Honors 4: Vocab for 9/11 Quiz

• Classic Archetypes: in Jungian psychology, a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches. 
• Hero: puts the well-being of his people above his own safety and from beginning to end, he learns important skills and changes as a person 
• The Catalyst: an event or person who causes significant changes in others
• Mentor or Guide: teaches and protects the hero; gives the hero magical gifts to help complete the quest; often tied to nature or religion; could be a failed hero who is trying to help the next generation 
• Gatekeeper: person who guards a gateway or task; sometimes they are part of the villain’s company or sometimes they can become allies or members of the hero’s group 
• The Villain: the evil opposing the hero 
• Trickster: element of chaos, curious to know how and why, practical joker; often causes problems for everyone by accident; comic relief  
• Thief: generally a reformed criminal who is part of the group to redeem himself/herself 

English 4: Vocab for 9/11 Quiz

Alley: a roadway between buildings that is smaller than a street and often used for deliveries, garbage, shortcuts, and nefarious activities
Ally: a person(s) that will help, not harm

Antagonist: the opponent of the protagonist (not always the “hero”)
Protagonist: the main character, sometimes called the hero (not always the villain)

Are: form of “to be”
Hour: measurement of time equivalent to sixty minutes
Our: possessive pronoun includes self and others

Bourgeois: affluent, middle-class folk who are conventional, conservative, or materialistic
Proletariat: low-wage earning folk who often struggle to afford the basics (food, shelter, clothes)

English 2: Vocab for 9/11

• Allusion: a historical or cultural reference to something outside the piece of literature
• Ambiguity: uncertainty of intended meaning
• Atmosphere: mood, ambience, or emotional tone of a text
• Cacophony:  the use of words and phrases that imply strong, harsh sounds within the phrase (these words have jarring and dissonant sounds that create a disturbing, objectionable atmosphere)
• Characterization: creating and establishing specific individuals (characters) in a story, poem, or film
• Conflict: a resistance the protagonist of the story finds in achieving his aims or dreams
• Connotation: secondary or associated meanings for a word (contextual usage sometimes)
• Denotation: dictionary definition of a word

E2: Last Vocabulary List

Quiz on June 8

• Acumen: keen insight; shrewdness
• Adulting: the ability to take care of business all the time (pay bills, keep up a house, be social, and mostly legal)
• Caustic: capable of burning, corroding, or destroying living tissue; severely critical or sarcastic
• Dilettante: a person who takes up an art, activity, or subject merely for enjoyment; may find a true passion in one of these or in the promotion of others; a dabbler
• F.O.C. (pronounced "folk"): family of choice—people who have a tighter bond than just friendship and support each other emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and (sometimes) financially (for short periods)
• Friends: people who come together for support and mutual mental and emotional (sometimes financial) benefit.
• Friendly: treating other people with courtesy and sincerity without wishing to move into friendship
• Halcyon: calm; peaceful; tranquil
• Jobing: doing the best one can with the good and the bad that life throws down (references the Judeo-Christian story of Job)

E2: Scifi Short Stories, Childhood's End, and vocabulary for 5/18 quiz

Scifi Short Stories

• "That Only a Mother" by Judith Merril
• Why doesn’t the mother see the problem with the child? How do parents often see the best or worst in their children? Answer with an analytical paragraph using examples from the story and make a connection from other stories, real life, etc.
• "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke
• Why do some people want the world to end already? Answer with an analytical paragraph using examples from the story and make a connection from other stories, real life, etc.
• "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin
• When is it okay to sacrifice one life for the needs of several others? Answer with an analytical paragraph using examples from the story and make a connection from other stories, real life, etc.

Childhood’s End––Introduction and Part 1

• Write a 2-sentence summary for the Introduction
• Write a 2-sentence summary for each section of Part 1
• Write a three to four paragraph essay on Part 1 that answers one of the following questions
• What does it  mean to be human? What qualities make us unique as a species?
• Why would The Overlords feel the need to hide their true nature? What do they look like? Why would that scare humans?
• What do you think the future of humanity holds? Be specific with (and support) your ideas.

