Giddings Noodleblog

Yes it is graded, but keep in mind that the work we’ve done on Lord Chesterfield will help you succeed.  If you feel that your AP squared chart of the Lord Chesterfield letter was lacking, you may find benefit in redoing it or adding to it to the same level we did in class today.

If nothing else, it will help you develop the habits of mind that will give you success in doing analysis.  Developing those habits of mind will help you a great deal on the AP test as well as in AP Lit next year and in college the year after.  Frankly, the ability to think through something thoroughly, to analyze its parts in relation to its whole, is useful in most careers as well as life as a thinking person in society.

Now that we have realized what Chesterfield was really on about in the letter to his son, we’re going to dive in a bit more deeply.

Tonight, read pages 57-63 in Everyday Use (you may find it helpful to peruse page 85 as well).

Then annotate Lord Chesterfield’s Letter anew.  Bring that in tomorrow on paper as we will work with it in small groups and as a class.

Nicole M, Josilyn, Jacob, Brittany, and Agnes will all be gone at an FCCLA meeting where they will be plotting to overthrow the world and put an end to papers about Lord Chesterfield.  Wish them well.  If they are unsuccessful, you might offer to share your notes with them. (”I do not, therefore, so much as hint to you” that tomorrow is a good time to take some notes.)  Even so, going on an all day field trip seems like an awful lot of trouble just to get out of analyzing a wee little missive from 1746.

Finish what you didn’t get done in class and then blog your responses to the following rhetoric and style questions found on page 721: 1-9, 11

For those of you curious about corn pone, I give you this recipe from southernfood.about.com

Corn Pone

A simple corn bread, generally made only of meal, water, and salt, without either milk or eggs.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon lard or shortening
• water, enought to make a stiff dough

Preparation:

Mix together cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Cut in lard and add enough milk to make a stiff batter. Form into cakes with hands and place in a greased baking pan. Bake in a preheated 425° oven for 20 to 30 minutes.
Corn bread and corn pone was a staple in the mountaineer diet.  With greens, called “salit greens,” meat and of course, cold milk from the spring house, this was good eating and friends were always welcome.

If you would like to take the opportunity to rewrite your Lord Chesterfield paper, then your rewritten draft is due on Monday.  Do not, under any circumstances, waste either of our time by simply editing your paper and resubmitting it.  That alone will not get you a better grade and it will make your instructor grumpy.

Some tips for your rewritten essays:

• Answer the prompt.  General analysis that was reasonably capable, but that did not answer the prompt earned up to a C or so the first time around.  The second time around, such papers will receive an F.  I had more than one college professor who used the same type of policy.
• Write a clear, specific thesis that addresses the prompt.  Without this, you’re likely to wander aimlessly and end up with a D or worse.
• Write topic sentences including claims that support your thesis.  If your topic sentence is summary, it’s hard to write a paragraph that isn’t primarily summary.
• Keep Lord Chesterfield’s purpose in mind as you analyze the text and answer the prompt.

1. Rewritten essay
2. Analysis of rewritten essay
3. Original essay

Your write-up on your rewritten essay should explain how you used the feedback and the information above to revise your paper.  What did you consider and where did you focus your attempts to improve?  What do you consider to be the strength of your paper?  Based on your first grade and the revisions you made, evaluate the overall quality of your revised paper. 

Happy revising! 

Remember that tomorrow we have a test on Vocab 3!

Also tomorrow the University of Washington Tacoma, Central Washington University, Eastern Washington University, Gene Juarez, and Green River Community College will all be on campus during both lunches.  Check out this guide to help you know what to talk about at college fairs (even tiny ones in the school cafeteria).

Here are the posts of your work on the speech thus far!

• Rhetorical Questions: Jeff
• Hortative Sentences: Kyle Tall and Kaylie
• Archaic Words (with definitions!): Robert
• Formal Rhetorical Tropes: Janae and Cody
• Antithesis: Spencer and Jordan
• Anaphora and Zeugma: Hayley R.
• Imperative Sentences: Robyn and Kyle (no more beard)
• Abstract Language: Niko “Go Thundercats”
• Complex Sentences (w/subordinate clauses identified): Kristian and Shyla
• Declarative Sentences: Michiko
• Parallelism: Hayley O.
• Number and Length of Paragraphs: Maverick

Homework tonight is to read pages 35-38 on analyzing style then annotate the Lord Chesterfield letter.  We’ll use both the reading and annotation in class tomorrow and the reading should also help you with your annotation.

As was mentioned last week, your next paper will be to answer the 2004 analysis prompt concerning a letter Lord Chesterfield wrote to his son. You’ve already written an initial rough draft in the practice timed write we did on that question.  Now, with what we’ve learned in that process and the whole class discussion we’ve done on the letter, your task is to write to this prompt as a take-home essay.

Vital Statistics:

• Due Wednesday February 18th
• 600 words long, give or take 10%

For Tomorrow

Read pages 10-11 in our textbook and do the assignment on page 12 tonight.  Read the assignment carefully so that you are sure to do all that you need to—it’s a short text, but it is pretty packed. 

One great place to find many, many political cartoons for this assignment is slate.com.  There is a menu on the left that allows you to search cartoons by topic.  Remember to pick a cartoon that deals with an issue that you know something about.  That will help a great deal.    

Insert your cartoon into a blog post (unless you cut it out of the newspaper, though it would likely be online as well) and blog your analysis in response to the criteria in the book.  We’ll pull them up on the projector tomorrow to talk about them.  Be prepared to present your cartoon to the class. 

Notes

• As mentioned in class today, we are also taking our second timed write tomorrow.
• Vocab 1 quiz on Friday.