MRS' CONTRERAS Language Arts 9th Grade Eng I Gifted Honors Room C209

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MRS. CONTRERASLanguage Arts9th Grade Eng I
Gifted Honors Room C209
Welcome Braddock Bulldogs!!!
2006-2007
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Weekly Forecast8/14/06 8/18/06

• Monday Student Welcome. Distribution of student
  packets (welcome letter, class syllabus,
  video/picture signature pages, index card,
  profile forms, calendars/agendas, 1 student
  folder, take-home class syllabus test "I Am"
  poem. While students are completing profile
  forms, distribute books and send log sheet around
  the room (Per 2,4,6).
• Tuesday Distribute/log books (Per 1,3,5).
  Conduct peer interviews volunteer readings of
  "I Am" poem
• Wednesday Introduction to course objectives,
  tentative syllabus, and discuss take-home class
  policies/procedures test (answers students got
  off web page).
• Thursday Why are we here? What is the purpose
  of an education? get an affective introduction
  into the conceptualization/ objectification
  process (artwork and music) to discuss how we
  grapple with objects in the world. Discussion on
  the role of art influencing life and the
  metacognitive process of interpretation/understand
  ing rhetoric.
• Friday Discuss student interpretations of art
  piece (transferable to writing). Discuss
  literature as portal into our own
  humanity/mirror. Discuss importance of reading
  for comprehension (reading strategies) main idea
  supporting details

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Home Learning

• By Tuesday, 8/15 rough draft of "I Am" poem.
• By Wednesday, 8/16 Log onto class web page and
  complete Class Policies take-home test. Syllabus
  Video/Pictures signature pages due.
• By Monday, 8/21 Class Materials check. Read
  cultural introduction to Mesopotamian, Egyptian
  and Hebrew cultures (pg. 16), Foundations of
  Early Literature (pg. 30) the "Epic of
  Gilgamesh (pg. 32-46). See next slide. Answer
  questions on handout. Read Plato's "Allegory of
  the Cave," McCarthy and Kuhs Are Students Ready
  for College, and Pinzurs Blame Game. Write
  an essay in which you explain your position on
  the topic.
• Have a great week!

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Strategies for Reading Epics

• Before you read, learn as much as possible about
  the culture and time from which the work comes
• Notice what the literary form of the work is
  (myth, heroic literature, sacred verse, etc)
• Notice Plot organizers at the beginning of each
  section. These provide brief introductions to
  each section of the epic. We are reading an
  abridged (shortened) version.
• If the work is lengthy, map or diagram the plot
  to keep track of characters and major events
• If a passage confuses you, go back and summarize
  its main idea
• If the work is short, such as a song or prayer,
  read it through once without stopping. Then, read
  it through again carefully line by line.
• Always monitor yourself as you read! Keep the
  above in mind.

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• 8/14/06 Agenda
• Index Cards (front back), Student Folders,
  Profile Forms (front back), Calendars, Class
  Syllabus, Syllabus Take-Home Test, I Am poem,
  Video/Pictures form
• Initial Office Attendance List (going around)
• Distribution of Student Schedules Other
  Materials
• Distribution of Books Book Log
• (8/14 Periods 2,4,6 8/15 Periods 1,3,5)

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Index Card (Front Side)
Please Print Legibly!!!

• Last Name, First Name
  (Nick Name)
• Period
  Date of Birth
• Address Line 1 Home Phone
  ( )
• Address Line 2 Cell Phone
  ( )
• 
  Email Address
• Do you have a home computer?

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Index Card (Back Side)
Please Print Legibly!!!

• Fathers Name Mothers Name
• Home ( ) Home ( )
• Work ( ) Work ( )
• Cell ( ) Cell (
  )
• Email Email

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Tuesday, 8/15/06
Getting to know someone

• STEP 1 In pairs, interview a class mate to
  learn as much as you can about them (5 min each).
  
• STEP 2 Analyze the above ideas. Choose three
  qualities or traits you see operating in your
  classmate (silently 3 minutes).
• STEP 3 Once you have gathered the three
  qualities or traits, choose one word you feel
  captures what your classmate is all about (2
  minutes).

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Thursday, 8/17/06
Why are we here?

• Every school year, students are faced with new
  teachers and new demands.
• Consider the demands you are currently facing.
• Now, for the next five minutes, write a
  paragraph where you explain what you believe is
  the purpose of your education.

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Why are we here?
What is Language Arts?

• The study of literature and the effective uses of
  language (rhetoric) serves as a portal or mirror
  into our own humanity.
• Language is a radical and violent agent
  (tensions, contradictions, ruptures).
• Through rhetoric, sensations are so arranged
  that they arouse in us deep emotions, this
  feeling of a special tie with the person who
  expressed themWe feel that the author
  expressed something which was latent in us all
  the timethat the author has revealed us to
  ourselves (Fry 182).

