"Between the Pages" -- Period 4

W2, #5: A Story of a Passionate Life

If you have 20 minutes, watch the following video.

What is this video about?  Well, I'm going to let you discover most of this on your own. 

What I will tell you now is that you're going to meet Ben Dunlap, the speaker you'll listen to.  Mr. Dunlap -- the President of Woffard College -- tells the story of Sandor Teszler, a Hungarian man he met at Wofford College years ago, a man who has much to teach all of us about justice...and what it truly means to be a lifelong learner.

Challenge:

• Watch the video (you'll need 20 minutes).
• In 7+ sentences, share your reaction to the story of Sandor Teszler.

Want to learn more about other speakers -- like Mr. Dunlap -- who speak every year at the world famous TED Conference held in California each early spring?  Try this link.  I think you'll find some amazing voices, stories, and ideas, many that you may never be able to forget once you see/hear them.

My only request?

If you find another TED video that you love, share it with me.  Thanks!

W2, #4: "When I Have Fears"

Have you had a chance to look at John Keats' poem, "When I Have Fears", yet?

[Go to page 748 in the text book or click the link at the bottom of this entry to read it here]

While there are a couple of lines in this poem that would be interesting to discuss, I'm curious what you think of either one of the following sets of lines:

"When I have fears that I may cease to be / Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain." (1-2)

or

"... -- then on the shore / Of the wide world I stand alone, and think / Till Love and Fame to nothingness to sink." (12-14)

Challenge: Pick either of the 2 sets of lines.  In 7+ sentences, explain a) what you think these lines mean and b) talk about how they might connect to your life (or the world we live in).

W2, #3: Know Thyself

Charles Peguy once said:

A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.

Now that we're at the half-way point of your 10th grade year, each of you can talk with more confidence about your writing strengths and the challenges you still face.

I'm curious:

• Question 1: How have you improved as a writer during the 1st quarter?  How?
  
• Question 2: How do you want to improve as a writer in the 2nd quarter?  Why?
  

Challenge:  Answer both questions (with evidence).  Minimum of 4 sentences for each answer.

W2, #2: The Poet Answers

This week, each student will submit the "Poet Interview", a creative Q & A conversation between you and one of the Romantic poets that allows you to analyze one of the poems in our textbook/collection.

Challenge:  Share one of the questions (and its full answer) you are the most pleased with at this point.

Response: 

• Part 1: Identify the poet and poem.
• Part 2:  List the question and then the answer.  The answer must be a minimum of 5 sentences (even if you have to expand it for this prompt).
• Part 3:  In 2+ sentences, explain why you are pleased with this particular question/answer.

W2, #1: Vocab Photo Story

Look at the 3 photos below.  Pick the one that grabs your attention the most.

Responses:

• Write a brief 'story' about (1) of these images.
• Use a minimum of (10) vocabulary words from List #1 in your story (see below for all words).
• Your 'story' must be a minimum of (7) sentences long.

Image #1

Image #2

Image #3

Click the following link to see all vocab words for this assignment:

W1, #5: Quotation Response

Romantic poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, once said:

A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket.  Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing.  Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory.

Do you agree or disagree with Coleridge?

Responses:  Explain your thoughts -- as if you were a poet -- in a minimum of (7) sentences.

W1, #4: Prepping for the Poet Interview

On January 29th, you'll be turning in the "Poet Interview" writing assignment where you will:

• select one of the Romantic poems we've read in class
• create 12-15 questions that you'd ask the poet to help understand the poem
• write a creative interview (as if you could speak to the poet in real time) where your questions and the poet's answers help to explain the meaning/importance of the poem

Based on any of the poems you've read so far, pick one that grabs your attention (and might make a good choice for the "Poet Interview" assignment).

Responses:

• Write a minimum of (5) questions you think would be worth asking the poet as a way to prepare for the assignment.
• Write a brief (2-3 sentence) answer to (1) of the questions as a way to practice the process.

Note:  You do not need to actually use this poem, these questions, or the practice response for your actual "Poet Interview" assignment. 

This is just practice.

W1, #3: Vocab Photo Story

Look at the 3 photos below.  Pick the one that grabs your attention the most.

Responses:

• Write a brief 'story' about (1) of these images.
• Use a minimum of (10) vocabulary words from List #1 in your story (see below for all words).
• Your 'story' must be a minimum of (7) sentences long.

Image #1:

Image #2:

Image #3:

Click the following link to see all vocab words for this assignment:

W1, #2: Walking in Wordsworth's Footprints

Recently you submitted your own 4-stanza poem based on a memory of yours where you were 'solo' in a natural setting. 

The assignment was sparked by our collective reading and analysis of William Wordsworth's poem, "Tintern Abbey", and his "blank verse" poetic style.  This means -- of course -- that you wrote a poem where each line was comprised of 10 syllables (on average) without end rhymes. 

Additionally, I asked you to use the following thematic frame to help you create your own poem:

• Stanza 1:  Describe the actual scene in nature you experienced in your past.  Be as detailed as possible so that your readers can really "feel" as if they "were there".
• Stanza 2:  Describe how this memory is still important to you today in your current life.
• Stanza 3:  Describe how you have changed since first experiencing that 'solo' moment in nature.
• Stanza 4:  Describe how this memory will help guide your thinking into the future and what you want the reader to grasp from your thinking about this memory on multiple levels.

So, I'm curious:

• Part 1: What line or lines written by Wordsworth were the most interesting to you?  Why?
  
• Part 2: Even more importantly, which line or lines from your own poem are you the most proud of now that the assignment is complete?  Why do you think it/they work(s) so well?

Responses:

Briefly answer Part 1.  On the other hand, take more time explaining Part 2 (minimum of 5 sentences).

W1, #1: "I Met A Traveler From An Antique..."

Each of you has been assigned the challenge to memorize Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias," a 14-line poem centered on the historical fragments of one leader's "cold command" that lies "half sunk" in sand long after his proclamation of greatness was supposed to inspire "[d]espair" in those standing before him.

Note:  See below for link to read the full poem.  Photo link.

As you were told in class, you are to write out the full poem -- word for word, punctuation mark for punctuation mark -- without making a single mistake.  Not even a single comma out of place.  Perfection, in other words.

Granted, you can re-take the challenge over and over again (outside of class) until you ace it.  That being said, this will be a real test for many of you.  And a great warm-up as we prime our brains/imaginations for doing similar work -- on paper and in front of an 'audience -- once Shakespeare comes knocking on the classroom door later this semester.

So, I'm curious:

• How did you go about memorizing this poem? 
• And what did you begin to notice about Shelley's writing?

Responses: 

Write 7-10 insightful sentences with a focus on helping the reader fully appreciate the richness of your thinking.  Edit for clarity and to give confidence to your audience.