Monday, December 21st

1. Review Into the Wild practice test. 

2. Beyond Notes- Discussion

3. ITW test protocol. Test is due by the end of the day on Tuesday, December 22nd. 

Upcoming: Read Fences

Friday, December 18th

 1. Into the Wild quiz discussion. 

- Is the analysis TRIFECTA present in each question: WHAT? HOW? WHY? 

- Is the device clearly reference? Is it accurate? 

- Has the explanation clearly reference the author's choice and its effect on the text? 

2. Allusion chart work- Small groups

3.  Gatsby and poetry test feedback

Homework: 

1. Read BOTH links on embedding quotations in literary analysis. TAKE NOTES. (There is more information on the General Feedback document, as well)

2. ITW practice test. You may use your LP.. but not internet or other resources. 

3. "Beyond Notes"- Schoology 

4. Finish allusion chart and update World Issues chart 

REMINDER: We will meet next week on MONDAY. MONDAY at 2:00. We are doing this to allow more time for you to take the Into the Wild test. 

Tuesday, December 15th

1. Writing a literary claim/thesis: 

• As readers, often, we recognize the effect of authorial choices first. 
• Then, we need to look inward to the text to consider what is the author doing that leads to this effect. 
• Angles to consider: Can you challenge a common interpretation? What can be considered artistic or admirable about the work? What specific to this genre that is significant to notice and understand?
• Thesis statements are best when they have a strong active verb- avoid Be Verbs. 
• When in doubt, start by asking a question: What literary choice does the author make, and what is its impact on the text's meaning? 
• When questioning the impact on the text's meaning... you may consider the IB Seven Concepts to help frame the larger effect: Identity, Culture, Creativity, Communication, Transformation, Perspective, Representation.  
• The goal is to demonstrate that you can think critically/analytically about the art of literature. Show that you can recognize HOW an author does what they do.. and theorize as to WHY they do it in that manner. 

Thesis Mad Libs: (If you need assistance) 

• In (title of work), (author) uses (literary device) to (accomplish, develop, illustrate, strengthen) (element of work).
• (Author) (shows, develops, illustrates) the theme of __________ in the (play, poem, story) by _____. 
• In (title of work), (author) uses (one aspect) to (define, strengthen, illustrate) the (element of work).

2. Lit HIIT: Rhetorical Techniques in Into the Wild 

Write a literary thesis about one of the following literary techniques: Ethos, Pathos, Logos. Post in Schoology discussion board. 

3. Small group review and feedback on literary thesis practice. Structure of claims. Approach to text. Offer feedback to classmates. 

4. Rhetoric in Into the Wild. Review. 

Homework: 

1.  Fiction v. Nonfiction

While fiction is sometimes thought of as the work of an individual imagination, non-fiction often relies on the experiences of others and can thus be seen as the result of a group or communal effort. 

How far and to what effect have you found evidence of this “communal effort” in Krakauer’s work Into The Wild? Discuss this idea specifically as it relates to chapters 10-15.

Authorial Reticence: deliberate withholding of information and explanations about the disconcerting fictitious world.

• How does the author’s presence affect the work? 
• Where is it most evident?
• What is the author’s intent for being so present in the work?
• If the authorial reticence was minimized or no longer evident, how would that change the work?

2. Into the Wild quiz. Due by the end of Wednesday, December 15th.

3. Finish the book and the afterword by class on Friday, December 18th. 

4. Look over the IB LP Check "assessment." Look through your LP as you mark your responses. You need to be at 100% by Sunday, December 20th.  This means your LP needs to be good to go by Sunday. 

5. ITW test will be on Monday, December 21st. (FYI)

Friday, December 11th

As you are making the transition from poetry back to prose... remember to focus on Jon Krakauer's writing practice... the way he writes...  and what is the effects of his writing choices on the meaning of the book. Things to be thinking about as you are studying this piece of writing: 

How does Krakauer choose to characterize C.M? Is this a journalistic representation of this young man's experience or an editorial view? 

How does Krakauer treat time in this story? Why does he choose a non-linear plot? How does this serve his purpose for this book? What effect(s) does this organization have? 

What is the impact of the different mediums used in this book? Maps, journal entries, epigraphs? How do they support JK's goals for this text? How are they supportive of the subject matter? 

What is the effect of JK selecting certain events of CM life and building a complete narrative around these events? What does the reader need to remember about these choices? 

How do the Transcendental ideals influence JK's creation of CM? (notice what I said there.... our author.. not our character). 

How does the characterization of supporting characters work in association with CM? Why these individuals? What roles do they serve JK's narrative? 

What is revealed in the author's note? What clues are we given as to JK's purpose? 

 Reading/Upcoming Schedule:

Tuesday, Dec. 15: chs. 10-15 due 

Friday, Dec. 18: 16-afterword due 

Mon., Dec. 21: practice test due and beyond notes due; update world issue chart

Dec. 22: ITW test due 

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1. LIT HIIT: ITW 

In the opening pages of Into the Wild, John Krakauer chooses to represent Jim Gallien's initial impressions of the hitchhiker he picks up in the following way: 

The sun came up. As they rolled down from the forested ridges above the Tanana River, Alex gazed across the expanse of windswept muskeg stretching to the south. Gallien wondered whether he'd picked up one of those crackpots from the lower forty-eight who come north to live out ill-considered Jack London fantasies. Alaska has long been a magnet for dreamers and misfits, people who think the unsullied enormity of the Last Frontier will patch all the holes in their lives. The bush is an unforgiving place, however, that cares nothing for hope or longing.

What is the authorial purpose of starting Into the Wild with these specific initial impressions? 

