10: the statement of intent
A sample:
story idea: students studying for an exam; theme: civilization is wicked and a waste of time. students realizing their education is about a bunch of useless information that makes them good employees but nothing else
statement of intent:
I wanted to write a story that showed a similar attitude toward society as is reflected in AQWF. In the novel, soldiers come to realize the limitations and weaknesses of civilization because of the stress they are under as a result of combat. That leads them to have conversations about their own situation and their place in society, like in chapter # just before the visit of the Kaiser, and also when Paul discusses his own future and the alienation from the past. I thought that students studying for a big exam would feel a similar sort of pressure that would lead them to ask questions about what they are doing and their place in civilization. I wanted the students to have a variety of views as the soldiers did, and that is why I included the argument between Javier and Laura and the knife fight at the end. The students’ issues are not as extreme, and their conclusions are not exactly the same, but I have raised the same issues about civilization as Remarque does in the novel.
a possible outline:
- what else do we need to know to understand the text?
- what was the main idea?
- where in the novel did you find it?
- briefly, how did you execute it?
10: conclusions
a sample:
thesis:
In All Quiet On the Western Front, human nature is portrayed as animal-like and indifferent to others.
conclusion:
Remarque presents a pessimistic view of human nature, but there are other ways of seeing the basic nature of individuals. While the novel argues that the nature of humanity exposed in war is the ‘true’ nature and the civilized nature is just a façade, others might say that human behaviour is purely social and reflects the context in which it occurs. In this view, no one set of behaviours is ‘truer’ or reflective of a core human nature than any other: they are all just different actions. Indeed, it is possible to say that there is no such thing as human nature at all, just a series of blundering acts based on the situations in which we find ourselves.
7: Oliver Twist paragraphs assignment
The assignment is here.
Download a paragraph planning sheet.
Look at a list of transitions.
Download a paragraph planning sheet.
Look at a list of transitions.
what is the question? | |||
What quality is important in a person and why? | |||
your topic sentence: | |||
In Oliver Twist, having a sense of humor is important because it helps people deal with the unfairness of life. | |||
key words from topic sentence to be used in explanation of examples | |||
humor | unfairness | ||
transition | |||
for example | |||
example 1 | |||
Dodger is always funny: funny words, teases Charlie, etc. (pg. #) | |||
explanation of example 1 | |||
Dodger shows humor. He is mistreated by Fagin but responds with humor and we like him as a character. | |||
transition | |||
Another example | |||
example 2 | |||
Grimwig is funny (examples will be funny stuff he says) | |||
explanation of example 2 | |||
Grimwig believes Oliver is bad because people usually are; deals with pessimism with humor | |||
wrap-up if needed | |||
the world in the play is tough, and is best dealt with through humor | |||
what is the question? | |||
Why is it important to have a sense of humor in the real world? | |||
your topic sentence: | |||
In the real world, a sense of humor helps a person deal with difficult situations. | |||
key words from topic sentence to be used in explanation of examples | |||
transition | |||
example 1 | |||
Students who have a mean teacher make jokes about it | |||
explanation of example 1 | |||
transition | |||
example 2 | |||
movie | |||
explanation of example 2 | |||
wrap-up if needed | |||
11: Year of the Hare questions & notes
Discussion questions for chapters 1-7 and chapters 8-12.
Some visual notes on chapters 13-18:
[gallery]
Some visual notes on chapters 13-18:
[gallery]
12: personal statements
Here is a sample I wrote few years ago. Look at the style rather than the content.
If you want me to look at a draft of your statement, drop by. In early November I will set a specific date on which you can bring a draft as well.
11: Millay sample practice
Some notes and a sample paragraph on 'I, being born a woman and distressed:'
[gallery]
[gallery]
7: Roll speeches
Here's the assignment.
Here's a text of the sample speech I gave in class:
Here's an online activity about oral competency.
