Second Quarter Research Paper

Remember that the final copy of your research paper on heroism, Beowulf, chivalry, Sir Gawain, etc. is due this Monday, December 15. If you need another copy of the step-by-step instructions, please see one of the Evanses.
Also, re-check your sources to make sure they'll be creditable enough for Dr. E.'s close scrutiny. If Brandi makes a showing in your citations, you'll receive an automatic 'F'--with no exceptions!

Biographies for Christmas Break

Over the Christmas break, read one of the biographies/auto-biographies listed below. Dr. E. and I own copies of some of these if you'd like to borrow one, or you can order several of these (denoted by asterisks)through Athens Regional Library's Pines-Evergreen system. All should be available from amazon or half.com.

*~Surprised by Joy, by C.S. Lewis; THE MAN tells his story of finding faith after years of atheism.

~Peace Child, by Don Richardson; missionaries Don and Carol Richardson recount their search for the key to open the gospel to the headhunting Sawi and reveal the perfect fulfillment of the tribe's redemptive analogy about the Peace Child.

*~The Cross and the Switchblade, by David Wilkerson. A riveting story about a country preacher from Pennsylvania who follows God's directive to work with gang members in NYC.

~St. Thomas Aquinas, The Dumb Ox, by G.K. Chesterton; one of Britain's best writers tells the story of one of the most important Christian theologians in all of Christian history. A chief Aquinas scholar says the following about this book: "I consider it as being without possible comparison the best book ever written on St. Thomas. Nothing short of genius can account for such an achievement.... Chesterton was one of the deepest thinkers who ever existed; he was deep because he was right."

~Bruchko: The Astonishing True Story of a 19-Year-Old American, His Capture by the Motilone Indians and His Adventures in Christianizing the Stone Age Tribe, by Bruce Olson; the title pretty much says it all, except to tell you that this is a "can't put it down" kind of quick-read.

*~God's Smuggler, by Brother Andrew; exciting story of the man who prayed that "seeing eyes would be blind" to the thousands of Bibles he smuggled into China during the 1960's and '70's.

~A Time to Die, by Elisabeth Elliott, biography of Amy Carmichael, Irish missionary called "Amma" by the Indian children she served for 50+ years in India without furlough.

*~Born Again, by Chuck Colson; famous Watergate "crook" during the Nixon White House tells his inspiring story of conversion.

~Stepping Heavenward, by Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss; a no-nonsense approach to Christian living, published in 1869, this book avoids Christian buzzwords as it portrays the life of a teenaged girl striving for godliness.

~To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Johnson, by Courtney Anderson; the story of the first (known) American overseas missionary.

~Eric Liddell Pure Gold, by David McCasland; tells the story of the Olympic runner, on whom the movie, Chariots of Fire, was based.

~It Is Not Death to Die: A New Biography of Hudson Taylor; moving new biography of the famous British missionary to China in the latter half of the 1800's.

*~Here I Stand, by Roland Bainton; one of the most popular biographies of the last half- century, this biography presents a "warts and all" portrayal of Martin Luther.

*~The God I Love, by Joni Eareckson Tada; inspiring reflections from a woman who attests to God's faithfulness even after decades of quadriplegia.

Tete-a-tete

Interview one of your parents and ask him/her to cite three books—excluding The Bible-- that have been particularly influential for him/her (‘them’ in the vernacular). After you've read the guidelines below, write a five-paragraph essay using some exact quotes from your conversation, if and when appropriate. Bring your work-in-progress to class on October 29th. The finished paper is due October 30th.

DO NOT HAND IN THIS PAPER UNTIL YOU'VE CHECKED OFF EACH ITEM BELOW:

_______ I have read the sample assignment page.

_______ I have run off a copy of my paper to proofread with a pen or pencil and then corrected any MAJOR EDITING ERRORS.

_______ I have copied and pasted the first six words from each sentence onto a separate sheet (and stapled it to my paper) to ensure that my sentence beginnings reflect a wide variety of sentence structures.

_______ I have punctuated my quotes correctly, with periods and commas (usually) within the quotation marks. Question marks are inside the quotation marks if the question stands alone within the sentence, but outside if the quote is just one part of a larger interrogative sentence.
(e.g. “What does Mrs. Evans mean?” Jorge asked.
Why did Jorge say, “Mrs. Evans, I’m worried about this assignment”?)

