A.P. Lit Is Wondering Why She Did It: January 30, 2015

Focus: What does Beloved's violence represent on a metaphorical level?

1. Warming up with our old friend, Foster:

"If we only understand Beloved on the surface level, Sethe's act of killing her daughter becomes so repugnant that sympathy for her is nearly impossible. If we lived next to her, for instance, one of us would have to move. But her action carries symbolic significance; we understand it not only as the literal action of a single, momentarily deranged woman but as an action that speaks for the experience of a face at a certain horrific moment in history, as a gesture explained by whip scars on her back that take the form of a tree, as the product of the sort of terrible choice that only characters in our great mythic stories--a Jocasta, a Dido, a Medea--are driven to make. Sethe isn't a mere woman next door but a mythic creature, one of the great tragic heroines."  (Foster 91)

Take a look at the shifts in point of view in Chapters 16, 17 and 18.

• How would you describe the point of view(s) in each chapter?

• Why do you think Morrison structures it this way?  

• Other ways of thinking about the above question: Why not just tell the story from Sethe's point of view? How is the story being filtered?

• How does the point of view affect the way you perceive Sethe? Does your perception shift throughout these chapters? Do you agree with Foster that Sethe comes across as a great tragic heroine?

2. Engaging in a lively Socratic seminar on Beloved, Chapters 13-18

3. Wrapping up: Did you know this actually happened?

HW:

1. Calling all critical review books!  Time to finish up those bad boys so that you have time to write your essay, which is due February 9 (that's two weeks from now).

2. For Monday, read the first half of Chapter 1 in Part 2.  For your reading ticket, you can choose from the following:

a. A found poem using words and phrases from the chapter; please include a short paragraph explaining what larger ideas you were exploring through creating this poem.

b. A character analysis; draw in specific passages from the chapter to support your thoughts.

c. A short metacognitive on an important paragraph or page from the reading.

A.P. Lit Is Finding Poetry: January 29, 2015

Focus: What does it mean to lose something, and what it does it mean to reclaim it?

1. Viewing the Baby Suggs scene: What is being reclaimed, and how?

2. Creating found poetry from your Beloved words and phrases to consider today's focus question (feel free to use the questions below for help):

• In Beloved, what is lost?
• What do the characters want to lose?
• What do they wish to reclaim?
• What is found?
• What has the potential to be found?

3. Strolling through a gallery walk of found poetry

HW:
1. We will have a Socratic seminar tomorrow over Chapters 13-18.  If you did the reading ticket assigned when I was gone on Wednesday, then you're all set.

2. How's that critical review book?  Remember that essays are due Monday, February 9.

A.P. Lit Is Fixing the Reading Schedule: January 28, 2015

Focus: What is the purpose of the violence in Chapter 16?

Hello, class!

I'm sorry I'm not there with you today.  Henry was sent home from school yesterday with a fever and possible RSV.  Yikes.  I'm going to flip-flop today and tomorrow, so hold onto those reading tickets full of collected words and phrases from Beloved; you'll need them tomorrow (electronic copy is fine--no need to print it out).

Here's another fun fact: I somehow left the most important chapters in Beloved off the reading schedule. Yep.  To stay on track, I'd like you to please read those chapters in class today. You can also do your reading ticket if you finish early.

Here are the specifics:

1. Please read through the end of Part 1. As I've warned you, Chapter 16 is rough (really rough).  I'm kind of glad you're sitting together and reading it in class.  Always be wary of any chapter that starts with four horsemen...usually a bad sign.

2. Complete the following reading ticket:

“Violence is one of the most personal and even intimate acts between human beings, but it can also be cultural and societal in its implications.  It can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean…Violence in real life just is.  If someone punches you in the nose in a supermarket parking lot, it’s simply aggression…Violence in literature, though, while it is literal, is usually also something else.  That same punch in the nose may be a metaphor.”  

--Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor

• What was most upsetting part of reading these final chapters in Part 1?

• How do you feel about Sethe right now? How does Paul D feel about her?

• What questions do you want to ask the author about this scene?
• What might the violence in this chapter represent on a larger scale? Think about the United States post Civil War (and the modern American audience for which Morrison is writing).

