Welcome to the 1920's

Dear Juniors,
If you missed class on Tuesday, April 25th, PLEASE visit with a friend, so that you can obtain the necessary schema prior to reading The Great Gatsby!

Our class period was devoted to learning about the 1920's. The Great Gatsby is set during this time period, so it makes sense that we should discuss it. I gave each student a "graphic organizer" to record the information we discussed in class. It isn't compulsory that you use the organizers, but it does help to keep the information organized and easy for you to follow.


HOMEWORK:
1. Please complete the third CRT Practice Test located at www.ucutips.org/~cramk/ Please print off your final score and record your submitted answers.
2. Plan on a quiz covering the information discussed about the 1920's. Your quiz questions will come directly from the information shared with you during class.
3. Locate information regarding F. SCOTT FITZGERALD. You may use the Internet as your source. Please print off your source, notate it using ORANGE (7-10), make a list of 15 points you discovered about Fitzgerald, and include a Works Cited page.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Crampton

CRT PRACTICE

Dear Juniors,
I wanted to let you know that I can not alter your second practice CRT. I know that I had indicated that I could change the format in order to view the correct response; however, once the program is "published," no changes can occur. So, do the best that you can, and I will make sure that you can identify the correct response with your next practice exam.

HOMEWORK:

1. Please complete the second CRT Practice test located at www.ucutips.org/~cramk/
Please print off your score and include a list of the answers that you selected for each question. You will submit both.
2. Locate a minimum of TEN responses to the following question. What made the 1920's such a significant decade? Please print off your Internet source and annotate/notate a minimum of three pages (7-10/pageALL the COLORS). Include a list of ten aspects that you feel answer the above question. Please remember to include a Works Citation page for your Internet source.

DON'T MISS CLASS ON TUESDAY, as we begin with THE GREAT GATSBY!

Welcome back, Juniors!

 Dear Juniors,

STUDY THE POEMS INCLUDED BELOW FOR YOUR "POETRY FINAL!" In addition, make sure you study the flashcards that we created today in class for your Latin Roots quiz which will also take place on Friday.The roots are listed for you below at the bottom of this post.

Dear Juniors,
Welcome back from your break! I hope you had a relaxing holiday. You only have six weeks left, and I know that you can end "running across the finish line."

1. I explained the "Practice CRT" that each of you need to take before WED. The URL for the test is located at www.ucutips.org/~cramk/
When you complete the test I will receive a notification indicating that you have taken the test. You will receive a score for the test, which I will put in the computer.
2. Please complete your "Out, Out" poem for WED.  This poem is based upon a poem by Robert Frost entitled "Out, Out." If you missed class, you will need to visit with a friend that was in class. If they are unable to assist you, then please visit with me.
3. We then started with the Latin Roots that will appear on your CRT. We will continue to work on these prior to the test.

HOMEWORK:
1. Your "Out, Out" Poem is due on WED.
2. Please complete the practice CRT located at www.ucutips.org/~cramk/ by WED.
3. Start preparing for your final exam regarding poetry. This will take place in class on Friday. You will have five different poems (located below) as one of your possible options to TP CASTT; however, you will randomly draw your particular poem. I suggest that you review each poem prior to Friday, as you won't know which work you will select. I will ask that you TP CASTT your selection and then complete an analysis of the poem. This is what I asked you to do for "Ready to Kill" by Carl Sandburg. I BELIEVE IN YOU!

#1 Mirror by Silvia Plaith
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful-
The eye of the little god, four cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

#2.  "A Work of Artifice" by Marge Piercy

The bonsai tree

in the attractive pot

could have grown eighty feet tall

on the side of a mountain

till split by lightning.
But a gardener

carefully pruned it.

It is nine inches high.

Every day as he

whittles back the branches
the gardener croons,

It is your nature

to be small and cozy,
domestic and weak;
 how lucky, little tree,

to have a pot to grow in.

With living creatures

one must begin very early

to dwarf their growth:

the bound feet,

the crippled brain,

the hair in curlers,

the hands you

love to touch.

 #3 "To Make Use" by Marge Piercy

The people I love the best

jump into work head first

without dallying in the shallows

and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.

