The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn MP3s

Here you can download the MP3s if you like:

http://librivox.org/the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn-by-mark-twain/

MLA Format Tips

http://www.csus.edu/owl/index/mla/mla_format.htm#work

Vacation Reading

Read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by January 12th.

How to cite Shakespeare?

http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/shakespeare/mla.html

Mock Exam!

We will have our AP Language and Composition mock exam Thursday December 16th in my room from 7:15-10:15am.

We need to practice timing and pacing, which we can only do by actually practicing. I hope you discern our mock exam to be most tolerable.

Hamlet Papers Due This Wednesday or Thursday

Please don't forget that the final draft of your much belabored papers are due. I look forward to reading them.

Blog of the Week

Nicolas Zuleta's blog has been extraordinarily surprising and insightful lately. Take a look:

http://perpetualmirage.blogspot.com/.

Draft Ideas for a Paper

This week I'd like you to finish Pride and Prejudice. I'd like to see four entries that deal with a topic you might focus on in a paper. This could be very informal, notes essentially, so don't get too caught up in form. I want to see how you are formulating interpretations.

Let My People Go!

http://macfreedom.com/

http://anti-social.cc/

Seems, She Knows Seems

This week you write four blog entries for every 15-20 pages. Be sure to include one reference to a scene from the film available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6RI7Rb2g6k&feature=related

Really like the novel? Why not compete in the essay contest:

http://www.jasna.org/essaycontest/submission.html

For Austen's sometimes challenging vocabulary try:

http://www.vocabulary.com/lists/19136

Hamlet Papers and Pride and Prejudice

In addition to your Hamlet papers, this week you must write four blog entries that directly respond to 15-20 pages of Pride and Prejudice (roughly four chapters per blog entry). You must also comment on three other students' blogs from our class.

Some Tips for Quoting

http://projects.uwc.utexas.edu/handouts/?q=node/32

Hamlet Papers

All Hamlet papers are due either next Wednesday or Thursday. They will not be accepted if they are not stapled.

Want a write a novel?

Really? You want to write a nove? Cool!

Sign in and get started here.

Fortinbras! Who?

Watch and read all of Act V. Write one blog entry about the ending by Tuesday.

Hamlet Presentations

This Thursday we'll be presenting our Hamlet scenes 2:15-4:30 in the theater.

Hamlet Outside of Denmark, Beyond Time

By Monday I'd like you to read/watch each of these links and write a blog response incorporating at least one picture, and identifying five vocabulary words of your choosing (to be matched with images):

Freud on Hamlet

T.S Eliot on Hamlet

Documentary about directing Hamlet

As usual there are some big names, famous figures, the V.I.P of the history of ideas, so please use your tertiary sources like wiki and google to fulfill any curiosity you may have about these people. Do not however mistake this as an invitation to read summaries rather than the original. These are dense texts, but you need the practice. Not everything in life is BBM and Doctor Seuss.

Wordiness Workshop

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/572/1/

Don't Forget to Hand in Your Paper Revisions

This week you must turn in your in-class revisions that will be graded primarily on their use of active voice and conciseness.

For Those That Might Have Missed Last Week's Workshop

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/539/01/

Act III At Home

This week watch/read the Royal Shakespeare's Company recent version of Act III that begins here.

Write a word-based close reading of any moments you find intellectually enticing in three blog entries.

Also bring to class on Wed/Thurs your in-class close reading revisions.

For Those Struggling with Standard English

Read these and find the practice excercises that go with them:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/606/01/

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/572/01/

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/566/01/

Resources for Embedding Quotations

I found this resource I think will be helpful for citing directly from a text.

http://www.virtualsalt.com/quotehlp.htm

Passive Voice Exercise

Directions: Change the sentences below to the active voice.

1. The statue is being visited by hundreds of tourists every year.
2. My books were stolen by someone yesterday.
3. These books had been left in the classroom by a careless student.
4. Coffee is raised in many parts of Hawaii by plantation workers.
5. The house had been broken into by someone while the owners were on vacation.
6. A woman was being carried downstairs by a very strong firefighter.
7. The streets around the fire had been blocked off by the police.
8. Have you seen the new movie that was directed by Ron Howard?
9. My car is in the garage being fixed by a dubious mechanic.
10. A great deal of our oil will have been exported to other countries by our government.

