starving, or suffering the side-effects of the Industrial Revolution like pollution and being injured in large factories.

Be careful not to confuse Romanticism with what we commonly call "romantic" today. They are a little bit different. We call lovey-dovey movies and stories romantic today because it is a kind of Romanticism in that they depict relationships in the way we would imagine them, and not the way they actually are.

The Romantics believed there were higher truths than reason and logic, and they felt this could be accomplished by listening to one’s heart, or using one’s imagination to reach better places than where they were physically.

Many people around the world thought Americans were unsophisticated and stupid, and the Rationalists tried very hard to prove that this was unfair and untrue. Romantics, on the other hand, told stories of ordinary people, like Rip Van Winkle or Natty Bumppo who were unsophisticated and were able to rise to the level of hero. They wanted to prove that Americans were more innocent than Europeans, and that true knowledge was not found in libraries, but in adventures.

Romantics also focused on nature in their writing since they thought it was a way to escape from the loud city, as well as a way to hear ones intuition.

Work Period:
Read either Rip Van Winkle or The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and then post the following to your weblog:

Better yet, listen to Rip Van Winkle as you read it. Please take the time to open the text file since reading and listening together will be the most useful, especially since you will need to find textual evidence later.
Rip Van Winkle Audio:

2. What about the story did you find particularly Romantic? You may want to reread the section on Romanticism again to refresh your memory. Give at least two examples with direct evidence for each.

3. You can also find this video in my assignments folder in my drop box. If you view it there, you will be able to watch it full-screen. You can also view it here. How does this poem illustrate all three of the main themes of Romanticism? Make sure you provide evidence for each claim you make.

Closing:

4. Take a moment to review the Georgia Performance Standards we have studied so far:

ELAALRL1 The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence (i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism, plot events and main ideas) in a variety of texts representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay, editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for interpretation.
ELAALRL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in a work of American literature and provides evidence from the work to support understanding.
ELAALRL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

As specifically as possible, please explain how you have addressed the above standards. You should have something to say about each.

When you have finished these exercises, continue on to The Transcendentalists.

Lit 12 Writing Exercises

2009-08-11T09:26:00.003-04:00

Before looking at the actual writing assignments, lets begin by identifying the Georgia Performance Standards they will address as well as the process we will use in this class.

The Standards:

ELA12W1 The student produces writing that establishes an appropriate organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader, maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals a satisfying closure.

ELA12W2 The student demonstrates competence in a variety of genres.

ELA12W3 The student uses research and technology to support writing.

ELA12W4 The student practices both timed and process writing and, when applicable, uses the writing process to develop, revise, and evaluate writing.

As you compose your rough drafts, you should always keep these standards in mind. They will also be instrumental in our editing process.
The Writing Process:

You will receive three grades for each of the four writing assignments you will complete:

Rough Draft -- have at least two pages of double-spaced Times New Roman 12-point text by the day it is due for editing.
Editing -- You will edit with one of your peers. This is a timed exercise, and it should be easy to earn a high score on this portion of your writing process.
Final Draft -- This will be my evaluation of your writing. You may complete more drafts to earn a higher score if you choose. Any essay scoring below an 80 will need to be revised.

Your Writing Assignments:

Writing One -- The Hero Cycle
This piece of writing, an original hero story, will be related to the work you have done in unit one and your study of Beowulf. Before you start writing, I would like you to be familiar with something called the Hero Cycle: View the Hero Cycle slide show here.

After viewing the slide show, you will begin constructing your own story with a new hero you create. Since your hero should have many of the same experiences as those in the Hero Cycle, it will be very helpful to map out these steps before you start writing. A simple list of the steps and how your hero experiences them would be fine.

Once you finish your list, you should use it as an outline for composing your story. When your draft is finished, put it in my drop box.

User Agreement

2009-08-10T10:35:00.001-04:00

Plagiarism is submitting someone else's work as your own. This can be done in many ways: copying work from Wikipedia, classmates, Sparknotes, etc. If you plagiarize your work, you will receive a zero -- no questions asked.

THE USER AGREEMENT:

1. I agree to submit original work to my weblog. I realize I will have the opportunity to view my peers' work, and I will use this opportunity constructively. I understand that if I choose to plagiarize, I will receive a zero for the work in question with no option to redo the assignment in question.

2. I agree to keep my weblog appropriate for Classic City High School. I understand that if innapropriate material were to appear on my weblog, be it from myself or an outside comment, I will be asked to remove it. Failure to do so will result in my weblog being removed from the class roll. I also understand that refereneces to illegal or dangerous activities will be reported since it is the legal responsibility of my teacher.

To agree, post a comment to this message like this:
I agree to Mr. Siegmund's Weblog User Agreement.
I will not add your weblog to the class roll until I receive a comment from you like the example above.

Unit One -- The Anglo-Saxsons

2009-08-05T14:43:00.003-04:00

Opening: Discussion of Standards

Before you begin this unit, you should review the Georgia Performance Standards it addresses. Please take a moment to read the standard below published by the Georgia Department of Education:

ELABLRL3 The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.

1. Before you begin this unit, I want you to have a clear understanding of what you should be learning. Take a moment to post to your blog what you think the standard above addresses, and why you think it is important for you to master. Show me what you have written before you show me the rest.

Mini-Lesson: When looking at a map, it is easy to see that Britain is an island that is isolated from the rest of Europe. In the past, the entire island was known as England, and was the home of many legal and political systems still used across the world today. Since it is an island, England had more than its fair share of invaders, each of whom left as aspect of their culture.

First there were the Celts, who led their lives according to their magical religion. They believed in animism, and contributed many of the myths and tales still told in the world today. The remnants of the Celts' culture are still strongly associated with Ireland.

Beginning with an invasion by Julius Ceasar in 55B.C., the Roman Empire would control the island for the next four hundred years. The Romans were very good at protecting Britain from invaders with their technologically advanced military. They also built roads and walls that still exist in England today. Eventually the Roman Empire would begin to fall, and in A.D. 409, the Romans left Brittain unprotected. Rome would ultimately fall in A.D. 476.

