You could tell us...
What's your favorite book, band, TV show, movie, app, etc?
What's the wackiest thing about you?
Do you have a job(s)?
What are your hobbies?
What are your favorite foods?
What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?
Advice From Previous Students
Units This Semester
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Short Stories
Poetry
Non-fiction Articles
Personal Accounts
Unit Assessment:
Monologue
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Short Stories
Poetry
Non-Fiction Articles
Personal Accounts
Unit Assessment:
Multimedia Presentation
The Last American Man
SHORT STORIES
NON-FICTION ARTICLES
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
Unit Assessment:
On-Demand Writing
Please put your copy of
The Road in the cabinet!
Working with the people in your pod, list as many qualities as you can that are associated with being a hero.
Use the first section of your paper and try to keep brainstorming for 2 minutes!
In the second section of your paper, come up with a group definition of a hero.
In the third section of your paper, write down as many people as you can who, to you, are heroes.
Now that you have your list of heroes, use the fourth section of your paper and try to put them into categories.
If you haven’t done so already, please put your copy of
The Road in the cabinet!
Tom Downing, Vietnam Veteran
(Munk’s Dad)
Flip your brainstorm over.
For this unit, you will be choosing your own text!
In your pod, come up with a list of criteria for choosing a book.
Fiction? Nonfiction? Biography? Autobiography? Hero? Antihero?
What’s important to us as we choose our own books?
Lit Terms
Book Clubs have 10 minutes to accomplish the following:
Day 1
Book Clubs have 10 minutes to accomplish the following:
Day 2
Lit Term
Lit Term
Book Clubs have 10 minutes to accomplish the following:
Day 3
Lit Term
Lit Term
Day 4
Book Clubs have 10 minutes to accomplish the following:
Lit Term
Lit Term
You will have a 10-question matching Hero Unit Lit Terms Quiz on Monday next week!
Day 5
Book Clubs have 10 minutes to accomplish the following:
Lit Term
Lit Term
You will have a 10-question matching Hero Unit Lit Terms Quiz on Monday next week!
A guy learns to love a girl without her Instagram filters.
An old man pretends to be bedridden for years until he gets a chance at some free chocolate.
American invades foreign land, kills local leadership, and struggles to find an exit strategy.
You will need your laptop later in class today. If you don’t have it with you, please go check one out from the library!
Book Clubs have 15 minutes to accomplish the following:
Day 6
Book Clubs have 15 minutes to accomplish the following:
Day 7
Book Clubs have 10 minutes to accomplish the following:
Day 8
Book Clubs have 10 minutes to accomplish the following:
Day 9
You will need your laptop for a majority of today’s class.
If you don’t have one with you, please go check one out from the Library.
Book Clubs have 10 minutes to accomplish the following:
Day 10
Please separate and face your desks to the front of the room for your
Hero Unit Lit Terms Quiz.
Hour | Pre-Test | Mid-Point Test |
1 | 54.45% | 64.43% |
2 | 51.34% | 61.81% |
3 | 58.94% | 71.52% |
What resources do you have available to you for improvement?
* These values represent class averages. Individual scores can be seen in Skyward.
Elizabeth Gilbert
Eustace Conway
The Author
The Subject
Today is a 20 minute reading session.
You have 2 options during this time:
If you have not found a book at this point, come talk to me.
If you do not have your book with you today, you must keep quiet and busy with something else.
SITUATIONAL IRONY
PREMISE OF THE STORY
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER AS YOU READ
ON-DEMAND WRITING PRACTICE
ON-DEMAND WRITING PRACTICE
Show Me What You've Got!
PROMPT
Do you see Collins as a hero or a fool? Explain your answer.
Today is a 20 minute reading session.
You have 2 options during this time:
If you have not found a book at this point, come talk to me.
If you do not have your book with you today, you must keep quiet and busy with something else.
The thesis tells your reader exactly what you are arguing! It is ONE, concise sentence.
The topic sentence of each body paragraph is like a mini-thesis for the paragraph. It tells the reader exactly what you are discussing in that particular paragraph.
