Independent Reading Assignment:
Students will be required to read a novel of their choice. Students should choose a book that they find not only interesting, but challenging.
*All choices must also be approved by Ms. Molloy / Mrs. Considine.

Students should begin reading immediately. Along with this assignment, students will be required to write a two page literary analysis of this novel, in which students will take a critical stance.

Due: Friday, May29

The Things They Carried / Reading schedule:

Tuesday: 5/19 The Things They Carried, Love (Due 5/21)

*BREAK: On Rainy the River (Due 5/26)

Tuesday/May 26: How to Tell a War Story (Due 5/28)
Thursday/May 28: Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong (Due 6/1)

Monday/June 1: Style, Notes (Due 6/3)
Wednesday/June 3: In the Field (Due 6/5)
Friday/June 5: The Lives of the Dead (Due 6/8)

ASSIGNMENT:
You must formulate a thorough Quote Sheet for each group* of reading. At least 7-10 quotes/excerpts will be expected, followed by a substantiation explaining the significance of each.

*Refers to each week of reading.
NOTE: “Break” counts as a separate quote sheet, you should four in total.

MEMOIR #6

For memoir number six we will be hold a story telling "competiton" like the MOTH story telling competiton we discussed in class: http://www.themoth.org/

Choose a topic from below and write a true story about your life that catches the listeners hearts, mind and spirit. After your story is told, judges in groups of 4's will give you a score between 1-10. The winner of the competiton will recieve a prize beyond the prize and newfound ability to showboat.


Possible topics
-Greatest story of your life
-Funniest thing that ever happened to you
-Most embarassing moment of your life

- Worst experience of your life

- Scariest experience of your life

- Best vacation ever

- Best weekend ever
-(other options, see John or Mrs.Molloy)

MEMOIR TOPIC #5


Déjà vu
Write a short sketch narrated in third person, of a scene in which a character has an experience that causes him/her to recall a startlingly similar past experience. Juxtapose the present scene and the past scene on top of one another, writing for instance, two or three sentences of the present moment, then alternating back and forth between present and past that way. You could show the reader the remembered scene by the use of italics. 250 words

Due: Friday, 5/15

MEMOIR TOPIC #4

ONE MOMENT
Write a third person fragment of a story about one important moment in someone’s life. Examine this moment from every possible angle. Think about smell, light, texture, distant and near sounds and the details that will stick in the memory of the participant. Don’t worry about telling a whole story (although you may learn that you can’t not tell a story here, when you explain the importance of the moment and tie up some of the threads attached to this moment).

The key to this exercise is to convey in ordinary details in every word about these details, the story at its microscopic level. Story is not just plot, talk, and event. Story is just as much the things you choose the reader to see, feel, smell, and hear. What do I mean by important moment? I want you to be imaginative. Choose an odd important moment, something that requires the reader to work a bit to understand the importance.
300 words. Due: 5/13

MEMOIR TOPIC #3


Choose one from the following 6 options, found on the Common Application.



Due: Monday, May 11


#1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

#2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.

#3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.


#4. Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.


#5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.

#6. Topic of your choice.

MEMOIR TOPIC #2

FUNHOUSE MIRROR

Write a deliberately distorted self-portrait – with aspects of yourself magnified or diminished. It is important, in this exercise to use your own name. The effect of seeing your name next to tall tales, things you can’t imagine yourself having done, is startling and useful. You are essentially creating a work of fiction out of the only real source of truthfulness you can be sure of – yourself. – 500 words.

DUE: 5/8

“ ‘We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered. About something important, about something real?’” (52)

Why is it important to be bothered?
What do we find out about ourselves?

ASSIGNMENT: Choose one of the following experiences below. Create a memior of this experience, along with pictures and/or memorabilia to substantiate.

NEUBERGER MUSEUM OF ART: Recognized nationally, the Museum's significant collections, innovative exhibitions, and interdisciplinary educational and public programs are catalysts for a total cultural experience that positions the Neuberger Museum of Art as Westchester County's premiere cultural resource for Modern, contemporary and African art.
http://www.neuberger.org/exhibitions.php?type=current



STORM KING: Five hundred acres of landscaped lawns, fields and woodlands provide the site for postwar sculptures by internationally renowned artists. At Storm King, the exhibition space is defined by sky and land. http://www.stormking.org/


DIA: Beacon, Riggio Galleries is internationally renowned for its collection of art from the 1960s to the present. The museum, which opened in 2003, is situated on the banks of the Hudson River in Beacon, New York. Dia:Beacon occupies an incredible place to view art - a former Nabisco box-printing warehouse - houses temporary exhibitions, as well as public programs designed to complement the collection. http://www.diacenter.org/


