Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a wonderful, restful break.

When you return we will begin reading All My Sons and working on research. We will study research skills and how to use and cite credible sources. By winter break you will have written a full research paper!

See you next Monday!

The Olden, Golden Days

Your job for tomorrow is to write a poem that contains:
10 lines
Free verse
5 examples of things/people from the olden, golden days
a modern/future setting.

Have fun with it!

This Weekend

Read for your own enjoyment!

**You will need to bring your outside reading book to class next Tuesday.

BLUE BOOK

Tomorrow is the ATPH blue book exam--be prepared.

Also, review the assignment sheet for the McCarthy-style hero quest. Make sure you have everything before you come to class.

Here's the Plan

Tomorrow: We will discuss the close analysis of Faulkner vs. McCarthy and discuss our lists of 5 essential stylistic elements in McCarthyesque writing. The five elements you list should definitely be employed in your own McCarthyesque hero quest. After TWISTing both passages, I came up with the following list (in no particular order):
1. Third-person POV
2. "He" or "she" to describe characters; no proper names, no other pronouns.
3. "Loose" sentences. Sequenced, ordered (but not necessarily well connected) sentences.
4. Punctuation: the period, period.
5. Imagery. Showing, not telling. For example: "Four Forty-Three" and "A cool wind."

After reviewing style, we will discuss blue book prep, and you will have some time to prep in class.

Friday: Blue Book Exam, ATPH; also, final hero quest, and all pieces listed on gold assignment sheet, are due.

Don't Forget!

We have a vocab. quiz tomorrow.

Also, the rough draft (the version in your style) of your hero quest is due tomorrow. When I talk about page requirements, I think of a page as approximately 300-325 words (the equivalent of a page of typed, double-space writing).

**I think we're going to have to move the blue book ATPH exam to Friday. You will get time Wed. or Thur. to work on prepping for the exam.

Busy Week

Tomorrow you will have some time to prep for the blue book exam on Thursday. The prompt is copied below. On Wednesday, you will have a vocabulary quiz; the rough draft of the hero quest assignment is also due on Wednesday. Thursday is the blue book exam. On Friday, your hero quest is due--be sure to follow the directions (the prompt is part of the previous blog post).

All the Pretty Horses In-Class Essay
Thursday, November 20th – 50 points


Preparation: You will be given one of the following questions on the day of the test. Make sure that you have prepped them all. You may bring in one side of one sheet of notes (handwritten) for each question.


A) What is the role of death in All the Pretty Horses? The novel opens with the death of John Grady's father and closes with the death of Abuela. Why do you think this is the case?


B) What role do horses play in the novel? Do they represent anything beyond what they are?

C) The dreams in this novel are suffused with images of horses. What do the dreams represent?


An “A” essay will include all of the following:
a clear and thoughtful thesis statement
an engaging introduction that is appropriately structure per class discussions
A satisfying conclusion that leaves the reader with something to think about and is structured per class discussion
3 main points for analysis
each main point must have a quote from text that is well-integrated per class discussion
appropriate and sophisticated transition statements
thoughtful and deep analysis
appropriate tense and tone
near-perfect use of conventions and usage
extremely neatly written so it is easily read and understood