The Call of the Whippoorwill: September 21, 2017

Focus: How do we unravel the extended metaphor in a contemporary poem?

1. Warming up with a circle read of "The Whippoorwill in the Woods," sentence by sentence

2. Rereading the first half of the poem with a focus on its extended metaphor (conceit)

Throwback Thursday:

• The paper doll is a metaphor for a fragile woman (the comparison: both are too easily changeable in the hands of another)

• Taking off Emily Dickinson's clothes is a metaphor for reading her poetry (the comparison: both activities involve grappling with tricky "locks," but both expose something vulnerably beautiful when accomplished)

• A prison is a metaphor for traditional prose (the comparison: prose locks up the speaker's mind, while poetry offers her the mental freedom of wonder and curiosity)

• _____ is a metaphor for _____, and here's how:

3. Taking on the MC practice and comparing your choices

(The sound of the whippoorwill)

4. Enjoying 20 minutes of reading time

HW:
Read Chapters 27 through 30 for Friday's Socratic; create a ticket that you will turn in on Friday. Braxton: Please record the Socratic. Someone else: Please scribe.

Timshel: September 20, 2017

Focus: How does the concept of "timshel" free the characters?

1. Warming up with a mini-write on two Adam and Cathy scenes: 199-200 and 322-323

• What has shifted?
• How does Steinbeck depict that shift?
• Why has this shift happened? How does it contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole?

2. Enjoying a big Socratic seminar on Chapters 22-26

3. Wrapping up with remaining questions, epiphanies, and kudos

HW:
Read Chapters 27 through 30 for Friday's Socratic; create a ticket that you will turn in on Friday.

Undressing the Metaphor: September 19, 2017

Focus: How can we undress extended metaphors in poetry?

1. Warming up with "Paper Doll"

• Brainstorming connotations: What do you know about paper dolls?

• What's an extended metaphor?

• What object serves as the central metaphor? (The title often gives it away.) To what/whom is that object being compared?

• What other images and verbs go along with this object? How do they contribute to / shape / extend the metaphor?

• Does the metaphor's meaning shift throughout the poem? How so?

• Try out a thesis that goes something like this: 
• John Mayer uses the extended metaphor of the paper doll in order to....

2. Glimpsing Emily Dickinson's poetry and trying to take off Emily Dickinson's clothes with Billy Collins

3. Uncovering the slightly less yielding extended metaphor in "They Shut Me up in Prose"

HW:
1. Keep reading East of Eden and prepare reading tickets for Socratic tomorrow (Wednesday) and Friday.

• For Wednesday: Chapters 23-26
• Thursday: 20-25 minutes of in-class reading time
• For Friday: Chapters 27-30

2. Enjoy not working on your college essay. However, if you need feedback immediately, stop in for a conference, and we can grade it on the spot.

Zooming In and Out: September 18, 2017

Focus: What is Steinbeck trying to do, and how is he trying to do it?

1. Warming up with three good things

2. Experimenting with two sample close readings:

• As a class: What's up with the flowers? (page 75 and 85)

• On your own: What and how does Cathy eat? (page 170)

• Identify significant diction, imagery, figurative language, symbols, etc.
• Brainstorm the connotations of the ones that strike you the most.
• Use the connotations to make a statement about what Steinbeck might be up to.

3. Mental jousting with authorial intent

4. Giving Chapter 22 (and any other ignored chapters) the time it deserves

5. Checking in: Everybody good with www.turnitin.com? Did you use the Sunday Night Checklist?

HW:
1. Continue reading like a phenom. You're on vacation every single day 'cause you love your occupation. (Your occupation is "student.") We're through Chapter 26 for our Socratic on Wednesday, and through Chapter 30 for Socratic on Friday.

2. Make sure your college essays are in www.turnitin.com by 3:00 today. Click here for instructions, Class ID, and enrollment key.

