Hemingway mini-bio

Hemingway bio moviemaker

The Horns of the Bull/The Capital of the World

Time Permitting...Letter from Birmingham Jail

Learning Target: I can discuss The Horns of the Bull (Capital of the World) in the context of the personal, political, and philosophical/religious spheres. 

6 mins (2 per topic)...Quickly write down what you remember learning last night about 1) the Spanish Civil War, 2) Bullfighting and 3) Hemingway.

Next, choose one more student question which you did not respond to online, and take 5 minutes to craft a response.

Each person in your group should share a couple of things they learned about 1) the Spanish Civil War, 2) Bullfighting and 3) Hemingway.

Each person should lead your group in discussion of the question you responded to last night (or, if their is overlap within the group) or to one you responded to on Tuesday night or today in class.  
 

Homework: Research the Spanish Civil War and/or Hemingway and bullfighting and then respond to one more of your classmates questions.

We will discuss as a whole class tomorrow.

Periods 9-10:  Junior AP English

Change of plans for today - we will put MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail off until Thursday.

Today, we will read and annotate Ernest Hemingway’s The Horns of the Bull.

Turnitin.com…Post one textually-based (they must quote a portion of the story in their question) discussion questions and respond to a question by another student.  Tomorrow we will have small group discussions followed by a whole-class Socratic based discussion lead by me.

Finish Fitzgerald biography

What did you find most striking about the intersection between his art and his life? Write about a page and then discuss.



Without persistent effort, time itself becomes an ally of the insurgent and primitive forces of irrational emotionalism and social destruction.

What do you think the author meant?

How might it apply to certain current events in the world today?

Rhetoric Powerpoint 


What do you think that he means by insurgent and why do you think that he uses it to describe the forces of irrational emotionalism.

What do you think he means by irrational emotionalism?
Does he identify examples or results of irrational emotionalism?  If not, can we decipher what he might consider an example?

Why is irrational emotionalism described as primitive?

Learning Target: I can provide and receive mature feedback on the Gatsby personal reflection paper.

Activities

1. Collect the marked-up draft you used in class yesterday 

(5 points) 


2. Internal citations and creative title mini-lesson:

 Borne Back Ceaseleslly 

Trying to learn from the past without getting stuck there

I Hope She Won't Be a Fool

Raising Daughters To Not Be Daisies in Distress

3. Final Peer Review

3. Watch Fitzgerals: An American Dreamer

4. Having read The Great Gatsby and watched the biography, articulate and then explore/attempt to answer an intriguing personal observation you have about F. Scott and Zella Fitzgerald and/or The Great Gatsby.  Articulate your observation or question early in your writing and then explore it for about a page or two, allowing yourself to wander into related topics that your mind might draw you towards.

On Monday, we will talk about your reflections in small and then large groups.

Peer feedback on your paper
Controlling Idea
Connections
Voice
Organization (order and flow of ideas)
LT Heading with period
Creative Title
Spelling
Punctuation
Citation

Homework: 

The final paper is due Monday. Digital copy to turnitin.com and hard copy to me.

Learning Target: I can provide and receive mature feedback on the Gatsby personal reflection paper.

Activities

Watch Fitzgerald: American Dreamer

Fitzgerald American Dreamer Part 2

Fitzgerald American Dreamer Part 3

Fitzgerald American Dreamer Part 4

Fitzgerald American Dreamer Part 5

Peer feedback on your paper
Controlling Idea
Connections
Voice
Organization (order and flow of ideas)


At the end, write two or three sentences on some strengths of the paper and two or three sentences on some possible areas for improvement or expansion.  Perhaps some questions for them..."Have you considered...?

Homework: 

Have a revised draft available for peer feedback tomorrow. Make  sure that draft contains comments (typed in he margin) explaining the reasoning behind three of your most significant changes between the draft you are working with today and the draft you will submit tomorrow for peer review. 

Save the marked-up draft you used in class today and bring it tomorrow.  I would like you to hand that in tomorrow for 5 points.  

Tomorrow: We will focus on mechanics and wordsmithing more than in previous peer reviews.  The final paper is due Monday.

