Carlos Barrera

Monday April 28 American Lit Honors

Today in class we will work on our Hurricane Katrina Project.

When you put text or photos on to your PowerPoint slides you must cite them.

Here is an example below:

And there have been numerous studies and reports that this was going to happen. So it's not like this just came out of nowhere. The Army Corps of Engineers have been messing around with this levee system for 40 years, and it's still not, after these billion dollars they spent this past year, they're still not safe (Lee, 2006).

or

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(GISuzer.com, 2005)

You will create a  Works Cited Page: This can be generated by using Citation Machine: http://tinyurl.com/3yvtvg 

Works Cited

GISuser.com. "Hurricane Katrina Satellite Image". Flickr.com. 8.28.2005. Creative Common, Some rights reserved. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/gisuser/40719712/>

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper and Row, 1937.

Lee, Spike. "Spike Lee on Race, Politics and Broken Levees." Interview with Reese Erlich. All Things Considered. National Public Radio. WLRN, Miami . 13 Aug. 2006. Transcript.


Lee, Spike, dir. When the Levee Broke: A Requium in Four Acts. 2006. DVD. HBO, 2007.

"Spike Lee Produces a Vision of Katrina." News and Notes. National Public Radio. WLRN, Miami. 13 Aug. 2006.

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This week in Barrera's class:

On Tuesday will view clips of Robin Williams in the film "Dead Poet's Society" as we learn about the poet Walt Whitman.

On Wednesday we will read several Walt Whitman poems in the Red American Lit text.

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On Thursday we will have a double-timed write --you can see the prompts below as well as view student examples for each of the two prompts:

Download timed_write_the_eagle_andthe_dalliance_of_the_eagles.doc

Download ap_english_styled_essay_thoreau_quote.doc

Download student_sample_essay_for_thoreau_quote.doc

Download student_sample_essay_of_comparison_of_eagle_poems.doc

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On Friday Blocks 2 and 3 we will have a test on the following which can be currently found on quizlab

www.quizlab.com

The AP style questions for "Between the World and Me" (Richard Wright poem)

The AP style questions for "On Seeing England for the First Time"

The AP style questions for "Preface to Leaves of Grass"

The AP style questions for "There Was a Child Went Forth"

Block 4 will have a simulated EOCT test

Thursday-Friday April 24-25 American Lit Honors

Update on Hurricane Katrina Project:

We are going to do it on PowerPoint.

1. Every group will have a cover slide and a work cited slide then you will have a slide for every member in the group. You can collaborate on all the slides but if there are 4 members in your group—these means the body of your presentation has 4 slides minimum.
2. Pick a member if the group to host the PowerPoint on their student account. I learned how to go to your accounts and put it on a flash drive. Then, I will burn the presentation on to a compact disc and also host it on the blog.
3. I will go over the due dates in class today as well as sign your grade sheets for anything that was due yesterday.

We will be in the computer lab today, tomorrow (not 2nd block), and Monday.

Tuesday-Wednesday April 22-23 American Lit Honors

I will miss one of your classes for a planning session with teachers and teach another. In the class that I am present, we will listen an NPR radio piece where Spike Lee is interviewed. Also, we will view clips of his documentary. Then, I will teach how to properly do a notecard.

In the class that Iam not present, you will read Michael Ignatieff's essay The Broken Contract. There is a quizlab on this. I have available to you the essay, the questions, and the graphic organizer given to you in class.

Download the_broken_contract_by_michael_ignatieff_the_new_york.rtf

Download the_broken_contract_by_michael_ignatieff_questions.doc

Download soaps_sheet.doc 

Monday April 21, 2008 American Lit Honors

We are beginning the GROUP RESEARCH PROJECT concerning Hurricane Katrina today.

We will be creating a wiki. Details in the classroom.

To get on the wiki site you go to:

http://pbwiki.com

Click on log in

E mail address (for everyone): mrcbarrera+writer@gmail.com

Password: barrera

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To get photographs go to

www.flickr.com

put in hurricane katrina into the search button then go to:

advanced search and click

Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content . The photos you get here are

public domain. You still have to cite these photos.

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Hurricane Katrina Assignment Check off sheet:

Download hurricane_katrina_project_check_off_sheet.doc

Friday April 18 American Lit Honors

The Research Unit

We will begin study issues surrounding the government’s response to the Hurricane Katrina tragedy on the Gulf Coast.

I will begin teaching the research process Monday in the computer lab.

Today we will listen to an interview on NPR with Spike Lee

Then we will view and discuss clips from his documentary When The Levees Broke.

