This Seat's Taken: AP Lit, October 31, 2012

Focus: Preparing for the final battles of Henry IV, Act 5

Warm-up: Updates! How did the metacognitive go?

Start rehearsing for Friday's Act 5 performances!

Overview of acting company assignments:

• Courtiers: 5.1.  I suggest that you cut repetitive material about the rebel cause but spend time discussing why it is repeated.  
• Rebels: 5.2
• All Groups: 5.3 and 5.4.  The battle: All groups fight; you will need to assign speaking parts and one or two directors; it is very important that actors with speaking parts rehearse well.
• Pub Crawlers: 5.5.  Most of the tavern crew stayed at home (they're not so into the battles), so please take a walk on the other side of the tracks and play courtiers.

HW: Finish reading Act 5 with 10 one-liners and a typed close reading of one speech from Act 5 (this is your reading ticket for tomorrow's Socratic seminar).  Consider purchasing Invisible Man ASAP.

This Seat's Taken: AP Lit, October 30, 2012

Focus: Testing out your poem with a metacognitive writing

Please meet in the library computer lab today.

1. Announcements

2. Please carefully read the two sample metacognitive poetry writings linked below to remind yourself of the purpose, tone and structure of a metacognitive writing:

Sample metacognitive #1
Sample metacognitive #2

Remember that while you may (and should!) wander around in your analysis and tirelessly question the poem, you should also try to work towards a deeper understanding by the time you finish your writing.  In other words, you should wind up in a different place from where you began.  Make sure that you are constantly, constantly referencing specific words and phrases from the poem.

3. Type a metacognitive writing of your poem directly underneath the poem itself (which you should have copied and pasted into a Google Doc).  Make sure you have an MLA heading at the top of your document. This should take you at least the entire period, and if you need more time, feel free to finish this tonight.  If, during this process, you realize that you need to switch poems, please do so tonight and perform a metacognitive writing on your new poem.

Note: You will be receiving a Tuesday writing grade for this metacognitive writing.

4. Print your writing and turn it in to Mrs. Makovsky.

HW: Finish your metacognitive writing if you did not do so in class today.  By Thursday please read Act 5, write down 10 one-liners in your composition notebook, and type a close reading of a single speech from Act 5 (read it as you read a poem). 

This Seat's Taken: AP Lit, October 29, 2012

Focus: Structure and meaning in traditional vs. modern poetry

1. Announcements

Traditional Poetry
2. Warm-up: With your small group, review the salient points in Chapter 4 of How To Read Literature like a Professor: "If It's Square, It's a Sonnet."  

• How is structure specifically important to the sonnet?  
• How does structure relate to and reveal meaning? 

3. As a class, develop a list of about 5 "rules" of sonnets. In other words, what patterns or rules do all sonnets tend to follow in terms of structure?  Please pick one student to post these on the class blog underneath the comment section of today's agenda.  You may use the class computer or your smartphone.
4. Read aloud "My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun," and as a group, mark up and discuss this poem by applying your 5 rules of traditional structure to this poem.  Decipher how the poem's structure reveals its meaning.

Modern Poetry
5. If time allows, read aloud the modern e.e. cummings' poem, "since feeling is first."
6.  Annotate the poem by unearthing its structure and its attitude toward structure:

• How does the structure deviate from that of the sonnet?
• More importantly, why does its structure deviate from that of the sonnet?  What are the poem's larger meanings, and how does form specifically contribute to them?

HW: Finalize your choice of poem by tomorrow.  Copy and paste it into a Google doc and be ready to perform a metacognitive writing on it tomorrow (remember to meet in the library computer lab tomorrow).  Also, by Thursday please read Act 5, write down 10 one-liners in your composition notebook, and type a close reading of a single speech from Act 5 (read it as you read a poem).  

This Seat's Taken: AP Lit, October 26, 2012

Focus: Analyzing Act 4 of Henry IV and its larger significance to the play as a whole

1. During announcements: Look back through Act 4 and your word trace; create at least two strong Socratic seminar questions and write them in your composition notebook.

2. Warm-up: Musical chairs exploration of your Act 4 word traces.

3. Socratic seminar: Henry IV, Act 4


Homework:
1. Reread Chapter 4 of How To Read Literature like a Professor and bring this book to class on Monday.

2. Finalize your poem choice by Tuesday; copy and paste your poem into a Google Doc (make sure it maintains the poet's formatting).

3. By Thursday, read Act 5 of Henry IV (it's kind of long); write down 10 one-liners in your composition notebook and perform a close reading of one significant speech.  Read it as you would a poem, analyzing diction, imagery, syntax, tone, and sound devices. Your close reading should be typed and at least half a page in length.

4. By Friday, purchase Invisible Man if you are planning on having your own copy.

This Seat's Taken: AP Lit, October 25, 2012

Focus: What is the poetry project and paper, and how do I begin?

1. Announcements: Please complete the poetry warm-up during announcements

2. Finish yesterday's Act 3 performances with a focus on characters, relationships, politics, and symbolic choices

3. Overview of the poetry project and the poetry paper, then off we go to the computer lab to find that one special poem!

HW: Bring your Act 4 word trace to class tomorrow; be prepared for a Socratic seminar on Act 4.  You need to finalize your poem selection by next Tuesday.

Please click here if you'd like to see one of Ms. Leclaire's favorite poems.

This Seat's Taken: AP Lit, October 24, 2012

Focus: Analyzing Act 3 through performance

1. Warm-up: 10 minute rehearsal with your group

2. Act 3 performances by the Rebels, the Court, and the Pub-Crawlers

Focus questions for the performances:

• What do we learn about characters through their dialogues in each scene? How do they treat each other?  Which characters are changing and how?  Why must they change?
• Which relationships are changing and how?  Why must they change?
• What are we learning about the political background of the play in each scene?
• What is the symbolic choice each acting company made, and how is it significant both to this scene and to the play as a whole?

HW: Meet in the library computer lab tomorrow; bring your poetic mind.  Bring your Act 4 word trace to class on Friday for a Socratic seminar.

This Seat's Taken: A.P. Lit Blog, Oct.23, 2012

Welcome to the blog! Please check here when you miss class.

Focus: Understanding poetry by writing it; analyzing Henry IV through performance

1. Announcements!
2. Warm-up: Creating your own "Disillusionment of Ten O-Clock"; playing with diction, imagery, and syntax
3. Preparing your Act 3 performances for Henry IV; remember that your performance is your way of analyzing the scene and helping us understand key changes in characters, character dynamics, motifs, settings, and themes.

HW: Prepare for your Act 3 performances tomorrow; college essay revisions; bring your Act 4 word traces back to class on Friday for a Socratic seminar on Act 4 (Thursday will be dedicated to an overview of your next big project/literary essay).