Carlos Barrera

American Lit Honors/April 28

You will submit your essay at:

 

www.pearsonsuccessnet.com

 

log in: John_Smith

 

password: your lunch number

 

Go to PHOnline Essay Grader

 

Select Product: American Experience

 

Writing for Assessment: Bravery in the Face of Danger

 

Characters in literature often display intense courage when they face a difficult or dangerous situation. Choose a character from a work of literature you have recently read. Summarize the situation in which the character demonstrates bravery and explain how the character's courage helped resolve the problem that he or she faced

 

The Two “Legend of Gregorio Cortez” assignments are only available today. They can be found at:

 

www.mygradebook.com

Honors American Literature/April 13-17

The Biography/Autobiography/Memoir project guidelines, grading, assignments, and due date handout is here:

Download BIOGRAPHY portfolio

This week we will begin studying parts of Tim O'Brien's book: The Things They Carried

American Lit Honors/Week of March 30-April 2

March 30, 2009

Monday March 30 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"

Tuesday March 31st American Lit Honors

Today in class we will study "Immigration".

We will listen to an NPR piece about Immigration and Carlos Mencia-listen to it at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5478147

Then we will read two poem by Pat Mora:

(there is an assignment on www.quizlab )

Legal Alien

Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural,
able to slip from "How's life?"
to "Me'stan volviendo loca,"
able to sit in a paneled office
drafting memos in smooth English,
able to order in fluent Spanish
at a Mexican restaurant,
American but hyphenated,
viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,
perhaps inferior, definitely different,
viewed by Mexicans as alien,
(their eyes say, "You may speak
Spanish but you're not like me")
an American to Mexicans
a Mexican to Americans
a handy token
sliding back and forth
between the fringes of both worlds
by smiling
by masking the discomfort
of being pre-judged
Bi-laterally.

Immigrants

wrap their babies in the American flag,
feed them mashed hot dogs and apple pie,
name them Bill and Daisy,
buy them blonde dolls that blink blue
eyes or a football and tiny cleats
before the baby can even walk,
speak to them in thick English,
hallo, babee, hallo,
whisper in Spanish or Polish
when the babies sleep, whisper
in a dark parent bed, that dark
parent fear, “Will they like
our boy, our girl, our fine American
boy, our fine American girl?”

We will continue viewing "Real Women Have Curves"

(a quizlab exists for this)

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/files/Cofer_-_The_myth_of_the_Latin_women_PDF.pdf

Copy of Quizlab for Cofer's "Myth of the Latin Woman"

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/files/myth_of_latin_women_multiple_choice.d

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"

Tuesday March 31st American Lit Honors

Today in class we will study "Immigration".

We will listen to an NPR piece about Immigration and Carlos Mencia-listen to it at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5478147

Then we will read two poem by Pat Mora:

(there is an assignment on www.quizlab )

Legal Alien

Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural,
able to slip from "How's life?"
to "Me'stan volviendo loca,"
able to sit in a paneled office
drafting memos in smooth English,
able to order in fluent Spanish
at a Mexican restaurant,
American but hyphenated,
viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,
perhaps inferior, definitely different,
viewed by Mexicans as alien,
(their eyes say, "You may speak
Spanish but you're not like me")
an American to Mexicans
a Mexican to Americans
a handy token
sliding back and forth
between the fringes of both worlds
by smiling
by masking the discomfort
of being pre-judged
Bi-laterally.

Immigrants

wrap their babies in the American flag,
feed them mashed hot dogs and apple pie,
name them Bill and Daisy,
buy them blonde dolls that blink blue
eyes or a football and tiny cleats
before the baby can even walk,
speak to them in thick English,
hallo, babee, hallo,
whisper in Spanish or Polish
when the babies sleep, whisper
in a dark parent bed, that dark
parent fear, “Will they like
our boy, our girl, our fine American
boy, our fine American girl?”

We will continue viewing "Real Women Have Curves"

(a quizlab exists for this)

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/files/Cofer_-_The_myth_of_the_Latin_women_PDF.pdf

Copy of Quizlab for Cofer's "Myth of the Latin Woman"

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/files/myth_of_latin_women_multiple_choice.d

Today in class we will study "Immigration".