F. Scott Fitzgerald documentary part 1

F. Scott Fitzgerald Bio Part 2

Learning Target: I can use a writing model by a professional writer and feedback from a peer to improve my Gatsby personal reflection paper.

Activities

Watch Fitzgerald video

The Evolution of  O'Rourke's Controlling Idea: Insights on Grieving (in the third and fourth paragraph)

Peer feedback on your paper
Controlling Idea
Connections
Voice
At the end, write two or three sentences on some strengths of the paper and two or three sentences on some possible areas for improvement or expansion.  Perhaps some questions for them..."Have you considered...?

Hand back in-class essays

Homework: Have a revised draft available for peer feedback tomorrow. Make  sure that draft contains comments (typed in he margin) explaining the reasoning behind three of your most significant changes between the draft you are working with today and the draft you will submit tomorrow for peer review. 

Gatsby

Learning Target: I can use Meghan O'Rourke's essay on Hamlet and grieving to reflect on strategies for writing my Great Gatsby personal essay.

Activities:

Take out The Great Gatsby paper assignment and the rubric for it. 

Review controlling idea and voice columns.

Read and annotate the Meghan O'Rourke essay on Hamlet for the following:

Presentation and development of the controlling idea and sub-points

Connections to Hamlet, other literature, personal, real-world, etc.

Voice...Places where her voice comes across clearly

2nd paragraph...

Controlling idea...What sentences in this paragraph further develop and focus her controlling idea?

Which lines signal a shift or evolution in thought or understanding?

What literary insights are shared? 

Where is her voice strongest? 

What personal examples does she use and what effect do they have?

Homework: 

Finish reading and annotating for controlling idea, connections, and voice in  Meghan O'Rourke's essay on Hamlet.

Next, read and annotate your paper for controlling idea, connections, and voice in your Gatsby essay. 

Annotate for evidence of each component as well as how your paper might be lacking in some of those areas.  Write suggestions for improvement in the margins.

Also, print one clean copy of your essay for peer review tomorrow.

Tomorrow...Bring in both the annotated O'Rourke essay and the copy of your own paper which you annotated last night.  Also bring in a clean copy of your essay (revised or not) for a peer to take a look at tomorrow. Peer feedback tomorrow.

Hand back in-class Gatsby essays

Learning Target:  I can use The Great Gatsby and other sources and experiences to reflect on an authentic question of yours.

Activities 

Gatsby

Learning Target:  I can use The Great Gatsby to reflect on my world.

Activities: 
1) Hand in expanded paper reflection which you worked on last night.
    1) What idea/topic addressed in Gatsby are you planning to focus on?  
     2) Controlling idea/central question/point of view...What is your controlling idea, central question, point of view for the paper.  What do you think you want to say or figure out about your topic?  
     3). What outside connections - outside the novel, that is - might inform your ideas on your topic? Books, school, family, relationships, friends, movies, classes, etc? Get specific.  Explore places outside the novel which contribute to your views on the topic.
     4) What does Fitzgerald have to say about the topic ( based on your reading of Gatsby).  Try to find three to four quotes/passages which suggest Fitzgerald's POV on the topic. 

2) Watch Gatsby

Homework: It behooves you to get started on your 1st draft tonight, so that you are able to complete a full draft (3-4 pages) by the end of class tomorrow.

First typed draft of paper due at the end of class on Friday, Feb 13. 
Peer feedback on Tuesday, February 17
Second draft of paper due on Wednesday, Feb 18.
Peer feedback on Feb 18.
Final paper due on February 20.

Learning Target:  I can use The Great Gatsby to reflect on my world.

Activities: 
Hand in paper proposal
Watch Gatsby

Homework: Instead of a draft, please expand on what you typed yesterday.  Answer the following questions in two pages:
     1) What idea/topic addressed in Gatsby are you planning to focus on?  
     2) Controlling idea/central question/point of view...What is your controlling idea, central question, point of view for the paper.  What do you think you want to say or figure out about your topic?  
     3). What outside connections - outside the novel, that is - might inform your ideas on your topic? Books, school, family, relationships, friends, movies, classes, etc? Get specific.  Explore places outside the novel which contribute to your views on the topic.
     4) What does Fitzgerald have to say about the topic ( based on your reading of Gatsby).  Try to find three to four quotes/passages which suggest Fitzgerald's POV on the topic. 




