english 1 - fall 2018, cycles 1-2
A short film for the National Endowment for the arts feature Ray Bradbury as he discusses his life, literary loves and Fahrenheit 451
THURSDAY, AUGUST 16 (1)
Welcome.
"The Appointment in Samarra"
Course introduction; Policies; Failing well
To do tonight:
1. Register on Turnitin. The Class ID is 18547622. The password is magis. Please use your full first name, last name, and mail.strakejesuit email.
2. Register on Peergrade. The course code is 7M94ZZ. Please use your full first name, last name, and mail.strakejesuit email.
3. Make sure you have the Peegrade app, Google Drive, Google Docs, and Socrative Student loaded on your iPad.
4. Review ALL of the policy page. Familiarize yourself with how the class works. Look through the website to see what's available.
5. Watch The School of Life's presentation on the value of reading literature to the right. We'll refer to it throughout this cycle and the remainder of the year.
6. Watch the interview above with Ray Bradbury. In your notes respond to these two questions: (1) What does he say about the importance of reading? (2) How does Bradbury write? What do you think he means by his seemingly strange answer to this question?
7. Prep for your summer reading quiz tomorrow.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 17 (2)
Today we'll begin with the summer reading quiz, during which time I'll be checking your text for annotations, your first assignments of the year. Please have your book closed on your desk.
Then I'll introduce the ongoing extra credit assignment. Priorities one and two in this class are to answer two questions: why do we read? and how do we read? So we'll use the Ray Bradbury interview to think about how we might answer those two questions at this point in the year. What I think we'll probably conclude is that literature can help us understand some of life's big questions. What, for instance, does the novel have to say about censorship? Or what does the novel have to say about manipulation of the masses? These are questions worth asking and trying to answer, so we're going to start the year by doing just that. Come to class tomorrow with two things in your notes: (1) a clear question you think the novel asks and (2) a short ¶ responding to that question. I'll be checking for completion. Use your summer reading assignment for help with coming up with topics. This will be the foundation for your in-class essay.
Also tonight, copy into a document in order to print, read, annotate, and bring to class this article: "Lessons from Fahrenheit 451 for the Modern Day".
TUESDAY, AUGUST 21 (4)
Today, after going over the reading from last time, we'll look at your in-class essay topics, making sure everyone has a topic worth exploring and a beginning to an answer. This will involve some general discussion of the novel. How do we turn this topic into a thesis? What is a thesis?
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22 (5)
What is a body ¶? Don't worry. This is just a crash course. We'll have lots of time during the next cycle to go into greater detail about writing thesis statements and body ¶s.
On Friday you will have a modified in-class essay (an attempt at a thesis and one body paragraph) on Fahrenheit 451. You may bring your book and any handwritten notes you have. You will need a charged iPad, too. Have this template with MLA formatting ready to go. Make sure you know how to upload to turnitin.com. We'll have practiced in class.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 24 (7)
The in-class essay is due at the end of the period to turnitin.com.
Remember that this is JUST A DRAFT. There's no great pressure here. It will count for 30% of the 100 point summer reading assessment. A revision of this draft (worth 70%) will be due Friday, September 7 after receiving my feedback on the draft and extensive classroom writing instruction.
tuesday, august 28 (1)
I hope you all had a nice weekend. Welcome back. We'll begin today by quickly looking at my annotation guide, a way of formalizing what I said in class the other day. Use this as your guide for the rest of the year.
ARGUMENT, DAY 1 - What is the difference between argument and interpretation? We'll use both images and the classroom space to think about the difference between the two.
wednesday, august 29 (2)
ARGUMENT, DAY 2 - Interrogating your idea in the body paragraph: Is what you have an observation or an interpretation? How can you use syntax to ensure you have an idea? We'll look at plenty of sample topic sentences. Here you can find my body paragraphing primer.
tuesday, september 4 (4)
I hope you had a nice long weekend. Our first two classes this week will continue to revolve around your body paragraphs on Fahrenheit 451, which are up for revision and due by Monday, September 10.
We'll begin today by assigning the first vocabulary words of the year. We'll finish class by continuing to work through my guide on writing body ¶s.
By Friday's class I'd like you to watch the video to the right. I give this to you not to infantilize you--Come on, who doesn't still love Disney/Pixar movies?--but to show how ubiquitous (normalized) the standard narrative structure is. Then read "Cracking the Sitcom Code," a piece I use in my JVLA class on Drama to illustrate how formulaic imaginative fiction--Here in the form of television--can be, and yet we still watch or read it again and again. Both of these will supplement my introduction to plot on Friday.
Additionally, you are to read "Plot" and the excerpt from Tarzan of the Apes, both of which can be found in Literature to Go, pages 44-50.
wednesday, september 5 (5)
Individual help with the revision of your body paragraph
friday, september 7 (7)
Today we'll delve into PLOT, using the supplemental video and reading, Lit to Go's official textbook definition, and the selection of Tarzan of the Apes. How is Tarzan a great example of that typical plot structure from the Disney/Pixar video?
By the next class, you will read Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," a short story with a very different type of plot structure when compared to Tarzan. Respond to the following in your notes after you read the story: (1) Trace the timeline of this story, and then analyze why the author decided to recount the tale in this manner. (2) How does the order of the telling help shape the story’s meaning? (3) What details foreshadow the story’s conclusion?
what's due?
Friday, August 17 - Fahrenheit 451 Summer Reading Quiz
Friday, August 24 - Fahrenheit 451 (in-class) essay DRAFT
Monday, September 10 - Fahrenheit 451 essay REVISION
Wednesday, September 19 - Vocabulary Quiz, Units 1 and 2
current texts to bring daily
texts to buy now
ongoing extra credit
Required reading can at times feel like drudgery. And while it's important to do the reading I set for the class, I fully recognize that you'd rather have a say in what it is we read. Unfortunately the freshman curriculum has little student choice built in, so your ongoing extra credit gives you the opportunity to read an outside text in your own time at some point during the semester. I'm very happy to reward you with additional course credit if you take it upon yourself to read a text outside of class and meet with me to discuss it. A few things:
(1) This must be a text you've never read before.
(2) It should be imaginative and of recognized literary merit. The text must be approved beforehand.
(3) The amount of credit awarded is variable depending on the chosen text and how our follow up conversation goes.
(4) While you may read as much as you'd like, I will only award extra credit once per semester.
fahrenheit 451 study links
Fahrenheit 451 and the Dystopian Tradition
A scathing review of the HBO film
Ray Bradbury - The Art of Fiction, Paris Review
Bradbury's advice to young writers
enjoying literature
“In the realm of narrative psychology, a person’s life story is not a Wikipedia biography of the facts and events of a life, but rather the way a person integrates those facts and events internally—picks them apart and weaves them back together to make meaning. This narrative becomes a form of identity, in which the things someone chooses to include in the story, and the way she tells it, can both reflect and shape who she is. A life story doesn’t just say what happened, it says why it was important, what it means for who the person is, for who they’ll become, and for what happens next.”
