English 2: Life of Pi

Fantastic Literature overview

Write a 2-sentence summary (What was it about? What was the message?) for each section.

• 2/10/15—Author’s Note, Chapters 1-3
• 2/11/15—Chapters 4-7
• 2/12/15—Chapters 8-14
• 2/13/15—Chapters 15-20
• Weekend—Chapters 20-29
• 2/16/15—Chapters 30-36
• 2/17/15—Chapters 37-42
• 2/18/15—Chapters 43-46
• 2/19/15—Chapters 47-51
• 2/20/15—Chapters 52-56
• Weekend—Chapters 57-60
• 2/23/15—Chapters 61-65
• 2/24/15—Chapters 66-76
• 2/25/15—Chapters 77-83
• 2/26/15—Chapters 84-89
• 2/27/15—Chapters 90-91
• Weekend—Chapter 92
• 3/2/15—Chapters 93-98
• 3/3/15—Chapter 99
• 3/4/15—Chapter 100
• Book Essay

English 4: The Great Gatsby (1-3)

• Idea versus Reality
• 13.5 inflation since 1922 ($80=$1078)
• The Smokescreens: 
• the light
• the parties
• the rumors
• the affairs
• Stereotypes versus Archetypes: 
• sleeping beauty
• the jock
• the mistress
• the romantic
• the socialite
• the faux intellectual 
• The Shadows
• Gatsby versus Buchanan versus Nick
• Daisy versus Myrtle versus Jordan
• Is Nick Caraway a reliable narrator?
• Who is Jay Gatsby?
• Chapters 1-3
• What are your first impressions of Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Nick Caraway? Support and explain.
• Does money buy happiness? Support and explain.
• Are these characters “seizing the moment” or drifting through life? Support and explain.
• Does Myrtle really believe what Tom is selling? Support and explain.
• The Parties—outsiders, stranger danger, gossip (2-sentence summary on just the parties)

English 4: Fahrenheit 451 (Part 1)

The Hearth and the Salamander

• What do the first lines of the book tell us about the main character? Explain fully.
• What does the first meeting between Guy Montag and Clarisse McClellen tell us about each character? Explain fully.
• What is a parlor wall? What current technology is similar?
• What are seashells? What current technology is similar?
• How does the interaction with the EMTs affect Montag? Explain fully.
• What kind of a person is Mildred? How is she a perfect example of her society? Explain.
• Is the description of entertainment on the parlor walls similar to modern television shows? Explain fully.
• What is a fireman’s purpose in the world of Fahrenheit 451? Explain fully.
• What is the Hound? What current technology is similar?
• What is Beatty, Montag’s boss, like? Explain fully.
• Does Clarisse’s description of school sound familiar to you? Explain fully.
• What mood does the quick passage of time paired with the snippets of conversation set?
• What kinds of things are foreshadowed in Part One? Explain fully.
• How does the old woman’s suicide affect Montag? Why does it? Explain fully.
• What secret is Montag keeping?
• What is Clarisse’s fate? How does Montag find out?
• What implications come from the fact that Montag and Mildred don’t remember how they first met? What does this imply about how they live?
• Why does Beatty visit Montag at home? Explain fully.
• How does Beatty explain the world? How is this similar to our world? How is it different?
• Why does Montag tell Mildred about the books? What is he hoping will happen? Why can’t it ever happen?

Honors 4: Brave New World (5-8)

Chapter 5

• What is the effect of soma (based on Henry and Lenina's usage)? What is the purpose of soma?
• What is Huxely trying to say using soma as his reference point?
• Discuss a drug that is overused or overprescribed today—what purpose does it serve?
• Why and how has Lenina already seen the control The One World Government exerts?
• How hard or easy it si to ignore things that make us uncomfortable? Why do we do it?
• What does it mean to be “bottled”? Support and explain.
• Why does Huxley bastardize Christian communion in his "Solidarity Service"? What point is he trying to make?
• Why does Bernard need to fake his religious experience? Support and explain.
• How is human life shown to be of little value in this chapter?

