We read and studied the short story, "Checkouts", and focused on the concept of irony. At the beginning of class, I placed on the board the definition of irony and drew three columns labeled: What happens/What we expect to happen/What actually happens. I then identified a few of the major plot developments under column"What happens" and Lena offered predictions on what the reader expects to happen which I placed under the column"What we expect". After we read the story, we then completed the chart by identifying "What actually happens" and discussed the story's irony I.e. how the story's outcome is the opposite of what we predicted.
In preparation for tomorrow's final exam on the play, we reviewed dramatic terms, genre, and the elements of plot as depicted on the Freytag pyramid . We then studied the final act of the play with Bobby astutely noting the reappearance of the lock and key motif throughout, as well as the character development of Annie Sullivan into a person who can not only stand up to Capt. Keller but who can now emotionally connect and love consequent to her relationship with Helen. At the conclusion of the session ,we discussed how Annie Sullivan was truly a"miracle worker" especially in light of Helen Keller's many achievements later in life. HW- study for test.
Today's board work introduced the concept of narrator and point of view-First Person, and Third Person. Based on our reading of yesterday,Lena identified the narrator of the story as well as the first person point of view. I then distributed an exercise that contained excerpts from the story. Lena underlined both examples of realism and language that created the story's atmosphere or described the setting. After reviewing Lena's work, she then placed in her notebook answers to questions that appeared in Lit book at the end of the story. The questions required Lena to identify elements of realism and to recall plot details.
On the board, I placed definitions of "fantasy ' and realism, focusing on setting as an aspect of each. I then distributed an exercise I prepared that required Lena to identify sentences as either examples of fantasy or realism. After completing the exercise , we read the short story"Old Man of the Temple" stopping to discuss elements of fantasy and elements of realism. We noted how the fantasy genre often includes realistic elements also. Last, we discussed the review questions at the end of the story which we will address in class tomorrow.
Using flashcards, I presented Bobby with sections of the dialogue. He then identified the speaker , the context, and ,where applicable , the significance to a theme. Similarly, using flashcards, we reviewed vocabulary from the play. Examining Act II, I then explained the siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War and the play's use of the Vicksburg metaphor to illustrate the struggle between Annie Sullivan and Helen. Further, we traced the plot developments on the Freytag pyramid identifying events constituting the exposition and the rising action. Bobby then took a short quiz on the vocabulary and the play's conflicts. During the second portion of the session ,we reviewed and edited Bobby's essay on "The Call of the Wild". We addressed punctuation, vague pronoun reference, informal language, and precision in describing themes. Bobby worked on the edits and rewrites. For homework, complete essay revisions and read pages 80-95 .
In preparation for our final poetry exam on Wednesday , we first reviewed the structure for an essay analysis comparing two poems. As most of the poems we thus far studied had a formal rhyme and rhythm, we then read and discussed the free or blank verse of Walt Whitman. Marcel pointed out Whitman's subject matter was ordinary Americans which I elaborated upon . We noted the accessible language and imagery in contrast to the academic allusions of other poets. In the same vein, we studied Sandburg's famed Haiku like poem "Fog" ,noting the accessible language and imagery. After discussing haiku as a study of nature in a specific moment in time , we each wrote a haiku poem following the formalist format. Last, we moved on to the poetry of Robert Frost who often preferred a stuctured verse to free or blank verse. Marcel did a good job discussing "The Road Not Taken" as a poem about the consequences of all choices, even ones that seem trivial at the time. For homework,study for final test on Wednesday and rewrite homework poetry analyses per my comments.