Vocabulary for 5/18/15 quiz

• Entitled: professional victim who always has an excuse; reacts instead of adapts; and expects privileges for existing.
• Ephemeral: lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory.
• Epiphany: sudden revelation
• Epitome: a person or thing that is typical of or possesses to a high degree the features of a whole class
• Fallacy: a deceptive, misleading, or false notion, belief, etc.
• Fluid Intelligence: the ability to see connections or relationships despite a lack of training 
• Gription: when grip gives traction
• Iconoclast: someone who breaks the rules (or tries to overthrow and institution) in order to create a better world
• Idiosyncratic: something peculiar to an individual

E2: Scifi Starter and Vocabulary for 5/4/15 Quiz

Using your resources (various packets of information, class discussions, the wide web) answer the following questions completely––

1. What does SciFi have in common with mythology? Support and explain.
2. What does SciFi have in common with fairy tales? Support and explain.
3. What do the two sets of archetypes (Classic and Romantic) have in common? Support and explain.
4. What archetype do you most relate to? Why? Support and explain.
5. How much does technology affect your day to day life? Support and explain.
6. What do you think will be the "next big thing" in technology? Support and explain.
7. What do you think the world will be like when you are thirty? Support and explain.
8. Why do ScifFi writers use religion in their stories? Support and explain.

Among the stories we will be reading are (the provided links are what I could find): 

• "Microcosmic God" by Theodore Sturgeon
• What would you give up in the name of progress? Support and explain.
• Is it alright to trick people into doing something? Support and explain.
• Why do people give up their ability to make decisions or think for themselves? Support and explain.
• What was Kidder's best invention? How would it fare in our world? Support and explain.
• What will happen if the neoterics ever leave the island? Support and explain.
• "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov
• What would it be like to never know true darkness?
• What places in our own world may have inspired this story?
• Why do people go crazy when it actually gets dark?
• What is normal? (Analytical Paragraph w/support from the story)
• "Mimsy Were The Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett with a bonus "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Caroll
• Why are the children able to accomplish things the adults are not? What lesson is there for the rest of us? Answer with an analytical paragraph using examples from the story and make a connection from other stories, real life, etc.
• "Huddling Place" by Clifford D. Simak
• How common is a fear that controls someone so completely? Answer with an analytical paragraph using examples from the story and make a connection from other stories, real life, etc.
• "That Only a Mother" by Judith Merril
• Why doesn’t the mother see the problem with the child? How do parents often see the best or worst in their children? Answer with an analytical paragraph using examples from the story and make a connection from other stories, real life, etc.
• "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke
• Why do some people want the world to end already? Answer with an analytical paragraph using examples from the story and make a connection from other stories, real life, etc.
• "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin
• When is it okay to sacrifice one life for the needs of several others? Answer with an analytical paragraph using examples from the story and make a connection from other stories, real life, etc.
• Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke (yes, it's a novel)

Vocabulary for 5/4/15 Quiz

• Bailiwick: a person's area of skill, knowledge, authority, or work
• Bona fide: made or carried out in good faith
• The Bounce: the ability to move, then crawl, then walk after life knocks someone all the way to the bottom 
• Complacent: pleased with oneself, often without awareness of some potential danger or defect; self-satisfied
• Dharma: the principle of cosmic order (Hindu); the teaching or religion of Buddha; applying beliefs to how life is lived 
• Dilettante: a person who takes up an art, activity, or subject merely for amusement; may find a true passion or in the promotion of others; a dabbler
• Eclectic: not following any one system, but selecting and using what are considered the best elements of all systems
• Enfranchise: to grant a franchise to; admit to citizenship, especially to the right of voting

Seniors: Vocabulary for a bit

Quiz on 4/21

• Mitochondrion: an organelle in the cytoplasm of cells that functions in energy production
• Nebula: a cloud of interstellar gas and dust
• Nihilarian: a person who deals with things lacking importance
• Nonchalance: cool indifference or lack of concern; casualness
• Nonsectarian: not affiliated with or limited to a specific religious denomination

