Weekend Homework

Seniors -

1. Choose a movie to watch and apply the lens of emotional intelligence. If possible, watch the adaptation of the coming-of-age book that you read. For the handout on Emotional Intelligence, click here: handout.

Here are some suggestions for books that don't have adaptations:

Flight - Smoke Signals 
Winter Girls - Girl Interrupted, The Bell Jar, or Girl Interrupted (Both adaptations of memoirs)
Med Head - The Basketball Diaries 

2. Answer the following questions in your notebook about the main character's emotional intelligence throughout the film. You do not need to write the questions in your notebook. The answers should take up about two notebook pages:

• How would Daniel Goleman describe the main characters problems in the beginning of the film? What aspects of Emotional Intelligence is he or she lacking?
• What specific experiences change the character's behavior for better AND for worse? (It's okay if this change is temporary)?
• What triggers the character's emotional responses?
• What does the film imply about how a person increases their Emotional Intelligence? 
• What is the theme of the film? 

Juniors:

1. Complete your assigned reading, tracking literary elements and perhaps one of the psychoanalytic questions. Be prepared for a comprehension quiz on Monday.

2. Read and take notes on the course module of Freud's theory of psychosexual development

Homework and Tools for On-demand

Homework: 

1. One complete body paragraph that expands one of the arguments you developed in class.

2. Please choose your second or third argument/topic sentence to develop into a paragraph. Here is how it will be graded: 

Analytic Paragraph Checklist

• I begin the paragraph with a topic sentence that includes clear transition language and a clear argument that builds on my claim.
• I include multiple “bite size” quotes and/or details from the book that are related to one another and support my argument.
• I introduce quotes with context from the book and explain what’s happening in this part of the text.
• I embed my quotes smoothly into my own writing.
• I use marker verbs (e.g., demonstrates, illustrates, conveys, implies, suggests, reveals, indicates) to clarify my analysis.
• I use a variety of “dig deep” strategies to explain the significance of my evidence.
• I include transition words and phrases throughout my paragraph to connect my ideas.
  
  

3. If you weren't in class today, or still need to finish your claim/topic sentences, see today's lesson: Powerpoint

4. Make sure your document is shared with me and saved in your English folder.

Homework and Articulating Themes

What are the themes of this novel?
Click here for some helpful questions and vocabulary for stating clear and specific themes: Theme Resource

Homework: Develop a claim about the novel you read over break that you would like to develop in an on-demand essay.

February Break Homework

Finish the novel/memoir you are reading for class. Don't let it wash over you; take notes and mark key passages as you read. Continue to use resources from class, such as the midterm review sheet to help you focus your thinking. Some additional questions to consider:

How and when does the main character change?
What does the character come to realize throughout the book?
When do various conflicts come to a climax? What does the resolution or lack of resolution teach the narrator? What does it teach you?

When you return on February 24, you will need to be able to write and discuss the novel, demonstrating your comprehension and completion. If you are ahead of the game, start another book. Juniors, you should read another option from the mythology novels. Seniors, your choice.

If you are reading The Bluest Eye, I highly recommend watching the Yale lecture and taking notes. You can turn on closed captioning to see the subtitles at the bottom, as well as the transcript. Don't be discouraged if you don't understand the professor's references to earlier lectures in the first minutes of the lecture, she will quickly focus on The Bluest Eye.

Here is the link to the lecture: http://oyc.yale.edu/english/engl-291/lecture-13

And to the lecture transcript: http://oyc.yale.edu/transcript/490/engl-291

I will give extra credit to students who can demonstrate their understanding of the lecture in organized notes.

Homework 2/12 and 2/13: Turning Your STEAL chart into character analysis

1. If you shared your paragraph with me, make sure it is in your ENGLISH folder that you made a couple of weeks ago.

2. IF you were absent today, make sure you have shared your paragraph with me on google docs IN YOUR ENGLISH FOLDER or have a copy of it in your notebook in class tomorrow. I will not accept late assignments after tomorrow, 2/14. Consider it your Valentine's Day paragraph:)

The assignment:
Juniors AND Seniors: Using your STEAL chart, write a paragraph about the purpose of a character thus far in the book you're reading. I revised the example to make it more helpful. For the purposes of character list, see the link to yesterday's homework or the midterm review.

Save it to your English folder or complete the assignment in your notebook.

Here are instructions and an example: STEAL chart to analysis

CHECKLIST FOR PARAGRAPH

• A clear topic sentence
• Adequate context
• At least three bite-sized quotations from the beginning of the story that establishes the identity of the character
• Analysis that discusses both what the evidence means and what it implies
• A minimum of four transitional words and phrases
• A concluding sentence or two that ties back to your topic sentence and sums up the points made in your paragraph

Homework, 2/11

Juniors and Seniors
STEAL Checklist

Overall, your chart needs to have at least nine NEW BITE-SIZED quotations that come from across the text. I will be using the bullet points below to grade the assignment. Remember that you don't have to fill in every category of the chart. I suggest filling in your chart as you read, rather than after.

Here is the criteria: 

• Accurately categorizes evidence into speech (dialogue), thoughts and feelings (narrative voice), effect on others, actions, and appearance (looks)

• Includes sufficient quotations

• Quotations are meaningful/significant/illustrative

Why are we doing this?

Close reading involves precisely describing a character's behavior and development throughout the text. When we do this, we are able to identify and interpret the character's larger purpose in a work of literature, an important step towards articulating central themes.

For a review of what STEAL means, see this link: STEAL chart and purposes of character

ANNOUNCEMENT 

The next round of the Moth will start March 6! Here are the dates: 

Tuesdays

1. Tuesday, March 4th: session 1

2. Tuesday, March 11th: session 2

3. Tuesday, March 18th: session 3

4. Tuesday, March 25th: session 4

5. Tuesday, April 1st: session 5

6. Tuesday, April 8th: SLAM

7. Thursday, April 10th: reflection/celebration

Homework 2/10

Seniors:

-Two pages in English notebook based on the following questions and today's TED talk.

1. What is your disposition? Use precise adjectives to describe yourself and provide evidence that demonstrate those traits. Use both positive and negative adjectives. For a list, try this link: Character Traits

2. Describe some situations that brought out the good and/or evil in you. What did you bring into the situation? What did the situation bring out in you? (consider groups of people, settings, authority figures etc)

3. What are the larger systems that shape your behavior? How are you influenced to do good or evil by larger cultural, legal, or political systems?

Juniors: Starting a New Work of Literature