MrsCEnglish11: February 2012

Friday, February 17, 2012

February 16 Notes

“Write a formal essay in response to one of the Essential Questions,

using your novel as the source material.”

What is a thesis?

A thesis is a theory, hypothesis, or interpretation of your chosen topic that your paper will explore and argue using supporting evidence, drawing logical conclusions, based on well structured arguments.

To develop a thesis, you will need the following things:

A familiarity with the subject/content at hand.

A strong opinion/argument.

A logical mindset.

How does one develop a strong thesis?

Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do when writing a formal paper. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts and events (such as surprising contrasts or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Your plot sheets and sticky-notes should help you with this process. Once you do this thinking, you will probably have a "working thesis,"a basic or main idea, an argument that you think you can support with evidence but that may need adjustment along the way.

Show organization.

One of the best ways to start a formal essay is to brainstorm: What important or interesting ideas did you find in your novel? How do those points connect to each other and our essential questions? How are your novel's themes connected to character, plot, and setting?

Show me how you have organized your ideas. Creating a Point Form list in addition to a Brainstorm Diagram is a good starting point to show your organization, and get yourself into the process of writing a formal essay.

(Handouts cannot be posted. See me in class if you need additional copies.)

Once you have a working thesis, ask yourself the following questions:

Do I answer an essential question? Re-reading the essential question prompt after constructing a working thesis can help you fix an argument that misses the focus of the question.

Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? If your thesis simply states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it's possible that you are simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument.

Is my thesis statement specific enough? Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like "good" or "successful," see if you could be more specific: why is something "good"; what specifically makes something "successful"?

Does my thesis pass the "So what?" test? If a reader's first response is, "So what?" then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue. In this case, the “larger issue” is embedded in our Essential Questions.

Homework: Individually, students brainstorm thesis ideas, using plot sheets and sticky-notes to facilitate the process.

When you complete your brainstorm, develop a point-form list using Pre-writing Handouts 1 + 2 as guides.

Start developing three working theses for your formal essay. These are due for next class. Thesis statements are guided by the EQs of the unit. All students are expected to have completed the novel by now.

Also Due Next Class: Visual Summative.

February 14 Notes

Subject: What is your novel generally about? This is your subject.

Theme: What does your novel say about your subject? This is your theme.

Finding a Theme in Two Steps

1. When you finish reading a book, sum up the book in a single word. For example, a single word for the play Macbeth could be ambition. Ambition is one subject of the book.

2. Next, stretch that single word into a message: “ambition can lead to one's downfall.” This is one of many possible themes for Macbeth.

A novel's theme can also be interpreted as its “thesis”. The author picks a subject, and explains and explores it throughout the novel, prompting the reader to think about the subject and develop a greater understanding of the subject.

Theme Chart

Working as a table group, decide on your novel's subject, then come up with your novel's theme.

Work on theme charts as a group, connecting specific plot, character, and setting evidence from your text to your chosen theme. A smart way to tackle this activity is to have each group member concentrate on one aspect of the grid, sharing information as you go along.

How is theme presented through character?

How is theme presented through setting?

How is theme presented through plot?

Why is it important that theme connects to character, setting, and plot? How does this happen?

How is your theme connected to power and authority? What connections do you see between power/authority and Character? Setting? Plot?

Visual Summative - Collage

Select 8 quotations from your novel which connect to unit Essential Questions, and create a collage illustrating those quotations. Provide a short written explanation (one or two sentences for each quotation) describing how each quotation connects with an Essential Question. This Assignment is due on February 21st.

Must-Haves:

Name, Block, Date.

8 Quotations

Collage illustrating quotations

Written Explanation

Criteria	Level 4 EE	Level 3 FM	Level 2 M-MM	Level 1 NY
Context and Explanation of Choice	Context and explanation of choice (connection to EQs) are convincing, relevant, and have depth/insight.	Context and explanation of choice (connection to EQs) are convincing and relevant most of the time.	Context and explanation (connection to EQs) are convincing and relevant some of the time.	Context and explanation (connection to EQs) are rarely convincing and relevant.
Visual Appeal	The collage is neat, cohesive, visually appealing, and suggests a very high level of effort and consideration.	The collage is neat, appealing, and suggests a high level of effort and consideration.	The collage is complete, and suggests a moderate level of effort and consideration.	The collage is complete, but suggests a low level of effort and consideration.
Language Conventions	Applies grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation with a high degree of accuracy and effectiveness.	Applies grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation with a considerable accuracy and effectiveness.	Applies grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation with some accuracy and effectiveness.	Applies grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation with limited accuracy and effectiveness.

