Your assignment is to read Chapter 4 and respond here. Choose one of the following options:

a) In the middle of this chapter, Jordan describes Gatsby. How does her description reinforce what you've been thinking about Gatsby? How is her description different from how he's been described so far and/or how you've been envisioning him up until this point? What's surprising? What isn't? Why? (These descriptions aren't necessarily literal. You might consider the impression you had of Gatsby before and you have now.)

b) Considering all four chapters you've read, what do you think of Nick as a narrator? Do you consider him an unreliable narrator or a reliable one? When you think about that, are you considering what kind of person he seems to be when assessing his narration? Has he said anything that has caused you to doubt him? When answering this question, please refer to specific passages by page number or even quoting text.

You assignment is to read Chapters 2 and 3 and then respond here, and we talked a little bit about Chapter 1 already. In a comment to this post, please respond to one of the following options. In your answer, please be specific by referring to page numbers and providing quotations:

Option 1 - Consider the historical context of this book. What can you see of your understanding of this time in the novel so far? Social movements? Radical politics? Post-WWI America? Think about what goes beyond a superficial reading of what people wore or listened to, but you can include those details as well.
 
Option 2 - What ideas about the American Dream, reinvention of the self, and social class do you see emerging here? You might not be done with the novel, but you can get a good idea of at least some of the ideas Fitzgerald is dealing with here. Write a little bit about themes, making sure to incorporate how symbolism, characterization, and plot contribute to your ideas.

For Tuesday, your assignment is to read the next three stories in The Things They Carried: "Enemies," "Friends," and "How to Tell a True War Story." Choose one of the following questions to respond to in a comment to this post:

A) Based on what you've read so far, especially "How to Tell a True War Story," how do you think the narrator differentiates between fiction and nonfiction? Central questions in our class this year have been about truth, journalism, and where the line is between fact and fiction. This book is presented as a work of fiction, but those questions still arise. How do you think the narrator answers the questions of the role of a journalist? The role of a historian? The role of a storyteller?

B) Look through the table of contents at the titles and page lengths of each of the stories in this book. Also note that a story like "Enemies" might look substantially longer in the table of contents than it actually is when you turn to it in the book. There are eight stories that are fifteen pages or more in length; you've now read three of these. There are also a collection of much shorter pieces; you've now read four of those. Based on what you've read so far, what do you think is the relationship between these two kinds of stories? What's the effect of structuring the book this way? How is your understanding of a certain story changed by the stories that come after it?

For Thursday, your assignment is to read the next story in The Things They Carried - "On the Rainy River." In a comment to this post, respond to the following question:
 
The author of this entire book is Tim O'Brien. He was born and raised in Minnesota, went to Macalester College, was drafted in 1968, served in Vietnam, and returned to go to graduate school at Harvard. The narrator of this story goes by that name, and those other details I've just supplied seem to be true of that narrator. Yet, this book is a "work of fiction." (Some say 'novel,' others 'story collection.' That's a discussion for a different day.) It's not necessarily your job here to tell the facts from what's not factual, but what effect does it have on you that this is not called a memoir or autobiography? What about this story seems true to you? What about those first few lines in which he asserts that he's never told this story before because it would be too embarrassing, says too much about himself -- what do you make of that? I'm not looking for you to speculate upon what actually happened or what was in the author's heart. I want to know how that makes you (yes, 'you,' the individual, not 'one') react to what you've read and why. Please be specific and refer to specific lines/details in the story.
 

 
For Monday, you juniors were asked to read "The Things They Carried," the first story in O'Brien's book of the same name. In a comment to this blog post, respond to two of the following options. You can do it as two separate entries or one with both responses. If you aren't the first one here, take a look over what your peers wrote first.

Options (choose two)

A - No doubt, you’ve heard of friends or peers having to write their own creative pieces: “The Things I Carry” poems and the like. Write a list of things you carry, and try to do it as O’Brien does -- mixing the concrete with the abstract; some items with no explanation, some with only a line that implies a great deal. If you have your school bag next to you, try to include what’s in it. If not, make a comprehensive list of a “typical” day for you. Suggested length: 25 “things” or more.

B - What’s the purpose of the pictures Lt. Cross keeps at the beginning of the story? How has their meaning changed for him by the end of the story? Why has the meaning changed? Was he wrong to keep them? Is he wrong to have changed his mind?

C - What is your favorite passage from this story and why? You don’t need to type it out, word-for-word. Just give a line or two from it and the page number (we all are working from the same books). Why do you like this passage? If it’s the language, write about word choice and syntax. If it’s something else, write about that in equal detail.

D – The title page of the book reads “The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction by Tim O’Brien.” Read the dedication page: “This book is lovingly dedicated to…” Then read the epigraph from John Ransom’s Andersonville Diary. (His reference to “this book” is not O’Brien’s, and “the late war” isn’t Vietnam.) What connection do you see between the title page, the dedication, and the epigraph? What do you think it means?

