english 3, summer 2025
MEETING 17: othello essay drafting
To begin our class today we’ll listen to a passage from the latest reading. You’ll then work with a partner to record a 4-5-minute mini-podcast episode that responds to that passage, responding to the following prompt: Stevens spends much of his time preoccupied with upholding dignity. To what extent does this relentless pursuit begin to crack in this latest section? How can you argue that Stevens is lying to himself, consciously or not? What details are we given?
In the second part of class today, we’ll examine the anatomy of two Othello essays of former students. We can evaluate their openers, thesis statements, structures, argumentation, and closers.
Homework:
(1) Continue to work on your Othello essay.
(2) Read pages 159-180 of The Remains of the Day.
(3) Study for Vocabulary Quiz 7.
MEETING 16: othello essay sketches, day 2
Today we’ll begin with the sentence composition quiz. Then we’ll turn to openers and closers of essays.
During the first break I’ll try to grade the quizzes, so we can go through them together when you return. For most of the rest of the class, you’ll have time to work on the next step of your Othello essay.
Homework:
(1) Continue to work on your Othello essay.
(2) Read pages 145-159 of The Remains of the Day.
(3) Prep Vocabulary List 7.
MEETING 15: othello essay sketches, day 1
Today is Tuesday, so that means we’ll begin with a quick vocabulary quiz. We’ll follow that up with a little more sentence composition practice. We’ll cover participial, appositive, and absolute phrases. There will be a short quiz tomorrow.
After the break, let’s return to The Remains of the Day.
For the remains of the class, we’ll turn to your Othello essay sketches.
Homework:
(1) Continue to work on your Othello essay.
(2) Study for the sentence composition quiz on the three types of phrases.
(3) Read pages 129-141 of The Remains of the Day. Don’t be surprised if I try to find a way to weave aspects of the novel into your sentence composition quiz.
MEETINGs 13/14 (kubus out)
Friday:
(1) Vocabulary Quiz 5
(2) Silently and independently read 97-110 of The Remains of the Day. Complete the guided reading questions when you finish. Submit to Mr. Demen.
(3) Review the Othello thesis statements from yesterday’s class. In the packet I provided yesterday, begin drafting your opener and thesis. Finish for Monday if you do not finish in class.
(4) Read 113-126 of The Remains of the Day for homework.
Monday:
(1) Now that you have an opener with a thesis, move to your topic sentences in the same packet. Continue planning each topic as I did in my sample. Write one of your body paragraphs. You’ll have time in class on Tuesday to receive feedback on the completed packet.
(2) Prepare and study for Vocabulary Quiz 6.
MEETING 12: othello, act 5
Today we’ll begin with the latest pages of The Remains of the Day, focusing mostly on the final page. I’d like you to do a little writing at the beginning of class, and then we’ll discuss the last page in detail.
Back to Othello. Shakespeare’s Othello ends with two scenes of murder in stark contrast to one another: The first takes place in a dark street with swords; the second, in a bedroom with a pillow. 5.1 begins with Iago at the height of his manipulative power, trying to pull off a difficult double murder and solve the crime himself.
At this point, Iago controls the perceptions of 7 characters. Who are they?
A total of twenty scenes throughout all of Shakespeare’s plays begin with a line I’ve dubbed Shakespeare’s favorite question: “Who’s there?”. Hamlet begins with it; Othello ends with three instances of it; Macbeth’s Porter asks it three times in one speech. In forty plays, it appears fifty times. And while you might say—‘Well, of course, Mr. Kubus. “Who’s there?” is a common question and a practical one in a staged drama. Why wouldn’t it appear that often?’—I’d like to explore both the dramatic and thematic functions of the question in any given play, in this play, and in this scene.
The final scene of Shakespeare’s Othello is one of the most powerful he ever wrote. How does it contrast to the previous scene of murder? Why pair these scenes together?
Does Othello move from tragic despair to tragic nobility by the end of the play? Your answer to that question will determine whether or not Iago wins.
Homework:
(1) Pick a topic for your Othello essay.
(2) Study for Vocabulary Quiz 5.
