8 April - Terrific Tuesday

English 11

You all were crushing it today in English 11. We started off by discussing author's purpose and brainstorming some of the reasons why an author would choose to keep key details like characters and settings ambiguous instead of specific. This took us into our study of John Dos Passos's U.S.A. We studied the "Prelude" to his larger novel to understand the role of the main character as a symbol for the blue collar American worker. We also discussed the stylistics in the text like listing, lower case letters, and shifts that made meaning clear.

From there, we focused on our SOL Reading Bank and processed the text. Today's text, as an allegory or short story, provided us a lot of conflict, symbolism, and character. We also were able to identify irony and tragedy as this text dealt with the tragedy of American capitalism. As you keep reading your plays, I hope that you'll take some time to process them with this tool.

We ended the day with vocabulary. The assignments will stay open for the rest of the week. If you did not finish your vocabulary assessment in class, please make that a priority. Next class we're going to take the time to complete our FCPS Reading Test. This will help me to prepare us for the Reading SOL since it tests your reading ability. Be sure to have your FCPS laptop to take the test. If you finish the test before the end of class, then you'll have time to finish any other assignments. 

19 March - Another Wacky Wednesday

English 11

A great day in English 11 as we started our conclusion with poetry and with our third quarter tasks. We did a quick grammar review at the beginning of class - mostly focused on commas and sentence structure - before going into our review for our poetry exam on Friday. 

The most important thing to focus on learning before Friday are the literary devices. Reviewing our slides and our recordings will help with this. I would also recommend reviewing your theme checklist. Remember that theme is the message or whole statement about the topic. What does the author want the audience to know about the topic? What is the author's opinion on the topic? My best advice to prepare is to review your devices from our unit, read more poetry, and consider the topics and messages. 

The end of class was all about our final tasks - presentations and book projects. I'm glad that each day more and more final tasks are submitted for me to review. Remember that the final day for presentations is next week on Tuesday. We'll be transitioning to our new unit on Thursday. I'll have all grades updated next week for you. As always, reach out with any questions or concerns. I'll be available Thursday (March 20) after school if you need that.

17 March - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

English 11

Today was a really fun start to the week in English 11. You all gave me a lot of energy to recover from almost no sleep last night. Now I can go home and crash out on the couch. The class for today was all about poetry, poetic devices, and the way in which authors use them to shape messages. We did some learning around new literary devices (use the slides and recording to review) and we practiced by looking at some songs. I looked over your work and updated scores - if you didn't have the chance to finish during class, please get your chart and/or discussion board post in as soon as possible.

All of this practice and collaboration will take us forward into Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday we're going to do a replacement of the quiz we took last week. A few of you who missed it will get the chance to replace the missing score, others will raise their scores, and some others will confirm mastery before the test on Friday. Friday's test is almost all multiple choice. It's meant to be very similar to the SOL. In order to prepare, study your devices and practice with theme statements.

We ended the day with vocabulary and choice working time. Remember that presentations and book projects are due by the 25th. Make your appointments, submit your tasks, and let's get everything settled with style. We'll take a bit more of class on Wednesday to work on these major grades. The vocabulary words are all posted in the slide, sorry for missing them with the recording. We won't take the quiz on List Six unitl April.

As always, reach out with questions. I'm here to help!

5 September

English 11

Thanks for spending my birthday with me today, y'all!

Fantastic day today to end our week together in English 11. We did a bit of everything today. We started off by discussing genres and sorting them into being generally fiction or nonfiction. I love the way that you all are engaged in reminding and remembering key ideas from earlier English classes. From there, we applied our literary devices and narrative elements to understand that generally reading nonfiction is a bit more straightforward than fiction because fiction has a lot of artistry and details involved in creating message.

The bulk of our class focused on reading and understanding "Go Carolina" by David Sedaris. We were able to see elements of irony, conflict, characterization, and theme in the story as he talked about his experiences in speech therapy. I'm so proud of the fact that we completed a whole article in our class today. We finished with five more vocabulary words to end the day together.

Remember to get your syllabus form signed. It's also important that you study your vocabulary words regularly. You'll need to know the words and their meanings. Check out the recordings and uploaded slide decks to help you with this. We have some graded work coming up soon, be sure to keep up and stay accountable. If you've missed anything, please reach out!

