Tuesday, September 30

Target:  To finish and correct the multiple choice questions on 7-9

1. Multiple choice questions
2. Vocabulary Lesson 3

In 4 square groups: (to carry over into Wednesday)

• discuss the insights in "Gatsby's Glasses" http://goo.gl/c3lEm2
• come to a theme statement after studying the spectrums....What is Fitzgerald's message?

Monday, September 29

CLOSE READING: Analyzing the last page for tone and mood.

Let's talk about TONE and MOOD. 

 How would you describe the mood of the last page of the novel?  

What is Nick's tone towards Gatsby and about the American Dream? 

See this story: http://goo.gl/bjKIB9

How does it compare to the film version (2013)? 

Turn in your spectrums and your notes on "Gatsby's Glasses."

Take multiple choice test on chapter 7-9.

Vocab link for Lesson 3: http://goo.gl/t0l8bE

Friday, September 25

Target: reflect/debrief Socratic Seminar....the last page of the novel...looking for patterns...vocab lesson 3

• Notes on Lesson 3
• T. J. Eckleberg and reflection
• Reading check on 9
• read the last page together....what's going on here?
• Happiness?

HOMEWORK:  Read "Gatsby's Glasses" over the weekend.  Annotate.  Multiple choice test on 7-9 on Monday.

Thursday, September 25

Our first Socratic Seminar!

1. Students meet in groups to discuss the questions for Chapter 8. (8 minutes)

2.  Students pick the question they want to discuss with others in Seminar.

3. Seminar--8 minutes a question--ADD NOTES as you listen in the "outer circles"

Reflect in writing about how it went. (bottom of second page)

HOMEWORK:  Read 9 tonight....carefully, as always :)

Wednesday, September 24

Target: to practice digging deeper into a text by asking questions that invite conversation and debate.

1. Rereading chapter 7 with your group, find the most important passages to reread:
2. What are they?

• Nick forgets his birthday:  "It was seven o'clock...." page 143
• Nick enters the Buchanan house for lunch:  "The room, shadowed well with awnings..."
• Tom's reaction to Myrtle's death:  "
• The description of Myrtle's dead body: "Michaelis and this man reached her first..."
• The fight scene in the hotel..."Even now I couldn't say that I loved Tom...
• Daisy's daughter is introduced:  "Bless-ed precious...."
• Scene at Wilson's place on the way to the city: "There is no confusion...."
• Myrtle sees Tom from above and thinks Jordan is Daisy
• Nick peeps in the window of Buchanan kitchen towards the end of the evening
• The departure for the city
• The weather

1. As a group, ask a text-specific question about the diction, detail, syntax or tone of one of the passages here and then answer one as well! (not your own, please)
2. See EYES padlet http://goo.gl/W0u5ph...any new insights?

Homework: Fill out this Socratic Seminar prep sheet for chapter 8.  The first column only....both claim and evidence!

Chapter 9 for Friday...just FYI.

Tuesday, September 23

Target:  To share practice essays and reward good analytical moves.

1. Get into groups of 4 with a highlighter in hand.  Pass around the drafts and without talking highlight the places where the essay is effective, either in word choice, thoughtful analysis, or even syntax.
2. Share an insight into the passage with the class after reading all 4.
3. Chapter 7: last line quiz

Monday, September 22

Target: to check your annotations on Chapter 6.  Can you find important details, diction and syntax on your own and use questions to help you dig deeper into their effect/purpose?

• Review Sentence Pattern #2.  Did anyone find any examples of it in Gatsby?
• See handout on literary analysis guiding questions.
• Meet in groups to review your annotations and revise them as needed.  
• Now use the frame to get to a good thesis. (see LaMonte model on Ladybug)

CHAPTER 7 and practice essay due tomorrow (Tuesday).

