Here’s Chapter 3 of The Pearl!

The Pearl – Chapter 3 – A

In period 1 today, we read and discussed Chapter 2 of The Pearl.

In periods 3, 4, 6, and 7, we talked about Aristotle’s three rhetorical tools – ethos, logos, and pathos.

Homework – Pre-AP English I, due Monday, October 21

1. Read Chapter 3 of The Pearl
2. Write a letter from Juana to the doctor trying to convince him to treat Coyotito even though the family can’t pay him, using Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, and pathos). Using the essay on the reverse side of this page as a model, indicate which statements of yours are ethos, logos, and pathos – both label them and color-code them (ethos – red; logos – blue; pathos – yellow). Your letter must be a minimum of 400 words.
3. Study for vocabulary quiz.

Today in class we are reading the first chapter of John Steinbeck’s The Pearl, and discussing the three major themes:

1. Music

2. Greed and Corruption

3. Colonialism and Oppression

Students in Pre-AP need to read Chapter 2 for homework and fill out the theme quote graphic organizer:

The Pearl Chapter 1 Thematic Analysis

We did a copy of this for Chapter 1 in class today.

As promised, here are copies of the first and second chapter, in case you have not yet had a chance to check out a book:

The Pearl – Chapter 1

The Pearl – Chapter 2

Period 1:

We’re finishing your essays on General Zaroff and Montresor.

Periods 3, 4, 6, and 7:

We’re finishing your essays, and you have homework. Here’s the file, in case you lost yours:

The Pearl Pre-Reading Homework – Venn Diagram

And here’s the link to the website that I would recommend using to complete this:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day

(I love The Oatmeal so much.) This works out really well because not only was this past Monday Columbus Day, this information is important for you to understand Steinbeck’s The Pearl. Think of this piece of history as sort of the prologue – what happens before the story, that we don’t get to see.

And one more thing – the vocabulary is now posted under the “Vocabulary” tab.

Today was Library Day! We got an orientation from Mr. Castille, our fantastic librarian. Most of you checked out books (hurray!) – remember that those are due or need to be renewed in two weeks.

Also, as promised, here is the address that you need to use to get to Bellaire’s electronic card catalog:

10.17.128.50

I hope everyone had a good PSAT session! 🙂

Aujourd’hui we took our vocabulary quiz and began writing an essay comparing the villians of “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Cask of Amontillado.” The prompt for the essay was as follows:

The National Library of Medicine describes sociopathology in the following way:

Antisocial personality disorder is a mental health condition in which a person has a long-term pattern of manipulating, exploiting, or violating the rights of others. This behavior is often criminal.

Using this definition and your understanding of “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Cask of Amontillado,” write an essay explaining whom you think is the greater sociopath, Montresor or General Zaroff. You must use one quote from each story as evidence.

I told you that we’ll continue writing this in class on Wednesday, and that it will be due at the end of that period.

Also, if you would like to take the practice PSAT quiz, you can get 10 extra credit points on your vocabulary quiz!

Tomorrow we are meeting at the library. See you there!

We continued our reading and discussion of Most Dangerous Game, and Pre-AP students worked on the discussion questions and essays (see earlier in the week for the file), while Academic students filled out the plot diagram.

On Thursday and Friday, we talked about Edgar Allen Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado. Here is the link to the audio version we used:

http://www.loudlit.org/audio/cask/pages/01_01_cask.htm

We listened to the Flocabulary version of the story – I can’t post that link online, but if you would like to see it, come by my room and ask!

Students also studied vocabulary by looking at how the words are used in the context of the story itself.

**NOTE – From here on out, I’m going to be posting vocabulary under the “vocabulary” tab – hopefully that should make it easier for you guys to find it.

Another important note!

For both Academic and Pre-AP classes, we are about to start reading John Steinbeck’s The Pearl, which is such a beautiful novella – I’m making notes to myself right now as I read it for the second time, and I find that I’m underlining practically every other paragraph, just because it’s so moving and heartbreaking. You may want to see about purchasing your own copy. You can find it on Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.com/Pearl-John-Steinbeck/dp/014017737X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381282807&sr=1-1&keywords=the+pearl+john+steinbeck

New, it’s $8, used, it’s $4 (with shipping).

You will also probably need to buy some of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Kleenex-Ultra-Facial-Tissue-Boxes/dp/B008YD8232/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381282929&sr=8-1&keywords=tissues

Because seriously, this is a tear-jerker.

For Pre-AP, we will also be reading the abridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo. Here’s the Amazon link to the version we’ll be reading:

http://www.amazon.com/Count-Monte-Cristo-Bantam-Classics/dp/0553213504/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381283000&sr=1-5&keywords=the+count+of+monte+cristo

This book is AWESOME! It’s like if Quentin Tarantino were a 19th century French novelist. This guy gets wronged, and just takes bloody revenge on his enemies for hundreds of pages. You’re going to love it.

Students have the opportunity to get 10 extra credit points on their vocabulary quiz for this week by watching the 1932 film version of The Most Dangerous Game and answering a question. For those who were unable to make the screening during lunch on Monday and Tuesday, here is a YouTube link to watch it (or finish the last five minutes – I think we ran out of time):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY1L5eqwk5Q

Your question for extra credit is the following:

Extra Credit “The Most Dangerous Game” Question (10 points on vocabulary quiz): In a paragraph of six sentences or more, compare and contrast the film version of “The Most Dangerous Game” with the short story. Explain which one you thought was superior, and why.

I have a sheet that you can use to answer this if you would like, or you can type it and turn it in. You have until Friday to turn this in.

Monday:

We took our vocabulary quiz and finished reading The Most Dangerous Game. Here’s a link to the YouTube audio version, if you would like to follow along as you read:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfp04WjOv9A

Students in periods 3, 4, 6, and 7 also completed the plot diagram (otherwise known as Freytag’s Triangle). Here’s a copy, in case you need another one.

Plot_Diagram_Template

Many of you told me that you are already very familiar with this approach to plot, but if you need a review, the Wikipedia article for dramatic structure is very good:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure

Tuesday:

In period 1, we did the Freytag’s Triangle (see above) for MDG.

In periods 3, 4, 6, and 7, we began talking about themes in MDG. Students worked with partners and then discussed with the whole class the first five questions in the Notes and Thematic Analysis packet.

Most Dangerous Game Notes and Thematic Analysis