The Angles and Saxons attacked from what is modern-day Germany, and the Jutes (yoots) attacked from what is now Denmark. These tribes eliminated the Brittons who enhabited the island except for the Celts who escaped to Wales. The most famous Celt of them all was King Arthur.

Anglo-Saxon England was not very organized at all. There was a different King for each area, and none of the laws nor customs were similar. This all changed when King Alfred of Wessex, or Alfred the great organized the defeat of attacking Danish pirates we know as Vikings. Alfred's success as well as the spread of Christianity across the island helped unify a new land the Anglo-Saxons called England. Though they were more unified at this point, England was still ruled by a large group of kings.

The centerpiece of Anglo-Saxon culture was the warrior tradition, and the ultimate protection of England from its invaders. Absolute loyalty to leaders was essential to the Anglo-Saxons. Though Christianity was on the rise in England, the old Anglo-Saxon religion was still strong. The most important Anglo-Saxon god was Odin, the god of death, poetry, and magic. The Anglo-Saxon name for Odin was Woden, and this is where we get the name for Wednesday. Other important figures in the Anglo-Saxon religion were Thunor, or Thor, and the dragon, who is usually the protector of treasure or warrior graves. The most important people in Anglo-Saxon culture were the warriors and the bards, who recited tales and poetry that often featured plenty of violence.

Work Period . . .

Read the 12 episodes of Beowulf here. This is a modern translation, which may still be a challenge to read because it is a poem. Don't give up! If you need help, ask me! It would help you to jot down notes on each of the episodes.

post the following to your blog -

2. Write a 4-5 paragraph response to Beowulf. What did you think of the story? What parts stuck out to you the most. You may also want to include some of your thoughts on the Anglo-Saxon culture.

3. Think about what you know about the Anglo-Saxon's culture. How well does Beowulf illustrate what the Anglo-Saxons believed? Give at least three separate examples, and back them up with direct evidence from the poem.

4. How does this story compare to the hero stories from our culture? Provide at least one exmample of how Beowulf is similar, and one of how he is different. You should provide some evidence from the text to support what you claim.

5. What do you think of the way Beowulf dies? Write a 2-3 paragraph response on how you feel about the ending of the story. If you don't know where you are going with this, you should talk to me about it. It is especially important to support your opinions with some evidence from Beowulf.

SELF-EVALUATE YOUR WORK!!

Closing: Review of Georgia Performance Standards:
Please review the standards at the beginning of this unit as well as the one in Before Unit One.
6. Write a few sentences to a full paragraph explaining how completing this unit helped you address these standards.

When you are finished, leave a comment to this post, and I will check your blog for your work and set up a conference when we will talk about what you have accomplished.

Lit 11 - Writing Assignments

2009-08-05T08:41:00.008-04:00

Before looking at the actual writing assignments, lets begin by identifying the Georgia Performance Standards they will address as well as the process we will use in this class.

The Standards:

ELA11W1 The student produces writing that establishes an appropriate organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader, maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals a satisfying closure.

ELA11W2 The student demonstrates competence in a variety of genres.

ELA11W3 The student uses research and technology to support writing.

ELA11W4 The student practices both timed and process writing and, when applicable, uses the writing process to develop, revise, and evaluate writing.

As you compose your rough drafts, you should always keep these standards in mind. They will also be instrumental in our editing process.
The Writing Process:

You will receive three grades for each of the four writing assignments you will complete:

Rough Draft -- have two pages of double-spaced Times New Roman 12-point text by the day it is due for editing.
Editing -- You will edit with one of your peers. This is a timed exercise, and it should be easy to earn a high score on this portion of your writing process.
Final Draft -- This will be my evaluation of your writing. You may complete more drafts to earn a higher score if you choose. Any essay scoring below an 80 will need to be revised.

Your Writing Assignments:

Writing One: Persuasive Writing --Persuasive writing is a form with which you are probably very familiar. It appears in newspapers and magazines, and you are likely to have already written your fair share of persuasive writing. The topics for the Georgia High School Graduation Writing Test are usually persuasive in nature.

Persuasive Writing is a piece of writing in which you try to persuade someone to agree with you or to convince them to share your opinion of something.

You may choose a political issue like immigration, upcoming elections, state graduation tests, drivers' licence policies for teanagers, or the war in Iraq to attempt to get others to share your feelings on the issue.
You may choose to argue that your favorite entertainer, athlete, team, television show or movie is the best.
You may choose to convice people that something going on today needs to be changed.
You can read some good examples of persuasive writing here, here, here, and here.
EVIDENCE is one of the most important elements of persuasive writing. If you are attempting to change someone's mind, or influence their opinion, you need to provide examples of why you feel the way you do.

Some Student examples that may be helpful to you:

Curt Cobain did not Kill Himself -- Morgan Chapman
Immigration -- Carlos Baires
Monopoly at McDonald's is not a Rip-off -- Anisha Hayes
The Attendance Policy is Dumb -- Toikia Hancock
Writing Two -- Analytical Writing -- Students in Lit 11 should submit a piece of analytical writing. To analyze something means to break it into small pieces to understand it better. For instance, if I wanted to learn more about engines, I might take one apart to better understand how it works. Analytical writing is a little different. You may want to analyze the work of your favorite musician or visual artist, or you may want to analyze how a certain political decision affects people, or whether or not a decision was the correct one to make.

Examples you should read: Analytical Writing -- Kayla Fortson -- Rhythm and Blues
Analytical Writing -- Andrea Coleman -- Reggae
Analytical Writing -- Caleb Pope -- Emo Subculture
Analytical Writing -- Jeff Green -- The Magic of Athens

Are Baseball Umpires Racist?

Should Huck Finn be Banned?

A Track-by-Track Breakdown of Lil' Wayne's Rebirth

Or you can read one of mine:

Atlanta Sports Fans
Records or CDs?
Research Writing --

Your next writing assignment will require you to do some research on a topic of your choice. Completing this assignment responsibly will help you with your senior project research paper when that time comes for you.