Happy December - First of the Month

English 10

Easy day today as we worked through the end of the week in English 10. We started off with our final Membean training before our first test. The test will happen on Monday of next week. If you want to keep training and practicing over the weekend, you can! The words on the test will be the words you've been working with. 

After we finished with that we took time for our film Escape from Sobibor. It's an intense, true story about a group of Jewish prisoners who escaped from their concentration camp. A story of resistance, bravery, evil, and heroism. Great concepts for us to reflect on in this unit. We'll finish the movie next week and start to prepare for our next essay.

Thursday the 6th - Grey Day

English 10

In class we were focused on Japan and the concept of Zen. This concept we saw at action in several Zen parables today in class. We discussed irony and paradoxes as well as the difference between topic and theme. We read in order to understand and completed a short analysis activity related to the reading.

I won't see you again until Tuesday. On Tuesday, we hopefully won't have any more power outages, and will look at some other religious texts from across Asia. Have a lovely weekend!

The Beginning of the End - 18 May

AP Language

Today in class we got in a time machine to return to ancient Athens and learn from Plato about reality, truth, and the process to find it. As we read the "Allegory of the Cave" we see many of the same steps in TIM's journey to knowledge and truth - it's important that we reflect on the process we see and the mirror for ourselves which may be held up here. Plato and Ellison ask us to always consider what we know and where we got that knowledge from. 

Next class we'll finish with Invisible Man and have time to begin our work with our final assessment on the novel. I'm excited to see everyone's creativity and thought when it comes to this novel and the ideas that it leaves you with. If you have anything missing for class - be sure that it is complete as soon as you can.

English 10

Today in class was our time to complete our final assessment for One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. If you completed the test or project today, great! If not, be sure that you're finished and submitted by Friday so that I can do final grading. If you had any extra time in class, that would have been used for final notes/vocabulary and any missing assignments from this unit.

Next class we'll begin our final portfolio for English 10 - the instructions are already uploaded for you to review. The final classes of the year will be spent devoted to our final portfolios, so everyone will have the chance to complete everything during class.

Beginning the Week - 11 May 2021

AP Language

Today was our classroom session for our miniature AP Examination. You completed a MCQ as well as an FRQ of your choosing. I will now start the process of reading and scoring your work. If you would like to complete additional practice - please let me know and I can put things together for you. It may also be helpful for us to conference during LT or Monday Office Hours to review your progress so far.

Tonight focus on reading and moving to the end of Invisible Man. Class on Thursday/Friday will focus on Chapters 22 and 23. We have a new TIM on the scene - so watch how he starts to do things a bit differently than he has before. Keep tracking your motifs and cycles in the text. Also, keep in mind that you know your requirements for your final assignment on Invisible Man. We'll have some time next week to assign chapters and motifs, but now is a great time to plan and think as well as review the exemplars posted.

As always - if there's anything you need, please ask.

English 10

Today was our day to finish One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. We finished reading the last portion of the novel, did some critical analysis of the structure of the book, and delved into the final comprehension questions. We also took some time to think about themes in the novel - the way that they've been developed as well as the way in which they connect to texts or experiences outside the novel.

Next class will be our catch-up/get-ahead day. If you need to catch-up on missing work in the unit, that chance will be given to you Thursday/Friday. I'll send progress reports on Wednesday to let you know what you're missing. If you're all caught up, then I'd take the time to get ahead on one of the final tasks for Denisovich.

Next week you're going to turn in your final novel annotations and vocabulary. Prepare now! Be ready for the end of the year!

7 January 2021 - Blue Day

AP Language

Today we kicked off our unit on research writing and synthesizing sources into an argument. Remember that through this unit we'll be solidifying our argumentative writing skills in preparation for the rest of our lives, as well as the AP Examination in May. 

Take this weekend to work to develop your topics. Turn in your question planner on Monday, but know that it will be revised and resubmitted after our review and workshop next week. Then you'll move on to marrying your topics in a brief ceremony to close out the week next week. Remember that through this unit it's important that you finish your work on time in order to meet your deadlines and go through the process. Use our class and out-of-class time wisely.

If you're reading ahead in Invisible Man, be sure to check out the video for "Prologue". I'll be posting more videos next week for Chapters 1 and 2.