The supporting details are EVIDENCE from the text. This can be DIRECT or INDIRECT. SDs need in-text citations.
The analysis explains how the piece of evidence proves your topic sentence, and more broadly, your thesis.
Restating the thesis and summarizing the main points helps the reader to review your argument. A lasting impression leaves the reader thinking about your piece.
Your piece is due at the end of class today!
WRITE A NEW ON-DEMAND ESSAY (as a group)
Today is a 40 minute reading session.
You have 2 options during this time:
Reminders:
After today, you only have 3 reading sessions left in class. It might be a good idea to map how you're going to finish the book on time!
Today is a 20 minute reading session.
You have 2 options during this time:
Reminders:
After today, you only have 2 reading sessions left in class. It might be a good idea to map how you're going to finish the book on time!
By the end of class today, your group needs to:
BREAK IT DOWN
What am I arguing?
How am I going to prove it?
Collins demonstrates heroic qualities through acts of courage.
What pieces of evidence can I use to back this up?
" ' Captain,' said Collins, saluting and standing at attention...'Captain, I want t' git permission to go git some water from that there well over yonder!' " (Crane, pg. 489).
"But he was not sure that he wished to make a retraction even if he could do so without shame" (Crane, pg. 490).
Collins demonstrates heroic qualities through acts of courage. This can be seen when Collins marches up to his captain and requests permission for what he wants to do. Crane writes, " ' Captain,' said Collins, saluting and standing at attention...'Captain, I want t' git permission to go git some water from that there well over yonder!' " (Crane, pg. 489). Collins takes the initiative to get water across the dangerous battlefield in order to give himself and his comrades some relief. Initially, Collins was nervous about completing this task, but he knew he had to do it. Crane writes, "But he was not sure that he wished to make a retraction even if he could do so without shame" (Crane, pg. 490). He consciously makes the choice to continue with this mission, even though he knew no one would fault him for backing out.
Collins proves he is a hero by selflessly helping others.
What pieces of evidence can I use to back this up?
"His cap was gone and his hair was riotous. His clothes made it appear that he had been dragged over the ground by the heels. He ran on" (Crane, pg. 492).
"But Collins turned. He came dashing back. His face had now turned gray and in his eyes was all terror. 'Here it is! Here it is!" (Crane, pg. 492).
Collins proves he is a hero by selflessly helping others.
Today is a 20 minute reading session.
You have 2 options during this time:
Reminders:
After today, you only have 1 reading session left in class. It might be a good idea to map how you're going to finish the book on time!
It can all be traced back to the team's decision to let the goatherds go.
In your groups, have a brief discussion.
Use the following questions to guide your discussion:
Navy Cross: 2nd highest military decoration for valor and extraordinary heroism in combat
Today is a 40 minute reading session.
You have 2 options during this time:
Reminders:
Today is the last reading session in class! If you haven't finished your book and journal after today, you will need to do the rest at home!
There's a good chance we'll have some extra time for you to have a BONUS reading session today!
The thesis tells your reader exactly what you are arguing! It is ONE, concise sentence.
The topic sentence of each body paragraph is like a mini-thesis for the paragraph. It tells the reader exactly what you are discussing in that particular paragraph.
The supporting details are EVIDENCE from the text. This can be DIRECT or INDIRECT. SDs need in-text citations.
The analysis explains how the piece of evidence proves your topic sentence, and more broadly, your thesis.
Restating the thesis and summarizing the main points helps the reader to review your argument. A lasting impression leaves the reader thinking about your piece.
Captain Phillips: Hero?
Remember - If you did not set up your Google folder yet, please do so BY MONDAY!
Uncertainty (adj): the state of being unsure about something
As a Junior in highschool, there are a lot of demands on you to make decisions about your future. If you're struggling to make these decisions, you're not alone.
What are you uncertain about in your life?
At each stage of life, our ideas for our future can change. Things can even change for you as you move through college. Life is uncertain.
Background:
Things to Watch For:
SATIRE
The use of sarcasm, irony, or ridicule in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice or folly
Each of you will get a different vocab word to work with. You need to:
Background:
The Horror Genre
Intended to scare readers through heightened suspense and eerie mood. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for the larger fears of a society. Rooted in folklore.
