Wed. Sep. 4

This is a test for the homework blog for 2013-14.

Tues., 5 Feb.

11AP:  Today we talked about Organization.  Complete the Passage Analysis of the "Flogging" article for Wed/Thurs.  Also be prepared to turn in your first Source Summary for the Synthesis Project.

9th English:  We finished Act I, Scene 1.  If you didn't finish the worksheet in class, finish it for Wed/Thurs.

Words to Know:  transmogrify, gentrify, ambivalent, trifecta

Mon. Feb. 4

11AP:  Today we took a true/false quiz on rhetoric and syntax. 

Homework:  Read the article on corporal punishment and identify how you would divide it into 3 parts.

9th English:

Today we read and listened to Act I, scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet.

Words to Know:  quid pro quo, persona non grata

Fri., Feb. 1

11AP:  Today we handed in the 1-55 multiple choice and we did the Grade Game; we reviewed for a quiz on Monday over rhetoric and syntax.

9th English:  Today we did a practice vocabulary quiz, and we went over the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet.

Words to Know:  sequester, surmise, antipathy

Wed./Thurs. 30-31 Jan.

11AP:  Today we handed in our question for the Synthesis Project

Homework:  Complete your Grade Game writing on the cards for Friday, and complete your revised answers to the multiple choice passages.

9th English:  Today we review rules for capitalization and we read an SAT passage on eye witness testimony.

Today's words to know:  Bona fide, Ad nauseam, Pandemonium, Pandemic, Nepotism

Tues., 29 Jan

11AP:  Today we looked at the different types of subject complements:  predicate nominatives and predicate adjectives.  We also came up will assigned categories for the Name Game; we'll turn our cards in on Friday for the following categories:

Period 2: Beverages, Movie Characters

Period 3:  Holidays, Fictional Characters

Period 7:  Songs to Ban, Fast Food Restaurants

Homework:  Complete your Synthesis Project Question for Wed/Thurs.

9th English:  Today we finished watching Twelve Angry Men, and we wrote a paragraph on the most important trait of a good jury member.

Words to Know:  meritorious, perspicacious, cyclops, myopia, cogent

Mon. 28 Jan.

11AP:  Today we received the 2nd Semester Synthesis Project, and we worked in the library on selecting a topic.

9th English:  Today we continued "Twelve Angry Men"

Words to Know: Epiphany, peccadillo, neocortex, neologism, autonomous

Tues. 22 Jan.

Today we handed in our Major Work Report.

The following are terms you will see as options on the final exam for 1st Semester:

Simple Sentence

Complex Sentence

Participial phrase

Adverbial clause

Appositive phrase

Euphemism

Paradox

Colloquialism

Mixed metaphor

Parody

Direct quotation

Metaphor

Simile

Hyperbole

Connotation

Figurative language

Literal language

Analogy

Personification

Understatements

Overstatement

Parallel construction

Apostrophe

Literary allusion

First-person

Rhetorical question

Extended metaphor

Loose (cumulative) sentence

Periodic sentence

Antithesis

Ad hominem argument

This Sentence Will Make You Smarter: Sentence with Antithesis

Which is better?

A. I’ve done it! I’m on the moon’s surface! Boo-yah!

B. That’s one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind.

Sentence B features antithesis, contrasting the ideas small/giant, man/mankind, step/leap. It is also a balanced sentence.  The formal definition of antithesis is: 

The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases or clauses

Assignment: Write a single balanced sentence that uses antithesis. Use the list of opposites below to generate ideas:

success/failure
intelligence/stupidity
above/below
war/peace
present/past
early/late
order/chaos
fast/slow

Example:
Live as if you were to die tomorrow; Learn as if you were to live forever.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Wed./Thurs. 16-17 Jan.

Today we handed in the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" assignment.  We completed a mulitple choice assignment in class.  For homework, write the explanation of the correct answer of your assigned question on the index card you were given in class.

Major Work Report due 1/22

Tues., 15 Jan.

Today we handed in the "Ultimatum Game" assignment and we worked on an assignment on "Letter from Birmingham Jail" that will be due on Wed.Thurs.

This Sentence Will Make You Smarter: Sentence with Parallel Participial Phrases

Mourning his dead father, berating his clueless mother, and continually contemplating the murder of his remorseless, treacherous, and lecherous uncle, Hamlet is not having a good day.

Notice that the sentence above begins with three parallel participial phrases; each is a present participial beginning with an -ing verb.  Also, notice that the sentence ends with an independent clause, making it a periodic sentence.

Mon. Jan. 14

Today we handed in the typed synthesis essay on space exploration.
Homework:  Read the article on the "Ultimatum Game" and answer the following question:

What is the Ultimatum Game, and what does it teach us about persuasion?

Fri., 11 Jan.

For Monday:  Type (double-spaced) your complete synthesis essay.  Don't forget to apply the four rules below:

FOUR KEYS TO SMOOTHLY INTEGRATING EVIDENCE/QUOTATIONS:

1. Always cite your sources, both direct and indirect quotations.

2. Never begin a paragraph with a quotation.

3. Never begin a sentence with a quote; instead, introduce the speaker and the speaker’s qualifications prior to the quotation.

