Dear students,

This Tuesday you will participate in California State University’s EAP, which allows you to show the university that you are a critical reader, capable of writing a focused thesis statement with supporting examples and reasons. I will administer the assessment and you will have 45 minutes to complete the writing task.

Monday, you will see a sample essay and practice responding to the writing prompts. Basically, the prompts are all the same: you must explain both sides of an argument, you must take a position (generally acknowledging both sides but choosing one side over the other), and you must provide examples from your observations, experiences, or readings. Pretty simple actually.

Here is why you want to do well: if for any reason you do not receive high marks for your IB assessment, you will need to take English 1A, composition, as a freshman in college. But before you can enroll in that class, you will need to show proficiency. This assessment allows you to do that. Trust me, you want to do well on the EAP.

Sadly, I will not be with you tomorrow. A family emergency came up and my wife needs my help tomorrow. I’m sure you understand.

Please look over these resources, especially the first few slides of the power point titled, “EAP Prep”.

EAP Prep

EAP Rubric

EPT Sample prompts & essays

Be well, and I’ll see you Tuesday.

Warm Wishes,

Mr. Coey

Dear IB English students,

You continue to impress me with your creative ideas and commendable work ethos. You take risks while remaining true to your academic principles. You are growing as critical thinkers and writers.

Due Wednesday, March 5th is the following:

Reflective Statement of 300-400 words.

Sorrow of War essay of 1200-1500 words*.

*nearly all of the exemplary essays I have reviewed have used the words available.

Click below to access a sample essay with examiner’s comments.

Exemplary Essay and Reflective Statement

(Extra-credit awarded if by Monday you can tell me how many times the author’s name, Mulisch, is used in the sample ‘exemplary essay’ from above)

Enlish HL sample 9 examiner comments

Rubric for World Literature Essay

Given my experience with these essays, in addition, I ask you to keep the following in mind:

1. Write with your novel open and in front of you. So many errors in reasoning or citing can be easily avoided if you write with your novel open and refer to the text as you develop your essay.

2. Proofread for ‘dead words’ and active voice verbs. For a list of awesome verbs to use in an essay try this list of Verbs for Literary Essays.

3. Ask yourself if your topic sentences are ‘mini-thesis statements’. Do your topic sentences relate to your thesis?

4. Where in your essay are you discussing Bao Ninh’s choices? Some writers choose to write about Ninh in each body paragraph, while others reserve that discussion for the conclusion of the essay. Either way, you MUST discuss his choices as they relate to your topic. Be sure to answer the questions ‘why?’ and ‘how?’

5. Relax. Yes you may just write the greatest essay of your life over the next five days, but it is possible it will take much longer. Have a growth mindset! And, above all else, remember you are already awesome.

War is hell. Or so the maxim goes. However, our governments and soldiers often find creative linguistic euphemisms for making war seem less like hell and more like a football game. Did you know that during WWII we had a branch of government called the “War Department”? That same department is now called “The Department of Defense.”

Euphemisms make terrible ideas sound tolerable or even pleasant.

Check out this link to learn more about the euphemisms of war.

For more about the language of the Vietnam War, click this link.

Which euphemisms are most striking?

Which terms related to the Vietnam War have you seen in O’Brien’s The Things They Carried?

Tim O’Brien grew up in small-town Minnesota and describes himself as a
dreamer, not big enough to compete in sports, who made good grades and
loved magic tricks. In 1968, he was drafted into the Army’s 46th Infantry
and sent to Vietnam. Though politically he was against the war, O’Brien
served as a foot soldier in the Quang Ngai province from 1969 until 1970,
when he was hit by shrapnel from a hand grenade, earning the Purple
Heart and a ticket home.

Examining an author’s life can inform and expand the reader’s
understanding of a work of fiction. Biographical criticism is the practice of
analyzing a literary work through the lens of an author’s experience.

1. Read each of the following essays:

The Things They Carried Introduction

The Things They Carried About the Writer

Major Characters

2. Post a comment in which you identify the most important ideas a reader should be aware of while reading The Things They Carried, and explain which character you are most likely to follow closely as you read the entire novel.

3. Comments are due this Friday, November 15th

Dear seniors,

These two opportunities recently came to my attention, and I think that both of them are fantastic opportunities for you.

Announcement of 2013 High School Scholarship Essay Contest
Open to High School Seniors in Sacramento and Surrounding Counties
Total Scholarship Awards $15,000

Sponsored by the Sacramento Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility

Note: Deadline for entry is midnight on Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Essay Topic

• Students may enter the 2013 PSR/Sacramento Scholarship Essay Contest by submitting an original essay of 500 words or fewer describing their thoughts about the following position statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Injury and Poison Prevention, published in the April 2000 issue of the journal, Pediatrics: “Firearm regulations, to include bans of handguns and assault weapons, are the most effective way to reduce firearm related injuries.”
• The full text of the April 2000 article, “Firearm-related injuries affecting the Pediatric Population,” and an updated article of the same title, published in October of 2012 are available on the PSR/Sacramento website at www.sacpsr.org.

