preparing for final test & bonus essay opportunity

[o]

Preparation for Final test, probably 12/17 (possibly during final exam
period, 12/18-19)
Bonus essay due 12/19

All 9th, 10th, and 12th grade students should study and review recent
readings to prepare for the final test. See the outline form to be
used for the test
immediately below. Students who missed or scored
poorly on the last test have an opportunity for partial makeup by
writing up their preparation and study for the test according to the
Bonus essay rubric
at the bottom of this page and submitting it in
class, on paper, during the final exam period or no later than 12:25
PM, Friday, 12/19.

Student’s thesis = topic + opinion
Literature’s theme ≈ vehicle + tenor

Topic: important theme of entire work of literature

vehicle:

+

tenor:


Opinion: judgment of the literature’s…

literary aesthetics:

&

philosophical profundity:


ex. 1 (short quote):

extended literary device name:

brief definition of device:

explication of how use of device helps convey theme:


ex. 2:

extended/basic literary device name:

brief definition of device:

explication of how use of device helps convey theme:



ex. 3:

basic literary device name:

brief definition of device:

explication of how use of device helps convey theme:


ex. 4:

extended literary device name:

brief definition of device:

explication of how use of device helps convey theme:


ex. 5:

extended/basic literary device name:

brief definition of device:

explication of how use of device helps convey theme:


ex. 6:

basic literary device name:

brief definition of device:

explication of how use of device helps convey theme:


Rubric for Bonus essay due 12/19

_____ Complete essay of 3 typed pages (at least 750 words), with
clear introduction, body, and conclusion, expressed in formal
academic 
English, free of grammatical, spelling, or punctuation
errors;

_____ Thesis topic identifies how 6 brief quotes of Dickens’
Christmas carol (9th), Goldman’s Lion in winter (10th), or
Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (12th) reflect a major theme
(theme 
≈ vehicle(s) + tenor) of the play as a whole; thesis opinion
evaluates 
the play's aesthetic value and philosophical profundity of
the 
author's work;

_____ approximately 1 body page supports thesis by explaining in
detail how 3 brief quotes selected by the student help convey the
theme (≈ vehicle(s) + tenor) of the play;

_____ approximately 1 body page supports thesis by explaining in
detail how 3 brief quotes taken from a set of quotes provided by the
instructor help convey the theme (vehicle(s) + tenor) of the play;

[o]

ideas on judging literary aesthetics

But most by Numbers judge a Poet's Song,
And smooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong;
In the bright Muse tho' thousand Charms conspire,
Her Voice is all these tuneful Fools admire,
Who haunt Parnassus but to please their Ear,
Not mend their Minds; as some to Church repair,
Not for the Doctrine, but the Musick there.
These Equal Syllables alone require,
Tho' oft the Ear the open Vowels tire,
While Expletives their feeble Aid do join,
And ten low Words oft creep in one dull Line,
While they ring round the same unvary'd Chimes,
With sure Returns of still expected Rhymes.
Where-e'er you find the cooling Western Breeze,
In the next Line, it whispers thro' the Trees;
If Chrystal Streams with pleasing Murmurs creep,
The Reader's threaten'd (not in vain) with Sleep.
…
True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance,
As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance,
'Tis not enough no Harshness gives Offence,
The Sound must seem an Eccho to the Sense.
Soft is the Strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth Stream in smoother Numbers flows;
But when loud Surges lash the sounding Shore,
The hoarse, rough Verse shou'd like the Torrent roar.
When Ajax strives, some Rocks' vast Weight to throw,
The Line too labours, and the Words move slow;
Not so, when swift Camilla scours the Plain,
Flies o'er th'unbending Corn, and skims along the Main.
Hear how Timotheus' vary'd Lays surprize,
And bid Alternate Passions fall and rise!
While, at each Change, the Son of Lybian Jove
Now burns with Glory, and then melts with Love;
Now his fierce Eyes with sparkling Fury glow;
Now Sighs steal out, and Tears begin to flow:
From Alexander Pope’s Essay on criticism

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For 9th graders reading Dickens’ Christmas carol

Quote 1
“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I
wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at
Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to
support the establishments I have mentioned—they cost enough; and
those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and
decrease the surplus population. Besides—excuse me—I don’t know that.”
“But you might know it,” observed the gentleman.
“It’s not my business,” Scrooge returned. “It’s enough for a man to
understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s.
Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!”

Quote 2
“Spirit,” said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before,
“tell me if Tiny Tim will live.”
“I see a vacant seat,” replied the Ghost, “in the poor chimney-corner,
and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows
remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die.”
“No, no,” said Scrooge. “Oh, no, kind Spirit! say he will be spared.”
“If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my
race,” returned the Ghost, “will find him here. What then? If he be
like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus
population.”
Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and
was overcome with penitence and grief.
“Man,” said the Ghost, “if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear
that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and
Where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die?
It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and
less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child. Oh God! to
hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his
hungry brothers in the dust!”

--------------------

For 10th graders reading Goldman’s Lion in winter

Quote 1
You’re more beautiful than ever. There is much that’s beautiful in
evil when it’s absolutely pure. You are so foul you’re fair. You stand
there looking like a saint in pain when you brought us the knives to
do your work.

Quote 2
You never called for me. You never said my name. I would have walked
or crawled. I’d have done anything.

Quote 3
The only thing you want to see is Father’s vitals on a bed of lettuce.
You don’t care who wins as long as Henry loses. You’d see Philip on
the throne. You’d feed us to the Franks or hand us to the Holy Romans.
You’d do anything.

--------------------

For 12th graders reading Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra

Quote 1
You take from me a great part of myself;
Use me well in 't. Sister, prove such a wife
As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest band
Shall pass on thy approof. Most noble Antony,
Let not the piece of virtue, which is set
Betwixt us as the cement of our love,
To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
The fortress of it; for better might we
Have loved without this mean, if on both parts
This be not cherish'd.

Quote 2
Never; he will not:
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: other women cloy
The appetites they feed: but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies; for vilest things
Become themselves in her: that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish.

Quote 3
here's the manner of 't:
I' the market-place, on a tribunal silver'd,
Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold
Were publicly enthroned: at the feet sat
Caesarion, whom they call my father's son,
And all the unlawful issue that their lust
Since then hath made between them. Unto her
He gave the stablishment of Egypt; made her
Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia,
Absolute queen.
…
I' the common show-place, where they exercise.
His sons he there proclaim'd the kings of kings:
Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia.
He gave to Alexander; to Ptolemy he assign'd
Syria, Cilicia, and Phoenicia: she
In the habiliments of the goddess Isis
That day appear'd; and oft before gave audience,
As 'tis reported, so.