First typed draft of paper due at the end of class on Friday, Feb 13.  Second draft of paper due on Tuesday, Feb 17.

Learning Target:  I can use The Great Gatsby to reflect on my world.

Activity 1: Initial Essay reflection
     What ideas/topics addressed in Gatsby are you considering for your essay?    
     What do you think Fitzgerald is saying about your topic?
     POV...What is your initial point of view on the topic? In other words, what thoughts do you have on the topic, or what questions related to the topic would you like to explore?
     What outside connections - outside the novel, that is - might inform your ideas on your topic? Books, school, family, relationships, friends, movies, classes, etc?

Activity 2: Watch Gatsby



Homework: Gatsby paper ideas (visual check tomorrow):  1-typed page which basically brainstorms/presents/tests ideas for your paper - topics, questions, a controlling idea, a point of view, etc. One helpful brainstorming strategy can be to think of a paper like this as an attempt/journey to answer a meaningful question which the book raised in your mind.  The closer this  question is to an authentic concern or interest of yours, the better your paper will be.  It's hard to write with an invested voice in something that you don't really care much about. 

First typed draft due Thursday.

Learning Target: I can make connections between ideas in The Great Gatsby and my world.

Hand out the essay assignment:  

Read the assignment

Watch The Great Gatsby Film

Homework: Re-read the entire assignment, including sample paper and rubric. Come prepared with any questions tomorrow.

Tuesday: Free-writing/brainstorming and watch Gatsby

Wednseday: Wath Gatsby

Thursday: Typed draft due
Peer Reviews
HW: Type next-to-final draft

Friday: Final Peer Review

Paper Due: Feb 17

This weekend I attended a reunion for Carmel High School Basketball Teams which made it to the Sweet Sixteen (final 16 teams in the state playoff) two years in a row: 1985 & 1986.  Here is my junior year photo, back in the day when I had hair.





Carmel Basketball Team 2015



Carmel Basketball Team 1985

Gatsby In-class Essay

Learning target:  I can interpret and articulate in an essay why Fitzgerald felt that the very were different form the rest of us.

Activity: Write an in-class essay on Gatsby and Fitzgerald

No Homework

Learning Objectives:  Using my own knowledge of human nature and textual evidence from The Great Gatsby, I can write and speak insight-fully about the novel.

After commenting on Gatsby's worth, Nick states "I've always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him, because I disapproved of him from beginning to end" (154). What is a characteristic of Gatsby that Nick disapproves of the most? Likewise, do you believe Nick has a similar attitude toward all wealthy people? Explain.

Gatsby's experience with the war is almost parallel to The Odyssey, as he leaves the woman he loves for war and then is beset by trials on his way back. What could this represent? Does it show that everything will end up ok and he and Daisy will be reunited or does it mean something else?

Homework: Read the final chapter and post a haiku  or Homeric/Odyssey style stanzas (1 to 3 stanzas) - try a Homeric simile! -  inspired by the following trinity: Sirens of The Odyssey, the American dream, and Jay Gatsby.   I think one could make the argument that certain elements of The Odyssey can be seen in The Great Gatsby and clearly the novel raises questions about the American Dream. Try tying them together in some poetic way, creating connections and/or impressions which somehow are inspired by these three elements.  It can make sense or not; it is not an essay.  Be serious or funny or sarcastic or inspiring...whatever you feel.  You don't even need to use any of those words (e.g., Sirens).  Very few rules, but just try to make some connections for yourself.  Submit this to Gatsby Poem assignment in turnitin.com. (8 points)

Learning Target:  I can view a movie version of The Great Gatsby and compare it to the novel, noting how the film-makers and actors interpreted the novel and brought it to life visually.

Activity: Watch The Great Gatsby

Homework: Read Chapter 8 and post one discussion question on tutnritin.com and respond to another student’s question on turnitin.com.