Homework for 9/23 and 9/26

Finally, the weekend.  A-day students, I hope that you enjoy the reading this weekend.  B-day students, you'll get this on Monday.

AP English III:

I really want for all of you to hold on to everything that we said about Reverend Casy today in class.  It'll help you to understand what Emerson is writing in his article called "The Over-Soul".  For the weekend, please read and annotate heavily this article.  This should provide you a lot of vocabulary words for your bookmarks as Emerson's vocabulary is pretty expansive.  This article is definitely not easy to read, and you will probably need to read certain passages more than once.  Please, as you annotate, write down any questions that you have - we will try to answer these as a class in our seminar on Tuesday/Wednesday.  There are a few ideas that I noted while I was reading that you may want to look for as you read to give you a bit more help in understanding:

1. Look for the idea of unity throughout this piece.  Remember that this is one of the most important things about Casy.
2. Pay attention to how Emerson refers to G-d throughout the piece.  There are areas where he begins to change this conception.
3. Think about all of the absolutes that we have in life (time, morality, etc.) - What is Emerson's approach to these things as stated in the article?
4. Pay attention to goodness, this goes along with number three - but is slightly different.
5. Investigate the importance of simplicity in Emerson's work - this may be especially interesting to consider given the increasing complexity of the Joad family's world.

Annotate, annotate, annotate.  Read and think.  It's not an easy piece, but I'm sure that you all are up for the challenge.

English I:

You all have two things to accomplish before our next class.  First, you need to complete your reminiscences and have them ready to turn in.  Remember that you will need to turn in your final draft, your rough draft, and your peer editing sheet.  Failure to turn in all the required pieces will hurt your grade.  If you've given me a draft, or if you need to meet with me to go over your draft to earn back points, your final opportunity to do this is going to be Monday study hall.  I'll be here late to help you.

The second thing that you need to do is read Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" - as you read, in your notes, complete a character list and jot down important quotations from the story related to the characters.  You should be able to write down at least two to three quotations for each character you list.  Remember that quotations are anything from the story - not just what people say.  I hope that you all enjoy reading this a lot - it's a great way for us to start this unit.  Keep your notes in your notebooks - I'll check them at the beginning of class.

Have a lovely weekend!