This research report will be pretty brief (the usual two pages of double-spaced 12pt Times New Roman), and you will need at least two reliable sources from which you get your information. If you are having a difficult time choosing reliable sources, check out the post titled Taking Research Notes, which will also instruct you on how to get necessary bibliographic information from your sources. When it is time to start writing, you should also review the post titled Citing Your Sources, which will show you how to give credit to the people from whom you collected your research. Students who choose to learn these skills with this piece of writing will have a much easier time when it is time to write your big research paper.

So? What do you research?

I would choose something in which you are interested, but know little about. Researching something about which you are already knowledgeable can be difficult.

Some ideas:

The history of public school in Athens, Ga

The requirements for starting a career in which you are interested

The history of a school you would like to attend

The development of your favorite sport or game

The origins of a law or policy with which you agree or disagree

The posibilities are endless, but you should discuss your topic with me before you start. I do not want you researching a topic that will make this assignment any more difficult than it needs to be.

Here are some examples that may help you out:

Amber Gaines -- Lizzie Borden
Todd Roberts -- How to Run for President
Tony Bolton -- Wilt Chamberlain
Victoria Slaboda -- Geisha (a great example of citations)
Timed Writing Exercise -- GHSGWT Practice -- Stay tuned

Before Unit One -- The Standards

2009-07-31T14:25:00.005-04:00

Let's start this class with something you will be doing in every single unit you complete -- a discussion of the Georgia Performance Standards, and what they actually mean. Below you can see I have copied one of the standards for American Literature (Lit 11):

ELAALRL1 The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence (i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism, plot events and main ideas) in a variety of texts representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay, editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for interpretation.

Read it one more time.
I wanted to start with this one since it is one that covers much of what we will do through the course of the class. Think about what it means. I realize this is not written in the way we usually talk, so let's work on translating it.

Your task:
Create a post on your blog called "Georgia Performance Standards", and then simply explain what you think the above standard means. It should not take you any more than three sentences. Once you are done, you may want to add why mastering a standard like this is important. Once everybody has finished, we will have a brief discussion.

Unit One: Native American and Colonial Periods

2009-07-31T13:58:00.009-04:00

Interesting Reading

2009-05-05T22:55:00.001-04:00

Van Gogh may not have cut off his own ear.
Silly Inventions

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain -- 302 pages

2009-04-20T15:38:00.002-04:00

I knew Anthony Bourdain first from television, as the host of one of my favorite shows, No Reservations. Kitchen Confidential is quite different than the television show -- not much of it is dedicated to traveling to the far reaches of the globe to investigate the eccentricities of a particular culture, mostly through their food. Instead, it is about the culture of a restaurant, especially what goes on in the back of the house. I found this book enjoyable since having worked as a waiter, bartender, prep cook, fry cook, salad / dessert guy, dishwasher, as well other stations in a restaurant, I was familiar with the types of people and situations he describes.

Aside from being familar with the setting, this book was great for me because of Bourdain's writing style which while casual and colloquial, is as fluid and graceful as others who are more recognized for their style. I would certainly recommend this, especially to someone who has spent some time working in a restaurant.

Comments?

2009-04-13T13:35:00.001-04:00

Are you checking your comments? You should.

In many cases, I leave you comments about what you should do to improve your posts, and I do not give you a grade until you make those improvements.

Any time you post work (and leave me a comment to let me know it is there), you should be in the habit of checking back to see what I have said.

Deliverance by James Dickey (278 pages)

2008-12-09T16:41:00.003-05:00

In a way, I have lived with this book since the first time I went camping when one of my friends waited until it was extremely dark and quiet to ask, "has anyone seen Deliverance?". I had not seen the movie, nor read the book at that point, so I did not know what he meant. I had a feeling it was something spooky -- the kind of thing people try to scare each other with while camping. I let the whole idea pass . . . until he told me what happened in the movie.

I still have not seen the movie because I wanted to wait until I read the book which is set in the North Georgia Mountains, the very place my friends and I were camping that night. I enjoyed reading this book because the descriptions of the wilderness were very familiar to me since I grew up not far from where the book took place, and spent almost every weekend from the time I was 16 - 18 camping or hiking in the mountains. Aside from the setting, the book is certainly what I would call a thriller -- something that preys on whatever irrational fears you may have about the unknown. I'll leave it at that. That, and that the words "squeal like a pig" are not a part of the text.

Links are Updated!

2008-12-08T15:14:00.003-05:00

Lit 12:
I hope these help!

Somebody Tell Me if This is Good. . .

2008-11-25T22:27:00.000-05:00

Twilight Test from Dumb Spot!

Dumb Quizzes | MySpace Quizzes & Quotes | Make a Quiz

My Analytical Writing -- ATL Fans Aren't as Bad as They May Seem

2008-11-17T10:51:00.002-05:00

Many fans and sports writers alike love to downgrade Atlanta as a “bad sports city” or they claim that the area teams have some of the worst fans in the country. These people like to talk about the poor attendance teams like the Braves, Hawks, Falcons, and Thrashers see at their home games, and many like to claim that the fans are not as knowledgeable about their teams or the sports they play as other regions like the Northeast and California. I think there are reasons for these perceptions, though I do not agree that they are fair to the Atlanta sports fans, nor that they are true. Casual onlookers may see poor attendance in Atlanta and may be quick to generalize the fan base, but I feel they do this without putting much thought at all into their claim that Atlanta fans are “bad fans”.

The weather is lovely in the South, is it not? While other places in the country are freezing their butts off all winter long, we rarely encounter temperatures below freezing. Our mild winter climate makes Atlanta and the rest of the South an attractive place to move. If one were to spend even a short amount of time in downtown Atlanta, they should not be surprised to find that many of the people they meet are not native to the area – they were born and raised somewhere else and then chose to move here. What does this have to do with sports? Quite a lot. If someone, a sports fan was born and raised in another place, they are likely to follow the team they left at home – the team their family follows. Why would they want to go see the Atlanta Falcons when they can watch their favorite team on television? This is also apparent when an Atlanta team plays a team from New York, Chicago, or another big northern city. A good illustration of this is when the Atlanta Braves play the Chicago Cubs. During these games the fans are split about 50 – 50 between the teams. It can be aggravating to hear people cheering for the visiting team, but these relocated sports fans are only taking advantage of the opportunity to see their favorite team play in their new home.