Quiz on 5/4

• Non sequitur: it does not follow; a statement containing an illogical conclusion
• Omnivore: will eat anything
• Panacea: a remedy for all disease or ills; cure-all
• Passion: any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling
• Perfunctory: lacking interest, care, or enthusiasm; indifferent or apathetic
• Pernicious: causing insidious harm or ruin; ruinous; injurious; hurtful
• Proletariat: low-wage earning folk who often struggle to afford the basics (food, shelter, clothes)
• Quip: a clever or witty remark or comment; a sharp, sarcastic remark; a cutting jest

Quiz on 5/18

• Quotidian: average; ordinary; every-day
• Reflection: an image seen in a mirror or shiny surface; serious though or consideration; contemplation of life, choices, actions, and consequences with an eye to change
• Respite: a delay or cessation for a time, especially of anything distressing or trying; an interval of relief
• Responsible: accept consequences for actions an choices; work for needs and wants; adapt to things that happen rather than blame others.
• Rivals: people who seek to occupy the same place at work, school, or in a social group
• Sargasm: when the urge to make a sarcastic reply is so overwhelming you can only roll yours eyes and grunt incoherently
• Solstice: either of the two times a year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator
• Succumb: to yield to disease, wounds, old age, etc
• Supercilious: looking or behaving as if better than other people

E2: Poetry and Vocabulary for 4/20/15 Quiz

4/7/15––Poetry Notes; read and discuss "To Autumn" by John Keats; write an analytical/claim paragraph

4/8/15––Read and discuss "Autumn Daybreak" by Antonio Machado; write an analytical/claim paragraph; write a Snapshot Poem (3-10 lines/20-50 words/capture a specific moment or image)

4/9/15––Read and discuss "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" by Walt Whitman; write an analytical/claim paragraph; write a Haiku (5 syllables/7 syllables/5 syllables; Japanese nature poem)

4/10/15––Read and discuss "Fog" by Carl Sandburg and "Falling Snow" by Amy Lowell; write an analytical/claim paragraph; write a Five by Five poem (five lines/five words per line/no rhyme)

4/13/15––Find examples of each poetry term from the packet (underline and label it)

4/14/15––Share examples; read and discuss "Spring is like a perhaps hand" by e.e. cummings; write a two-sentence summary for each part of the poem (whole; in parens; not in parens)

4/15/15––Read and discuss "Hurt Hawks" by Robinson Jeffers; write an analytical/claim paragraph; write a poem (your choice of topic and style)

Poetry Terms for April 20 Quiz––it's open-note, so make sure you find an example of teach term from your poem packet.

• Imagery: words and phrases to create “mental images” for the reader
• Figurative language: writing appeals to the senses; using words that have unusual constructions or sounds
• Alliteration: two or more words in a grouping with the same opening sound (the super suicide society of summer session)
• Analogy: a comparison of two things (the umbrella for metaphor and simile)
• Cliché: overused phrase
• Conceit: an unusual or fanciful comparison
• Euphemism: an inoffensive expression used in place of a blunt or embarrassing one
• Hyperbole: an extreme overstatement
• Idiom: a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g., rain cats and dogs, see the light ).
• Metaphor: an implicit comparison that doesn’t use like or as
• Personification: giving human qualities to something not human
• Onomatopoeia: sound words
• Simile: an explicit comparison using like or as 
• Symbol: a word or phrase that signifies something or has a range of reference
• Lit. Devices
• Allusion: a historical or cultural reference to something outside the piece of literature
• Ambiguity: uncertainty of intended meaning
• Atmosphere: mood, ambience, or emotional tone of a text
• Cacophony:  the use of words and phrases that imply strong, harsh sounds within the phrase (these words have jarring and dissonant sounds that create a disturbing, objectionable atmosphere)
• Diction: word choice
• Fallacy: a deceptive, misleading, or false notion, belief, etc.
• Irony: playing around with words such that the meaning implied by a sentence or word is actually different from the literal meaning (the deeper, real layer of significance is revealed not by the words themselves but the situation and the context in which they are placed)
• Motif: a conspicuous element that recurs throughout a story
• Paradox: a statement that seems to be contradictory, but that actually makes sense
• Point of View: the way a story gets told; the way an author presents characters ,dialogue, action, setting, and events
• Theme: the big idea examined in the text
• Tone: overall effect

Vocabulary for April 20 Quiz (there will also be an open note portion for poetry)

• Theme: the big idea examined in the text
• Tone: overall effect
• Trickster: element of chaos, curious to know how and why, practical joker; often causes problems for everyone by accident; Comic relief 
• Voice: agent or agency speaking through the poem; persona

E4 and H4: Independent Reading and Vocabulary for 4/6/15 Quiz

Independent Reading 

• The book must be at least 300 pages or approved by instructor. 
• The book needs to be appropriate to the level of a high school senior in content, context, and reading level. 
• This should NOT be a book you have read for another English class. Pick a book about something you actually want to read.

