1. Please go over the list of the American Heritage 100 Words High School Students and Their Parents Should Know.
2. Find at least five words that interest you and that you are unfamiliar with.
3. Find the definitions of the words.
4. See if you can use these words in a poem or short story. Post your short stories or poems
5. Last call for Sokol entries!!!! The contest was extended until Friday.
6. Good luck on your midterms. Finish reading Shadow Baby for Monday, Feb. 2
www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/booksellers/press_release/100words/#words
Monday, January 26, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Directions Creative Grammar and Style Final Exam
Part I
1. Log on to your computer
2. When instructed, go to: http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/grammar_mastery.asp
3. When instructed, begin Grammar Mastery Test (Part I)
4. When you have completed the test, raise your hand.
Ms. Gamzon will give you permission to SUBMIT. When you have submitted successfully, print your results.
5. Turn off your monitor and get your printed results. Sign your
answer sheet.
6. Return to your seat and begin Part II.
Part II
1. Put your name on the answer sheet. Answer the first 25 questions on the answer sheet.
2. FOR EXTRA CREDIT!!!!: Answer up to any 10 questions from 26-44. (Please do this if time permits!)
3. Pass in your answer sheets.
Part I
1. Log on to your computer
2. When instructed, go to: http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/grammar_mastery.asp
3. When instructed, begin Grammar Mastery Test (Part I)
4. When you have completed the test, raise your hand.
Ms. Gamzon will give you permission to SUBMIT. When you have submitted successfully, print your results.
5. Turn off your monitor and get your printed results. Sign your
answer sheet.
6. Return to your seat and begin Part II.
Part II
1. Put your name on the answer sheet. Answer the first 25 questions on the answer sheet.
2. FOR EXTRA CREDIT!!!!: Answer up to any 10 questions from 26-44. (Please do this if time permits!)
3. Pass in your answer sheets.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
tuesday, January 20 Inauguration Day
1. Study for FINAL ON THURSDAY (practice at Newsroom 101 Grammar exercises).
2. Read to page 110 in Shadow Baby (Ch. 6 and 7).
3. Work on Sokol entries (a poem and/or short story).
4. Look up Elizabeth Alexander. She will deliver the Inauguration poem. Go to: www.poets.org
2. Read to page 110 in Shadow Baby (Ch. 6 and 7).
3. Work on Sokol entries (a poem and/or short story).
4. Look up Elizabeth Alexander. She will deliver the Inauguration poem. Go to: www.poets.org
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Final Exam Grammar/Style
Your final exam is Thursday, 1/22:
You should know parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns
VERBALS: INFINITIVES, GERUNDS, PARTICIPLES
PARTS OF SENTENCES: SUBJECT, VERB, DIRECT OBJECT, INDIRECT OBJECT
PHRASES AND CLAUSE: Independent, dependent
Complete Sentences, Run-ons, comma splices, fragments
Verb usage: Past, present, future tense
Agreement of subject and verb
Pronoun usage
Adjective and adverb usage
THE RIGHT WORD--Common word mistakes
PUNCTUATION: Comma, semi-colon, period, quotation marks, etc.
You should know parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns
VERBALS: INFINITIVES, GERUNDS, PARTICIPLES
PARTS OF SENTENCES: SUBJECT, VERB, DIRECT OBJECT, INDIRECT OBJECT
PHRASES AND CLAUSE: Independent, dependent
Complete Sentences, Run-ons, comma splices, fragments
Verb usage: Past, present, future tense
Agreement of subject and verb
Pronoun usage
Adjective and adverb usage
THE RIGHT WORD--Common word mistakes
PUNCTUATION: Comma, semi-colon, period, quotation marks, etc.
Shadow Baby Discussion questions Publisher's Guide
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions from Publisher's Reading Guide:
1. One of the underlying themes in Shadow Baby is art, what it is, the people who make it, the people who appreciate it. (Think about, for example, Clara's soliloquy on book reports vs. actual books.) Clara believes that the old man has taught her the "art of possibility, and the possibility of beauty." What do you think the book is saying about the process of creating art? What are your own feelings on that subject?
2. In many ways the novel is a study in opposites. For example, Clara lives for words, while the old man is illiterate. In what ways do such contrasts serve to illuminate and deepen Clara's understanding of life?
3. In what ways do Clara's fake book reports mirror her world? In what ways do they represent her inner psyche? Why does she burn them all up in the end?
4. Shadow Baby opens with this line, "Now that the old man is gone, I think about him much of the time." Clara is twelve years old as she narrates the book, looking back on the past year of her life. Because she is still very young, she is not capable of having a long perspective of time, yet the book ends with this line, "But I was a child then." Think about other fictional child narrators, e.g., Holden Caulfield in A Catcher in the Rye and Laura Ingalls Wilder in the Little House books, and discuss the events behind their transition into adulthood. Compare and contrast to Clara's.
5. Clara's mother Tamar practices weekly in a church choir. Yet Tamar never attends church, nor do the old man or Clara. Is there nonetheless some religious significance in the book?
6. What is the significance of the title?
7. While it is true that the mother-daughter relationship in the novel is difficult, did you find it believable and real? Why does Tamar refuse to answer Clara's questions?
