Wednesday, December 23, 2009

WInter Break Homework

There is nothing assigned for Winter Break, BUT...

1) ROAR book

2) pick a poem!
http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poems/

3) plan out your ROAR/Culture Vulture Presentations

4) browse around some of the sites for your Julius Caesar Annotations

Julius Caesar Annotations

Our class website!
http://sites.google.com/site/annotatedjuliuscaesar/

If you did not sign up for lines, do not e-mail me your requests. You must wait until Monday morning to sign up.

Here are good sites for your research:

Primary and Secondary Sources

-Variorum edition of Julius Caesar, edited by H.H. Furness

http://books.google.com/books?id=7zBaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PR1&dq=Variorum++Julius+Caesar+H.H.+Furness&client=firefox-a#v=onepage&q=&f=false


-Sir Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans

http://www.archive.org/stream/northstranslatio00plutuoft#page/n9/mode/2up

http://www.archive.org/stream/plutarchslivesc00plutgoog#page/n9/mode/1up

-New Hudson edition of Julius Caesar, notes by Henry Norman Hudson

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28334/28334-h/28334-h.htm

-MIT On-Line Julius Caesar (hit “control+F” for all your searching needs)

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/julius_caesar/

-Folger Library

http://www.folger.edu/eduPrimSrcArch.cfm#10

-Elizabethan History and Culture

http://bestoflegends.org/elizabethan/compendium/home.html

-University of Victoria Shakespeare Site

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/index.html

Thursday, December 17, 2009

ROAR III- Book into Film

For this term, select a book from the list below. Read the book, and compose 4 posts to your ROAR blog. Then, read the film adaptation of your book. Compose 1 post that makes use of film terms and analyzes how it adapts the book.

Do select a book that interests you, but also one that you will be allowed to watch the film version (check to see what the film is rated).
You are required to prove you legally watched the film, so no downloading or streaming.

Playing the Enemy by John Carlin
Invictus is the true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa's rugby team, Francois Pienaar, to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.

The Blind Side by Michael Lewis

Michael Oher is a poor, undereducated teenager in Memphis, whose father was murdered and whose mother was a crack addict. He is shuffled through the public school system, despite his low grade point average and absenteeism. His living situation is noticed by the wealthy Tuohy family. They take him in and he succeeds both athletically and academically, becoming one of the top high school football prospects in the country.

The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson
This is a perfect work of unnerving terror. Four seekers arrive at a notoriously unfriendly location called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

A Scanner Darkly Philip K. Dick
America in the near future has lost the war against drugs. Though the government tries to protect the upper class, the system is infested with undercover cops like Fred, who regularly ingest the popular Substance D as part of their work. In a bizarre twist, the drug has caused Fred to develop a split personality, of which he is not aware.

The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri
What’s in a name? A MIT professor and his wife face this question, when hospital authorities won’t allow them to leave with their baby until it is given a name. The staff is ignorant of the cultural difference that allow for Bengali families to spend a good deal of time and deliberation before deciding their child’s name. Thus, Ashima and Ashoke are forced to enter a “pet” name for their son- Gogol.

Slumdog Millionaire Vikas Swarup (Q&A)
Jamal Malik is an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved.

A Civil Action Jonathan Harr
This is the true story of a town’s fight against deadly environmental toxins in the town of Woburn, MA. With a class action lawsuit to file, lawyers represent families impacted by the pollution. However, the case that could ruin the law firm firm.

Antwone Fisher Antwone Fisher (Finding Fish)
This autobiography tells how Fisher was born in prison to an incarcerated mother and a father who had been shot. After being placed in foster care, Fisher was treated brutally and blamed for his own misfortunes. Through these experiences, he eventually found his way into a stable job in the Navy.

Everything Is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer
With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man sets out to find the woman who might or might not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war, and a dog named Sammy Davis, Jonathan is led on an amazing journey into an unexpected past.

Fever Pitch Nick Hornby
Love sports? This book tells the story of the author's unhealthy relationship with soccer. As a fan of Arsenal, a London soccer team, Hornby describes his life as it relates to the successes and failures of his favorite team.