7: grammar fun
Here are the notes we took in class on Monday:
[gallery]
And some short cartoons about some grammatical terms:
conjunctions:
predicates:
[gallery]
And some short cartoons about some grammatical terms:
conjunctions:
predicates:
10: Middle English videos
A Reading of The Canterbury Tales prologue:
A clip about English spelling and the Great Vowel Shift:
A clip about English spelling and the Great Vowel Shift:
12: hamlet links
A chart I made for another play, but works well for this one as well:
Online text of Hamlet
No Fear Shakespeare Hamlet
Scansion of Act III soliloquy
'In Search of the Perfect Hamlet'
Online text of Hamlet
No Fear Shakespeare Hamlet
Scansion of Act III soliloquy
'In Search of the Perfect Hamlet'
10: about Streetcar
A reviewer talks about the significance of the film in film history:
More resources:
More resources:
10: paragraph planning
Click the image above to see the notes more clearly.
Here are some other helps (also in the sidebar):
- a guide to structured paragraphs
- a template to help organize structured paragraphs
10: Glass Menagerie set
Click on the images to see their sources.
Here you can see the fire escape, the living room in front and the dining room in the back.
Here you can see the fire escape, the living room in front and the dining room in the back.
How to use this site
Welcome to kilmer@ish! This blog-formatted website is where you will find information about Mr. Kilmer's classes.
In the right column, you will find some class-specific links, mostly the class calendars and syllabi. In the column on the left, there are archive links for each class.
The webpage seems to work best using Firefox.
Let me know if you have any questions.
How to use this site
Welcome to kilmer@ish! This blog-formatted website is where you will find information about Mr. Kilmer's classes.
In the right column, you will find some class-specific links, mostly the class calendars and syllabi. In the column on the left, there are archive links for each class.
The webpage seems to work best using Firefox.
Let me know if you have any questions.
How to use this site
Welcome to kilmer@ish! This blog-formatted website is where you will find information about Mr. Kilmer's classes.
In the right column, you will find some class-specific links, mostly the class calendars and syllabi. In the column on the left, there are archive links for each class.
The webpage seems to work best using Firefox.
Let me know if you have any questions.
11 HL: Dalloway and Eliot links
a copy of the modernism handout
online text of Mrs. Dalloway
Annotated text of 'Prufrock' and 'The Wasteland'
An article about 'Prufrock' from Poetry X
A Cummings study guide for 'Prufrock'
A radio programme called 'The Wasteland and Modernity'
11: sample analytical paragraph
We looked at this in class. This is half of a body paragraph from an student's essay about moral inversion in Mother Courage:
War heroes emerge throughout the play, each of them revealing the theme of moral inversion of war. War heroism is encountered already in scene one, where recruiting soldiers emphasize the “good money in it, glory too.” (p.7) The promise of glory persuades Eilif to abandon his family for the military, showing how alluring the idealism of being a war hero is. Eilif soon gains the recognition he was promised: “Hacked ‘em to pieces, did you, so my gallant lads can get a proper bite to eat? What do the Scriptures say? ‘Whatsoever thou doest for the least of my brethren, thou doest for me.’” (p.17) The moral inversion of Eilif’s ‘heroic’ act is clear: Eilif is being praised for a sinful act due to the benefit it gave his country. The strong connotation of ‘hacking’ accentuates the brutality of the act, emphasizing the irony of Eilif’s heroism. The reference to Christianity also ludicrously embellishes the inversion, since the general is twisting the moral in the recited scripture to fit Eilif’s ironic heroism.
8: writing a thesis for Midsummer essays
The assignment is here.
sample intro 1:
If two people are in love and one thinks love is a crazy adventure and the other thinks love is a way to find contentment in life, the relationship probably won’t work out. The perception a person has with love can determine the way love works for them. According to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love can be fulfilling or frustrating depending upon the way the person perceives it.
sample intro 2:
Bette Midler, an American singer, once said, ‘Some say love, it is a river.’ What Midler is showing is that there are different ways of seeing love, and those different perspectives might affect the way love works in a person’s life. According to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love can be fulfilling or frustrating depending upon the way the person perceives it.
sample conclusion:
In the play, how a person sees love determines how he or she experiences it. In today’s world, some people see love as a wild exciting ride, and as a result their love life is more likely to be chaotic; likewise, a person who sees love as a way of finding peace and contentment will have romantic experiences that give them that opportunity. Love usually turns out the way a person looks at it.
10: P&P essay
Choose one of the prompts below. Write a 4-5 paragraph essay (600-1000 words) on that topic.
- How does the author use foils in the novel? Use two or three examples in your analysis.
