Finishing Touches: Title Page, Table of Contents, Media Projects, Presentations

1. Your project should include a standard title page.
2. Your table of contents should include titles and genres.  Page numbers are optional.
3. Media Projects and Presentations have separate rubrics.  Please ask for a copy.


A few resources for presentations include:

--Wordle.net (Creates word clouds that could be used for a cover or as part of a presentation)
--Taxedo.com  (Word clouds and more; a little more involved than Wordle.net)
--Prezi.com  (This is slideshow 2.0)

Genre Pieces -- Developing, Extending, Polishing, Refining

I've spent time reading over your draft genre pieces.  Here are some general suggestions that will help strengthen your pieces:

1. Develop your headings and titles.  A fully developed heading may be 2 - 3 sentences or more.  A title is generally short -- but make the most of it.  "Waris Dirie"  or "Waris Dirie -- One Determined Woman"   The 2nd title is stronger, yet it still doesn't "cost" that much.  Agree?
2. Among your 5 pieces, include at least 3 pieces about specific events or moments in your biography.  General pieces that give an overview of a person and that person's accomplishments can be useful, but don't stop there.
3. Aim for at least one piece from the point of view of a "contemporary" of your subject -- someone who knew your subject and had a relationship of some kind with him or her.  That person undoubtedly had an opinion on your subject and a way of voicing that opinion.

Instant Genre Piece: A 2-Minute Poem to Kick Start Your Week

Use this site to create your own list poem based on your biography:

http://ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/listpoem.htm

Notes:

• A list poem may appear random but it is not
• The poem should end with something surprising, insightful, or important.  One way to do this is to move from the literal to the figurative (see example poem below).
• Once you have made your initial list, consider re-arranging the order of the items.  Also consider adding more detail.  Use precise and concrete language as much as possible.  Provide your reader with a clear image of what you see.

Sample below:

________________________________________________

What’s in the canoe
a sharpened axe with a battered wooden handle
a weathered tent green with mold
a bag of pea flour
a plug of tobacco
three long poles with metal boots
four damp wool blankets
a refusal to turn back
a lot of heart 

--based on the book Great Heart:  History of a Labrador Adventure

Recommended Genres

These genres will work especially well for most biography projects:

• Character sketch (definition and sample) 
• Stream-of-consciousness (definition, sample) 
• Diary entry or series of entries 
• Letter (to or from your subject) or series of letters 
• Interview (Rolling Stone interview of Obama; Interview of author JK Rowling, Interview of author Dan Brown; ) 
• Conversation (similar to an interview in format, but less formal; tips) 
• News article (news story or feature article) 
• Speech (before writing identify an occasion and an audience)
• Poem or series of poems

Author & Subject: What is the Relationship?

As you read your biography, it is important to think about the relationship between the author and the subject.  If it is a person writing about his or her own life (autobiograhy), this could be said to be a very close relationship.  If it is a person writing about someone else, he or she must have had a reason for this choice.  Did they admire this person?  Feel compelled to criticize them?  Either way, it is a form of bias. 

What motivations might your author have had for publishing this story?  Money?  Fame?  Respect?  Revenge?  To convince others of a point of view?  Keep these in mind as well.

Read with a cynical eye.  Read with a sympathetic eye too.

Biography Project -- Preliminary Research

The goal is get started on researching topics related to the biography you are reading.  Don't worry about what the research will be used for.  Follow your interests.  Find some sources.  Save the source information so you can easily go back later.

1. Identify topics for research, using the handout

2. Set up a place to save and organize all your bookmarks.  This could be a folder with Safari or Firefox Bookmarks.  Or you may choose to set up an account on Delicious or Diigo.

3. Start identifying sites that are potential resources.  Don't just start with Google. See Wirthportal (right sidebar link) and check out Marvel, Internet Public Library, Google Wonder Wheel, Google News, and Google Timeline.

4. Save your sites you find within your bookmarks folder (or on Delicious or Diigo).

English 12 -- Exam Essay Question

For those who still need to complete the essay portion of the midyear exam, the essay prompt is below:

Part 3:  Hamlet   (33%)                        

Write about a Scene:  Write a 4 paragraph essay in which you discuss the importance of one scene in the play -- and how Shakespeare uses that scene to add to the overall effect of the play.  Your introductory paragraph should include a thesis that introduces 3 main ways the scene is important.  Each body paragraph should provide supporting detail from the text in terms of one of the 3 aspects you are discussing.  (Suggested aspects of literature you might discuss -- choose 3 -- include plot, characterization, theme, mood, irony, symbolism.