English 10

Today in class we finished our reading of Persepolis with an overall review activity focused on topics, evidence, and themes. I love what you all came up with and showed your critical and creative thinking with our Jamboard. It's important to see the way that topics work together in order to create themes in a text. This is a great skill to continue developing, especially for the reading SOL.

From there we went on to reading and discussing the final chapter before moving on to the movie. For the final writing assignment for this unit you'll be able to write a review of the book OR the movie - whichever you prefer more. The instructions and guidance for the assignment are posted. We'll take time next week to write and finish up the film. Keep in mind that next week we'll have two assessments, the review and our second SOL essay. It'll be the end of the unit, so be aware of missing and final assignments coming up.

A-Day Homework for the Weekend - 11 January 2019

Sorry for posting this late everyone! From my training all day Friday, then to the swim meet, and finally home. Here are your reminders.

English IV

We'll be getting back to our poet/poetry projects on Tuesday. The goal will be to finish our research and to begin studying our poem. I'll take you through a model of poetry study that is really helpful at finding and discussing themes. Make sure that you've found your chosen poem and read it several times. Consider what you think the meaning of the poem is.

Also, if you didn't finish the film, we'll get back to that on Tuesday too.

AP English III

If you did not yet share or submit your vocabulary cards, please do so. The envelopes feel a bit light...

For the weekend you have two assignments to complete - reading and writing based. On the reading side, move in to Part Two of Beloved and complete Chapter 19. This is a longer chapter and will take you some time to read; there are several breaks in the chapter - use them to your advantage. As you read, look at how things are new and different for Sethe and her daughters. You may find it useful to compare to the opening of Part One. What's the same in terms of the structure of the chapters? What's different?

In terms of your writing, be sure that you have your outline for peer review on Tuesday. The outline should consist of the four elements in the slides from class on Wednesday (Google Classroom). I will collect your Works Cited page and mark errors in citation. Be sure that you have a hard copy of this or can share one to me and that it has at least five clear sources.

I think that's everything! As always, be in touch with any questions or concerns you may have.

Homework for A Day Classes - 9 January

AP English III

Good work today getting through Chapter 18 with me. I hope that the guided read aloud helped you in understanding the various ways that Morrison is building meaning in her text. As always, be sure that you're going back and reflecting on previous moments to see if you have missed some of these important bits from before.

For tonight, make sure that you're preparing for your assessment. You'll have an argumentative timed writing on the idea of freedom - remember that you'll be using Beloved as your primary evidence, but you can use other sources too. After the timed writing, you'll have thirty identifications which center on characters - be sure to know them very well!

Your outlines will be reviewed on Tuesday by your peers. Be sure that you have really considered your project medium (podcast, video, interviews, art, photographs, collage) and how you'll be communicating your argument through your chosen format. This is where you want to think about how you'll be organizing the pieces of evidence and how you'll comment on these pieces of evidence.

Lastly, remember that you have vocabulary cards due next class - words 25-30. If you would like to submit your cards via Google Drive, that's fine. Be sure that you have all of the required parts.

English IV

Today we finished our reading and discussion of Pablo Neruda's "Ode to My Socks" and worked through understanding how the theme of the poem is created and supported. This is a really important skill, because it's what I'll be asking you to do as you study your poems in depth. After that, we moved on to vocabulary work and project work.

For tonight, you should all be focused on reading your poems closely. Try to determine the theme of the poem. What are the parts of the poem that really support and develop the theme? Is there imagery? Powerful words? This will be the goal of our second project, so it's a good idea to start with that now.

Homework for A-Day Classes: 23 October 2018

AP English III

I'm going to go over your tasks for next class and the week ahead in order of priority. Be sure to complete all of these tasks as we prepare for the end of the quarter.

1. Resubmit your essay if you need to. All that I need is the new draft and the old draft. I'll rescore and change your scores in PowerSchool this weekend.
2. Read and annotate Act IV of The Crucible as you finish reading, consider what Miller's overall themes and arguments are. Look back over your topics and motifs and consider how some of these ideas interact with each other in order to create meaning.
3. Are you seeing any parallels to Skeleton Crew? I think it's important to draw connections here as we move forward in to our later texts and unit.
4. Have you done your close reading of your selected text and seen the social commentary? Be sure that you have uploaded your annotations and analysis to your websites. If you're having issues with uploading content, I'll be able to help you on Thursday during our workshop.

Be aware that the website projects will be presented on or around November 8th. It's important that you begin to finish your work here so that you can edit and perfect your final product.

