10H English @ NSHS

The Gothic Novel

 At the beginning of class the students completed a quick, open-book reading quiz on the two Introductions to Frankenstein they read last night.

Then, we talked about how Frankenstein is considered one of the great Gothic novels (even though it is in some ways a departure).  We reviewed some of the elements of the Gothic Novel, and worked in groups to create outlines or rough drafts for Gothic stories that contained those four elements (Setting, Plot, Characterization & Theme). **See handout below for details.

The Gothic Novel Download The Gothic Novel

Monsters!

What are monsters and why are we, as a culture, obsessed with them?  In today's class we talked about what makes a monster, made a list of all the monsters we see in pop culture, and questioned why they are so appealing to us.  We discovered that the monsters we create...

1. can reveal our innermost fears.

2. are appealing in some ways because they can do all of the things that we can't do (they are socially inappropriate).

3. tend to be most popular in times of stress (i.e. horror films like Frankenstein and Dracula were made during The Great Depression).

4. can tell us about what we value as a society.

I really enjoyed our class conversations today.  The students, as usual, made excellent & insightful comments!

**NOTE: A reading schedule is posted here for Frankenstein.Download Frankenstein reading schedule

Frankenstein begins...

In today's class we considered images of Frankenstein in popular culture and how they compare to our own perception of Frankenstein and to Mary Shelley's actual description of the creature.  Here are a few of the images we looked at:

  

April 10, 1815: Tambora Explosion Triggers 'Volcanic Winter'

April 10, 1815: Tambora Explosion Triggers 'Volcanic Winter'

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Sensory Details

Sensory details are ways of describing things using the 5 senses. Click here for Examples

"Real Life" example:

Take a look at the many descriptive words used to describe taste when referring to wine.

For tomorrow

Today in class we share our essays with a partner and looked them over for grammatical errors, particularly possessive apostrophes.  Then, each student completed a self-evaluation.  For the remainder of the class we spent some time looking over our Poetry of the North Shore project and listening to our recorded poems.

Tomorrow, we will review sensory details (because I notived from your poems that many of you are not clear on what they are and how to incorporate them into poetry). 

NOTE: Be sure to bring the "Works Cited" page for your essay in tomorrow if you did not do so today!!

 

Plan for Monday

1.    Get a laptop.

2.    Go to Mrs. Davison’s website and read the page “Grammar Alert: Apostrophes.”

a.    Write down any questions you have about apostrophes.

3.    Switch papers with a partner and ask them to review your work for:

1.    Book titles should be in italics or underlined.

2.    Apostrophes should be used correctly (use the information on the website to help you).

3.    All words should be spelled correctly.

 

Finally, look over your own essay one more time and give yourself a grade based on the rubric.  Explain why you gave yourself this grade.

An example paragraph

Here is another example of an excellent paragraph written by a student in our class.  Take a look at it to get a better sense of what you need to do in your own essays.

Throughout this novel the Cherokees and the Greers never think to compromise. In the end, Taylor must accept the fact that they are all a family in order to overcome adversity as the Native Americans had done throughout history. Kathleen Godfrey notes the significance of “[the] fire has burned continuously since the Cherokee Trail of Tears and [how it] is symbolic of past suffering, but also of the endurance and longevity which have bound this tribe together in love and reverence” (Godfrey). Past traditions of the Native Americans, like the devastating Trail of Tears, did not pull the tribe apart. The tribe was able to survive the harsh demonstration of racism and continue to stick together. Because of this, the Greer family and the Cherokee tribe can and are able to unite despite their differences. This new family blends together the Native American culture and the Anglo culture in a way that not only works, but thrives. In this sense, Kingsolver is redefining the traditional idea of family; Mom, Dad, Sis, and Junior are replaced with a quirky new image of family (Ryan).

Reminder

Hi everyone,

This is a friendly reminder that you have a few things due tomorrow.

1. The first half of your honors essay with literary criticism included (and don't forget the Works Cited page). 

• Essay rubric Download 1st Half of Honors Essay Rubric

1. All group work for our poetry project, including the handouts I gave you for "The Poet" and "The Artist" with rubrics and space provided for group members comments.

• For "The Poet"Download Walking Tour Poetry Checksheet 
• For "The Artist" Download Walking Tour Artist Checksheet  

See you in the morning!

Mrs. Davison

Poetry Tour of the North Shore

View Poetry Tour of the North Shorein a larger map

 

Poetry of Place:

Poetry which captures the spirit of place as part of the

essence of the poem.   

(definition taken from Windfall:A Journal of Poetry of Place)

    An audio guide is a helpful recording usually intended for tourists visiting a new city for the first time.  For example, if you go to Paris and want to get some information about interesting locations around the city, you could download an audio guide that would help you find out everything you want to know.  Having an audio guide is like having a friend walk around with you and give you the “inside scoop” on what you see.

    For Poetry Month, which we celebrate every April, we created a poetic audio guide to the area surrounding North Shore High School.  In order to do this we had to investigate what it means to write a poem about a place – what do we want others to learn about our place, and what can we learn about ourselves by writing about our place?  We live in such a beautiful corner of the world and I wanted the students to take the time to consider that beauty and share their thoughts on it in the form of poetry.  We read many different poems of place, written in various styles (everything from acrostic poems, to prose poems and sonnets), and wrote lots of our own poetry. 

    Please take some time with this map.  If you click on one of the blue dots you will find a poem title and the names of the students who worked together to create the recording.  Click on the poem title in order to be linked to www.Woices.com, the site that allowed us to record our voices reading poetry, and upload the images that we created to represent that place.  Please feel free to leave a comment for the group!  We encourage you to do so because our goal is foster communication and share our thoughts about our place in the world.  You might also like to record your own poem of place as well!