AP Review: Due Tuesday

Your AP Lit Exam is May 6th. Knowing that it's coming up in a few short weeks, what would you like to focus on in the last few weeks before the exam? Any weaknesses you would like to address? On the same note, what do you feel confident about?

Heart of Darkness Review (Due Thursday)

What do you think is the single most important quote from Heart of Darkness?

1. Support your answer as to why you chose that quote.
2. Respond to a classmates' response. 

Question 3 (Due Wednesday)

The following is a Question 3 sample from 1997. Directions:

1. Read the prompt and begin brainstorming what you would use (You may use your novels).
2. DO NOT read other classmates' entries before writing your response. 
3. Write a couple paragraphs about what scene you would use and how it pertains to the overall work. You DO NOT need to write an entire essay. The purpose of the exercise is to review the novels that we have read.

1997 Prompt:
Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other social occasions. Such scenes may reveal the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a novel or play that includes such a scene and, in a focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

Iambic Pentameter

"Nothing can come from nothing"~ King Lear

After returning from Spring Break, we will be beginning Shakespeare's King Lear. Since we are delving further into poetry and ultimately, Shakespeare, it's imperative that we get a grasp on the rhythm and meter of poetry. While we have briefly mentioned iambic pentameter in class, we have not thoroughly explored the topic. The beginning of your poetry packet discusses meter; be sure to review this before watching this video. After watching the video, take the short quiz to see how you stack up! Click HERE to watch the Iambic Pentameter Lesson!

1. On the right side of the screen, click WATCH, to view the video. 
2. And then THINK to take the quiz (You don't have to do the writing questions, this is a quiz for you to self-assess).
3. Read the DIG DEEPER section. Go to several of the links that seem interesting to you. Write a conversation starter about your findings. Respond to at least two other classmates.
4. On your King Lear quizzes, there will be questions about meter. You will also be expected to know how to mark a poem for meter. 

Write Your own Poetry Prompt!

1. Pick any poem out of the Literature Sense & Sound book and make a TPCASTT.
2. Based on the Sample Question 1 Assignments that I gave you on Friday, write a Question 1 Prompt.
3. Post the poem and the prompt on the class blog.
4. After the poems and prompts are posted on the blog, choose one to write your Question 1 Essay. Claim the poem by posting your name underneath the poem & prompt. Only one person can sign up for each poem. (There may be an instance where two people sign up for the same poem, but do that as a last resort only!!!)
5. After you have “claimed” a poem. Write a Question 1 essay. Share this as a Google document with me and the writer of the prompt. This is due Friday
6. By Tuesday, you should have graded and scored your partner’s essay. 

Discuss this week's poetry

Discuss Langston Hughes' "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" & Octavio Paz' "The Street"

• You need to write one conversation starter (1 paragraph) about any or all of the poems. Your conversation starters can be personal or reflective in nature, or they may be analytical. Refer to specific lines and incorporate quotes in your response. You may also pose questions as well. 

•  You will also need to reply to at least one classmate's conversation starter (1 paragraph). Be sure to address (by name) the classmate(s) that you are responding to. 

Feminism in the Modern World

After reading many of your blog posts, I wanted to remind you of a couple of things from Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor:
1. "Don't Read With Your Eyes" I know at times this may be hard to do, since the only tool to decoding the world around you, is a 2015 model, but we still must consider the social and historical climate of the time period of the work. Remember Foster states, "Instead try to find a reading perspective that allows for sympathy with the historical moment of the story, that understands the text as having been written against its own social, historical, cultural, and personal background" (Foster 228).
2. "It's All Political". Chopin wrote about the world around her. As Foster states, "The world contains many things, and on the level of society, part of what contains the political reality of the time--power structures, relations among classes, issues of justices and rights, interactions between the sexes and among various racial and ethnic constituencies" (Foster 115). It is no wonder that Chopin would chose this as a topic of her writing, yet many of you may be surprised to find out that Kate Chopin did not consider herself a feminist. After reading her novel, many find this difficult to believe. Is Kate Chopin like modern women today who have a hard time identifying with the title of feminism?

Discuss Feminism in our Modern Society: You are not limited to these questions.
What does it mean to be a feminist today? Are there negative connotations associated with the word? Why? or Why not? What is the image of the modern women? Do we still have two polar opposites on the spectrum: Reisz and Ratignolle? Is feminism an illusory or real?

I have added Aziz Ansari's commentary for an important reason. While I know he's a comedian, and not an authority on feminism, comics often satirize the world around them. In that sense, like Chopin, Ansari is also commenting on the political and social issues of the time.. This is just one of many viewpoints on modern day feminism. Feel fee to respond to Ansari's arguments as well.