I am now 34 years old, and have been following the Braves, Falcons, and Hawks since I was about five years old. Not many people in Atlanta can say this. I learned to love sports from my father, who is from Massachusetts. He has not followed the Atlanta teams since he was young; he followed the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Celtics. Since many of the sports fans in the South are originally from other places, the fan base has not been able to mature like other places in the country who have had teams since early in last century. The Braves and Falcons have only been playing in Atlanta since 1966, and the Hawks did not move to Atlanta for Saint Louis until two years after that. Nobody has had the opportunity to follow the Atlanta Falcons or Braves for longer than 42 years, which means not many children in the area are following the same teams as their parents. Just for comparison’s sake, consider the Pittsburgh Steelers who are 75 years old, the Philadelphia Phillies who are 125 years old, or the New York Knicks who are 62 years old. These teams have all been around and played in the same city long enough to build generations of fans, and the Atlanta teams have not been here long enough to do so, which affects attendance.

Lastly, claims that Atlanta fans are not as knowledgeable as other places in the country are irresponsible. People do not avoid Braves games because they do not understand baseball; they do not go because it costs upwards of $100 to bring a family to a game. Everybody knows that football fans in the South are some of the best and most knowledgeable in the country, and who can blame them when we have one of the best and oldest college football conferences in the country. A visit to Athens, Georgia on a home-game Saturday can easily illustrate how rabid southern football fans can be. These fans just are not quite as interested in the NFL that has not been anywhere near the South until 42 years ago. The writers who say that Atlanta fans do not know much about sports are just being lazy; instead of investigating reasons for poor attendance, they resort to being hateful.

I understand why some people may think Atlanta sports fans are not very enthusiastic about their teams, but if they were to think about the nature of the city and the region where it lies, they may come to different conclusions. Since Atlanta is a city of transplants from other places, and the sports teams are young relative to teams in other cities, the fan base is going to be different. Atlanta has a sports tradition that may not be as rich as those in places like New York, Boston, Los Angeles, or Chicago because it has developed under different circumstances than the sports traditions in those cities. It is my bet that the “bad fan” label will be one that is forgotten in Atlanta in the near future.

That's Right!

2008-11-12T08:59:00.002-05:00

The Hawks are unbeaten.6-0

User Agreement

2008-11-05T09:50:00.001-05:00

Lit 12 Dates to Remember

2008-10-06T15:35:00.003-04:00

October 6 -- I check your mentor logs for three hours of contact with your mentor.
October 16 -- I check for seven hours of contact with your mentor, and we start constructing your portfolio:

1. Binder or notebook
2. Title Page
3. Table of Contents
4. Parental Consent
5. Plagiarism Policy
6. Research Paper
7. Revision Form (if necessary)
8. Mentor Agreement Form
9. Mentor Logs
10. Thank you letter to mentor
11. Photos / Evidence of Product
12. Self-evaluation

October 21 -- Revisions due
October 23 -- Products Due
October 27-28 -- Practice Presentations
October 29 -- All lit projects, reading records, and portfolios due
October 30 -- Presentations

Thursday Groups

2008-09-03T11:20:00.001-04:00

What is that number next to my name?

2008-08-12T08:55:00.002-04:00

Hey. I am glad you asked. . .

One of the best things about using blogging technology in our classroom is that it encourages you to view each others' work and provide feedback. The number next to your name represents how much you contribute to the on-line community of our classroom.

Want more points? It is EASY!

All you need to do is read some of your classmates' posts and provide MEANINGFUL feedback. (Meaningful suggests that you should make comments about their work, explain what you find interesting, or have any kind of productive discussion about their work)

After leaving meaningful feedback, email me ( dana.siegmund@gmail.com ) and let me know where your feedback is, and I will add to your points.

How about getting into the habit of leaving me a comment and tell me what you think of my idea?

User Agreement

2008-08-04T15:22:00.001-04:00

End-Of-Course Test Practice

2008-07-31T15:03:00.004-04:00

Fifteen percent of your grade for Lit 9 or 11 is the End-of-course test administered (you guessed it) at the end of the course. I feel it is very important that the coursework you complete with me should reflect the material on the test, but I also feel as though it is equally important that you have exposure to the test itself. Over the course of the quarter, you will see that your pacing guide includes EOCT practice assignments (four in all). You should complete these according to the dates on your pacing guide. Doing all four at once makes little sense, and it will affect your grade.

Your grade on these four assignments will be calculated as follows:

1) You should access the USA Test Prep website. The sign on is classiccity and then ask me for the password. Click "Agree".

2) Click on the EOCT tab, and choose either 9th Grade Literature and Composition or American Literature and Composition. Choose the medium test.

3) Before starting the test, please make sure your information is filled in correctly. This is how I will know whose work I am viewing. You should enter your email to get your results, as well as my email in the "other email" box. dana.siegmund@gmail.com . If I do not get your results in my email, I cannot give you a grade.

4) Take the test carefully. Do your best, and do not worry if there are items you do not know the answer to.

5) When you are through, you should read your report from USA Test Prep. In what areas did you do well? In which ones did you have trouble? Are there terms with which you are unclear. You should write a post on your blog (2-3 paragraphs) that explains these issues.

6) There will be four separate class discussions / practice sessions that you should attend and be a participant to receive full credit.

Grading Rubric:

90 - 100: Student took his or her time on the test (i can see how long you spent), wrote blog post that was complete and useful, and participated well during the discussion.

80 - 89: Student took his or her time on the test, wrote a blog post that was mostly complete and useful, and participated in the discussion.

70 - 79: Student took his or her time on the test, but probably could have made a better effort, wrote a minimal blog post, and may have participated in the discussion.

0 - 69: Student may have rushed through the test, written an incomplete blog post, and may have missed the discussion.

Lightnin' Reported in the Area . . .

2008-06-27T19:23:00.000-04:00

Have A Great Summer!

2008-06-01T11:28:00.000-04:00

READ A BOOK!