Words Words Homework

This week I’ll ask that you begin rehearsing and memorizing your lines for your scenes.

In addition compare these two versions of Hamlet’s soliloquy and write one blog entry in which you discuss the differences in these actors interpretation of Hamlet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyB4ktn7AIE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCBVmiVkzTM

Also, this weekend listen to

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/218/act-v

and write one blog entry in which you relate your experience with Hamlet to that of the Missouri East Correctional Institution.

The Play's The Thing

So, as you begin studying Hamlet for your performances on October 28th, at home this week, read and watch Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape. You must write two focused blog entries on whatever topic you like. I would highly recommend that you watch or read it all in one sitting, as that is how it was meant to be experienced. We'll discuss it next week.

Lighten Up

Okay, I get it. I've asked for a lot this week - so, I'm going to ask for very little reading outside of class.

Remember that you're essay revisions are due Wednesday or Thursday. If you do not have them, you'll have to make up the workshop next Monday. Also, read your classmates' modern Canterbury Tales and choose your favorite. Print it out for class on Wednesday or Thursday.

Anyone see The Road? If you do, I'd love to read a blog about it.

This weekend you're to watch -yes, watch- this introduction to Hamlet by Kenneth Branagh. What do you expect? What aspects of this work intrigue you? Answer these questions, or others, on your blog. We'll begin rehearsing -yes, rehearsing- our versions of Hamlet. Of course, we have to read it first, before we can put it on.

The Roads

This week, finish The Road. Take informal notes on the book, perhaps some quotations, links, etc. Upon completing it, write on blog entry.

Respond to this blog post in your own blog before Wednesday.

By Tuesday for even days, or Monday for odd days, post a complete modern version of one Canterbury Tale. Imagine a modern re-telling of Chaucer's representation of society. Just like the Middle Ages had their nuns and pardonerers, we might have website designers or homeless people in a modern version. The only catch is that it must be written in heroic couplets.

Other project options:

Write an interview between Oprah and Chaucer, only that Chaucer speaks in heroic couplets.

or

Choose a character from The Road to narrate the novel in heroic couplets. For example, the Son's Tale might just be about what happened to them. Or the Cannibal's Tale is another viable option.

Do not forget that your new analytic essay drafts are due on Wednesday for even days, Thursday for odd.

Analytic Essay Revisions

Don't forget to bring in your analytic essays revised for either Wednesday or Thursday. We'll be workshopping them.

The Road: Walk, Walk, Walk

This week you must begin reading The Road and write three blog entries about any aspect of the book you like. You should plan on reading the first 150 or so pages by Monday. You should blog after one reading session, while your reactions to the text are still fresh in your mind.

Evaluative Language

This page might be helpful for revising your analytic papers.

http://home.ku.edu.tr/~doregan/Writing/evallangpanova.htm

Symbolism in "The Raven"

If you haven't already be sure to listen/read "The Raven" and write one brief blog post about it.

When you're finished have some comic relief. It's on me.

Tales of the Neutral

This week I'd like you to read while listening to the MP3 files available for both texts. By Thursday I'd like you to have read the "Prologue" and "Tale" of the Wife of Bath and write one extensive blog entry about it, or two shorter entries.

By this weekend you must have completed reading the "Prologue" and "Tale" of the Pardoner and write one blog entry.

In addition, you must revise your essays by Monday next week.

Next week you're to read The Road by Cormack McCarthy; don't worry it's an easy read.

This Week’s Reading

This week, read parts 1 and 2 of the Knight's Tale and write one blog response. Do the same for parts 3 and 4 of the Knight's Tale.

This weekend, read the Miller's Tale from The Canterbury Tales and write one blog response.

Here's a vocabulary list in case you want one. Here are some recordings of professors reading the original text. I highly recommend listening to them while you read.

What is a reading blog?

