Winter Break

I hope everyone has a restful and meaningful Winter Break. Regardless of your faith background, and the individual requirements you may face during the holiday season, I hope that each of you takes this opportunity to reflect, recharge, and revisit your goals and values for the coming year.

Over the break, I encourage everyone to read for pleasure for at least twenty minutes a day, if you do not already do so.

Upcoming Titles:

Gifted English II: You need a copy of The Elements of Style by Strunk and White by mid-January, and our next text is The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. The play is in your textbook, but if you struggle with Shakespearean diction and syntax, you may acquire a copy of No Fear Shakespeare by SparkNotes (the only decent thing they do) or Barron's Julius Caesar Made Easy.

Gifted English IV: We're finishing Hamlet after the break, then moving immediately into Stoppard's revisionist text. I have copies for you of both titles.

AP Literature: Each of you has a copy of Frankenstein and the reading journal that will accompany it--due date is January 10. If you are looking for gift suggestions to give to your loved ones, upcoming titles you will need include Toni Morrison's Beloved and Jean Rhys's The Wide Sargasso Sea. Everything else will be given to you.

Gifted English II Exam Review

Gifted English II
Semester Examination Study Guide

We will be extensively reviewing for the semester examination over the two days preceding the test. Go ahead and begin to gather your class notes and character lists to ameliorate any problems we have in preparing for this test—it’s long. Muhahahahahahahaha.

Format of Examination:
-Multiple Choice
-True/False
-Matching (Characters and Authors of the Day)
Subject Areas Covered:
Mini-Unit--Literature of Irony
“The Pedestrian”
“The Storyteller”
“Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?”
Short Fiction
Example—“The Cold Equations”
“My Melancholy Face”
Non-Fiction
Literary Terms in Context/Examples (see list of 120 terms)
Greco-Roman Mythology
-Gods and Goddesses
-Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” (Daedalus and Icarus)
-Sophocles’ Antigone
-The Literature of Horror
Edgar Allan Poe
Psychological Backgrounds of Horror
“Pit and the Pendulum”
-The Novel
The Stranger
Existentialism
Death of a Salesman
The Count of Monte Cristo
Candide
Things Fall Apart
-FCAT Reading Comprehension
There will be a passage you have never seen before on the test; read it over and answer the corresponding questions.
-The Literature of the Bible
-PSAT Vocabulary and Comprehension
-General Grammar (proofreading a small passage)
-The Literature of Satire
“A Modest Proposal”
“Top of the Food Chain”
Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail
Media Literacy—Bert the Turtle

Figurative Language to Know
-metaphor -symbol
-simile -structure
-personification -allegory
-conceit -alliteration
-iambic pentameter -theme
Character Identifications
-Gods and Goddesses
-Zeus -Dionysus
-Hera -Hades
-Aphrodite -Poseidon
-Hermes -Hephaestus
-Athene(a) -Cronus
-Deadalus and Icarus
-Antigone
Antigone Haimon
Ismene Teiresias
Creon Polyneices
Eurydice Eteocles
Choragos Sentry
NOTE: Know the background of the House of Thebes (the Oedipus story)
-Horror Literature
-Vlad the Impaler
-Countess Elizabeth of Bathory
-protagonist in “Pit”
-Carl Jung and the Iceberg Metaphor
-Novels (see notes for each novel/character lists)
Characters to emphasize-- Mersualt/Maman/Salamano/Marie/Raymond/Celeste
Willy Loman/Biff/Happy/Linda/Charlie/Uncle Ben
Edmond Dantes/Mercedes/Fernand/Caderousse/Faria
Danglars/Villefort/Valentine/Maximilien Morrel
Haydee/LuigiVampa/Candide/Cunegonde/Pangloss/The Anabaptist/Okonkwo/Ekwefi/Ezinma/Nwoye/
Ikemefuna/The Missionaries/Chielo/Agbala
-Authors of the Day:

Garcia Marquez
Baudelaire
Thomas Aquinas
James Baldwin
Alice Walker
Anne Rice
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Carl Hiaasen
Sophie Kinsella
George Gordon, Lord Byron
John Keats
Jane Austen
Robert Coover
Vaclav Havel
Leo Tolstoy

Additional Notes or Things I Forget Until the Last Minute to Tell You About:

AP Literature Exam Review

Semester Examination Review: AP Literature
Fall 2005/Jennifer Hilley

We will review the following elements in class over the next couple of days, to ameliorate any problems with comprehension or understanding. Moihahahahahahahahahaha.

Format: You will have an essay to construct on an AP FRQ related to any of the major works you have read thus far. Furthermore, you will have a comprehensive multiple-choice objective test featuring recall, analysis, and synthesis questions. You have will two hours to complete both sections of the test.

