Back to School Night 2021

 Back to School Night is August 23rd! 

The Schedule- 

Advisory                 6:30 - 6:37

Hour 1                      6:42 - 6:49

Hour 2                   6:54 - 7:01

Hour 3                   7:06 - 7:13

Hour 4                    7:18 - 7:25

Hour 5                      7:30 - 7:37

Hour 6                      7:42 - 7:49

Hour 7                      7:54 - 8:01

Wednesday, March 24th

Willa Cather: The eldest of seven children, Willa Cather was born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia in 1873. When Cather was nine years old, her family moved to rural Webster County, Nebraska. After a year and a half, the family resettled in the county seat of Red Cloud, where Cather lived until beginning her college studies at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in 1890. After her graduation in 1895, Cather worked as a journalist and teacher, living first in Pittsburgh and later in New York City. 

As one of the greatest American novelists of the 20th century, Willa Cather was gifted in conveying an intimate understanding of her characters in relation to their personal and cultural environments—environments that often derived from Red Cloud. Engraved on her tombstone is this quotation from My Ántonia: “that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.” Complex and brilliant, Willa Cather lives on through her many devoted readers.

Willa Cather is the author of 12 novels, 6 collections of short fiction, 2 editions of her book of poetry, April Twilights, and numerous works of nonfiction, collected journalism, speeches, and letters. 

From WillaCather.org. 

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1. Lit HIIT- Antigone and Creon

2. Watch video- Antigone and Creon

3. Small groups- Reading up to 705- 

Tuesday, March 23rd

Fantastic Book Lists from Women Authors or Featuring Strong Female Leads:

Women's History Month- Books to Read

Readitforward.com Books for Women's History Month

NYPL Women's History Reading List

35 Women's History Month books with Strong Female Lead

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Class agenda:

1. Finish close read of Ode #1 Antigone. 

Homework: 

Read up to line 705. 

Monday, March 22nd

Women's History Month 

Kate Chopin (1850 - 1904), born Katherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri on February 8, 1850, is considered one of the first feminist authors of the 20th century. She is often credited for introducing the modern feminist literary movement. Chopin was following a rather conventional path as a housewife until an unfortunate tragedy-- the untimely death of her husband-- altered the course of her life. She is best known for her novel The Awakening (1899), a hauntingly prescient tale of a woman unfulfilled by the mundane yet highly celebrated "feminine role," and her painful realization that the constraints of her gender blocked her ability to seek a more fulfilling life. From Americanliterature.com 

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Class Agenda: 
1. Lit HIIT- Significant devices snippet exercise. 
2. Ode #1- Close read group activity. Utilize the review questions attached to directions.

 
Homework:  
1.  Read and annotate up through line 705. (Up to Episode #3) (Be ready to upload annoatations) 
2. Complete annotations homework.  

Friday, March 19th

 Women's History Month:

"My Year of Reading African Women"- 15 Novels by African Women

Top row (from left): Maaza Mengiste, Laila Lalami, Doreen Baingana, Lola Shoneyin, Ahdaf Soueif, Nawal El Saadawi and Imbolo Mbue. Bottom row: Chibundu Onuzo, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Aminatta Forna, Nadifa Mohamed, NoViolet Bulawayo, Ayobami Adebayo and Yaa Gyasi. 

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Class Agenda: 

1. Lit HIIT- Foils. Antigone and Ismene

2. Tone assignment discussion. 

3. Group Discussions- Prologue and Parados

Homework:

Continue your close read and ANNOTATIONS of Episode #1 of Antigone. Please use the Episode 1 questions to guide your reading. 