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Responses to Art

• Literature is art, human works of beauty/worth.
• The art of painting is the art of imitating
  solid objects upon a flat surface by means of
  pigments (Fry 175). This would be the same as
  saying that literature is nothing but black
  symbols superimposed onto a white background.
• There is a referential, inextricable, and
  awesome dynamic that triangulates art and life.

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BEHIND THE PICTURE?
WHAT'S THE STORY
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Thursday, 8/17
How What We Know

• 1) Did you see the imitation of solid
  objects upon a flat surface by means of pigments?
  
• 2) Was that all?
• 3) What is the story/message behind the artwork?
• 4) How did you arrive at this conclusion?

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PERCEPTION
INTERPRETATION
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I Am

• From the earliest moments of self-consciousness,
  until that of death, human beings are prisoners
  of their own ontological abstractions and
  speculations.
• According to German philosopher Martin Heidegger,
  we are the Being for whom being is a question
  (54).

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Core Ontological Questions
Unveiling Complexities of Being

• What does it mean to be?
• Who am I?
• What is the purpose of my life?
• Must I have a purpose necessarily?
• How do I fit into the whole scheme of things?
• Is there more to being than having a purpose or
  performing a function?
• What is the meaning of life?

referential inextricable relationship between
man and his outside world
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Connections

• John Donne once said that no man is an island
  (Donne 243).
• This concept implies a clear distinction or
  dichotomy between mans internal space and the
  external dimension which envelopes him
• It points to a certain gravitation or pull
  between these dimensions
• This attractive force, mans necessity to relate
  to his social context, makes the ambiguous
  concept of reality, inconceivable solely in the
  vacuum of his mind.

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Connections

• Rather, mans questions must be posed and his
  speculations tested in the complex web of life,
  constituted in the infinite spaces between the
  recesses of his mind and the various points of
  interaction with his environment.
• To this end, man is constantly engaged in
  metacognative processes (thinking about his
  thinking).
• Mans mind seeks to apprehend or understands the
  existence of objects in the world through the
  process of conceptualization.

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Conceptualization

• Mans conscious attention is limited
• Our first task in perception is to perceive any
  object as distinct from its surroundings.
• In order to focus on something, man brings to the
  foreground of his mind any object, allowing all
  other considerations to become suspended or blend
  into the background.
• This new object of consciousness can be
  manipulated in endless ways in order to
  understand it.

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Schemes

• According to Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, man
  is ever about the process of achieving
  equilibration, testing of ones thinking
  processes to achieve integrity or balance between
  our interior and exterior worlds.
• Piaget argued that man innately seeks to combine,
  arrange, and organize his thoughts into coherent
  systems or schemes, logical thought structures
  that allow us to make sense of the world around
  us.
• Our experiences, assumptions, expectations may
  give us a perceptual set or mental predisposition
• People cant resist imposing their patterns on
  unpatterned stimuli (new information). We like to
  make predictions.
• Harder to construct a photo coming into focus
  than retain an image of the same photo going out
  of focus

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Schemes

• Experience determines perceptual sets.
• Man tends to assimilate new information,
  incorporating it into what is already known.
• Alternatively, if the new data cannot be fitted
  into existing schemes, man accommodates or
  adjusts his thinking to create new schemes.
• Ex mammals (not amphibians, reptiles, etc)
• Thus, people adapt to their increasingly complex
  environment by using existing schemes whenever
  these schemes work (assimilation) and by
  modifying and adding to their schemes when
  something new is needed (accommodation)
  (Woolfolk 28).
• In this way, mans cognitive development is a
  minute-by-minute construction and deconstruction
  of innate and socially-influenced paradigms.

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RealityA Search for Meaning

• If Miguel Angel Escotet is correct, and reality
  for human beings is not about objectsbut
  about meaning, (4) then the instability in our
  quest for whole truth, a gestaltic or absolute
  certainty in our thought structures, not only
  eludes us mentally but is impractical.
• Thus, it becomes self-evidently absurd to
  conceive of the human condition or identity as a
  fixed agent. Rather, as Piaget points out,
  subjective reality is relative and in a
  perpetual state of flux.

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Complexities Ambiguities

• At best, the psychological distinction or
  boundary between mans subjective space and that
  which is social space, like a semi-permeable
  membrane separating his inside from the
  outside, is assailed at every turn as man
  grapples to find balance in and among the
  contradictions and inversions of his internal and
  external realities.
• This chasm is where our interpretations and
  actions are negotiated.

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Special Vocabulary To Know

• Metacognitive constant awareness of where one
  stands in relation to goals/objectives (thinking
  about ones thinking)
• Ontology branch in metaphysics focusing on what
  it means to be human
• Dichotomy seeming oppositional forces
• Epistemology branch in metaphysics focusing on
  knowledge
• Tabula rasa clean slate
• Gestalt our minds seek whole pictures (connect
  the dots)
• Schemes thought structures we develop to make
  sense of the world
• Referential/inextricable relationship in
  language alone / together

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BEHIND THE PICTURE?
WHAT'S THE STORY
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Why bother with fiction?