Today's Topics
Pointed Archways
Flying Buttresses
Narrow Spires
Stained Glass Windows
Intricate Traceries
Upward Movement = Heavenward Aspiration
The term "Gothic" came to describe certain types of literature because these pieces of literature seemed to take place in Gothic-styled buildings.
Ancestral Curse:
The current generation suffers for evil deeds of ancestors.
Body Snatching:
Dreaming/Nightmares:
Entrapment/Imprisonment:
Gothic Gadgets:
Gothic Counterfeit:
Mystery:
The Grotesque:
Necromancy:
Revenge:
Somnambulism:
Superstition:
The Supernatural:
Transformations/Metamorphosis:
Devil:
Doppleganger:
Ghosts, Werewolves, Vampires, and Witches
The Pursued Protagonist:
Unreliable Narrator:
Villain-Hero:
The Pursued Heroine:
Revenant:
wind, especially howling | sighs, moans, howls, eerie sounds |
rain, especially blowing | clanking chains |
doors grating on rusty hinges | gusts of wind blowing out lights |
footsteps approaching | doors suddenly slamming shut |
lights in abandoned rooms | crazed laughter |
characters trapped in a room | baying of distant dogs (or wolves?) |
ruins of buildings | thunder and lightning |
Setting: Post-Apocalyptic
Characters: Man and boy
Punctuation: Minimal
Things to Watch For:
The relationship between the man and the boy
The man's dreams/flashbacks
Methods of survival
Skeletal/Frame Imagery
From The Night Country
by Loren Eiseley
If you cannot bear the silence and the darkness, do not go there; if you dislike black night and yawning chasms, never make them your profession. If you fear the sound of water hurrying through crevices toward unknown and mysterious destinations, do not consider it. Seek out the sunshine. It is a simple prescription. Avoid the darkness.
It is a simple prescription, but you will not follow it. You will turn immediately to the darkness. You will be drawn to it by cords of fear and of longing. You will imagine that you are tired of the sunlight; the waters that unnerve you will tug in the ancient recesses of your mind; the midnight will seem restful - you will end by going down.
What personal and societal fears are prevalent so far in your reading of
The Road?
Lit Term
Lit Term
Lit Term
Jason Reynolds
Brendan Kiely
Please grab a textbook from the bookshelf.
Lit Term
Lit Term
In the next 5 minutes, focus your discussion on your reading for today in The Road.
Please grab a textbook from the bookshelf.
Let’s finish up “The Fall of the House of Usher”!
This piece is HIGHLY symbolic and there’s much more going on than meets the eye!
Pre-Test | 57.31% |
Mid-Point Test | 63.22% |
Final Lit Terms test will be on Friday, June 3rd. This IS NOT your final exam for the class - it goes in as a test grade of 100 points.
Lit Term
Lit Term
Lit Term
Lit Term
Lit Term
Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins whimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing that could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.
Torsional = twisting
Vermiculate = like a worm
What is the significance of the last paragraph of the novel?
“Before God made the world, there was nothing but swamp to be seen, in which, however, there dwelt a very large trout. This trout was indeed a mighty fish, for his body reached from one end of the swamp to the other. Now, when the Creator produced the Earth, He made this creature to become its foundation. There lies the living trout beneath the world, taking in and sending out the waters of the sea through his mouth. When he sucks the water in, the ebb of the tide takes place, but when he sends it out the tide flows”
The Road Write-Around
What is it?
Give me an example already!
Why don't authors just say what they mean?
On your own, write 2 original metaphors. Be school-appropriate!
Avoid cliche comparisons!
We'll be using these again later in class so DON'T BE A SLACKER!
You have 5 minutes. Be ready to share out!
What is it?
Give me an example already!
The sea is a hungry dog,
He rolls on the beach all day
With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws,
He likes to chew on the most ghastly things
And spit them out over different land
Taking the rubbish with him.