Friday, September 19

Target:  to show mastery of lesson 2 words and learn a new sentence pattern with an elliptical construction

1. Vocab test on Lesson 2

  

2. Sentence Pattern #2:   S  V    DO  or SC ; S  (omitted verb)   DO   or SC .

• Exercise in class on binder paper.
• Assignment: Look for examples in texts and put one in your practice essay!

3. Look at Chapter 6 beginning: 

"The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.  He was a son of God--a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that--and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty."

• Allusion to Plato and his cave
• effecto of the Biblical allusion
• the point about the nature of his service
• connect to the line: "What foul dust floated in the wake of his dream."  (chp 1)

HOMEWORK:  Write a practice essay on Chapter 6 ending (see link below for prompt) and read to the end of chapter 7 CAREFULLY....for TUESDAY.

Thursday, September 18

Target: to gain a deeper understanding of the text through dialogue and conversation and guiding questions.


1. Review paragraphs on Chapter 3.  What moves from the sample can you try to imitate?   Create a new style sheet together.

2.  Review questions for Chapters 4 & 5 in groups of 4.  Record your answers here

1st: shared doc

2nd: http://goo.gl/mD5sLE

3. Review beginning of Chapter 6 together.http://goo.gl/oG5DfL  Allusion to Plato explained: the allegory of-the-cave-by-plato-summary-and-meaning/

HOMEWORK: Write a practice essay on the last part of Chapter 6 for Tuesday.  Read Chapter 7 as well.

Vocabulary Lesson 2 test tomorrow!

Wednesday, September 17

TARGET:  To give feedback based on what you have learned about Rhetorical Analysis

1. Pass back corrected tests.  Review "hot spots."
2. Review sample of analysis from a passage from Chapter 3.  Create a new style sheet together.
3. Share your paragraph with your partner.  Based on the style sheet #3, give + and  critical feedback.  Turn in for "routine of study" points.

HOMEWORK:  Read Chapter 6.  Use Chapter 6 questions to guide your reading.

Tuesday, September 16

Target: To assess your reading of Chapters 1-3 of The Great Gatsby

1. Take the 25 point quiz. Multiple choice. 

2. Correct together.

3. Study the beginning of Chapter 3.

4. Pass back chapter 2 sentences.  Style Sheet #2 is here.  

Rhetorical Devices and their functions

HOMEWORK: Try again with Chapter 3.  Write a paragraph that answers the question "How does Fitzgerald enrich our sense of Gatsby's parties?"

Monday, September 15

MORE PRACTICE USING SOAPS...

1. Get into groups of 4 by numbering off. Share your SOAPS that you did for the piece you wrote about this summer.  Submit the most compelling piece to Mrs. LaMonte.  

2. A selection of excerpts to help ground us in the Aristotelian triangle and in SOAPS. 

(from Conversations in American Literature). 

Take notes on your packet.  Share with your partner.  Share with the class. 

HOMEWORK REMINDER:  Read chapters 3-5 in The Great Gatsby for class tomorrow. 

Friday, September 12

1. Review Style Sheet -Round One

2. Discuss Chapter 2-Paragraph 1--Revise paragraph using style sheet.

3. Use chapter questions to discuss Chapter 2--in groups.

4. Start chapter 3--contrast with the beginning of chapter 2.

5. Vocabulary Lesson 2 words

HOMEWORK:  Complete SOAPS worksheet for one of your summer opinion pieces.

Read CHAPTERS 3-5 for class on TUESDAY.

Thursday, September 11

Chapter 1 and 2: Air as a symbol

1. Today we will begin sharing your paragraphs from last night.  What did you notice in Fitzgerald's use of diction, detail, and syntax?

2. Watch John Green's video about Chapter 1.

3. Answer questions about Chapter 1 in groups.

4.  Share.

5. Now, chapter 2.

6. HOMEWORK:  write a paragraph about what the details, diction and syntax from the first paragraph of Chapter 2 tell us about a major theme from the novel, using the questions as your starting point.

a few THEMES: 

Money
Hypocrisy
Friendship
Carelessness
Dishonesty
The American Dream

Vocabulary Lesson 2 notes tomorrow!