(S 1, 2, 3) Meets: Presents plausible well-supported interpretation.  Includes 3 distinct arguments, each supported with detail from the text.  Effectively organizes elements of essay. Exceeds: All of meets, plus:  Examples are well-chosen, specific, and are discussed in detail.  Discussion shows originality and insight.  More than 3 arguments may be included.

English Wide Open Exam -- Online version

Click the link below.  Then copy and paste it into Open Office or Microsoft Word:


https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=10m03aFg_ghJ3lLCDOa5Y4DG2wg81A_1GzxNcJK4SOLg

Hamlet Quizzes

Sparknotes provides a Hamlet Quiz that provides a good check on your basic understanding of the plot, characters, and background of the play.  A few of the questions are on things we have not discussed, but if you have been paying attention, you should be able to score 20 or more out of 25.  Take the quiz!


Shakespeare Online provides a good quiz that provides detailed answers.  You will end up knowing more than when you started if you take this quiz.  Take the quiz!

Poetry Out Loud Comes to Senior English!

Hey Seniors, we will be holding classroom Poetry Out Loud Competitions in early January.  School-wide and then regional competitions will follow not too long afterward.  The time to start preparing is now.

1. Please find and begin memorizing a poem -- see the links below.

2. Be sure to choose a different poem than the one you chose last year.

3. Memorizing a poem is something you can all be successful at.  Just don't put yourself in the situation of trying to memorize it all at once.

4. Good luck!

Poetry Out Loud -- Poems of 25 Lines or less.

Poetry Out Loud -- Browse Poems

Hamlet Resources

 Resources:
Hamlet -- Full Text online

Enjoying "Hamlet" 
Shakespeare Resource Center
Hamlet: The Undiscovered Country

Into the Wild Resources

Resources for your Into the Wild research are at the following link:

http://delicious.com/wirth_ray/mccandless

The White Man's Burden: Rudyard Kipling's Poem and the Response

In 1899, Rudyard Kipling (of Jungle Book fame) wrote a little poem that generated more than a little controversy. Kipling's poem, "The White Man's Burden," was a plea for America to be more involved overseas and, in particular, in the Philippines. Many people not only disagreed with the worldview expressed in the poem but also found it to be racist.

Until 2007 or so, there was an excellent website that featured Kipling's poem and many of the responses, which came in the form of editorial cartoons, poems, essays, and letters to the editor. This website has unfortunately been taken down. However, some of the resources are still up on various places on the web.

As a believer in the learning opportunities available in looking at the original poem and the response, I have started to re-gather these resources and put them back in one place. White Mans Burden .Net (White-Mans-Burden.Net) is now onine in hopes that teachers and students around the U.S. might find it useful.

Beowulf Resources

Beowulf -- Translations.net

Beowulf -- Easy to read version

Beowulf -- Hypertext version

Evalating Online Sources

Evaluating Online sources: 5-Question quiz

1. Please read and discuss the "Evaluating Your Sources" handout together as a class.

2. Below are a few tips related to the handout:
---Authority (authorship) can often be determining by scanning the top of the web page, the bottom of the web page, and the "about us" page (if any). Keep in mind that unless the person is famous and/or known to you, a name only tells so much. Who is this person? What do they do for a living? What kind of education do they have?
---Objectivity: Is the site selling anything? Trying to persuade you of anything? Are there ads on the site?
---Authenticity / Reliability: Is there an organization, corporation, or educational institution associated with the site? What is it? As before, look at the top of the web page, the bottom of the web page, and the "about us" page (if any).
---Timeliness: Is there a date provided somewhere on the page or even in the copyright (if any) at the bottom of the page?

3. Visit each of the 3 diet sites below and complete the chart by making comments about these sites in each respective box in the chart:
Weight Loss Center (article)
Medicine.Net (article)
Diet Pills Hoopla & Hype (article)

Coming Soon:
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The End of the Internet for free.
Check it out!