Essential Questions

Unit 1- Search for Identity (Aug-Oct)

Essential Questions 

Who am I?

How do individuals develop values and beliefs?

How do our values and beliefs shape who we are as individuals and influence our behavior?

How are people transformed through their relationships with others?

Major Works

The Alchemist

The Canterbury Tales

Hamlet

Nature/Technology/ Creation of Self (Nov)

Essential Questions 

When is it appropriate to challenge the beliefs or values of society?

How do individuals reconcile competing belief systems within a given society (e.g., moral beliefs conflicting with legal codes)?      

Can literature be a vehicle for social change?

What are the responsibilities of the individual in regard to issues of social justice?

To what extent does a culture or society shape an individual’s understanding or concept of happiness?

What are the potential conflicts when one person’s reality is another person’s illusion?

Major Works

Frankenstein 

Satire

Independent Reading (Choice Novel)- Middle Eastern Lit

Complications of Culture (Dec-Mar)

Essential Questions

How does one’s perspective shape or alter truth?

In a culture where we are bombarded with other people and other things trying to define us, how do we make decisions for ourselves?

How is who we want to be as revealing as who we are and how we are perceived by others?

Major Works

Heart of Darkness

Sir Gawain

Macbeth

Metaphysical/Carpe Diem Poetry, “Dead Poet’s Society”

Christmas Break Special Reading ;) : Kafka’s Metamorphosis

Integrity and Identity (April)

Essential Questions

How do we define who we are?  

How do we form and shape our identities? 

Is humankind inherently good or evil?

Have the forces of good and evil changed over time and if so, how? 

Are we governed/guided by fate, freewill, a greater power, or do we fall somewhere on the spectrum between?

What are the benefits and consequences of questioning/challenging social order?

What is the meaning of life and does that shape our beliefs regarding death? 

Major Works

“Everyman”

Grendel

Exeter Book

Beowulf

Middle Eastern Lit Assignment

Choice Novel, Middle Eastern Lit

You have signed up for one of the choice books. 

On Thursday, December 8, you need to come to class with both of the following assignments completed over your selected book.  You will then spend time in class working with your novels.

•   800-1000 word response to AP question.  Linked are MANY of the writing prompts of the last 25 years.  Find one applicable to your book.  Make sure you QUOTE- with page numbers- sufficiently.

 http://mseffie.com/iOpeners/Open_Questions.pdf

•   A list, including page number and quote, of at least ten rhetorical strategies used by the author.  These might include: point of view, setting, metaphor, simile, paradox, irony, tone, allusion, etc... (http://www.uppercapetech.com/SummerReading2010Terms.pdf contains a pretty thorough listing... you also might recognize it as the place your literary terms to memorize are listed).

You also need to find ONE critical piece of work or article over your novel.  This needs to be more scholarly than a review on amazon.com, please.  (You should also avoid critical essays on sparknotes or Cliffnotes.)  You do not need to do anything with it other than print it out and bring it in.

Finally, you need to come with information on your author.  You can glean this info from your book (most have epilogues, author’s notes, etc), the author’s website (most have one), or the book publishing company.  Again, you do not need to do anything with it other than have it with you.

***I am eliminating our further drafts on the Hamlet essay since I neglected to post this assignment before break. You will receive a grade on the first draft of Hamlet that you have written.

Week of 11/28

Monday, 11/28
FrankenFun Party

Tuesday, 11/29
SUB
Satire

Wednesday, 11/30
Multiple Choice Test
Long Class

Thursday, 12/1
Therapeutic Thursday

Friday, 12/2
Satire
Allusions quiz

Thursday's Plan

I meant for you to do this on paper, but since I have to be unexpectedly out today, this was the best way to do it. I want you to do two things. I want you to answer the 8 multiple choice questions, then I want you to outline your answer to the essay (OUTLINE-- DO NOT WRITE AN ESSAY-- JUST OUTLINE WHAT YOUR MAIN POINTS WOULD BE). Do these things in a word document and email to me. adavis@clevelandschools.org

Multiple Choice:
Passage is from Letter IV, starting the paragraph before "August 13th, 17--" and ending with "soul-subduing music" just before "August 19th, 17--".

1. The phrase "culled with the choicest art" (just after August 13th, 17--) could best be restated as
A. collected with knowledge
B. picked with pain
C. fraught with color
D. selected with expertise
E. uttered with care

2. The lines from "I was easily led...." to "transmit over the elemental foes of our race" employ all of the following EXCEPT
A. synaesthesia
B. parallelism
C. ellipsis
D. hyperbolic language
E. imagery

3. The stranger's agitation in his words to the narrator ("Unhappy man!" to "dash the cup from your lips") is revealed LEAST by which of the following?
A. allusion
B. diction
C. syntax
D. imagery
E. parallelism

4. In the lines from "Having conquered the violence" to "he led me again", the narrator utilizes diction to create imagery of
A. madness
B. warfare
C. anger
D. resignation
E. depression

5. The stranger's assertion in the lines from "do not lend his aid" to "You have hope" is an example of which fallacy?
A. argumentum ad hominem
B. non sequitur
C. equivocation
D. post hoc ergo propter hoc
E. false analogy

6. The lines from "Ever broken" to "folly ventures" reflect
I. the stranger's descent into madness
II. the ideas of Romanticism
III. the duality of the stranger's mental state
A. I only
B. II only
C. III only
D. I and II only
E. II and III only

7. The narrator's description of the stranger in the lines from "Such a man has a double existence" to "folly ventures" contain connotations that are predominantly
A. intellectual
B. scientific
C. religious
D. judicial
E. supernatural

8. From the passage as a whole, the reader can infer that
A. the stranger has no desire to be the narrator's friend
B. the narrator's analysis of the stranger is objective
C. the stranger and the narrator have different outlooks on life
D. the narrator is in awe of the stranger's intellect and personality
E. the stranger is more concerned with his own plight than with the narrator's need for a friend

Passage Question:
Read the following passage Start of Chapter 11 to "frightened me into silence again" (4 paragraphs)
There are often similarities drawn between the monster as a baby learning to experience its world and life around it. Consider the techniques used by the author to create that parallel.
You aren't writing the full essay... You are only outlining it.

Unit 1 Test Review

 This is for the benefit of group 2, since I didn't get a chance to talk to them.... But group 1, you can refresh what I said to you as well. :)

The test covers The Canterbury Tales, archetypes, allusions, Hamlet, and The Alchemist.

You need to look back over The Canterbury Tales since it has been so long. I am not asking you specific questions about specific characters or anything, but you probably need to skim back over it. You have 3 short answer questions from this work and all three are really easy if you just look back over notes and the works.

There are two lit terms that aren't terms we quizzed over, but terms we have discussed in relation to the works. Again, check your notes.

Remember the archetypes packet? Look over it for sure. There are two questions from it.

Remember the handout of notes I gave you for Hamlet? It had the historical context, Renaissance Literature, and the roots of Hamlet? LOOK AT IT. There are two questions from it.

The Hamlet question is EASY and you all were with me the whole time and will be FINE.

There is one question over The Alchemist. It is in regard to symbols.

There is one question about the "Classics" sheet from the beginning of the year, day 2. Look at it.

There are 5 multiple choice questions based on a passage. You can't really prepare in advance for them.

There are three lit terms definitions PROBABLY. I need to make sure we have covered them since I reversed the order this year.

There are four allusions. Remember how I said you were on your own for the allusions? There are four on here, one Biblical, one literary, one mythological, and one historical. They aren't obscure. But look over it for sure.

Last of all, there will be a quick short answer essay involving the essential questions.