Week 5: February 3-7

UPCOMING DUE DATES 

• Monday February 3 -- Better Man Debate -- preparation assignment due 
• Tuesday February 4 -- Transcendentalism Unit Test -- In Class Song Essay
• Wednesday February 5 January 29 -- Biography Reading Circles -- need book in han
• Thursday February 6 -- Transcendentalism Unit Test (will cover The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, Emerson's "Self-Reliance," and Thoreau's Walden. The format will be multiple-choice questions and the song essay
• Thursday February 6 -- The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail packet due (graded for accuracy and depth of thought this time)
• Friday February 7 -- Vocab Quiz Unit 8
• Wednesday February 12 -- Biography Reading Quiz 1 -- see reading schedule here

 

 RECENT HANDOUTS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Biography Book Circles Reading Choices and Schedule 
• The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail reading guide
• Transcendentalism Key Beliefs Matching Chart with Quotes and Pictures
• The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail Packet
• Thoreau's Walden (excerpted)
• Emerson's "Self-Reliance" (excerpted)
• Transcendental Unit Test -- Song Essay:
• Practice songs (choose 1 of 3)
• Writing instructions
• Better Man Debate instructions

MONDAY FEBRUARY 3

 First period

• Vocab Unit 8, Completing the Sentence
• Work on Theme Graphic Organizer in TNTSJ packet -- Really think about what the play meant to you personally instead of thinking about what I want to hear or what you guess might be on SparksNotes.  You will always be able to more easily and effectively defend an idea that is meaningful over one that you think might be right.  There are so many things that happen in the play -- from the dissolution of Henry and Ellen's relationship, to John's death, to Henry and Waldo's argument -- any one of these events could serve as a key epiphany or awakening.  When you think along those lines you will find more meaning, you will be able to support your point more easily and it will help you begin to see other thoughts in the play as well. 

All other periods

• Better Man Debate -- Both Mr. Wheeler and I were very pleased in how you presented your case.  You presented solid points and careful thinking about these characters.

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 4

• Transcendentalism Unit Test -- In Class Song Essay
• Check out these ideas for renovation -- some places to improve based on the practice paragraphs

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 5

• Vocab Storytelling Activity
• Commonly confused words from unit 8:
• impugn vs. expurgate
• impugn: often used politically to describe accusations that someone wishes to deny or challenge
• expurgate: usually refers to objectionable words that are removed from a text
• acrimonious vs. ignoble
• acrimonious: often describes someone's tone or wording in speech or text
• ignoble: often describes where an idea stands relative to other ideas (example: one idea being inferior to another)
• perfidy vs. odium
• perfidy: refers to a faithlessness or betrayal (often relates to action, not feelings)
• odium:  refers to a hatred or contempt for someone or something (often relates to feelings, not action)
• corpulent vs. bovine
• corpulent: having a large, bulky body -- sometimes used in a derogatory sense, but not always
• bovine: sluggish, unresponsive (but not necessarily fat or big) -- used in a derogatory sense
• Work on TNTSJ packet
• Review for objective test
• Bring biography for free reading time

REVIEW FOR TRANSCENDENTALISM UNIT TEST

• Overview of Transcendentalism -- review the six key beliefs of Transcendentalism on the cut and paste overview chart
• TNTSJ packet --  
• Review the plot questions, character and conflict chart, themes.  
• Pay particular difference to Act II --  review the relationship between Henry and Henry Williams, the death of Henry Williams, the argument between Henry and Waldo
•  Emerson's "Self Reliance"
• Review the main and secondary ideas about how one should live a self-reliant life and how one should deal with a society that tries to force one to conform
• Review the meaning of the following key metaphors; be sure to consider their meaning on the literal/concrete level before you try to figure out the meaning on the figurative/abstract level --
  "the iron string," "joint-stock company," "hobgoblin," "the rose"
  
•  Thoreau's Walden
• Review the main and secondary ideas about why he moved to the woods and why he left the woods
• Review the meaning of the following key metaphors; be sure to consider their meaning on the literal/concrete level before you try to figure out the meaning on the figurative/abstract level --
  "marrow," "ants," "beaten track/path," "castles in the air," "drummer"
•  Key Literary Terms -- paradox, direct and indirect characterization, metaphor, tone

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 6

• Transcendentalism Unit Test -- objective questions
• Vocab review activity
• Bring biography for free reading time

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 7

• American Voices Research Project -- conceptual introduction -- let's start to dabble with what this project will ask you to consider:
• What can you learn about America from one person's life experiences?
• What are important trends in America's cultural life over the last few decades?
• How does one person's life bring to life the shifts in American society?
•  View StoryCorps animations to test our assumptions and conjectures