Friday, February 27, 2009

Weekend HW

Last Weekend of Term II

Field Trip Response

-one page, typed, double space, print and Turnitin.com for Monday (3/2)
1-give your honest impression of the school, you may use "I" or "we"
2-briefly mention building/technology observations, but spend more time on students, classes, teachers, school "feeling"
3-at the end, give at least one example of something you observed that we should include at the O'Bryant

Imitation Poem
-type the original poem (w/poet and title) then give yours on the side or bottom
-graphics? Might as well...the book sure likes 'em
-submit to Turnitin.com and print for Monday (3/2)

Culture Vulture Article
-if submitted to Turnitin.com by Friday (3/6), 1/2 letter grade Extra Credit
-otherwise, the new due date is Monday (3/9)
-aim for 300-500 words
-after school help session on Tuesday (3/3)

(S)tyle Section of the Research Paper
-Begin the checklist for Monday (3/2)
-One page of work due on Tuesday (3/3)
-three pages due on Wednesday (3/4)
-go back to these sites. They have great links to articles about (S)tyle
Amy Tan
http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/amytan/

Alice Walker
http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/alicew/

Jorge Luis Borges
http://www.themodernword.com/borges/borges_biography.html

Gabriel Garcia Marquez
http://www.themodernword.com/gabo/gabo_biography.html

Anne Sexton
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/sexton/sexton.htm


Poems by Borges
http://www.poemhunter.com/jorge-luis-borges/

Story by Borges
http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/borges02.htm
http://courses.essex.ac.uk/lt/lt204/forking_paths.htm
( hypertext version: http://www.geocities.com/papanagnou)

Alice Walker Page
http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/alicew/

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

HW 2/25

(R) section of the Research Paper
-only submit to Turnitin.com
-one page in length

Vocab Quiz #15 on Friday

Culture Vulture Rough Draft & Proof on Friday

Monday, February 23, 2009

HW 2/23

1: find and print an article from the NY Times about your author
-go to BPL.org
-click "electronic resources"
-click "newspapers"
-select "NY Times" and do a search for the author

Look for a review of a book when it was 1st published, not the most recent article

2: Vocab #15 on Friday

3: (R) section of Research Paper due on Thursday to Turnitin.com and printed

4: Rough Draft and Proof of Culture Vulture due on Friday

Thursday, February 12, 2009

ROAR IV- Book to Film

ROAR IV

for this term, select a book from the list below. Read the book, and compose 5 posts to your ROAR blog. Then, read the film adaptation of your book. Again, compose 5 posts, substituting film terms for the literary terms section.

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.


3:10 to Yuma Elmore Leonard
A down-and-out rancher is struggling to put food on the table, and unable to make payments on his land. When the notorious gunman Ben Wade is apprehended nearby, a few men are needed to escort him to the town of Contention so he can be put on the 3:10 train to Yuma Prison. Few will volunteer for the job, as they know that Wade's ruthless gang will follow them, but Evans sees an opportunity to make some fast cash. What follows is a race against time, as the group tries to get to Yuma without the clever and dangerous Wade outsmarting them.

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.

HW 2/12

Bring in your typed (H) section of the research paper for class edits

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

HW 2/11

1) ROAR posts are due @5pm. There will be minor reductions for late work, but do not abandon all hope if you are 1/2 done the book. Talk to me about your reading.

2) Research Paper (H)istorical Context due tomorrow. Do check the Turnitin originality report, and cut out plagiarism and boring sentences
-print out a copy for class use

Monday, February 9, 2009

Book Readings! Culture Vulture or Extra Credit

Harvard Book Store

Wednesday, February 11th 7:00 PM
@ Harvard Book Store

T.C. BOYLE
reads from his newest novel The Women

Thursday, February 12th 7:00 PM
@ Harvard Book Store

MARIO LIVIO

Is God a Mathematician?

Wednesday, February 18th 7:00 PM
@ Harvard Book Store

AZADEH MOAVENI

Honeymoon in Tehran:
Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran

Tuesday, February 24th 7:00 PM
@ Harvard Book Store

JONAH LEHRER

How We Decide

Wednesday, March 4th 7:00 PM
@ Harvard Book Store

MARLON JAMES

The Book of Night Women
Brookline Booksmith

Tuesday February 24 7PM
Ulrich Boser - The Gardner Heist


A book about the biggest art heist in history was long overdue. Now, reporter Ulrich Boser investigates the unsolved break-in at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, picking up where the crime’s top investigator left off. Join him as he uncovers a world as colorful as the stolen work.