_______ I have made smooth transitions between paragraphs AND between ideas, using transitional words and phrases (e.g. however, likewise, on the other hand, consequently, etc.) when necessary. (Do a google search if you need help with this.)

_______ My sentences are varied in length.

_______I have used at least one subordinate clause per paragraph.

The "Other" Canterbury Tales

Remember to read one of The Canterbury Tales not included in your book and come to class with a synopsis to read aloud on Thursday, October 16th.

IF you want to receive extra points on this, you may enrich your presentation in one of the following ways:

--Dress like the character and tell the story like a raconteur.

--Present a relevant power point devised by you--this must include at least ten frames.

--Use your imagination to enhance your presentation--if in doubt, please e-mail me at lynngate1@yahoo.com .

Flannery's World, Tuesday, October 14th

(Above)
Flannery poses beside a portrait of herself and one of her signature peacocks.

Before Tuesday morning, read at least one of the stories in the compilation I gave you --except for "Revelation," which we'll read aloud on the way to Milledgeville. Also remember to read up on Southern Gothic literature and Flannery O'Connor--and prove that you've done so by handing in the assigned notecards on Tuesday morning.
Please get to school at 7:45, with your field trip permission slip in hand, along with $10 for the trolley and however much you need for lunch. (Feel free to bring your own lunch if you want to economize.) Also, the folks at Andalusia humbly ask for a discretionary donation, with a recommended amount of $5.00. We plan to pull out at 8:00 sharp in order to make the 10:00 trolley tour in Milledgeville.
Here's our itinerary, Lord willing:
8:00--Leave WCA.
9:45--Find parking in Milledgeville and board the trolley for a two-hour guided tour of the town that served as Georgia's original state capital. We'll go by the O'Connors' pre-Andalusia house in town.
12:00--Go to lunch in town or at GSCU. (Ms. Zimmerman recommends Bagel Bros. on campus.)
1:00--Visit the Flannery O'Connor artifacts collection in the Library Museum's special gallery off Clark Street.
1:45--If we finish our museum tour early, we can briefly tour O'Connor's church (Sacred Heart) and possibly walk around her gravesite for a few minutes. (Bring paper and pencil if you want a rubbed engraving of her headstone. This may sound morbid, but I've heard of people flying all the way from Europe to do this!)
2:30--Tour Andalusia, O'Connor's home throughout her adulthood, and the site of most of her writing. Her collection's curator will be there to talk to us and answer any questions.
3:45--Leave M'ville.
5:30--Arrive at WCA.

The Knight's Tale and Dr. E.'s Famous Popcorn

Remember to go the Evanses' house on Thursday evening, October 9th at 7:30. We'll be watching the film version (admittedly revisionist) of The Knight's Tale, very loosely based on Chaucer's story. If you want anything beyond Coke/Sprite, popcorn, and brownies, please bring it with you.

ALSO remember to read and write a short synopsis of one of Chaucer's tales not covered in your textbook. DUE DATE for this assignment is Thursday, October 16th (except for the two students in California, who may hand theirs in upon their return).

Tomes 'n' Scones

So, in spite of a little change in the plans (involving the chef/teacher), you must nevertheless still finish your world lit novel by this Wednesday, October 1st. Please come to class with a copy of your Amazon review in hand (and already published online OR on this blog if you have no Amazon account), and your coffee or tea in the other hand. Oh, and -- not to throw a fly in the ointment -- please bring a pen as well, for your quick vocabulary test over lists 1-4, with an additional question or two about your novel.

I (Mrs. E.) received a last-minute call summoning me back to Rome on business this week, so Dr. E. will be your Wednesday teacher and the pastry chef for the promised chocolate chip scones. This will be his first attempt at baking any sort of English pastry, so remember, please, to encourage him with accolades about his baking skills, no matter how the scones taste.

Starting October 8th, we'll be engaged in Great Expectations for a month or so.

Thank you very much, and bon appetit.

And the Reading Continues.

I hope your behavior resembles that of the students above. Motivate yourself by going to Starbucks or the library or Lake Herrick to read; whatever it takes, please be finished with your novel by Wednesday, October 1. I plan to provide chocolate chip scones for that class, at which point you'll read your Amazon reviews to each other and perhaps take a short quiz over your chosen work. It's critical that you finish by then, because we will immediately begin Dickens's (aka Dickens'--see apostrophe notes) Great Expectations in early October.