Thursday, March 18th

 

Amy Tan- 1952- born in the U.S. to immigrant parents from China, Amy Tan rejected her mother’s expectations that she become a doctor and concert pianist.  She chose to write fiction instead. Her iconic novel, The Joy Luck Club, paved the way for many following authors of Asian descent.  Her novels are The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's Daughter, Saving Fish from Drowning, and The Valley of Amazement, all New York Times bestsellers. Her works have been translated into 35 different languages. Tan served as co-producer and co-screenwriter on the film adaptation of The Joy Luck Club.  Amy Tan has served as lead rhythm “dominatrix,” backup singer, and second tambourine with the literary garage band, the Rock Bottom Remainders, whose members included Stephen King, Dave Barry, and Scott Turow. Their yearly gigs raised over a million dollars for literacy programs. - From the Steven Barcaly Agency. 

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Class today: 

1. Lit HIIT- Prologue and thematic issues. 

2. Parados structure.

3. Tone and Antigone Prologue and Parados assignment. 

Homework: 

Read up TO Ode #1. (Up through page 25). 

Don't forget to respond to grammar focus discussion. 

Tuesday, March 16th

WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

Margaret Atwood (1939)- A Canadian novelist, poet, essayist, and teacher. She is an author of over 50 works. Her works include: Blind Assassin, Cat's Eye, The Handmaid's Tale, and The Testaments (The critically praised sequel to The Handmaid's Tale). In 2016 ,Atwood published her first graphic novel. Ms. Atwood's works challenge readers to think about politics, gender, and language in their own lives through the dynamic worlds she creates.

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Class agenda for Tuesday, March 16th 

1. Quick write- Loyalty and Antigone 

2. Greek Chorus notes: 

Greek Chorus Structure: 

Greek choruses often express the fears and hopes of the ordinary citizens, while often also voicing judgment of the characters. 

1. Prologue: A monologue or dialogue preceding the entry of the chorus, which presents the tragedy's topic.
2. Parode/Parados (Entrance Ode): The entry chant of the chorus, often in an anapestic (short-short-long) marching rhythm (four feet per line). Generally, they remain on stage throughout the remainder of the play. Although they wear masks, their dancing is expressive, as conveyed by the hands, arms and body. Typically the parode and other choral odes involve the following parts, repeated in order several times:
3. Episode: There are several episodes (typically 3-5) in which one or two actors interact with the chorus. They are, at least in part, sung or chanted. Speeches and dialogue are typically iambic hexameter: six iambs (short-long) per line, but rhythmic anapests are also common. In lyric passages the meters are treated flexibly. Each episode is terminated by a stasimon:
4.  Stasimon (Stationary Song): A choral ode in which the chorus may comment on or react to         the preceding episode.

• Strophê (Turn): A stanza in which the chorus moves in one direction (toward the altar). Expresses a complete thought. Travels East to West. 
• Antistrophê (Counter-Turn): The following stanza, in which it moves in the opposite direction. The antistrophe is in the same meter as the strophe. Another complete thought. Chorus travels West to East. 
• Epode (After-Song): The epode is in a different, but related, meter to the strophe and antistrophe, and is chanted by the chorus standing still. The epode is often omitted, so there may be a series of strophe-antistrophe pairs without intervening epodes

        5. Exode/ Exodos (Exit Ode): The exit song of the chorus after the last episode

Homework for Thursday: 

1. Complete a close read of the Parados in Antigone. Consider how it responds to the prologue/first episode. Highly literary/figurative writing in contrast to episodes. 

Use the following questions to help guide your examination and analysis of the Parados... you will need to be able to do this independently. 

      1. What roles do the Gods play in the Parados/Stasimon? 

      2.  In what ways is it responding to what has just happened in the previous episode? 

      3.  How are the needs of the chorus members/citizens different from the characters in the episode?

      4.  What figurative language is being used and how? Metaphor? Similes? Personification? 

      5.  What is the Parados/Stasimon's major theme and/or argument? 

      6.  What other literary elements do you see and how are they being used? 

      7.  Structure: Can you determine the strophe? antistrophe? epode? Remember the concept 

        of the sonnet?  The quatrains/sestets/couplets? They derive from the Greek Chorus.

         Not only does the structure get fragmented, you will see the meaning shift. 

2. Submit initial post for grammar focus discussion.