8. To Clara, "real life" is often indistinguishable from her fantasy life. What purpose does her wild imagination serve?
9. The story of Clara's relationship with CJ Wilson is intertwined with the story of her chickens. How do the two stories both reflect and enlarge each other?
10. In the book, one person looks at a dented tin can and sees garbage, another looks at the same can and sees the possibility of beauty in the form of a lantern or cookie cutters. How does the book play with ideas of how individual ways of seeing influence one's experience of the world?
11. Clara is obsessed with pioneers, their stories of incredible hardship and triumph over adversity. Can the book in some ways be viewed as a metaphor (or possibly an anti-metaphor) for the traditional American mythology surrounding its immigrant past?
12. Think about the opening scene of the book, in which Clara glimpses the old man hanging lanterns in the woods. Think about the ending scene, in which she is burning her fake book reports in the snow. How do these two scenes, which 'bookend' the novel, mirror each other? What do they tell us about how Clara has changed in the interim?
10. In the book, one person looks at a dented tin can and sees garbage, another looks at the same can and sees the possibility of beauty in the form of a lantern or cookie cutters. How does the book play with ideas of how individual ways of seeing influence one's experience of the world?
11. Clara is obsessed with pioneers, their stories of incredible hardship and triumph over adversity. Can the book in some ways be viewed as a metaphor (or possibly an anti-metaphor) for the traditional American mythology surrounding its immigrant past?
12. Think about the opening scene of the book, in which Clara glimpses the old man hanging lanterns in the woods. Think about the ending scene, in which she is burning her fake book reports in the snow. How do these two scenes, which 'bookend' the novel, mirror each other? What do they tell us about how Clara has changed in the interim?
Discussion Questions from Publisher's Reading Guide:
1. One of the underlying themes in Shadow Baby is art, what it is, the people who make it, the people who appreciate it. (Think about, for example, Clara's soliloquy on book reports vs. actual books.) Clara believes that the old man has taught her the "art of possibility, and the possibility of beauty." What do you think the book is saying about the process of creating art? What are your own feelings on that subject?
2. In many ways the novel is a study in opposites. For example, Clara lives for words, while the old man is illiterate. In what ways do such contrasts serve to illuminate and deepen Clara's understanding of life?
3. In what ways do Clara's fake book reports mirror her world? In what ways do they represent her inner psyche? Why does she burn them all up in the end?
4. Shadow Baby opens with this line, "Now that the old man is gone, I think about him much of the time." Clara is twelve years old as she narrates the book, looking back on the past year of her life. Because she is still very young, she is not capable of having a long perspective of time, yet the book ends with this line, "But I was a child then." Think about other fictional child narrators, e.g., Holden Caulfield in A Catcher in the Rye and Laura Ingalls Wilder in the Little House books, and discuss the events behind their transition into adulthood. Compare and contrast to Clara's.
5. Clara's mother Tamar practices weekly in a church choir. Yet Tamar never attends church, nor do the old man or Clara. Is there nonetheless some religious significance in the book?
6. What is the significance of the title?
7. While it is true that the mother-daughter relationship in the novel is difficult, did you find it believable and real? Why does Tamar refuse to answer Clara's questions?
8. To Clara, "real life" is often indistinguishable from her fantasy life. What purpose does her wild imagination serve?
9. The story of Clara's relationship with CJ Wilson is intertwined with the story of her chickens. How do the two stories both reflect and enlarge each other?
10. In the book, one person looks at a dented tin can and sees garbage, another looks at the same can and sees the possibility of beauty in the form of a lantern or cookie cutters. How does the book play with ideas of how individual ways of seeing influence one's experience of the world?
11. Clara is obsessed with pioneers, their stories of incredible hardship and triumph over adversity. Can the book in some ways be viewed as a metaphor (or possibly an anti-metaphor) for the traditional American mythology surrounding its immigrant past?
12. Think about the opening scene of the book, in which Clara glimpses the old man hanging lanterns in the woods. Think about the ending scene, in which she is burning her fake book reports in the snow. How do these two scenes, which 'bookend' the novel, mirror each other? What do they tell us about how Clara has changed in the interim?
10. In the book, one person looks at a dented tin can and sees garbage, another looks at the same can and sees the possibility of beauty in the form of a lantern or cookie cutters. How does the book play with ideas of how individual ways of seeing influence one's experience of the world?
11. Clara is obsessed with pioneers, their stories of incredible hardship and triumph over adversity. Can the book in some ways be viewed as a metaphor (or possibly an anti-metaphor) for the traditional American mythology surrounding its immigrant past?
12. Think about the opening scene of the book, in which Clara glimpses the old man hanging lanterns in the woods. Think about the ending scene, in which she is burning her fake book reports in the snow. How do these two scenes, which 'bookend' the novel, mirror each other? What do they tell us about how Clara has changed in the interim?
Tuesday 1/13 Shadow Baby discussion on line
Post 3 Questions and 3 observations (McGhee's style of writing, a favorite passage, something you can relate to in the character, foreshadowing, etc.)
Participate in doing this for the first period and you will not have a test on these early chapters.
Then respond to each other's comments.
Participate in doing this for the first period and you will not have a test on these early chapters.
Then respond to each other's comments.
Friday, January 9, 2009
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