4. Never end a paragraph with a quotation.

Wed./Thurs. 9-10 Jan.

Today we worked on writing a synthesis essay in class; we didn't quite finish but will finish on Friday.

This Sentence Will Make You Smarter: SENTENCE with a parallel list featuring Polysyndeton or Asyndeton

Polysyndeton:  No matter how big or soft or warm your bed is, you still have to get out of it.   --Grace Slick (parallel adjectives)

Asyndeton: . . . and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.    –Gettysburg Address  (parallel prepositional phrases)

Polysyndeton:  No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.   --Helen Keller (parallel verb phrases)

Asyndeton:  Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
--John F. Kennedy (parallel verb phrases)

Tues., 8 Jan.

Today we handed in the cards for writing we did on the two categories.

Homework:  Work on independent reading.  I.R. Report 14 is due on Friday, 1/11

This Sentence Will Make You Smarter: Compound Sentence with Elliptical Construction (Balanced)

Pattern:  S  V; S . . .

Audacity augments courage; hesitation, fear.  

--Publilius Syrus

Audacity augments courage; hesitation (augments) fear.

A man falls in love through his eyes; a woman through her ears.

-Woodrow Wyatt

Dogs always come running to their masters; cats, to their food.

Mon., 7 Jan.

Today we handed in the multiple choice questions for Thoreau along with the question on Twain.

Homework:  Write your two evaluations based on the two categories we came up with in class. 

Do the following on each card: 

Blank Side:  Write your name and period

Lined Side:  Write the name of the Category, the Item in the category, Your Evaluation Paragraph, and Letter Grade

This Sentence Will Make You Smarter: Compound Sentence with a Conjunctive Adverb

Pattern:    Indep. Clause; therefore, Indep. Clause

L. Frank Baum wrote The Wizard of Oz for his daughter; however, the book was much more than a child's story.

I think; therefore, I am.

Conjunctive Adverbs:  thus, for example, therefore, however, then, in fact, meanwhile, also, as a result

Fri., 4 Jan

Today we handed in the paragraph on the Thoreau passage. 
Homework:  Do the 7 multiple choice questions, and write a response to the following question on the Twain passage:

In the passage there are two descriptions of the river (one in column two and another in column three); both are written by the same person:  Mark Twain.  How and why are the two descriptions of the same river so different?

This Passage Will Make You Smarter

In the meanwhile there came along a single red ant on the hillside of the valley, evidently full of excitement, who either had dispatched his foe, or had not yet taken part in the battle; probably the latter, for he had lost none of his limbs; whose mother had charged him to return with his shield or upon it.  Or perchance he was some Achilles, who had nourished his wrath apart, and had not come to avenge or rescue his Patroclus.

-from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden

This passage demonstrates how writers use allusions to establish tone and suggest analogies.  Thoreau might have just described the ant war from the perspective of a human observer; instead, he uses allusions to the Iliad and the Trojan War to suggest an analogy between the ant war and human warfare.  The first allusion, “whose mother had charged him to return with his shield or upon it” reminds the reader of the Spartan tradition of full commitment to battle; they were so committed that even mothers were unwilling to accept anything but full effort from their sons in battle.  The second allusion is to Achilles, “who had nourished his wrath apart” before joining the battle to avenge the killing of his friend Patroclus by Hector.  Using allusions, Thoreau elevates this ant war from a mundane, virtually microscopic battle to a great war of epic proportions.  At the same time he suggests that this battle of ants is no different from any warfare from human history; it always ends the same:  futile death and a battlefield littered with bodies.

Thurs., 3 Jan.

Today we discussed the rhetorical analysis on the "Wentletrap" passage that we wrote about before Winter Break.

We also took some notes the following two sentence patterns:

-COMPOUND SENTENCE with coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS)

Pattern:  Indep. Clause, and Indep. Clause

Mary sang a song, but Bill recited a poem.

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-COMPOUND SENTENCE without a conjunction

Pattern:  Indep. Clause; Indep. Clause

Mary sang a song; Bill recited a poem. (Balanced)

The snow fell silently; soldiers dug their foxholes, preparing to defend their position.

Write a balanced compound sentence without a conjunction about one or more abstract ideas.

Homework:  Read the Thoreau passage and write a paragraph that includes each of the 8 items in the directions.

This Sentence Will Make You Smarter

They seem like errant body parts, the slug like a thick, albino lip gliding sideways down the sidewalk on the skim of its own glisten.

From "Wentletrap" by Barbara Hurd

Notice that this sentence paints a word picture of the snail that Hurd is describing.  The simile. comparing it to a white lip, helps the reader imagine the slug's strange appearance.  Notice also the alliteration; the S sounds help us imagine the snail sliding.  Also, the cumulative syntax serves the writer's purpose:  she sets the image "errant body parts" in the opening clause and then elaborates with more specific imagery and description.