On Thursday, before break, I introduced some AP Practice/Prep/Review, and we read some more Hamlet.

For those who weren't in class Thursday (and for those who have either lost your packets or can't read something in there), I've taken some scans of that AP Practice/Prep/Review material and am posting it _here_. You will be able to access that folder using your NPS Google account. It contains the multiple-choice practice and free-response practice that is due the day we return, plus the cover sheets with instructions. 

One thing I didn't hand out but wanted you have is a collection of all the free-response prompts since 2007. You don't need to look at these before we return, but it's there in case you get curious and have some time. 

I've also asked that you watch a full-length version of the play by the time we return from break. All together here, that seems like a lot. The version we've watched a bit in class is about three hours in length. Here is that version of the play we watched in class. You will be writing a synthesis essay on Hamlet on either Wednesday the 27th or Thursday the 28th, and that will wrap up the Hamlet unit. It seems, then, that Hamlet and Synthesis need to take precedent. So, a) watch a full-length version of Hamlet, b) do the Synthesis prep work as set out in the packet I handed out Thursday, and c) do the Multiple-Choice prep work, but, if you don't finish this last part, that's okay. We will definitely be dealing with the play and Synthesis writing, so that's the priority.

Feel free to email me questions. 

If you haven't submitted your two revised Arguments to TurnItIn.com, you need to do that ASAP. 

If you haven't submitted your Culture Essay Progress Report to TurnItIn.com, you need to do that ASAP.  
  (You can download copy here.)

We are building toward your having a working Rough Draft of your Culture Essay submitted by Thursday (or the beginning of your April Break, whichever comes first). You should be making progress toward that. 

This is the version of Hamlet we've watched some of in class: 
"(Aired: 04/28/10)  Shakespeare's immortal 'To be, or not to be' takes on a whole new meaning (and medium) as classical stage and screen actors David Tennant and (recently-knighted) Sir Patrick Stewart reprise their roles for a modern-dress, film-for-television adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company's (RSC) 2008 stage production of Hamlet."

The portion we watched went up to about 42:30, which is right at the end of Act I. Re-watch or do some other kind of brushing up on what happens in the play up to that point, and then get to Act II, scene ii, 444 (about), which is about the time that the players (actors) enter. That's about 1:15:50 on this video. You can watch this video and/or read in the play. When you've gotten there, stop, and, in a comment to this post, reflect on what you know so far and don't when it comes to the play. Do you understand what Hamlet is doing? What is Polonius's approach to parenting when it comes to Laertes? Who are Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, what has Claudius asked them to do, and what does Hamlet think of them? What news does Ophelia report, and how do Claudius, Gertrude, and Polonius interpret this information? You can try to answer a few of those, as all of them come from the first scene and a half of Act II, but you can also ask questions about anything from Act I. The point of this is for you to process what you know and what you don't about the play up to the line I've designated above so that you're ready for class on Tuesday, and to do it in a semi-public way so that we can help each other understand the play better. 

 
For National Poetry Month, supply a poem and a little bit of your reasoning for why you've chosen it. Write your thoughts on a poem, provide the title and poet, and copy-and-paste a link to it as a comment to this post. Here's what it might look like:

“She Dwelt Among Untrodden Ways” by William Wordsworth
http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww147.html
I chose these lines because they, in a way, embody what I think true love is (that is if true love even exists and it’s not all just a rise of dopamine in our brains or something). The writer of the poem loves Lucy not because she was special or unique to the world, but because she was special to him – he saw what no one else saw – and that is how I believe someone who is in love would be like. 
--Meghna Nandi

Where you might go to find the text of a poem:    Bartleby.com  *  Academy of American Poets * Poetry 180 *
 The Poetry Foundation  * Library of Congress * @POETSorg * The Favorite Poem Project * Poetry International
*  The Poetry Archive * Poetry Out Loud * Poetry Everywhere * The Writer's Almanac * The Poetry Show *   

If you can't find a link to the poem, bring in a photocopy of it. Still provide your thoughts about it in a comment, though. 

During the month of April, each of you will have a chance to read your chosen poem aloud to our class. 

NPM is Coming!

Find a piece intended for a general interest audience (no trade magazines or blogs for left-handed hacky-sack playing Hungarian Druids) that is about you and your culture. This piece should, in your estimation, get the culture or cultural phenomenon really right or really wrong. The you and your culture part could be teens or teens in Massachusetts, but it could also be student-athletes, high-school girls who code, or some other sub-set. The key is that you belong to this culture.

In a comment to this post, provide a link to the piece and write a paragraph or two in which you give a synopsis of the piece and what the writer gets right/wrong. 

- Also, get that Folger Shakespeare Library Hamlet.

       and find a poem to share during National Poetry Month.