Carlos Barrera

American Lit Honors Friday January 25 2008

Yesterday in class we viewed and discussed some clips discussing the "culture of fear" that exists today and was present in Puritan Society in the 17th Century.

We read further into Act II of the The Crucible.

We will draft a comparison/contrast essay in class today. Then, we will continue with the Act II of The Crucible.

A summary of Act II can be found below:

Act Two begins eight days after the discussion at Parris’ house.  Between act one and act two, Deputy Governor Dansforth came to Salem to oversee the court proceedings.  Fourteen people have been arrested for witchcraft, and there is talk of hanging.  Elizabeth Proctor asks John to go to the court and testify against Abigail and the other girls.  John doesn’t want to get involved.  There is tension between Elizabeth and John since Elizabeth has not forgiven John for the affair. 

Marry Warren enters.  She was in court testifying against the townspeople.  She gives Elizabeth a doll which she has made in court.  In the middle of their discussion, Hale enters to question John and Elizabeth, suspicious of witchcraft. 

Later, Giles Corey and Francis Nurse enter to seek advice after both their wives had been arrested.  Next, the marshal arrives with a warrant for Elizabeth’s arrest.  Elizabeth was accused by Abigail for stabbing Abigail with a needle through a doll.  John Proctor protests but Elizabeth is taken away in chains.  Proctor demands Mary that she goes to court and testify against the girls.  He vows that he will fight the proceedings, even if it means confessing his own adultery.

10th Literature-Thursday December 20, 2007

Final Exam test will be in four part to be taken in the computerlab. The first two parts are on "Cyrano de Bergerac". The third part is creating a SOAPStone for Luis Rodriguez's poem "Meeting the Animal in Washington Square Park" that we read a couple of weeks ago. Finally the last part of the exam is an old quizlab on Muhammad Ali.

We will all do well!

Monday December 17 10th Literature

Today in class we finished quizlabs. We will work on completing Act IV of "Cyrano de Bergerac" tomorrow in class.  We will also complete "Roxanne".

Friday December 14-10th Literature

We read, viewed, discussed up to the end of Act III of Cyrano de Bergercac.

We will be in the computerlab on Monday to work on making up any missing quizlabs.

www.quizlab.com

This Week in 10th Literature-Cyrano powerpoint

This is a copy of the Cyrano de Bergerac Powerpoint

Download cyrano_de_bergerac_lesson.ppt

Monday-Tuesday Dec. 10-11 10th Literature

Monday-We will be in the computer lab today. Today is progress report day. Look over assignments from the Julius Caesar" and "Immigrant Poetry" unit and complete these today.

Tuesday- We will begin studying the play Cyrano de Bergerac.

A synopsis of the play appears below, as well as the files for each act's study guide.

CYRANO DE BERGERAC

A synopsis of the play by Edmond Rostand

This document was originally published in Minute History of the Drama. Alice B. Fort & Herbert S. Kates. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1935. p. 101.

Download Cyrano de Bergerac

CYRANO DE BERGERAC was produced December 28, 1897, at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, Paris, with Constant Coquelin in the title rôle. The American premiere took place on October 3, 1898, in the Garden Theater, New York City, with Richard Mansfield as Cyrano.

CYRANO DE BERGERAC, guardsman and poet, is cursed with an enormous, bulbous, blossoming beak of a nose. To compensate for his fixed belief that no woman can ever love him on account of this affliction, he has made himself renowned in Paris for his personal bravery and the charm of his verse.

Cyrano's beautiful and wealthy cousin, Roxane, is much sought after. When, after a spectacular duel with a man who has been annoying her, Cyrano receives an urgent message from Roxanne, he is encouraged to believe she may actually love him. He finds, however, that she imagines herself in love with the handsome Christian de Neuvillette, newly enlisted brother guardsman in the company of Captain de Castel-Jaloux, and wants Cyrano to bring them together.

Putting aside his own love, Cyrano offers his powers of expression to Christian to assist in winning Roxane. Cyrano's eloquence in the many letters signed by Christian's name and the feeling in his voice as he declares his love under Roxane's balcony one dark night, bring about the marriage of Christian and Roxane just a few minutes before the company is ordered away to the siege of Arras.

