Poetic Devices

Alliteration: occurs when a series of words in a row (or close to a row) have the same first consonant sound.

1. Hannah’s home has heat hopefully.
2. Zachary zeroed in on zoo keeping.

• Alliteration does not need to be an entire sentence. Any two-word phrase can be alliterative (Dunkin’ Donuts)

Consonance: The repetition of consonants or of a consonant pattern, especially at the ends (and sometimes middle) of words, as in blank and think or strong and string.

1.      stroke of luck

2.      odds and ends

3.      came home

Assonance: is the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words. It is used to reinforce the meanings of words or to set the mood. 

1. It beats . . . as it sweeps . . . as it cleans!" - slogan for Hoover vacuum cleaners

2.Hear the mellow wedding bells

3. The crumbling thunder of seas

HW: All sections EXCEPT 8-1 (period 2 on Monday) 

1. Find and print out school appropriate lyrics of any song that you enjoy.
2. Identify each use of alliteration, consonance, and assonance.

Free Style Friday!

Alright! Let's take some time to reflect after what I'm sure was an exhausting 4 days of exams. Let's think about your progress as a writer since the beginning of the year.

Take out your essays, projects, plays, homework assignments, anything that has written feedback from me. I want you to take note of a few things:

1. Do you see any patterns developing--similar comments? (including positive comments!)
2. Read over your work. Are you proud of it? Embarrassed? Impressed?

Reflecting on your writing is important because it helps you realize that writing is indeed a process and NOT something you're either born good at or born bad at. EVERYBODY needs to work to get better at it, regardless of one's natural ability.

In that spirit, please freewrite on the following questions. Write as much as you'd like for each point. You're not handing this in, so be genuine and UNLEASHED in your responses.

1. What do you feel like is your strongest skill as a writer?

2. Describe what you really want to work on to become a better communicator in your written work? What seems to be one of your major issues, whether it's something I have pointed out, or something you're well aware of?

3. What are you going to do on your own to address these issues?

4. Finally, interpret the phrase, "writing is communication." Do you more or less believe you are communicating when writing an essay, or do you feel like you're just writing words on paper? What does communication even mean to you? How much do you value communication? WOW! I'm done. Sorry. I was on a roll.

You may never become an English major, or ever work with literature in your career, but being an effective communicator will most likely be a HUGE part of any job you take on. Just remember that idea the next time you write an essay. It's not about getting a grade for a class. It's about being a strong communicator.

Thanks for reading.   

Review Song on the Web!

Click here to listen to the review song:

Final 2 Essay Topics

#3: Know three themes from your book club novel. Be sure to back each theme up with 2 details/examples from the story.

#4. Know how to identify figurative langauge in a poem: simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, symbolism, connotation. Be able to explain how the figurative language conveys a deeper meaning. The question will specify what this deeper meaning is, you will just have to show how the figurative language expresses it more clearly.

Review Song!

Because I'm completely insane and I believe this could work, here is your task: for the next couple of classes your group will be assigned certain sections of the study guide to become experts on. Per concept/question assigned you must:

1.  write a verse, four-six lines long in length, that answers the question or defines the concept.
2. Make sure it rhymes--it's catchier/more memorable that way.
3. Once you think you've completed the verse, I will come over and check your work for accuracy.

Essay Topics Discussed So Far. . .

Essay Topic #1: Writing persuasively on an issue. See last week's Free Style Friday blog post for an example. Click here for a model of the prewriting sheet. File name: Essay Topic #1 Prewriting Sheet

Essay Topic #2: Compare and contrast Mrs. Mortimer and Marroner by looking at how each story deals with your choice of 3 feminist themes (gender roles, who's in charge, isolation, individualism, use of language). You must argue that either both reacted to their husband's unfaithfulness appropriately, or one responded more appropriately than the other. Examples are needed to support your claims. Click here for a graphic organizer for you to work on at home to prepare for this essay. File name: Essay Topic #2 Prewriting Sheet

Essay Topic #2

One of your essay topics for Friday's midterm asks you to compare and contrast Mrs. Marroner ("Turned") and Mrs. Mortimer ("The Good Corn") and argue that either both characters react to their husbands' unfaithfulness appropriately, or that one character responds more appropriately than the other.

To prepare for this essay:
1. reread both stories
2. identify examples in the text that demonstrate the main ideas of feminism (focus on 3):
  a. gender roles
  b. isolation (what do you notice about the women when they're alone--do they demonstrate strength or weakness?)
  c. individualism (do women have express themselves in strong ways? are they depicted as independent?)
  d. who has power? (who's in charge)
  e. use of language (do women speak with fear and obedience, or freely/openly)


A thesis statement might look like this: By comparing and contrasting the feminist themes of gender roles, use of language, and individualism within "The Good Corn" and "Turned," it is possible to see how both Mrs. Marroner and Mrs. Mortimer react to their husbands' unfaithfulness appropriately.

---if this were your thesis statement, your body paragraphs would have to prove that both characters made the right decision depending on their particular situation.

-IREEC format required-examples are necessary, quotes are not. 

 **You can have some fun with this topic! You could argue either way, as long as you support your ideas with examples from the text.

Study Guide Now Available

For you eager beavers who are chomping at the bit to get studying for your ELA midterm, I've posted a study guide on my webpage. Click here (file name: Study Guide For ELA Midterm). A hard copy will dispersed amongst your eager minds tomorrow.