Essay #1: To be written after chapter four, but prior to the halfway point. It should be 500 words and answer one or more of the following questions––

• What’s the point of view and how well is it executed? Support and explain.
• Are the characters believable? Are they well-written? Support and explain.
• What themes are being set up? How do you know?
• What motifs and symbols seem to be important at this point? Support and explain.

Essay #2: To be written after the halfway point, but prior to the end. It should be 650 words and answer one or more of the following questions––

• How well does the author build the characters? Support and explain.
• Is the plot developed naturally and believably? Support and explain.
• Have the themes continued to be weaved into the narrative? Have new themes become apparent? Explain.
• Are there any significant changes to the motifs and or symbols? Have they been developed further? Support and explain.

Essay #3: To be written after you finish the book. It should be 800 words and answer one or more of the following questions (feel free to bring in and acknowledge other sources)––

• How does the book fit into the time which it was written? Support and explain.
• How did the author’s own experiences influence the themes, plot, and characterizations? Support and explain.
• Does the author do a good job writing an interesting story? What areas could use editing or improvement? Support and explain.

Vocabulary List for 4/6/15 Quiz

• Laconic: using few words; expressing much in few words (they may not say much, but they are worth listening to)
• Lamprophony: loudness and clarity of voice
• Liquisipidous: liquid minded (overly focused on the connections rather than the details); often able to wiggle through the smallest holes in instructions to do what they want, the way they want to
• Loquacious: talking or tending to talk much or freely; talkative; chattering; babbling (often they hide the truth in a tidal wave of words)
• Lugubrious: mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially in an affected, exaggerated, or unrelieved manner (Eeyore plays at it)
• Lunarganic: grown on the moon without pesticides or chemicals (very expensive and only found in Russia since it's the only country with a known Moon base)
• Marriage: the long-term partnership of like-minded people for support and mutual economic, mental emotional, spiritual, and sexual benefit. (Up until 150 years ago, falling in love was a luxury and people made their marriages work because more than love was riding on them––some people still adopt that view)
• Machiavellian: characterized by subtle or unscrupulous cunning, deception, expediency, or dishonesty (the person who sets up the plan and never gets caught)
• Malaise: a condition of general bodily weakness or discomfort, often marking the onset of a disease

E2: Independent Reading and Vocabulary for 4/6/15

Independent Reading 

• The book must be at least 250 pages or approved by instructor. 
• The book needs to be appropriate to the level of a high school sophomore in content, context, and reading level. 
• This should NOT be a book you have read for another English class. Pick a book about something you actually want to read.

Essay #1: To be written after chapter four, but prior to the halfway point. It should be 500 words and answer one or more of the following questions––

• What’s the point of view and how well is it executed? Support and explain.
• Are the characters believable? Are they well-written? Support and explain.
• What themes are being set up? How do you know?
• What motifs and symbols seem to be important at this point? Support and explain.

Essay #2: To be written after the halfway point, but prior to the end. It should be 600 words and answer one or more of the following questions––

• How well does the author build the characters? Support and explain.
• Is the plot developed naturally and believably? Support and explain.
• Have the themes continued to be weaved into the narrative? Have new themes become apparent? Explain.
• Are there any significant changes to the motifs and or symbols? Have they been developed further? Support and explain.

Essay #3: To be written after you finish the book. It should be 750 words and answer one or more of the following questions (feel free to bring in and acknowledge other sources)––

• How does the book fit into the time which it was written? Support and explain.
• How did the author’s own experiences influence the themes, plot, and characterizations? Support and explain.
• Does the author do a good job writing an interesting story? What areas could use editing or improvement? Support and explain.