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
Bride & Prejudice

The five Bennet sisters, including strong-willed Elizabeth and young Lydia, have been raised by their mother with one purpose in life: finding a husband. When a wealthy bachelor takes up residence in a nearby mansion, the Bennets are abuzz. But when Elizabeth meets up with the handsome and snobbish Mr. Darcy, a battle of the sexes ensues.

Cold Mountain Charles Frazier
A wounded Confederate soldier walks away from the horrors of the war and back home to his pre-war sweetheart, Ada. This love story connects Inman's odyssey through the devastated South with Ada's struggle to revive her father's farm.

Girl With a Pearl Earring Tracy Chevalier
When Griet becomes a maid in the household of the painter Johannes Vermeer, she thinks she knows her role: housework, laundry, and the care of his six children. What no one expects is that Griet's quiet manner, quick perceptions, and fascination with her master's paintings will draw her inexorably into his world. Their growing intimacy sparks whispers; and when Vermeer paints her wearing his wife's pearl earrings, the gossip escalates into a huge scandal.

Secret Window Steven King (Four Past Midnight)
Mort Rainey is a successful writer going through a rather unfriendly divorce from his wife of ten years. Alone and bitter in his cabin, he continues to work on his writing when a stranger named John Shooter shows up on his doorstep, claiming Rainey stole his story. Mort says he can prove the story belongs to him and not Shooter, but while Mort digs around for the magazine that published the story, people begin to die.

Homework 12/17

1) 5th ROAR post due- be sure to edit those MLA citations!

2) Julius Caesar Test on Tuesday. Make time for Act 4&5

3) lots, and lots, and lots of Due Dates for Term 3. Get a calendar and start to plot out your work

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Homework 12/15

1) Read and notes for Julius Caesar 3.3

Monday, December 14, 2009

Homework 12/14

1) read and notes for Julius Caesar 3.2

2) complete ROAR posts on Thursday

3) Culture Vulture Response Rough Draft due Thursday

Friday, December 11, 2009

Weekend Homework

1) Caesar Act 3 Scene 1

2) ROAR posts due on Thursday

3) Culture Vulture Rough Draft Response due Thursday

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Last Weekend Culture Vultures!

U ARE INVITED! AFH Holiday Open House, December 15

YOU ARE INVITED!
for the love of art... holiday open house

Tuesday, December 15, 2009
3:oo pm to 7:00 pm
at the AFH Epicenter

Step into a day in the life of Artists For Humanity. Tour the studios. Witness teen artists at work. Be inspired by their creativity, energy and initiative. Tap into the creative spirit and make art.

Be the first to see a display of the AFH youth designs that won the MERIDA rug competition.

HOLIDAY SHOP for one-of-a-kind gifts by AFH youth artists ... paintings, photographs, posters, apparel, tables made from junk mail and more.

FREE ADMISSION
Please invite friends and family.
Close to Broadway T stop.
Free parking after 5:00 pm.

See you on December 15th?










Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Homework 12/8

1) Vocab QUIZ lessons 1-7

2) read= notes, questions, and comments for Julius Caesar 2.2

3) be sure to complete a 4th ROAR post this week

------------------------------
SAT Prep

Compose an introductory paragraph, and list two quality examples to back up your thesis based on the following prompt:

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment
below.
Something flawed is far more interesting than something perfect. Perfection is a
trifle dull. It is not the least of life’s ironies that this, which we all aim at, is
better not quite achieved.
—Adapted from W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up
Assignment: Is perfection something to be admired or sought after?

Monday, December 7, 2009

PPP #2

Below is the text of the paper you need to properly format.