• Why this sort of violence and not some other?

HW:

1. Please finish this reading assignment and reading ticket before class tomorrow (Thursday).

2. Critical review book

A.P. Lit Is Enjambing: January 27, 2015

Focus: How can we break lines to create meaning?

1. Warming up with listening to a little Billy Collins

• Where did you break the lines?  Why?
• What's this poem about?
• How did he break his lines?  How did it enrich or alter your understanding of the poem?

2. Reading the "left-handed" poems of Galvin and Levine

For Galvin:

• Find one line with unusual syntax or an unusual line break.  
• Try rewriting it in a way that makes it more "usual."  
• What did it lose?

For Levine:

• Find three examples of enjambment that seem significant to you. 
• Why do you think he broke the lines there?  In other words, how does it emphasize or create meaning?

3. Trying out your own left-handed poems (or right-handed if you're a lefty like me)

HW: 
1. Read Chapters 13, 14, and 15 for Wednesday; please continue adding to your Google doc of words and phrases.  The more, the better (I'd say at least fifteen total will do the trick). Make sure it's shared with me.

2. Keep making your way through your critical review book.

A.P. Lit Is a Magical yet Realistic Place: January 26, 2015

Focus: How does magical realism help you understand Beloved?

Please turn in your poetry responses.

1. Warming up with happy Monday thoughts

2. Offering you a way to approach "magical realism"

Try making a three-columned chart:

a. List some of the magical elements of Beloved, particularly from the recent chapters in the left column.

b. List some examples of harsh reality in Beloved in the middle column.

c. How does the combination of these two columns create a deeper understanding of characters, events, symbols, themes, etc. in Beloved?  Brainstorm this in the right column.

3. Discussing Chapters 9-12 in Beloved in small groups via "Save the Last Line"

• Chapter 9: Quotable quotes

• Chapter 10: Pressing questions

• Chapter 11: It's a symbol, right?

• Chapter 12: Wildcard

4. Wrapping up

HW: 
1. Read Chapters 13, 14, and 15 for Wednesday; please continue adding to your Google doc of words and phrases.  The more, the better (I'd say at least fifteen total will do the trick). Make sure it's shared with me.

2. Keep making your way through your critical review book.

Who Just Walks Out of the Water? What? A.P. Lit, January 23, 2015

Focus: Who/what is Beloved?

Winter Assembly: Shortened Class

1. Warming up: How is Beloved marked?

What does our friend, Thomas Foster (from How To Read Literature...) have to say about marks?

"...character markings stand as indicators of the damage life inflicts...[characters] bear signs illustrating the way life marks all who pass through it." (195)

Find a couple of good passages illustrated how Beloved is marked.  What might these marks signify? 

2. Discussing Chapters 5 through 8 of Beloved, Socratic style

3. Wrapping up (note to self: class ends at 9:06)

HW:
1. Read your critical review book.

2. Read Chapters 9, 10, 11 and 12 for Monday. As you read, keep a Google doc where you simply type favorite/intriguing/seemingly important words and phrases from these chapters. You'll want at least ten, but the more, the better.  You don't need to print it yet; just share it with me.

3. Next poetry response due on Monday.

A.P. Lit Is Echoing...echoing...echoing: January 22, 2015

Focus: How does poetic form contribute meaning?  In other words, how is order brought to chaos?

1. Warming up with a little Greek mythology: The Myth of Echo (read from Book III of Ovid's Metamorphoses)

2. Discussing "An Echo Sonnet: To an Empty Page" in groups of four

a. Read through it without the echo, as though it were a traditional sonnet. How does this change the poem's meaning?  In other words, what does the echo contribute to the poem's meaning?

b. Where did you section the poem? How did you figure it out? What's each section about?

c. Look to all the places where "you" and "your" are referenced.  Who is the "you"?

d. Think of the poetic devices we've studied so far (imagery, diction, extended metaphor, alliteration, assonance, euphony, cacophony, rhyme, shift words, punctuation, syntax, point of view, enjambment...); which ones play an important role in this poem?  What did they unlock for you?

