Lee's 6th Hour Honors American Lit. 09-10

Post Modern Tableaus

2010-04-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

To wrap up our thinking about Postmodernism, today we presented tableaus in which we chose 3 passages from the 5 Postmodern texts we examined that we felt were/ are the most representative of this movement. I loved your costumes, props, enthusiasm, and, especially, your poses. Here are the other things I noticed:
--Patterns in chosen texts
--Patterns in quote choices within those texts
--Patterns in the thematic ideas and maybe even the themes those passages divulged.
What did you notice? What did you find interesting? Why did you choose the texts, quotes, and poses you did? How did this experience add to/ solidify your thinking about Postmodernism?

Gatsby: chs 4 and 5

2010-03-30T05:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry I will miss your discussion today. I am at home feeling yucky. Fishbowl it up in my absence and, if you prefer the quieter route today, use this post or a hand-written response to express your thinking throughout the course of the discussion.

Pudd'nhead discussion: the final frontier

2010-02-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

Use your posts today to particularly focus on the significance of the ending of the text. Use our warm-up question to help you get started, building with your questions, both comprehensive and analytical.

Pudd'nhead Wilson Discussion: take two

2010-02-03T12:52:00.000-08:00

As with yesterday, please actively participate throughout the course of discussion, aiming to complete at least a few well-developed questions or responses.

Student-led discussion over Pudd'nhead: take one

2010-02-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

If you choose not to verbally participate in the discussion today, please share your thinking with your classmates in a written discussion on the class blog. Please contribute at least a few thoughtful comments or questions throughout the course of today's discussion.

Tell all the Truth, but tell it Slant...

2010-01-29T13:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry I cut us short today. Here are the questions I was hoping we would get to to bring our thinking together. Feel free to also share your thinking about ideas, characters, and settings in the text (Roxy, Chambers, Sons of Liberty, the Driscoll family name, etc.) that we didn't quite get to today.

What effect does this illusion versus reality motif have on the reader?
To what extent would Twain agree with Dickinson’s assessment of reality?
With Hitchcock’s?
To what extent do you support Twain, Hitchcock and/ or Dickinson’s thinking?

Happy pondering and posting.

ALIS book help

2009-12-17T14:16:00.000-08:00

Our team is interested in amending our independent reading selections for the coming semester so we are steering students toward choices that are appropriate to their interests and values in addition to being conducive to successful completion of the independent study work. With that in mind, I would love your feedback on the following questions so we have data to steer your selections next semester and also selections for future years. Please answer the questions below in a short paragraph.
1. Name and title of work.
2. To whom would you recommend this book and why?
3. What material, if any, might one find objectionable about this text?
4. To what extent did this novel selection help you experience ALIS success?

Fun with Transcendentalism...

2009-12-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

Having engaged in your own Transcendental experience, what did you learn about how Transcendental (or not) you are? Consider the prompts on your handout and also how this experience furthered your appreciation and/ or understanding of the Transcendentalists.

Quiet Desperation or Sounding Their Barbaric Yawp?

2009-12-06T14:22:00.000-08:00

Having examined a few Transcendalists, consider the following quote by Henry David Thoreau: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation". What do you make of this quote? How does it connect to our studied Transcendentalists? Did they, in your opinion, truly sound their barbaric yawp, or were they, instead, merely leading lives of quiet desperation? Consider individuals we examined and/ or the collective movement.

Fishbowl over "Where are you Going..."

2009-11-13T07:16:00.001-08:00

It's our last Gothic fishbowl. Sigh. Let's make it a good one.

Please continue to keep in mind the expectation that you are an active participant throughout the discussion and that you contribute at least 3 times. Otherwise, keep up the good work! Let's particularly focus on theme as well as connections to our guiding question.

Fishbowl over "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"

2009-11-11T12:21:00.000-08:00

Fishbowl over "The Minister's Black Veil"

2009-11-09T12:16:00.001-08:00

Sounding your Barbaric Yawp

2009-11-04T07:06:00.000-08:00

Having explored the role of catharsis in Whitman and in Dead Poet's Society, let's bring it back to our Dark Romantic literature...

Explore the role of catharsis in one of the Gothic stories we've read.
--Is this cathartic experience helpful or baleful?
--How does a lack of catharsis affect other characters?
--How does including or not including this cathartic moment create or further the author's message?
Choose one or more of these questions, or pose some of your own to further explore this concept.

Fishbowl over "A Rose for Emily"

2009-11-04T07:05:00.000-08:00

As one of your options for responding to today's discussion, you are welcome to address questions and insights over William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" via commenting on this post.

If you choose this option, I expect that you will...
1. Respond at least a few times by posting insightful comments or questions. Some have been posting once or twice; that is unsufficient and communicates to me that you might be off task.
2. Uphold our previously established blogging expectations with regard to using formal punctuation, grammar, and language.
3. Consider what is transpiring in the discussion; rather than simply typing, pause to listen to the inner circle at times and use that discussion, in addition to your own questions and comments, to guide your responses.

Feedback from our first few to keep in mind:
1. Keep addressing your questions and responses to individuals when one individual applies, i.e. "Fred Flinstone, ..."
2. Develop your ideas: so what? How so? What makes you say that? As you develop them, refer back to specific passages that inspired your thinking. Go beyond one sentence to really explain your ideas.
3. Keep practicing effective writing skills: avoid prefacing your argument with phrases like "I think" and "I believe"; avoid empty diction like "things" and "bad"; avoid personal pronouns where unnecessary.

Happy posting.

Fishbowl over "The Lottery"

2009-11-03T12:03:00.000-08:00

As one of your options for responding to today's discussion, you are welcome to address questions and insights over Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" via commenting on this post.