Subject matter:
Ø The Great Gatsby
Ø Oedipus Rex
Ø Heart of Darkness
Ø Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Ø Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Ø Macbeth
Ø Literary Terms and Figurative Language (please focus on the asterisked terms, in addition to others I provide for you in class)
Ø Literary Criticism
Ø “Prufrock”
Ø Sonnets

Specifically. . .
The Great Gatsby
Ø Jay Gatz/Gatsby
Ø Daisy Buchanan
Ø Jordan Baker
Ø Meyer Wolfsheim
Ø F. Scott Fitzgerald and the 1920’s
Ø Color Imagery and Ocular Imagery
Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now!
Ø Marlow/Willard
Ø Kurtz/Colonel Kurtz
Ø Harlequin/Photojournalist
Ø District Manager/Kilgore
Ø The Accountant
Ø The Intended
Ø Symbolism of the jungle: fog, shadows, women knitting, the scent of rotting hippo meat. . .
Oedipus Rex
Characters
Ø Polybus and Merope
Ø Oedipus
Ø Jocasta
Ø Laius
Ø Creon
Ø Oracle
Ø Fate/prophecy
Ø The concept of sin
Ø Greek tragedy
Ø Hubris
Ø Incest


Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Characters
Ø Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Ø Hamlet the Elder (ghost)
Ø Claudius
Ø Gertrude
Ø Polonius
Ø Laertes
Ø Ophelia
Ø Players and Player King
Ø Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Ø Horatio
Ø Osric
Ø Reynaldo
Ø Gravedigger
Ø Yorick
Themes
Ø Denmark as a garden
Ø The play-within-the-play motif
Ø Rottenness
Ø The role of the supernatural
Ø The role of philosophy
Ø The significance of three sons mourning three dead fathers
Ø Graveyard imagery
Ø Action v. intellect
Ø Sexual imagery
R and G Are Dead
Ø Existential thought
Ø Tom Stoppard
Ø Theatre of the Absurd
Characters
Ø Title characters
Ø Player (in studied contrast to the minimal role in Hamlet. . .)
Ø Cast of Hamlet
Themes
Ø Mortality
Ø Ambiguity
Ø The interpolation of narrative
Macbeth (or this one. . .)

Ø Macbeth
Ø Macduff
Ø James I
Ø Lady Macbeth
Ø Fleance
Ø Lady Macduff
Ø Banquo
Ø Siward
Ø Duncan
Ø Edward the Confessor
Ø Malcolm and Donalbain
Ø the witches
Ø Hecate
Ø Seyton
Ø Ross, Lennox, etc.

Recurring Images
Ø Blood
Ø Clothing
Ø Sleeplessness/sleep
Ø Garden
Themes
Ø Appearance v. reality
Ø Ambition
Ø Guilt
Ø Relationships between men and women
Ø Fate v. free will

Ancillary Works:
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot
-dramatic monologue
-critical commentary
-Biblical and mythic allusions throughout
-Prufrock as an unreliable narrator
-the role of the speaker and his choices (“Do I dare/Disturb the universe?”)
Sonnets
-scansion and rhyme scheme
-diction
-figurative terms

Additional Things I Tell You at the Last Minute:

Gifted English IV Exam Review

Gifted English IV
Semester Examination Review

I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you about this exam. I think it’s easy.
Heeeeehhahhahhhhaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahhahahahahahahahahah!

The format for this test includes the following types of questions:
o multiple choice
o matching
o true-false
o putting events into order
There are no essays on this test due to time restrictions.
The exam covers the following subject areas:
1984
Beowulf
Becket
The Canterbury Tales
Macbeth
The first two acts of Hamlet
Historical Eras: Anglo-Saxon, Medieval, Renaissance
Vocabulary in Context
Reading Skills
“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”
various bits of trivia and minutiae I can include to annoy you
People to Know
Authors
Margery Kempe
Julian of Norwich
Sir Thomas Malory
Christopher Marlowe
Jean Anouilh
Geoffrey Chaucer
William Shakespeare
George Orwell
Characters
Beowulf
Hrothgar
Wealtheow
Wiglaf
Unferth
Breca (Brecca)
St. Augustine
Alfred the Great
Harold the Saxon
William the Conqueror (they all have the same middle name!)
Boadicea
Maeve
Henry II
Thomas a Becket
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Chaucer’s pilgrims
Knight Host
Prioress Cook
Monk Miller
Friar Wife of Bath
Skipper Squire
Pardoner Yeoman
Summoner
The Green Knight
The Host
The Lady
Arthurian Knights
Macbeth Macduff James I
Lady Macbeth Fleance Lady Macduff
Banquo Siward
Duncan Edward the Confessor
Malcolm and Donalbain AND don’t forget the icky witches!!!!!
Hamlet
Gertrude
Claudius
Hamlet the Elder (Ghost)
Horatio
Ophelia
Laertes
Fortinbras
Polonius
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Terms/Concepts to Know
morgengifu
Heorot
Stonehenge
animism
Druids/Celts
runic language
Old English
Middle English
Modern English
chivalry
courtly love
feudalism/social class structure in the Middle Ages
influence of Boccaccio’s Decameron on The Canterbury Tales
role of the Church in secular matters
genealogy of the Tudor line
Henry VII—Elizabeth of York
Henry VIII
The Six Wives
Edward
Mary I
Elizabeth
James I of Scotland

