Gods and Monsters 2009

Mr. Volpe's assignment can be found here. All extra-credit assignments should be submitted to the appropriate folder at turnitin.com.

Enjoy the show, and don't forget to keep your ticket!

For those of you who needed the Chapter 1 Review Packet, the file can be downloaded here.

Feel free to use the comments to study with one another; I won't be answering questions, but your classmates might!

Here is the state-approved list for outside reading!

This is the thread for your final draft of the "elder poem" you began in class today! Remember, if you want to remain anonymous, e-mail your poem to me with a request for an anonymous posting, and I'll submit it under my name.

Post your questions here, and I - or one of your classmates! - will answer!

I've noticed questions tend to trickle in late, so I begin answering half an hour after the session in case anyone missed it originally. Since the answers remain on the blog no matter what, people are free to wander in and out as they choose.

EDIT: Hmmmm...not many questions, either during or after the time allotted. Perhaps I shouldn't have allowed for extended time? I will shut the review after an hour next time. Are there any other questions for now?

The PowerPoint review can be found at this link. I hope it helps!

“The Gift of the Magi” is a beautiful story – laid out in a very deliberate way, told through an emotional rather than clinical lens, and driven by a very particular version of romantic wisdom. It is the rare story where almost nothing seems to happen (at least in the present), yet the story’s events remain memorable years after one reads it. Perhaps this has something to do with the lessons it teaches, or with its hopeful ending.

Yet I wonder if we can do what we did with the princess in our last story – put ourselves in our heroine’s shoes. It’s one thing to say that “love is sacrifice,” and another thing entirely to live up to that ideal - to give up things that we truly care about in order to make our loved ones happier.

Ask yourself:

+ Do you think you can you live up to that ideal, and do you even want to?

+ Are you good at giving up the things you want?

+ When have you sacrificed – meaningfully – for someone else?

+ Could you do what our young couple does here, especially when you don’t have a lot to give?

+ Is it wise to base your love on sacrifice, or should love be based on something more? (If so, then what?)

These are your questions for the week. You can answer by presenting whatever evidence you like – things you’ve experienced or observed, relationships you’ve read about in novels or seen on film, etc. (In other words, don’t feel like you can’t answer this if you’ve never been in a relationship – look to the adults around you, your friends, or the literature and films you’ve consumed!) You must give me some reason to believe what you have to say about love and sacrifice!

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Your answer should be a minimum of two paragraphs long. Each paragraph must be at least five sentences long. (Do not write less than this.) While you can write more, you won’t necessarily need to; write as much as you need to write in order to help me understand where you're coming from, and why you're coming from it.

You may respond to any of the questions you like - one, some, all - or you may respond to the entire post itself.

Spelling, punctuation, grammar, and sentence mechanics all count towards your grade. You have a number of days to work on this, so compose your replies carefully! (It's smart to write your entry in Word or a similar word-processing program so you can spell-check your work before posting.)

Finally, make sure your answer is coherent and cohesive. That is, make sure the sentences connect! If your work doesn't make sense when you read it out loud, try again.

As per the usual, you are also required to write a response to at least two other posts. Make sure your reply is a legitimate response/reaction to what the poster originally wrote; ideally, they’ll be able to reply to your reply! Try to respond to the feedback you receive as well!

Your post and feedback are due by 11:59pm on Monday, September 28th. If you have questions, please send me an e-mail.

Good luck!

The semibarbaric princess in “The Lady, or the Tiger?” is faced with a terrible choice. She deliberates for weeks; neither option will make her happy. Yet she must choose, and choose she does. She moves her hand to the right, without hesitation – and her lover follows her advice unhesitatingly as well.

It’s an underrated moment of beauty in what’s ultimately a very sad – albeit surprisingly thrilling – story. But what does it mean?

He trusts her to make a choice. She makes a choice. Is it the one he trusted her to make?
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“The Most Dangerous Game” ends by answering one of its central questions - will Rainsford survive the hunt? - but it leaves several others unanswered.

+ What happens to the prisoners from the San Lucar?

+ What will happen to all of Zaroff’s hounds?

+ Where will Rainsford go? (Will he stay on the island? If so, how will he survive?)

+ If he goes back to America, how will he readjust to living with people?

+ How will Rainsford's adventure ultimately affect him, for better or worse?

The main set of complications seems to end with the final standoff in Zaroff’s bedroom. But if one looks deeper, one sees that Connell actually chooses to leave some threads dangling – either because they would be difficult to write, they would make his story too long or unfocused, or their resolutions simply didn’t interest him enough to spur him to work on them.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing; plenty of good stories leave things unsaid. But I'm going to use these loose ends as an opportunity to read your creative writing for the first time!
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When I first read Amy Tan’s “Fish Cheeks,” I marveled at her ability to not only paint pictures with words, but to flesh out those pictures with other sensations. It seems like Tan’s just cataloging the items in her mother’s kitchen – the fish and its bulging eyes, the spongy tofu, the prawns’ black cords. But she has a real gift for adjectives; she knows how to describe without over-describing, which is harder to do than you might think.

Consider the way she describes the pile of squid. Rather than list five words describing the creatures, she comes up with the detail that will stick out most in our minds (the tire-tread knife marks), uses it, and resists the temptation to use other, less-powerful words as well. That sort of eye for detail, as well as the ability to differentiate between the best detail and the others, takes a lot of practice to acquire...but I hope to help you acquire it!

For our exercise today, I’d like you to walk around a room that (hopefully) couldn't be less like a kitchen. It's your bedroom - the place where you can catch your breath, sleep, etc. (Bring a pen and a piece of paper with you.) Jot down notes about every single detail you notice, especially the ones that identify the room as yours. You’ll run up a pretty big list...but you won’t end up using all of them.

Next, head to a computer and open a Word document. In this document, you’ll re-type the details you noticed – but only the really good ones (the ones you love, or the ones that allow you to use Tan-esque memorable language). This lets you filter out anything mundane and concentrate on the things that are worth spending your time writing about!

Now that you have your details, I want you to describe your room – a unique dwelling that’s yours and yours alone. (Unless you share with siblings, of course.) What about your room distinguishes it from the bedroom where the student who sits next to you sleeps? Which details will allow us (i.e., your audience) to imagine your room in full sensory detail – the way things smell, or the way things feel?

Your description should be a minimum of two paragraphs long. Each paragraph must be at least five sentences long. (Do not write less than this.) While you can write more, you won’t necessarily need to; write as much as you need to write in order to help me imagine your entire room, from floor to ceiling. (Remember, Amy Tan just spent one paragraph, but you probably aren’t having any trouble picturing that kitchen!) Spelling, punctuation, grammar, and sentence mechanics all count towards your grade. You have a number of days to work on this, so compose your replies carefully! (It's smart to write your entry in Word or a similar word-processing program so you can spell-check your work before posting.)

As per the usual, you are also required to write a response to at least two other posts. Make sure your reply is a legitimate response/reaction to what the poster originally wrote; ideally, they’ll be able to reply to your reply! Try to respond to the feedback you receive as well!

Your post and feedback are due by 11:59pm on Friday, September 4th. If you have questions, please send me an e-mail.

Good luck, and welcome to the blog!

Welcome to your official blog for English 9! This thread doesn't feature commenting, but it does serve as a nice introduction to the do's and don't's of the site. I've included some handy guidelines and tips regarding comments on this site after the jump, as well as a few great thread samples from previous years' sites - posts that contain perfect examples of comments I do and don't want to see! (See if you can tell the difference between the types...)
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