Because I (Mrs. E.) will be out of town the week of September 15th, I want you to send me an e-mail OR post on this site an informal paragraph or two about your reading--what page you're on, your impressions of the book so far, the author's most intriguing literary devices, the plot's most salient features, etc. This way I can be assured you're continuing to work hard in my absence. (Due date is 9/18.)

Meanwhile, Dr. E. will fill in for me on Wednesday, the 17th, which might quell some of your anxiety about preparation for the Unit 1 literature test scheduled for the 18th. During my hiatus, you'll be able to squeeze in a few minutes to enhance your Anglo Saxon vernacular as Dr. Evans delineates some of the more obscure details and extols the virtues of this period from the copious amount of information his love of the subject has engendered-- AFTER YOUR VOCAB QUIZ COVERING LISTS1&2 (see italicized words above), with a couple of questions about apostrophes and the punctuation hand-out. Remember to complete the apostrophe worksheet with examples taken from Lynn Truss's article. ALSO, YOU'LL RECEIVE AN EXTRA POINT FOR YOUR REAL-LIFE EGREGIOUS APOSTROPHE ERROR, IF YOU FIND ONE (without being haughty about it; this is one of my most frequent typos).

Please note: We'll continue to add an "SAT Success" vocab list each week until we've covered all the words. Also keep in mind that each exam will be cumulative, clear up to the final blow-out comprehensive test at the end.
You'll thank us one day.

Jittery Joe's

REMEMBER TO MEET AT JITTERY JOE'S THIS WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 3RD, AT 8:00 SHARP. LOOK FOR US IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM.

PLEASE BRING:

1. Your book choice (world lit) for September
2. Your re-written lyrics essays
3. Your discernment sheet, completed
4. $$, as needed

Existentialism and Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis

Q: Apart from being musicians, what do They Might be Giants, The Rolling Stones, and Widespread Panic have in common?
A: They all allude to Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis in their music.

Countless others, including even The Simpsons (in a book entitled Metamorphosimpsons) re-tell or refer to this extremely popular work. Go ahead and practice using the adjective "Kafkaesque" when you want to describe something nightmarish or bleak. This will help you sound 'in the know' in college, at least if you use it judiciously.

Assignment:

This week you are to read an online version of the entire text, due on Wednesday, the 27th. Before you begin, read up a little on existentialism. This will help you contextualize the story in the history of philosophy and help you understand why this short work holds such an esteemed position among those who focus on the absurd and the alienated.

You-tube offers countless renderings and interpretations of the story. Here's one a class created for an English project:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaFtScRtex0

Or, here's a link to a little "Metamorphosis" interpretive dance, if you like that sort of thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9aHIVmqFYY&feature=related

World Lit Selections for September

Selections from World Literature

Line up a copy of one of the following books by September 1st. The gentlefolk at the library can order any of these for you, and amazon.com and half.com carry them for negligible amounts if you'd like your own copy.

1 & 2. **The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini

In an overly-simplistic generalization, we'll alert you to the fact that, by and large, the men in our class have preferred the first selection and the women the second.

Chuck Bowen describes the two books:

"In his first novel The Kite Runner, and now A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini writes about the Afghans caught in the middle of a seemingly endless string of wars and battles for power. Both novels paint a grim and moving picture of life in a war-torn country, and of lives lived in the face of hunger, death and a bleak future. Hosseini makes you realize that, even while bombs rain down and people are dying of hunger, people still fall in love, seek friends and, mostly, try to remain human."

**Both of these books deal with mature subject matter, although not gratuitously. Make sure you receive your parents' blessing before proceeding.

3. The Kitchen God's Wife, by Amy Tan

Harper Collins Publishers offers this synopsis of a gut-wrenching yet hopeful and often-humorous book Mrs. Evans has read at least three times:

"Pearl harbors a terrible secret which she tries desperately to keep from her mother, Winnie Louie, who has long kept her own secrets – about her past and the confusing circumstances of Pearl's birth. Fate intervenes in the form of Helen Kwong, Winnie's so-called sister-in-law, who believes she is dying and must unburden herself of all hoods before she flies off to heaven. But, unfortunately, the truth comes in many guises, depending on who is telling the tale...
Thus begins a story that takes us back to Shanghai in the 1920s, through World War II, and the harrowing events that led to Winnie's arrival in America in 1949. The story is one of innocence and its loss, tragedy and survival, and most of all, the enduring qualities of hope, love and friendship."