1) copy and paste SPECIAL (just text) into Word
2) set up a cover page using your name, date, class, and the title
3) center title on 1st line of paper
4) insert page number with your last name
5) format the essay (double space, Times New Roman 12pt, indent new paragraphs)
6) format the works cited page

NOTE: the essay should fit on two pages, not including cover and works cited pages
---------------------------------------------------------------------------


Evaluating the Medieval in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Composed by an unknown monk in the north of England circa 1375, the romance of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight exhibits attributes common to medieval literature. The Gawain poet created his verse with attention to alliterative patterns, and employed stanzas of unfixed length that are connected through the bob and wheel device. Thematically, the poet places Gawain in situations that test his devotion to the medieval ideals of courtly love and chivalry. Thus, in form and theme this Arthurian romance contains poetic elements that mark it as a medieval text.
The text of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is preserved in a religious manuscript that also contains three poems: “Pearl,” “Patience,” and “Purity” (Borroff 20). Yet, Gawain opens with a passage more accustomed to the nationalist ethos of epic poetry. The poet offers an account of Britain’s founding, connecting the heroes at Troy with the “Bold boys bred there, in broils delighting,” who inhabit England (line 21). As in Beowulf, alliteration punctuates the poetic line. Where the device once served as a rhythmic and mnemonic tool, the sound repetition in Gawain belongs to a revival of alliterative verse in the medieval period. The medieval audience would have recognized and enjoyed this poetic element as it suggested a popular Anglo-Saxon form of storytelling. Thus, the poet’s insists for the reader to “…listen to my lay but a little while,/ As I heard it in hall, I shall hasten to tell/ anew” (line 30-32). By alluding to typical elements of Old English oral verse, the Gawain poet attracts the interest of his medieval readers.
However, the form of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight breaks from the Anglo-Saxon pattern in its stanza construction. Visually, the poem lacks caesura line breaks that divided the line after two stressed syllables. In its place, the Gawain poet employs a bob and wheel at the end of each stanza. The bob is a two-syllable line that sets a rhyme scheme in the four-line wheel. Most often, the bob and wheel offers a conclusion to a stanza, as shown in lines 485-490:
"Such happiness wholly had they that day/in hold./Now take care, Sir Gawain/That your courage wax not cold/When you must turn again/To your enterprise foretold." Here the bob presents “hold” as the initial sound to be rhymed in the wheel; the poet forms the wheel around this sound in an ABABA arrangement. Before expanding the narrative by offering further description or changing scenes, the Gawain poet uses the bob and wheel to alter the physical line length.
In plotting, the poem exemplifies the paradoxical romantic virtues of courtly love. Sir Gawain is tested to deny his faith and break his word by the temptations at Lord Bertilak de Hautdesert’s home. The host and Gawain agree to swap their daily earnings: the lord from hunting in the woods, Sir Gawain from interactions with the lord’s beautiful wife. As a guest, Gawain must obey the wishes of his host and hostess- a situation made difficult by the lady’s bold suggestions. Resembling the game animals Bertilak hunts, Gawain nervously evades the lady’s requests. To preserve the marriage vows, their love is never consummated; still, Gawain obeys the lady’s demands and his own desires by sharing furtive kisses. The responsibility required by chivalry and courtly love make Gawain’s temptation a foremost example of romance literature.
The Gawain poet makes skillful use of the romance conventions, writing the poem with attention to medieval aesthetics. Modern readers might not share Bertilak’s claim that Gawain is “polished as a pearl,” or worthy to wear the pentangle star after his blatant deception and failure to trust Mary against the Green Knight (line 2393). Still, the romance offers a fitting example of medieval literature in its poetic construction and thematic development.

Works Cited

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. Mary Borroff. The Norton Anthology of English
Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. 7th edition. Volume 1. New York: Norton, 2000.

Book Events- Extra Credit and Culture Vulture

Tuesday, December 8

7:00 pm, Porter Square Books
Anita Diamant, Day After Night

7:00 pm, Harvard Book Store
Lauren Grodstein, A Friend of the Family


Wednesday, December 9

7:00 pm, Harvard Book Store
December Winedown: Harvard Book Store Buyers present their favorite holiday picks from 2009!

