Portrait of the Artist Parts 1 & 2

In the comment box below, please identify a passage in A Portrait parts 1& 2 and use your skills at explication to read deeply into what is going on in the passage.  What motifs do you notice?  Words?  Themes and complexities that are being explored?  What is the tone like compared to the rest of the novel?  Treat the passage as a classic Question 2.

Literary Terms for Midterm

Midyear Exam Literary Terms

Midyear Exam Literary Vocabulary

Sonnets & Poetry (21)

English (Shakespearean) Sonnet, Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet, Iambic Pentameter, Meter, Iamb, Rhyme Scheme, Volta, Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, Stanza, Octet, Sestet, Quatrain, Couplet, Enjambment, End rhyme, Full rhyme, Near/Off/Half/Slant Rhyme, Sonnet Sequence/Sonnet Cycle/Corona/Crown of Sonnets, Blank Verse

Other Types of Poems (5)

free verse, villanelle, sestina, terza rima, ballads

Other Poetic Techniques (3)

anaphora, epistrophe, inversion

Figurative Language (16)

figurative language, simile, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, personification, apostrophe, conceit, hyperbole, pun, double entendre, rhetorical question (=erotema), oxymoron, paradox, synesthesia, denotation, connotation

Irony (4)

irony, verbal irony, situational irony, dramatic irony

Narration (5)

narration, first person narration, third person limited narration, third person omniscient narration, stream of consciousness

Writing Style (9)

style, voice, diction, syntax, tone, mood, dialect, colloquialism, vernacular

Character (13)

characterization, direct characterization, indirect characterization, dynamic character, static character, round character, flat character, foil, protagonist, antagonist, tragic hero, antihero

Plot & Events (10)

Plot, exposition, inciting action, rising action, climax, denouement (resolution), flashback, foreshadowing, internal conflict, external conflict,

Other Literary Terms from First Semester (4)

motif, symbol, epigraph, epiphany

Icarus and Daedalus Images.

Hi Everyone:

Check your email (or a classmate's email) for the Icarus and Daedalus images and take a look at them.  Pick one that strikes you for any reason and take detailed notes about it.  How does the author use the myth in his / her own way?  How are colors used?  How are the figures arranged?  What is foregrounded and what is in the background?  Does the image reflect the time-period in which it was produced in some way?  How does the art you're focusing on compare to the other pieces you looked at?  Try to take note of ever little decision that the artist has made in order to frame the myth.  Look at your notes afterward and arrange them so that you are prepared to say something about the art at some point. You may want to check with your classmates to make sure you are all not doing the same piece.  

Many of you have been involved in art, photography, clay, and drama: use your expertise to make shrewd and perceptive observations about the art for your classmates.

Thanks, and see you after break.

Not For College Essay Samples.

See here: http://apenglishghs2011.blogspot.com/p/memoir-essays-aka-not-for-college.html

Modernism and Joyce Terms.

Hi Everyone: In the comment section below, please post what you found about the Modernist / Joyce terms you researched.  Please also include a citation using MLA format for a website at the bottom of your entry. Try to avoid Wikipedia.  Try to get across what you think is most essential to know about your particular term(s) for the benefit of your classmates.  Thanks, Mr. Telles.

College Essays and Jane

Hi Everyone:  I'm just reminding you to bring in what you have for drafts of your college essay tomorrow (Monday).  Hopefully our outside readers will be here for us tomorrow, but if not, we'll peer-edit each other's work.

Now that we're letting go of Jane Eyre, we'll try to have our question 2-style in-class response on Tuesday, and then have a formal discussion on Wednesday, possibly Thursday.  Sounds like a lot, but we've prepared for the question 2, and you always hit the discussions out of the park.  See you tomorrow.

Jane Eyre Chapters 17-27.

Hi everyone: Let's look to have chapters 17-27 read by next Tuesday, Sept. 31.  I'll talk to you in class about other deadlines and plans, but if you can focus at home on reading through these chapters, that would be great.  Thanks, Mr. Telles.

Web Presentations.