3. Exploring the rubric and a few sample essays

4. Peer editing your timed writings

HW:
1. Please read the next four chapters (5, 6, 7, and 8) in Beloved by this Friday. For your reading ticket, please find one word that you've taken notice of in the novel so far (perhaps because it's repeated, or because Morrison's using it in a new way), and type a paragraph or two exploring its meaning.  Please include at least one textual passage in your response.

2. Next poetry response due next Monday. HARD COPIES only, please.

3. Critical review books--set aside some time this weekend to read. 

A.P. Lit's Getting into Character: January 21, 2014

Focus: How can we better understand the characters in Beloved?

If you were absent yesterday, please turn in your second round of poetry responses and pick up a new packet.

1. Warming up: Getting together other people who took interest in your character; getting to know that character by responding to some creative writing prompts

2. Discussing the third and fourth chapters of Beloved, Socratic seminar style

3. Wrapping up!

HW:
1. Please read the next four chapters (5, 6, 7, and 8) in Beloved by this Friday. For your reading ticket, please find one word that you've taken notice of in the novel so far (perhaps because it's repeated, or because Morrison's using it in a new way), and type a paragraph or two exploring its meaning.  Please include at least one textual passage in your response.

2. Next poetry response due next Monday. HARD COPIES only, please.

A.P. Lit Is Writing: January 20, 2015

Focus: How do we write about sonnets?

Please turn in your poetry responses and help yourself to a new packet.

1. Warming up...did you do your act of kindness?  How'd it go?

2. Quickly recapping/reintroducing the Socratic grading method in as concrete a way as Ms. Leclaire can muster

3. Enjoying your first Tuesday writing of the semester


HW:
1. Read the next two chapters of Beloved by tomorrow.  For your reading ticket, please close read a character (for extra fun, try reading 124--the house--as a character).  Pick the character that intrigues you the most so far, find a few good passages for that character, and interpret/question/investigate them to draw some conclusions about that character.

2. Complete your third poetry response by next Monday.  HARD COPIES, please.

3. Snuggle up with your critical review book.

A.P. Lit Is Wondering Who/What Beloved Is: January 16, 2015

Focus: How we do enter the world of Beloved?

1. Warming up by enjoying a few rounds of musical chairs with your Beloved reading tickets

2. Discussing the first two chapters of Beloved via Socratic seminar

3. Wrapping up: Share with the class...

• Something smart
• Something random you noticed
• Something confusing

HW:
1. Read the next two chapters of Beloved by Tuesday.  For your reading ticket, please close read a character (for extra fun, try reading 124--the house--as a character).  Pick the character that intrigues you the most so far, find a few good passages for that character, and interpret/question/investigate them to draw some conclusions about that character.

2. Complete your poetry response by Monday.  HARD COPIES, please.

3. Snuggle up with your critical review book.

A.P. Lit Is Haunted: January 15, 2015

Focus: How do we enter the disturbingly haunted world of Beloved?


1. Warm-up: A little freewriting on one of the following lines from Beloved...

"She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man.  The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind."

"He wants to put his story next to hers."

"'She was my best thing.' ... He leans over and takes her hand. With the other he touches her face. 'You your best thing, Sethe. You are.' His holding fingers are holding hers."

"Sometimes the photograph of a close friend or relative--looked at too long--shifts, and something more familiar than the dear face itself moves there. They can touch it if they like, but don't, because they know things will never be the same if they do."

2. Facing some difficult images and reading some important lines to prepare for Beloved

3. Reading the rest of Chapter 1 in Beloved together

HW:
1.  Finish reading Chapter 1 and 2 in Beloved for tomorrow's first Socratic; for your first reading ticket, try to complete ALL of the following six tasks:

• Find a passage that confuses you.  Ask a question about it.
• Find a passage about setting that seems significant.  Ask a question or make an inference about it.
• Find a possible symbol.  Ask a question or make an inference about it.
• Find a character who intrigues you.  Ask a question about him or her.
• Find a passage that disturbs you.  Ask a question about it.
• Find a passage that you think is lovely.  As a question or make an inference about it.

