Due Monday, March 25, 2013

Your midterm will consist of two readings, with accompanying reading comprehension and short answer questions. In addition, you will be asked to evaluate one of the texts as Southern Gothic literature and write a text-to text comparison with something we have read as a class this year. Lastly, you will be tested on vocabulary from this quarter (everything from January and February).

For the practice test, the answer to #16 is A, not C.

• #20: Pretty much any piece of imagery referring to sight or smell
• #21: "Change of Heart" is a good title because she changes her opinion after she loses her job and a relationship. She also sees that at the heart of things, we all have "disappointment, hope, and love" in common.
• #22: Both selections use the first person point of view which shows the narrator's vulnerability in the midst of change.
• In "The Sky Blue Ball" the narrator is caught between not being a child and not being an adult. The reader experiences with the narrator the childlike excitement of the impromptu game of catch. 
• The narrator in "Change of Heart" recounts the traumatic period in her life when she lost all that was familiar: her job and her relationship. In that vulnerable moment, she sees her neighbors in a new light. Through the narrator's relating of her experience, the reader witnesses the sequence of events that cause her to both accept her neighbors and be accepted by them.

A final draft of your To Kill a Mockingbird essay is also due, printed, in MLA format.

Due Monday, March 18, 2013

Keep working on your House on Mango Street Booklet. By Monday, you should be done with all five sections, and be working on your about the author page and making a table of contents.

Also (because I offered it to my other classes): Extra credit if you make a poster (at least size A3) with the text of a poem, preferably by Langston Hughes (we will be going over his poems in the Holt Reader on Monday). It will be awarded points based on how aesthetically pleasing it is.

Due Thursday, March 14, 2013

Revise your thesis and/or topic sentences, ideally before class on Thursday. Simply reply to your original post. Your grade for the two assignments will remain incomplete until they are viable.

Due Wednesday, March 13, 2013

I am unable to comment on your theses for some reason. If your thesis is still marked "incomplete" on Veracross, then you still need to revise it. If you were close, I sent you an email. If you have questions about how to revise your thesis, please email me or come talk to me after school.

Post your revised thesis and three topic sentences to the analysis section before 9:40am. This is due even if you are going to BEIMUN. I suggest you post it early if you don't want it marked late. We will be using class time to work on the essay this Thursday of this week.

Your To Kill a Mockingbird essay is due next Thursday.

Due Monday, March 11, 2013

I looked over the theses for To Kill a Mockingbird, and most are not analytical. Try to think about why your statement is relevant.

Therefore, for Monday, revise your thesis statement. If your thesis has been approved, please come up with topic sentences.

Read "Thoughts on the African-American Novel" by Toni Morrison. It is not located in your textbook. Click on the link and search the PDF for "African-American." I am also uploading a scanned version on Veracross, but the internet PDF is better quality.

Due Thursday, March 7, 2013

Come up with a thesis for To Kill a Mockingbird. Post it as a comment in the analysis section.

You may start reading "Thoughts on the African-American Novel" by Toni Morrison. It is located in your textbook in Unit 5: The Harlem Renaissance and Modernism.

Due Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Come up with a thesis for the excerpt we read from "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain. Post it in the analysis section.

Come up with three Socratic Seminar Questions, one analysis, one evaluation, and one creation. Directions for each question are posted on the page you will comment on.