Adapted from
"The Sea" by James Reeves
"Hope is the thing with feathers�That perches in the soul,�And sings the tune--without the words,�And never stops at all,��"And sweetest in the gale is heard;�And sore must be the storm�That could abash the little bird�That kept so many warm.��"I've heard it in the chillest land,�And on the strangest sea;�Yet, never, in extremity,�It asked a crumb of me.” Emily Dickinson
"I graduated from the University of Life. Alright? I received a degree from the School of Hard Knocks. And our colors were black and blue, baby.
I had office hours with the Dean of Bloody Noses. All right? I borrowed my class notes from Professor Knuckle Sandwich and his Teaching Assistant, Ms. Fat Lip Thon Nun.
That’s the kind of school I went to for real, okay?”
Choose 1 of your 2 metaphors to EXTEND. Be school-appropriate!
You need 5 additional lines (worth 10 points).
You'll want to practice this...you'll be using this skill on your unit final!
Your extended metaphor is due tomorrow at the beginning of class. If you finish early, you may use the remaining time to read for tomorrow's quiz on The Road (pg. 115-144).
My mind is an empty well
Barren like the desert
Suffering from yearlong drought
With only dry dirt left
Desperate for a drop of knowledge
To save the crop of thought
People are tigers in a busy street
They push and pounce to get their prey
Jump on anything in the way
Take down anyone weaker
No sense of feeling bad for one another
Fight to the death with their brothers
The car was a tank on the highway
It glistened of black and Milwaukee Bucks Green
Its windows were a shade of nothing
The tires were as strong as a tiger
It destroyed everything in its path
So pull a Ludacris and get out the way!
Life is a highway
You start out slow with a roaring engine and slowly accelerate up to the full speed of life
Then you maintain constant speed for many miles as the end of the road draws near
You slowly slow down
And get on the exit ramp to your destination
Make a couple turns
Turn into the lot
Find a spot where the engine dies with you
Be ready for your quiz on Monday!
We'll also be talking about your unit assessment on Monday :)
Be ready for your quiz on Wednesday!
Tomorrow we will be in Lab C to begin work on the monologue!
3rd Hour will be in Lab A.
Be ready for your quiz on Friday!
Tomorrow we will be in Lab C to continue work on the monologue!
Be ready for your quiz on Monday!
We will continue working on the monologue on Tuesday in Lab B.
You will need your laptop in class today.
If you don’t have it with you, please go check one out from the library.
Think of a time you experienced a journey. Write about this journey - use descriptive language, elaborate, and tell the story!
You will have 10 minutes to write.
Do your best to keep writing until I stop you.
You will need your laptop first thing today. If you don’t have it with you, please go check one out from the library.
If you have Google Classroom on your phone, you could use your phone instead.
A relevant quotation at the beginning of a book, chapter, etc.
I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life.
Leo Tolstoy
"Family Happiness"
Passage highlighted in one of the books found with Chris McCandless's remains.
Don't skip them!!! They have significance to the section!
A literary technique of beginning the narrative in the middle of the action; used to “hook” the reader’s attention.
The vantage point from which a narrative is told.
“I won’t claim to be an impartial biographer. McCandless’s strange tale struck a personal note that made a dispassionate rendering of the tragedy impossible. Through most of the book, I have tried - and largely succeeded, I think - to minimize my authorial presence. But let the reader be warned: I interrupt McCandless’s story with fragments of a narrative drawn from my own youth. I do so in the hope that my experiences will throw some oblique light on the enigma of Chris McCandless”
-Jon Krakauer, from the Author’s Note of Into the WIld
James Thurber was born in Columbus, Ohio, where so many awful things happened to him, on December 8, 1894. He was unable to keep anything on his stomach until he was seven years old, but grew to six feet one and a quarter inches tall and to weigh a hundred and fifty-four pounds fully dressed for winter. He began to write when he was ten years old...and to draw when he was fourteen.
Quick to arouse, he is very hard to quiet and people often just go away...He never listens when anybody else is talking, preferring to keep his mind a blank until they get through, so he can talk. His favorite book is The Great Gatsby. His favorite author is Henry James. He wears excellent clothes very badly and can never find his hat...He is Sagittarius with the moon in Aries and gets along fine with persons born between the 20th and 24th of August.