We will listen to an NPR piece about Immigration and Carlos Mencia-listen to it at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5478147

Then we will read two poem by Pat Mora:

(there is an assignment on www.quizlab )

Legal Alien

Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural,
able to slip from "How's life?"
to "Me'stan volviendo loca,"
able to sit in a paneled office
drafting memos in smooth English,
able to order in fluent Spanish
at a Mexican restaurant,
American but hyphenated,
viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,
perhaps inferior, definitely different,
viewed by Mexicans as alien,
(their eyes say, "You may speak
Spanish but you're not like me")
an American to Mexicans
a Mexican to Americans
a handy token
sliding back and forth
between the fringes of both worlds
by smiling
by masking the discomfort
of being pre-judged
Bi-laterally.

Immigrants

wrap their babies in the American flag,
feed them mashed hot dogs and apple pie,
name them Bill and Daisy,
buy them blonde dolls that blink blue
eyes or a football and tiny cleats
before the baby can even walk,
speak to them in thick English,
hallo, babee, hallo,
whisper in Spanish or Polish
when the babies sleep, whisper
in a dark parent bed, that dark
parent fear, “Will they like
our boy, our girl, our fine American
boy, our fine American girl?”

We will continue viewing "Real Women Have Curves"

(a quizlab exists for this)

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/files/Cofer_-_The_myth_of_the_Latin_women_PDF.pdf

Copy of Quizlab for Cofer's "Myth of the Latin Woman"

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/files/myth_of_latin_women_multiple_choice.d

Monday March 30 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"

Tuesday March 31st American Lit Honors

Today in class we will study "Immigration".

We will listen to an NPR piece about Immigration and Carlos Mencia-listen to it at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5478147

Then we will read two poem by Pat Mora:

(there is an assignment on www.quizlab )

Legal Alien

Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural,
able to slip from "How's life?"
to "Me'stan volviendo loca,"
able to sit in a paneled office
drafting memos in smooth English,
able to order in fluent Spanish
at a Mexican restaurant,
American but hyphenated,
viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,
perhaps inferior, definitely different,
viewed by Mexicans as alien,
(their eyes say, "You may speak
Spanish but you're not like me")
an American to Mexicans
a Mexican to Americans
a handy token
sliding back and forth
between the fringes of both worlds
by smiling
by masking the discomfort
of being pre-judged
Bi-laterally.

Immigrants

wrap their babies in the American flag,
feed them mashed hot dogs and apple pie,
name them Bill and Daisy,
buy them blonde dolls that blink blue
eyes or a football and tiny cleats
before the baby can even walk,
speak to them in thick English,
hallo, babee, hallo,
whisper in Spanish or Polish
when the babies sleep, whisper
in a dark parent bed, that dark
parent fear, “Will they like
our boy, our girl, our fine American
boy, our fine American girl?”

We will continue viewing "Real Women Have Curves"

(a quizlab exists for this)

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/files/Cofer_-_The_myth_of_the_Latin_women_PDF.pdf

Copy of Quizlab for Cofer's "Myth of the Latin Woman"

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/files/myth_of_latin_women_multiple_choice.d

Today in class we will study "Immigration".

We will listen to an NPR piece about Immigration and Carlos Mencia-listen to it at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5478147

Then we will read two poem by Pat Mora:

(there is an assignment on www.quizlab )

Legal Alien

Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural,
able to slip from "How's life?"
to "Me'stan volviendo loca,"
able to sit in a paneled office
drafting memos in smooth English,
able to order in fluent Spanish
at a Mexican restaurant,
American but hyphenated,
viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,
perhaps inferior, definitely different,
viewed by Mexicans as alien,
(their eyes say, "You may speak
Spanish but you're not like me")
an American to Mexicans
a Mexican to Americans
a handy token
sliding back and forth
between the fringes of both worlds
by smiling
by masking the discomfort
of being pre-judged
Bi-laterally.

Immigrants

wrap their babies in the American flag,
feed them mashed hot dogs and apple pie,
name them Bill and Daisy,
buy them blonde dolls that blink blue
eyes or a football and tiny cleats
before the baby can even walk,
speak to them in thick English,
hallo, babee, hallo,
whisper in Spanish or Polish
when the babies sleep, whisper
in a dark parent bed, that dark
parent fear, “Will they like
our boy, our girl, our fine American
boy, our fine American girl?”

We will continue viewing "Real Women Have Curves"

(a quizlab exists for this)

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/files/Cofer_-_The_myth_of_the_Latin_women_PDF.pdf

Copy of Quizlab for Cofer's "Myth of the Latin Woman"

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/files/myth_of_latin_women_multiple_choice.d

Tuesday March 31st American Lit Honors

Today in class we will study "Immigration".