Hi Everyone: Once again, let me say that the work you did on your webs is really thoughtful and provoking.  In the comment box below, respond to one of your classmate's ideas as they were presented in class.  You can extend the idea, gently disagree, use the idea as a bridge to another idea, or simply appreciate it.  Please try to have the response in by the end of the day on Monday as there is another response to come soon on your amazing discussions of Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre, Chapts. 1-16

Please read chapters 1-16 of Jane Eyre for Wednesday, September 18th.  We will have a formal discussion on that day, which may run into Thursday, and there will also be a blog post due on Friday.  The blog post will ask you to respond to one of your class mate's ideas from the discussion.  I will create a new post for that purpose when the time comes.  Thanks, Mr. Telles.

Wide Sargasso Sea and Web Assignment.

Hi everyone: I'll have to be brief about our last meeting to discuss Wide Sargasso Sea because I am also going to tack the Web Assignment on to this post, and that will make a lot of reading.  If you were not able to attend, please attach your response to the comment box below.

 I reiterated the importance of trying out two important skills while writing the quotations responses: a) make bold assertions about the details of the book or the book as a whole wherever possible, and b) be resourceful with the entire book, meaning you should be able to access all parts of the book to give your argument context rather than simply focusing on the quote in front of you.  After discussing these things, we had a great discussion about the Wide Sargasso Sea, considering such things as the unusual structure of the book, shifting narrative voice, the restraint of the narrative voice, and the fact that the book often does little to help orient the reader as far as voice, setting, and other contextual elements.  This discussion was deep and wide ranging.  After this, we took a look at a sample Question 2 from the AP Exam itself and we used this as an opportunity to practice annotating the text.  Annotating is essentially the act of close reading with a pencil in your end.  This will be discussed again in class.

To pull together all of the summer work, there is a final literary web project which is copied below.  We'll need to start presenting these some time late next week (meaning the end of the week of Sept. 9-13).  You can ask me questions about this in class.  In the meantime, while working on this project, please check your bookshelves, libraries and book stores for copies of Jane Eyre.  Sorry to say, but the school only owns a handful, so it would be great if you could steal your Uncle Bobby's copy for a while.  Here is the Web Assignment:

Literary Analysis Web

Literary Analysis Web

Making meaning by relating the parts to the whole and the whole to the parts

The Process and the Question

Over the summer we have asked questions that are essential to writing well on the AP Exam: What could each of you do to show that you understand how the parts contribute to the whole of a piece of literature?  How can you show that a writer’s choices – choices of individual events, of the order of events, of the (sometimes strange) descriptions and details, of the repeated images, of the characters and characterization, etc. – fit together to suggest something about the significance of the work as a whole?

You will answer these questions by creating a literary analysis web in response to Invisible Cities, Invisible Man, or Wide Sargasso Sea.

The Web, part one: the center

Each student will make a web. At the center of the web will be a robust paragraph (100 words to 300 words or so), explaining in your own words, your understanding of what the novel you’ve chosen is fundamentally all about. What exactly do you think the novel suggests?

(Hint: To begin thinking about the essential themes in the novels review your passage responses and the summaries of summer session discussions written by Mr. Telles.)

The "introductory" paragraph will explain your "big idea," your "bold, insightful assertion" about the novel's meaning. Spend some time with this. The GHS schoo lwide rubric says that in order for such paragraphs to be considered proficient they must be clear, supportable, debatable, and insightful; the ones that are advanced will also be sophisticated and/or original . (Warning: Do not turn to the internet looking for an answer. Rely on your own interpretive skills, your own heart and mind. Each year several students ignore this warning and end up receiving no credit (0) for one or more summer reading assignment.)

The Web, part two: the threads

Then you will connect the central paragraph to interpretations of how at least four passages in the novel support your "big idea," your "bold assertion," your "central insight". Choose passages that show development over the course of the novel (beginning, middle, and end) as well as a range of choices made by the author that contribute to the novel’s development.  (Let me make it clear that four is a minimum and to create a thoroughly convincing web you might need to refer to more passages.)

These "interpretations" need to show two things: an understanding of the passage itself and an understanding of how the passage supports your "big idea," your central insight about the significance of the whole. How you show your understanding of the passage and your understanding of its connection with the "big idea" is up to you.

