If you were absent last week...

you will find it helpful to complete the Krik? Krak! "treasure hunt" (posted to the right) before you begin to read Krik? Krak!. We completed this hunt in class on Thursday and Friday.

Reminder for Thursday and Friday, and New Handouts

I hope you enjoyed the day off.

Just a reminder to bring with you to class on Thursday and Friday an object that holds many memories. We will do an ungraded in-class writing exercise modeled on Bauby's writing on pp. 73-74 of Diving Bell.

Also, you will see handouts for the second quarter assignment schedule as well as the final paper assignment posted to the right. I will distribute and review these items in class this week.

More about Jean-Dominique Bauby

Here are a few links if you are interested in seeing and reading more about Jean-Dominique Bauby.

Here is a five-minute YouTube clip from the documentary Locked-In Syndrome (originally titled House Arrest). Although it's in French with German subtitles, you might be interested to see him in physical therapy (and see why he compares himself to the Commander in Don Giovanni), in speech therapy with Sandrine (his "Guardian Angel"), and with a friend reading to him. It begins with Claude wheeling him down a hallway to go outside.

Here is a New York Times review that appeared when The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was published.

This article explains the differences between the book and the movie that came out a couple of years ago (not the documentary that you saw clips of in class). The middle section falls into a dense legal discussion that you might want to skip, but the third section provides useful information regarding the book and the movie.

This next article appeared in a British newspaper only a year ago and gives Florence's point of view on her relationship with Jean-Do.

Lastly, click here for Charlie Rose's interview with Jean-Jacques Beineix, which we viewed in class.

Café for Odd-Day Classes on Wednesday

As I mentioned in class, on Wednesday, the odd-day classes will have a café, where you will bring in a favorite reading (a poem, song lyrics, an excerpt from a short story or novel) and share it with the class. If you wish, you can even bring in a guitar to sing a song, and I'll even let you play a song (preferably of unplugged acoustic music) from your iPod or mp3 player for background music while you read aloud. (The speakers in my classroom can plug into the headphone jack.)

Your reading should not take up more than two or three minutes, and you should be prepared to say (briefly) something about what the reading means to you and how you came upon it.

Of course, you shouldn't let this "assignment" distract you from the more important task for Wednesday, which is to complete the revision of the second essay.

Changes to the Odd-Day Assignment Schedule

Not all of the odd-day students received their essays on Thursday and Friday, so the new due date for all of the odd-day sections is Wednesday, October 28. As a result, you do not have anything else to prepare for class on Monday, October 26.

I have deliberately not posted the guidelines for revising the essay that I mentioned in class so that all of the odd-day students, whether you have the draft or not, may enjoy the reprieve. We will go through that phase of the revision process in class on Monday so, even if I have given you your draft, bring it to class on Monday.

The even-day students still have their revisions due on Tuesday, October 27, as scheduled.

Clarification for Eudora Welty assignment due Oct. 20 (Day 3) and Oct. 21 (Day 4)

For the Guided Writing exercise, do as much of the ten steps as you can within two paragraphs. I realize that you probably won't be able to do all ten, but I would like you to work in as many of those writing strategies as you can.

Assignment for Wednesday, Oct. 7 (Day 3), and Thursday, Oct. 8 (Day 4)

According to the assignment schedule, you have an essay due on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Be advised that this is a draft (albeit a complete draft), and you should bring two copies of this draft to class. The final version will be due Tuesday, October 20 (Day 1), and Wednesday, October 21 (Day 2). Give yourself up to ninety minutes (definitely not more than two hours) to complete the draft.

Click on the link to the right for this essay's directions.

Homework for Tuesday, 9/29, and Wednesday, 9/30

First things first: Those of you who have not acquired a journal must do so by your next class or your section will lose points.

Now, look at the assignment schedule to the right. You will see that you have about ten words to look up in addition to reading the essay and completing the guided writing exercise. Please record the vocabulary words in your journal, but type and print (or neatly hand write) the guided writing exercise. Here are the situation and audience for the guided writing exercise:

The New York Times has asked you to update Lee's article because you are an up-and-coming young writer. So, for an adult audience (say, your parents' age and older) unfamiliar with IM abbreviations, write an essay titled "I Think, Therefore IM." You may find it helpful to adopt a more personal voice than Lee uses in her essay. Still, try to follow the structure and strategies described on p. 21.

Once again, I am interested in seeing you commit a good ninety minutes to the whole assignment. Finishing it in forty-five minutes gives you a good amount of time to improve it; not finishing it in ninety minutes also gives me a good idea of how much you can accomplish within a certain amount of time.

Clarification of the homework due 9/22-9/23

For Tuesday and Wednesday's homework assignment, you need to do one each of the Building Vocabulary and Guided Writing exercises. So, if you do the Building Vocabulary exercise for "Farewell to Summer," you need to do the Guided Writing exercise for "Camping Out," and vice versa.

Also, I want to give you an audience for each Guided Writing exercise. For "Farewell to Summer": Your favorite magazine has approached you to write an essay on "Farewell to ______" because it knows you are an expert on it. You might want to focus on a month or a season, or perhaps even a place that you know intimately and think you can describe in detail.

For "Camping Out": Because your "Farewell" essay was such a success, the monthly magazine Live Right Teens! (which you've never heard of) has contacted you to write an essay on how to do something wrong, and how to do it right--going on vacation, looking for a job, fishing, or whatever.

If these assignments are not clear, don't hesitate to get in touch with me.

In most classes, we also discussed the "impermissible errors." Sometime this weekend, these will be posted in the column to the right in the "Assignments and Syllabus" section.

Have a good weekend!

Addendum (9/21): Some students have asked about the length of the guided writing exercise. Rather than length, think in terms of the time you spend on it. I don't expect you to spend more than about ninety minutes on your homework. Some of you may need more time, others may be able to complete everything in forty-five minutes to an hour. With this particular assignment, I think most of you could finish reading both essays and do the vocabulary exercise within half-an-hour, which leaves you an hour to do the guided writing exercise.

And away we go!

I am very excited to start the school year. To the right, you will find the syllabus as well as a few "handouts" that explain items mentioned in the syllabus.

Please remember to acquire a journal by next Tuesday (Day 1) or Wednesday (Day 2), whichever day you have class. It must be clothbound, and can be just a plain composition notebook.

During the first class, I mentioned that each section is competing for the glorious English Ten Cup. Just as each house at Hogwarts is named after a great witch or wizard, I have named each section after a great American writer. Each of these authors has been writing since our school was founded; there is one novelist, one poet, one short story writer, and one playwright. Although I have assigned a name for each section, if someone in your section can name one of the four "founders," your section will not only earn its first points of the year, but it will also carry that founder's name. Three of the sections will have their chance to guess on Wednesday and Thursday; the section that met first block on Day 1 will have their chance on Friday.

Welcome!

Welcome to English 10. I hope you're having a great summer and getting recharged for the school year. To the right, under "Assignments and Syllabus," you will find the summer reading assignment. You will also find some suggestions for annotating a book under "FAQs about Annotating."

Before the school year starts, I will add new resources and materials related to English 10, including the readings for the year, helpful online resources for reading and writing, the syllabus, and the first quarter assignments. Eventually, the blog will look something like this, but the books and assignments will be different. If you can't wait to see what your year in English will be like, check back periodically for new additions to the page.

Enjoy the summer!