Vocabulary List for 4/6/15 Quiz

• Rhetoric: a type of discussion whose chief aim is to persuade the audience to think or act in a particular way; the art of debate (political debates)
• Satire: making a topic or lifestyle look ridiculous through presentation and hyperbole (the daily show, the colbert report, SNL while it was good)
• Shadow: represents the hidden qualities (inner demons) of the hero; represents the suppressed elements of the other characters – things that seem like weaknesses (can be the polar opposite or a doppleganger)
• Shapeshifter: can change form, but usually appears to change from good to evil, mean to kind, friend to lover, etc. (werewolves, some vampires, vessen, coyote)
• Soliloquy: the act of talking while or as if alone (when the character breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience)
• Sonnet: 14-line poem (three quatrains, one couplet); means “little song” in Italian
• Style: how a speaker or writer uses words to convey a  point or message
• Stanza: a group of lines in a poem separated by an extra space from other groups of lines Subjective: the author incorporates personal experiences or ideas into the information or story (versus objective which is distant and without bias)
• Symbol: a word or phrase that signifies something or has a range of reference (black: death, darkness, long loneliness, all the colors ever)

English 4: IR Novels and vocabulary for 3/16 quiz

This week you should make it 1/3-1/2 of the way through your books which means all of you will be writing me the first essay this week.

Vocabulary for the March 16 quiz

• Impertinent: intrusive or presumptuous, as persons or their actions; insolently rude; uncivil
• Incognito: having one's identity concealed, as under an assumed name, especially to avoid notice
• Jealousy: resentment against a rival, a person enjoying success or advantage, etc., or against another's success or advantage itself
• Jobing: doing the best one can with the good and the bad that life throws down (references the story of the Judeo-Christian Job)
• Jovial: endowed with or characterized by a hearty, joyous humor or a spirit of good-fellowship
• Karma: the sum of a person’s behavior and intentions will return to him or her and help determine the quality of the next life 
• Kind: to show compassion toward another for no expectation of repayment
• Kitsch: something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste
• Laconic: using few words; expressing much in few words

E2: Final push on the novels and vocabulary for the 3/16 quiz

Finish 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Life of Pi this week. I'm hoping to start the book-related essays Wednesday.

Vocabulary for the March 16, 2015

• Irony: the meaning implied differs dramatically from the meaning expressed (literary term, figurative language)
• Metrical Verse: a structure of lines, rhythmic energy, and repetitive sound; meant to be read aloud (poetry, duh)
• Memoir: the mostly true story of what the author has learned through life (how is this different from an autobiography?)
• Mentor: teaches and protects the hero; Gives the hero magical gifts to help complete the quest; Often tied to nature or religion; could be a failed hero who is trying to help the next generation (another archetype)
• Myth: stories told in pre-literate cultures to explain the universe, mankind’s existence, and how to live in community; a culture's sacred stories
• Objective: the author presents the information or story with a detached tone (type of pov)
• Pathos: passions, sufferings, or feelings of an individual; in rhetoric it is the emotional manipulation used in an argument (related to ethos and logos in rhetoric)
• Plot: events and actions in a story and the order they are set to achieve a particular emotional or artistic effect (literary device)
• Point of View: the way a story gets told; the way an author presents characters, dialogue, action, setting, and events (literary device)

English 2: Novels and Vocabulary

Everyone (even the slowest and most reluctant readers) should be at least finished with Part 1 of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Life of Pi by Monday. You will have until March 5 to finish the novels.

Every set of chapters (however much you are able to read in a 30-60 minute sitting) should have a 2-sentence summary. That means everyone should have at least 12 summaries by Monday.

Vocabulary for the March 2 quiz:

• Criticism: term for works concerned with defining, analyzing, classifying, and evaluating words of literature. Analyzes and evaluates a product.