Thursday, March 5 7PM
Jedediah Berry - Manual of Detection

Northampton-based author Jedediah Berry, an editor at the beloved independent publisher Small Beer Press, has had stories featured in Best New American Voices and Best American Fantasy. His debut novel, The Manual of Detection, follows a clerk thrust into the role of master sleuth. A cross between Borges and Chabon, this novel will thrill fans of imaginative fiction.


Boston Public Library (Copley)


Jeff Gordinier -- Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 6 p.m. in the Orientation Room. Jeff Gordinier is Editor-at-Large at Details magazine. Flipping conventional wisdom on its head, Gordinier’s recent book, X Saves the World revisits the glory years of the “slackers” who were born between 1960 and 1977—and takes a sharp look at the culture they’ve created in spite of (or maybe because of) their ongoing marginalization. If you’re interested in the humorous analysis of major trends in American culture, you will devour this volume.

Innovation in Hollywood -- Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. in the Orientation Room. In an illustrated spin through Hollywood history, Boston Globe columnist and author Scott Kirsner will discuss how innovators like Edison, the Warner Brothers, Pixar, George Lucas, Steve Jobs, and Bing Crosby have changed the movie industry. Scott's talk is based on his new book, Inventing the Movies: Hollywood's Epic Battle Between Innovation and the Status Quo. Books will be available for sale.

Thomas Barnett -- Thursday, Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. in Rabb Lecture Hall. In Great Powers: America and the World After Bush, Thomas Barnett delivers a tour de force analysis of the grand realignments that are both already here and coming up fast in the spheres of economics, diplomacy, defense, technology, security, the environment, and much more. The author of the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller The Pentagon’s New Map brings a remarkable analysis of the post-Bush world, and America ’s leadership role in it .Thomas P.M. Barnett regularly advises the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Special Operations Command, and Central Command, and routinely offers briefings to senior members of the four military services, the intelligence community, and Congress. For more information, click here.

Mary Pat Kelly -- Sunday, Feb. 15 at 2 p.m.in the Orientation Room. Author and filmmaker Mary Pat Kelly discusses Galway Bay, her newest work of fiction with its roots based in the story of her own great-great-grandmother who escaped with her family from the Great Starvation of 1840s Ireland. This event is co-hosted by the Consulate General of Ireland, Boston and The Eire Society of Boston. For more information, click here.

Pamela Newkirk -- Thursday, Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. in the Abbey Room. Letters from Black America is a collection of extraordinary letters and a milestone in American history. It presents the pantheon of African American experience in the most intimate way possible – through the heartfelt correspondence of the men and women who lived through monumental changes and political events. For more information, click here.

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman -- Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. in the Abbey Room.Bones of the Dragon is the first book in the Dragonships of Vindras series—and an introduction to a new world, a new cast of heroes and heroines, and a new adventure by the creators of no less than five New York Times bestselling epic fantasy series. With Bones of the Dragon, these two storytelling masters have conjured a rich new world of Viking-like warriors who sail the seas in ships powered by dragons in search of untold treasure. When strife and chaos threatens their world, however, they are duty-bound to follow their gods on a fantastic quest that will not only determine the fate of mortals—but the fate of the gods as well. For more information, click here.

Mysterious Massachusetts -- Thursday, Feb. 26 at 6 p.m. in the Orientation Room. Local authors Jedediah Berry and Hallie Ephron will discuss their debut novels and what it’s like to write a mystery. Jedediah Berry has an MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and has been published in The Best New American Voices 2008, as well as in literary magazines and online fiction sites. In The Manual of Detection, his tightly plotted debut novel, an unlikely detective, armed only with an umbrella and a singular handbook, must untangle a string of crimes committed in and through people’s dreams. Hallie Ephron is an award-winning book reviewer for the Boston Globe where her On Crime column of crime fiction book reviews appears the last Sunday of each month in the Ideas section. Hallie combined writing talent with a love of teaching in Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel: How to Knock 'Em Dead with Style. Her debut novel is a gripping psychological suspense novel, Never Tell a Lie. For more information, click here.