Although their company is outnumbered, starving, and facing almost certain death, Roxane daily receives a letter signed with Christian's name. Irresistibly drawn by these letters, Roxane dares to drive through the enemies' lines to reach her Christian's side. When Christian sees the power that another's letters have had over Roxane he suddenly realizes that it is Cyrano and not himself that she really loves. He insists that Cyrano shall tell her the truth and leaves the scene. Before Cyrano has divulged the secret, however, Christian is carried in mortally wounded. When Cyrano whispers in his ear: "I have told her; it is you she loves," Christian dies happy.

After Christian's death Roxane goes to live in a convent and for some fifteen years it has been Cyrano's custom to call each Saturday afternoon on the stroke of three. In spite of innummerable enemies and abject poverty his gay invincible spirit shines forth at these meetings. Then one Saturday as he proceeds to his call, an enemy pushes a log from a window causing it to fall onto his head, breaking his skull. He hides his injury from Roxane, but begs to be allowed to read Christian's last letter which she carries always next to her heart. Only when in the gathering darkness he reads it through unfalteringly does Roxane realize that he was the writer and that through all the years it has been Cyrano that she loved.

Here are the study guides to dowload for each of the five acts:

Download Cyrano_Act_1_guide.doc  Act 1

Download Cyrano_Act_2.doc Act 2

Download Cyrano_Act_3.doc Act 3

Download Cyrano_de_Bergerac_Act_IV_Study_Guide.doc Act 4

Download Cyrano_de_Bergerac_Act_V_Study_Guide.doc Act 5

Friday December 7 2007 10th Lit

Today in Class we will read two poems:

"The Black Heralds" by Peruvian poet Cesar Vallejo
from "Heights of Machu Picchu" by Pablo Neruda

from "Heights of Macchu Pichu" by Pablo Neruda

From air into air, like an empty net,
I wandered between the streets and the atmosphere, arriving and saying goodbye
in the coming of autumn with its scattered coins
of leaves, and between spring and the ripe wheat,
What the greatest love, as inside a falling
glove, hands over to us like endless moonlight.

Days of live shining in the storminess
of bodies: sharp steel abraded
to acidic silence:
night unraveled down to the last floor:
assaulted stamens in the country of sex.)

Someone awaiting me among the violins
encountered a world like a buried tower
its spiral stairs corkscrewing into the earth
beneath all those leaves the color of hoarse sulfur:
and deeper still, into geologic gold
like a sword sheathed in meteors,
I plunged my turbulent and tender hand
into the most genital of earthly places.

I pressed my face down through the deepest waves,
I sank like a drop through sulfuric stillness
and, as if blind, I groped my way back to the jasmine
of the exhausted springtime of humanity.
                                                        -Pablo Neruda

The following is a poem by César Vallejo:

The Black Heralds

There are blows in life, so powerful . . . I don’t know!
Blows as from the hatred of God; as if, facing them,
the undertow of everything suffered
welled up in the soul . . . I don’t know!

They are few; but they are . . . They open dark trenches
in the fiercest face and in the strongest back.
Perhaps they are the colts of barbaric Attilas;
or the black heralds sent to us by Death.

They are the deep falls of the Christs of the soul,
of some adored faith blasphemed by Destiny.
Those bloodstained blows are the crackling of
bread burning up at the oven door.

And man . . . Poor . . . poor! He turns his eyes, as
when a slap on the shoulder summons us;
turns his crazed eyes, and everything lived
wells up, like a pool of guilt, in his look.

There are blows in life, so powerful . . . I don’t know!

Wednesday December 5, 2007 10th Lit

We read Luis Rodriguez's poem "Meeting the Animal in Washington Square Park" and viewed another segment of "Real Women Have Curves".

Tommorow we read a poem by Martin Espada:

   

   

Heart of Hunger

   

Smuggled in boxcars through fields of dark morning,
tied to bundles at railroad crossings,
the brown grain of faces dissolved in bus station dim,
immigrants: mexicano, dominicano,
guatemalteco, puertorriqueño, orphans and travelers,
refused permission to use gas station toilets,
beaten for a beer in unseen towns with white porches,
or evaporated without a tombstone in the peaceful grass,
a centipede of hands moving,
hands clutching infants that grieve,
fingers to the crucifix,
hands that labor.