7:00 pm, Porter Square Books
Mary Gordon, Reading Jesus

7:00pm, Brookline Booksmith
Maxim Shrayer
Yom Kippur in Amsterdam: Stories


Thursday, December 10

7:00 pm, Harvard Book Store
David Chang, Momofuku

7:00pm, Brookline Booksmith
A night of Boston Noir with contributors Dana Cameron, Russ Aborn, and
Brendan DuBois

Homework 12/7

1) read and notes for Julius Caesar 2.1

2) keep aware that Culture Vulture and ROAR are due 12/17

----------------------------------------------------------------
SAT PREP

If we valued honesty, we would be willing to risk our jobs to become
whistleblowers and tell truths that our employers did not want revealed. If we
valued success, we would give up our free time in order to excel in a subject or
sport. In other words, the sacrifices we are willing to make reveal what we care
about the most.
Assignment: Can what we value be determined only by what we sacrifice? Plan and
write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue.

3) write a thesis statement, opening paragraph, and list two examples to answer this prompt

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Weekend HW

1) Julius Caesar Act 1 Scene 3

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Homework 12/3

Here's the 1st Folio Edition of Julius Caesar (1623). Note the use of "V" for "U"

1) read and notes for Julius Caesar 1.2

give a try with http://nfs.sparknotes.com/juliuscaesar/

this is tough reading, but only with great effort does it become manageable (and fun)

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Holiday Culture Vultures!

First, the free events!

MFA
http://www.mfa.org/calendar/sub.asp?key=12&subkey=3731

Free Children’s Books and Readings*
Sat, Dec 5, 2:15 pm: Linde Family Wing
Red Butterfly: How a Princess Smuggled the Secret of Silk Out of China, reading with author Deborah Noyes
Felicity Floo Visits the Zoo, reading with author/illustrator E.S. Redmond
Finn Throws a Fit, reading with illustrator Timothy Basil Ering

A Cappella Groups
Sat, Dec 5: Lower Rotunda
3 pm: Harvard Lowkeys
4 pm: MIT Muses


A Cappella Groups
Sun, Dec 6: Lower Rotunda
1 pm: Boston University Treblemakers
2 pm: Boston College Acoustics
3 pm: Simmons Sirens
4 pm: Brandeis Too Cheap for Instruments

Classic Holiday Movies
Sun, Dec 6: Remis Auditorium
1 pm: Christmas Story
http://www.snapperfilms.com/press/christmas_story_med.mov
Christmas Story reveals the unknown childhood of Santa Claus. The film is a story of selfless giving and lifelong friendship.
3 pm: Miracle on 34th Street by George Seaton (1947)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yTNW5a08yw


New England Conservatory of Music FREE Concerts

3:00:PMHaydn Piano Trio Seminar Recital
Haydn Piano Trio Seminar Recital more
Brown Hall
6:00:PMPierce Jazz Series
Student ensembles coached by George Garzone, John McNeil, and Bob Nieske. more
Pierce Hall



Not so free...

Urban Nutcracker
http://balletrox.org/urbannutcracker/index.html

Homework 12/2

1) read the Julius Caesar adaptation and answer the questions

2) read Shakespeare's original, Act 1 scene 1, and have questions about his language

3) keep on ROARing

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Homework 12/1

Phew, it's December. Only four weeks until the end of term 2!

1) ROAR post #3 due at 10pm

2) Vocab Quiz #7

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Thanksgiving Fun!

As you much on turkey, yams, and other goodies, be sure to spend some ROAR time and plan out a Culture Vulture activity.

Here's something quick for Monday (11/30):

1) select a section from Antigone that you enjoy. Make sure it is at least three lines of text, or a few lines of conversation between characters

2) copy the section from this online version HERE

3) enter the text into Wordle

4) get creative!

5) print your best result to share on Monday

MBTI Refresher





1) think the test accurately described your personality? Give it a 2nd shot here:

http://similarminds.com/jung.html

2) Want to see which celebrities share your MBTI grouping?

http://typelogic.com/index.html

Monday, November 23, 2009

HW 11/23

1) complete your reading of Antigone
2) ROAR reading- get a post done this week
3) plan out your Culture Vulture activity


NEXT WEEK
12/1 Antigone Test
12/2 Vocab #7

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Weekend Homework

1) read and notes for Antigone p.721-732

2) enjoy you some ROAR

3) plan out Culture Vulture for over the Thanksgiving break


Thursday, November 19, 2009

Homework 11/19

1) read Antigone Ode 2 and Scene 3

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Homework 11/17

1) ROAR time! Get your 1st post done by 10pm

2) Vocab Quiz #6 (exercise 1&2 if you scored below a B last week)

3) finish reading Scene 1 of Antigone p.700-704

4) thinking about Term 2 Culture Vulture?