Homework: Complete the Theme Foursquare with at least two quotations for each field.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

February 10 Notes

Favourite Character

Who is your favourite character in your novel?

What makes your favourite character interesting?

How would you describe the relationships between your favourite character and the other characters around her/him?

Relationship #1: Character: _____________

Relationship #2: Character: _____________

How do you learn about characters in novels?

Everything your character does is filtered through your perspective and your experiences.

Character actions: What they say, what they do, what they think, and their relationships.

Other characters: How other characters react to, and what they say about, the character in question.

Group Sociogram Activity

In your table group, create a sociogram for the characters in your novel, centred around the relationships of the protagonist (main character).

Look for connections, links, and clues between characters. Ask yourself what the function and significance of each character is. Base your connections on the character's history, what the reader is told (and not told), and what characters say about themselves and others.

Homework- Answer two out of three questions:

Are you more interested in characters that are similar to you, or different than you? Why do you think this is the case?

Can you identify with any of the relationships between characters in your novel? If so, which ones? If not, why not?

How do our relationships with others show our values?

Thursday, February 9, 2012

February 8th Notes

Note: Journal #2 is due on February 10th.

Setting

We all exist in a specific time and place. Our surroundings contribute not only to our personality, but also to our values, attitudes, and even our problems: setting similarly influences characters and what they do. Setting enables the reader to better envision how a story unfolds by relating necessary environmental details of a piece of literature. Setting is the time, place, physical details, and circumstances under which events occur. A setting may be simple or elaborate, used to create ambiance, lend credibility or realism, emphasize or accentuate, organize, or even distract the reader. There are two basic components to setting:

Time

We need to consider four kinds of time that may carry specific associations with them:

Clock time: The hour, minute, or second. This may be used to provide suspense or create specific moods or feelings.

Calendar time: The day, month, year, or more generally a day of the week or time of the month. Calendar time may also inform the reader of holidays or celebrations if the piece of literature is set in a familiar culture.

Seasonal time: The seasons or a span of time associated with a particular activity. A beach party set in the dead of winter suggests something different than one set in summer.

Historical time: This can help establish a psychological or sociological understanding of behaviours and attitudes. A novel set in the 1800s, for example, would suggest a completely different social environment than one set in 2033.

Place

We may find immediate significance in the physical environment where the events of the novel occur, but we need to pay attention to the nonphysical as well as the physical environment.

The physical environment, including weather conditions, immediate surroundings, and geography may be explicitly described.

The nonphysical environment includes cultural influences such as a character's education, social standing, economic class, and religious belief. These may be revealed by physical properties in the scene or through a characters' dialogue, thoughts, statements, and behaviours. The nonphysical environment also includes the political and social environment surrounding the character.

Uses of setting

Setting may be nothing more than the backdrop for what occurs; however, it is often directly linked to mood or meaning.

It can create an atmosphere that affects our response to the work.

It may have a direct effect on a character's motivation.

An external force may enter the setting and change it, causing conflict for the characters.

The setting itself may be an antagonist: Character v Nature.

Two settings may come into conflict with each other, causing conflict in the characters who must live in them and perhaps have to choose between them.

Name: __________________ Block:______

English 11 Setting Grid

Setting Element	Textual Example	Reason/Explanation of choice
Clock Time
Calendar Time
Seasonal Time
Historical Time
The Physical Environment
The Nonphysical Environment

Reading for setting

Sometimes the setting is clearly described by the narrator. However, some works will require you to search for clues, particularly with regard to the nonphysical environment. Here are some tips:

Learn about the author and the time and place of writing.

Note suggestive details in character dialogue and narration: Names, places, objects, events.

