Today we will start with a lesson on quotation integration.

Then you will work on some questions to apply feminist literary criticism to The Yellow Wallpaper. Reading_Questions_for_The_YWP

We originally had a literature circle meeting scheduled for tomorrow but I’m away supervising the Stratford trip so we will move our meeting to Thursday and blogging moves to Friday.

Tomorrow, you will have time to work on your short story presentations. The assignment is outlined here: ENG 4UShort Story Presentations 

Today we’ll learn about our last type of literary criticism:

You should see a lot of similarities between this theory and Marxist literary criticism.

Then we will read a short story called “The Yellow Wallpaper.” (You can find an online version here.) But before you do, I want to give you a little background on the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born on July 3, 1860, in Hartford, Connecticut. She published her best-known short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” in 1892. One of her greatest works of non-fiction, Women and Economics, was published in 1898. Along with writing books, she established a magazine, The Forerunner, which was published from 1909 to 1916. Gilman committed suicide on August 17, 1935, in Pasadena, California.

During a period in her adult life, Gilman became depressed and was prescribed the “Rest Cure” developed by a doctor named Weir Mitchell. The cure, which was prescribed almost exclusively for women, had three core elements: isolation, rest, and feeding, with electrotherapy and massage added to counteract muscle atrophy.  The patient was instructed to lie in bed for 24 hours each day, sometimes for months at a time, with a special nurse who would sleep on a cot in the room, feed her, and keep her mind from morbid thoughts by reading aloud or discussing soothing topics. Visits from family and friends were forbidden. The day was punctuated by electrotherapy and massage, sponge baths with a “rough rub” using wet sheets, and frequent feedings. The diet consisted of milk alone for the first week, or, if milk was not tolerated, 18 or more raw eggs per day.  The patient would pass into a state of placid contentment, described by several contemporaneous textbooks: “Brain work having ceased, mental expenditure is reduced to a slight play of emotions and an easy drifting of thought” (2, p. 44). The fat would “roll up in the face, and subsequently over the body” (3, p. 140). When restlessness set in, exercise would be gradually introduced and the patient would eventually resume communication with her family and return to a healthy lifestyle. For Mitchell, at least, “healthy” for women included strict limits on “brain work,” which he felt imposed nervous strain and might interfere with “womanly duties.”

Today is a readers’ journals work period. Please use your time well.

Please hand in your responses to On the Rainy River.

Then you’re going to be applying Formalist literary theory to On the Rainy River using this chart: On the Rainy River chart. This is due at the end of the period.

For tomorrow, please come prepared to work on your reader’s journals.

We will start today by taking up the questions for Transients in Arcadia, then you’ll hand them in. Next you will choose to analyze Transients in Arcadia using either Archetypal literary criticism or Reader Response literary criticism. Your analysis will be approximately 500 words and should attempt to use the key ideas and terms of your chosen style of literary criticism to answer the following question: What are the important ideas in this story?

For homework, read “On the Rainy River”

Hi everyone,

I’m home sick today so here are your instructions:

You are going to write your blog posts today. Go to www.pining.ning.com and read over the topics that are posted on the main page. Then open up word and type your response in Word. When you’re done, copy and paste it into your blog.

Please publish your blog before the end of the period even if it’s not totally finished. You don’t want to risk losing a mark because you didn’t publish your blog post! If you run into major problems, save your Word doc and print out a copy to give to the supply teacher as evidence of what you got done.

Normally, you’d get to use your reader’s journals but of course they’re home with me. So just try to do the best you can without them.

Literature circle day!

We’ll begin today by discussing the questions you need to develop for tomorrow’s meeting. If you are away today, it’s very important that you read the following handout. how to write questions You will still be expected to have your five discussion questions prepared as well as your reader’s journals.

Next:
Register / Level of Language

Register refers to the level of formality of language. Language can be characterized according to the social context for which it is appropriate. For example, language with a colloquial register might contain slang expressions and unconventional grammar. We can say that the register is formal (as in academic essays), informal (as in casual conversation, emails, texts) or standard (something in between: personal essays, fiction, etc.)

Propel, Propel, Propel Your Craft

Propel, propel, propel your craft, placidly down the liquid solution,

Ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically,

Existence is merely an illusion.

In small groups you will receive a copy of some pop song lyrics. Your task will be to use whatever tools you can find: dictionary, thesaurus, cell phones, laptops etc. to find synonyms that are more elevated. See if you can bump up the diction enough to make it hard for your classmates to identify the song.

Once the song lyrics are presented we will discuss the effect that elevated diction has on a subject which will help you understand its purpose in our next short story, “Transients in Arcadia.”

Homework:

1. If you haven’t already done so, sign up for our blogging site: www.pining.ning.com
2. Read “Transients in Arcadia” for Friday.
3. Make sure you have your reader’s journals and questions ready for tomorrow.

Today as we continue with the reader’s journal conferences, you will have time to work on your reader’s journals and prepare your discussion questions for our first literature circle meeting on Wednesday.

Yesterday I didn’t get time to show you the videos I posted because we had a longer discussion about the process for literature circle meetings and we took up the questions on archetypal literary criticism. So I want to start by showing those videos and then I will conference with you about the first couple pages of your reader’s journals.

While I’m doing conferences please use your time well to continue reading and working on your journals.