MEETING 11: othello, act 4
Before we move to Act 4, let’s spend a bit more time on some of Othello’s speeches in 3.3.
What words in Othello carry more meaning than at first glance?
HONEST | INDEED | THINK | SATISFIED | PROOF | DOUBT
4.1:This is a scene filled with action. Notice how it begins. What does it have in common with earlier scenes? What is Iago doing to Othello in the first 45 lines? What does he hope to gain from Othello he does not already have? This is a key question in understanding Iago’s motivations moving forward.
4.2: Othello confronts his wife. This is the point where Iago’s plot is most vulnerable. Othello may say something about the handkerchief to Emilia or he might tell his wife about Iago’s dream. What has Iago done to make sure all bases are covered?
Today I’ll also set your Othello essay.
Homework:
(1) Read pages 70-97 of The Remains of the Day.
(2) Finish reading Act 4 of Othello if we did not finish during class.
(3) Prep Vocabulary List 5 if you have not do so already.
MEETING 10: othello, act 3
After the quiz, we’ll pick up 3.1 at line 28 and read through 3.2, into 3.3. This is the beginning of the most carefully crafted scene I know. My favorite, in fact. What’s so important about it? Just look at the emotional distance traveled by Othello:
FROM “Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul / But I do love thee! And when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.” (3.3.90-2) TO “Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her! Damn her! / Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw / To furnish me with some swift means of death / For the fair devil” (3.3.476-9).
He moves from claiming that the only way he couldn’t love Desdemona is if the world reverted back to the time before God created order. A virtual impossibility! And yet look what happens: By the end of the scene he’s sentencing her to hell after a speedy death by his own hand. It had to happen somehow. But how?
Homework:
(1) Finish your poetry comparison / analysis.
(2) Finish reading Act 3 of Othello.
(3) Prep Vocabulary List 5.
(4) No composition quiz tomorrow.
MEETING 9: othello, act 2
Rory Kinnear as Iago
At the beginning of today’s class we’ll finish Act 1: How does Brabantio think about his daughter, and in what ways is he wrong about her? What do we learn about Iago in his soliloquy on page 45?
Soliloquy literally means talking alone, and it has been used as a form since the Greeks, though popularized by Shakespeare and his contemporary playwrights. In the theater, no thinking can be made directly available to the audience unless it is brought to speech, so it was necessary to propose a convention: the character would speak aloud, and the audience would understand that what they were to imagine they were hearing was what the character was saying to himself, or what he would say if he were to give voice to his thought.
I’ve already mentioned in class that real drama occurs when characters keep things from each other. The ONLY time, in fact, that an audience should accept that what characters are saying is absolutely true is when a character is in soliloquy. In all other instances there’s the possibility of deceit. So, it’s the responsibility of the playwright in a soliloquy to communicate what is absolutely true. Iago, for instance, is completely forthcoming about not knowing exactly what his plan is and what he really thinks about Othello and Roderigo. [NOTICE: Iago switches from prose to verse when Roderigo exits. Shakespeare uses this linguistic change to signal to his actors Iago was being deceptive and is now wholly forthcoming.]
2.1: Why the setting change? What is the function of the scene prior to Othello’s arrival? What do we learn about Desdemona?
What is Iago’s next plan at the end of 2.1?
Homework:
(1) Work on your poetry comparison.
(2) Finish reading Act 2 of Othello.
(3) Prep and study for Vocabulary Quiz 4.
MEETING 8: othello, act 1
It’s Friday the 13th, so quizzes are BOGO: we’ll start with the vocabulary quiz and a short quiz on the latest section of The Remains of the Day. After the quiz, we’ll talk through that section.
Today we’ll begin our other major work for the semester: Othello. It’s one of my favorite plays not only by Shakespeare but by any playwright. I hope you’ll enjoy it. We’ll aim to work through Act 1 today:
Page 3. 2 outstanding readers. Let’s jump right in.
A good scene revolves around conflict and tension: What’s the immediate conflict, and what other conflicts evolve throughout the scene? Who has the power? How do you know?
In 1.1, Iago reveals to Roderigo his feelings about his general, Othello. Why does he feel this way? What are your first impressions of Iago? What’s Iago’s plan to get back at Othello?How does Brabantio assume Othello won his daughter? We’ll watch and converse about two versions of 1.1.