2. Read your critical review book.  Aim to finish by the end of January.

3. Next poetry response due Monday.

A.P. Literature Is Finalizing the Final: January 14, 2015

Focus: So...what did we get?

1. Warming up with acing the MC on the sonnet (now that you kind of understand it)

2. Giving back your Invisible Man essays and briefly recapping them

3. Calculating your actual exam score and interpreting the score distributions

4. Barcoding your Beloved books, penciling in chapters, and looking over the reading schedule

5. Entering the haunted world of Beloved, gathering tensions and asking questions along the way

HW:
1.  Finish reading Chapter 1 and 2 in Beloved for Friday.  For your first reading ticket, try to complete ALL of the following six tasks:

• Find a passage that confuses you.  Ask a question about it.
• Find a passage about setting that seems significant.  Ask a question or make an inference about it.
• Find a possible symbol.  Ask a question or make an inference about it.
• Find a character who intrigues you.  Ask a question about him or her.
• Find a passage that disturbs you.  Ask a question about it.
• Find a passage that you think is lovely.  As a question or make an inference about it.

2. Read your critical review book.  Aim to finish by the end of January.

3. Next poetry response due Monday.

All A.P. Needs Is Fourteen Lines: January 13, 2014

Focus: How can a sonnet bring order to chaos?

1. Warming up with Billy Collins' interpretation of the sonnet (and Foster's)

2. Exploring "I will put Chaos into fourteen lines" and "An Echo from Willow-Wood"

• What kind of diction is associated with Chaos? With Order?
• What do you notice about grammar in these poems?  Why is it important?

A helpful poetic term: ENJAMBMENT (from literarydevices.net)

Enjambment, derived from a French word enjambment, means to step over or put legs across. In poetry it means moving over from one line to another without a terminating punctuation mark. It can be defined as a thought or sense, phrase or clause in a line of poetry that does not come to an end at the line break but moves over to the next line. In simple words, it is the running on of a sense from one couplet or line to the next without a major pause or syntactical break.

• What kind of chaos is Rossetti exploring in her sonnet?
• What kind of diction does she use to evoke chaos?
• What poetic devices does she use to bring order to this chaos?

3. Getting tricky: Trying your hand at the Shakespearean sonnet

Using postsecrets to explore the order and chaos in Sonnet 130 and the sonnet on your midterm

4. Talking through the sonnet multiple choice section

HW:
1. Please make sure I have a hard copy of your first poetry response.

2. Click HERE for a copy of the Beloved reading schedule; note that we will be reading the beginning together in class.

3. Start reading your critical review book; set yourself a clear and doable schedule to finish reading by the end of January (this will give you the time necessary to compose the essay).

A.P. Lit Is Just Kidding: January 12, 2015

Focus: So...how do we know when it's satire?

Please turn in your poetry responses; also, if you have a hard copy of your critical review proposal, turn it in.  If not, make share it's Google shared with me.

1. Warming up with happy Monday Boom cards

2. A brief unraveling of the inner workings of your mind: How did you get the right answers?

3. A longer unraveling of the inner workings of satire

a. Looking to SNL's Weekend Update for ideas on the elements of satire

b. Applying SNL's tactics to the satirical passage in your MC; speed dating to figure out the answers

HW:
1.  Please reread the Chapter "If It's Square, It's a Sonnet" in Foster's How To Read Literature Like a Professor (I believe it's Chapter 4).  Bullet point five things you learned from this chapter that might help you understand the sonnets in your future.  You can write these either in the book or in your composition notebook. Bring your book and your five bullet pointed items to class tomorrow.

2. If you plan to purchase your own copy of Beloved, please do so by Wednesday.

3. Purchase your critical review book and start reading it right away.  You only have about three weeks to read it; focus simply on what works and what doesn't work for you as you read it.

A.P. Lit Is Finding the "Tip" in MulTIPle Choice: January 9, 2015

Focus: What can we expect of the multiple choice section on the AP Literature exam?