Wednesday, September 10

The Great Gatsby:  Beginning Rhetorical Analysis

1. Finish values conversation from yesterday.

2. Read the 1st two paragraphs together.

What do we discover about the narrator from his diction and tone?

3. Watch John Green cover the 20's in America: 

Homework Writing prompt: http://goo.gl/iyuqne

Tuesday, September 9

The Great Gatsby: Discussing values and closely reading the first two pages.

1. With your partner, fill out this form: http://goo.gl/LMNi7U  2nd period: http://goo.gl/xJwUx4

2. Share results.

3. Read pages 1 and 2 together.  Fill out handout.

4. Answer the following "right there" and "pulling it together" questions:

• Why did Nick Carraway come to the East?
• Why do Daisy and Tom Buchanan invite Nick to dinner?
• How does Daisy respond to the phone calls from Tom's "woman in New York"?
• Why doesn't Nick call to Gatsby when Nick first spots him on the lawn?

HOMEWORK:  Read chapter 2 for Wednesday.

Vocabulary Lesson 2 test moved to NEXT FRIDAY!  We will take notes on Thursday with SAT practice.  

The Great Gatsby --full online text

The Great Gatsby full online text: http://goo.gl/3um4qb

Monday, September 8

Target:  To go a little deeper than SOAPS....

1. Pass back "This I Believe" essays....Look for sentence pattern #1! [S  V  ;   S   V]

1A:  Add this pattern to the piece you wrote this weekend---tonight!  You do not need to resubmit. 

2. Let's discuss the significance of the DETAIL, DICTION and SYNTAX  in "This Is Water" by David Foster Wallace.

In partners, find one example for each element above.  Try to link it to Wallace's purpose.

3. Vocabulary Words for Lesson 2---Improving Sentences exercises. 

4. Get Great Gatsby books!  

HOMEWORK:  Read Chapter 1 tonight and add sentence pattern to your essay.

Link to David Foster Wallace text

 This is Water: http://goo.gl/N19Wbg

Friday, September 5

Using SOAPS to Analyze & Synthesize

1. Revise or review purpose and speaker for Rachel Aviv. (Think-Pair-Share)

2. Read "This is Water" in page 233 of The Bedford Reader.  

DO SOAPS.

+

Detail

Diction
Syntax

3. CULMINATING ASSIGNMENT:  What do all three authors (Krishnamurti, Aviv, Wallace) have to say about what it means to be educated?  Can you find any connecting points where the three authors overlap in message or purpose?  

A few weeks ago, I asked you to tell me why you had chosen to take AP Language.  Do you want to revise your answer?  Why or why not?

Submit in my dropbox by Sunday midnight :) 

4. Vocabulary Lesson 2--take notes 

Thursday, September 4

Target for today: To find key details that help you define the purpose of a piece of writing

• Scan the NYorker essay, looking for Sentence Pattern #1.  Put it here. 
• 2nd period: here
• Considering the Rachel Aviv piece "Wrong Answer", find one detail that she meant to include.  With your partner, open up this google doc and place it in the chart next to your name. 2nd period your link is http://goo.gl/llDtvP
• Reading over the details, attempt to connect this to her PURPOSE.  Discuss with your partner and then share out with the class.  Make connections between other details that further support your description of her purpose.
• Time for Lesson Two Vocabulary words?

Wednesday, September 3

SOAPS--

Driving Question:  Why are we here at Vintage?

1. Define SOAPS--the beginning of Rhetorical Analysis

Subject

Occasion

Audience

Purpose

2. Review The Function of Education, looking for SOAPS, underlining specific lines that help you answer each one.

3. Share out. 

4. "Wrong Answer"--SOAPS in partners.

5. Share out.

Tuesday, September 2

Today we took the Lesson One vocabulary test, after reviewing the "Improving Sentences" exercises in Lesson One section of the Power Plus book.

Then we learned our first Sentence Pattern:  S  V  ; S   V