Tim O'Brien

Agenda:

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=tim+O%27brien+things+they+carried&FORM=HDRSC3&adlt=strict#view=detail&mid=8BB7D06A8BE68E16D5218BB7D06A8BE68E16D521

Start at 15:00

From Shmoop

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

The Vietnam War: It's a tough pill to swallow. Maybe you're sick to death of hearing yet another Doors' song in yet another Vietnam War-era movie... or just bummed out by the never-ending stories of relentless carnage.

Or maybe you just feel alienated by the subject matter. You can't really comprehend it. You want to read something that speaks to you.

The Things They Carried is about war, sure. But, first and foremost, it's about a dude named Tim O'Brien struggling with two super-universal issues: communication and memory.

Tim O'Brien saw some horrific stuff, and now he's trying to communicate with a wider audience. And even if you've never been to war or seen anything truly hair-raising, you know what that's like. Have you ever tried to communicate what love/fear/sorrow/getting wasabi up your nose really feels like? And have you ever failed?

We're guessing the answer is yes.

Tim O'Brien lost some beloved people both before and during the war, and now he's trying to remember them with such clarity that they're resurrected. Even if you've never seen anyone die (or killed anyone), you should know what that's like. Have you ever stared at a picture of someone you've loved and lost—a grandmother, a first love, a summer camp buddy—and tried to burn their face into your memory?

We're guessing the answer is yes.

So while you might not be able to comprehend the horrors that Tim O'Brien has seen, you understand in a larger, human way what he's going through. Sure, he's not trying to communicate the feeling of getting wasabi up his nose... he's trying to communicate the feeling of pulling a dead friend's corpse from a lake full of raw sewage. But he's still trying and still failing. And maybe he's not trying to resurrect a summer camp pal... he's trying to resurrect a Vietnamese academic whom he killed. But he's still trying to make that person live again via memory.

What makes The Things They Carried tick is the fact that it manages to be comprehensible and alien all at once. So while you might never understand what war looks like, smells like, or sounds like, The Things They Carried will allow you to (begin to) understand how soldiers feel after returning from war: scarred, but shockingly relatable.

HOMEWORK:  Study for test tomorrow.  For Monday, read "Spin," "Love," and "On the Rainy River."

Comma Rules

Comma Rules

Rule No. 1: In a simple series, use a comma to separate the elements, but don’t put a comma before the conjunction.	Rule No. 2: Use a comma to separate two independent clauses connected by a coordinating conjunction.
Rule No. 3: Use a comma following an introductory clause or prepositional phrase of four words or more.	Rule No. 4: Use commas to set off modifiers that are not essential to the reader's ability to identify a particular person, place or thing.
Rule No. 5: Use commas to separate adjectives of equal rank.	Rule No. 6: Use commas to set off words that add emphasis, shift attention or provide a fuller explanation (parentheticals, "yes," "no," names in direct address).
Rule No. 7: Use commas to set off participial modifiers that come at the beginning of a sentence or after the verb.	Rule No. 8: Use a comma, carefully, to set off quotes or paraphrases.
Rule No. 9: Use a comma with hometowns, ages, years with months and days, names of states and nations with cities, affiliations and most large numbers.	Rule No. 10: Use a comma to separate duplicate words to eliminate confusion.

The Things They Carried

AGENDA:

The Things They Carried
Audio--Selected Shorts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnNMUYJ9fm8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o1T15dt0SQ 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDh6zcZ7hEs 

 VOCABULARY WORDS: ANAPHORA, EPIGRAPH

"What they carried was partly a function of rank, partly of field specialty. As a machine gunner, Henry Dobbins carried the M-60, which weighed 23 pounds unloaded, but which was almost always loaded. He also carried between 10 and 15 pounds of ammunition draped in belts across his chest and shoulders."

"The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Among them were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellant, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, and two or three canteens of water."

"They carried the land itself--Vietnam, the place, the soil-powdery-orange-red dust that covered their boots and fatigues and faces. They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity."

"They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing--these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specifc gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide...They carried their reputations. They carried the soldier's greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing."

* Briefly discuss the differences between "literal" things that the soldiers carried and "figurative" things. What are some "literal" and "figurative" things that people carry with them every day?

Literary Terms for Quiz Friday #1

Literary Terms for Quiz Fri.

Literary Terms for Quiz next Fri. 

1. Allegory
2. Alliteration
3. Allusion
4. Ambiguity
5. Analogy
6. Antecedent
7. Antithesis
8. Aphorism
9. Apostrophe
10. Atmosphere
11. Anaphora

Peer Editing

Peer Editing

AGENDA:

Today we will continue the peer editing in groups.

