October 24-28

English 9 Honors
this week we will be exploring Orwell's dystopic novel 1984. You are to read Book II this week. We will discuss the text in class. On Friday you will have a test over Literary Devices - prepare for this. We will begin our work with Latin prefixes and suffixes. You will receive a work packet in class and there will be a test over this packet on Tuesday November 1.

AP Language and Composition
We will continue to explore Aristotle's Rhetoric. Friday you have a test over the first packet. We will view a instructional video on Aristotle's Rhetoric. Finally, we will apply Aristotle's strategies in analyzing a text.

English 11

This week we will be working in your textbook with the Moderns, particularly we will examine Ezra Pound's "The River Merchant's Wife" and selections from e.e.cummings. You will have a test over the selections from the Modern period that we have covered in class on Wednesday November 2. You will have a test over Literary Devices on Monday Oct. 31. BE PREPARED.

FRENCH I/II
This week we will be working in chapter 3 part 2. We will be studying family vocabulary, how to describe family members and possessive adjectives. Please study vocabulary 2 in chapter 3. You will create a family tree poster. You will introduce and describe your family members in writing and orally.

Myth and Legend
We will continue our study of Dracula and vampire lore.
We will be reading from the text as well as viewing selections from various cinematic representations of the film. Additionally, we have been discussing the notion of the "other" in terms of colonization and this is important as the text was written at the height of the Empire. Here is an excerpt from an interesting blog that I discovered. I have added the link so you can go there and read the other posts...very informative.

Orientalism in Dracula and Vampirism
I would like to talk about the idea of orientalism, or the exoticization of "the other" in relation to our vampiric studies in this course. In contemporary Western humanities, the presence of orientalism has been exposed and is being actively countered by "post-constructuralist" scholars, especially by people who are considered the "other" by Western society, including some of Western societies most abundant members who happen to be something other than of Euro-American descent (blood lineage). This "othering" of the unfamiliar has been occurring since time immemorial: it is a useful mechanism of projecting one's (or a particular societies) problems on an external, dissimilar source. Western civilization has been externalizing the Eastern (the Mid-Eastern and Orient, especially, hence "orientalism") as far back as the 11th century onset of the Christian Crusades (and surly long before that unfortunate period of history). Similarly, as Rickles writes in his "Vampire Lectures," the 18th century epidemics of vampirism were originally imported from the immoral Eastern areas of Europe proper. Rickles wistfully describes this "political trajectory to vampirism" coming from the eastern Europe and targeting people who are different, unpopular, or great sinners: accounts of vampirism put robbers, arsonists, prostitutes, and treacherous bar maids on schedule to return as vampires (p.3)."

As with all things in life, so it becomes clear that the construction of vampirism comes about as another mechanism to instill fear and consequent control in the masses by a elite ruling group who has a specific agenda. Again quoting Rickles, "If you were to hit the books on vampirology and vampirism, you would be struck by how, at any given time, always different sets of people were suddenly under suspicion of being candidates for becoming vampires."

Rickles quickly exposes the vampire agenda in the light of the Roman Catholic Church's political agenda, "In medieval Europe--at the time of the vampire crisis--a working definition of vampirism was already current, the one, you know the one, that the Christain church came up with the put down sinners (p.2)... (Back in the Christian context): we can make out the vampire among all the other occult figures crowding the target range of the Inquisition. However, in the Middle Ages, witches and sorcerers largely took the vampire's place. In the Renaissance, witches and heretics were the most popular stars of the persecutory attention. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries werewolves were at high risk: between 1520 and the mid-seventeenth century thirty thousand cases of lycanthropy (the official term for werewolddom) were investigated by the church... So by the Middle Ages, by the time of the Inquisition (which, by the way, malingered on until the middle of the nineteenth century), the vampires were lost in the crowd they made, the in-group of the occults. By the Inquisition's late and last phase, by the eighteenth century, the time of secularization, the beginning of the modern age, our age, the time when the university as we know it here and now--the institution--was invented, the vampire had reemerged, and with redoubled force (pps. 10-11)."

So, through borrowing Professor's reflections, we are able to trace the usage of vampirism as a political agenda (primarily of the Catholic Church) which helps us understand the root-orientalism prejudices that lie behind it all, up to the present day. I believe that it is absolutely essential to be aware of this history in order to fully comprehend the various layers of the vampire (and larger occult) traditions that we study today.
http://basicdesire-thevampire.blogspot.com/2005/10/orientalism-in-dracula-and-vampirism.html

October 11 - 21

English 9 Honors
Ayn Rand's Dystopic novella Anthem will be our focus of study this week.
In class, we will discuss elements of the novel, point of view, and ideologies that limit individual autonomy.
Additionally, we will explore the context (what is the exigence of the novella), theme, symbols, motifs, and characterization of the novella.
Study questions by chapter - given out in class/homework for Tuesday October 11.
Assessment - Essay

Week 2 we will begin a study of George Orwell's dystopic novel 1984. I will check the books out in class to you so you can work on your assignments at home.
We will also be working in your vocabulary books, so bring these to class.
This is the link to vocabulary for 1984: 
http://quizlet.com/4226861/1984-vocabulary-flash-cards/

AP Language and Composition
This week we will continue our work on rhetorical analysis. We will discuss and practice analyzing the rhetorical devises in works of non-fiction. Some of you will miss class on Wednesday as you are taking the PSAT, so stop by my room to pick up the work you missed. We will continue working on writing a rhetorical analysis through next week. You will write your 3rd essay on the 18th. On the 21st you need TO BRING YOUR TEXTBOOK TO CLASS.
Here is the link to Rhetoric by Aristotle written in 350 B.C.E:  http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/rhetoric.html
We will be working with this text throughout the semester. On Friday you will have worksheets on Book I - 1.1, 1.2, 1.3. You will analyze "The Envoys Plead With Achilles" from Book IX of the Illiad by Homer.
Myth and Legend

We will continue our study of Bram Stokers Dracula. I think you are enjoying our reading and analysis of the text. This provides you with a deeper understanding of the construction and purpose of the work. We will examine Stoker's exploits of the past and present. Stoker was constantly troubled by the power  the past exerts over the present. To this end, Stoker juxtaposes the modern scientific world with the primitive past, which is inexact, barbarian, superstitious and inefficient. In stark contrast, Stoker views the modern age as exact, civilised, rational, and efficient.
We will view a documentary about Vlad Tepes, the Romanian Count Stoker based his character on, and parts of the 1977 BBC production of Count Dracula.

English 11
This week we will complete the Great Gatsby.  Thursday you will take a test over the novel.We will complete the film after the test.
Next week you will need to bring your books to class, as we will continue with poetry and short stories of the Modern writers.
TEST OVER LITERARY DEVICES HANDOUT ON OCTOBER 31st
Homework
"J. Alfred Prufrock" T. S. Eliot Questions 1-15 page 663
"Soldiers Home" Hemingway/homework questions 1-10 page 693, Krebs analysis page 693
"A Rose for Emily" William Faulkner questions 1-15 page 729
Writing Hometown Horror Write a short story 1200 words about a fictional character P. 730
French I/II
For the next two weeks, we will be working in Chapter 3 of our text.
We will learn how to place adjective in sentences, make adjectives agree in number and gender with the nouns they modify, describe people, and talk about our families.
This is the link to Vocab 1 of chapter 3
http://quizlet.com/1331185/bien-dit-level-1-chapter-3-vocab-1-flash-cards/