We will listen to an NPR piece about Immigration and Carlos Mencia-listen to it at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5478147

Then we will read two poem by Pat Mora:

(there is an assignment on www.quizlab )

Legal Alien

Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural,
able to slip from "How's life?"
to "Me'stan volviendo loca,"
able to sit in a paneled office
drafting memos in smooth English,
able to order in fluent Spanish
at a Mexican restaurant,
American but hyphenated,
viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,
perhaps inferior, definitely different,
viewed by Mexicans as alien,
(their eyes say, "You may speak
Spanish but you're not like me")
an American to Mexicans
a Mexican to Americans
a handy token
sliding back and forth
between the fringes of both worlds
by smiling
by masking the discomfort
of being pre-judged
Bi-laterally.

Immigrants

wrap their babies in the American flag,
feed them mashed hot dogs and apple pie,
name them Bill and Daisy,
buy them blonde dolls that blink blue
eyes or a football and tiny cleats
before the baby can even walk,
speak to them in thick English,
hallo, babee, hallo,
whisper in Spanish or Polish
when the babies sleep, whisper
in a dark parent bed, that dark
parent fear, “Will they like
our boy, our girl, our fine American
boy, our fine American girl?”

We will continue viewing "Real Women Have Curves"

(a quizlab exists for this)

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/files/Cofer_-_The_myth_of_the_Latin_women_PDF.pdf

Copy of Quizlab for Cofer's "Myth of the Latin Woman"

http://osbornehighschool.typepad.com/barrera/files/myth_of_latin_women_multiple_choice.d

10th Grade American Lit Honors/ Wed. March 25-Fri. March 27

 

Today in class we will begin studying Slavery and the Middle Passage. We will listen to an NPR piece:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1037226

Then we will view a PowerPoint:

Download Middle_passage 

We will then read an excerpt from the novel Amistad by Alex Pate. 

Honors American Lit/Week of March 16-20

I have been called away to work with the TEAM and STUDENTS who are taking the Graduation Tests.

Today in the lab:

Many of you didn't finish or post last week's on-line essay. I put it up again:

Monday March 11- Today's essay will be posted on www.pearsonsuccessnet.com

Log in:  John_Smith (your name)

Password: (lunch i.d.)

Find:

 PHOnline Essay Grader

Prentice Hall: Gold Level

The Prompt:

Response to Literature: Letter to an Author

Write a letter to an author explaining your reaction to his or her book, play, or story. In your letter, use specific evidence from the work of literature to support your opinion. Include questions that your own analysis has left you unable to answer.

Use this handout to help you with specific evidence from the Novel:

Download Of Mice and Men passages

Finish the Frida Kahlo assessments we worked on in class last week (plus a new one):

www.mygradebook.com

Quiz on the The Frida Kahlo Poems by Keith Garebian
The Incantation of Frida K.
AP Multiple Choice HOW TO TAME A WILD TONGUE by Gloria Anzaldúa

 SOAPStone-Sonnet in Primary Colors by Rita Dove 
 

There are two EOCTish review assessents due this week:

  FL Progress Monitoring-Ch. 4-Critical Thinking and Reading
VA Progress Monitoring 2005C (G11)-Ch. 4-Cause-Effect; Predict Outcome 

On Wednesday, we will begin reading the poetry of Walt Whitman
 

Wednesday March 18, 2009

We will be reading the poetry of Walt Whitman. These can be found in the red American Lit textbooks

from pages 432-451. You can also find them by going here:

Download From_song_of_myself_by_walt_whitman

To prepare for Walt Whitman go to this PowerPoint and take notes on the handout below:

Download Notes viewing Walt Whitman PowerPoint and Videos (The Notes). You will print out a copy of this handout and hand it in to the teacher today to get credit for this assignment.

Download Walt Whitman (The PowerPoint)

Watch 2 videos on Walt Whitman (watch them with the closed captions on)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/whitman/program/whitman_01_qt_hi.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/whitman/program/whitman_02_qt_hi.html

If these links don't work go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/whitman/program/

and view the first two segments: Introduction (3:38) and The Center of Everything (7:22).

You will now go to the quizlab and begin the quiz called "Song of Myself and other Walt Whitman poetry." There are 26 questions. You can also access the poems from the quiz.

On Thursday March 19th, I will post up a frame to write a free-verse poem based on Walt Whitman's style. We will read these before a camera next week. Also, we will create a visual that goes with your poem.

Download I_Am_Poem

On Friday March 20th there will be an AP style assessment based on a poem and prose written by Walt Whitman.

