December 17, 2013 - Revising Analysis Essay

I can read and evaluate my essay for proficiency.

To be able to do this I must understand the expectations for this essay.

To demonstrate this I will turn in two essays: a rough draft with edits and a final essay.

Directions:

1.       Finish your first draft response to “Story of an Hour”

a.       Prompt: Discuss how two literary elements help convey the theme of the story.

b.      In “Story of an Hour” Chopin uses __________ and ____________ to convey _____________________________________________________________.

2.       READ YOUR FINISHED DRAFT

3.       As you are reading your draft make sure you’ve included the following:

a.       Thesis statement with two literary elements and clear theme.

b.      2 body paragraphs (One about how each literary elements helped convey the theme)

c.       2 topic sentence at the beginning of each body paragraphs

d.      Logical background information that helps to set up your textual evidence

e.      2 or more examples of textual evidence that help prove part of your thesis

f.        2 Comment #1’s – explain the meaning of the quote and its connection to the lit. element.

g.       2 Comment #2’s – explains the importance of evidence and clearly connects evidence and ideas to thesis statement.

Questions to ask when you are finished:

1.       Is this the best I can do?

2.       Are there any places where I could choose a stronger word?

3.       Did I include everything from the list above?

4.       Would my paper make sense for someone who has never read the story before?

5.       Do my examples of textual evidence truly have the literary element I discussed in them?

6.       Did I connect my analysis to my thesis?

7.       Did I answer so what in my comment 2’s?

8.       Was my writing interesting?

Revise: After you have finished checking your papers for all of the following (above), rewrite your essay with corrections on a separate sheet of paper. You will staple your rough draft to your revised draft and turn it in as your final.

Note: If you do not show any revision and still have multiple mistakes, your grade will be lowered.

December 16, 2013 - Revision of Analysis Essay

I can read and evaluate my essay for proficiency.

To be able to do this I must understand the expectations for this essay.

To demonstrate this I will turn in two essays: a rough draft with edits and a final essay.

Directions:

1.       Finish your first draft response to “Story of an Hour”

a.       Prompt: Discuss how two literary elements help convey the theme of the story.

b.      In “Story of an Hour” Chopin uses __________ and ____________ to convey _____________________________________________________________.

2.       READ YOUR FINISHED DRAFT

3.       As you are reading your draft make sure you’ve included the following:

a.       Thesis statement with two literary elements and clear theme.

b.      2 body paragraphs (One about how each literary elements helped convey the theme)

c.       2 topic sentence at the beginning of each body paragraphs

d.      Logical background information that helps to set up your textual evidence

e.      2 or more examples of textual evidence that help prove part of your thesis

f.        2 Comment #1’s – explain the meaning of the quote and its connection to the lit. element.

g.       2 Comment #2’s – explains the importance of evidence and clearly connects evidence and ideas to thesis statement.

Questions to ask when you are finished:

1.       Is this the best I can do?

2.       Are there any places where I could choose a stronger word?

3.       Did I include everything from the list above?

4.       Would my paper make sense for someone who has never read the story before?

5.       Do my examples of textual evidence truly have the literary element I discussed in them?

6.       Did I connect my analysis to my thesis?

7.       Did I answer so what in my comment 2’s?

8.       Was my writing interesting?

Revise: After you have finished checking your papers for all of the following (above), rewrite your essay with corrections on a separate sheet of paper. You will staple your rough draft to your revised draft and turn it in as your final.

Note: If you do not show any revision and still have multiple mistakes, your grade will be lowered.

December 13, 2013 - Analyzing Literary Elements in "Story of an Hour"

I can read and analyze "Story of an Hour" to identify literary elements and theme.

To be able to do this I must be able to read and get the gist, identify major literary elements, and connect my analysis to the theme.

I will demonstrate this by writing two paragraphs that discuss how two literary elements helped convey the theme of the story.

If you need help check out this website: 

http://classiclit.about.com/od/storyofanhourchopin/a/aa_storyhour_text.htm

Organization:

Thesis: In “Story of an Hour” Chopin uses characterization and symbolism to convey that people often feel trapped by their marriage.

Body Paragraph #1 - Includes everything below

Topic sentence: Chopin uses characterization to show that Mrs. Mallard desires to be free from her marriage.

Background: In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Mallard is heartbroken about her husband’s death.

Textual Evidence: When she finds out that her husband died, “she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.” 

Comment #1: This shows that at first she was really sad about losing her husband, but her feelings quickly changed.

Background: Mrs. Mallard goes to her room to mourn about her husband, but she realizes that she is now free.

Textual evidence: In her room, she says “Free, free, free!”

Comment 1: This shows that she felt trapped by her marriage.