Wednesday April 16 American Lit Honors

Today in class we will:

listen to a piece on NPR about Hurricane Katrina Survivors:

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5704652

Then we will view a clip from from Their Eyes Were Watching God

Then we will read from Chpt 18 in Their Eyes Were Watching God. You can read a summary of the chapter below:

Janie notices Indians leaving town and heading east. When she asks one of them where they're all heading, he says that a hurricane is coming. A couple of days go by and more Indians move out. The animals start to leave as well. Soon, people on the muck begin to leave. A friend of Tea Cake's and Janie's asks them if they need a ride, but Tea Cake refuses. He doesn't think the hurricane will ever come--it's just a little storm. People are most worried about the lake overflowing. Those that stay on the muck spend their time gambling, singing, dancing, and having fun. They are still making money from picking beans, too.

While a few of them are playing with the dice and having a good time, the wind and the lightening start to pick up. The weather worsens and everyone wonders about God and their fates.

"They huddled closer and stared at the door. They just didn't use another part of their bodies, and they didn't look at anything but the door. The time was past for asking the white folks what to look for through that door. Six eyes were questioning God." Chapter 18, pg. 150

The water starts to rise and come into the house. Tea Cake looks for a car to take them out of there, but there are none. He tells Janie to gather their money and insurance papers because they have to walk. They leave and begin to make their way through the wind and the rain. Everything is going well until big They make it to Palm Beach and the storm ends. With their saved money, they find a place to sleep. Tea Cake feels guilty about bringing Janie with him to the Everglade but she doesn't care what she has to go through, as long as she's with him:

Lake Okechobeebursts through its walls. They find a tall house and go in for a while as a refuge. They fall asleep, but Janie wakes up to the sound of the lake coming. Tea Cake urges Janie and their other friend to leave to seek higher ground, but the friend stays; he's too tired to go on. Tea Cake and Janie leave and they have to swim because the water is too deep. Janie can barely make it and Tea Cake has to help her along. They reach dry ground and Tea Cake rests. Janie gets up to get a piece of roofing to cover Tea Cake with, but she gets swept away into the water. She grabs onto the tail of the cow, but a mean dog on the cow tries to attack her. She slides down the tail, away from the reach of the dog, and Tea Cake rushes into the water with his knife. He kills the dog, but is bitten on his cheekbone. They finally reach land again.

"'Once upon uh time, Ah never 'spected nothin', Tea Cake, but bein' dead from standin' still and tryin' tuh laugh. But you come 'long and made somethin' outa me. So Ah'm thankful fuh anything we come through together.'"

http://www.bookrags.com/notes/tewg/PART18.htm

Tuesday April 15 American Literature Honors

Today in class we will view the opening clip of Their Eyes Were Watching God

then--we will view a powerpoint on Zora Neale Hurston which you can access by going to:

www.hse.k12.in.us/staff/jmcgrath/Zora%202006.pdf

We will then view clips from PBS' Zora Neal Hurston: Jump at the Sun

We will read her piece "How it feels to be Colored Me" and work on the AP Style Questions

Monday April 14th Honors American Lit

Today is a day to catch up on quizlabs. The old ones expire on 4/18---we have had new ones this week and last week to do.

Tomorrow we begin studying literature by Zora Neale Hurston. We will read "How it Feels to be Colored Me"--a nonfiction piece that can be found at:

http://grammar.about.com/od/60essays/a/theireyesessay.htm

Then on Wednesday we will read Chpt 18 from the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, and view a corresponding clip from the recent film.

Thursday's timed-write is based on reading Richard Wright's poem "Between the World and Me." You can find a copy of the poem here:

http://edhelper.com/poetry/Between_the_World_and_Me_by_Richard_Wright.htm

This will be the prompt: Read the following poem carefully. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze how the speaker uses the varied imagery of the poem to reveal his attitude toward what he has found and how it affects him, paying particular attention to the shifting point of view of the narrator.

You can find a student sample that would have earned an "8" on the AP exam here:

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/zora-neal-hurston-.html

as well as the AP Multiple Choice questions for both of this week's pieces.

This is from the cover of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Below is a photograph of Zora Neal Hurston

Thursday 4/3/08 American Lit Honors

Thursday's timed write is analyzing the rhetorical strategies and purpose of "On Seeing England for the First Time" written by Jamaica Kincaid.

We'll read the piece together. You will annotate it and write notes in the margins before writing the essay which will be assessed on a 1-9 AP Essay writing scale.

This is Antigua-- which is Jamaica Kincaid's home.

Wednesday April 2 American Lit Honors

Today in class we listened to a song from "Westside Story"---"I Want to Live in America" .

We listened to an NPR piece about "Real Women Have Curves" which can be heard here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=826594

We began reading Judith Ortiz Cofer's "The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria" which can be downloaded by looking at the bottom of yesterday's post.

We will continue viewing "Real Women Have Curves"

Here is a sample student essay for tomorrow's timed write:

Download student_sample_essay_on_seeing_england_for_the_first_time.doc