Happy Birthday, Keatsy

And on this 222nd birthday of Keats, here is an article on his appearance and his background: https://wordsworth.org.uk/blog/2016/08/18/picturing-john-keats/.
And, here is a poem by Keats that puts us Halloween folk in the mood: https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/tis-witching-time-night.
And, here is a website dedicated to Keats' letters and his relationship with Fanny: http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/keats/.
And, last but not least, a poem about Keats by Christina Rossetti (remember her from "A Birthday): https://hellopoetry.com/poem/16119/on-keats/.

Meanwhile, you should be firmly in the process of the Lucy Grealy experience: checking out one of the memoirs, reading the chapters, constructing a log for each chapter as assigned. This is due in less than 5 weeks, which may seem like a long time, but it will catch up to you if you fall behind.

1: We finished our diction unit with a flourish! Our Keats letter groups gave us diction, evidence, and purpose to help you set up a pattern for composing your diction prompt, which is due by 3:15 p.m. on Thursday. You may complete this as a handwritten or typed product, and if you are here at any part of the day on Thursday, it is due by the given time in hard copy format. If absent all day, you will need to share, e-mail, or send a picture of the work and turn in the hard copy the next time around. At the end of the hour, you received your tone handouts: the umbrella and big kid's words. We will be working with those tomorrow.

3: We began with your tone dialogues and identified the various tone of team positive, team negative, team humor, team sorrow, and team neutral. Then, we began our tone map sample using "Chicago," a poem that you read from a previous blog post. For a tone map, you break the text into sections by each shift, then you identify a specific tone word for each section, then you identify two tone words that complete a range for our map, then you plot the tones accordingly, then you connect the dots. Then, the bell rings, and we did not finish the analysis portion of the tone map, which we will do tomorrow. At least we have a great tone map to review tomorrow! For homework, prep the tones for each stanza in "The Children's Hour."

4: We jumped into tone mapping from our opening minutes, utilizing "Chicago" for its shifts and analytical meaning. As noted under third hour, you need to identify shifts, tone words, range words, and plotting points on the map prior to the analysis portion. With a strong tone map, you noted that a pattern of jingoism continues to build and become stronger throughout the latter stages of the poem, which is directly contrasted with the more vituperative perspective in the opening lines. Furthermore, you concluded that this was an argument with a claim (the outsider) and the counterclaim (the insider) and how this delineates Chicago. For homework, identify a tone for each stanza of "The Children's Hour."

Note to self - Don't use pastel and lighter colors to create tone maps :)

7: You and third hour will be in the exact same spot. However, your tone map is below.

Toning

All classes received the 5 1/2 week assignment for the Lucy Grealy books, in which you will read the two memoirs (in any order) and complete a log for all chapters (and the prologue). Remember, this log will be evaluated on completion of the tasks for each chapter and for the upper-level analysis, strategies, and work that you put into the log. The greater effort on this assignment will behoove you when discussion, essays, activities, and finals come into play. As noted in all the classes, the decision to not complete this assignment will impact your grade - severely impact your grade - for the quarter and, as a result, the semester average. You should not procrastinate this assignment either as it involves two texts and significant analysis. Make sure to check out your first book sooner rather than later.

1: We spent the entire time on Keats - ah, Keats. In groups, you were assigned a letter to over-analyze and present to the class for types of diction and purposes. As a reminder, this is not a summation activity. This is identifying a type of diction and providing specific evidence to explain it, identifying another type of diction and giving more evidence, and so on and so forth. Two adjectives are not enough!

3 & 7: We played with tone today! And to play with tone, we focused on creativity through interpretive readings of statements with lachrymose, bilious, surprised, apathetic, and exuberant. To wrap up class, you created conversations with different tone words, which we will perform on Tuesday. For homework, look over you "big kid" tone list and star, circle, indicate in some fashion words you like.

4: Same as third hour, but we actually made it to the performance and identification of our tone dialogues.

Poetry Readings for Next Week

Later on today, I will be updating the blog with our hourly agenda. However, all classes have readings for next week. The following will be links to these readings. If these links do not work on your device, you can always google the title and find it on your own.

The idea behind providing you with these readings in advance stems from you understanding the plot and ideas in the poem. You do not have to analyze strategies - we will do that in class together. Feel free to take notes for plot or to print out the passages and have them with you next week. We will be analyzing these poems in the order given, so I would go sequentially. Remember, this is for plot/idea understanding.

"Chicago" by Carl Sandburg
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12840/chicago
"The Children's Hour" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44628/the-childrens-hour-56d223ca55069
"Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson (I affectionately refer to him as EAR.)
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44982/richard-cory
"Miniver Cheevy" by Edwin Arlington Robinson
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44978/miniver-cheevy
"To a Skylark" by Percy Bysshe Shelley (My nickname for him is definitely not affectionate.)
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45146/to-a-skylark
"Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44479/ode-to-a-nightingale

Keats Citing

For all of those classes (3,4,7) in the midst of citing Keats for your prompt, use page numbers in your citations. You can mention the letter numbers in your sentences, of course, but page numbers will be the easiest way for any parenthetical documentation.

