Saturday, September 25, 2010

September 27 - October 1

HEY GUYS LETS LEARN SOMETHING THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

French I/II
Here is the link for chapter 2 vocabulary 2. we will have this test on Friday October 1
http://quizlet.com/1189619/bien-dit-ch-2-voc-2-flash-cards/
Here is the link to The Taking of Power by Louis XIV: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+taking+of+power+by+louis+xiv&aq=0
This week we will continue to work with chapter 2. We will be working with indirect objects this week.
This is a link to the handout I will give you in class on the daily routine of Louis XIV. We will translate in class and discuss the terms. http://www.lescolombesduroisoleil.com/La-vie-quotidienne-de-Louis-XIV.html
This relates the daily routine or La vie quotidienne of  Louis XIV. To understand a nation, you must first understand its history. Here is another link of 50 questions about France: http://www.understandfrance.org/France/Understanding.html  I think you will find these very informative.

English 11 AP
This week we will work through the essays by Jonathan Swift. We will be looking for elements of rhetoric within the essays.  Be sure to answer the questions on the handout before coming to class. This is important if we are to have an informed discussion. I will show a video on THESIS STATEMENTS. We will practice writing a well formed thesis statement. Additionally, we will view a video of Plato's Allegory of the Cave and read Susan Sontag's Essay "In Plato's Cave." If you want to read ahead here is a link to questions we will use to analyze the text : http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/rgunnar/ap.cfm?subpage=350087
This is a link to a powerful powerpoint on the essay: http://www.carrieacosta.com/class/advanced/in_platos_cave.pdf

Here is the link for the 2nd SAT vocabulary: http://quizlet.com/2321798/sat-vocab-2-flash-cards/ Please study as we will have a test on Friday October 1st. READ ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! READ THE GREAT GATSBY OVER FALL BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

English 11
This is the link for the 2nd  SAT vocabulary words: http://quizlet.com/2321798/sat-vocab-2-flash-cards/ You will have a test on Thursday over these so be sure and study. Also we will have a Unit test over Realism, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, The Notorious Jumping Frogs, and To Build a Fire. I will review for this on Monday and the test will be on Thursday.
READ ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! READ THE GREAT GATSBY OVER FALL BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Myth and Legend
This week will finish our study of Oedipus and take a test over Greek Mythology. After fall break we will begin the study of Arthurian Legends and we will have a guest speaker talk to us about the legend of the WEREWOLF around Halloween.

Senior English
This week we will complete our reading of Beowulf and take a test over the Anglo Saxon Myth (this will include the characteristics of the Epic and the Hero) on Friday. On Tuesday you will take the test over the vocabulary from Beowulf: http://quizlet.com/1249583/beowulf-vocabulary-words-flash-cards/  I THOUGHT YOUR BOASTS WERE EXCELLENT!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

September 20-24

French I/II
Bonjour mes etudiants! I enjoyed taking Clara and Marianne to see the cotton in full bloom. We take the natural world around us for granted sometimes and it is neat to see the wonder in someone's eyes when they are seeing something for the first time. I was very suprised to find out that most of you had never seen cotton that close or touched it. I think that was an educational experience for many of you on Friday. I had fun with you comme d'habitude. We will continue working with chp. 2 direct/indirect object pronouns this week and with verbs, vocabulary, and Paris (we will travel to Versailles!)
This is the link for you to practice your vocabulary for Chp.2  Part 1 Vocabulary Test on Friday Sept. 24th.
http://quizlet.com/1276099/bien-dit-2-ch-2-1-flash-cards/