Monday, November 16, 2009

Homework 11/16

1) read the Parados section of Antigone, remember "to the left, to the left"

2) ROAR post #1 due on Tuesday night by 10pm

3) Vocabulary Quiz #6 on Wednesday, vocab homework for groups earning a B- or below last week

Extra Credit or Culture Vulture Book Events

7:00 pm, Brookline Booksmith
Steve Buckley, A Wicked Good Year: How the Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics Turned the Hub of the Universe into the Capital of Sports


Tuesday, November 17

7:00 pm, Harvard Book Store
Maxim D. Shrayer, Yom Kippur in Amsterdam: Stories

7:00 pm, Porter Square Books
Anita Silvey, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book

7:00 pm, Brookline Booksmith
Dave Zeltserman, Pariah


Wednesday, November 18

7:00 pm, First Parish Church Meetinghouse (sponsored by Harvard Book Store), $5
David Plouffe, The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons from Barack Obama's Historic Victory

7:00 pm, Porter Square Books
Michael Greenberg, Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer's Life

7:00 pm, Brookline Booksmith
Marianne Taylor, The Book of Cool


Thursday, November 19

7:00 pm, Porter Square Books
Hallie Ephron, Katherine Hall Page, and Hank Phillippi Ryan

7:00 pm, Harvard Book Store
Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815

7:00 pm, Brookline Booksmith
James Schwartz, In Pursuit of the Gene: From Darwin to DNA


Friday, November 20

3:00 pm, Harvard Book Store
Friday Forum
James Schwartz, In Pursuit of the Gene: From Darwin to DNA


Saturday, November 21

1:00 pm, Porter Square Books
Sheryl Julian, The New Boston Globe Cookbook

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Friday, November 13, 2009

Weekend HW

We'll be sure to talk about the play on Monday, but until then...

1) Culture Vulture Final Draft- Turnitin.com and printed for Monday

2) read and notes of p.685-689 in the textbook

3) ROAR 1st post for Tuesday 11/17

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Homework 11/12

1) read the Midsummer Night's Dream summary and be ready for the play (and a quiz!)

For Monday

2) Final Draft of 1st term Culture Vulture- edits and research, cover page & works cited
-print a copy
-turnitin a copy

3) Read and take notes on Antigone background p.685-689 in your literature text book


1st ROAR post due on Tuesday 11/17

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Homework 11/10

1) Perfectly Printed Paper
-be sure to check all the formatting guidelines
-your paper must include cover page, one page of text, and a works cited page

-thanks to Jie, here are two MLA videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK0CH6ePGgI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehG1voaQEgo

2) Culture Vulture Final Draft for Monday

3) ROAR first post 11/17

Monday, November 9, 2009

Book Events- Culture Vulture or Extra Credit

Tuesday, November 10

7:00 pm, Harvard Book Store
Tariq Ali, The Idea of Communism

7:00 pm, Brookline Booksmith
Sebastian Stuart, The Hour Between
Jonathan Strong, Drawn from Life

7:00 pm, Porter Square Books
Dorothy Lamb Crawford, A Windfall of Musicians


Wednesday, November 11

7:00 pm, Harvard Book Store
November Winedown, Booksellers' Favorite Cookbooks

7:30pm, Brookline Booksmith sponsored reading at Congregation Kehillath Israel, $5
Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals


Thursday, November 12

7:00 pm, Brookline Booksmith
Christopher Ives - Imperial-Way Zen

7:00 pm, Porter Square Books
John Connolly, The Gates

7:30 pm, Sanders Theatre, Memorial Hall (sponsored by Harvard Book Store)
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Colored People: A Memoir