For those of you that misplaced the Book Club final project sheet, click here (file name: Book Club final project)

Vocabulary: Writing a Dialogue

Your task: within your groups, you will write a short dialogue using 8/12 of your vocab words correctly.  Please read the following points:

1. Not every line of dialogue has to contain a vocab. word
2. The dialogue should be no shorter than 1 minute, but no longer than 4 minutes.
3. These will be performed in front of class for a grade.
4. You must choose from the following scenarios:

A. The year is 1492 and a group of highly arrogant professors will not accept that the earth is round.
B. A group of snobs at a classy restaurant is giving their waitor/waitress a very hard time about silly, unimportant matters (i.e. the color of the lettuce)
C. A group of old classical music composers discussing the latest (insert modern artist here) album.
D. A pack of wild animals become incredibly introspective after a devastating stampede and discuss the meaning of life with each other.
E. Several scientists travel back in time and try to convince a very stubborn dinosaur to give them one of her eggs.

Free Style Friday

Book Club discussions:
1. Please talk about the endings of your novels: were you surprised? upset? satisfied?
2. Please discuss two thoughtful themes in your novels. Avoid cliches like: Everyone should be nice to everybody.
3. Talk about your projects





Take a moment to free style on the following issue:

Should homework be outlawed from schools? Some educators suggest that the assigning of homework just leads to exhaustion, lack of time for other activities, and a possible loss of interest in learning. On the other hand, some teachers believe that homework can enhance what was taught in class and allow students to "play" with the knowledge in a new, meaningful way, instead of possibly forgetting it by the next day. Where are you on this issue? Should homework be outlawed from schools? Take a stand!

Verbals Exercises to help you ACTIVELY Study

Here is the sheet I handed out at the after school review. Click here (file name: verbals after school review)
Also, be sure to check out the answers. (File name: ANSWERS to verbal review)

Be sure to identify why you get certain questions wrong. What is tripping you up? Use the sheet I handed out in class today to help address some of your confusion.

Continue to ACTIVELY study. You are not actively studying unless you are completing these exercises and trying to create strategies that will allow you to avoid the confusion you would otherwise experience tomorrow. Time is on your side right now. You have time and resources to figure out the issues, if any. You CAN do this. Tomorrow, during the test, you will not have the time and resources available to deal with confusion. Speaking of resources, here are the exercises from today's review game--answers to each section can be found by scrolling to the bottom.


A.Participles: Your task is to identify the participle in each sentence and tell us the noun it modifies. Also, please indicate whether the participle is present or past.

         1.  Two men loaded supplies into the truck parked at the service entrance.

2. Troubled by constant complaints, the community association called a meeting.

3. Nobody knew the man sitting next to the governor.

4. Rebuffing our efforts at explanation, the company dismissed us.

B: Gerunds:  Please identify the gerund phrase in each sentence. Please decide whether it is being used as a subject, subject complement, direct object, or an appositive.

1.  The decorator suggested papering the wall with a floral design.

2. Planning can make the difference between a good and a bad trip.

3. One attraction of this lake is fishing for large trout.

4.  Martha’s problem, falling down stairs, has recently gotten worse.

5. Keeping the crowds orderly during the celebration will be a difficult task.

C. For each of the following sentences, identify the infinitive phrase.  Indicate whether the phrase is functioning as a noun, adverb, or, adjective. If functioning as a noun, please indicate if it is a subject, subject complement, or direct object.

1.  World War I was a war to end all wars.

2. Hal firmly intends to buy a hybrid car.

3. To be alone can be frightening.

4.  Bill opened the door to let me into the room.

ANSWERS:

Part A

1.  Participle: parked-past

Noun it modifies: truck

2.  Participle- troubled-past

Noun- association

3.  Participle- sitting- present

Noun- man

4.

Participle: rebuffing-present

Noun- company

Part B:

1. papering the wall with a floral design.

Direct Object

2.  Planning

Subject

3.  fishing for large trout.

Subject complement

4.  falling down stairs

Appositive

5.  Keeping the crowds orderly during the celebration

Subject

Part C ANSWERS (sorry about the strange formatting)

1. 

to end all wars

Adjective (describes what kind of war)

2. 

to buy a hybrid car.

Noun-direct object (intends what?)

3. 

To be alone

Noun-Subject (It can be frightening)

4. 

to let me into the room.

Adverb

To Infinitives (and beyond!)

Today in class we went over the third member of the Verbal family: infinitives.

An infinitive is a verb in its base or root form, usually preceded by the word "to"

Ex. to swim, to draw, to dance, etc.

What makes infinitives a kind of verbal? Well, just like participals and gerunds are verb forms used as different parts of speech, infinitives are also verb forms used as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs.

We're first focusing on infinitives as nouns, and just like gerunds, they can be used as subjects, subject complements, or direct objects.

HW: 73 A, 74A, 76A

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

How can you tell if a verb is being used as a participal or a gerund if it ends in -ing?



Simply look at how the word is functioning in the sentence. If the verb ending in -ing functions as a person, place, thing, or idea, you have a noun on your hands, therefore a gerund.

If the verb ending in -ing is describing a person, place, thing, or idea, then it's functioning as an adjective, a participal. 

Reminders

Hello everybody.
-Make sure you have workbook pages 68A and 70A done for Monday.
-If your Vocab Cards were incomplete or missing, Monday is the last day I will accept them for full credit.
-You have a Verbals Test on Thursday, January 10
-Begin working on your Book Club Projects!