Senior Project Practice Presentations

2008-05-05T12:15:00.000-04:00

These practice presentations are a chance for you to try your work out on the rest of the class before presenting to the big audience. Your presentation is a direct reflection of the kind of student you are and the work you completed this semester, so you should take every opportunity to make it as good as you possibly can.

You will receive a grade for your presentation practice. I will calculate your grade as follows:

90 -- 100: Student is completely prepared to give his or her presentation BEFORE the class starts. The presentation is nearly complete, and it shows that the student has spent ample time preparing a presentation for this practice. Students who receive a score of 90-100 are attentive to the other students who are presenting.

80 -- 89: Student is prepared to give his or her practice presentation, but it is clear the student could have spent more time. The presentation may not be complete. Students who receive a score of 80-89 may not be attentive to other students while they are presenting.

70-79: Student is prepared to give his or her practice presentation, but just barely. The presentation shows that the student has done the bare minimum to prepare his or herself for this practice presentation. Students who receive a score of 70-79 are not attentive to other students as they present.

0 -- 69: Students are not prepared to give a presentation at the beginning of class. Presentations are incomplete or extremely brief (under 6 minutes). Students receiving a score in this range are not prepared to give an adequate presentation.

You should use this rubric from your handbook to create your presentation. It is the one the judges will use when they grade your real presentation.

IMPORTANT DATES FOR LIT 12:

2008-04-29T09:02:00.002-04:00

May 12:
On this day I will take your completed portfolios. That means you need to have ten mentor hours logged, and your product needs to be finished. Finished portfolios should have a completed self evaluation and a thank you letter to your mentor.

You also need to have your presentation ready for the class. We will draw numbers at 3:15. You will receive a grade for your presentation to the class.

May 15:
Presentations will begin at 1:00.

Portfolio Check

2008-04-15T12:18:00.003-04:00

Along with your seven hour's worth of mentor logs, I will be checking to see how you have begun putting together your portfolios. You should be aware that since these portfolios are not in their finished state, they will not include all the elements. The elements that are not necessary at this time are listed in RED.

1. Binder or notebook
2. Title Page
3. Table of Contents
4. Parental Consent
5. Plagiarism Policy
6. Research Paper
7. Revision Form (if necessary)
8. Mentor Agreement Form
9. Mentor Logs
10. Thank you letter to mentor
11. Photos / Evidence of Product
12. Self-evaluation

Timely Topic for Writing Four (Persuasive Writing)

2008-04-07T09:21:00.003-04:00

Recently, the superintendent of the Clarke County School District asked the school board to adopt a dress code for every student in the district to follow. The school board will vote in early May on whether to enact the a student dress code proposal into policy. They have opened the forum for public input until the vote.

READ THE ENTIRE PROPOSAL HERE.

This proposal is much stricter than dress codes you may have seen in the past. Parents in the community are very supportive of this proposal, but teachers are not. How do you feel? This can be a great opportunity for you to make your voice heard about how you feel about this proposal. Do you think it will help students in the school district succeed, or do you think it does not matter. This is an issue that may directly affect you soon, and it is a great topic for persuasive writing.

You should have a rough draft finished by Thursday (April 10, 2008), and since that will be a double period, you should have a final draft ready by the end of the day. Let's send our final drafts to the Athens Banner Herald and Flagpole Magazine to see which ones get published. We may also choose to send final drafts to the board members themselves to read before they vote.

2008-03-06T16:50:00.003-05:00

My car wouldn't start.
I had to work late.
I overslept.
I forgot.
I had a flat tire.

Tell that to this guy:

Don't make excuses.
You are in charge of your own success.
Have a good Spring Break Y'all.

What do I do?

2008-03-04T08:29:00.002-05:00

Though you will not be seeing me today, that does not change the fact that you have PLENTY to do.

Lit 11 -- You have a literature project on American Romanticism due by the end of this week. Do not waste valuable time you should be using to work on this project. You also have INDEPENDENT READING to take care of as well. Make sure your grade is respectable when I mark it down on Thursday.

Lit 12 -- We will finish editing on Thursday. Most of you desperately need to get moving on your novel projects. These will take a while to finish, and I do not want this to interfere with work you need to complete later in the semester.

GHSGT Test Prep Schedule

2008-02-07T09:46:00.001-05:00

Individual British Novel Project

2008-01-17T16:29:00.001-05:00

The first thing you need to do is choose a British novel. You can get ideas from lists here, here, and here here,
It is very important that you make a wise decision since this project will count as two grades and it will take you several weeks. Making a good choice of a novel will make this easier for you. Do not choose a book just because you think it is short; this often makes things more difficult. Do not try to get away without reading the book. This is a novel project -- you need to READ a novel.

Step One: Choose a novel from the list, and then talk to me about your choice before you begin. You may want to have several choices since I won't approve everything.

Step Two: Read your novel. You will be able to add this reading to your independent reading record. Once again, trying to complete this project without reading your novel is foolish. I expect you to post three separate responses to your novel as you read. These responses need to be at least four complete paragraphs. You should not wait until the end to do this (keep in mind that Blogger puts a date on all your work). You may want to look over your book and plan where you will write your responses before you begin. The completion of these three responses accounts for 25% of your total grade.

Step Three: When you finish your novel, you should do some research on the author. Go beyond the regular information like where they were born, where they died, etc. Get interesting information about their life experiences, and try to make a connection between the author's life and the novel they created. Maybe you can find the author's purpose for writing the novel the way he or she did. When you are finished with your research, post a 4-5 paragraph biography with your findings. Please remember that you agreed to submit only original work and to include plenty of textual evidence to support your claims. The completion of this biography will be graded according to the rubric for weblog posts, and will account for 25% of your grade.

Step Four: What is the historical significance of the novel you chose? What makes it worthy of study in a literature class? You should search the Internet for some critical essays about your novel for some of this information. Use the information you find to prove how the novel you chose is an important piece of literature. This should be the most intense part of this project, and your final product should be an essay that proves the importance of your novel that includes evidence from the critical essays you have read, as well as evidence from the novel itself. This essay should be written in the same format as your other essays. You will receive an additional three writing grades for this part of your project (rough draft, editing, final draft).

