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Monday, October 19 (5) - Tomorrow you'll have your next vocabulary quiz, focusing on units 5-6. I'd also like you to read the selection of your Killgallon text associated with participial phrases (80-83). Then, complete Practice 3, numbers 3-5 AND Practice 8, numbers 1-4. These must be hand-written on loose-leaf paper, ready to be handed in at the end of your vocabulary quiz.
Tuesday, October 20 (6) - Vocabulary Quiz, units 5-6; Killgallon; Tonight, watch the first video below, furthest to the left. Then read the first 103 lines of Medea (pages 3-7) and David Mikics' definition of TRAGEDY. (1) What background facts do we learn from the Nurse's opening speech? (2) What new trouble has the Tutor heard of? (3) Why does the Nurse fear for Medea's children? (4) Why does the Nurse say she prefers not to be great?
Helen McCrory as Medea.
Wednesday, October 21 (1) - Jason, the Argo, a ram's golden coat, and Medea; By tomorrow, read through line 271.
Thursday, October 22 (2) - Euripides, Medea
Friday, October 23 (3) - Big question / In-class essay preparation; By Monday you are to have finished reading your chosen text. Come Monday with your Big Question, your text, and your notes. Be prepared to share your ideas with the other students who read the text. On Tuesday you'll write an in-class essay. Bring your copy of the book and any notes you have. Have this REVISED template, on a charged iPad, ready to go.
Actor Helen McCrory, writer Ben Power and director Carrie Cracknell talk about Euripides' Medea as a contemporary story and how it is still a relevant play for today.
Helen McCrory returns to the National to take the title role in Euripides' powerful tragedy.
Helen McCrory talks to Genista McInosh about her preparation to play Medea and reflects on her acting career.
Monday, October 26 (4) - Book club - preparation for tomorrow's in-class essay
Tuesday, October 27 (5) - In-class essay
Wednesday, October 28 (6) - Euripides, Medea
Thursday, October 29 (1) - Final essay instruction; By Monday, read through line 680 of the play.
Friday, October 30 (2) - Final essay instruction; SIGN UP HERE FOR A CONFERENCE TO DISCUSS YOUR IN-CLASS ESSAY AND THE PLAN FOR YOUR FINAL ESSAY; If we share a free period, sign up to meet then, allowing those who don’t to meet during lunch, before, or after school. Do NOT miss your scheduled appointment. Meetings will last 20 minutes. We will first walk through your in-class essay (you’ll watch me grade it in front of you) and then discuss how you will proceed with the c/c essay. Come with a concrete plan, not just ideas you’re “still thinking through.”
Monday, November 2 (3) - Euripides, Medea
Tuesday, November 3 (4) - Euripides, Medea; ARISTOS, ARETE, ARISTEIA;
"To read the Medea without cognizance of the heroic code, without the realization that Medea, despite her gender, lived by the same rules as Achilles, Ajax, and the other great literary heroes before her, is to miss one of the important keys to the play. It is Medea's consistent and unwavering dedication to the principles of the heroic code that, more than any other single factor, binds Euripides' great tragedy into a coherent whole." - Elizabeth Bongie
Wednesday, November 4 (5) - Euripides, Medea
Thursday, November 5 (6) - Vocabulary Quiz, units 7-8; A Few Sentence Patterns; Sentence combining exercises (finish for homework what we did not complete in class); Bring Killgallon tomorrow.
Friday, November 6 (1) - Killgallon catch up; Sentence work; Over the weekend, read through line 880 of Medea.
Monday, November 9 (2) - Revision: The Day Dylan Got It Right, All Things Considered, NPR, 11/06/15; Medea and honing your close reading skills; TONE, WORD CHOICE, DICTION, SYNTAX, IMAGERY, FIGURES OF SPEECH, RHETORICAL STYLE
Tuesday, November 10 (3) - Euripides, Medea, we'll discuss lines 680-880 in class. By tomorrow, read through line 1023 by tomorrow. What attitude does Medea now present to Jason? What is Jason's reaction to her seemingly change of heart? Medea asks Jason to ask Creon to let their two children remain in Corinth with their father. She even asks that Jason employ the loyalty of his new wife to plead for the children's sake. We know this is ruse, a way of delivering the "gorgeous presents." We know that multiple murders are imminent. Notice that the Chorus' attitude about Medea has changed as a result of her desire to murder her own children.