Long past backroads paved with solitude,
hands in the thousands reach for the crop-ground together,
the countless roots of a tree lightning-torn,
capillaries running to a heart of hunger,
tobaccopicker, grapepicker, lettucepicker.

Obscured in the towering white clouds of cities in winter,
thousands are bowing to assembly lines,
frenzied in kitchens and sweatshops,
mopping the vomit of others' children,
leaning into the iron's steam
and the steel mill glowing.

Let there is a pilgrimage,
a history straining its arms and legs,
an inexorable striving,
shouting in Spanish
at the police of city jails
and border checkpoints,
mexicano, dominicano,
guatemalteco, puertorriqueño,
fishermen wading into the North American gloom
to pull a fierce gasping life
from the polluted current.

Martin Espada

Download heart_of_hunger_by_martn_espada.doc

Tuesday December 4, 2007 10th Grade Lit

On Tuesday, we begin a poetry unit focusing on:

the Immigrant experience!

We will also begin studying

"Real Women Have Curves"

Two poems by Pat Mora are available on:

www.quizlab.com  or download here:

Download two_poems_by_pat_mora.doc

1st poem- Immigrants

2nd poem-Legal Alien

TPCASTT Template:

Download tpcastt_template.doc

Meeting the Animal in Washington Square Park

Download the poem by clicking on the lick below:

Download meeting_the_animal_in_washington_square_park.doc

10th Grade Lit-Friday November 30

The plan on Friday was to view two video clips of Julius Caesar's assassination:

one from ABC TV's "Empire" and the other from TNT's "Caesar". Then we were to go outside to practice our Julius Caesar's scripts.

It didn't work out Friday. Block 2-you were not focused outside. Block 4-circumstances dicated that we could not practice.

I am not going to go ahead with a filmed script. We will be going for another type of assessment. Details in class on Monday.

On Monday we will be in the computer lab-Block 2 (full block)/Block 4(1/2 block).

We will be writing a paragraph on the assassination of Julius Caesar.

10th Grade Literature 11/29/07

In class today we handed out scripts of the assassination of Caesar (Act III, Scene i). We went outside and did a first read through. We observed the physical actions viewing the movie with sound down. We viewed a modern rendition of the assassination of Caesar.

Quizlabs for all literature are up at:

www.quizlabcom

Julius Caesar Cloze Summary Act I

Julius Caesar Act I quiz

Julius Caesar Act II Cloze Summary

Julius Caesar Close Summary Act III

Who's Who in Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar paragraph essay

 

10th Grade Literature November 27-28

Tuesday-

We began studying Julius Caesar. I gave out a study guide, which you should use for Monday's quizlabs.

We viewed/read Act I, Scene i of Julius Caesar

We viewed two scenes from a modern film about Julius Caesar. We viewed an incident from his youth when the dictator Sulla invaded Rome.

We viewed Julius Caesar's capture, ransom, and release by Sicilian Pirates.

Wednesday-

I muted the Julius Caesar film and I acted out the voices of Caesar, Antony, Brutus, and Cassius from Act I Scene ii.

These pages will help review Julius Caesar:

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/julius-caesar-act-i-.html

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/julius-caesar-act-ii.html

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/julius-caesar-act-iii.html

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/julius-caesar-powerpoints.html

We read pages 6-19 from the Graphic animation novel version of Julius Caesar.

We discussed the first 15 questions from the Act I study guide for Julius Caesar.

We viewed another version of the Julius Caesar story from the ABC mini-series Empire. We are introduced to Julius Caesar's nephew and adopted son, Octavius. We also met the gladiator responsible for protecting Julius Caesar and Octavius.

The Modern Script of Act 3 Scene 1 which we will use to act out our class scene can be download here:

Download act_3_scene_1.doc

10th Literature Monday November 26

We were in the computerlab today. We were finishing quizlabs due tonight. Tomorrow we start JULIUS CAESAR by William Shakespeare.

Here are links to two powerpoints we will view this week in class.