4.) Novel of your choice by writer of Indian descent who has won the Man Booker Prize (England's equivalent of the National Book Award). Use the following link if interested:

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/archive


5.) What is the What, by Dave Eggers
from Publishers Weekly: What Is the What is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children —the so-called Lost Boys—was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom. When he finally is resettled in the United States, he finds a life full of promise, but also heartache and myriad new challenges. Moving, suspenseful, and unexpectedly funny, What Is the What is an astonishing novel that illuminates the lives of millions through one extraordinary man.

Anthem, by Ayn Rand

Here is a link to the online copy of Ayn Rand's Anthem. Before you get started, take a minute to read a little background information about the author and about objectivism.

Don't panic when you see the length of Chapter 1: it's the longest chapter in the book.

http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Anthem/index.htm

Discernment Poem--loosely adapted from Alexander Pope

Sin is a monster of such awful mien,

That to be hated needs but to be seen.

But seen too oft, familiar of face--

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

The Boiled Frog

They say if you put a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will leap out right away to escape the danger.
But if you put a frog in a kettle filled with cool, pleasant water and then you gradually heat the kettle until it starts boiling, the frog will not become aware of the threat until it is too late. The frog's survival instincts are geared toward detecting sudden changes.

Revving Up and Specifics for Song Analysis Paper

Welcome to A.P. English!

We're delighted you've decided to enroll in this challenging and enriching course. If you are scared of what's ahead--well, we hope you'll re-route that apprehension toward action. Commit yourself to working hard--and consistently--and you should emerge at the end of the 2009 schoolyear with a respectable grade and a whole new world of ideas to explore further. We aim to engender--or at least encourage--life-long learning.

Should expectations for this class turn out to be hovering a little out of your current ability to reach--even when stretching your highest--we'll all figure that out within the first month or so, and you can easily enough switch to the regular Senior English class. The decision isn't irrevocable!

That said, you will need to roll up your sleeves and take a deep breath as you prepare for assignments, which we hope you'll begin days before they're due. Work on craftsmanship: hone your diction for precision, and aim toward growing into something of a wordsmith.

**Please note: This blog will not/cannot list all your assignments (and in fact just represents one tiny drop in the huge ocean of reading and writing we'll assign). Mrs. E. will just occasionally use this as a way to update you when she has been or will be absent, or if several of YOU have been absent, or if an item of homework requires very specific instructions we've not found adequate time to go over in class.

**Analysis of a song of your choice, due 8/20/08**:

Using a standard, 12-point font, write a five-paragraph essay analyzing the lyrics and artistry of a song of your choice. Keep in mind the questions we discussed in class:

1) Does the author/poet ultimately reach conclusions that are consistent with the truth of the Gospel?
2) Does the work possess artistic merit?

Please use the format/template below when writing papers for our class, remembering to indent each paragraph and double-space throughout the whole paper.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Your name
The due date


Interesting, Non-Cliché Title Centered Here: Consider Using Colons
(Effective Title = Dust in the Wind: The Total Substance of People?)
(Ineffective Title = My Analysis of Song Lyrics)


Paragraph 1: Intro and build-up to the thesis statement at or near the end of the paragraph.

Example: From football game half-time group sing-alongs to piped-in soundtracks in grocery store aisles, rock music has become a ubiquitous part of American life. While the catchiness of some tunes seems to set the “repeat” function in people’s mental sound systems for all-day play, at times the lyrics may serve as irritants as they bore their way into the brain’s hard-drive. “Cactus Blues” is one such song: its use of the mixolydian mode lends musical interest to the tune, and the images of desert flora and fauna present an unconventional metaphor for the stages of romantic love. The song’s vapid and barbaric portrayals of women, however, cast a dark shadow over any merits the song may possess.

Paragraph 2: Discussion of catchy tune/mixolydian mode

Paragraph 3: Discussion of desert imagery

Paragraph 4: Discussion of objectionable lyrics about women

Paragraph 5: Conclusion—quick recap with additional insight or analogy or observation—but NOT the introduction of a whole new tangent

**Remember, also, to read Ayn Rand's Anthem and to memorize the "Sin" poem, due 8/20/08.**