Download Walt Whitman There was a Child Went Forth

Download AP STYLE ENGLISH LITERATURE MULTIPLE CHOICE Whitman There was a child went forth

Download AP Multiple Choice Leaves of Grass

Honors American Lit/Week of March 11-15

Monday March 11- Today's essay will be posted on www.pearsonsuccessnet.com

Log in:  John_Smith (your name)

Password: (lunch i.d.)

Find:

 PHOnline Essay Grader

Prentice Hall: Gold Level

The Prompt:

Response to Literature: Letter to an Author

Write a letter to an author explaining your reaction to his or her book, play, or story. In your letter, use specific evidence from the work of literature to support your opinion. Include questions that your own analysis has left you unable to answer.

Use this handout to help you with specific evidence from the Novel:

Download Of Mice and Men passages

Tuesday March 10--we will start our new unit---Frida Kahlo.

We will listen to a song "Cumbia de Mole" by Lila Downs

We will read the poem "Sonnet in Primary Colors" by Rita Dove

Download sonnet_in_primary_colors.doc

We will view paintings by Frida Kahlo. We will view a clip of the PBS documentary "The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo" and "Frida" (the edited TV-14 version from Oxygen Channel).

Wednesday March 11 in class you will read THE FRIDA KAHLO POEMS  (http://www.exilequarterly.com/loncovs/garebian272.htmland) and HOW TO TAME A WILD TONGUE by Gloria Anzaldúa .

Download these here:

Download the_frida_kahlo_poems.doc

Download gloria_anzaldua.doc

Download ap_multiple_choice_how_to_tame_a_wild_tongue_by_gloria_anzalda.doc

Today in class we will:

Listen to an NPR interview with Julie Taymor, director of "Frida"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=829786

Thursday March 12-Timed Write based on a fiction passage about Frida Kahlo. Download the prompt here:

Download AP Style Prompt The Icantation of Frida K display hey  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honors American Lit/Week of March 2-6

 

Monday March 2- We are in the computer lab finishing up our quizzes:

www.mygradebook.com

The quizzes left do are:

Autobiography of Malcolm X-Nightmare
Autobiography of Malcolm X-Trapped
The Autobiography of Malcolm X-Conked & Laura
AP Multiple Choice questions:Malcolm X-Learning to Read
AP Multiple Choice-Theme for English B
AP Multiple Choice-James Baldwin's Fifth Avenue,

Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane

Tuesday/Wednesday March 3-4: We begin reading, viewing, and studying John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.

Thursday March 5- We begin brainstorming for the essay that we will be typing in the computer lab on Mondau March 10th. More instructions in class.

Friday March 6-We continue with Of Mice and Men. Work on the new Of Mice and Men quizzes.

www.mygradebook.com

Honors American Lit/Week of Feb. 23-27

This week we will view a 7-minute clip from Malcolm X. We then will participate in an AP-styled timed write.

The reading passage focuses on Malcom's encounter with his eight grade teacher. Mr. Ostrowski.

The video clip will focus on Malcolm telling Laura of his mother's struggle to raise her family and his experience in a white middle school in Michigan.

The essay you will write focuses on finding Malcolm X's purpose in writing the piece, his intended effect, and the rhetorical strategies used to achieve his purpose.

We will view clips on Malcom's descent in life as he hits the streets of Boston and Harlem as Detriot Red. We view his incarceration and his transformation in Minister Malcolm X.

We will also read a poem by the poet Etheridge Knight called "Hard Rock Returns to Prison for the Criminally Insane. The assessments for the Malcolm X Unit can be found at:

www.mygradebook.com

"Hard Rock Returns..." - Etheridge Knight

Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

Hard Rock / was / "known not to take no s(tuff)
From nobody," and he had the scars to prove it:
Split purple lips, lumbed ears, welts above
His yellow eyes, and one long scar that cut
Across his temple and plowed through a thick
Canopy of kinky hair.

The WORD / was / that Hard Rock wasn't a mean (brother)
Anymore, that the doctors had bored a hole in his head,
Cut out part of his brain, and shot electricity
Through the rest. When they brought Hard Rock back,
Handcuffed and chained, he was turned loose,
Like a freshly gelded stallion, to try his new status.
And we all waited and watched, like a herd of sheep,
To see if the WORD was true.

As we waited we wrapped ourselves in the cloak
Of his exploits: "Man, the last time, it took eight
Screws to put him in the Hole." "Yeah, remember when he
Smacked the captain with his dinner tray?" "He set
The record for time in the Hole—67 straight days!"
"Ol Hard Rock! Man, that's one crazy (brother)."
And then the jewel of a myth that Hard Rock had once bit
A screw on the thumb and poisoned him with syphilitic spit.