7:00 pm, Room 101 of Boston University’s School of Communication building, 640 Commonwealth Avenue, $5
Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales
Russian-language reading


Friday, November 13

3:00 pm, Harvard Book Store
Friday Forum
Robert Strassler, Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika

6:00 pm, Brattle Theatre (sponsored by Harvard Book Store), $5
Elizabeth Benedict, Mentors, Muses & Monsters: Thirty Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives
with Chris Castellani, Margot Livesey, Jay Cantor, Julia Glass, and Jim Shepard

7:00 pm, Pierre Menard Gallery, 10 Arrow Street, Harvard Square
Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales
Reading and reception

New England Crime Bake
Annual mystery writers’ and readers’ conference takes place all weekend in Dedham. Sold out.


Saturday, November 14

9:30 AM, First Parish Church
Cambridge Forum
The Road to Copenhagen: A Mini Conference on Global Climate Change

7:00 pm, Brookline Booksmith
Aimee Bender, The Third Elevator (a reading for Madras Press)

Homework 11/9

1) ROAR Proposal due tomorrow

2) Vocab Quiz #5 tomorrow

3) Perfect Printed Paper- Thursday
-enjoy my less than perfect paper from college as a model for your formatting

4) Culture Vulture Final Draft- Monday 11/16

Friday, November 6, 2009

Weekend Homework

1) TKAM Film Terms test

2) Vocab p46-47 for students earning a B- or below on quiz #4

3) Vocab Quiz #5 on Tuesday

4) ROAR book proposal for Tuesday

5) Perfect Printed Paper

-select an essay from this year or last year (could download from Turnitin.com)
-edit for perfect formatting, then print for class

Times New Roman, 12 point, double-spaced, left justified font
One inch top, bottom, and side margins
MLA Works Cited page and intext citations (Lee 23).
Book Titles underlines or italiazed, article titles in quotations
Cover page (title horizontally and vertically centered; name class, date at the bottom center) and page # in upper right corner: Doreian 3


Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Homework 11/4

1) review over your film terms

2) ROAR! Get into those books!

3) TKAM Film Terms test on Monday

4) Vocab Quiz #5 on Tuesday

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Homework 11/3

1) Vocab Quiz #4 tomorrow!

2) bring a ROAR proposal sheet, or notes from perusing books out from the blog

Monday, November 2, 2009

Homework 11/2

Term 2, here we go!

1) vocab p.38-39 for Tuesday

2) EXTRA CREDIT TKAM essay due @2pm- Turnitin.com & Printed

3) Notes on Term 2 ROAR selections (11/4) ROAR Book Proposal (11/10)

Friday, October 30, 2009

Weekend Homework

1) TKAM film notes- be sure to use strong film terms!

2) TKAM extra credit essay due Tuesday- print and turnitin.com

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Homework 10/28

1) complete film notes from your reading of TKAM, include terms from our notes

2) Extra Credit TKAM essay? It is due on Tuesday.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Homework 10/27

1) bring your ROAR book to class tomorrow

2) ROAR post #5 due Wednesday night by 10pm

Monday, October 26, 2009

Last Chance for Term 1 Extra Credit

1) attend an event
2) obtain proof
3) one-page response


Monday, October 26

6:00 PM, Brattle Theatre (sponsored by Harvard Book Store), $5
*Sherman Alexie, War Dances

Rawi Hage, Cockroach, Porter Square Books, 7:00 pm


Tuesday, October 27

6pm, Coolidge Corner Theatre, $5 (sponsored by Brookline Booksmith)
*John Irving, Last Night in Twisted River

Liza Ketchum, Newsgirl, Porter Square Books, 7:00 pm

7:00 PM, Harvard Book Store
The Harvard Square Book Circle will discuss Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s memoir Colored People


Wednesday, October 28

7:30 PM, Harvard Book Store, Lower Level
The Philosophy Café at Harvard Book Store asks about With Housing and Health Care For All: Should We Adopt an Economic Bill of Rights?