To show your understanding of a passage what will you do? Will you write a paragraph (in the manner of a standard essay) explaining how the passage supports the central paragraph? Will you quote the passage in one font and offer an explication (an unfolding of meaning) in relation to your big idea by using another font? Will you create a picture that shows an understanding of the passage (and its relationship with the central paragraph)? Will this picture show symbolic understanding as well as literal understanding of the passage?

To show the connections what will you do? Will you draw lines? Will each connecting line include a sentence linking the passage with the big idea? Will you use a "footnote" or "endnote" system in which you put numbers in your central paragraph that will lead to numbers which offer explanations of how passages support the central paragraph? Will you create Powerpoint slides to show connections?

And, finally, will you go beyond? Will you show not only how the big idea is connected with passages but also how the passages are connected with each other? What else might you do to show the relationship between the parts of the novel and your understanding of the whole?

Note:

I know some of you are thinking, just tell me what to do! This is too vague.

Part of AP English Lit & Comp is learning how to be a critical, creative, resourceful, and independent reader and writer. I want you to show me that you don't need to be led by the hand but can come up with appropriate, innovative solutions to challenges. In this case I've given you a few parameters (write a central assertion of a, connect that central assertion to an understanding of at least four passages). I've given you some examples of how you might complete the assignment. I've left the rest up to you.

The Web, part three: teaching your peers

You will be creating a physical object -- a web -- and you will be called upon to explain the web at some point during the second week of class.

Grading

Advanced webs will offer an insightful, sophisticated, perhaps original understanding of the novel as a whole. This overall understanding will be linked to persuasive, nuanced understanding and interpretation of how at least four passages drawn from key moments throughout the novel support your understanding of the whole. These webs may go "beyond" the parameters of the assignment in some significant, meaningful way.

Proficient webs will offer a clear, thoughtful, plausible, understanding of the novel as a whole. This overall understanding will be linked to a reasonable understanding and interpretation of how at least four passages from the beginning, middle, and end of the novel contribute to the whole. The webs are generally considered to have succeeded in fulfilling the assignment but not to have exceeded expectations for a student entering an introductory college-level course at a competitive college or university.

Webs that need improvement may not offer a clear or plausible understanding of the novel as a whole. The central paragraph may point out themes but may not offer interpretation or insight as to the meaning of the themes in the novel. These webs refer to at least four passages but may not adequately show an understanding of the passage or of how the passage contributes to the work as a whole. The understanding and connection of some passages may be effective The passages may not be drawn from the beginning, middle, and end of the novel. In general these webs do not meet the expectations for a student entering an introductory college-level course at a competitive college or university.

Webs that receive warning status may include the weaknesses cited above but also fail to adhere to the basic parameters of the assignment. They may show little to no understanding of the novel or of the passages.

Any web that includes language or material taken directly from another source will receive a zero.

Meeting Postponed

Hi Everyone: Just letting you know that I sent an email around about postponing Tuesday's meeting.  I rescheduled the meeting for Thursday, August 29th, from 10-12 in room 1222.  Sorry about this, and I hope to see you there, Mr. Telles.

Monday's Meeting Recap: 8/12

I started Monday’s meeting in the same way I started the previous meeting, by addressing the last set of quotation responses.  The quotation responses were generally of a very high quality and I complimented the group for making very shrewd and perceptive observations.  I reminded the group that the next step is to take these observations and synthesize them into more comprehensive assertions about what is going on in the text.  In other words, what do all of these things add up to?  When you consider all of the things you are observing, what patterns do you see, and why do these patterns matter – not just to the book, but to humanity in general?  Don’t be afraid to make bold assertions about these things.  You do not need to do it in every response, but push yourself to arrive at these assertions occasionally.  Also, push yourself to be resourceful with the book.  Don’t just focus on the quotation in front of you every time; allow yourself to access other parts of the book that relate to the quotation.  This shows that you think in a fluid way and that you have some familiarity with the text.