The final draft of this essay will be graded according to the writing rubric, and will account for 50% of your grade on this project.

Siegmund's English Weblog User Agreement

2008-01-07T12:11:00.001-05:00

Practice Senior Project Presentations

2007-12-03T17:01:00.000-05:00

Lit 9 End of Course Test

2007-11-27T09:53:00.000-05:00

Follow this link to a copy of a Ninth Grade Literature End of Course Test.

Read each question carefully, and record your answers on another sheet of paper. We will review the answers once everyone is through.

TAKE YOUR TIME!
This test is loaded with "sucker" answers that are there to fool those who are not careful!

Lit 11 End of Course Test

2007-11-27T09:45:00.000-05:00

Follow this link to a copy of the American Literature (lit 11) End of Course Test.

Read each question carefully, and record your answers on another sheet of paper. We will review the answers once everyone is through.

TAKE YOUR TIME!
This test is loaded with "sucker" answers that are there to fool those who are not careful!

Senior Project -- Product Rubric

2007-11-19T13:50:00.000-05:00

While you are putting the finishing touches on your product, you should review how I will be evaluating what you have done:

90 - 100: These products illustrate that the student was willing to spend the time and effort necessary to showcase what they have learned this semester in a way that is thorough and complete. Products scoring in this range show the student was willing to exceed the bare minimum and created something of which they can be proud. These products can stand alone without much further explanation.

80 - 89: These products illustrate that the student was willing to spend valuable time and effort necessary to showcase what they have learned this semester, but not to the extent of those that garner higher scores. Products in this range meet the requirements of the senior project but do not exceed those requirements. These products show that the student could have taken more time and exerted more effort to complete this requirement. These products may not stand on their own, and may require additional explanation on the part of the student. Products submitted one day late will receive a grade not any higher than 80-89.

70 - 79: These products illustrate the student's willingness to spend only the minimal time and effort to complete this requirement. Products in this range meet the bare minimum requirements. These products do not stand on their own and require substantial explanation to make clear what the learning it illustrates. Products submitted two days late will receive a grade not any higher than 70-79.

0 - 69: These products are incomplete, show no true effort on the student's part, and do not illustrate much of the semester's learning if at all. Products scoring in this range illustrate the student's lack of serious work on this portion of the senior project. Products submitted three or more days late will not receive grades any higher than 0-69.

2007-11-14T23:20:00.000-05:00

How About Those DIRTY BIRDS!!!

2007-11-12T10:32:00.000-05:00

I've learned my lesson, y'all. After watching the Atlanta Falcons dominate my Carolina Panthers on Sunday, I am finally ready to admit they are the better team. When I looked up at the scoreboard and saw that 20-13 staring at me, I had no choice it was time to face the truth.

Man, I wish Alge Crumpler played for the Panthers!

Maybe if they didn't wear girly powder blue, the Panthers may even intimidate the other team a little instead of letting the officials decide the game like the one in Atlanta earlier this season.

I think the real lesson here is that I should listen to Mr. Siegmund when it comes to football matters since he told me all along the Panthers were pretenders. I am going to go ahead and say it -- you heard it here, folks -- The Falcons are going to take out the Buccaneers this week on their way to a NFC South Championship. GO DIRTY BIRDS!!!

Maybe Mr. Siegmund will let me keep this hat since I'm tired of looking like a member of The Backstreet Boys wearing that baby blue one. . .

Shakespeare Renaissance Project

2007-10-11T10:56:00.000-04:00

During the next couple weeks we will be reading a Shakespeare play together. This post is to outline the tasks which are expected of you to receive credit for this project.

1. We will be reading the play together. Your participation is expected.

2. You should complete a post that is a response to the historical information I have posted about the Renaissance. This can be as simple as you discussing what stuck out to you the most and why.

3. You will complete four separate posts about the play (Act I, Act II, Act III, and Acts IV and V). These posts should be 3-4 paragraphs in length, include a very brief summary of what we read, as well as your reactions. You should incorporate direct textual evidence into these posts.

Your grade will be calculated with the following formula:
Participation = 50%
Web Posts = 10% each (x5)

Exemplar Research Papers

2007-10-01T12:40:00.001-04:00

The following links are to exemplar research papers. None of these are perfect, but they all can show you something I am looking for. Some of these writers did an excellent job citing their sources, while others did well at including their own voice with their research. You will find small errors in these papers, but overall they can help you get an idea of what yours should look like when you are through.

Solar Energy

The Reef Tank

Belly Dance

Coaching Young People

Forensic Entomology

Game Design

Tattooing

LOOOKY HERE!!

2007-09-13T08:11:00.000-04:00

Though I am not in the classroom today, your responsibilities have not changed. You should know most of this, but allow me to reiterate:

First Period: To be on pace, you should have both your Puritanism and Rationalism posts up on your blog. Your rough draft is due today. If you do not have a rough draft ready at the beginning of Monday's class, I will consider it late. Put drafts in my drop box BEFORE you leave today. You should be through with or working on Module 3.

Second Period: To be on pace, you should have your Short Story #1 posts up on your blog. Short Story #2 is due at the end of next week, so you should work on that. Your rough draft is due today. If you do not have a rough draft ready at the beginning of Monday's class, I will consider it late. Put drafts in my drop box BEFORE you leave today. You should be through with or working on Module 3.

Third Period: You should continue with your research. The next time you see me, I will be checking your research notes. I will be looking for paraphrased notes, direct quotes, and the bibliographic citations for ten separate sources. Showing me an article you copied or e-mailed to yourself is not good enough. You also have your Middle Ages Literature project to work on; it is due at the end of next week.

If you post something to your blog, make sure you leave me a comment, and then check yours to see if there is anything else you need to work on.

Questions?

E-mail Me:

dana.siegmund@gmail.com

My Autobiographical Writing -- Take me out to the BALL GAME

2007-08-27T14:21:00.000-04:00

Even before I was born, it seemed to be determined that baseball would be a part of my life. As the story goes, my father was not ready to go to the hospital while my mother was in labor with me until the Boston Red Sox game was over. They were getting beat pretty badly (9-2) by the Baltimore Orioles, but perhaps there was something else interesting to see in that game, or maybe my mother was not quite ready to go to the hospital either – I didn’t get my first breath air until 3:56 that morning. To make a long story short, my father is a huge baseball fan, as was his father and grandfather before him. I am sure that when I was born, he was already thinking of how he could pass the love of this sport to his first child.

