A Bumper Crop...for 12/18/09 test

zeal (zealous)
morose
auspicious
garrulous
emulate
Kafkaesque
miscreant
tantamount
surfeit
temerity
fusillade
facade
tumultuous
resplendent
bulwark
ersatz
deferential
nobless oblige (French term used in English)
fait accompli (French term used in English)
memento mori (Latin)

12/7/09 Weekly words

ingenuous
disingenuous
juxtaposition
nadir
zenith
nascent
obdurate
obstreperous
panacea
pernicious
propensity
quixotic (know Don Quixote)
reprobate
rancor
ribald

Weekly vocab 11/16/09

remiss
respite
buffet (verb)
credulity
cupidity
cursory
discursive
fecund
fetid
ignominious
pedant (pedantic)
sardonic
sanguine
scatological
sophism

Frankenstein continued....

So, as you continue to read, post some comments/questions/connections regarding the book. For want of a better verb, please blog; don't just post a single isolated comment!
:-)

Weekly Vocab - test on 11/06

Indefatigable, rankling, adversity, benevolent, bestow, afflicted, disconsolate, penury, reverential, sublime, fervently, chimerical (a chimera), tertiary, impediments, relinquishing, palpable, grappling, enticement, irksome, minutiae, intricacies, ardour, transitory

Blog h/w post: Maurice Sendak

Read the article from the London newspaper, The Guardian (click on "Maurice Sendak" link) and post a comment about the importance of diction. What does Sendak have to say about using just the right word...?

Frankenstein Vocabulary - test on 10/30/09

Most importantly, you must know the myth of Prometheus.

celebrity, (as in the abstract noun!)
reminiscences,
immortalize,
ostensible,
eponymous,
alienation
averse,
appendage,
fostered,
galvanism, (know who Galvani was)
component,
odious,
quench,
transient
celestial,
conjecture,
niche,
assailed,
endeavor,
ardent,

The weekly words (you know you love them!)

These are all about poetry:

apostrophe (not the punctuation mark)
lyric poetry
meter
stanza
quatrain
sestet
sestina
tercet
ode
ballad
villanelle
Shakespearean sonnet
Petrarchan sonnet
Spenserian sonnet
verbal irony
cacophony
free verse
blank verse

"This I Believe" Commentary

Please post a comment or question about any of the TIB essays that struck you as particularly poignant, powerful, or important.
Tell why it interested you, and then run with it--blog away about the project as a whole!

Yummy Grammar! Week of 10/12/09

As you will see from this week's list, we are taking a moment to remember grammar. Ah yes, how I love the uproariously funny misplaced epithets--not to mention hysterically funny malapropisms!

Transitive verb,
intransitive verb,
malapropism
indefinite pronouns,
possessive pronouns,
reflexive pronouns,
objective pronouns,
subjective (nominative) pronouns,
modifier,
gerund,
participle,
predicate,
predicate adjective,
predicate nominative,
declarative (indicative) sentence,
imperative sentence,
exclamatory sentence,
interrogative sentence,
subject verb agreement
transferred epithets

Wolsey Essay Homework post - due 10/8/09 by 3pm

Please read, critique, and score the student sample essay to the Wolsey prompt. You must say why you gave it the score you did.

Week of 10/5/09 Vocabulary

assonance
caesura
conceit
connotation
denotation
dissonance
elegy
eulogy
enjambment
in medias res
prose
soliloquy
monologue
hubris
denouement
assonance
colloquialism
diction
detail
imagery
syntax
tone
paradox

For this week's test I will only ask you for a definition and a clear example of each term. Many of these words have been studied in class, so you should be familiar with some of them already. I will assign a mid week h/w exercise to help you to prepare for the test.

Weekly vocabulary Week of 9/28

Yes, I know there are more than ten words...makes a nice change from the rather pedestrian decimal system, don't you think?

Impetus
Moribund
Reticent
Insipid
Nefarious
Ennui
Torrid
Blasé
Cajole
Specificity
Infused
Suppliant
Magnum opus
Synecdoche
Metonymy

Hamlet

Describe some of the conflicts we have seen in Act I of Hamlet, giving details (characters, situations etc.). Be sure to clarify if the conflicts are internal or external.

