Continue Reading!!

Remember to keep up with the reading!!

You will want to be done with Fried Green Tomatoes by Tuesday, March 5th. Socratic Seminars will take place during the following week.

 

Also remember to bring one or two terms/ phrases into class on Monday February 25th that have some form of connection to the novel. This will be the start of your Extended Definition essay.

Evelyn's Reaction

›Read the section from August 8th, 1986 (p. 236) in Fried Green Tomatoes.

›Write about a time in your life when you felt what Evelyn was feeling. When someone said something truly hurtful to you. Or, write about a time when you overheard a situation like Evelyn’s. Psycho-analyze the situation.

› What did the person say or do?

›Why do you think that person said it?

›How did it make you, or the person it was directed at, feel?

›What kind of impact has it left on you? Why do you believe this is the case?

 

 

Gem Writing #3: Appositives and Adjective Clauses

Non-Restrictive appositives give more information about a noun in your sentence and are set off by a pair of commas (think of it like a sandwich):

›  Davis, a small college town in Northern California, is the place that my family calls home.

›  Yolo Berry, the new hotspot for DHS seniors, is where the majority of Valentine’s Day dates occur.

 

Adjective clauses are a group of words with a subject and a verb that provide a description. The clause starts with words such as who, whom, that, which, when, where and why. Sometimes they are sandwiched by commas, but usually not.

›  Pizza, which most people love, is not very healthy.

›  The people whose names are on the list will go to camp.

Now rewrite your original Gem Writing piece, only this time every sentence must contain one of these "comma sandwiches." See what appositives or adjective clauses can be incorporated into each sentence in your piece. You will probably have to re-write certain sections of your Gem Writing to make this work.

Gem Writing #2: Passive Voice

What is Passive Voice?

No, passive voice is not when shy people read Shakespeare in front of class.  Passive voice is a writing style. Although it is usually frowned upon when used, passive voice is not necessarily a bad writing technique.

Passive voice is when you make the object of an action the subject of a sentence. You are taking whoever or whatever is performing the action and no longer making it the main grammatical subject of the sentence.

Why did the chicken cross the road? The chicken crosses the road.

“Chicken” is the subject of the sentence and the “road” is the object. How can we change the sentence so that "road” is the subject?

            Why was the road crossed by the chicken? The road was crossed by the chicken.

Since it is the chicken who is the thing that is doing an actual action (crossing, the road just stays there), writers will tend to make it the actual subject of the sentence.

To re-write a sentence in the passive voice, you need to flip the subject with the object.

 

Rewrite your original Gem writing piece (the one where you came up with your own version of the Weem's Weekly) in the passive voice. It may not be possible to change every sentence into the passive voice, but change as much as you can.

 

 

Hamlet: Extra Credit- 8 Habit Points

Tonight, Friday February 8th, on PBS (at 9 pm I believe), is the hour long special on Hamlet. The actor David Tennant will take you through the history of the play along and provide insight from an actor's perspective. You can either watch it, record it, or watch it online starting on Saturday here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/shakespeare-uncovered/

Type up a one page review of the program which should answer the following questions:

Why is David Tennant  hosting the show? And who is he?

What were some interesting parts of the show that you can connect with information and concepts that we discussed in class while reading Hamlet?

What are some new pieces of information that you found interesting that we did not touch on in class?

According to David Tennant and Jude Law, what are the rigors and rewards for playing Hamlet?

What family connections are there between the story of Hamlet and Shakespeare's own personal life?

Overall, what did you think of the program? Was it enjoyable? How many stars would you give it?

King Henry IV and King Henry V: Extra Credit- 6 Habit Points

The first thing you need to know about these plays is that in the middle of his career, Shakespeare wrote four history plays that traced the legacies of three different kings: Richard II, Henrry IV, and Henry V.

Here's a link to a trailer to the new BBC versions of the play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4N9-4vhYVU

The play Richard II shows Richard as a horrible ruler who basically gets de-throned by Henry IV. It's a tough life for Richard.
This brings us to the three plays of the video I want you to review: Henry IV part one, Henry IV part two, and Henry V. The Henry IV plays are split in two, but most of the video will focus on the first part. Henry IV is shown to be a fairly good king, but his son, who is known as Prince Hal before he becomes King Henry V, is more interested in chilling out in bars and hanging out with trouble makers. This obviously makes this father-son relationship a key aspect of the play.