2. Learner's Portfolio expectations: IB LP- ITW

3. Allusion Chart- Due by Monday, December 21st. 

4. Transcendentalism questions- How does Krakauer use the Transcendental writers and subject matter as a way to characterize Chris McCandless. 

5. Epigraphs- ITW

6. Snippet discussion- 

• Your goal is to demonstrate that you can ANALYZE author choices. What is a choice that JK makes in this book that is somewhat unique to other books that you have read? (Shake free from the plot and intrigue with McCandless... what has JK DONE to involve you? Obsess you?)
• You need to CLEARLY name this choice. (I need to feel that you have command over literary jargon and techniques) 
• Present its context in relationship to the meaning you will discuss. 
• Clearly explain how this choice affects the meaning of the work.. or the experience that the reader has. 

7. Rhetorical techniques in Into the Wild. Rhetoric- ITW Slides

________________________________________________________

Homework for Tuesday, December 15th 

1. Rhetorical devices review and application. 

- Go through the slides. Take notes. 

- Practice with the examples at the end of the notes. Be able to identify rhetorical techniques. 

- Start collecting examples of your own from ITW. 

2. Continue allusion chart. 

3. Read to chapter 15. 

4. Make sure you are working on your LP. 

Tuesday, December 8th

1. Shakespearean Sonnets- 

Lit HIIT- Transcendentalism 

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden; or Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. — 

From this passage from Walden, identify one VALUE that Thoreau presents in this essay. Select two diction choices from this passage that effectively represent this value. Be ready to explain your choices. 

2. Transcendentalism Notes

Transcendentalism- A literary and philosophical movement arising in 19th-century New England, asserting the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that transcends empirical and scientific reality and is knowable through intuition

Tenets of American Transcendentalism 

Listed below are tenets (ideas) shared by many of the authors associated with Transcendentalism. 

1. Transcendentalism is a form of philosophical idealism. 
2. The transcendentalist rises above the lower animalistic impulses in life, as well as the cultural restrictions of society, and moves from the rational to a spiritual realm. 
3. God can be found everywhere, both in nature and in human beings. 
4. Every person possesses intuition, an essential understanding of right and wrong. 
5. Culture and society tend to corrupt our intuition, establishing other determiners for morality and truth such as the church, government, or social groups that tend to deny us our own truths. 
6. Thinking helps us to actualize the authority of our intuition. Thus, we feel what's right/wrong; then we know what's right/wrong. 
7. We should live close to nature, for it is our greatest teacher. Nature can bring us closer to God 
8. Individualism lies at the heart of Transcendentalism. Every individual needs to be self-reliant and thus not depend upon others if he or she is to be free and to live life fully. Nonconformity with respect to social norms and expectations is another aspect of being self-reliant for the transcendentalists.

Famous American Transcendentalists: 

• Ralph Waldo Emerson 
• Henry David Thoreau
• Margaret Fuller
• Louisa May Alcott 
• Walt Whitman 
• Elizabeth Peabody

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3. Group work-  Work on together. Each student submit own pdf. 

• Transcendental questions (Schoology).
• Start on Allusion chart (Schoology).

Allusion- indirect reference to a famous book, person, or event in history. 

4. Review Into the Wild reading schedule and Learner's Portfolio expectation.  

Homework: 

1. Work with the Epigraphs in your notes: 

Epigraph- a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme, offer context, or set the mood. 

Do a close, close reading of the epigraphs that start chapters 1-6. 

- Identify what thematic issue(s) is being presented in the epigraph. 

- What is the significance of the book/author who is being cited by Krakauer. (Personally connected to McCandless or Krakauer's connection to McCandless?) Why these allusions? 

- What does the epigraph do to orient the reader with the following chapter? 

- What is Krakauer's literary purpose for including epigraphs? 

2. Consider what argument that Krakauer is presenting to us, his audience. What is his purpose for writing this text? Jot some ideas down. 

3. Have two snippets done. We will discuss on Friday. 

Tuesday, December 1st

1. Discuss “Taxpayer Money,” “Pine Cones,” and “World of the future, we thirsted.” 

Discussion questions for small groups: 

Major guiding features in your group's discussion must be: 

• "Can I prove this?" 
• "Is this accurate to the text in front of me?"
• "Are we hitting style and structure as hard as we are hitting generalized plot?"
• "How are we determining meaning?"
• "Are we framing this in 'our world' in a manner that is inaccurate to the text's meaning?"
• "Are our themes 'Disneyesque'? Too neat.. optimistic?" 

#1 What do you notice about Nye's style overall? What are specific characteristics of Nye's writing that you see repeated in these three final poems that you have seen represented in earlier poems? 

#2 How do these stylistic choices work to develop or support different thematic issues? Theme is a cumulative effect of other devices at work... What would be thematic issues addressed in each poem, and what is Nye's message (Thematic statements) about these issues? 

#3 Discuss other "cumulative" devices..   (tone.. characterization... mood... imagery). Make clear connections between the use of these devices and the impact they have or create. 

#4 Discuss TPCASTT findings. 

Second task for small groups: 

Update your world issue chart. Be specific to the poems. For instance, if I have "violence" as a subject, I would add "To Jamyla Bolden" to that box. 

Homework for Friday: 

• Poetry Beyond Notes assignment- we will review expectations, and and I’ll answer any questions you may have on Tuesday. This is due Friday, Dec. 4th BEFORE class time. Be ready to discuss.
• Practice poetry test. This is due Friday, December 4th BEFORE class time. Be ready to discuss. 
• Add the Kami extension. See directions in the Schoology folder. Annotate the author’s note of ITW using Kami extension.  This is due Friday, December 4th BEFORE class as well. Be ready to discuss.