Testing, Testing, One, Two, Three

Your exam over Bless Me Ultima is tomorrow, Wednesday, October 14.
We'll finish going over the vocabulary words Thursday. We will also begin going through Chapter 2 of our grammar book Thursday.

Howl

As I mentioned in class today, this is the anniversary of Allen Ginsberg's reading of his poem, "Howl". It caused quite a stir, and is still considered controversial by many. Read with caution!

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=179381

News Writing Tips

This is for my journalism students.
http://www.uil.utexas.edu/academics/journalism/pdf/PowerPoints/Newswriting%20PP.pdf

Made you look!

I figured some of you might come look at the blog if I mentioned it. Last year's class wasn't too intellectually curious, so I eventually stopped blogging for them. Mention this phrase to me tomorrow, so I'll know you visited: "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously". Or better yet, leave a comment!

Here's today's quote:
"The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our children."--Clarence Darrow

And here's today's poem: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/013.html

Happy Friday, everyone!

Here's a link to today's poem.
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/083.html
Things have been busy, and I haven't posted as often as I should, but I hope to post more often.
To that end, here are this week's vocabulary words.

VOCABULARY—LIST 13

1. RUPT: “break,” “burst”
abrupt (adj)
corrupt (adj)
corrupt (v)
disrupt (v)
erupt (v)
incorruptible (adj)
interrupt (v)
rupture (n)

2. CIDE: “killing,” “killer”
fratricide (n)
genocide (n)
germicide (n)
herbicide (n)
homicide (n)
infanticide (n)
insecticide (n)
matricide (n)
patricide (n)
pesticide(n)
regicide (n)
sororicide (n)
suicide (n)
tyrannicide (n)

Have a great weekend!

Pride and Prejudice

The only opportunity for extra credit this 6 weeks is this weekend. See the THS Theatre production of "Pride and Prejudice" and you'll get daily grade extra grade extra credit. Write a 600-1200 word essay and you'll receive major grade extra credit. Here are the essay prompts:

1. Research the changes in the English social structure during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Show how attitudes in Pride and Prejudice toward the newly wealthy middle classes, who earned their money through trade and manufacturing, differed from those toward the landed gentry who inherited their generations-old wealth.

2. Research gender roles in the English social structure during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. how does Pride and Prejudice break conventions in its relationships between the sexes.

3. In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the author sometimes uses this character for other purposes as well. Choose a confidant or confidante from Pride and Prejudice and write an essay in which you discuss the various ways the character functions in the play.

Remember, your well-developed essays are to be 600-1200 words (typed). Include quotes (may be from other works) and specific references to the play to support your thesis.

Below are some pictures taken during the publicity shoot for the THS production.

More information about the THS production of Pride and Prejudice is available here: http://www.thespiansr.us/

More on WW I

The picture above is of a child in Jefferson, Texas suffering from the flu in 1918 (photo courtesy Library of Congress). There's an interesting article in the Temple Daily Telegram today about how Bell County was hit hard by the 1918 flu epidemic. Read it here: http://www.tdtnews.com/story/2008/11/12/53632