Watch the video at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/shakespeare-uncovered/video/henry-iv-v-with-jeremy-irons/

And answer the following questions. This is worth up to 6 habit points:

1) According to the video, why is Henry the fourth part one commonly ranked as the best of Shakespeare's plays?

  

2) Who is Sir John Falstaff in the play?  What is his relationship with Prince Hal (the future King Henry V) like? What does this say about Prince Hal and his relationship with his father King Henry IV?

  

3) Who finally meets and defeats Hotspur on the battlefield and why is this important to the play?

4) In Henry IV part two, where does King Henry IV die? Why is this location important?

5) Throughout the last play of Henry V, England is at war with France. From what you see in the video, does the play seem anti-war or pro-war?

6) Ultimately, what did you think of the video? What similarities do you see between these medieval Kings of England and the leaders and political rulers we see today?

2nd Semester Senior Year

You want to be happy on graduation day.

You can experience this amazing joy, but it will still take hard work and much effort to get there.

You are almost done with high school, but you still have some work to accomplish; do not let the semester get away from you. It is easy to fall behind and then not be able to catch back up. DON'T FALL INTO THIS TRAP!!!

I want to make sure that everyone understands the expectations for this new semester. We will read roughly 80 pages each week of Fried Green Tomatoes with a quiz on each Friday. If you miss Friday, it is your responsibility to take it on the following Monday. I do not want people to forget that assignments are still due during this semester- people are already falling behind.

For Tuesday/ Wednesday remember that your Gem Writing pieces are due.

For next Friday (2/8), you must reach page 160 in the book and you will be quizzed on the readings. Instead of cramming on Thursday night, read 20 pages before you go to bed, during lunch, or while you are waiting for dinner. I, personally, go with the snack and read method, but find what works well for you.

For those who got less than 63/75 on your Hamlet essay score, you must give me a revision of your Thesis Statment and the ONE body paragraph that I placed a star next to. You can email this to me or send me a hard copy. Remember, this is not a revision of the whole essay; just the thesis and body paragraph.

If there are difficult events going on in your life that make completing this work unlikely, please talk to me ASAP  and we can work out a plan to get you back on track.

The best way to get to graduation is by tackling the reading/ assignments little by little, showing up to class, and staying engaged with the daily activities. You have all done some amazing work thus far, I'm looking forward to seeing the progress you can still make before the end of the year.

Gem Writing: Weems Weekly

Assignment:

›You are the Weems Weekly.

›Or at least your own incarnation of it. Take on a persona similar to Dot Weems and right your own weekly bulletin message about your home town.

›Include in it your own take of random business that maybe included you, your family members, your friends, random rumors you heard in town, random news that’s going on in town.

›Use a semicolon and at least one appositive.

Due Tuesday, 2/5

Example:

The Dirty 5-30

Davis survived the cold spell that lasted through much of last week; however, I still find myself chipping away at windshield ice with my Yolo Berry rewards card each morning. It is during times like these that I realize how critical it is that Davis try and supply all households with a hot tub. Mrs. Smith told me that a town in Missouri did that once; our mayor should look into that.

There are a number of new authentic sushi restaurants that opened in town recently, but I have found them to be too intimidating to enjoy. My better half and I attempted to eat at one of these new installments the other night with absolutely no success. After the hostess deserted us at the sushi bar, we were left without an English menu as random plates of dead octopus and fish eggs passed by on a moving circuit in front of us. We were not sure if we were supposed to grab a plate, point at one, or physically jump on the moving circuit ourselves. After three minutes of sweating profusely, we decided to grab our jackets and walk out unnoticed. Luckily we ended up at Mikuni where we enjoyed a California Roll with much delight. It seems to be getting more difficult for us cultured folks to enjoy an authentic ethnic dinner these days.

A debate has fired up on the Davis Enterprise, the local newspaper, over the topic of bringing ninth graders to the high school campus. Those in favor point to the fact that the younger ninth graders will force the tenth graders to mature faster and thus result in higher academic performance. If that is the case, then I think we should just bring second graders to the high school campus and watch our students complete PhDs by the time they are old enough to be asked to Junior Prom.

…Dachimore…