English IV

We'll be finishing up with Act I of A Doll's House very soon. Likely next class. I'm very proud of the work that all of you did today with your essays. I'll have them scored over the weekend for you all. Tonight, you should begin to work on your study guide for Act I. Can you answer these questions? Try to answer all that you can based on what we've seen and read so far. This is a good look at the type of questions that I will have you answer on your Act I quiz.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students

English IV

It is very important that everyone realize that today really was the last day of class because of the Senior Day next Tuesday. On Tuesday we will not really meet because of the Senior Brunch. If you need to finish your final novel project over the weekend, you can and should. Please submit your work to me on Monday or Tuesday outside of class so that I can finish your grades.

I would also suggest that any of you with rubles gather them together. Come and see me to cash-in for extra credit so that we can raise your Q4 score as high as possible. If you have any questions, see me ASAP!

AP English III

I hope that all of you had fun interacting and playing around a bit. I'm happy that I still remember how to tie a toga from a bedsheet. Anyway - the main thing that everyone should be preparing for is your AP Examination on Wednesday morning and your Short Story Unit Examination on Thursday. Tuesday's class will be spent with guidance counselors and finishing up the quarter in terms of ruble exchange and the like.

Remember to look for any books that you may have checked out through the year so that everything is returned and cleared up before the end.

Homework for the Weekend - 17 May 2018 - A Day

Russian I

Today in class we finished our first part of Office Romance and reviewed a bit around forming possession statements in Russian. Over the weekend I would suggest staying focused on your work to prepare for the final examination. I've given you all a set of exercises that review many of our main skills from this year in Russian I. These exercises are for extra credit and personal enrichment. Feel free to complete all or some, based on your needs. Points will be added to previous assignments.

On Monday we will begin watching Part Two of Office Romance since we finished with a bit of a cliffhanger. Then, we'll continue to review grammar and vocabulary points in preparation for our exam. We will also be cashing in our rubles on Monday.

Advanced Russian

Today we had our examination on Unit 7 or Unit 9 depending on your level. If you were absent, please see me ASAP to make up the examination. It should take you about an hour to complete.

Your main goal for this weekend is to complete a lot of your preparation for your final speaking assignment. On Monday we'll be participating in a workshop where we will review our work, go over some key elements of phonetics, and collaborate to prepare. We'll also watch a bit of a Russian talk show in order to understand how they operate a bit.

If you will not be in class on Wednesday due to the AP Examination, you are required to submit written work that aligns with your selected grammar points from the review sheet. This will be your grade for the project and it will be scored for grammar, vocabulary, and sentence complexity.

I'll announce exam exemptions for all Russian students on Wednesday. Please see the main office if you have documentation related to your absences as I will go off of the official absence count in PowerSchool for this class.

English IV

A few of you were able to submit your final projects today and many of you looked like with a bit more time at home or over the weekend that you would be able to finish your work with no issues. I'm really happy with how well you've been able to pull things together here at the end of the year. Here's a quick overview of the final project for those of you that need a reminder:

• Central Panel - White Paper - Write a theme for your book. Remember that themes are complete sentences that state a lesson about an idea. What is your book saying about love? Family? Loneliness? Change? Write it as a complete sentence that fills the panel.
• Inside Side Panels - Construction Paper  - What has been most important to develop the theme? Is it a character? A quotation? Put one significant element on each panel and then use bullet points to explain how this develops your theme.
• Outside Side Panels - Construction Paper - What is the title of your book? What cover art helps to show the main theme or message? On the other panel - Who is the author? When were they born and died? Where did they live? What are some important moments from their life that connect to the theme?

Remember that these should come to me on Monday finished. There will not really be any time to work on Monday since we will be: reviewing the practice NCFE and commonly missed questions, cashing in rubles for extra credit, doing our gallery walk of our books and participating in our seminar.

Homework for B-Day Students: 15 May 2018

Remember that since school is closed tomorrow the next day that I will see you will be on Friday.

AP English III

Today we had a very solid class working through Graham Greene's "The Destructors" and considering the way in which authors are able to fill their stories with important meaning through the inclusion of small details. This is a key thing for you to consider next week with your rhetorical analysis prompt. I will have your annotations graded later today.