They seem to become natives of that element,

the black sleek heads of seals

bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,

who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,

who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,

who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge

in the task, who go into the fields to harvest

and work in a row and pass the bags along,

who are not parlor generals and field deserters

but move in a common rythm

when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the work is common as mud.

Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust. 

But the thing worth doing well done

has a shape that satisfied, clean and evident.

Greek amphoras for wine or oil,

Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums

but you know they were made to be used.

The pitcher cries for water to carry

and a person for work that is real.

#4 I Dream

I am from a clash of Color,
From an idea of love, modeled for others' perception.
I see me as I am, but am hidden from others' views.
I am who I am, but a living contradiction to my peers.
I see life as a blessing, a gift granted to me.
Why should my tint describe me? Why should my culture degrade me?
Why should the ignorance of another conjure my presence?
Too many times I've been disappointed by the looks,
By the sneers and misconceptions of the people who don't get me,
Who don't understand why it hurts.

I dream of a place of glory and freedom,
Of losing the weight of oppression on my back.
I dream of the enlightenment of people,
Of the opening of their eyes.
I dream for acceptance,
And for the blessing of feeling special just once.
One moment of glory ... for the true virtue in my life.
For the glimmer of freedom, and a rise in real pride.

#5.  "The Man He Killed" by Thomas Hardy

Had he and I but met
    By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
    Right many a nipperkin!

    But ranged as infantry,
    And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
    And killed him in his place.

    I shot him dead because—
    Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
    That's clear enough; although

    He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
    Off-hand like—just as I—
Was out of work—had sold his traps—
    No other reason why.

    Yes; quaint and curious war is!
    You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
    Or help to half a crown.

LATIN ROOTS for A1 (Thanks, guys for your willingness to work around our "glitch')
ROOT                             ETYMOLOGY (meaning)                   EXAMPLE:
1. ocracy                          government ( Greek)                           democracy, atistrocracy
2. demo                            people  (Greek)                                  democracy
3. dia                                across (Greek)                                   diagonal, dialogue
4. dom                              to rule (Latin)                                     dominate, dominion
5. dyna                              Power (Greek)                                  dynamite, dynamic
6. fid                                 Faith   (Latin)                                     confidence, fidelity
7. form                              shape (Latin)                                      conform, uniform
8. ject                                to throw (Latin)                                  reject, projection
9. lent                                full of (Latin)                                       turbulent, excellent, insolent
10. liber                             free  (Latin)                                        Liberate, liberty, deliberate

11. phile                            love (Latin)                                         Philadelphia, philosophy
12. photo                          light (Latin)                                         Photosynthesis, photography
13. pulse                           drive (Latin)                                        impulsive, repulse, pulsate
14. spir                             breathe (Latin)                                    inspire, spirit, respirate
15. sym                             together (Greek)                                 sympathy, symphony, symmetry
16. tract                            to pull (Latin)                                      tractor, detract, attractive
17. trib                              to pay (Latin)                                      tribute, retribution, attribute
18. vita                              life (Latin)                                           vitamin, vital, vitality
19. vore                            to eat greedily (Latin)                           voracious, devour, carnivore
20. ad                               to, toward (Latin)                                 adhesive, addition, adapt

We completed the poetry presentations....WELL DONE!

Dear Juniors,
If you missed class, we completed the following:
1. We had two remaining presentations for each class, so we completed those and then we practiced a little more using the TP CASTT method.
2. Students also submitted their poetry analysis for "Ready to Kill."
3. The two poems that we anylized together are indicated below. I would visit with someone in class regarding the TP-CASTTs for each poem. HINT: YOU MIGHT SEE THESE POEMS AGAIN on a FUTURE ASSIGNMENT!

Metaphors

I'm a riddle in nine syllables,

An elephant, a ponderous house,

A melon strolling on two tendrils.

O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!

This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.

Money's new-minted in this fat purse.

I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.

I've eaten a bag of green apples,

Boarded the train there's no getting off.