The classification of literary works on the basis of their content, form, or technique.
Into the Wild = Travel Essay??
An understanding between a reader and a writer about certain details of a story that does not need to be explained.
A confrontation or struggle between opposing characters or forces in the plot of a narrative work, from which the action emanates and around which it revolves.
Ex: conflict between Chris and ALL the family secrets
A speaker through whom an author presents a narrative; classified by point-of-view and whether they are intrusive (opinionated), unintrusive (detached), reliable, unreliable, self-conscious or self-effacing (not claiming attention, modest).
How would you classify the narrator of Into the Wild?
How do narrators affect readers’/viewers’ understanding of Walt McCandless?
(Into the Wild, The Wild Truth, all of the media surrounding this story)
Carine McCandless, Ronald Franz, Billie McCandless
A roundabout way of speaking or writing; pompous or wordy writing.
“The desert is the environment of revelation, genetically and physiologically alien, sensorily austere, esthetically abstract, historically inimical… Its forms are bold and suggestive. The mind is beset by light and space, the kinesthetic novelty of aridity, high temperature, and wind… In an unobstructed sky the clouds seem more massive, sometimes grandly reflecting the earth’s curvature on their concave undersides. The angularity of desert landforms imparts a monumental architecture to the clouds as well as to the land…”
-Paul Shepard, Man in the Landscape: A Historic View of the Esthetics of Nature
from Into the Wild, pg. 25
Speech or writing that departs from literal meaning in order to achieve a special effect or meaning.
“The desert is the environment of revelation, genetically and physiologically alien, sensorily austere, esthetically abstract, historically inimical…. Its forms are bold and suggestive. The mind is beset by light and space, the kinesthetic novelty of aridity, high temperature, and wind… In an unobstructed sky the clouds seem more massive, sometimes grandly reflecting the earth’s curvature on their concave undersides. The angularity of desert landforms imparts a monumental architecture to the clouds as well as to the land…”
-Paul Shepard, Man in the Landscape: A Historic View of the Esthetics of Nature
from Into the Wild, pg. 25
Why would Krakauer include the accounts of these men in
Into the Wild?
A literary technique featuring the mental flow of one or more characters - determined more by free association than logic or grammatical rules; may seem fragmented, illogical, or incoherent.
Example: Chris’ journal/diary when he is at the bus. Especially toward the end when he has very little energy left to expend.
The concluding section of a work.
What is the function of labeling the last section “epilogue”? Why not just have one last chapter?
Think about how Krakauer brings closure to Chris McCandless’ story (Walt & Billie making the trip to the Magic Bus). Consider what we now know about his upbringing - how does this change your reading of the epilogue?
Good morning!
Please put your copy of Into the Wild in the cabinet.
Grab your test from the front table.
Get your phone/laptop ready for Kahoot!
Please put your copy of Into the Wild in the cabinet.
Please grab a YELLOW and a GREEN sheet from the podium.
“The Turtle” Mark-Up | 10 points |
5 Questions/Observations | 10 points |
American Lit Thought Questions | 10 points |
Socratic Seminar | 20 points |
Total | 50 points = 15% of your grade |
Final Reflection | 20 points |
Literary & Critical Terms Final | 100 points |
In your groups, define the concept of JOURNEY.
Now, brainstorm the KINDS of journeys there are.
Lastly, brainstorm the CHARACTERISTICS or STEPS of a journey.
Individually, incorporate Steps 1-3 to do a free-write about a journey you’ve been on. You WILL be turning this in!
For Wednesday, please have the following sections read (you will have a quiz):
This story explores one man’s journey as he swims through pools in his county in order to get back to his house. The story is highly symbolic and it uses many literary devices to convey Neddy Merrill’s discovery that perhaps his life is more empty than he thought.
THINGS TO WATCH FOR:
Wayne Westerberg
Chris McCandless
For Friday, please have the following sections read (you will have a quiz):
For Monday, please have the following sections read (you will have a quiz):