- Discuss why and how a novelist would use caricatures, using some examples from this novel.
- Discuss the use of the letter as a plot device and its unique function in a novel, as applied to Pride and Prejudice.
- How does the author hold the readers’ interest in the novel? Focus on one technique or a few related techniques.
- Discuss the point of view, or narrative voice, of the novel, and how the author uses it to affect the way we read the novel.
Draft due: Friday 7 May
Essay Moodled in: Monday 10 May
Name your file last name + pride. Mine would be called kilmerpride.docx.
Here's the sample we wrote together in class on Wednesday:
Why are details of setting important in the novel?
setting as reflection of character
Authors often provide information about settings for their novels, and those descriptions add to the mood of the novel and a sense of realism. However, one reason to provide setting details is to provide a sense of characterization for those associated with that setting. Because of the limited third person point of view and the thematic significance of perspective in Pride and Prejudice, the narration does not allow the reader to perceive characters in an objective manner, and that objective view is important to the foreshadowing and the readers' expectations. Therefore, Austen uses the details of specific settings to give information about characters that bypass Elizabeth's perspective of those characters or suggests an outcome of which Elizabeth herself is not aware.
topic sentence:
One example of this is Pemberly.
Because Elizabeth's perspective is so significant to the novel, if Austen wants to develop characterization that disagrees with that perspective, she can use details from a setting associated with the character to do so.
If you remember, we started with a fairly simple idea and found more and more complexity as we explored the possiblke examples. Notice the bad topic sentence and the better topic sentence.
8: Midsummer act III paragraph
Due Thursday 6 May. Moodle it in.
Here's a sample we wrote together today:
8: Midsummer fairies assignment
Do a search for images of fairies from Midsummer Night's Dream. Use Google images and use terms like 'midsummer', 'fairy,' 'Puck,' 'Oberon' and 'Titania.'
Choose two images from your search. For each one, identify whether or not you think it is a good way of portraying the fairies generally or the character specifically. Write an explanation of why, using lines from act II as a way of explaining what you think of the images.
Make sure you reference the play correctly: (II.i.83) = Act, Scene, Line number
Due on Moodle by Thursday 29.4.
8: help with Midsummer Night's Dream
(try to identify all of these characters from act I scene i.)
an annotated version of the play
No Fear Shakespeare: the original text and a modern 'translation' side by side
A charming 1935 film version of the play
10: different ways of punctuating a quote
Some alternative ways of presenting a quotation from the text:
Elizabeth doesn’t want to go to Pemberley. When Mrs. Gardiner suggests it, she thinks, ‘It would be dreadful!’ (p. 186)
Notice the use of the comma after 'thinks' because the phrase before is a fragment.
When Mrs. Gardiner suggests it, she rejects the idea: ‘It would be dreadful!’ (p. 186)
Here the colon works because 'she rejects the idea' is an independent clause.
When Mrs. Gardiner suggests it, she says that ‘[i]t would be dreadful’ (p. 186).
This is the integration of the quotation into your own sentence: the square brackets indicate a change from the original text.
Elizabeth finds Mrs. Gardiner’s suggestion to go to Pemberly ‘dreadful’ (p. 816).
This, in many ways, is the best choice. It doesn't say anything less than the others and allows you as a writer to move on to other ideas. The more targeted the evidence, the better.
11: World literature assignment
Here are the notes on the aspects in the tree world literature works:
The wiki for signing up for a World Literature 1 topic is available on Moodle. It opens Monday 19 April at 16:30 and closes Wednesday 21 April at 21:00.
12: getting ready for study leave
meter handout
link to literary terms (Sparknotes)
reading for paper 1
planning for paper 2
sample paper 2 planning
intro to Huck Finn
intro to 1984
intro to Hour of the Star
8: intro to Homecoming
For a Google map of where the novel takes place, go here.
For a conversion of miles to kilometers, go here.
For a short biography of the author go here.
Here is her Wikipedia entry.
Much Ado About Nothing act III quotations
For the quotations below, explain the significance of each passage. Relate it to a theme, the development of character or the development of conflict.
For each passage, you must cover the needed analysis in less than 200 words.
Due Friday 19 February. Moodle it with the file name last name + ma3.
Here are the quotes:
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