In 1.3, we will skip over (though I will explain) the first 47 lines of the scene, so we have time to get to the bulk of the scene.
What do we learn about Othello and Desdemona in Othello's long defense of himself? What do we learn about Desdemona from her father during that defense? Why did Othello marry Desdemona? Why did Desdemona marry Othello?
Homework:
(1) Work on your poetry comparison.
(2) Finish reading Act 1 of Othello.
MEETING 7: poetry, day 4
Today we’ll begin with a quiz on the opening of The Remains of the Day, followed by a discussion on the most recent pages.
Then we’ll aim to compare two new poems: Ai’s “The Man with the Saxophone” and PK Page’s “The Landlady”. We’ll look at a sample analytical essay about Ai’s poem in order to introduce you to the next writing assignment, a comparative analysis of any of our poem pairs.
Homework:
(1) Study for vocabulary quiz 3.
(2) Read pages 47-the break near the bottom of page 70 of The Remains of the Day.
(3) Bring your copy of Othello to class.
MEETING 6: poetry, day 3
Your first writing assignment of the term is due today. I’ll walk you through how to submit it. After that, we’ll begin with the first sentence composition quiz.
In the second part of class, we’ll turn to The Remains of the Day. I asked you to come to class with an ability to richly characterize Mr Stevens, the novel’s protagonist and narrator. So let’s do just that. What are your first impressions of Stevens? What are some passages that stand out to you from the first 15 pages?
What is an unreliable narrator? David Lodge says, “The point of an unreliable narrator is indeed to reveal in an interesting way the gap between appearance and reality, and to show how human beings distort or conceal the latter. This need not be a conscious, or mischievous, intention on their part.” Is Stevens distorting or concealing? Can you tell at this point?
Then in the final section of class, we’ll compare two more poems, Longfellow’s “Mezzo Cammin” and Keats’s “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be”.
Homework:
(1) Prep Vocabulary List 3.
(2) Read pages 23-44 of The Remains of the Day. Expect a quiz on the novel so far.
MEETING 5: poetry, day 2
After the vocabulary quiz, we’ll review what we started last week with respect to sentence composition.
In the next part of class, we’ll move to our poem pair for the day. Yesterday we looked at fathers and sons; what do our poems have in common today? We’ll practice using our sentence patterns to write a comparative statement to see how the poems diverge with respect to their common subject.
In the final part of class, we’ll review how to revise your body paragraph drafts and put some up on the board.
Homework:
(1) Study for the sentence composition quiz.
(2) FINISH the final draft of your body paragraph. Make sure it’s in MLA formatting.
(3) Read pages 3-20 of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Remains of the Day. Come to class with an ability to richly characterize the narrator, Mr Stevens.
MEETING 4: “Sonny’s blues”, day 2; poetry, day 1
At the beginning of today’s class we’ll wrap up our discussion of “Sonny’s Blues”. I also want to show you one more body paragraph on the story before looking at a few of yours. Hopefully you’ve made some progress over the weekend!
In the second session, we’re pivoting to poetry, our second unit of the term. We’ll begin by comparing two poems about fathers and sons: “Those Winter Sundays” and “My Papa’s Waltz”.
We will finish up the class by adding three verbal phrases to our study of sentence composition. If there’s time at the end, you may continue drafting your body paragraph.
Homework:
(1) Study for Vocabulary Quiz 2.
(2) Finish a full draft of your body paragraph so that you have a full day to revise before Wednesday’s deadline.
MEETING 3: “Sonny’s blues”, day 1
We’ll begin today with your vocabulary quiz and then set the words for list two.
After the quiz, we can turn to “Sonny’s Blues.” I’d like one of you to start our discussion with an opening thought: Is there a detail that struck you or that you don’t understand? Is there a line you found interesting or powerful? Is there a character you don’t really understand?
Then, I’d like to perform a close-reading of the first few paragraphs. Do you see Baldwin setting up ideas he returns to later? What are we to make of the narrator, anyway? Have your opinions about him taken shape?