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/julius-caesar-powerpoints.html

Monday November 19 10th Literature

We are in the computer lab today, tomorrow, and next Monday. The folllowing assigments are up or have been put up again:

www.quizlab.com

You have until Monday November 26th to get them finished.

The Trojan War-Iphigenia at Aulis * (new)

The Trojan War-Paris and Childhood * (new)

The Trojan War-The Oath of Tyndareus * (new)

Hotel Rwanda dialogue explanation * (old)

Iphigenia in Aulis Test * (old)

Problems/Solution Essay-Editorial Addressing a Local Issue * (old)

Research Paper Questions Pretest * (old)

The Greatest-A Fighter's Exile/The Cruelest Sport/ Ali vs. Fraizer * (old)

viewing Muhammad Ali Powerpoint * (old)

ALI * (old)

Hotel Rwanda summary * (old)

Friday November 16

Today in class we worked on two graphic organizers. The first reviewed the information on the "Iphigenia in Aulis" handout and organized the information into a plot structure.

Download iphigenia_at_aulis_outline.doc  Download here "Iphigenia in Aulis" handout here.

The second graphic organizer compared and contrasted two different scenes from The Greek's assault on Troy. One was from "Helen of Troy" and the other was from (the edited TV-14)"Troy".

The quizlabs on this unit are due on Tuesday evening. We will be in the computer on Monday.

Thursday November 15

Today in class we viewed a series of clips:

1st- from (edited TV-14) Troy-Paris and Hector discuss Helen being stowed away on the ship sailing to Troy

2nd- Agamemnon and Menelaus visit Odysseus in Ithaca on the day Telemachus is born (from The Odyssey)

3rd- clip of the Greek army stranded at the bay of Aulis; the murder of Artemis' sacred deer (from Iphigenia)

We read from Eric Shanower's Sacrifice-the graphic novel depicting the Euripides play Iphigenia in Aulis

10th Literatue-Tuesday November 13

Today in class we read two poems on Helen of Troy

Helen by H.D.

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/poem1/blp_hd_helen.htm

The face that launch'd a thousand ships by Christopher Marlowe

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/75.html

We viewed clips from Helen of Troy where we see how Paris was born, raised, and visted by three goddesses. Also, we meet Helen and see how the Kings of Greece competed for her.

Helen's Lament

Helen's Lament    
copyright 1998  by Tracy Marks
(Torrey Philemon of Ancient Sites)

How Was I To Know?

I only followed my heart, the dart

of Cupid, that sparked a fire,

the flaming awakening of desire,

so long dead in this foundering

union, with Menelaus, my spouse,

who never could arouse

my love.

Not long before 

I knew adoration,

the fascination of our nation,

of men who saw in me

a beauty I could never feel.

Inside, a wild Aphrodite

cried to live with passion,

to be real.

How was I to know

that I'd be captive -

mother, wife, compelled

to give, to live for others,

receiving wealth

from kings and princes, 

but losing myself?

How was I to know that 

yearning for life,

that touching my lips 

to Paris's lips

would launch the ships,

would cause such burning,

death, loss, strife?

How was I to know

that if I fled, to soar 

the sky, breathe Aphrodite's air, 

and fly on Cupid's wings,

that men would die?

How was I to know

that I'd be wooed, 

pursued, acclaimed,

then later booed?

That waking to Paris,

to mutual gain,

would bring such pain?

That what I lost 

when I left Greece

would cost such a price,

would brand me a whore,

would cause such a war?

How was I to know?

How was I to know 

that to surrender to caring

would render me victim 

to years of despairing,

that to shun the ways

of Spartan wives

would mean that men 

would lose their lives?

How was I to know

I would feel such shame,

receive such blame,

and forever regret

that I ever met

young Paris of Troy?

How was I to know?

10th Literature Monday November 12, 2007

Today in class we were in the computer lab. Three quizlabs regarding Muhammad Ali were due tonight.

www.quizlab.com

Also, the writing collaborative groups were finishing the Problem/Soution essays based on a problem in your neighborhood or school.  Find the assignment on quizlab. It is to be posted on:

www.pearsonsuccessnet.com