Senior English
This is a link to the vocabulary for Beowulf: http://quizlet.com/1249583/beowulf-vocabulary-words-flash-cards/   Last year we used quizlet to practice SAT vocabulary. This is the same website. Go there and practice the vocabulary for Beowulf. Your test will be on September 28th. On friday our "doughnut day" we will present your BOASTS following in the footsteps of the heroic tradition! the date for this is September 24th.
This week we will learn about Anglo-Saxon Riddles and try to solve some of these riddles. Historically, many cultures have riddle-poem traditions. One of the best known is the riddle-poem tradition of the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and Teutons. These are also referred to as enigmata. These cultures of the Dark Ages played riddle-poem games around their hearth-fires for over five hundred years. Some of their riddles were written down and have survived to this day. Here as an example is a modern English translation of a simple riddle-poem, over a thousand years old. It's from the Red Book of Exeter, which contains many Anglo-Saxon riddles and is one of four surviving Anglo-Saxon prosody manuscripts.
 Riddle: A wonder on the wave / water became bone.
can you solve this riddle? This simple, one-line poem is a good example of Anglo-Saxon prosody and the riddle-poem style.  Good riddle-poems are concise, pithy, visual, and have a beat.  Like haiku and other short forms, they revolve around a compelling image, but in presentation they are likely more akin to poetry slam performances.
 Another common feature in Anglo-Saxon prosody is the use of "kennings." These were words before there were words--that is, these were extant words used in combination when no other word for something yet existed. These were often poetic descriptions of some simple thing or event--and had the effect of sometimes being a riddle within the riddle-poem. Some Viking kennings were used so conventionally that they became poetic clichés, even then. For example, the ocean was called the "whale-road," the sun was referred to as the "world-candle, battle was known as "a feast of eagles," warriors became "spear-trees," and generous chieftains were known as "ring-givers." This last kenning was in reference to the practice of a Viking warrior to receive a ring or bracelet from the chieftain's own arm as a special favor, and bestowing such a gift also confirmed the power of the chieftain.
Source: http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/formsofverse/furtherreading/page3.html

English 11 AP

Hey guys! This week we will be reading Great English Essays from Bacon to Chesterton and we will discuss the elements of rhetoric utilized by the essayists. We'll be reading Jonathan Swift's "A Meditation Upon a Broomstick" and "A Modest Proposal." On Tuesday I will test you on the assigned SAT vocabulary. Here is the link to practice your SAT vocabulary: http://quizlet.com/2545047/vocabulary-plus-49-flash-cards/ TEST ON FRIDAY



English 11
Wednesday SEPTEMBER 22 test over SAT Vocabulary words   We will read and discuss Jack London's To Build a Fire. I will help you do a critical reading of the short story looking for literary elements used by London to create a naturalist writing. We will continue to work in the grammar workbook as well. Here is the link for you to practice your SAT vocabulary: http://quizlet.com/2545047/vocabulary-plus-49-flash-cards/ 


Myth and Legend.
This week we will be reading Oedipus the King. You have your assigned parts so get your costumes ready. Our overarching goal will be to identify passages demonstrating the tension between free will and fate in the text. By the way, what was the riddle of the Sphinx? Do you know? Here it is. Can you solve it:? Oedipus did. What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?

Friday, September 10, 2010

September 10 -17

English 11
This week we will continue our journey into American Literature  à la fin du siècle. Literature in this period is known as literature of the transition. The movement is from realism to modernism.
Even though only twenty years may have separated them, the transformation from realism/naturalism to modernism was a long one in terms of how much society had changed. Literary naturalism invited writers to examine human beings objectively, as a "scientist studies nature." The  rapid change in American society and America's relation with the rest of the world left America in disarray. After the first World War, American society was divided and left without definition. This called for a new age of literary expression to control and document the "isolationist fears", "corruption", and "disenchantment"  caused by the war. Authors looked to explain their generation and to respond to the "social and moral confusions"  The World War broke down America's fundamental institutions by dehumanizing the people that provided their strong foundations.  War diminished the individual identity and the society as a whole. The human personality was "dwarfed" as much by the "...dehumanizing magnitude of modern events..." as by natural laws that controlled man to their own destiny. A writer associated with naturalism include Jack London (1876-1916), who often explored the Darwinian contiguity between humans and animals and how the otherwise buried animalistic survival instinct surfaces in extreme circumstances. This is exemplified in THE SEA-WOLF (1904), but is frequently a theme in London's Klondike stories, and distinctions between human and animal behavior were often blurred in his writing, as in THE CALL OF THE WILD (1903) and WHITE FANG (1906).
We will read "critically" 2 of Mark Twain's short stories and Jack London's "To Build A Fire." What we are looking for in our critical readings are the elements of literature the author uses to construct a text in the realistic style and the naturalist style.  We will continue to work in the grammar workbook as well. This week we will begin to work with SAT vocabulary. You can go to http://quizlet.com/2545047/vocabulary-plus-49-flash-cards/  to practice the vocabulary. I will test you on the vocabulary on September  20th or 21st.


English AP please read the blog for English 11. We we follow this plan in American literature. We will begin our master classes "writing lessons from Great Authors" this week with Lesson 1: Purpose,  Lesson 2: Thesis/Antithesis.