After discussing the responses, we briefly took notes on a few phases of literary criticism.  The intent was to get at what the AP exam values as far as your critical writing style goes.  The AP tends to value writing that resembles the New Critical style of literary criticism, so we talked briefly about New Criticism as opposed to Post-Modernism / Post-Structuralism.  In simplified terms, New Criticism tends to treat a piece of literature as a force unto itself which can be appreciated fully without any access to information about its historical conditions, the author’s biography, or any other specialized angle of inquiry.  It puts an emphasis on textual structure, tension inherent in the text, and relationships between elements in the text.  Post-Modernism, on the other hand, tends to see the text as porous, and the act of interpretation depends as much upon the interpreter’s lens as it does the text itself.  I briefly mentioned some of these “lenses” as possible areas of interest for students later in the year, but recommended looking up New Criticism as a mode of writing for the AP exam itself.

As for the second half of Invisible Man, students found the book had become increasingly surreal as it went on, and cited a number of scenes and episodes that were either very hard to reconcile with the rest of the book or simply made students uncomfortable.  The “rape” scene concerned many students, and this led us to note that the role of women in the book was quite complicated.  However, at one point we tried to contextualize the rape scene as part of a larger theme concerning role-playing: characters in the novel invariably expect the Invisible Man to play a preconceived role, and become very disturbed when he doesn’t conform, even if the role is a rapist or thief.  We explored other major motifs as well: the preponderance of eyes (“pain-sharpened” or just falling out), the legacy of slavery and the links of chain, issues of discipline and subordination, the creation of new selves and new roles, and the idea of being a “mechanized” or inanimate human being.  The students asked some shrewd questions as well: did Norton recognize The Invisible Man at the station and pretend not to?  How reliable is the narrator? Why does the Invisible Man never mention his family, besides the grandfather?  And I asked: why did the Invisible Man leave Mary for the Brotherhood?  Students offered very thoughtful responses to these questions, which I will leave open for you if you will be responding in the comment section below.

Because of time constraints, I need to schedule the next meeting for Tuesday, August 27^th.  The book this time is Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, which will be a nice transition into Jane Eyre during the school year.  The assignment is the same as the previous two assignments for Invisible Man, only for the longer response, please choose a passage in which the author uses style or technique in a way that is both unique to this book and also reveals something meaningful about the book as a whole.  This particular book boasts a lot of narrative shifts and unusual stylistic choices, which should make it easy for you to find a good passage.  Come to the next meeting ready to say a few words about what you think makes your passage work and what it reveals.

For those who couldn't come, please remember that you have to post a comment in the comment box.  See previous posts for details.

Thanks again to everyone who came to the meeting and to those who wrote to me.  See you next time.  Mr. Telles.

July 25th meeting: recap.

I started the meeting yesterday by addressing the Invisible Cities responses, which I thought were very strong in general.  The writing was thoughtful and clear, and the selections were very interesting and worth attention.  I had a few suggestions for students who wanted to improve.  One thing to look for (and I commented on this in many responses) are opportunities to move beyond observing something in the text and making a bold assertion about it.  In other words, many students were very good at noticing patterns, objects loaded with symbolic value and extended metaphors, but what was missing was a statement about why these things matter in the text.  You don’t have to constantly be making pronouncements throughout your paper, but occasionally stop and make an assertion about why all of the things you are noticing are significant.  And try to phrase your assertion in a confident way.  Another skill you should try to employ is the ability to appear resourceful with the text.  What I mean is if you notice something interesting in a selection, connect what you have noticed to other parts of the book.  This shows that you have some command over the material.  In essence, you would be writing “I see something happening here, and it is similar to something happening early in the book, etc.”  Or: “Here is something that also appears later in the book in a different, modified form which changes the reader’s understanding of it.”   

Invisible Man, being the huge and complex book that it is, led us in many directions but all of them were illuminating.  We started by trying to establish a sense of how the novel is structured or how it develops.  It has the elements of a Bildungsroman (a coming of age story of gradual social, intellectual, moral or artistic development) so we looked for moments of intellectual and social awakening.  Students brought up crucial scenes such as the Invisible Man’s interview with Bledsoe, his not-so-relaxing drive with Norton, the revelation of what’s really in Bledsoe’s letter, and his speech at the eviction.  One student noted that many of these moments are revelations of systems of social power and control that are under the surface of the culture the Invisible Man lives in. 