Week of 9/21/09 Vocabulary

The following are this week's words. Please prepare literary analysis sample sentences for the first five words. Ask to see Marcela's test sentences; they were excellent!
1. disparity
2. inexorable
3. ineffable
4. vacillate
5. akin to
6. pique
7. whet
8. mellifluous
9. misogyny
10. sycophantic

Homework Assignment 9/16/09

As we read Beowulf, we can "hear" the Christian poet's very clear message in the epic. This was not necessarily part of the original oral tradition. Consider the recent movie version we have discussed in class. How do you see our modern minds/directors/societal values being "layered" onto the epic in the same way as the Christian poet may have done? Do not post your response; I would like you to write about the following: How might the original story have differed from the text we have now? What were the possible messages/themes/reflections of that society? Similarly, how does the movie reflect our societal mores? This work is due tomorrow, Thursday 17th.

Homework Post - Mon 9/14/09

Read the sample essays by students #1, 2 and 3. According to the scoring rubric, what grade would you give each one, and why? The why part is crucial. What is your rationale for assigning each grade?

Vocabulary for week of 9/14/09

1. inherently
2. insidious
3. inextricably
4. obsequious
5. multifarious
6. ambiguous
7. imminent
8. eminent
9. conflated
10.diametrically opposed ideas

Plus any school Words of the Day

For Friday's test you will not only need to write a sentence for (possibly) each word, but you will be required to use words 1, 5, 6, 9, and 10 in a literary analysis sentence. I will go over this in class--fear not!

The Ramayana Guest Lecturer

Would be interested in your feedback on today's guest lecturer and The Ramayana. This post is not mandatory. :)

Required Post Homework

When discussing Literature, what do we mean when we talk about the human condition and universal truths? Write a definition for each, in your own words please! Then give an example of each from any work of literary merit. This post is due by Saturday 3:00.

Week of 9/7/09

Mon 9/7:   No School

Tues 9/8:  Multiple Choice "orange" sheet test. Work due at start of class. Beowulf.

Wed 9/9:   SSR - either finishing Slaughterhouse Five and all dialectical notes, or reading The Ramayana (text p.240-249) and writing three interpretive questions in preparation for our guest speaker on Fri 9/11, then AP essay prompt practice.

Thur 9/10: cont. Beowulf

Fri 9/11: Vocabulary test (from last three weeks' words), then guest speaker - The Ramayana. Three interpretive questions due.

Class Reading & Assignment 9/2

If we had Billy's time elasticity we could have talked for longer. Pesky linear chronology!
:-)

Please read to at least the end of chapter 6, adding to your dialectical notes. In addition, please answer the following and keep with your notes (I will collect and grade ALL your dialectical notes at the end of the book):

1. What is the narrator's attitude toward Billy Pilgrim?
2. Who is "trapped" in this book? By what? (hint--not only characters...)

By all means "discuss" this with your classmates. That's what the blog is for.

Have this finished by Friday 9/4

Slaughterhouse Five Questions and Comments

I encourage you all to post questions, insights, and connections regarding Vonnegut's novel. Please remember to adhere to rules of appropriate academic analytical commentary. This is a forum for literary investigation and discovery! I will start the ball rolling with the first question:
What do you think might be significant about the protagonist's name? Discuss.

Tralfamadorian Eulogy

This week America mourned the loss of Senator Edward Kennedy. Aside from the three-word expected response, post what you think someone from Tralfamadore might say about his life and about his death. 

Assignments Update 8/28

*Due Mon 8/31* Your revised essay, typed (MLA format) with the first draft attached.

*The Literary Timeline project will be discussed further during the week, but feel free to begin independent research for your group's time period :-)

*Slaughterhouse Five - dialectical notes are up to end of chapter two for now.

Have a relaxing, fun-filled weekend...

Welcome 4th Block!

Please visit each site on this page and explore all the information. Then, write a brief summary of each site (one short paragraph) plus your opinion of each. Thus, you will have five lengthy paragraphs total. Did you find the sites useful or relevant? Or maybe you are already familiar with them. Either way, let me know you have seen the information and what you think about it all. Email me your work as an rtf file to Judith.Hurst@BrowardSchools.com. This work is due on Wednesday August 26th by 3:00pm.
:-)