1. Warming up: Decoding the test

• Classifying the passages (examples: Prose, 19th century-ish?, or Poetry, Modern)
• Ranking the passages for level of difficulty
• Identifying types of questions
• Finding the "Tip" word in each question
• Circling the answers you initially chose and giving me back your scantrons

2. Speed dating: Find the right match for you...wait, no.  Find the right match for each M.C. question

3. Talking through the tricky sections as a class

HW:
1. Make sure your poetry packet is complete and shared with me.  It would be lovely if it were print-ready.

2. First poetry response is due Monday.

3. If you haven't done so yet, finish your critical reading proposal, and acquire and start reading your critical review book.

A.P. Lit + Dickinson + Frost = 4Ever: January 8, 2015

Focus: How can we improve our poetry timed writings?

1. Warming up: With a partner, make a quick t-chart (or Venn diagram, or whatever spacial entity inspires you) in which you list words/phrases from the Dickinson poem that have a direct correlation, either through similarity or contrast, with words and phrases from the Frost poem

2. Discussing the poems separately and together in terms of...

• Moments (imagery, diction, punctuation, etc) 
• Movements (shifts, patterns, shapes)
• Multiple meanings (tone and theme)

3. Browsing the rubric and sample essays; applying feedback to our own essays in a big circle

HW: 
1.  Finish your poetry packet and Google share it with me (or e-mail it) by tomorrow.

2. Finish your critical review proposal by Monday; spend a little time at Tattered Cover checking out the new hardback and new paperback fiction shelves.  Have a Big Train chai.

If you know what you want to read for your critical review book and feel somewhat confident  that it will be approved, go ahead and start reading it.

3. First poetry response is due Monday; remember that it must be inspired from one of the poems in the poetry packet I gave you on Tuesday.  Here are the two big rules:

a. It must be one full page (or longer); handwritten or typed and double spaced.
b. It must reference the poem at least once.

A.P. Lit Is Investigating the Midterm: January 7, 2015

Focus: What did we did do well on our prose timed writings, and how can we improve?

1. Rereading Johnny Got His Gun and prepping with five Socratic questions

2. Circling up for a mini Socratic Seminar on your questions as well as the original prompt

3. Reviewing the official rubric for this essay and a few sample essays

4. Peer workshopping each other's essays:

Round 1: Using the rubric, comment on the specific strengths and weaknesses of the content of your partner's essay. Remember always to read through the entire essay once without writing any comments.


Conference briefly with your partner, THEN SWITCH PARTNERS.

Round 2: Comment on the specific strengths and weaknesses of your partner's essay's organization and style.

Conference briefly with your partner, then, using the rubric, estimate a grade range for your essay: High (7-9), Middle (5-6), or Low (0-4).

Note: Either this essay or your poetry essay will count towards this semester's grade.  Your Invisible Man writing was the one that counted towards your first semester grade.

HW: 
1. If you know what you want to read for your critical review book and feel somewhat confident that it will be approved, go ahead and start reading it.

2. Signed class policies/syllabus due tomorrow.

3. Finish your poetry packet and Google share it with me (or e-mail it) by Friday.

4. Finish your critical review proposal by Monday; spend a little time at Tattered Cover checking out the new hardback and new paperback fiction shelves.  Have a Big Train chai.

A.P. Lit Is Back, Baby: January 6, 2015

Focus: How can we ease gently back into English academia?

1. Warming up with 3GT

2. Offering you a glimpse of second semester: Books, grades, writing, options, big dates, good stuff.

3. Diving into the most fun of the literary essays: The critical review

4. Handing over the poetic reigns to you by inviting you to compile your favorite poems:

• With a partner, please compile a collection of 10-12 of your favorite poems.  No little kid poems, please. 

• You can either select the poems together, or each of you can do 5-6.

• Include the poem's title and author.

• Give your poetry packet a title, and make sure your names are on it.

5. If time allows, filling out a short Google form for contact information

HW:
1. If we didn't get to #5 on the agenda above, please do so before class tomorrow.

2. Signed class policies/syllabus due Thursday.

3. Finish your poetry packet and Google share it with me (or e-mail it) by Friday.

4. Finish your critical review proposal by Friday; spend a little time at Tattered Cover checking out the new hardback and new paperback fiction shelves.  Have a Big Train chai.