6:00 PM, Brattle Theatre (sponsored by Harvard Book Store), $5
Christos Papadimitriou, Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth


Thursday, October 29

6:00 PM, Brattle Theatre (sponsored by Harvard Book Store), $5
*Harriet Reisen, Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women

6pm, Coolidge Corner Theatre, $5 (sponsored by Brookline Booksmith)
Augusten Burroughs, You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

Michael Downing, Life With Sudden Death, Porter Square Books, 7:00 pm

8:00 PM, First Parish Church Meetinghouse (sponsored by Harvard Book Store), $5
Stephen Dubner, SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and
Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance


Friday, October 30

3:00 PM, Harvard Book Store
Friday Forum: Lisa Rosner, The Anatomy Murders

Saturday, October 24, 2009

ROAR Term II: The Bildungsroman

Staircase of a Thousand Steps
by Masha Hamilton

Jammana, a 11-year-old girl experiences an unsettling coming of age in a Jordanian village. She possesses an ancestral gift that allows her to see the past, travels with her mother, Rafa, against her father's wishes, to Rafa's birthplace, the ancient village of Ein Fadr.

Breath, Eyes, Memory
by Edwidge Danticat


After twelve years of being raised in Haiti by her aunt Atie, young Sophie Caco has been summoned by her mother to join her in New York. Sophie is terrified and does not want to go, especially since she does not remember her mother, who left Haiti when Sophie was just a baby. What follows is a painful rendering of horrifying secrets and Haitian tradition that deeply affects Sophie and the way she lives her life.


The Chosen
by Chaim Potok


In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, a horrible baseball accident throws Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders together. Despite their religious differences, Reuven and Danny form a deep, if unlikely, friendship. Together they negotiate adolescence and family conflicts.


Caramelo
by Sandra Cisneros


Lala Reyes is the seventh child of the family and the only girl. They live in Chicago, where her dad and his two brothers run an upholstery shop. There are cousins (three brothers named Elvis, Byron, and Aristotle), looong caravan-style car trips to Mexico City to visit the Awful Grandmother, and some snooping into the past by Lala.


Crazy in Alabama
by Mark Childress


Family tumult and social unrest converge to shake the world of 12-year-old orphan Peejoe Bullis in the summer of 1965, "when everybody went crazy in Alabama." Peejoe's relatively tranquil life with his grandmother is jolted by the arrival of his Aunt Lucille, who is on her way to Hollywood to become a star after poisoning her husband. The family moves to Industry, Ala., where racial conflict brings together George Wallace and Martin Luther King Jr.

The Chocolate War
by Robert Cormier


Jerry Renault is a typical fourteen-year-old freshman (and football player) at a private Catholic high school. But then he decides to go against the school fundraiser run by a gang called The Vigils. Can Jerry survive at school as the thugs and teachers plot to ruin his life?

Feed
by M.T. Anderson


The story begins on the Moon, where Titus and his friends have gone for spring break. He and his buddies all have Feed, which is an online computer implant typically installed shortly after birth. Feed constantly bombards the characters with information and banners, much of which has to do with the latest fashions, upcars, and music. It also provides them with Chat--the capacity to mentally instant message each other. Enter Violet; a girl Titus meets on spring break, a girl who wants to 'fight the feed'.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie


Arnold Spirit, a goofy-looking dork with a decent jumpshot, spends his time lamenting life on the "poor-ass" Spokane Indian reservation, drawing cartoons. When a teacher pleads with Arnold to want more, to escape the hopelessness of the rez, Arnold switches to a rich white school and immediately becomes as much an outcast in his own community as he is a curiosity in his new one.

Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida
by Victor Martinez


The tale follows the life of Manuel Hernandez. Manny's a good kid. He has a slacker older brother, an older sister that flirts with danger, and a baby sibling that doesn't understand the ways of the world just yet. His father is unemployed leaving him regularly drunk and belligerent. His mother, not quite up to facing the problems surrounding her, stays by his side despite the effects of his actions on the kids.