Comment 2: This important because many people probably feel trapped by their marriage because they have to give up some freedom. It must have been boring for Mrs. Mallard, always waking up to the same life with out any opportunities to discover her individuality.

December 12, 2013 - Analysis Writing of "Story of an Hour"

I can read and analyze "Story of an Hour" to identify literary elements and theme.

To be able to do this I must be able to read and get the gist, identify major literary elements, and connect my analysis to the theme.

I will demonstrate this by writing two paragraphs that discuss how two literary elements helped convey the theme of the story.

If you need help check out this website: 

http://classiclit.about.com/od/storyofanhourchopin/a/aa_storyhour_text.htm

Organization:

Thesis: In “Story of an Hour” Chopin uses characterization and symbolism to convey that people often feel trapped by their marriage.

Body Paragraph #1 - Includes everything below

Topic sentence: Chopin uses characterization to show that Mrs. Mallard desires to be free from her marriage.

Background: In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Mallard is heartbroken about her husband’s death.

Textual Evidence: When she finds out that her husband died, “she wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.” 

Comment #1: This shows that at first she was really sad about losing her husband, but her feelings quickly changed.

Background: Mrs. Mallard goes to her room to mourn about her husband, but she realizes that she is now free.

Textual evidence: In her room, she says “Free, free, free!”

Comment 1: This shows that she felt trapped by her marriage.

Comment 2: This important because many people probably feel trapped by their marriage because they have to give up some freedom. It must have been boring for Mrs. Mallard, always waking up to the same life with out any opportunities to discover her individuality.

December 11, 2013 - Analyzing Literary Elements in "Story of an Hour"

I can read and analyze "Story of an Hour" to identify literary elements and theme.

To be able to do this I must be able to read and get the gist, identify major literary elements, and connect my analysis to the theme.

I will demonstrate this by annotating "Story of an Hour" with a focus of identifying literary elements and theme.

Look for these Lit. Elements: 

1. Mood 
2. Characterization
3. Figurative Language
1. Metaphor
2. Simile 
3. Personification
4. Symbolism 

Directions: Read and annotate the story below. Look for the literary elements above and try to identify the theme. 

The Story of an Hour

By: Kate Chopin
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death. It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.

She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.

There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.

There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.

She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.

She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.

There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.

Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.

When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.

She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.

She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.

There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.

And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!

"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.

Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg, open the door--you will make yourself ill. What are you doing Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."

"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.

Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.

She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.

Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.

But Richards was too late.

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of joy that kills.

December 10, 2013 - Read and Analyze "Story of an Hour"

I can read and analyze "Story of an Hour" to identify literary elements and theme.

To be able to do this I must be able to read and get the gist, identify major literary elements, and connect my analysis to the theme.

I will demonstrate this by annotating "Story of an Hour" with a focus of identifying literary elements and theme.

Look for these Lit. Elements: 

1. Mood 
2. Characterization
3. Figurative Language
1. Metaphor
2. Simile 
3. Personification
4. Symbolism 

Directions: Read and annotate the story below. Look for the literary elements above and try to identify the theme. 

The Story of an Hour
By: Kate Chopin
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death. It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.

She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.

There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.

There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.

She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.

She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.

There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.

Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.

When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.

She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.

She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.

There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.

And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!

"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.

Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg, open the door--you will make yourself ill. What are you doing Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."

"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.

Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.

She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.

Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.

But Richards was too late.

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of joy that kills.

December 9, 2013 - Reading and Analyzing "Story of an Hour"

I can read and analyze "Story of an Hour" to identify literary elements and theme.

To be able to do this I must be able to read and get the gist, identify major literary elements, and connect my analysis to the theme.

I will demonstrate this by annotating "Story of an Hour" with a focus of identifying literary elements and theme.

Look for these Lit. Elements: 

1. Mood 
2. Characterization
3. Figurative Language
1. Metaphor
2. Simile 
3. Personification
4. Symbolism 

Directions: Read and annotate the story below. Look for the literary elements above and try to identify the theme. 

The Story of an Hour

By: Kate Chopin
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death. It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.

She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.

There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.

There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.

She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.

She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.

There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.

Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.

When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.

She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.

She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.

There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.

And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!

"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.

Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg, open the door--you will make yourself ill. What are you doing Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."

"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.

Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.

She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.

Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.

But Richards was too late.

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of joy that kills.

December 6, 2012 - Acuity Makeup/ Missing Assignment Makeup

Some classes will be moving on to take notes on poem reading strategies.

December 5, 2012 - Acuity Makeup/ Missing Assignment Makeup

December 4, 2012 - Acuity Writing and Missing Assignment Makeup

December 3, 2013 - Acuity Testing

December 2, 2013 - Acuity Testing