August 15, 2017 - August 18, 2017

Tuesday, August 15th:
Signed people into class.
Went over the syllabus

Wednesday, August 16th:

Read excerpt from The Things They Carried

Annotate: What does each item reveal about the person who carries it?

Kiowa – carrying the Bible for hope; very religious; quiet; simple; Native American;

Henry – misses his girlfriend, misses the sensuality of his girlfriend

Rat Kiley – “m&m’s” and brandy, enjoys simple pleasures, reckless

Dave Jenson – vitamins in carotene; all for himself;

Lee Strunk – slingshot; old fashioned 

Everybody needs something as a security blanket

Ted Lavender – he’s a dreamer, determined; when he gets stressed out he can look up at the star; he prefers the night time.

Change the item the character is carrying. Notice how the perception of the character changes slightly. 

Zane volunteered to show the contents of his backpack to us - to show us what he carries. 

Looking ahead: Write two paragraphs - one paragraph per character - describing the contents of the character's backpack, or suitcase, or purse, or wallet, or briefcase.   Write a "slice of life" where the character is actively engaged with the backpack, briefcase, purse, wallet, or suitcase.

Example:
Sylvester raced into his neighborhood Starbucks with his briefcase in hand for a badly needed cup of coffee. It had been another one of those nights where he had stayed up racing against the clock, and the clock was winning - he was now running late for his 9 a.m. court appearance before Judge Debois, who clearly hated him. Suddenly, the clasp on his brand new Fossil briefcase - black leather with silver - broke and the contents spilled onto the floor of the crowded cafe. Sylvester scrambled to grab his  manila folders which held his client's deposition, but an expensive stiletto heel - red leather - stepped on the folder. As he tried to pull the folder away, the deposition ripped in two. Sylvester stood up quickly, causing the owner of the stiletto heel to spill her decaf cafe double latte with almond milk into his briefcase, where his new iphone had been safely nestled, but was now floating in a syrupy coffee bath inside the Fossil's silk lining. His iphone, the depositions, the menthol cigarettes,  the nicotine gum,  his lunch of peanut butter sandwich on stale rye bread - all, all were flotsam and jetsam - sloshing in the brown mocha sea that was now the inside of his briefcase.

Thursday, August 17th: 
 Go to library to check out the following books:
Cliff Notes' AP Literature
Perrine's
Vocabulary Workshop; Level F
Writer's Choice

Homework Assignment: 

Vocabulary Workshop; Level F

Page 21, Unit 1, #1 – 10

Due Tuesday, August 22^nd

Directions: 

Write out the following: 

     Vocabulary Word

Part of Speech: Either a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb

Definition

Etymology: word origin – consult a dictionary or an online dictionary

Synonyms: at least three synonyms

Antonyms: at least two antonyms - if there are none, write none

Two Original Sentences – which you make up

Find two literary sources where the word is used – consult an online dictionary website

Example: 

1.     Approbation

Part of Speech: Noun

Etymology: Latin

Synonyms: Commendation, sanction,

Antonyms: disapproval, condemnation, censure

Two original sentences:

After the performance the singer was drowned in approbation as the audience roared their love for her.

A sentence from a piece of literature or from a film using the vocabulary word.

Friday, August 18th:  

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Shared their creative writing exercise – selection of details inspired by The Things They Carried

They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die; grief, terror, love, longing. These were intangibles  -

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 specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried the shameful memories. They carried the common scent of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture. They carried their reputations. They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor. They died so as not to die of embarrassment.  They crawled into tunnels, and walked point and advanced under fire. Each morning, despite the unknowns, they made their legs move. They endured. They kept humping. They did not submit to the obvious alternative, which was simply to close the eyes and fall. So easy, really.  Go limp and tumble to the ground and let the muscles unwind and not speak and not budge until your buddies picked you up and lifted you up into the chopper that would roar and dip its nose, and carry you off to the world.  A mere matter of falling, yet no one ever fell. It was not courage, exactly; the object was not valor. Rather, they were too frightened to be cowards.

Polysyndeton: the repetition of a conjunction connecting phrases.  The purpose or effect of the polysyndeton is to intensify or magnify the action, or the emotion, or to create a sense of movement which builds or a sense of ceaseless or repetitive movement or action. 

Where does O’Brien use a polysyndeton in the above excerpt?  What rhythm does it create?  What effect does it create? How does it differ from the rhythm and syntax of the rest of the excerpt?  Why did O’Brien make the sentence so different from the rest of the piece?

Read the original passage from The Things They Carried – “…They moved like mules….where it would always be the same.”

Discussion:

Vocabulary

Simile: “They moved like mules….” What are some of the qualities or attributes of mules? What is O’Brien saying about the state and situation of the men?

Grammar is important!

Let’s eat, grandma!

Let’s eat grandma!

 

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