Wednesday, November 11 (4) - Euripides, Medea; By tomorrow, read through line 1137. Look very carefully at how Medea's internal struggle manifests itself. Do you see a change in the way she speaks?
Thursday, November 12 (5) - Euripides, Medea; Complete (these may be typed) the following exercises from Focus 1 (Sentence Unscrambling) of your Killgallon text: Practice 1, numbers 5-7, Practice 2, number 1 AND Practice 4, using one body paragraph from your Hamlet thematic essay. I want to see both the old version of the paragraph and the revised version.
Friday, November 13 (6) - Vocabulary Quiz, units 9-10; Killgallon; Over the weekend, read to line 1337.
Monday, November 16 (1) - Euripides, Medea; By tomorrow, finish the play! Also, finish the short writing assignment we began in class. Put those close reading skills to work.
Chorus's speeches:
150-61; 174-85 420-47 651-80 847-50 1004-23 1276-337
Write a body paragraph defining the chorus's evolving attitude toward Medea's actions. Identify changes in the way she responds to Medea and the other characters on stage. Make your insight as rich as you can, making reference to the speeches and specific stylistic elements. Due in class tomorrow for a 50-pt quiz grade.
Tuesday, November 17 (2) - Euripides, Medea
Wednesday, November 18 (3) - Sample final essays
Thursday, November 19 (4) - KUBUS OUT - NO FORMAL MEETING; Senior Fall Final Essay Peer Revision - Though we will not be meeting formally today, you will be required to edit two of your peers' final essay drafts, using turnitin.com's PeerMark interface. Log into turnitin.com. Open up the PeerMark assignment. Follow the very clear instructions provided. Be sure to respond to the questions I've posted. This assignment will be due by 3 PM. Failure to successfully submit revisions will result in a 10% deduction to the draft portion of the assignment.
Friday, November 20 (5) - KUBUS OUT - NO FORMAL MEETING; First, read "The Secrets of Leo Tolstoy." Then, read chapter 1 of Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych. In your notes, write about the narrator's attitude toward the way the characters are acting at Ivan's service. How is the narrator able to characterize Ivan in his absence?
What's Due?
Monday, October 19 - Hamlet thematic essay
Tuesday, October 27 - In-class, exploratory essay
Monday, November 9 - Thesis of final essay
Wednesday, November 18 - Draft of final essay
Monday, December 7 - Final essay
“Come, children, give / Me your hands, give your mother your hands to kiss them.”
Our societies are really good at rewarding success; but much less skilled at dealing with failure. Is there an alternative to being dismissed as a 'loser'?
Study Links
"6 reading habits from Harvard"
Achebe, "The Truth of Fiction"
Questions for analyzing novels
Below are 5 of my annotated pages from various texts and 1 of David Foster Wallace's copy of DeLillo's Players. The pages of the texts that you will be working with most closely should look just like these.
“In reading exam papers written by misled students, of both sexes, about this or that author, I have often come across such phrases — probably recollections from more tender years of schooling — as ‘his style is simple’ or ‘his style is clear and simple’ or ‘his style is beautiful and simple’ or ‘his style is quite beautiful and simple.’ But remember that ‘simplicity’ is buncombe. No major writer is simple. The Saturday Evening Post is simple. Journalese is simple. Upton Lewis is simple. Mom is simple. Digests are simple. Damnation is simple. But Tolstoys and Melvilles are not simple... This story is Tolstoy’s most artistic, most perfect, and most sophisticated achievement... Tolstoy’s style is a marvelously complicated, ponderous achievement.”