Tonight you will need to complete your character review sheet for our party on Friday. If you need one, print and complete the questions based on your character. Remember that you can't answer all of the questions directly from the text, so use the text as inspiration. Your ticket to enter the party on Friday is the completed sheet. If you were not in class today, please see me to sign up for a character on Thursday.

Next week we have a very hectic week - there's guidance coming in to discuss senior year on Tuesday followed by ruble exchange and exemption announcements. On Wednesday we have our AP Examination - I'll be there in the morning to wish you all the best (my dog will be there too!). Then, on Thursday, you'll have your short story examination. Remember that you'll have ten questions on each of the five stories - O'Connor, Walker, Pushkin, O'Brien, Greene - and one overall short answer question. This is going to be your last grade of the year.

English IV

Many of you were able to get a lot of good work done for me today in order to get yourselves to a very good place. I'll have everything graded and returned for you next class. A lot of you were able to construct your theme books today and even get started on the content. Next class our goal will be to finish these pieces. You'll have access to the computers to print pictures as needed and to do your stencil for the theme statements. Hopefully everything will get finished on this on Friday and you'll be able to go into the last week of class with everything done!

Homework for 14 May - A Day

Remember that I will not see you on Wednesday due to DPS being closed for the demonstration in Raleigh. All of this work will be due on Thursday!

Russian I

Today we started working on our final assignment of the year - Office Romance / Служебный Роман - a film about romance and the workplace in the Soviet Union. Today you should have been able to answer questions 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Next class we should be able to finish Part One. After each part of the film we will spend time reviewing grammar and building sentences to discuss what has happened.

Be focused on making test corrections in order to prepare for your final exam. I'll remind you that you all also have your study guide for the final exam. Use this to prepare yourself now!

Advanced Russian

Today we began working on our end of the year speaking assignment and I have to say that I'm excited for what you all will do. If you are taking the AP English Language and Composition exam I will ask for a written version of what you would say related to your grammar topics in advance of the 23rd. This way I will be able to give you grades for some of the work and exempt you from the other pieces.

You also got your final study guide today - this includes your topics for your examination on Thursday, so it's a good thing to use in order to guide what you need to do. Remember that on Thursday you will have your Chapter Seven (Russian II) or Chapter Nine (Russian III) Examination. Be ready for this test!

English IV

I was very happy that so many of you were able to complete Project 3 today and get it submitted. Some of you were also able to make up for lost time and get some former missing work turned in. I will have your grades updated by the end of the afternoon. For tonight, continue reading and working through any missing work. If you still need to submit Project 3, you should aim to have that done at the beginning of class on Thursday so that you can move on to your theme project.

Remember that Thursday really is the last day of working on these projects. On Monday we'll review the NCFE Practice Test and then have novel presentations for anyone who is interested in earning extra credit.

Homework for B-Day: 20 March - Almost the End of Quarter 3

Next class we'll be doing ruble cash-in for all of our classes. Be sure you have your cash!

English IV

Today we spent much of our class having a seminar around themes in Frankenstein - especially the idea of how society makes judgments on people and the danger of those judgments. We focused strongly on our study guides today - on the study guide you have a good outline of what you will see on the test. We'll have characters, plot, literary devices, and theme questions.

Go through your folders and work to fill in your study guides. Remember that you can use your study guide on the test. Your unit exam will fall on Monday and will be the first big grade of Quarter 4.

We'll also be working on our essays more in the coming days - if you haven't shared your introduction paragraph with me, be sure that you do so that I can get you a grade and feedback.

AP English III

We are continuing with our writing conferences that have been scheduled on my door. If you are not able to make your writing conference it is your responsibility to come at another time. I would recommend that you come after the scheduled conferences on Wednesday-Friday. I should have time to work you in. Remember that this is the last grade of the quarter.

For the week your main task is to get through Chapters 16-19 for Monday of next week. This is a major section of chapters that take TIM into The Brotherhood and has him start to make speeches. Pay attention to what his speeches say and how this is recreating some of the major cycles of the text.  You may find it helpful to also take a quick look at the Booker T. Washington speech since there are a lot of parallels between TIM and Booker T.

Lastly, we have reading for next class. You'll be looking at Gloria Anzaldua's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" - it's available in 50 Essays and at this link. As you read it - pay attention to the way in which she connects language to identity. Why is this an important idea for us to consider when reading Invisible Man? How does it help us to understand the conflict at the heart of TIM's quest?