To a Friend whose work has come to Triumph by Anne Sexton

Consider Icarus, pasting those sticky wings on,
testing that strange little tug at his shoulder blade,
and think of that first flawless moment over the lawn
of the labyrinth. Think of the difference it made!
There below are the trees, as awkward as camels;
and here are the shocked starlings pumping past
and think of innocent Icarus who is doing quite well.
Larger than a sail, over the fog and the blast
of the plushy ocean, he goes. Admire his wings!
Feel the fire at his neck and see how casually
he glances up and is caught, wondrously tunneling
into that hot eye. Who cares that he fell back to the sea?
See him acclaiming the sun and come plunging down
while his sensible daddy goes straight into town.

HOMEWORK:

None! Just came back on the 18th ready to WORK HARD! Enjoy your spring break!

Poetry Analysis due on Thursday

Dear Juniors,

Well done on your poetry presentations. For the most part, I have been impressed with the information you have shared about your poet. If you missed class, we completed the following:

1. Presentations for the following poets:

• Donald Justice
• Sylvia Plaith
• Anne Sexton
• Maya Angelou
• E.E. Cummings
• Gwendolyn Brooks and
• William Carlos Williams

HOMEWORK:
1. I gave each student a poem entitled "Ready to Kill" by Carl Sandburg and asked that they analysis it using the TP CASTT method as their guide. I have included a copy of the assignment below. You will need to locate a copy of the poem through the Internet.

 

Poetry Analysis

Junior English

Name ________________________________ Period _____________ Score_____________

Instructions: Please TP-CASTT the included poem using the TP-CASTT organization sheet provided for you. Remember to read your piece outloud a minimum of two times,as you complete the TP-CASTT method, doing so will assist you in gathering significant data that you can use to devise a valid interpretation of the poem.

1. Annotations and notations for each of the TP-CASTT meanings must appear on the poem.
2. Please complete the included TP-CASTT organizational sheet.
3. An analysis of the poem using the TP-CASTT method as your guide needs to be included with your TP-CASTT organizational sheet. The analysis must be written using academic voice. Please structure your response using MLA format.

T=

P=

C=

A=

S=

T=

T=

Poetry Analysis Example:

I'm nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?

Then there's a pair of us-- don't tell!

They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a frog

To tell your name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!

Ryan Bailey

Mrs. Crampton

Junior Honors

03/24/2000

“The Somebody in Emily Dickinson's Nobody”

               Emily Dickinson's poem “I'm Nobody! Who are you?” offers the reader a different perspective regarding popularity. Many times people believe that in order to have self-worth they need attention from others. Dickinson indicates that this view does not always possess merit.. The speaker in Dickinson's poem, admits to accepting the role of the outsider. She even seems to enjoy it. She states, “How dreary to be somebody!” Initially the reader questions Dickinson's purpose. One may ask, “Who would want the role of an outsider?” In contrast to that question, “Who would want the role of insider?” As an outsider, a “nobody,” the speaker does not have to face criticism or disapproval from other people. She does not have to “play games” or put on an act in order to receive approval. The speaker realizes that her role as a “nobody” gives her the opportunity to express her individuality.

        The poem's first stanza indicates that the speaker meets a fellow “nobody.” Together the two nobodies can enjoy each other's company and their shared anonymity. As a pair, they exist as two “somebodies” rather than two “nobodies.” The speaker indicates this in the line, “Don't tell! They'd banish us, you know.” The speaker values this newly found friendship; she experiences a sense of comfort in her association with the other nobody.

            In the second stanza, a significant shift becomes apparent. The attitude of the poem changes, as the speakers sounds more confident. Perhaps the discovery that other people exist similar to herself gives the speaker this more confident tone. This realization makes her feel that recognition as a “somebody” possesses little importance. The speaker uses a simile where she compares a frog to a “somebody” to illustrate this point. She states, “How public, like a frog.” Why does the speaker use a frog in comparison with the public forum? Frogs make themselves known due to the fact that their croaking make so much noise. The poem states that frogs, though they can croak and make themselves heard and noticed, that only the “admiring bog” notices them. The bog represents the frog's environment, not the frog's friend; therefore, the bog's admiration has no importance.

       Dickinson's intent concerns the reader understanding that the relationships between “somebodies” represents an impersonal and distant association. The “somebody” who becomes noticed by an admiring public never experiences an authentic friendship. “Somebodies” may have many admirers, but they will not have personal connections that real friendships offer to “nobodies.”