Chapter 6

• Why does Bernard have sex with Lenina if he doesn't want to and he needs to be drugged to do it? Support and explain.
• What is Huxley pointing out about peer pressure with the Lenina/Bernard relationship? Support and explain.
• Why does the Director tell Bernard anything personal? Why does he then threaten him? Support and explain.
• What does the conversation with Bernard and the Director foreshadow (nothing to do with Iceland!)? Support and explain.
• Why does the Director really plan on sending Bernard to Iceland? Support and explain.
• What social commentary is Huxley making about the reservations? Support and explain.

Chapter 7

• Does Huxley appear to have done research on actual Native American culture? Support and explain.
• What does Bernard realize when he meets John? Support and explain.
• John represents the "every man" in this story—what does that mean? Support and explain.
• How are Linda and Lenina shadows? Who else are shadows? Support and explain.

Chapter 8

• What do John, Bernard, and Lenina have in common? Support and explain.
• Is Shakespeare something citizens of The World State would have easy access too? Why is Shakespeare dangerous? Support and explain.
• Does Bernard have any sense of what events he may be setting in motion by bringing John "home"? Support and explain.
• Does Bernard want anything from John besides the potential embarrassment of the Director? Support and explain.
• Why are human connections dangerous to the One World Government? Support and explain.
• What do Lenina, Bernard, and John really want (from each other? from life?)?

Poetry: Poems (week 1, 2)

• 2/3/15––"In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound (1913)
• Reaction paragraph
• Notes on Craft vs. Art
• 2/4/15––"Fog" by Carl Sandburg (1916)
• Reaction Paragraph
• Notes on Breath, Universal Images
• 2/5/15––"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell (1681)
• Either update it or write "her" reaction
• Analytical Paragraph
• Notes on Imagery
• 2/6/15––"To Autumn" by John Keats (1820)
• Seasonal poem
• Analytical paragraph
• 2/9/15––Read chapter 1 of A Poetry Handbook or Rules for the Dance
• 2/10/15––"Aftermath" by Amy Lowell (1912)
• Heartbreak poem (does not need to be romantic)
• Analytical Paragraph
• 2/11/15––"anyone lived in a pretty how town" by e.e. cummings (1940)
• Discuss how this is three poems?
• What is each of the poems about? 
• What is the purpose of the three-in-one poem?
• 2/12/15––"The Emperor of Ice Cream" by Wallace Stevens (1954)
• Poem about childhood aspirations
• Analytical Paragraph
• Notes on Universal Themes
• 2/13/15––"All Along the Watchtower" by Bob Dylan (1967)
• The lyrics
• Bob Dylan
• Jimi Hendrix
• P.O.S.
• Analytical Paragraph
• Choose one poem and one paragraph to turn in today (2/13/15)

Poetry: Notes (week 1, 2)

• Craft versus “Art”
• A poem is an affair between the spark and the mind
• Creative spark (genius)
• Commitment to regular writing is required
• Prose: written within the confines of margins
• Poetry: written in lines that don’t pay attention to (especially the right) margins OR a structure of lines and rhythmic energy and repetitive sound; a blending of statement and form that is intentional and clarifying
• Beat pattern (rhythm)
• Structure (lines, stanzas)
• Content (statement)
• Metrical Poems
• Set and specific rhyme scheme
• Set and specific patterns and line lengths
• Doesn’t use ordinary language
• Metrical poems have a musical quality
• Inflection helps release meaning – create tones and shapes
• Modern Poetry (aka. Free Verse)
• Think about writing
• Talk about writing
• Write
• Patience and diligence
• Breath
• Intake and flow, life
• Pattern
• Indicator of hidden things
• Repetition makes pattern
• Metrical verse was meant to be heard out loud
• Universal Images
• Imagination and intelligence are required
• The five senses
• Recall, organize, conceptualize, meditate
• Universal Themes
• Life and Death
• Love and Loss
• Nature (The Physical World)
• Poetry tries to marry the world of thought with the world of nature
• As the world of nature changes, we risk losing touch with older poems; our experience must in some way match the nature of the experiences of the author
• Human Nature—what does it mean to be human? why are we here?
• Imagery: the representation of one thing by another thing
• Figurative language: figure of speech, specific type of language; another term for imagery
• Detailed, sensory language
• Incorporates images
• Particulars
• Visual cue versus informational cue
• Needs an article to keep it concrete
• Sensory detail (as in uses the five senses)
• Develops texture

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)