All the daily work from June 4 through Friday, June 14 is listed below.
If you are missing assignments, please see me outside of class. I am available periods 1, 2, 4, and 8. For make-up work, you may come in any class, but your own to work in the back of the room. Often times in Journalism I am able to work with you individually.
I am also available after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Period 3 will begin Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters: reading The Hill and beginning character analyses.Periods 6 and 9 will finish up Guernica and then continue with Spoon River. All Guernica material is due today.
What everyone needs to turn in:
Guernica: handout from last Friday. This is due today. Please use a chromebook to review the material. Go to the blog: Parkerenglish3.blogspot.com
Spoon River materials: You will complete 5 character analyses. (Copy below of class handout). These are due on Thursday, June 6.
Friday/ Monday, June 7/ 10: Selecting your personal performance poem and creating your character's gravestones. (class handout) This is due at the close of class on Monday, June 10. (class participation grade)
Tuesday: tidying up and practicing your performance.
Wednesday/ Thursday, June 12 and 13 performances. Directions/ rubric below
Friday, June 14. Task 3 essay (final writing grade). You may finish it up over the weekend, if necessary.
Last day of classes. No late material will be accepted after this time.
Introducing: Spoon
River Anthology. class handout; this is a substantial collection of poems.
You may access the work on line at : Spoon River Anthology
Spoon River Anthology is
a series of poems in free verse (poetry that does not rhyme
or have a regular meter). In most of the poems, a deceased native of the
fictional town of Spoon River delivers a monologue about his or her life or a
specific incident in his or her life. These monologues are, in effect,
epitaphs.
Background
.......Dead men tell no
tales. So says an ancient proverb. But
in Spoon
River Anthology dead men—and women—do tell
tales. Speaking
from the grave, more than two hundred forty
deceased
residents of a fictional Midwestern town, Spoon
River, each present
short monologues about their lives. They
reveal their
heartaches, disappointments, failures, and
unfulfilled dreams.
Sometimes they tell of the moral
trespasses of
themselves or of others. Occasionally, they tell
of an incident that
reveals the good or bad qualities of
another person.
The Introductory Poem
The Hill
Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and
Charley,
The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter?
All, all are sleeping on the hill.
One passed in a fever,
One was burned in a mine,
One was killed in a brawl,
One died in a jail,
One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife-
All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.
Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie and Edith,
The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one?--
All, all are sleeping on the hill.
One died in shameful child-birth,
One of a thwarted love,
One at the hands of a brute in a brothel,
One of a broken pride, in the search for heart's desire;
One after life in far-away London and Paris
Was brought to her little space by Ella and Kate and Mag--
All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.
Where are Uncle Isaac and Aunt Emily,
And old Towny Kincaid and Sevigne Houghton,
And Major Walker who had talked With venerable men of the revolution?--
All, all are sleeping on the hill.
They brought them dead sons from the war,
And daughters whom life had crushed,
And their children fatherless, crying--
All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.
Where is Old Fiddler Jones
Who played with life all his ninety years,
Braving the sleet with bared breast,
Drinking, rioting, thinking neither of wife nor kin,
Nor gold, nor love, nor heaven?
Lo! he babbles of the fish-frys of long ago,
Of the horse-races of long ago at Clary's Grove,
Of what Abe Lincoln said
One time at Springfield.
Format: Free Verse.......Besides introducing
characters in Spoon River Anthology, "The Hill"
introduces the format, free verse. Free verse is poetry that ignores standard
rules of meter in favor of the rhythms
of ordinary conversation. In effect, free verse liberates poetry from
conformity to rigid metrical rules that dictate stress patterns and the number
of syllables per line.
Conversational
Language
.......Except for a
poem entitled "The Spooniad," the language in Spoon River
Anthology is simple, conversational, and realistic, with plenty of
local color and regional references—like the reference in "The Hill"
to "the horse races long ago at Clary's Hill" (line 32). Many of the
poems contain a figure of speech called anaphora. Anaphora is
the repetition of a word or group of words at the beginning of successive
phrases, clauses or sentences.
***********************************************************************************************************************
Character analysis
Name_______________________________________
Choose five of the poems
that appeal to you and complete a CHARACTER ANALYSIS worksheet for each.
Character Analysis for Spoon River
Anthology
You will need to
complete five character analysis forms. Keep in mind that these
people lived close to one hundred and fifty years ago. Remember to justify all
your answers with text.
Character’s name______________________________________
page number________________
Once you read poem,
list any words with which you are unfamiliar and define.
Unfamiliar words:
1.
_________________________________________ 4. __________________________________
2. _________________________________________ 5. _________________________________
3._________________________________________ 6.__________________________________
1. In a minimum of thirty words, summarize
the life of the character on the epitaph. From the text include any physical
descriptors, relationships and other themes, such as revenge, injustice or
justice, religion and jealousy. Were
they disillusioned, disappointed? Were their secrets taken to the grave?
2. In a couple of well-written sentences
reflect on how this individual is reflective on someone from a small town at
the beginning of the 20th century? (Draw on your own knowledge:
historical, social (gender, economics and political.)
There are lots of poems, so skip around and browse. I know
how everyone likes to work with a neighbor, but in this case, you may not have
any of the same ones as the person sitting next to you. Note that language conventions-
capitalization, punctuation and spelling count. No “I think”, no “wanna /
gonna”. Weave in bits of text; just put them in quotations.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
****************************************************************************
Spoon River directions. Please read carefully
and check off
________ Check for your assigned poem. Ideally you will have one of the
five from your graphic organizer; otherwise I chose for you. Everyone has
someone different.
________Collect
a tombstone
________ On the front of the tombstone, legibly print your poem, following the correct poetic format. This
is what you will read from!
________ On the back: write your name and a short well-written,
grammatically correct analysis
explaining your poem, weaving in specific text. This should be about 50 words.
________ Finally, if you so choose decorate your tombstone. There are colored
pencils.
Grading….. 25 points for correctly copying out your poem onto the
tombstone
…… 50 points (up
to) for your paraphrasing / summary of your selected poem
……. 25 points for
effectively decorating your tombstone.
These are due at the close of class. I will be in at the end of the day
to collect them.
********************************************************************************
name______________________________
“Spoon River” presentation
points
possible /
received
|
Prepared and on
time and had
prop 10/
|
|
Speaker maintains
good eye contact with the audience and is
appropriately
animated (e.g., gestures, moving around, etc.).
15 /
|
|
Speaker uses a
clear, audible
voice.
15 /
|
|
Delivery is poised,
controlled, and
smooth.
15 /
|
|
Good language skills
and pronunciation are used.
15 /
|
|
Poetic punctuation
is followed 15 /
|
|
Character is
maintained throughout the presentation
15 /
|
|
Final
score
100 /
|