Groups: Discuss with your partners the essays and provide verbal feedback to each other as well as handing back their papers.

Whole class:  Make a list of the most common errors.  Groups report back what you have found as common errors in the papers.

For Wednesday:   BOOK CIRCLE Discussions

Prepare questions about the book you read this summer for your book circle.

Welcome back, AP English Language and Composition (APLANG)

AGENDA:

EQ: What is peer editing?

1. Taking care of business:  Discuss course criteria sheet for course overview and expectations again. Sign out The Things They Carried,

2. Using technology.  Use the computers to access the class blog when  in A239 or at home: View Stephen Fry youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY&feature=youtube_gdata 

 and write a short response after learning how to log on to class blog (use your ID and birth date today to create a new password that you can easily remember)  and write a comment after viewing the video clip.  Think about language, grammar, and the conventions of English language usage.  Your daily comments will count towards your classwork grade.

3  Go over Handout: AP Resource packet

4. Addressing the Essential Question:
In the next 3 days, we will examine peer editing as a model for your work this year in composition and ultimately for preparation for all the standardized exams you will be asked to take.

CLOSE READING involves the ability not only to write about what we read, but also to be able to discuss it.  EVIDENCE and CLAIMS are also part of the Common Core, but also part of studying other content areas.  The STRATEGY is that you make an ARGUMENT  (involving one or several CLAIMS from the TEXT) and provide EVIDENCE after CLOSE READING of the EVIDENCE and  CLAIMS you are presented with. (Sounds like we're building a nation of lawyers, huh?)  Yet, think like a DETECTIVE and write like a LAWYER.

Question #2 on the AP exam asks you to read a passage (unknown, not studied before) and then analyze it.  Yet, you have the skills.  So how do you do it?

Handout:  Peer editing Worksheets 
We will share the 5 SOAPSTONE essays you wrote this summer tomorrow (BRAVO!) and begin to peer edit in groups of 4. First, let's discuss the PEER EDITING HANDOUT:

What is the prompt and how does it want us to handle it?

 Let's look at organization and development.

Is a four or five paragraph organization appropriate or satisfactory for a test response?

Long enough?  Developed enough?

Language and mechanics. This is a big category (we need to discuss this later, but you can sense it now as you read):
sentence structure (SYNTAX),
use of language (DICTION),
grammar and usage.

For tomorrow: PLEASE POST YOUR SUMMER READING SELECTION!

HW Assignment: Go over AP terms --first ten words-- "the A list" for quiz next week on Friday.
Peer Edit the papers you have shared.
READ: Ch. 1 "The Things They Carried" in The Things They Carried (novel) --note use of quotation marks versus italics!

AP Summer Reading Lists

AP Summer Reading Lists

Please be sure to read at least one of the books from the following two lists so that we can discuss them in class in September.  There is no writing assignment that you have to do for this, but be prepared to work in groups to learn how to hold a "book group" discussion by raising provocative discussion questions regarding the books.  You might want to see if there are reading group guides for the books after you read them, or perhaps create some questions yourselves for others.

The writing assignment for all of you remains the 5 essays about 5 essays as outlined in the previous post!

AP Summer Required Reading List

AP Literature and Composition and AP English Language

Genre	Title	Author (last name)	Author (first name)
Fiction	Bless Me, Ultima	Anaya	Rudolfo
Fiction	The Blind Assassin	Atwood	Margaret
Fiction	The Bluest Eye	Morrison	Toni
Fiction	How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents	Alvarez	Julia
Fiction	The Poisonwood Bible	Kingsolver	Barbara
Fiction	A Prayer for Owen Meany	Irving	John
Fiction	The Road	McCarthy	Cormac
Fiction	The Round House	Erdrich	Louise
Fiction	Snow Falling on Cedars	Guterson	David

Genre	Title	Author (last name)	Author (first name)
Fiction	Annie John	Kincaid	Jamaica
Memoir	An American Childhood	Dillard	Annie
Autobiography	Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez	Rodriguez	Richard
Essays	Me Talk Pretty One Day	Sedaris	David
Autobiography	The Autobiography of Malcolm X	X	Malcolm
Graphic Novel	Persepolis	Satrapi	Marjane
Biography	Black Boy	Wright	Richard
Biography	The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks	Skloot	Rebecca
Nonfiction	A Walk in the Woods	Bryson	Bill
Nonfiction	The Tipping Point	Gladwell	Malcolm
Nonfiction	Freakonomics	Levitt	Steven