I remember watching baseball with my dad when I was very young. He would try to explain to me what was going on, but I am sure I did not understand much as I watched players run, throw, and hit. Later he would teach me how to sing “Take me out to the Ball Game,” which might have added a little more context to what I saw. The first big moment would not come however until 1980 when I was five years old when my family lived in Oxnard, California. My life as a baseball fan changed forever on that summer day when I stepped foot for the first time into a Major League stadium -- Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles California.

I can still remember going through the turnstiles on our way inside. Santa Claus had brought me a baseball cap the previous winter, but not a Dodgers’ cap. My first piece of respectable headgear was representative of the California Angels, and I can remember the man who ripped the tickets telling me, “Kid, you are in the wrong place. You need to go up the road a little.” I didn’t get the joke, and I remember not liking the man since he was trying to tell me that I did not belong at the stadium on that sunny California day that would be the one when I went to my first baseball game.

I cannot say I remember many of the details of that particular game aside from the food I ate: hotdogs, chocolate malt, peanuts, pretzels, and probably more. The scorecard for this game exists somewhere, and on it my dad kept track of the items I ate as well as the number of beers he drank. Before leaving the park, I remember stopping to get a Dodgers t-shirt for me with my name ironed onto the back of it. It was one of my prized possessions until I moved to Georgia and became a Braves fan.

I went to my first Braves game probably sometime in 1982. I remember they were playing the Cubs, and the game was at the old Atlanta – Fulton County Stadium that was the home of the Braves before Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Stadium was constructed and later transformed into Turner Field. Once again, I do not remember the particulars of this game, but by this point, I knew that I was familiar with the rules and was able to follow the game since I was playing t-ball at the time. I was six or seven years old, and already at my second baseball stadium. Little did I know the list would continue to grow.

In the two or three years that followed, I would visit Fenway Park in Boston, the second-oldest existing Major League Baseball park twice, once to see the Red Sox play the A’s, and another time to see them play the Tigers. By the time I was ten, I had also visited Yankee stadium to see the Yankees play the Blue Jays. As I got older, I would see the San Francisco Giants’ former home, Candlestick Park, where I got to see the Braves as the visiting team; and the Philadelphia Phillies’ old park, Veterans Stadium. I added yet another stadium to my list when the Braves moved into their new home. I would see the Chicago Cubs play in Wrigley Field, where I was lucky enough to catch a ball, and just a couple of summers ago. I missed seeing Mark McGuire’s longest homerun of his career when I was standing in the concession line at the old Busch Stadium in Saint Louis, and I saw the Washington Nationals play in RFK Stadium where I saw Roger Clemens pitch a game where he struck out fourteen Nationals.

I still have more places I would like to add to my list of baseball stadiums, AT&T park in San Francisco, the new stadium in Pittsburg, and PETCO Park in San Diego to name a couple. I don’t think I would really crave going to new ballparks if my family would have never moved from California to Georgia and I did not get to see the first two so early. My list of stadiums is just a collection I keep, and I am not really sure what it says about me other than I like to travel and I like watching baseball games.

User Agreement

2007-08-11T10:37:00.000-04:00

The Puritans

2007-08-08T13:05:00.003-04:00

The Puritans:

To study the Puritans' literature, we must first understand who they were as people. The Purtitans' core beliefs were as follows:

Total Depravity - through Adam and Eve's fall, every person is born sinful - concept of Original Sin.

Unconditional Election - God "saves" those he wishes - only a few are selected for salvation.

Limited Atonement - Jesus died for the chosen only, not for everyone. Irresistible Grace - God's grace is freely given, it cannot be earned or denied. Grace is defined as the saving and transfiguring power of God.

Perseverance of the "saints" - those elected by God have full power to interpret the will of God, and to live uprightly. If anyone rejects grace after feeling its power in his life, he will be going against the will of God - something impossible in Puritanism.

You should read more here. You should also read more about the Puritans in an American Literature textbook.

For some more real fun, check out some of these Puritan names.

YOUR TASKS:
Read some of this excert of William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation . You do not necessarily need to start at the beginning; just find a section that appeals to you. When you are through, you should post the following to your blog:

1. Briefly summarize the Puritans' beliefs. This should be a paragraph or two.

2. Write a 4-5 paragraph response to the Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and Of Plymouth Plantation. Explain your thoughts about how these people lived. Better responses will have some direct textual evidence to support what you say. You may want to review these texts before writing your response.

3. Choose two of the four beliefs at the beginning of this post of which you saw examples in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, or Of Plymouth Plantation. Provide these examples with direct textual evidence.

Continue with The Rationalists:

Do you want to make an "A" on this and your next literature projects? Grades of 93 and up will be reserved for those who complete a better project. Details here.

SELF-EVALUATE YOUR WORK!!

The Summer is for Baseball.

2007-07-02T21:52:00.001-04:00

Prospect by Bill Littlefield

2007-07-01T11:11:00.000-04:00

Prospect is a novel about a retired baseball scout named Pete Easty who has given up on his own life once he is not needed anymore by the team he worked for since they started using computerized scouting systems instead of 'baseball men' like Easty. At the beginning of the novel, Pete is living in a nursing home, waiting to die. He makes friends with one of the employees named Louise who has a great nephew who is a promising baseball player.

Louise wants Pete to watch her nephew play, but he insists that he is retired. When a fire burns down part of thew nursing home, Louise invites Pete to live with her until the building can be repaired, which is a trick to get Pete to look at her nephew.

Littlefield shows how someone's life can be restored when they begin to have confidence in themselves. Louise does this for Pete by proving to him that he can still matter in the baseball world.