Reading to Blog

What's more important the book or our interpretations of the book? Can there be a book without there being interpretation? We'll be able to answer some of those questions after we've recorded the history of our relationships with our books.

In order to preserve paper, as well as to promote our communication with the academic world outside of CNG, we'll be keeping blogs about the books we read.

You will write your own blogs, and respond to your blogs as prescribed by your weekly homework blog entry. You should not approach each blog the same way. With variety comes varied thought; therefore, I hope you focus on different topics and take different approaches in each entry.

Here are some possibilities:

-Respond to the text personally:
I never had my house blown down by a wolf, but I have felt loss. For example, I once abandoned my favorite apartment. I left most of my furniture there, some clothes, even a television!

-Connect text to another book, a film, work of art, a comic or any other creation:
The Three Little Pigs reminds me of The Matrix. When the Wolf "huffed and puffed and blew his house down" he acted just as Morpheus did for Reeve's character. Suddenly, Reeves was without the security he once felt.

-Ask questions to later answer:

What might the grandmother represent? Why would the Wolf want to blow down the houses? How might I write a better ending? I would then maybe answer these questions in later blogs.

-Visual Vocabulary

Select the words you think it was important to define in the text. Match a picture to it on your blog post.

-Hyperlink

You might want to use the 21^st century's answer to footnotes when you're talking about something that is not common knowledge. We'll do a demo of how to insert a hyperlink in class.

You may use any combination of these, or you can write your own type of entries. Let your reading guide your entries. Check StandardScore weekly for your reading blog grades starting next Friday.

Write Your First Reading Blog by Wednesday

Watch "Migrations" by Dorian Merina and write one reading blog entry. Be sure to read the "What is a reading blog?" post before doing so. We'll read these in our next class.

What is a blog? Where do I get one?

For those of you in the pre-AP track, you already have blog accounts; you may skip to the last paragraph.

Go to blogger.com and open an account. Post your answers on your account.

Start a blog for this class, appropriately and orginally titled, with your real (full) name. When you've completed that, comment on this post. I'll be able to keep tabs on your informal writing this way.

What is “Literature in Motion”?

When we talk about literature –something my AP English Literature class aspires to do – it is difficult to avoid the travel metaphors. We read literature to be "moved". We are "taken somewhere". We "get to the end" of the book. When we talk about life, something literature traditionally does, we can't help but talk about it as a journey, a ride, with a clear beginning and an inevitable end. Narrative, like life, is an act of motion and as such, moves, and surely they'll be a way from point A to point B. Chaucer's pilgrims walk; Don Quixote rides a horse; Anna Karenina hops a train; Gatsby drives a car. Characters in one way or another must move, and if they do not, they suffer. Hamlet is tortured by his inability to move, and at the same time in awe of Fortinbras' ability to travel great distances. Here we too we find the angsty center of the alienated characters of Modernity and Postmodernity. Gregory Samsa is limited to the movements of an insect. Vladimir and Estragon are stuck waiting for Godot. In each case, their immobility is at the center of their estrangement.

At first, I thought of this as a smart way to do a chronological survey of literature. Historically, modes of motion have been subjects of much discussion. How should one walk when on a pilgrimage? Who is entitled to riding a horse? Can a train ride change things? What makes a car different from other modes of transportation? In fact, modernity from its start coincides with motion. The oldest texts would be walking, then sailing, then equestrianism, followed by train travel, and so on. This was not the case. Beowulf - something in the end I decided not to teach- features sea travel just as Joseph Conrad's very Modern Heart of Darkness. Once I realized I could scrap historical coherency, I began to have fun creating my syllabus. A work with a hot air balloon? I had just read Richard Holmes' brilliant Age of Wonder, about the Romantic poets obsession with science. I could use Shelley's "To a Balloon Laden with Knowledge"? And why not explore the gondola, the central symbol and vehicle in A Death in Venice? Or analyze stillness and absence in Cormack McCarthy's The Road? Now I was getting somewhere.

As I´m still at the beginning of the semester, I don't know how well this will work. We're still in the waiting room, listening for my row number, soon to embark. At least, I know the route now – more or less.