Styles of Medieval Poetry (Ballads)
Regicide
Imagery in Macbeth
Blood
Sleep
Guilt
Appearance v. reality
Clothing
Madness

Additional Notes I Tell You to Add at the Last Minute:

Monday, December 12, 2005

Today is the first Exam Review Day. I'm posting the review sheets here in this forum for each class so check the entry that applies to your class. We will be reviewing both today and tomorrow, bell to bell.

For the exam days, please bring a pencil and some paper for the essay portion of the test.

EXAM SCHEDULE:

Wednesday, December 14--Periods 1,2, and 7; adjusted bell schedule. Each exam block will be 130 minutes; you will have a fourth period lunch block and school will get out at its regular time.

Thursday, December 15--Periods 3 and 4. Each exam block is 130 minutes and you have a 15 minute break in between; you will be dismissed before noon.

Friday, December 16--same set-up as Thursday with early dismissal; exam blocks 5 and 6.

Friday, December 9, 2005

AP Literature: "The World is Too Much With Us" by Wordsworth.

Gifted English IV: Hamlet.

Gifted English II: Things Fall Apart Check-Read Activity.

Thursday, December 8, 2005

Advanced Placement Literature: 1st period; finish "Rime" and listen to Iron Maiden's stirring rendition of it. 5th period, careful deconstruction of the poem in collaborative groups.

Gifted English IV: Hamlet, continued.

NOTE TO SENIORS: Please submit your diploma forms ASAP.

Gifted English II: Look at the Kipling poem "White Man's Burden" and analyze through the perspective of both imperialist and colonialized.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• The meeting for future trips will be tonight at 7 p.m. here in room 313.
• The Writing Center will be having its holiday party today in 315 during A and B lunch.

Wednesday December 7, 2005

If you are worried about your grades, relax/curse me. I am drowning, people. Drowning. Make-up essay tests, resubmissions, exams that have to be written. . .freaking out over here. Please give me a couple more days.

::sigh::

AP Literature: 1st period--Timed Writing 5th period--Finish "Rime".

Gifted English IV: Hamlet, Act I film screening.

Gifted English II: Author of the Day presentation(s) and discussion of TFA through the lens of feminist criticism.

Tuesday, December 6, 2005

Tragically, I won't be here today--doctor appointment and (maybe) Christmas shopping.

Advanced Placement Literature: 1st period will probably be attending the Senior Breakfast; keep up with "Rime" and be prepared to discuss in-depth Wednesday (if you're not going to the Honors breakfast. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the fact that they schedule these things right before finals?????) 5th period will be doing a cool timed writing from the 2001 AP Lit exam, based on Romanticism. 1st will have to do it for HW some time in the next week, unless they'd like to ditch the breakfast. . .

Gifted English IV: Breakfast Problem, Part II. Students who attend will have a chance to get ahead in Hamlet.

Gifted English II: After the Author of the Day presentation, you will each get three (not five, but three, and the number of the counting will be three, not two, except that thou proceedest then to three) thought questions on TFA and the critique I gave you yesterday. You will discuss the questions with a partner or a group of three (see previous parenthetical statement) before writing thoughtful, in-depth, symbolically meaningful responses. It will be so great.

Monday, December 5, 2005

Sorry this post is late; I really had no idea where the day would go until I got through it.

Here's what we did:

AP Literature: Lecture/discussion on Coleridge's "Rime" and the willing suspension of disbelief. We read through Parts III and IV today; I asked each of you to re-read I through IV to reconnect some the ideas we discussed in class.

Gifted English IV: Hamlet, Act I and reading through Act I, scene iii.

Gifted English II: Author of the Day: Laura Esquivel. We discussed a persuasive essay by Kathleen Parker of The Orlando Sentinel and looked at her rhetorical strategies for articulating a position against the death penalty, and then we had a chance to read TFA and/or a feminist critique of the novel by Rose Mezu, an African scholar.

ANNOUNCEMENT: If you have a chance, go see Every Christmas Story Ever Told. It's hilarious.

'NOTHER ANNOUNCEMENT: If you are available and interested, I will have the tour guide for Art Events discussing my upcoming trips 7 p.m. Thursday night here in my classroom.

Friday, December 2, 2005

Advanced Placement Literature: Quiz on your reading from yesterday; discussion of the poems; introduction to "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge.

Gifted English IV: Quiz on Hamlet; Act I, scene ii, and deconstruction of the soliloquy from that scene.

Gifted English II: Author of the Day; go over Candide essay assignments; pass back graded work; go over HP vocab; poetic connections.