Homework for Monday - 19 March - A Day

English IV

Today we had a great conversation around themes in Frankenstein and we explored some other media to help us build connections between our novel and our contemporary society. I'm happy with the work that you all put in today to talk, listen, and build on the ideas that others had.

Next class we will spend time watching Frankenstein to start finishing up the story and we will have time to work on our essays. I'll be putting in feedback on your introduction paragraphs today and tomorrow. Don't forget that you have your test on Frankenstein on Friday!

Advanced Russian

Russian II and III students have received their vocabulary and grammar project and should actively be working on this for tonight. This is all that Russian II students need to do - find your city, develop your information, remember that you're looking at the weather in Durham and in a Russian city for yesterday, today, and tomorrow. This will help you to speak in all three tenses. Russian III students should select a recipe and write out the steps and the recipe's shopping list. Use your vocabulary!

Russian III's have an additional exercise, at the end of Chapter Nine, please complete exercise number 9.6 and 9.7 focusing on modals and aspect.

Russian I

Lots of fun today playing LOTO! I'm glad you all enjoyed yourselves and had some time reviewing your new vocabulary. For tonight, you're going to do homework to turn in. Go to the sentences on page 126 and combine them using the appropriate conjunction. Write out the combined sentence and translate it. Be sure that you are doing what we did in class and thinking about your repetition and grammar.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 16 March 2018

English IV

Today in class we did two major things - we completed the drafting of our introduction paragraphs and then we discussed one of the major themes of Frankenstein through a look at an episode of The Twilight Zone called "Eye of the Beholder". The ideas of the episode, particularly around what society considers to be beautiful or ugly have clear connections to what Shelley is working through with The Creature.

We'll continue to have these conversations and do more of this important thinking on Tuesday and Thursday as we prepare for our Frankenstein exam which will occur on Monday the 26th.

AP English III

Today in class we spent our time working on literary criticism in our motif groups. The main thing that we were doing today was understanding the way in which literary criticism can be useful in understanding complex literature. Hopefully, as you worked through one critical article, you were able to see clear connections to the ideas of your motif. This should be the basis of your latest motif blog post. Some of you were able to complete this today in class - if not, be sure that you have dealt with this post before moving on to the others.

For the weekend we have the reading of Chapters 13-15 in Invisible Man. Pay attention to how TIM falls into the same traps as he has before. What's different now? What's the same? Why do we get it, but he doesn't? This will start to push us into the final section of this novel where TIM has some of his final struggles and his big breakthrough at the end. Don't forget to keep blogging and completing your vocabulary as you go.

Lastly, be making progress with your papers. We have conferences through next week. Everyone is required to attend one conference and then in the days before the paper is due you can come back for final drop-in conferences.

Homework for B Day Students - 7 December 2017

English IV

Today, we worked through more of Twelfth Night, getting caught up with our counterparts in 2A. We read and discussed Act II, Scene II before moving into some close reading of Act II, Scene III with special focus on Malvolio as a character and a word. Oh, and how can I forget the beginning of class, where we worked on our Shakespearean insults by letting Mr. Miller have it, and then learning about practical joking and what it means for someone to be a "mark." Next class, you will work in small groups to prepare for reading the next scene, so arrive prepared to be productive! Today was a great class, let's keep the positive momentum moving forward!

AP English III

Today, we had a couple of fantastic classes. We began with group work reimagining Gatsby's death, which led to some great creativity in reading the novel. We also analyzed Baz Luhrmann's interpretation of Gatsby's death, thinking a little bit about the ways we can break down films much the same way we break down novels/poems/essays. For the last bit of class, we worked through many of Fitzgerald's most prominent symbols/motifs, including the green light, the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg, the valley of ashes, cars, and Gatsby's clothing.

At the end of class, I asked you to consider the following question: If the American Dream is a lie and with money comes unhappiness, what do we live for? As you continue thinking about Gatsby, I want you to work through this question. What do we work for everyday? Why do we wake up in the morning and go about our lives?

For next class, please read and heavily annotate Audre Lorde's "Poetry is Not a Luxury." If you have time, read this essay twice. When you're annotating, think about how Lorde is similar/different to Langston Hughes in "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." Also, I would like to come up with an answer to the question, what is Audre Lorde's "dream?" This will inform much of our discussion on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend, and see you soon!