"The Free, Exploring Mind of the Individual Human": September 15, 2017

Focus: What does Steinbeck want us to understand about the movement from Part 1 to Part 2?

1. Warming up with a Socratic ticket walk

• While the song plays: Identify something on each ticket that you'd like to talk about in depth.

• When the song is over: Return to your ticket and write down a pattern you noticed in the reading tickets. In other words, what is one specific topic that many people wish to discuss today?

• Transitioning to Socratic: Find one passage from the reading that relates directly to that topic. Consider reading it aloud during discussion today.

2. Enjoying a Socratic seminar on East of Eden, Chapters 10-15

3. Wrapping up (I will leave ten minutes today to ensure we get all the way around the circle)

HW:
1. For Monday: Read through Chapter 22. No reading ticket necessary; we will save Socratic for Wednesday.

2. For Monday: Work on your college essays and stop by for a conference. They are due on September 18 by 3:00 in www.turnitin.com. Sign up for our class Turnitin account by following these directions (they include the class ID and enrollment key).

3. Use the Sunday Night Checklist to make sure your essay is ready to turn in.

Imagery and Authorial Intent: September 14, 2017

Focus: How do we use imagery to unravel authorial intent?

1. Warming up with our old friend, Billy Collins, and a straightforward poem (with partners)

Remember that it all boils down to these two questions:

What is the author trying to do?

How is he/she doing it?

2. Applying the same process to the complicated poem from Tuesday's timed writing (in threesomes)

3. Analyzing three sample essays as a class (the really good one is yours)

• What does the really good one have that the other two don't?

4. Offering constructive feedback to each other's drafts

• Underline the thesis and comment on it. 

• Underline the sentence in the first body paragraph that best captures its argument. Then, do the same for the second body paragraph (and the third, if there is a third).

• Identify one structural success you see in this essay (see blue questions below for ideas). 

• Identify one structural aspect that writer could improve upon (see blue questions below for ideas).

• Does each body paragraph make a distinct yet related argument?
• Does the second body paragraph build off the first one?
• Does it feel as though the argument is evolving as the essay continues? In other words, is the writer discovering new aspects of the poem through the process of writing the essay?
• Does the essay respond to all parts of the prompt?

HW:
1. For tomorrow: Read through Chapter 15 and complete a reading ticket for Socratic.

2. Ongoing: Work on your college essays and stop by for a conference. They are due on September 18 by 3:00 in www.turnitin.com

3. Sign up for our class Turnitin account by following these directions (they include the class ID and enrollment key).

Isn't It Ironic?: September 13, 2017

Focus: Isn't it ironic?

1. Warming up with a mini lesson on irony

Verbal irony: The use of language to express something that is the opposite of its literal meaning.

• Ex: It's pouring down rain, and somebody grumpily says, "Great weather we're having."

Situational irony: An event in which the opposite of what's expected happens.

• Ex: A fire station burns down.

Dramatic irony: A situation in which the audience knows more than the characters know, causing the characters' speech and actions to take on unusual meanings.

• Ex: In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus declares that he hopes the killer of Laius will suffer "the worst of agonies" (not realizing, of course that he is the killer Laius). 

• Also, the words "eyes" and "sight" and used repeatedly throughout the play before the dramatic action culminates with Oedipus gauging out his eyes. 

• Another one: Jocasta mentions once or twice that Oedipus does happen to look just a little like Laius. Sigh. There's dramatic irony all over the place.

Viewing an example of dramatic irony from your favorite Disney hero's journey (1:18)

What is the effect of dramatic irony? Or, why might an author use dramatic irony?

2. Reading East of Eden with an eye out for dramatic irony, especially in Chapter 11

HW:
1. For Friday: Read through Chapter 15 and complete a reading ticket for Socratic.

2. Ongoing: Work on your college essays and stop by for a conference. They are due on September 18 by 3:00 in www.turnitin.com

3. Sign up for our class Turnitin account by following these directions (they include the class ID and enrollment key).