• Connotation: secondary or associated meanings for a word
• Denotation: dictionary definition of a word

• Ethos: overall disposition or character of an individual; in rhetoric it is validity of an argument (connected to logos and pathos––this term we are focusing on the rhetoric definitions)

• Figurative language: all forms of words that create images (analogy, allusion, alliteration, etc)
• Free Verse: uses common sense and natural expression; must feel like a poem; plays with expectations of readers and poets; poetry with varying line length that does not need to rhyme
• Hyperbole: an extreme overstatement

• Gatekeeper: Person who guards a gateway or task; Sometimes they are part of the villain’s company or sometimes they can become allies or members of the hero’s group (type of archetype)
• Hero: puts the well-being of his people above his own safety and from beginning to end, he learns important skills and changes as a person (type of archetype)

• Humanism: set of beliefs that focus on activities of mankind – mathematics, naturalism, philosophy, and theology

Honors 4: Schedule and Vocabulary

We will be writing the Brave New World on-demand essay March 3-4, since we will be in the library (last shot before the finals are due) for research projects February 23-27.

Vocabulary List for March 2 quiz:

• Halcyon: calm; peaceful; tranquil
• Happenstance: a chance event
• Hedonist: a person whose life is devoted to the pursuit of pleasure
• Hiatus: a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action
• Homogeneous: composed of parts or elements that are all of the same kind
• Hypocrisy: a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude
• Iconoclast: someone who breaks the rules (or tries to overthrow and institution) in order to create a better world
• Idiosyncratic: something peculiar to an individual
• Immune: protected from a disease or the like, as by inoculation

English 4: Finish Novel by Monday (and current vocabulary)

We will be writing the on-demand essays Monday through Wednesday next week.

Vocabulary Test on March 2:

• Halcyon: calm; peaceful; tranquil
• Happenstance: a chance event
• Hedonist: a person whose life is devoted to the pursuit of pleasure
• Hiatus: a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action (like the time between television seasons)
• Homogeneous: composed of parts or elements that are all of the same kind
• Hypocrisy: a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude 
• Iconoclast: someone who breaks the rules (or tries to overthrow and institution) in order to create a better world
• Idiosyncratic: something peculiar to an individual
• Immune: protected from a disease or the like, as by inoculation

English 2: Common Core Essay (& Vocabulary)

In-class essay tied to Task 2 or Task 3 in the Common Core booklet

For February 16 Quiz:

• Allusion: a historical or cultural reference to something outside the piece of literature (figurative language/literary device)
• Analogy: a comparison of two things (figurative language/literary device)
• Archetypes: (in Jungian psychology) a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches.
• Anti-hero: Never overcomes inner demons and is, instead, destroyed by them; can be an outlaw or villain to society, but is sympathetic to the audience; cynical or wounded (type of archetype)
• Breath: the center of being alive; its rhythm indicates mood
• Cannon of Literature: a list of works, compiled by experts that represent an author, time period, or society
• Characterization: creating and establishing specific individuals (characters) in a story, poem, or film (literary device)
• Comedy: meant to amuse; all problems work out perfectly in the end
• Connotation: secondary or associated meanings for a word (connected to denotation)

Honors 4: BNW & Vocabulary

For Monday read through chapter 8 for Brave New World. Novel notes and study questions will go up later today. If you missed the chapter 6 quiz, you have until 2/12/15 to make it up during advisory, after school, or before school. On 2/12/15 the "ABS" grade turns to a zero in the gradebook.

Chapter 4 questions and one analytical paragraph for Brave New World must be turned in by 2/12/15 or those "ABS" grades also turn to zeroes. 

• Family: people who generally grow up in the same household and support each other emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and (sometimes) financially.
• Feckless: having no sense of responsibility; indifferent; lazy
• Fiasco: a complete and ignominious failure
• Finagle: to trick, swindle, or cheat (a person out of)
• Fluid Intelligence: the ability to see connections or relationships despite a lack of training 
• Friends: people who come together for support and mutual mental and emotional (sometimes or financial) benefit
• Gauche: lacking social grace, sensitivity, acuteness; awkward; crud; tactless
• Gregarious: fond of the company of others; sociable
• Gription: when grip gives traction
• Halcyon: calm; peaceful; tranquil

English 4: Common Core Essay (& Vocabulary List)