Yoruba Girl Dancing
by Simi Bedford


Remi is born into a privileged large Nigerian family. At the age of 6 she is sent to a very exclusive all girl boarding school in England. Feeling alienated because she was the only black girl in a school full of perfect English girls. She gets ridiculed for her culture and race. It isn't easy being different, but Remi has to cope with it and she needs to understand that people are different.

Rattlebone
by Maxine Clair


These interrelated short stories are set in fictional Rattlebone, Kan., a vibrant, close-knit African-American community. Narrated by young Irene Wilson, the confident but naive girl tells how she grows up in a town devoid of whites, falling in love with the boy who sells eggs, and witnessing the dissolution of her parents' marriage.

Betsey Brown
by Ntozake Shange


Betsey is the oldest child in a large, remarkable, and slightly eccentric African American family. Her father is a doctor who wakes his children each morning with point-blank questions about African history and Black culture while beating on a conga drum; her mother is a beautiful, refined, confident, and strong-willed social worker who is overwhelmed by the vast size of her young family and who cares very little for “all that nasty colored music.”

All that Lives
by Melissa Sanders-Smart


The Bell Witch is poltergeist that bedeviled a family of Tennessee farmers in the early 1800's. At age 13, Betsy Bell becomes the focus of the witch's torments. For more than a year, the Bell family is subjected to nocturnal noises, rains of stones, blows from invisible hands and, eventually, belligerent back talk from the articulate spirit.

Rule of the Bone
by Russell Banks


Flunking out of school and already hooked on drugs, the 14-year-old narrator leaves his mobile home in a depressed upstate New York town. Convinced that he is destined for a criminal career, Bone vents his anger in acts of senseless destruction. His wanderings are paused when he takes refuge in an abandoned schoolbus with an illegal alien from Jamaica called I-Man.

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
by Roddy Doyle


An Irish lad named Paddy rampages through the streets of Barrytown with a pack of like-minded hooligans, playing cowboys and Indians, etching their names in wet concrete, and setting fires. Paddy Clarke and his friends are not bad boys; they're just a little bit restless...

Friday, October 23, 2009

Weekend Homework

1) finish reading TKAM for Monday

2) Culture Vulture Proof/Response/Proposal for Monday

3) TKAM test on Tuesday

4) ROAR final post Wednesday @10pm

--------------------------
EXTRA CREDIT

-attend the Boston Book Fair
-prove you were there
-write a one page response on the author you saw

Weekend Films

Need that Culture Vulture film?

More than a Game
http://www.fandango.com/morethanagame_123956/movieoverview

Amelia
http://www.fandango.com/amelia_86166/movieoverview

The September Issue
http://www.fandango.com/theseptemberissue_124224/movieoverview

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Homework 10/22

1) TKAM ch. 25-27 notes Friday

2) TKAM ch 28-31 notes Monday

3) Culture Vulture Response/Proof/Proposal Monday

4) TKAM Test Wednesday

5) ROAR Final Post Wednesday @10pm

Book Fair!

So you need Culture Vulture or Extra Credit?

Boston provides you with everything you need this weekend with the Book Festival happening on Saturday in Copley Square.

Mr. Doreian's Picks:

Bill Littlefield (sports)

Trinity Church Forum, 1:30 p.m

Dennis Lehane (Mystic River)

Boston Public Library Rabb Lecture Hall, 6 - 9 p.m.

John Hodgman (funny)

Old South Church Sanctuary, 12:30 p.m

Ben Mezrich (21-MIT)

Trinity Church Forum, 11:30 a.m.

Alicia Silverstone (movie star!)

11:30 a.m., Boston Public Library Popular Reading Room.

Michael Thomas (urban realism)

Old South Church Sanctuary, 11 a.m.

Chris Van Allsburg (Jumanji)

Boston Public Library Rabb Lecture Hall, 10:30 a.m.

Cornel West (philosopher lion)

Boston Public Library Popular Reading Room, 1 p.m.



Click on the hyperlinks for more information (time and location)

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Jared T. Williams

Jared T. Williams has illustrated many books for children and adults, including Catie Copley, Catie Copley's Great Escape, The Hidden Life of Dogs, Dogs Never Lie About Love and The Return of the