Basquill's American Lit

Ann Patchett Event

1. Read an Ann Patchett novel: Bel Canto, Taft, The Patron Saint of Liars, The Magician’s Assistant, or Run.

1B.  Hopefully, meet the author on April 12 at 7 PM at St. Mark’s HS.  Mrs. Basquill will be there!

2. Create a soundtrack to accompany the movie-version of your selected novel.

Directions: Visualize your selected novel as a film.  Select five important scenes (they should cover the beginning, middle, and closing of the novel for credit on the project).   Each selected scene should be rich in imagery, figurative language, and literary devices.  Type up and print out the following information for class on Tuesday, April 13.

For each of the five scenes you select:

A. Provide a brief overview of the selected scene in one – three sentence.

B. Copy the most descriptive section/paragraph of the scene from the novel.

C. List the artist and song title.

D. Explain how you would stage the scene and how you would use music in your filming of the scene.  This is a film treatment with some shot-by-shot instructions included.  For example have the camera zoom in, pan back, or focus on a particular person’s face.  What will the establishing shot be?  How will you angle the camera?  How will you cut between shots?  What lighting is needed?

E. Explain why your musical selection works well for the novel’s scene.

2B. If you would like to, create the CD cover with CD Cover Creator.

3. Post your soundtrack on this blog to share with your classmates.  Don’t forget to include the title of the book, a brief scene explanation (1-2 sentences), the title and artist, and a link so we can listen to your soundtrack.  This posting is due by midnight on Monday, April 12.

Here are some links to sites about film terminology to help develop your film treatments.

Film Terms 1

Film Terms 2

Film Terms 3

Film Terms 4

Start with this one!: Film Terms 5

WARNING: This is a school assignment, so language must be school-appropriate.  If any songs are offensive in terms of sexual suggestion, foul language, or derogatory concepts, no grade will be awarded and a referral will be submitted.

1.  The Junior Research Rough Drafts are due Wednesday, March 17.

2. Since we will be peer editing Thursday, March 18,  Friday, March 19, and Monday, March 22, the assigned short stories are due Tuesday, March 23.

3. The assigned short stories are: “Open Boat” starting on page 712, “Jumping Frog” starting on page 659, and “Occurrence” starting on page 582.  They need to be read by Tuesday, March 23.  This is when we will start our “ism” unit.

4. In order to guide your work on the rough draft, click and print out the Final Copy Rubric.

5. Helpful info: your outline was to organize your information.  The rough drft should be about fleshing out the details, offering the analysis, and creating the transitions between ideas.  See draft and revise a research paper and transitions.

6. As MLA references, look at:

OWL – Purdue On-line Writing Lab,

research paper\’s format

writing center at uw-madison

 7. View a sample paper.

Slavery has a long and horrible history perhaps as old as civilization itself.  Victorious cultures often enslaved those they defeated.  Sometimes a society asserted dominance by enslaving a population as their work force; therefore, many empires were built by the muscles of slaves. 

The ruling class would find reasons to justify slavery. Slaves were usually considered somehow different from their owners. They might belong to a different race, religion, nationality, or ethnic background. By focusing on such differences, slave owners felt they could deny basic human rights to their slaves, thus treating them as objects or property to be owned.

Slave Owner\’s Perspective

Slavery was typically generational, so that a child of a slave would also be a slave.  Short of the slim chance of escape, there was no way to break the cycle of slavery in a family.

Is one of the accolades of modern civilization that we have done away with slavery?  Is slavery still practiced in the modern world?

In your blog post, (1) offer a working definition of “slavery” or “slave” and (2) post a link to information on modern slavery.

This assignment is due Sunday night by midnight.

You are responsible for two posts and at least two comments (at least one per post).

Post One – Analysis of a Song (lyrics and music)

Directions: Read the lyrics and listen to the music of the attached song.  Answer the following questions in a blog post.  You may comment on (agree/disagree with) your classmates’ postings.

Here are the lyrics to the song: Ants Marching

and here is a YouTube link of a performance: Ants Marching

1. What is the tone of the piece?  (Remember the definition for tone?)

2. Review the tenets of transcendentalism and anti-transcendentalism.  Is this song transcendental or anti-transcendental?

3. Provide specific examples to support your opinion.

4. Why do you believe that the artist chose to communicate his theme with this music?

Post Two – Share a Song (lyrics or/and music)

Now try to find and share a song you believe demonstrates the tenets of transcendentalism or the tenets of anti-transcendentalism.  You may either tell us which it supports or have us guess.  Let us know if we guess correctly.