Thesis 1: The real difference between Sonny and the narrator in “Sonny’s Blues” is that, while the narrator follows a more traditional path in life, Sonny improvises an existence. In fact, it’s the story’s main motif of music that serves as a metaphor for the story’s larger theme about living: While the narrator plays the right notes laid out for him by life’s composer, Sonny relies on his own and finds more meaning in an ability to improvise, living life one note at a time just as he does when he plays jazz in Harlem’s nightclubs.
Topic sentence 1: The narrator’s encouragement of his brother to follow a more typical and practical path in life shows more about his own stubbornness and his inability to adapt and follow his own path.
Topic sentence 2: In contrast, the novel uses Sonny’s love for music to suggest an alternative path in life, one focused on improvising and adapting to what life throws his way, playing life’s notes he feels are right.
——
Thesis 2: Whereas both characters in “Sonny’s Blues” remain in the darkness at the end of the story, Sonny is the only brother who manages to find comfort and happiness in that darkness. The narrator, as shown by his reliance on contrasting images of and references to darkness and light, struggles to be at peace with where he is in the world, always wishing he was somewhere else. James Baldwin’s short story shows, despite what we might hope, the grass is not always greener on the other side, and that real happiness lies where we are if only we allow ourselves to see it.
Topic sentence 1: While it may seem like the narrator finds comfort and happiness in seeing his brother prosper at the end of the story, the story’s references to light and dark actually show he remains just as unhappy as he was at the beginning, still unable to break free from the life he resents in Harlem.
Topic sentence 2: Likewise, while it appears Sonny finally finds his place in the light at the end of the story, he actually rejects the light and rather, unlike his brother, learns how to live a happy life in both the literal and metaphorical darkness.
Homework:
(1) Prep Vocabulary List 2.
(2) Finish James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues”.
(3) Begin your argumentative body paragraph assignment. We’ll look at a few of your drafts in class on Monday.
MEETING 2: learning to interpret, day 2
Today we’ll begin by finishing the first sentence composition exercise that we started yesterday. I’ll ask a few of you to put your sentences up on the board. Then, after analyzing a few movie stills, I’ll ask you to write a few sentences of interpretation using our first sentence patterns.
Take a few minutes before the first break to compare your first vocabulary list with a partner and quiz each other on your words in preparation for tomorrow’s quiz.
Recall the process we used to work through “A Clean, Well-lighted Place”. We’ll use the same process today with a second Hemingway story, “Cat in the Rain”. Which character from the two stories are you drawn to? Consider using that character to make a claim for your first writing assignment of the semester. Which character seems the most sympathetic? Which is most despicable? Why? What details in the story lead you to believe what you believe?
We’ll use an effective body paragraph to review the basic parts of the body paragraph.
At the end of class, if there’s time, you may begin your reading of “Sonny’s Blues”.
Homework:
(1) Study for Vocabulary Quiz 1.
(2) Read James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues”, pages 122-middle of 139, stopping at the break in the page.
MEETING 1: learning to interpret, day 1
Hopper, “Nighthawks,” often thought to have been inspired by Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”
“If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows, and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.” (Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon)
How do we know whether or not a writer does know what’s beneath the surface. How can a writer like Hemingway reveal the other 7/8 of what’s going on with just the 1/8 above the surface?
Take, for example, this passage from The Sun Also Rises, wherein two men, the protagonist and his friend, have a simple conversation while fishing. Bill tries to show Jake what exactly?
William Faulkner, Hemingway’s contemporary and fellow writer, once said of Hemingway, “He has no courage, has never crawled out on a limb. He has never been known to use a word that might cause the reader to check with a dictionary to see if it is properly used.”
James Joyce once remarked: "He [Hemingway] has reduced the veil between literature and life, which is what every writer strives to do. Have you read “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”?...It is masterly. Indeed, it is one of the best short stories ever written...”
Let’s read together “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”.
Sentence Composition: Complex and Compound Sentences
Set Vocabulary Assignment.
Homework:
(1) Register on turnitin.com. Class ID: 48899661, Enrollment Key: Magis
(2) Familiarize yourself with the course policies on the course description and syllabus.
(3) Prep your first vocabulary list.