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Youth Ambassadors Trip to China

Hi All,

I’m happy to announce that JSSCC will continue to organize our annual Youth Ambassador trip to China this summer.  Like last year, we’ll also offer one full scholarship (all expense paid, $2000+) and another $1000 scholarship to select students.  All participants will enjoy 5 days of free stay in Jinan through our arrangement with Jinan.  Please see the attached application packet.  Deadline to apply: 2/28/2013.

Please help spread the word.  For any questions, please contact Gloria at 685.8049.

Regards,

______________________________________________________________

Grace Liu

President, Jinan-Sacramento Sister Cities Corporation (JSSCC)

Promoting Friendship since 1984

www.jsscc.org

1017 L St, #1160, Sacramento, CA 95814

This week we begin our study of William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet.  For much of our performance references, I will use the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2010 production, which is available on PBS and on YouTube (parts one and two). Patrick Stewart plays Claudius–amazing! It is your responsibility to find the time (3 hours) to see this production at least once in its entirety, for we are only examining scenes taken out of context.

Also, check back this week for an updated list of resources for all things Shakespeare. Generally the introduction to the work provides historical information about Shakespeare’s life and times.  You should have this background reading as well.

Kind Regards,

Coey

Dear students,

Rather than write an essay or practice commentary for a week, I think we are ready for a bit of creative expression to help us delve back into the novel and make connections. To see that end, we are using Prezi.com, a unique presentation application. Below is a list of possible starter questions, but I don’t want you to be limited by them. For example, I am developing my Prezi around the idea of comparing the Beatles song “Within You Without You” and the moral issue surrounding truth in the novel. So be creative.

Visit Prezi.com, sign up for a free account, and look at some of their sample presentations for inspiration.

• Agree or disagree that Huck Finn defines American literature and that all modern literature comes from Huck Finn, as Hemingway suggests.
• In what ways is Huck and Jim’s story also the story of America?
•  “Art could be created out of the American language.” What is so significant about Huck’s voice and point of view?
• Explore Huckleberry Finn as a work of picaresque fiction.  How does Twain use this genre to advance his ideas?
• What would it be like to see the novel through Jim’s eyes? How would the story change and how would the message change?
• How does Twain straddle Romanticism and Realism?  How does he use these two literary movements to advance his ideas?
• A psychological analysis using Freud’s theories may provide valuable insights into Huck’s internal conflicts. What is revealed about Huck’s society through a Freudian analysis?
• Juxtapositions provide the reader with an explicit or implied means of comparison. Which juxtapositions do we notice and appreciate? What are the effects of the juxtapositions?
• To what extent do you agree that Huckleberry Finn is about “race and space?” How are these two concepts meant to work together to advance Twain’s ideas.
• How are women depicted in the novel? What might these depictions say about Twain’s view or about society’s view of women?
• What might Twain’s arguments be in favor of either moral relativism or moral absolutism?
• In what ways is Huckleberry Finn a long deconstruction of the fallacious myths of the South?

Dear students,

Please reply to this post by Monday and provide a response to the two questions below:

What is the most crucial choice Twain made in writing Huckleberry Finn?

Twain chose to make Jim a father so that we could better relate to him and empathize with him as a human being who is suffering the loss of his children who were sold into slavery. Without this choice we may not, and possibly 19^th century readers, may not have been able to develop enough sympathy for Jim as a complete, real person. –Mr. Coey’s example

Which scene was most significant in the novel?

“Picks is the thing, moral or no moral; and for me, I don’t care shucks for the morality of it, nohow…I don’t give a dead rat what the authorities thinks about it nuther” (247). This passage helps to develop the moral dilemma Huck must consider. –Michelle’s example 😉 Well, at least I cited you.

A study of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an adventure in understanding changes in America itself. The book, at the center of American geography and consciousness, asks readers to reexamine definitions of “civilization” and freedom, right and wrong, social responsibility and inhumanity. Published in 1885, the novel recounts those pre-civil war days when the controversy over slavery, with designated slave and Free states, disfigured the face of America and its view of itself as a land of the free. Both geographically and otherwise, the story is an examination of life at the center: the center of America’s premiere river, the Mississippi in the middle of the geographical United States, with slave states below, free states above, which is the route toward freedom and escape for Huck and Jim; the center of one of the foremost conflicts on American soil, slavery, which soon results in a civil war; the center of the coming of age of both a young man and a nation that struggle to understand redefinitions of nationhood and freedom, right and wrong; and the center of a shift from Romanticism to Realism in art and letters that would provide for a new way for Americans to express—and re-create—themselves.

But first, Samuel Clemens had to re-create himself and the American novel. How did he do both? From this link, learn more about Clemens’ early childhood and the life experiences that made him Mark Twain.