Note unique uses of language and, perhaps, hidden references to the historical or cultural environment.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Class notes: February 2nd, 2012

Plot Chart:

As you read, keep one of these charts folded up in your novel, or at hand if you have a reading spot you tend to use. Use it as a bookmark! Before you begin reading, jot down the date and the page number you are starting on. One you have finished reading, record your page number. Then, briefly write down some plot points, important events, or interesting quotations from the passage you just read.

The whole writing process should not take more than one or two minutes. This chart is intended to be a quick-and-dirty way to keep track of your reading progress, and to remind yourself of the novel's events. I can guarantee that if you fill out this chart every time you read, information retrieval during essay time will be significantly faster. This grid will also be handed in and evaluated near the end of the unit.

Discussion Groups and criteria.

Discussion Groups are peer, teacher, and self evaluated.

What does it mean to be human?

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive."
- Dalai Lama

What does it mean to be human? If you have limbs and extremities, muscles and bones, blood and organs, are you not human? 99% of the human body is made up of just these basic elements; oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. But what is the other 1%, I wonder. What is the missing link that distinguishes us as human beings?

The most significant factor that separates man from beast is our superior ability to think. In the wild, there are no laws, morals or beliefs. Whatever actions made are influenced by the organisms' instinct to survive, where killing can be justified by their will to live. No one is innocent and yet everyone is. Why? Because they don't know better. As humans, we have learned not to coexist in an ecosystem, but as a society. As one civilization succeeds to the next, the concept of humanity often tends to change as human beings become more sophisticated. Today, we've come along way in understanding the principles of right and wrong. However, knowing is only half the battle. The next step is choosing whether or not to do the right thing or whatever considered to be socially decent. This is what ultimately defines your morality, and without morality, humankind would surely slip back into the barbaric age from when we first arrived on this earth. Although nowadays we would use missiles and warheads as opposed to spears and arrows, the intention of a weapon, no matter how advanced or primitive, has never changed.

Quiet on the Western Front: Journal #1

Under what circumstances should power and authority be questioned?

Text-to-Self: Chapter 2, page 25
In chapter 2, Kropp and the main character are given the duty of emptying out latrine buckets by their NCO, Himmelstoss. The task proves to be quite difficult for the pair, and they end up accidentally spilling all of the bucket's contents on to Himmelstoss' pants. Naturally, Himmelstoss is furious and goes off yelling down at Kropp and Baumer as he forces them to stand to attention. In his fit of rage, he also threatens to throw them in military prison or "clink" as he calls it, to which Kropp replies back in defense and is regarded as insubordination by Himmelstoss.

The way Himmelstoss reacts to the incompetence of his subordinates reminds me of the code of ethics that come with being a non-commissioned officer. I'm enrolled in the Royal Canadian Army Cadets and like Himmelstoss, I myself am an NCO.
From what I've learned, an NCO is a significant figure of authority whose position suggests working in between both the 'grunts' and the superior officers of the army. Although it is the lowest form of authority, being promoted to an NCO is the transition from being a mere follower, to becoming a leader in the military. Since it's usually their first time being given a leadership role, newly promoted NCOs tend to be the most strict when it comes to giving orders to subordinates. It's not uncommon for soldiers under the command of an overly ambitious NCO to file impeachments of abusive power or misconduct.. However, whether the troops like it or not, the NCO must enforce the rank structure and promote discipline in order to become an effective leader. If his methods are militarily unorthodox or is influenced by any form of bias such as having a personal grudge towards a member of a squad, then his work ethics must be questioned and analyze closely by a superior.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Jan 30 Notes

Post-It-Note Strategy

Place sticky notes in the novel to remind you of events in the text to which you night want to respond. They can be interesting quotations, vital plot points, or sections that, for whatever reason, interest or intrigue you.

Write a fluid, integrated response in direct reaction to events or quotations in the text.

Before writing in your journal, return to the sticky notes you have placed and read around them, then choose one or two that stand out to you. Write in your journal, paying special attention to how the flagged event has caused you to think about reading, your life, and the world around you.

Your first Journal Entry is due on February 2nd, 2012. Your first two journal entries are formative.

Journal Rubric + Other Information