The testing came, to see if Hard Rock was really tame.
A hillbilly called him a black son of a (gun)
And didn't lose his teeth, a screw who knew Hard Rock
From before shook him down and barked in his face.
And Hard Rock did nothing. Just grinned and looked silly,
His eyes empty like knotholes in a fence.

And even after we discovered that it took Hard Rock
Exactly 3 minutes to tell you his first name,
We told ourselves that he had just wised up,
Was being cool; but we could not fool ourselves for long,
And we turned away, our eyes on the ground. Crushed.
He had been our Destroyer, the doer of things
We dreamed of doing but could not bring ourselves to do,
The fears of years, like a biting whip,
Had cut deep bloody grooves
Across our backs.

- Etheridge Knight

This week we will view a 7-minute clip from Malcolm X. We then will participate in an AP-styled timed write.

The reading passage focuses on Malcom's encounter with his eight grade teacher. Mr. Ostrowski.

The video clip will focus on Malcolm telling Laura of his mother's struggle to raise her family and his experience in a white middle school in Michigan.

The essay you will write focuses on finding Malcolm X's purpose in writing the piece, his intended effect, and the rhetorical strategies used to achieve his purpose.

We will view clips on Malcom's descent in life as he hits the streets of Boston and Harlem as Detriot Red. We view his incarceration and his transformation in Minister Malcolm X.

We will also read a poem by the poet Etheridge Knight called "Hard Rock Returns to Prison for the Criminally Insane. The assessments for the Malcolm X Unit can be found at:

www.mygradebook.com

"Hard Rock Returns..." - Etheridge Knight

Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

Hard Rock / was / "known not to take no s(tuff)
From nobody," and he had the scars to prove it:
Split purple lips, lumbed ears, welts above
His yellow eyes, and one long scar that cut
Across his temple and plowed through a thick
Canopy of kinky hair.

The WORD / was / that Hard Rock wasn't a mean (brother)
Anymore, that the doctors had bored a hole in his head,
Cut out part of his brain, and shot electricity
Through the rest. When they brought Hard Rock back,
Handcuffed and chained, he was turned loose,
Like a freshly gelded stallion, to try his new status.
And we all waited and watched, like a herd of sheep,
To see if the WORD was true.

As we waited we wrapped ourselves in the cloak
Of his exploits: "Man, the last time, it took eight
Screws to put him in the Hole." "Yeah, remember when he
Smacked the captain with his dinner tray?" "He set
The record for time in the Hole—67 straight days!"
"Ol Hard Rock! Man, that's one crazy (brother)."
And then the jewel of a myth that Hard Rock had once bit
A screw on the thumb and poisoned him with syphilitic spit.

The testing came, to see if Hard Rock was really tame.
A hillbilly called him a black son of a (gun)
And didn't lose his teeth, a screw who knew Hard Rock
From before shook him down and barked in his face.
And Hard Rock did nothing. Just grinned and looked silly,
His eyes empty like knotholes in a fence.

And even after we discovered that it took Hard Rock
Exactly 3 minutes to tell you his first name,
We told ourselves that he had just wised up,
Was being cool; but we could not fool ourselves for long,
And we turned away, our eyes on the ground. Crushed.
He had been our Destroyer, the doer of things
We dreamed of doing but could not bring ourselves to do,
The fears of years, like a biting whip,
Had cut deep bloody grooves
Across our backs.

- Etheridge Knight

Building Bridges and Crossing Borders Immigration Unit for English Teachers (North Cobb Presentation)

Here is a copy of the handout:

Download Immigration unit

Here is a copy of the PowerPoint:

Download Building Bridges and Crossing Borders

Honors American Literature/Week of Feb. 9-13

Today in the computer lab you should work on W.E.B. DuBois' "The Damnation of Women". You need the handout we read on Thursday.

www.mygradebook.com

You should be in a group of six members for "A Raisin in the Sun". Click on your groups assigned scene for a summary of the scene and for instructions for the performance tasks.

Download Raisin Act I Scene I summary

Download Raisin Act I Scene II summary

Download Raisin Act II Scene I summary

Download Raisin Act II Scene II summary

Download Raisin Act II Scene III summary

Download Raisin Act III summary

We will continue to view/read "A Raisin in the Sun" this week. We will also have time to rehearse. We will be back in the computer lab for part of the class on Friday.