Update!

Hey, people!
Yesterday we started looking at two Robert Frost poems.  Here are some links:

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Text
Audio

The Road Not Taken
Text
Audio

-JD

p.s. The Dr. King speech paper will have the first draft due next Thursday, 2/6

Advanced English 9: Dr. King's Speech Analysis

Today we listened to and read Dr Martin Luther King Junior's "I Have a Dream" speech.
Watch it here.

You need analyze the language of the speech by applying what we've learned about these poetic ideas:

• imagery (can be literal or figurative)
• figurative language
• sound devices

Use your Google Drive to write an essay of at least five paragraphs.  Your topic:

Analyze how the literary and poetic conventions used in the speech impact its theme.

Your paper might look something like:

1. Introduction (be sure to state what the theme is! eg: "Dr. King's use of rhyme, personification, and iambic pentameter help reinforce his idea that the time for racial justice is now.")
2. Poetic idea 1 - Provide at least three examples from the text and commentary for each.
3. Poetic idea 2 - Provide at least three examples from the text and commentary for each.
4. Poetic idea 3 - Provide at least three examples from the text and commentary for each.
5. Conclusion - summarize the effect these POETIC DEVICES have on the audience.

Papers will be graded according to the standard rubric. Make sure you read over the rubric so you know how to get the maximum score in each category.

Rough draft due Friday, 1/31/2014.  Final revisions due Friday 2/7/2014

Semester Test

I'm trying a kind of open-ended semester test this time around.  Below are the terms and literary concepts we have studied and discussed so far this year:

• *Climax - the point of highest interest in a literary work
• *Conflict - Struggle or clash between opposing forces or characters
• Dramatic irony - when a reader is aware of something that a character isn't
• Epic - a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds
• *Exposition - introduces the characters, setting, and basic situation
• External conflict - a struggle between a character and an outside force
• Figurative language - writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally
• Flashback - a scene that interrupts the action of a work to show a previous event
• Foreshadowing - the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot
• Imagery - language that appeals to the senses
• Internal conflict - struggle within a character
• Metaphor - comparison not using like or as
• Motivation - the reasons for a character's behavior
• Myth  - a traditional story presenting supernatural characters and episodes that help explain natural events
• Narrator - someone who tells a story
• Personification - giving human qualities to animals or objects
• Point of view - the vantage point from which a story is told
• Polytheism - belief in multiple Gods
• *Resolution/Denouement - the part of the plot that reveals the outcome of the conflict
• Setting - time and place
• Symbol - something that stands for itself and something beyond itself
• Theme - central idea of a work of literature
• Tone - attitude of the author

For the semester "test," you need to discuss an example of each in a literary work that we have studied this year.  You MAY include examples from your independent reading, ONLY IF you give me a copy of the book and include page numbers.  For the terms indicated with an asterisk (*), you need to use the same text for an example (Short Story map, though it could be over a novel or The Odyssey). 

For each term, briefly summarize the example then explain how it was important to your understanding of the work.

For example (you can't use this for your example):

Point of view - "The Lottery" was told from a third-person limited point of view, where the reader is only given plot information as it happens. This increases suspense and makes the twist ending more effective.

You will be given time in class Wednesday January 8 to work on this, but if you want to do it early and hand it in that's fine with me.  Good luck!