Week 17 S2

 I promised a final post, so here are the last threads.

Here is the link to the review game we played if you wish to finish the word scramble. If you like, make a copy and do the author scramble. I will give you a few points on a quiz if you do. You can submit it with the rest of your end of year stuff.

Be sure to:

1. Finish your timeline--there were three installations this semester which you can find under Weeks 5, 12, and 16.  Make sure you have an attractive cover and some visual elements.  Please take pictures and put your finished timeline segments in your Google Slide timeline document.

2. Submit your completed Writer's Notebook.

3. If you haven't already, get your ad analysis essay and last ASP study guide in.

All of these can be submitted here. 

And....I think that's a wrap for our 2020-2021 Pandemic American Literature class.  

Note: It will take me a bit to read and respond to your ad analysis essays and writer's notebooks. After that I'll be ready to assign final grades. Our month of May is pretty crazy here with Grace leaving for grad school, my Woodcock Johnson testing work, and a family vacation to the beach.  I could just blow through all of your work and assign a quick grade, but I'd much rather take my time to read thoughtfully and comment. I appreciate your patience with me!

In the meanwhile---ENJOY YOUR SUMMER!  Let your brain rest!  All the best with whatever you have planned and wherever you head next with your studies. Stay in touch.  I love hearing what you have been up to and where life takes you. 💗

Week 16 Semester 2

Well, it's that time of year----lots of loose ends to tie up, a novel to finish, and a final analysis essay to write with excellence.  Let me know if you have questions or need help.  

Note added Tuesday 5/4: I've posted the timeline additions when you have time to add them.  I've expanded the A Separate Peace Unit document to encompass all of the rest of our 2nd semester assignments, so turn them in there.  Here is the link for convenience.

I'm both happy and sad that next week is our last--I love summer break, and it's been a full year, but I will miss seeing each of you every Wednesday, hearing your thoughts about literature and life. 

Writer's Notebook

Here is the log of writer's notebook entries from Sophia (9:00) and Abby (11:15).  Be ready to submit your writer's notebooks immediately after our last class together next Wednesday.

Timeline Work

Here is the final segment--thanks for your patience. When you are happy with your final product, take pictures and paste them into a Google Slides. This will be due by midnight, Sunday, May 9th unless you contact me personally because you need more time before then. 

I look forward to seeing how they turn out and hope that you've found the experience meaningful.  More than anything else, it's been my effort to encourage you to connect all of your subjects--art, music, literature, science, math with all of the history--world, national, local, and family. I hope you keep connecting the dots all on your own!

A Separate Peace

Finish reading the novel this week.   Here's the reading guide for those chapters.  When you finish, make sure you've submitted all the guides for this unit here.

Also, put at least one quote in your quote journal for this book.  

Let's spend some quality time talking about it next week--lots to think and talk about.

Ad Analysis Essay

 Here are the slides from class--please review the information carefully as it will help you write a stronger essay. Your thesis must make an assertion about the implicit and explicit messages of the ad identifying the target audience. Be sure to structure your paragraphs as directed.  You may have additional paragraphs or subdivisions, but you must have a minimum of six with the four required body paragraphs as described.  

Here is a document with directions, a checklist, and some sample paragraphs for this ad analysis essay. Samples can be super helpful!  

Tip---to get a clear/better copy of your ad, click on it.  It should enlarge.

Check out this 1940 Palmolive ad.  What's the promise/appeal here?

When I was growing up in the 1970's, I was familiar with the Palmolive dish liquid--especially since it was my bubble bath as a child! lol.  I guess my mom used it because it "softens hands while you do the dishes."

Here's are some recent Palmolive ads.  Think about what's different and what's the same.  If your 1940's product is still on the market, see if you can find a recent ad to compare the style and messaging.

Week 15 S2

A Separate Peace

This week we'll read and think about chapters 6-10 in  A Separate Peace.   Here is the study guide for you to use and complete while reading these chapters. 

There is a quoting exercise at the end of the guide which will take some thought and time, so you may want to preview that before reading.

1940's-1950's Ad Analysis

Please watch these instructional videos CAREFULLY.  They will introduce you to the skills and materials for this final project and essay.  They'll require 25 minutes total viewing time.

Ad Analysis Intro Video #1

Ad Analysis Intro Video #2

Here are the slides from the video by which you'll access the content and links you'll need. You'll learn about advertising elements and appeals, choose an ad from that era, and then complete the analysis worksheet.

Submit a crisp and high quality copy of the ad you've chosen here with all required information.

Here is the document where you will submit your ad analysis worksheet and next weeks ad analysis composition.

