The Crucible -- A Preview

Ten Powerful Facts about The Crucible.

The Crucible (official trailer)

The Crucible (student project film trailer)

The Crucible (historical context, slideshow)

The Crucible (more detail on witchcraft)

Assignments for week of Oct. 29

Check in / Schedule Conferences as needed:
     --Tragic Characters Comparison Essay (due Friday)

Intro to The Bean Trees
     --Reading Assignments

• Chapts. 1 - 2 -- due Monday, Oct. 29
• Chapt. 3  -- due Tuesday
• Chapt 4 -- due Thursday
• Chapts. 5 - 6 -- due Monday, Nov. 5
• Chapts. 7 - 8 -- due Tuesday, Nov. 6 (plus a total of 8 total double-entries)
• Chapts. 9 - 10 -- due Wednesday
• Chapts 11 - 12 -- due Thursday
• Chapts. 13 - 14 -- due Friday
• Chapts. 15 - 17 -- due Tuesday, Nov. 13

     --Double-entry Journal:  You are asked to keep a double-entry journal of 4 - 6 entries for each set of two chapters.  The left column of each entry is a quote or a paraphrase.  The right column is your analysis.  Analysis may take the form of comments, connections, predictions, or questions.  Connections may take the form of (a) a personal connection; relating the excerpt to personal experience or observation; (b)  a connection to another text; or (c) a connection to the world.
(aka "text to self;" "text to text;" "text to world" connections.)  Include a page number with each entry..

Shakespeare, "Sonnet 97"  & PAWS

Assignment for Wednesday, Oct. 24

--Continue drafting your Tragic Characters Essay.  Your draft should now be up to 700 words (minimum). 
--Plan to complete your draft, including introduction and closing, by the start of class on Friday.

On Dramatic Irony

On Dramatic Irony      --from TypesofIrony.com
This form of irony is considered by many writers as a potent tool for exciting and sustaining the interest of readers and audiences. The irony creates a big contrast between the immediate situation of the character and the episodes that will follow, and therefore, generates curiosity.

By allowing the reader and audience to know more things ahead of the characters, the irony puts the reader and audience [in a position] above the characters and encourages them to hope, to fear, and anticipate the moment when the character finds out the truth behind the situations and events of the story.

Dramatic irony is also used more often in the tragedies. In such stories, the readers and audiences are pushed to sympathize with the characters all the way to the tragic end. The irony is used to emphasize the fatality of limited understanding even on innocent and honest people, and to demonstrate the painful repercussions of misunderstandings. The characters in the story or play remain ignorant about the bad fate while the reader or audience knows about the heartbreaking end.

Assignment for Monday, Oct. 22

1. Create a Google doc which will contain the outline and draft for you Tragic Character Essay.  Link this document to the latest assignment on Google Classroom.

2. Continue to build your outline with quotes and topic sentences.  Also add a thesis statement.  The "skeleton" of your outline might look something like this:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Thesis: The writers of Oedipus Rex and Death of a Salesman both use techniques including imagery, diction, and dramatic irony to bring out a sense of tragedy in the mind of the reader. 

1. Imagery

• Oedipus Rex
• quotes to support
• Death of a Salesman
• quotes to support

2.  Diction

• Oedipus Rex
• quotes to support
• Death of a Salesman
• quotes to support

. . .  etc.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Begin drafting your body paragraphs.  Draft 3 paragraphs or 250 words (whichever comes first) by class time on Monday.

Diction & Syntax

Questions for analyzing Diction and Syntax

Diction
1. What type of words draw your attention? (Verbs, Nouns, Adjectives…)
2. Is the language general and abstract or specific and concrete?
3. Is the language formal, informal, colloquial, or slang?
4. Does the text employ figurative language?
5. Are there words with strong connotations that indicate strong emotions?

Syntax
1. What is the order of the parts of the sentence?
         (Subject-Verb-Object) or (Object-subject-verb)
2. What are the sentences like?
         Periodic-moving toward something important at the end.
         Cumulative-beginning with an important idea and then adding details.
                  More on these two sentence types here.
3. Describe the types of sentences.
         (Simple, compound, complex, compound complex)
4. Does the writer ask questions?
5. How does the writer connect words, phrases, and clauses?

More on Diction and Syntax in Death of a Salesman is here.
________________________________________________________

Assignment for Friday, Oct. 18

1. Complete the Tragic Character Venn diagram if you have not already done so.
2. Spend 20 minutes skimming the resources below.  This should help you sharpen your focus, clarify your purpose, and begin to think through ways to organize your essay:

for Sharpening Your Focus:
on Tragedy, Fate, Fatal Flaw, Hubris . . . 