If you choose this option, I expect that you will...
1. Respond at least a few times by posting insightful comments or questions. Some have been posting once or twice; that is unsufficient and communicates to me that you might be off task.
2. Uphold our previously established blogging expectations with regard to using formal punctuation, grammar, and language.
3. Consider what is transpiring in the discussion; rather than simply typing, pause to listen to the inner circle at times and use that discussion, in addition to your own questions and comments, to guide your responses.

Feedback from our first couple to keep in mind:
1. Keep addressing your questions and responses to individuals when one individual applies, i.e. "Fred Flinstone, ..."
2. Develop your ideas: so what? How so? What makes you say that? As you develop them, refer back to specific passages that inspired your thinking. Go beyond one sentence to really explain your ideas.
3. Keep practicing effective writing skills: avoid prefacing your argument with phrases like "I think" and "I believe"; avoid empty diction like "things" and "bad"; avoid personal pronouns where unnecessary.

Happy posting.

Fishbowl over "William Wilson"

2009-10-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

As one of your options for responding to today's discussion, you are welcome to address questions and insights over Poe's "William Wilson" via commenting on this post.

If you choose this option, I expect that you will...
1. Respond at least a few times by posting insightful comments or questions.
2. Uphold our previously established blogging expectations with regard to using formal punctuation, grammar, and language.
3. Consider what is transpiring in the discussion; rather than simply typing, pause to listen to the inner circle at times and use that discussion, in addition to your own questions and comments, to guide your responses.

A couple of pieces of feedback from last time:
1. Keep addressing your questions and responses to individuals when one individual applies, i.e. "Fred Flinstone, ..."
2. Develop your ideas: so what? How so? What makes you say that? As you develop them, refer back to specific passages that inspired your thinking. Go beyond one sentence to really explain your ideas.
3. Keep practicing effective writing skills: avoid prefacing your argument with phrases like "I think" and "I believe"; avoid empty diction like "things" and "bad"; avoid personal pronouns where unnecessary.

Happy posting.

Fishbowl over "The Fall of the House of Usher"

2009-10-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

As one of your options for responding to today's discussion, you are welcome to address questions and insights over Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" via commenting on this post.

If you choose this option, I expect that you will...
1. Respond at least a few times by posting insightful comments or questions.
2. Uphold our previously established blogging expectations with regard to using formal punctuation, grammar, and language.
3. Consider what is transpiring in the discussion; rather than simply typing, pause to listen to the inner circle at times and use that discussion, in addition to your own questions and comments, to guide your responses.

Happy posting to you.

Post Puritanism

2009-10-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

Pretend you’re living in the decades following the Salem Witch Trials.

You’re well educated (obviously), and, as such, you have the power to recreate society.

What concerns would you have about the way the past decades were governed?

The way community was formed?

The way people were punished?

How people gained and maintained power, etc.?

What might you change?

Be specific, considering what we learned about the Puritans via our Witchy Webquest as well as The Crucible.

Personal Philosophy Wikispaces: Questions Brainstorm

2009-10-05T14:49:00.001-07:00

Post your teams brainstorming questions as comments so your classmates can also use them to inspire their personal philosophy statements.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God...

2009-09-04T15:47:00.000-07:00

Whew. What a sermon. Here are the questions I originally posed...

1. What is the sermon's purpose?
2. How does it evoke its purpose? What tactics does it employ?
3. Why do you think the Puritans valued this sermon? What did it offer them?

Here are other questions that arose for me as I listened today...

1. What repeated words or images stand out to you? What motifs?
2. What kind of a god does Edwards' sermon describe?
3. Based on the body of information we have about religion in Puritan times from Edward and Miller, what, do you think, connected culture anxiety and religion in this time period?

What questions or thoughts did it inspire for you? Explore connections between your reading and this sermon, between both texts and our guiding question. You may answer one or several of these questions, or pose your own.

Remember, this is an online conversation, not a piece of paper you're handing in. Challenge one another's thinking by responding directly to your classmates, i.e. "Bob, I see what you're saying, but have you considered..." Challenge each others' thinking in a polite, tactful way. Ask good questions. Don't just post and walk away...

Cultural Anxieties

2009-08-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

In your first post to our class blog, write about a time in whhich you did something you now regard as out of character as a result of a group think or cultural anxiety.

For example, one of my most regrettable childhood moments was when I punched a girl in the face in the third grade. I probably don't strike you as a punch-others-in-the-face kind of person, and I like to believe I have abjured that quality, but when it came to tetherball in the third grade, I defied my typical character.

A girl named Olivia had recently transferred into my elementary school where I was queen of the playground. This was less of a voted-upon title and more one I earned as the result of my superior tetherball skills. Olivia wanted to join in the tetherball fun, as that was the preferred activity of all the third grade girls. Unfortunately, Olivia made the detrimental decision of wearing green jumpers and lederhosen from her native country, Germany. Now, in a world where cropped T's and leggings were the height of sophistication, Olivia's lederhosen provoked mockery and rejection from the world of tetherball and popular 10 year-old girls.

When she challenged me, the playground queen, to a match, I looked forward to the opportunity of embarassing her further, of going beyond the verbal mockery directed toward her fashion choices. She proceeded to school me in front of my classmates, at which point I proceeded to punch her in the nose.

I was a mean girl. Not just in this instance, but really throughout my elementary school days. When I look back on that moment and others, I am embarrassed and feel these events are out of character for me. That mean girl mentality I adopted is a product, I believe, of school group think. When one is different, others gang up on that person and, in my anecdote, one sometimes receives a punch in the face by a mean girl.

Now you go. :)