4: We finished up Keats' letters today. Don't be sad, we have one more Keats poem for our tone work next week. Now, you have the joy or despair (Keats would have both simultaneously) of completing this prompt: Analyze how John Keats' diction reflects his mentality and purpose in his letters to Fanny Brawne. The deadline for this prompt is Friday @ 3:30 p.m. in hard copy form. This may be handwritten or typed, depending on your availability and methods. If absent all day on Friday, you will need to e-mail, share, or photograph the essay by the deadline to show your completion of the task.

If you were absent today, the deadline for this essay also applies to you. If you need help, clarification, or anything else regarding your absence and needs, e-mail me or stop by prior to class tomorrow so that you will have a successful prompt writing experience.

Keats & Fanny

Wonder when we will be returning to vocab? Well, as soon as we finish our tone unit (the next one starting Friday for most of you), we will be back to learning more words to improve our writing, daily interactions, and verb choices.

Due to the low demand for the close reading club, I will no longer be offering this opportunity for further close reading practices at this time.

1: We made a dent in our to do list today: we identified forms of diction in "Ode to a Favourite Cat" and "Ozymandias" and constructed a thesis statement merging the two poems together in common purpose; we analyzed "Ode on a Grecian Urn" for its diction choices and composed a thesis statement covering its purpose; I gave you the background of Keats to provide a little more ethos prior to reading his letters to Fanny Brawne. For Friday, close read the first letter in preparation for our analysis.

3 & 7: The hour was focused on Keats and his letters to Fanny. You over-analyzed the diction choices, conveyed purposes, and considered the letters as a whole. For Friday, you have the following prompt to complete: Analyze how John Keats' diction reflects his mentality and purpose in his letters to Fanny Brawne. As clarified in class, you may handwrite or type the essay. A hard copy is due by 3:30 p.m. on Friday. If you are absent for part of the day, you still need to turn this in by the deadline. If you are absent the entire day, you will need to e-mail, share, or send me a picture of your work and turn in the hard copy the next class session. I hope you enjoy writing about my Keatsy - just don't compare him to a girl waiting for a prom date. 

Into Hampstead

1: You worked with autumn diction, identifying types and purposes, creating specific thesis statements, and analyzing how these words impact the text. Following that activity, we had a chance to read Thomas Gray's ode to that pesky feline, which we will analyze for diction tomorrow.

3: We completed "Ode on a Grecian Urn," divided into groups to identify the types of diction per stanza, and created a thesis statement covering the poem's entirety. To continue with Keats, I provided you with background of his life and his home in Hampstead. For homework, close read the first letter of the packet in preparation for tomorrow. If you are on a field trip, you are expected to pick this packet up.

4: Two hours back to back with Keatsy :) For this class, I presented the diction and purpose analysis for letter 1 and then gave you letters to analyze in the same fashion. Then, you shared your diction adjectives and purpose for each letter, which must be all important to know for your next prompt. We will finish up the letters on Thursday - and wrap up diction - and start tone!

7: Same as third hour - at least two of the classes are on the same page!

Diction Here & There

It's our last full 5 day week for a long while, so we might as well spend our time on identifying diction, describing diction, constructing thesis statements about diction, and writing about diction. And what is at the end of the rainbow after diction has exhausted our faculties? A return to vocab and tone analysis.

F.Y.I. All syntax quizzes were to be completed today - whether you used your class time or came after school to complete.

1: After constructing our class thesis statement for "A Birthday," we spent quality family bonding time on the floor with a plethora of quotes, a plethora of adjectives to describe diction, and a plethora of verbs and purposes to make it worth our time. For each quote, we composed thesis statements indicating the author, an active verb, specific forms of diction, and mature purpose. If you would like to see these quotes again, there are links under the October 18 blog. Tomorrow, you will be completing the same task but with longer passages and in groups.

3: Returning to Gray's "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat," you broke down the stanzas for types of diction and supplied evidence to support your diction adjectives. Then, we read Shelley's "Ozymandias" https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias in order to create a thesis statement connecting the purposes of both poems.  And, what a "fish" and "sculpt" thesis it was! As we continued forward, we made it through the first 4 stanzas of "Ode on a Grecian Urn" https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44477/ode-on-a-grecian-urn, a poem of interpretation by my beloved Keatsy. We will be finishing this text tomorrow and then moving into the letter portion of our diction analysis.

4: We finished our "Ode on a Grecian Urn" analysis, breaking up into groups with each group clarifying the types of diction and providing evidence of support. Then, we made a class thesis statement covering the poem in its entirety. Since we already were in Keats' perspective, you then found out more about his background via my ethos and my slides from his house in London. With that historical context, you now have his letters - in packet form. For homework, close read the first letter. I will be presenting you the letter tomorrow to model what I expect from the remaining texts.

7: Check out third hour's synopsis - we are in the same place!