Additionally, you will also be responsible for the SAT vocab words found on the link above. We will do a prepped  free response timed writing.  You will have a test over rhetorical devices handout this week. This is the link to the page online just in case -  http://www.miracosta.edu/home/dperales/newrhetorical%20strategies.htm


English 12
Yeah! We are beginning our study of British Literature. Brief history of English: http://www.anglik.net/anglosaxonmap.html Use this website to review.  this link is to review The Anglo-Saxon period- http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/anglo_saxons/  
 Beowulf is an important work because it is the oldest English manuscript (dating back to the eighth century) and has given historians insight into the old Germanic way of life. A single manuscript, handwritten in the eleventh century by two scribes, has survived and is preserved today in the British Museum in London, England. The author is thought to have been a poet who lived in the vicinity of Northumbria (one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England). Beowulf is much the most important poem in Old English and it is the first major poem in a European vernacular language. But, apart from this pre-eminence in its period, the poem is remarkable for its sustained grandeur of tone and for the brilliance of its style, both in its rather baroque diction and in the association of the elements of its plot. Well you might argue SO WHAT? Well, Beowulf is basically the story of good versus evil that has been repeated again and again throughout the history of man. One important aspect of the story is the fact that Grendel attacks not only the men, but also their way of life. The mead-hall is central to their society. By abandoning it, they are abandoning their tales of battles, feasts, and boasting of future glory. Beowulf comes to purge the evil from the hall and restore Hrothgar and his men to their (and his) way of life. Throughout the story, Beowulf,s words and actions show us what is important in his society. The scop (storyteller) also goes into great detail about the Danes, and Geats, way of life as warriors. Yesterday we mourned the nation's tragedy of September 11th . If you can place the battle between good and evil that Beowulf demonstrates into this context you might see that Grendel can be equated with any force that despises man's enjoyment of the "good life." Ask yourself this question: What forces are trying to destroy what we consider to be the "good life?" Who are our modern heroes? Many considered those who sought to rescue American citizens from the Twin Towers heroes. Can you equate those victims with Hrothgar's men? How many people followed in the footsteps of the Epic hero after 9/11?


If we think about the ensuing battle after 9/11 we can see the characteristics of the epic and its hero. The hero is of national importance and goes to protect his people, the setting is broad in scope, the action consists of deeds of valor or superhuman courage. These can relate to our nation's rescue workers or our military or perhaps even "the regular guy" on the street. The hero's journey involves steps that we could trace through many events of modern life: the call to adventure, the refusal of the call, the meeting with the mentor, tests and challenges the hero faces...These are all in the handout that I gave to on our last class meeting. You will need to know these steps and apply them to the text of Beowulf.
The story of a hero who challenges or encounters fate and has to respond (particularly outside the community, physically or psychologically) can force us to confront some basic truths about life and about how what we like to believe rests on some fundamental assumptions. That can happen (and often does happen) even if the vision of fate which the hero has to deal with is quite strange to us. For the basic questions about life which a fatalistic vision of life raises transcend the particular details of that vision.


Myth and Legend
This week we will complete the epic  story of Odysseus. We will also read the Tragedy, Oedipus the King by Sophocles. Oedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family. This legend has been retold in many versions, and was used by Sigmund Freud to name the Oedipus complex. I think this is a compelling text that is essential to your post-secondary work. The theme that Oedipus deals with is FATE versus FREE WILL. Here is a link to a fantastic lecture discussing this theme: http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/introser/oedipus.htm   The lecture is given by Ian Johnston of Malaspina University-College. Please be sure to read this lecture as it will provide insights into how literature and particularly  Myths helps us negotiate the human experience. Last week I asked you to think about the "monsters" of the myths. Now I am asking you to consider the monster Oedipus faces. see you in class.


French I/II
Test over chapter 1 on Thursday. We will begin chapter 2 on Tuesday. Since we were introduced in chapter 1 to Paris here is a link to a cool video-24 hours in Paris: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfDv5TTJ3Bc      I really enjoyed this little trip !!!  The hotel you enter is Le Meurice. Did you know this was taken over as headquarters for the Third Reich (Nazis) during the occupation of Paris. In this hotel the decision was made to disobey Hilter;s order to BURN PARIS TO THE GROUND. There is a book written about this incident, Is Paris Burning? and a movie by the same name. I am very grateful that this beautiful city was spared for all us to enjoy. Bon Voyage mes eleves! sorry about the accents, I can't figure out how to put them in!
Hey guys, here are the new links that you asked me to put up for you. These are holiday celebrations in France. I am putting them here since we are going to be studying French Holidays in Chapter 2!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJo-oVpUk6o&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwbamPy6XBk&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1fNtyiC6NE&p=ADA53474032DF665&playnext=1&index=32
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwAnG8k1bC4&feature=fvw