You will be writing an expository essay.  For help with Essay Format:
Purdue Owl:  Expository Essay
" . . . Expository Essay vs. Persuasive Essay" (Pen and Pad)

Organization Patterns for a Compare/Contrast Essay from SJSU
How to Write a Comparative Analysis from Harvard College Writing Center

3. Spend 5 minutes re-reading the essay prompt (click here if you don't have a paper copy)

4. Create a draft outline for your Tragic Character Essay.  This should include the names of two tragic characters and the literary elements you will be discussing.  There are several possible ways to organize this type of essay -- and there are advantages to each.  Which makes the most sense to you?

Assignment for Tuesday, Oct. 16

1. Re-read "Dead Cousin" poem.  Identify two flaws (weaknesses or inconsistencies) in the poem that reveal it as an imposter (fake) poem.

2. Continue adding quotes to your Tragic Character Essay Outline.  You should have 15 or more quotes for Tuesday's class.

Upcoming:
--We will talk more about "Dead Cousin" and "Dead Boy" with the goal of clarifying the questions, What is literature?  Why is it important?

--We will write a timed essay, "What is literature and why is it important?" in-class on Wednesday.

--We will review the prompt and rubric for the tragic character essay.  You will begin drafting the essay later on this week (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday).

Assignment for Monday, Oct. 15

Please complete before class on Monday:

• Develop your Character Diagram by adding 29 or more adjectives or phrases that describe the groups you have already listed.  (You should now have 9 or more characters, 3 or more groups, and 29 more adjectives.)
• Develop your Oedipus & Willy Outline by adding additional quotes, especially from the beginning and ending pages of the book.  Include page numbers.  You should aim for a minimum of 10 quotes.

During Class on Monday:

• Discuss Character Diagrams 
• Complete Oedipus & Willy comparison chart
• Review resources (see links below)
• Choose & write down preliminary focus for essay -- aspects for comparison
• Share out quotes / search for additional quotes / add to outlines
• First reading of 2 poems.

On Tuesday/Wednesday, we will

--Write a timed essay comparing the two poems

--Review the Oedipus/DOAS Comparison Prompt

Death of a Salesman and Tragedy Resources II

for Review:
-Character Diagram (activity)
Death of a Salesman movie trailer
Death of a Salesman (full length film)
"Death of a Salesman in 60 Seconds" (commentary)

for Sharpening Your Focus:
on Tragedy, Fate, Fatal Flaw, Hubris . . . 

You will be writing an expository essay.  For help with Essay Format:
Purdue Owl:  Expository Essay
" . . . Expository Essay vs. Persuasive Essay" (Pen and Pad)

Organization Patterns for a Compare/Contrast Essay from SJSU
How to Write a Comparative Analysis from Harvard College Writing Center

--What is Literature?  Handout & Assignment

--Selected videos

--Kahoot

--Discuss Character Diagrams 

Assignment for Tuesday, Oct. 9

--Read to page 110 and complete 3 sticky note responses.

--Complete any revisions on TFA Essay. (To be eligible for a higher grade, revised draft must be turned in with original draft and scoring rubric.)

Assignment for Wednesday, Oct. 3:

Read Death of a Salesman to page 50.
Identify 4 passages from the play that contain imagery or dramatic irony and that enhance the sense of tragedy.  A prompt on Google Classroom has been created for your response.


Tuesday, Oct. 2 -- Day 22 of 87
Death of a Salesman Resources  

Death of a Salesman online (pdf format)

Death of a Salesman Notes & Terms

Death of a Salesman video w/ Dustin Hoffman & John Malkovich

Death of a Salesman:  analysis of the play
     --for more analysis, see also Arthur Miller commentary in Bedford text, pp. 1986 -1989.

Storyboard That (includes themes, motifs, and sample storyboards)

Towards the Examined Life --- Notes for Reading

Tragedy & the Common Man -- Arthur Miller

Oedipus & Willy Comparison Chart

Assignment for Tuesday, Oct. 2

--Read Death of a Salesman, to page 25.
--Write a "found poem" of 6 - 12 lines, using lines from the first 25 pages of the reading.  (The purpose is to look back over this section of the play, to find lines that have symbolic relevance, and to explore what may be potential themes of the play.)  An example is below:

Goin' Off the Road  (a found poem based on lines from Death of a Salesman)
The peonies would come out, and the daffodils
And then all of a sudden I'm goin' off the road

Bricks and windows, windows and bricks
You can't raise a carrot in the back yard

Life is a casting off
The mind is what counts
I see everything
I can't seem to -- keep my mind to it