POUND RIDGE RESERVATION: The 4,315 -acre park makes Ward Pound Ridge Reservation the county’s largest park. miles of wooded trails the park provides a variety of activities in all seasons. There are areas for picnicking, lean-to camping, fishing and cross-country skiing. The park is home to the Trailside Nature Museum, which hosts weekend nature interpretive programs year-round. http://www.westchestergov.com/parks/parkslocations02/wardpoundridge.htm


ADIRONDACK HIKING: Mt. Marcy, the highest peak in New york State, has an elevation of 5344'. Plan your hike: http://www.adirondacks.com/hiking.html


CATSKILL HIKING: Plan a hiking trip in the beautiful Catskill region - there are 9 locations/trails to choose from. Descriptions and maps listed here are approximate, and are provided for basic trip planning: http://www.catskillguide.com/hiking.htm


ZEN MOUNTAIN: Located on 230 acres of forest preserve in the Catskill Mountains, Zen Mountain Monastery (ZMM), is one of the West’s most respected Zen Buddhist monasteries and training centers.

EAST COAST MUSIC MALL: One of the largest and most complete music stores in our area. ECMH offers evening jam sessions for musicians of all kind to join in or spectate: ??? evenings at ??p.m. http://www.eastcoastmusic.com/home.htm


INNISFREE: A 150-acre public garden in which the ancient art of Chinese landscape design has been reinterpreted to create, without recourse to imitation, a unique American garden. http://www.innisfreegarden.org/

Based on our viewing of the film “Reds”, choose one of the following elements to explore and analyze. Minimum 300 words.

DUE: Monday, March 30

Exposition of plot:
The first half of the film, though it takes an inordinate amount of time and detail to do it, does an intelligent job of setting both the political and emotional scene.

Characterization:
''Reds'' has at its center two remarkable characters -Reed, the perpetual undergraduate who used wars and revolutions as his personal raw material, but whose commitment to social and political change led him to risk everything on behalf of the world Communist movement, and Louise Bryant, an incurable romantic who, in the course of her association with Reed, became her own tragic heroine.

Setting:
''Reds'' is not about Communism, but about a particular era, and a particularly moving kind of American optimism that had its roots in the 19th century.

Tone:
The Witnesses - there are more than two dozen of them - who make up a kind of Greek chorus, the members of which appear from time to time throughout ''Reds'' to set the film in historical perspective, as much by what they remember accurately as by their gossip and by what they no longer recall. One by one the faces that belong to these voices appear on the screen, seen in close-up against a luminously black void….explain the effectiveness of this device.

Theme:
The film is an effort to humanize a political movement that has previously been depicted on screen in a series of obvious and prejudicial broad strokes, from romantic to revolution. Identify a theme to analyze, or explore from the below suggestions:
Freedom
Equality
Idealism
Passion

The Crucible / The McCarthy Hearings

Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy's influence on the Congress of the United States and on the American people is perhaps one of the more dark periods in our recent history. The term "McCarthyism" has become synonymous with the word "witch hunt."

In a 1950 speech, McCarthy entered the public spotlight by claiming that communists had "infested" the State Department, dramatically waving a sheet of paper which purportedly contained the traitors' names. A special Senate committee investigated the charges and found them groundless. Unfazed, McCarthy used his position to wage a relentless anti-communist crusade, denouncing numerous public figures and holding a series of highly confrontational hearings. With little if any proof of his charges, McCarthy relied on accusation, slander and innuendo to tarnish his opponents' reputations (a practice now known as "McCarthyism"). In 1954, televised hearings allowed millions to view McCarthy's methods for the first time, sparking a public backlash and official censure.

THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

"I am no witch. I am innocent.I know nothing of it."

~ Bridget Bishop




"Oh Lord, help me! It is false. I am clear. For my life now lies in your hands...."
~ Rebecca Nurse
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/salemwitchtrials/

Monday, February 2, 2009

en⋅tro⋅py: is a measure of the disorder of a system.

Question: Do you consider yourself an orderly or disorderly person? What about those around you? What are the benefits and the drawbacks of being orderly? Of being disorderly?

*Use your journal to reflect on these questions........

Question: Can disorder be liberating or stifling?

Review your pre-reading journal entry, and select strong, compelling examples that support your position. Aim to refute as many opposing arguments as possible. Your essay may have a serious or a humorous tone.