In-class essay tied to Task 2 or Task 3 in the Common Core booklet

• Family: people who generally grow up in the same household and support each other emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and (sometimes) financially.
• Feckless: having no sense of responsibility; indifferent; lazy
• Fiasco: a complete and ignominious failure
• Finagle: to trick, swindle, or cheat (a person out of)
• Fluid Intelligence: the ability to see connections or relationships despite a lack of training 
• Gauche: lacking social grace, sensitivity, acuteness; awkward; crud; tactless
• Gregarious: fond of the company of others; sociable
• Gription: when grip gives traction
• Halcyon: calm; peaceful; tranquil

Vocabulary

English 2

• Meter: rhythm in language that is recognized through beat patterns
• Metrical Verse: a structure of lines, rhythmic energy, and repetitive sound; meant to be read aloud
• Memoir: the mostly true story of what the author has learned through life
• Mentor: teaches and protects the hero; Gives the hero magical gifts to help complete the quest; Often tied to nature or religion; could be a failed hero who is trying to help the next generation
• Monologue: a lengthy speech by a single character
• Motif: a conspicuous element that recurs throughout a story
• Myth: stories told in pre-literate cultures to explain the universe, mankind’s existence, and how to live in community; a culture's sacred stories
• Negative Capability: a concept developed by John Keats to describe the way some writer’s explore things through their absence
• Objective: the author presents the information or story with a detached tone

English 4

• Belie: to show to be false; contradict
• Bellicose: inclined or eager to fight; aggressively hostile; belligerent
• Boisterous: rough and noisy; noisily jolly or rowdy; clamorous; unrestrained
• Bona fide: made or carried out in good faith
• Bourgeois: affluent, middle-class folk who are conventional, conservative, or materialistic
• Brusque: abrupt in manner; blunt; rough.
• Camouflage: a device or stratagem used for concealment
• Carte blanche: unconditional authority; full discretionary power.
• Caustic: capable of burning, corroding, or destroying living tissue; severely critical or sarcastic

E2: Catching up on vocabulary lists

Use each term correctly in a sentence. Come up with an example for each term and explain why/how the example works for that term. 

List 2

• Ballad: song or metrical poem, usually transmitted orally, that tells a story
• Biography: the facts of someone else’s life
• Blank Verse: iambic pentameter poem without a rhyme scheme
• Bowdlerize: to remove indelicate or indecent passages from a text or film
• Breath: the center of being alive; its rhythm indicates mood
• Caesura: a structural and logical pause within a line (punctuated!)
• Canon of Literature: a list of works, compiled by experts that represent an author, time period, or society
• Carpe Diem: seize the day; romantic era philosophy encouraging people to make the most out of the lives they had
• Character Sketch: short, witty prose about a distinctive type of person, or a distinctive person.
• Characterization: creating and establishing specific individuals (characters) in a story, poem, or film

List 3

• Chivalric Romance: narrative style developed in France to showcase the ideal qualities of knights
• Chorus: a group of people in ancient Greek plays who chanted together
• Cliché: overused phrase
• Comedy: meant to amuse; all problems work out perfectly in the end
• Comic Relief: characters, speeches or scenes, in a tragic or dramatic work, meant to provide humor
• Connotation: secondary or associated meanings for a word
• Courtly Love: an elaborate code governing affairs of the heart used among medieval aristocrats
• Consonance: repetition of internal sounds, repetition of end sounds
• Conceit: an unusual or fanciful comparison
• Couplet: rhyme which occurs in two consecutive lines

List 4

• Criticism: term for works concerned with defining, analyzing, classifying, and evaluating words of literature.
• Denotation: dictionary definition of a word; primary definition
• Diction: word choice
• Epic: novella length (150 pgs) poem with dignified theme, organic unity, orderly progress, heroic figures
• Ethos: overall disposition or character of an individual; in rhetoric it is validity of an argument
• Euphemism: an inoffensive expression used in place of a blunt or embarrassing one
• Figurative language: all forms of words that create images (analogy, allusion, alliteration, etc)
• Flashback: narratives or scenes which represent events that happened before the time the story started
• Foot: one complete unit of metrical pattern
• Foreshadow: a hint at an upcoming twist in the plot
• Free Verse: uses common sense and natural expression; must feel like a poem; plays with expectations of readers and poets; poetry with varying line length that does not need to rhyme