AGENDA 2/22

Tacit Codes prompt - handout to scaffold thesis statement and approach
Handout to scaffold personal experience paragraph

HW: Write personal experience paragraph of your own for tacit codes prompt. Staple purple cover sheet to front of paragraph. Finish reading The Great Gatsby.

AGENDA 2/14

Recap Chapter 3: what details show the extravagance of Gatsby's party?
Watch "Ariel" episode of MTV's My Super Sweet Sixteen. Complete viewing guide and discuss responses.
What does this show reveal about money, power, and status in America? What cultural understandings would an alien from another planet perceive if all the alien knew of teenage life, class, and status in America came from this show?

HW: None. Happy Valentine's Day! ♥

AGENDA 2/9

Grammar practice - Pronoun Case #2
Tacit codes - Personal Experience sample paragraph and tips

HW: Revise your personal experience paragraph to include or further develop all 5 components; if you have all 5, do a style revision to make your sentences more "sassy." Write a new body paragraph for the tacit codes prompt, following your same thesis, using an example from literature, film, television, or another creative work (song, poem, play, etc.). Remember to make it specific, using names and details from one particular scene. Remember to clearly link between the example and the prompt/argument. Remember to attribute the genre, e.g., in the film Jerry Maguire; in Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter; in one episode of the animated television program Family Guy...and remember that if you choose something that is not particularly sophisticated, esteemed, or highbrow, make your language more formal to compensate.

Finish reading Ch. 2 of The Great Gatsby. Questions to consider as you read:
1) How does Fitzgerald show the tension in Tom and Myrtle's relationship?
2) How does Fitzgerald describe Myrtle's apartment?

AGENDA 2/7

Introduce new vocabulary from The Great Gatsby
Share out: Work Interviews - describe what you learned or were surprised by, or discuss the process
Turn in Work Interviews

Begin reading Chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby

HW: Notes/corrections/reflections on multiple-choice section from final exam due tomorrow.
Finish reading Chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby. As you read, consider the following:

• How does East Egg differ from West Egg?
• Describe Tom Buchanan’s physical appearance and attitudes.
• How does Fitzgerald show the tension in Tom and Daisy Buchanan’s marriage? Find at least three examples.
• What does Daisy imply when she laughs, “Sophisticated—God, I’m sophisticated!”
• What do you think Fitzgerald means by Nick’s comment, “It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me. I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged”?
• Review the scene in which Nick first sees Gatsby. What details does Fitzgerald use to heighten suspense and make Gatsby seem mysterious?

AGENDA 2/4

Introduce new vocabulary from The Great Gatsby
Share sample Work Interview transcript and writeup with class

HW: Work Interviews (transcripts and writeups) due Monday! Multiple-choice test corrections due Tuesday.

Ideas for multiple-choice test corrections:

• Look up unfamiliar vocabulary words & unknown rhetorical terms and write down (or copy-paste) definitions
• Search for patterns: did you miss all of the Roman numeral I, II, III questions? EXCEPT questions? Tone questions? Rhetorical technique questions? Questions that refer to a specific line of text? Main idea/primary purpose questions?
• Describe how to arrive at the correct answer--what makes it a better answer choice?

AGENDA 2/2

Read and discuss "Bud Freeman" - jazz musician excerpt from Working by Studs Terkel
Discuss general reactions
Compare with "Roy Schmidt" from yesterday
What insights do these texts reveal about work?

HW: Begin Work Interviews, due Monday. Correct multiple-choice questions from final exam (due Tuesday).

AGENDA 2/1

Happy 2nd Semester!

Goal-Setting: establish specific, measurable goals for yourself. Check-in date #1 in two weeks. Share out one goal with the class.

Begin reading "Roy Schmidt" excerpt from Working by Studs Terkel
Discuss general reactions
What insights does this text reveal about work?

HW: Correct multiple-choice questions from final exam (due Tuesday).