Week 14, S2

 

A Separate Peace

This week we'll begin reading A Separate Peace, chapters 1-5.  We'll be using a study guide format for this last unit.  I know, I know, it slows you down, but I'm doing it for your own good. You generally do better on the guides than the quizzes, plus we'll use them as a base for discussion.

Save your own copy of each of these study guides and follow the directions before, during, and after your reading:

Reader Response Guide, Chapters 1-3

Reader Response Guide, Chapters 4-5 

 When you are finished, submit links to the guides here.

Poem of the Week: "Strange Fruit"

This past class, I touched upon the idea that almost anything can be inspiration for a poem--a book from your childhood, a red wheelbarrow, even a metro station.  I also mentioned that literature, poetry, and artworks are sometimes designed to make you angry or uncomfortable. 

For example, although I asked if you liked the end of Fahrenheit 451,  we weren't supposed to like it, were we? Though Granger, Montag, and the commune survive, we are still left to grapple with a world of mechanical hounds, a wife who betrays her husband, and the vast destruction of an atomic bomb.  

Continuing with this theme of protest, our poem this week is "Strange Fruit." It was composed by a Jewish schoolteacher named Abel Meeropol after looking at a 1930 photograph. This poem was first published as "Bitter Fruit" in 1937, then Meeropol set it to music and began to perform it with his wife among friends.  The black singer Billie Holiday was introduced to the song and first performed it in 1939.

Holiday made the song famous. Listen to her 1959 performance here. 

Abel Meeropol's story is also fascinating.  His life touches upon so many of the issues of this era--Communism, the atomic bomb, McCarthism, The Rosenbergs, racism, and the impending civil rights movement. Please listen to this NPR episode: The Strange Story Of The Man Behind 'Strange Fruit' ---look for the blue bar to click for the 7 minute episode and/or read the article below it. 

You can learn more about this history of this poem or the photograph that inspired it here.

Quoting Practice

Find your book, They Say/I Say and read the chapter about quoting, Part I, Chapter 3 "As He Himself Puts It." The book looks like this or this:

If you can't find your copy, here's a link to the 3rd edition online.  At the end of this chapter, complete Exercise #2 which asks you go back and analyze how you integrated a quote in a past piece of writing.  You could use your local history article for this or any other piece of writing in my class or any other.  Analyze a time you've quoted text and revise it to make it better.  Cut and paste the before and after

effort into a Google document and submit it at with the study guide work above.

Submit Fahrenheit Work

You should submit your work for Fahrenheit 451  here.  

This work includes:

Your F451 chart
Your childhood book poem.
A snapshot or scan of your annotated "How to Mark a Book."

Week 13, S2

Hello Everyone,

Here is a list of work for the week:

1. Make sure you take the Fahrenheit 451 Quiz. Friday morning at 8 am is the hard deadline.  I'm working on grades over the next few days and will include it in your progress report.

2. Finish reading Fahrenheit 451.  

3. Here is a chart related to the text that I want you to complete this week. Make your own copy.  Read and follow the directions precisely.

4. Here is the rest of the work within the slides.

Also, I'm working on a Google survey to canvas your various thoughts about returning to the physical classroom again.  

As exciting as it is for some, it seems to creates logistical complications/concerns for others.  I need time to think about it.  Here's what I need to think about:

How many of you will attend in person?

If several of you stay home, can I do a hybrid well?

Is it "worth it" to figure out all of the kinks and hiccups just for our last few weeks together?

Anywhooo, look for the survey and fill it out---it will help me figure out how to proceed.  

I would LOVE to come back to the physical, but I don't want to make any of us crazy doing so!

That's it for now...Mrs. Price

Week 12, Semester 2

 Hello,

I'm posting the Week 12 slides here today for those who want to get started ASAP.  They contain not only a review of  class but instructions for this week's work over break.

Remember there will be a quiz on the first two parts of Fahrenheit 451 and the slides.

25x perfectly over four days.

Have a fabulous break and see you on April 7th!

Mrs. Price

Week 11, Semester 2

 Here are the slides for this week; they're a combination of review from class and new material.  Be sure to click through the Prezi presentation and complete the worksheet.  Also, there is a family genealogy assignment in there too. There are also some group discussion questions and information that we'll use next week.

Here is the last study guide to complete. Have all of this week's work ready to check next week in your groups.

Submit all Their Eyes Study Guide Work, genealogy effort, and email etiquette worksheet here by next class. Let me know if I am forgetting any work.

Progress reports will be calculated and sent at the end of spring break (early April), so the work for this unit will be the final piece that goes into that computation.  Do excellent work!

I saw this article in the Asheville Citizen-Times today and thought to keep you in the loop:

Vance Monument: Asheville to take final vote on obelisk honoring racist Confederate governor