* Please remember that this is a school forum – explicit lyrics and images are banned.*

By now I should have received your Research Proposals for your papers via email attachment.  I could not open some of the attachments, so I sent you a message to bring a hard copy to class sans late penalty.

If you have not submitted your research proposal, I expect it on Tuesday with a penalty.

Per the Junior Research Timeline Packet – thesis statements and source cards are due on Tuesday, February 16.  Hopefully we will be returning to school on this date.  They are still due; however, I will be showing you examples and talking about creating a thesis statement in class.  I will probably add a few “redo” days for those of your who want to polish either the thesis statement or the MLA formatting on the source cards.

MLA note – MLA just came out with an updated book.  There have been a few changes that might impact us.

MLA 2009

Charter has chosen to still require the URL.  Please note that this OWL site is an excellent resource for MLA formatting and crafting research papers in general.

Thesis statement help:

from UNC

What is a thesis?

from Richmond U

Bad Examples from UPENN

I. Vocabulary Program: you are on your own with day 5 of lesson 12.  Be ready for a vocabulary quiz on lesson 12 on either Tuesday or when we meet again.

II. Junior Research: Proposals are due to me via attachment in email by Friday at midnight.

III. Anti-transcendentalism: this work is due for class on Tuesday.

1. Study the following handouts.

Tenets of Anti-transcendentalism

Authors of Anti-transcendentalism

2. Read excerpts of Moby-Dick.  Quiz alert for Wednesday!

Chowder

The Quarter-Deck

The Chase – Third Day

I. Vocabulary Program: day 4 of lesson 12

II. Junior Research Proposal is due on Friday via email attachment

III. Transcendentalism

Use this page to post your quote analysis that is due by midnight Wednesday.  Don’t forget to include author, work, and contemporary or personal connections.  Please note that we are responsible for understanding all of the quotes, so take notes on your classmates’ posts.

I.  The Junior Research Proposal is due on Friday, February 12.  You might need to email it to me in an attachment if we are not back to school by then.  Remember to follow the directions outlined in the guidelines packet found on the blog’s main page.

II. I have graded the research questions . . . hum . . . some of my students followed directions, but others generated a list of questions answerable by a close reading of the text.  Research questions need to be researchable (even on your home computer while you are wearing your bunny slippers).  Some students will need to redo the research questions.

III. Since I am concerned about your proposals, I am requiring all of my juniors to email me their topic ideas,  You will receive a quick email feedback of “approved” or “redo.”

I. Vocabulary Program: day 3 of lesson 12

II. Junior Research: Don’t forget the proposal due on the 12th.

III. Transcendentalism

1. Answer one of the reflection questions and respond to a classmate’s post.  Due Tuesday (today) by midnight.

• How could one be affected by nature? How could nature provide comfort or sympathy?
• What is the role of nature in your own life?
• What is meant by an individual’s spiritual side? How do you define “spiritual”?
• Is there a connection between an individual’s spirit and nature? If so, what is that connection?
• What does it mean to know something intuitively? For example, has a parent or a sibling ever known something was wrong with you without having talked with or seen you? What do we mean when we say “I just know it”  Is intuition more powerful that reason?
• How do you demonstrate that you are an individual? Do you think independently of others or do you follow the crowd?

2. Read pages 362 – 366 and pages 372 – 379 and 382 – 388 in the textbook.

3. Select a transcendental quote to fully explain.  Each quote may have a maximum of three student-experts.  Post your choice by midnight today (Tuesday) – first come, first selected.  The quote analysis is due by Wednesday at midnight.

Quotes

I hope you enjoyed plenty of sledding and hot chocolate over our snowy weekend!

I. Vocabulary Program: Complete Day 2 of Lesson 12

II. Junior Research (on going)
1. Read “The Power of Research” on pages 1268 – 1300 in the textbook.
2. Your Junior Research Proposal is due February 12.
3. Email Mrs. Basquill any junior research questions to her Charter address.

III. Define Transcendentalism
1. Read pages 358 – 361 and 370 – 371 in the textbook.
2. Print out and study these handouts.

Tenets of Transcendentalism

Authors of Transcendentalism

3. Review this site:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

4. Post another informative site about either transcendentalism in general or about Emerson or Thoreau.  What neat or unusual information can you find?  The post is due by Monday (today) at midnight.