Apart from discussing these scenes, we also tried to address the style of the book, which was a topic that we kept returning to, as the style is highly unusual.  Many students found the tone of the book “creepy,” unsettling, darkly comic, and sarcastic.  I noted that the author distances the reader from the Invisible Man from the outset: the tone is aggressive and ironic, and one of the first things we see the man do is beat someone else up, possibly to death.  So we’re not feeling to empathetic at the beginning.  But the most unusual thing about the novel, it seems, is the almost caricature-like size and prominence of the metaphors and symbols, and the fact that many of the scenes seem so outrageous that they can’t possibly be imagined as really happening.  This led us to a discussion on literary styles such as the sophisticated use of irony and the “grotesque,” something that became associated with southern literature.  The grotesque style generally blows up or exaggerates elements of what we might think of as “real life,” creating a sense of things being surreal, dream-like, bizarre or disorienting.  I made the point that the grotesque style, when done well, doesn’t avoid reality or “the truth” by making a mockery of it: often the author’s purpose is to reveal or expose a truth by exaggerating elements of everyday life.  The significance of things and the relationships between things aren’t changed; how we imagine or visualize them is changed, however.  Ellison appears to very consciously be doing this (can you really imagine a Battle Royal happening??  Or a scene like the Golden Day??).  Please keep this in mind if you are tempted to criticize the book for being unrealistic or unbelievable.  Instead, ask yourself what ideas or conflicts are being dramatized and how the strangeness of the narrative might be necessary to get them across.

We finished by trying to make assertive statements in response to questions I provided, such as why the Invisible Man is never named, how Ellison is critiquing Booker T. Washington’s vision of African American’s social advancement, and what to make of the Trueblood episode, among others.  These will carry over to next time.

We will need to have the next meeting on Monday, August 12^th from 10-12.  The assignment is exactly the assignment you were given for the first half of the novel.  See the blog post for that.  Talk about surreal: hold on to your seats for the second half of the book.  A big thank you to everyone who came to the meeting yesterday.

Next Meeting: Invisible Man, Chapters 1-15

Looks like our next meeting will have to be Thursday, July 25th.  I can meet earlier in the day, if it sounds good to you: 10-12.  Room 1222.  The reading will be Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, chapters 1-15.

The format for the assignment will be the same as with Invisible Cities, but with different focus areas.  Here are the retooled directions:

Description: This assignment is a hybrid which combines the skill of responding to a passage in an exploratory and provisional way (as in the traditional quotation response journal) and something approaching the more focused and formal skill of the AP-style passage response (Question 2) on the AP Literature exam.  Use the attached rubric (in email) to guide you through the shorter quotation responses.  The same rubric is applicable to the longer portion of the assignment, only rather than including personal connections and open-ended questions, you should maintain your focus on what is being asked of you in the directions.

Directions:

Part One:  After reading chapters 1-15 of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, respond to four passages from throughout the text.  Try to choose passages that do one of two things: 1) In preparation for the bildungsroman unit during the school year, try to choose passages that advance, complicate, or illuminate the main character's social, intellectual, or creative development.  In other words, what are the big moments of change and what do they reveal?  OR 2)  Try to select passages that contain things that seem to jump out of the narrative as highly unusual, grotesque, uncomfortable or incongruous.  Try to make some sense out of these things or make connections to the larger story.

As always, Keep in mind these fundamental questions: why does your passage matter so much, and how does your passage function on its own and in relation to the rest of the book?  Each response has a 60 word minimum.

Part Two:  Write one longer response to a passage, around 300-500 words.  You simply want to choose a passage that exemplifies one of the two threads above but seems especially important.

Thanks, and please write with any questions, Mr. Telles.

First Meeting: July 9th, Invisible Cities.