• Since the beginning of time, human beings have
  enjoyed hearing and reading stories (bedtime
  stories as children, thrillers, romances, etc.)
• Stories expand and refine our thinking on
  significant topics, pertinent to humanistic
  concerns.
• Provides an imagined experience that yields
  authentic insights
• Commercial (sensational) vs literary (more
  critical) fiction
• Literary fiction is not solely intended to
  entertain us.
• Literary fiction is meant to illuminate some
  aspect of human existence with genuine
  originality and power.

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How should we readfiction?

• Literary fiction requires a different kind of
  reading from our beach reading of Stephen King or
  Danielle Steele, for example.
• Literary works are more demanding in terms of an
  original premise, intriguing characters,
  language, structure, and complexity.
• Multiple or close readings are vital!
• Always attempt to understand its significance.
• Youll constantly be negotiating or processing
  information about plot, characterization, theme,
  and so forth.
• Gradually, you develop the instincts of a good
  reader.

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How should we readfiction?

• Expect the unexpected.
• Recognize that different genres carry different
  conventions.
• Like fingerprints, authors have distinct writing
  styles.
• When reading a fictional work, keep an OPEN MIND!
• Stay receptive to the writers vision, however
  different it may be from your own habits of
  perceiving and reading the world.
• Remember, the goal is to become less egocentric
  in our reading and understanding about life.
• Evaluate what you are reading, getting the most
  out of the work.
• Digest the work and its language!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Analyzing Fiction

• Plot sequence of incidents or events through
  which an author constructs a story (not to be
  confused with content). Plot is the
  structure/arrangement of incidents in a story.
  The order may be chronological or more complex.
  Stories may include flashbacks or various time
  shifts.
• Conflict significant meaning arises in fiction
  through this story element which could be a clash
  of ideas, desires, or wills. Conflict can reside
  in man vs man, man vs some external force
  (nature, society, fate), or man vs himself
  (internal struggle).
• Protagonist central character in a conflict
• Antagonist any force arranged against the
  protagonist.
• Suspense quality in a piece of literature that
  keeps our attention.

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Analyzing Fiction

• Theme not simply the subject, but rather a
  statement that the text seems to be making about
  that subject.
• Point of view who tells the story and the
  vantage point/angle from which a story is told.
• Narrator a speaker through which a writer tells
  a story. This can take on either first-person,
  third person (omniscient, limited, objective),
  stream of consciousness.
• Characterization The method by which a writer
  creates people in a story so that they seem like
  they really exist.

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Characters can be

• Flat, like caricatures, defined by a single idea
  or quality.
• Round, exemplifying the three-dimensional
  complexity of human beings.
• Static, where they undergo little or no change.
• Dynamic, where they change (for better or worse)
  in response to circumstances and experience.

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Analyzing Fiction

• Setting the context in which the action of a
  story occurs (time, place and social
  environment). Can be used to evoke mood. Writers
  are usually very careful, using descriptive
  language, to vividly paint an atmosphere for
  readers.
• Symbolism a person, object, or event that
  suggests more than its literal meaning. These are
  widely recognized by a society.

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Analyzing Fiction

• Conventional symbols items such as the Christian
  cross, statue of liberty, twin towers, etc.
• Literary symbol can be a setting, character,
  action, object, name or anything else in a work
  that maintains its literal significance while
  suggesting other meanings.
• Symbols are suggestive rather than definitive.

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Analyzing Fiction

• Style the distinctive manner in which a writer
  arranges words to achieve particular effects.
• Diction writers choice of words. Because
  different words evoke different associations in a
  readers mind, diction is crucial in controlling
  a readers response to a work.
• Tone revealed by the writers style, is the
  authors implicit attitude toward the people,
  places, and events in a story. If we are
  sensitive to tone, we can get behind a character
  and speculate on how the author viewed it.

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Irony When thingsjust arent as they seem

• Verbal a person saying one thing but meaning
  another. Ex you look nice today.
• Sarcasm is verbal irony intended to be hurtful.
  Ex good job (when someone has just wrecked
  their car).
• Situational when there is an incongruity between
  what is expected to happen and what actually
  happens.
• Dramatic discrepancy between what a character
  knows, believes, or says, and what the
  reader/audience understands to be true. The
  author allows the reader/audience know more than
  the character him/herself knows.

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Analyzing Fiction

• Endings may include surprise endings, happy
  endings, indeterminate endings (no resolution or
  conclusion).
• Artistic Unity essential to plot. Nothing is
  irrelevant. Words are carefully chosen for
  effect.
• Chance cannot be barred from literature anymore
  than it is from life. This is the occurrence of
  an event that has no apparent cause.
• Coincidence the chance occurrence of two events
  that may have a peculiar correspondence/relationsh
  ip.
• Stories follow a certain development exposition,
  rising action, climax, falling action, and
  denouement.

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Story Development
Climax
Falling Action
Rising Action
Denouement
Exposition
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Resources/Handouts

• Student Profile Form   
• Class Syllabus  
• Syllabus Take-Home Test   
• "I Am" Poem