The AUtobiography of Malcolm X p 319 -- 421

2007-06-21T08:26:00.001-04:00

The final section of The Autobiograohy of Malcolm X centers around his trip to Mecca, Africa, and other places across the Holy Land to learn more about true Islam. When Malcom arrives in the Middle East to make the Haj, the spiritual pilgramage to Mecca that Islam asks all able-bodied Muslims to attempt at least once in their lifetime, he feels like an outsider since he does not know many of the traditions and he does not speak Arabic.

Since only true Muslims are permitted inside the walls of Mecca, Malcolm, being an American was not immediately allowed inside the city. He had to stay in a dormitory at the airpoit awaiting a trial of sorts to prove he was a true Muslim. While staying in the dormitory with many other people, Malcolms suspicion of people with pale skin begins to drop when he his treated very hospitably by Middle Easterners with very pale skin. Malcolm explains that these people would have passed for white people in the United States, but here, people were all treated as brothers in Islam, no matter what they look like. This is where Malcom's attitudes begin to turn. He is still angry about the situation in the United States that has kept his people constantly oppressed, but readers can immediately see him begin to re-evaluate some of the beliefs Elijah Muhammad taught Malcolm.

When Malcolm returns to the United States, he continues building his new ministry and making speaking arrangements about what he had learned in the Middle East. He speaks of uniting the balck people across the globe to pressure the United States through the United Nations to give black people the human rights they have been denied since Europeans stepped foot in North America. Malcolm also makes many references to the fact that Elijah Muhhamad, though he never speaks ill of him, has people in his following dedicated to killing Malcolm in the name of the Black Muslim movement. Though the event is not printed in the book, Malcolm X is aware that he is unlikely to live to see the publication of this autobiography.

I firmly believe The Autobiography of Malcolm X should be required reading in American schools. It is extremely arrogant for anyone to deny that black people have been systematically degraded and denied access to the resourses of our country to this day. In schools, we are taught mostly about people like Martin Luther King Jr. because people (white) feel he is safe and peaceful, but it is impossible to understand the entire story without looking at the other side of the coin at a man who was angry and not afraid to show it, and not afraid to speak his mind to white people. I am not saying I understand the entire story of the struggle for equality that black people still fight, but now I feel I am a bit closer.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X p 179 - 318

2007-06-09T13:25:00.000-04:00

Once Malcolm gets out of prison, he begins to meet personally with Elijah Muhammad, and eventually becomes one of his ministers. As a minister for the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X makes speaking arrangements across the country and later opens his own mosque in Harlem. The paraphrased speechs are some of the most interesting passages in the book. Malcolm X speaks very harshly about the white power structure that has kept black people an underprivelidged minority for 400 years. He points out that black people have been in North America longer than English colonists and other European immigrants, yet they have stayed at the bottom.

Malcolm X is probably more critical of black people who seek integration with the white people more than the white people themselves. He sees these people as a much bigger problem, and he constantly chides them for being so complacent and gullible to think that the white power structure will ever give them anything.

One part that will always stick out to me is his criticism of the 1963 march on Washington that Malcolm calls the Farce on Washington. As he explains, black people had been talking of marching on Washington for years and years before it happened, but this march was not going to be very civil. As originally planned, but not well-organized, black people were talking of marching on Washington to make specific demands of the government and show how angry they were with the way they have been treated. As Malcolm X explains, the US government began making huge contributions to the rally that also came with some of their suggestions, which eventually watered down the march to a picnic. Malcolm X is very critical of the middle-class blacks that were at the rally to make a scene -- showing off for the white people, he says. He goes further to criticize Martin Luther King Jr. among others for allowing this to happen.

Malcolm serves as a minister for the Nation of Islam for twelve years before he begins to hear rumors about Elijah Muhammad's sexual misconduct. Any other Muslim would have been excommunicated for doing what Elijah Muhammad had done, yet Malcolm X tries to find ways to rationalize and excuse Elijah Muhammad's actions. Malcolm X's stature in the Nation of Islam was already making Elijah Muhammad jealous, and when it reaches the point that his sexual misconduct is reaching the mass of Black Muslims, he uses some comments Malcolm X made about the assassination of John Kennedy to suspend him from the Nation of Islam.

Malcolm X heres of the first orders for his death while hanging out in Miami with Cassius Clay.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X pages 1 - 178

2007-06-04T07:49:00.000-04:00

Up until now I have known very little about Malcolm X. If you would have asked me what I knew, I would have said he was a civil rights leader who did not believe in peaceful protest. I would have said he was the polar opposite of Martin Luther King Jr. in that he did not believe in turning the other cheek. I probably would have gone as far to say he hated white people and called them all devils.

I am learning fast that some of my preconceived notions about Malcolm X are inaccurate. Many of the things I may have known come from the philosophy of Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X's mentor for many years. Even though I am less than halfway through this autobiography, Malcolm has made reference many times to his split from Elijah Muhammad and how he now disagrees with his philosophies since they are not supported by true Islam.

The beginning of this book is very exciting. It chronicles Malcolm Little's early life up until he is around 21 years old. Readers meet Malcolm's parents and his brothers and sisters. Malcolms father is a preecher who also holds meetings for the Marcus Garvey society, which troubles the white people in his town. One night a group of white men kill Malcolms father, and then lay his body across the train tracks to be run over. The insurace company cheats his mother out of the money she and her family have coming to them. Malcolm's mother eventually has a mental breakdown and is taken to a mental hospital. Malcolm and his siblings are split up into different homes.

Malcolm's life changes several years later when he moves to Boston to live with his sister. It is here that Malcolm begins a life of pimping, hustling, drinking, and smoking 'reefers'. Malcolms talent for hustling eventually takes him to Harlem where he is eventually charged with burglary and sentenced to ten years in jail. I left many of the details out here. This part of the book was very easy to read since it caters to people's interest in crime and street living. Malcolm was smart to grab his readers attention in this way.

I am now reading about Malcolm's first years in jail. He is beginning to learn more about Islam, and is coresponding with Elijah Muhammad on nearly a daily basis. I have been really interested in learning about Muhammad's philosophies, especially how he explains how the races developed.

I am glad I am finally learning more about this important figure in American history. I am also glad I have not watched Spike Lee's film yet. It will be interesting to see how well it represents what I am reading now.