Hi Everyone:

I started the meeting with a general overview of the course and made distinctions between AP Literature and AP Language.  Much of this information will be repeated during the first weeks of the school year, but it is all worth repeating.  Generally, many of the skills of reading and argumentation which are covered in AP Language are transferable to this course, only because of the nature of the material that you will be reading, your general approach will need to be re-calibrated a bit.  You will still be trying to make bold assertions, working on a polished and formal style of writing, and moving fluidly between analyzing the parts of a work of literature and the whole of it -- tying technique to meaning.  The material, however, will often break with convention rather than use it, and it will also leave you on the doorstep of a deep, insoluble human problem rather than trying to convince you of the truth of one's position.  It is not your job to solve the problem or smooth it over!  Just make an assertion about how the writer explores this problem or reveals this problem in a unique way.

After talking briefly about the elements of the AP Literature test itself and the ways in which the class in not just a test-prep class, we got into the book.  I asked the class to share their general impressions of the book, and many students were very honest and insightful about their impressions.  One student immediately noted that she was captured by the book in the beginning but became a bit worn down by what seemed like repetition: often she found herself wondering where she had read something before and she couldn't differentiate much between the cities.  Many students agreed with her.  I then posed the question of whether or not this is deliberate on the part of the author.  The question then is one of authorial control, which is always useful to ask: is the author actually in control of something that may seem like an accident to the reader?  Some students defended the repetition as integral to the story by noting how certain motifs or patterns (inversions, dualities, etc.) and themes such as the deceptiveness of one's perception and the idea of regeneration are in line with repetition in the novel.  Other students noted that the stories had a unique structure: the stories seem to be arranged according to their own general concerns (desire, fear, waste) and some stories seem to have a "base word," as one student called it, around which the city in the story organizes itself.  One student noted simply and elegantly that the stories are just entertaining to read because they are so inventive and imaginative, regardless of whether or not one can make sense of them. 

From here students each shared a small passage that they selected and said a few words about why they chose the passage.  Students were to listen carefully for any connection to one of their own passages and to then share the connection and then their passage.  The intent of the exercise is both to hear how and why students selected certain passages and to then examine the threads that connect each passage to get a sense of what the novel is up to.  Here are some of the threads (conflicts) that emerged:

• is language invasive / harmful or illuminating?
• is memory to be trusted or is it an invention?
• is it more important to keep moving and exploring or to consolidate, conserve, set up boundaries?
• should one dwell on details or contemplate the whole of something?
• should one use experience to search for answers or simply take in experience for its own sake?
• how do we know what is real when everything is bound up in perception?

At this point I asked the students to think about some of these conflicts and try to construct a "provisional" thesis.  They did this in pairs.  The leading question was simply "What is the deepest, most essential conflict here, and why should it matter to the average person?"  Although the second part of the question caused some consternation, the responses to the first part were great beginnings: our creations are a response to fear and desire, our inventions are have their own reality, our experience and memory are bound up in the relativity of perception, and the contemplation of the details of life (and stories) help to pull us out of denial.

There is one thing that we did not get to.  I wanted to discuss the language of the novel: it doesn't sound like a typical novel, so what is the actual language doing to achieve this effect and why?  What's going on with the vocabulary, the syntax, the pacing or cadence of the sentences? 

Thanks for reading, and I'll publish another post to prepare for the next meeting.  *** If you could not make it to yesterday's meeting, please respond to some element of this post in the comment box below.***  You can disagree with something, extend the discussion, or introduce something wholly new. 100-200 words.  Thanks again, Mr. Telles.

Meeting Tomorrow

Just a reminder that we're meeting tomorrow from 1-3, probably in Ms. Paganetti's room.  I'll put a sign on the language office door.  Also, it looks like I'll be able to push the time earlier for the next meeting.

For those who can't make it: a recap of the meeting will appear on this blog in the three days following the meeting.  Before the next meeting, please respond in the comment box to some of the ideas that your classmates have put on the table: extend the discussion, disagree respectfully, let one idea take you to another, or introduce a new idea.  About 100-200 words is good.  Thanks, Mr. Telles.

Test

Hi Everyone:

This post is here to help you test your ability to post comments.  In the comment section below, post one of your favorite words.  Just a word is all that is needed, but check back to make sure your comment has registered.

Once I have all of your emails in my database, I'll send out an email and post about the format for the first quotation / passage response and a date for our first meeting during the summer.