Old Man Signpost Notes

Take another look at your signpost notes for Old Man.  Do you notice any patterns or connections between your observations?  Is there an observation that you have made that you think is particularly significant and meaningful?  In the comment section below, please explain your insights into the book using your signpost notes as a springboard.

•Contrasts and Contradictions: When a character does something 

that contrasts with what you would expect or contradicts his earlier

 acts or statement, STOP and ask “Why is the character doing that?”

•Aha Moment: When a character realizes, understands, or finally 

figures out something, STOP and ask yourself “How might this

 change things?”

•Tough Question: When a character asks herself a very difficult 

question, STOP and ask yourself “What does this question make me

 wonder about?”

•Words of the Wiser: When a character (probably older and wiser) 

takes the main character aside and offers serious advice, STOP and 

ask, “What’s the life lesson and how might it affect the character?”

•Again and Again: When you notice a word, phrase, or situation 

mentioned over and over, STOP and ask yourself, “Why does this 

keep happening?”

•Memory Moment: When the author interrupts the action to tell 

you about a memory, STOP and ask yourself, “Why might this 

memory be important?”

Quiet Desperation in the Lecture Hall

Hi Everyone: In light of our visit from Henry David Thoreau, and our discussions about argumentation, write a response to the lecture in which you identify what you think Thoreau's principal claim is and what you think about it.  I understand that the lecture may have been hard to follow in the lecture hall, so I excerpted some crucial parts and handed them out in class.  Check the bookshelf if you didn't get one.  Please have your responses in by Wednesday evening.  Thank you, Mr. Telles.

Macbeth Final Post

For this post, please copy a short passage from the later acts of the play, and discuss what you think the passage means and why it is significant to the play as a whole.  What complicated themes or ideas are being explored in the passage as well as in the whole play?  Why are these themes or ideas important (in other words, "it's interesting, but so what?").

Finally, just add a few thoughts about your personal reactions to the play and your final thoughts about the play now that you have finished it.

This blog post is due by Monday, April 13th.  Thank you, Mr. Telles.

Macbeth, Act I Motif Study.

Now that we have finished Act I of Macbeth, and have scanned the text for examples of the motifs I listed before we began reading, write a response in which you use your annotations to help you 1) demonstrate an understanding of the passage in the context of the play and 2) identify and discuss the significance of your motif within the passage.  Why is it meaningful, and how is Shakespeare playing with motif symbolically?

Here, again, is a list of motifs, and if you find one on your own, that's even better.

Things that grow (seeds, eggs, etc.)
Blood
Paradoxes
Rings (things that fold back upon themselves).
Hands
Sharp Objects (cutting through coverings).
Darkness
Vision / eyes
Fog / Murk
Time
Garments that don't fit.
Jewels
"Manliness" / Femininity
Gluttony / over-eating

Dichotomies:
Healthy bodies / dismembered bodies
Cleanliness / Dirtiness
Fairness / Foulness
Illusion / Reality.
Health / Sickness.

Hi Everyone: Here is the midterm vocab and other units.  Keep in mind that there is a significant part of the midterm devoted to text of Huckleberry Finn.

English 10

Mr. Telles

Midterm Vocabulary

1. Antagonism                        41.  Scapegoat
2. Ideology                               42.  Sagacious
3. Paradox                                43.  Shrewd
4. Iniquity                                 44.  Abhorrent
5. Evasion                                45.  Aversion
6. Parochial                             46.  Conscience
7. Primal                                   47.  Jest
8. Hysteria                               48.  Meddle
9. Symbol                                 49.  Gaudy
10. Cynicism                             50.  Trifling
11. Communal
12. Maturity                               GRAMMAR UNITS
13. Romanticize                       1.  Subject, Object, Indirect Object I.D.
14. Oracle                                   2.  Passive and Active Voice
15. Ingenuity                             3.  Subject / Verb Agreement
16. Irony                                      4.  Phrases and Clauses
17. Authenticity                        5.  Verb Tenses
18. Regionalism                       6.  Parallel Structure
19. Identity                                 OTHER UNITS
20. Satire                                     1.  Poetry Terms (see worksheet)
21. Picaresque
22. Oppression                         ESSAY
23. Antebellum                         Question #1 (On Huck Finn and Modern Times)
24. Dialect                                 
25. Culture                                 Question #2 (On Huck Finn)   Sep. Handout.
26. Pathos
27. Equivocation
28. Simile
29. Metaphor
30. Personification
31. Onomatopoeia
32. Assonance
33. Consonance
34. Hyperbole
35. Alliteration
36. Allusion
37. Satire
38. Apostrophe
39. Imagery
40. Class

Search-a-Word Format.

Hi Everyone:

Here is a description of the three graded parts of your search-a-word project:

1.  What You Found: For this part, simply create a little heading (e.g. Unabridged Dictionary or Oxford English Dictionary) and the simply copy down the information that you collected from that source. 

2.  Works Cited: For this part, create a Works Cited page based strictly on MLA format.  You can use on-line sources like Easybib, but make sure you proofread the final page and check for common problems (for instance, forgetting to alphabetize or use hanging indentations).

3.  Four responses: For this part, simply respond to each of the four follow-up questions which were handed out to the class before research.  Do this in a standard open response format (10 or more sentences).