On Alchemical Transmutation

In today's class, we reviewed your efforts with the Joan Didion questions. I want you to think about evaluation in English as somewhat like a conversation between you and me. You are given opportunities to "tell me" what you know, and I can only mark what I "hear" (or see). I may suspect you know more than you write down, but unless you provide substantive evidence of your understanding and insight, I can't alchemically transmute your good intentions to good marks. Hot dang! I knew I could work that in there - thanks Francine Prose! 

Speaking of Francine Prose, we did speak of her and her essay at length. Hopefully our discussion clarified any confusion and helped you come away with a solid understanding of her key points and her prose (Prose). We wrote a journal entry in class about what you perceive as the aims of education, and then for homework you need to complete questions 1,2,4, and 7 on rhetoric and style on page 100.

Off to Sparks and Brownies tonight! See you Wednesday.

Tight and Bright

Who thinks of these things anyway? I was really yearning for my sunglasses all class today, but you looked great. I also want to commend you on powering through the in-class writing - I know it's hard work, but it will pay off.

For homework, please read Francine Prose's essay on page 89 (I think). I would like you to annotate or take notes as you read and be sure to look up words you don't know. Her use of language is terrific, and there are many adjective noun combinations worth emulation. Consider, "vestigial teenage psyches", "sentimental middlebrow favorites", "sententious epigrams", and "sophomoric ruminations". Thus the need, I suspect, for a dictionary.

Enjoy the weekend, and please try to bring your $17 should you wish to buy a test prep book.

Have a great long weekend!

The Art of Stealing

Today we followed up on the Joan Didion questions, and I have asked you to read the article, The Stealing Never Stops for homework. Once you read it, please write a paragraph explaining how Joan Didion has influenced younger writers, as discussed in the article. In contrast to the title of this post, the intent here is not to encourage you to plagiarize, but rather to promote the idea that you can model your own writing after that of great writers. If you are interested in the book I was telling you about in class, you can find out more here.

We also reviewed the grammatical errors worksheets, and spoke about sentence fragments and the Oxford comma - people everywhere must be so sad to miss out on our class!

Next day, we will have our 50 minute in-class rhetorical analysis, and then move on to the beginning of our education unit.

Don't forget your $17 to bring to Lia or Stephanie this week or next.

The Mentalist is on ... must run.

Sunny Sunday

Hello all you Sunday Bloggers (not sure what that means!), but anyway, here is a brief and important message from Stephanie Marshall-White. In order to purchase the test-prep books, she will need $17 per person to pay for the book plus tax. If you happen to read this, could you please bring the money, if you are interested, to the next class? If you know anyone who might not read the blog, perhaps you could pass this message along?

Thanks and see you Tuesday, which, with any luck, will be sunny as well.

Ms. M

The Quest for Clarity

In order to plump up the population of our class today, which had dwindled noticably, we invited a number of Japanese students to join us. I am not sure they were grooving on the rhetoric, but they were certainly quiet and well-behaved! Speaking of Will, I want to thank him and Lorimey for reading their Joan Didion journal efforts out loud today. The examples read provided good insight into how to write a journal entry: the journal should show depth of thought, generally clear writing, and a solid understanding / ability to interpret the text we read.

We discussed Joan Didion's essay, On Keeping a Notebook, and we looked at some information about who Joan Didion is. Further, I gave some preliminary feedback on your ad analyses. It seems to me that we need to work on attention to detail and structure in writing, so that we have clear paragraphs, clear sentences, and only say exactly what we mean when writing. None of this is easy, but with practice and EFFORT, you can improve your written work significantly.

Homework:

I gave time in class to work on the Joan Didion questions, and then gave out some more homework: some notes on common grammatical faults with three practice exercises.

Important Note: There will not be an in-class analysis on Tuesday - it has been moved to Thursday. Also, when doing the Joan Didion questions, note that paragraph 5 begins with "My first notebook"; paragraph 6 begins, "So the point of my keeping a notebook ...". That should help you clarify where to look for the answers.

Have a great weekend!

SLLIDDTOP

Hello all,

In today's class we exchanged paper to start; I gave you back your marked homework, and almost all of you gave me your completed ad analysis. Then we moved on to look at another analysis acronym (SLLIDDTOP), and we reviewed a sample AP analysis question to prepare for your in-class analysis on Tuesday, October 18th.

Homework:

• Please read and grade the student sample essays according to the 9 point scale provided.


• Please study for the terms test on Wednesday. If you were absent, please get the terms from another student. You will need to write the test.


• Please indulge in eating and being grateful for all our good fortune this weekend! Happy Thanksgiving!