Michael Palmer -- Tuesday, March 3 at 6 p.m. in the Abbey Room. Michael Palmer is the author of twelve novels of medical suspense, all international bestsellers. In addition to writing, Palmer is an associate director of the Massachusetts Medical Society Physician Health Services, devoted to helping physicians troubled by mental illness, physical illness, behavioral issues, and chemical dependency. In The Second Opinion, Michael Palmer has created a cat-and-mouse game where one woman must confront a conspiracy of doctors to uncover an evil practice that touches every single person who ever has a medical test

Murder in New England – Thursday, March 5 at 6 p.m. in the Orientation Room. Murder comes in all tones and styles as this pair of mystery writers from New England will show. Rosemary Harris is a certified Master Gardener and docent at her local arboretum. In her latest mystery, Big Dirt Nap, readers will find that something stinks to gardener Paula Holliday, and it isn’t just the corpse flower, named for its off-putting fragrance. Paul Tremblay has won acclaim for his short fiction, and received two nominations for the 2007 Bram Stoker Award. Wildly imaginative and with a pitch-perfect voice, The Little Sleep is the first in a new series that casts a fresh eye on the rigors of detective work, and introduces a character who has a lot to prove—if only he can stay awake long enough to do it.

Culture Vulture Films!

Free films?

Screenings are held at the BU College of Communication, 640 Comm. Ave., Boston, Room B-05 Events are FREE.
Transportation: the “B” Boston College Green Line, the first stop at BU past Kenmore Square.
Thursday, February 12, 7 p.m.
AN EVENING WITH ROBERT PATTON-SPRUILL

For Black History Month, Emerson filmmaking professor, Patton-Spruill shows Squeeze (1997), the Roxbury-shot feature which Spruill made as a graduate student at BU, and which elevated the BU Film Program when it was bought by, and released by, Miramax Films. Squeeze is an unusual mixture of gangland genre film and an art-house work, influenced by both blacksploitation and the French New Wave. Spruill will be joined by Squeeze producer, Patricia Moreno, a BU grad.

Friday, February 20, 7 p.m.
AN EVENING WITH GODFREY CHESHIRE

A well-regarded film critic, Cheshire turned for the first time to filmmaking with Moving Midway, a wry, politically challenging documentary begun when his ancient North Carolina family home, Midway, was being uprooted and placed down the road. Cheshire contextualizes his Midway family story within the racist plantation milieu of Gone With the Wind, and also, along the journey, uncovers unknown black relatives. This tale for Obama’s America was picked by New York Magazine as one of the Ten Best Films of 2009.

Thursday, February 26, 7 p.m.
AN EVENING WITH ANNE MAKEPEACE

Veteran documentarian Anne Makepeace, whose work shows often at Sundance, brings to BU her newest work, Rain in a Dry Land (2007), an audience hit and prize-winner at several dozen film festivals. In this humanist saga of extreme culture shock, Makepeace follows two Somali Muslim families from refugee camps in Kenya to trying to make it as immigrants in tough-love America. This was the opening show for 2008 P.O.V., PBS’s esteemed indie-film series.

HW 2/9

1) 2 pages of Research Notes related to Historical Context

2) bring books, notes to class on Wednesday

3) (H) section of paper due on Thursday- print and Turnitin.com

Friday, February 6, 2009

Weekend HW

1: you must edit your (A) section of the Research Paper for Monday and resubmit to Turnitin.com
-the edited paper must have an originality report <15
-make sure you have proper citations, needed for any sentence that includes info you researched
-to lower the originality percent: reword direct quotes as indirect & add more commentary

2: ROAR, the book notes are due 2/11

3: begin the (H) section of the research paper, look on the Research Paper sheet for hints
Two pages of Research Notes are due on Tuesday

4: no vocab quiz for next week!

5: the (H) section of the paper is due on Thursday

Thursday, February 5, 2009

HW 2/5

1: Vocab Quiz!

2: make changes to your (A) section of the research paper

3: ROAR!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

HW 2/5

1: print a copy of your Research Paper (A) section
-double space
-be sure to include citations for direct and indirect quotations

2: upload paper to Turnitin.com

3: ROAR? You have one week to complete your reading!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

HW 2/3

1: Research Paper Section (A) due on Thursday 2/5

2: Vocab quiz #14 on Friday 2/6

3: bring research materials to class tomorrow

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Vocab Extra Work for lesson #13 will be on Thursday