Tuesday, March 26 and Wednesday, March 27

Freshmen: Today we read "Romeo and Juliet: A Modern Perspective", found at the back of your play; we also wrote an analytical essay about the play and had a seminar about the play. Have a good break - when you come back we will start working on the Capstone Project, so you want to come to class with a few good ideas when we return. Also, due when you return, are two great thoughts - one of your own devising, and one from a source outside yourself. Place your name on the back of them and we will use them for our 4th quarter prayer assignment.

Sophomores: Today we did some reading, a Hero Catch-Phrase entry, and did a visualization and drawing exercise with our book.

CNF: Today we finished a study of Andy Goldsworthy and discussed if what he does constitutes art.

Monday, March 25

Freshmen: Today we continued to study Romeo and Juliet and got a brief introduction to the Capstone Project. For Tuesday, finish Acts IV and V and come with a seminar prep for our seminar. For the first day of 4th quarter, come prepared with a few possible ideas for your Capstone Projects and come with two Great Thoughts, one from someone other than yourself, and one that you craft yourself. Both should be typed, and both should have your names on the back.

Sophomores: Today we did a writing exercise and focused on reading. Check the blog schedule - you need to read The Poisonwood Bible over the break.

CNF: Today we started a study of Andy Goldsworthy.

Extra Credit Opportunity

Visit http://www.cuwcd.com/essays/EssayContestEntryForm2013.pdf

You must email me the copy of your essay on or before the due date. You can earn up to 50 points extra credit.

Tuesday, March 19 and Wednesday, March 20

Freshmen: Today we had a seminar on Act III of Romeo and Juliet. Your homework tonight is to get on turnitin.com and look at your division and classification essays. Read through the comments - both my blue ones and the purple grammar comments generated by the website. On today's post, post a comment that is a paragraph long (i.e. several sentences) in response to the following prompt: What did you learn about writing? You can respond to what others have said in your comment as well.

Sophomores: Today we had a seminar on Book II of The Poisonwood Bible, took some quizzes, and in general had a great time. Aside from continuing your reading, your homework tonight is to get onto turnitin.com and read the comments posted there about your Amir hero essay - both mine and the purple ones generated by the website. Reflect on the comments. On today's post, post a comment that is a paragraph long (i.e. several sentences) in response to the following prompt: What did you learn about writing? You can respond to what others have said in your comment as well.

CNF: Today we studied King Corn and related it to Part II of The World Without Us.

Monday, March 18

Freshmen: Today we focused on the ideas you came up with that would improve America through your cause and effect essay. Read for 20 minutes; Act III from Romeo and Juliet is due tomorrow.

Sophomores: Today we did an activity that tested your ability to read and identify tone, style, and voice. Keep reading; Book II is due on Wednesday.

CNF: We wrapped up reading Part II and will discuss it on Thursday.

Friday, March 15 (the Ides of March)

Freshmen: Your task is to respond to the prompt Norman Mailer responded to in Parade Magazine: If you could do one thing to improve America, what would it be? You should answer this prompt in a cause and effect essay. What you would do, why you would do it, and what the effect will be should be clear in your essay. Have an awesome title, and list the lead and conclusion techniques you are using (and use them well), in your header. Though I hate the idea of giving length requirements - as good essays are about depth rather than length - many of you have struggled with development, so the minimum length is eight paragraphs. For more information on cause and effect essays, you could check out the following sites:
http://eslbee.com/cause.htm
http://www.roanestate.edu/owl/cause.html
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/cause_effect.htm

Finish with Act III of Romeo and Juliet for Tuesday; please have some sort of seminar prep, either notes or a reflection.

Sophomores: Today we did a quiz activity on the four stages of the hero. Remember to finish Book II of The Poisonwood Bible for Wednesday.

CNF: Today we took a look at some of Andy Goldsworthy's art; our goal is to finish Part II of The World Without us by the end of next week.

Thursday, March 14

Freshmen: Today we focused further on cause and effect. Continue reading  from Romeo and Juliet - Act II is due Friday.

Sophomores: Today we did another entry in our Hero Catch-Phrase Project and also did some reading. Be sure to keep up with the reading schedule.

CNF: Today we looked at some art by Nathan Sawaya, who is a Lego artist, in keeping with our theme of what falls apart and what lasts (which fits well with him, as we know the plastic Legos will never biodegrade, and yet those darn Legos always seem to be falling apart...), and, of course, we read from The World Without Us.

Wednesday, March 13

Freshmen: Today we focused on cause and effect. Consider some of the causes and effects present in Romeo and Juliet as you read. Act II is due on Friday with a seminar prep. Use your 20 minutes of nightly reading for this. Period 4, please post a paragraph response to one of the following questions. Feel free to respond to what others have written in your response; sign it with your first name only. Prompt: What are some of the causes of meth addiction? OR What are some of the effects of meth addiction?

Sophomores: Today we had a seminar on Book I of The Poisonwood Bible. Keep current with your reading; the schedule is on the blog. For you sophomores who check the blog, here's an extra credit assignment: For up to 20 points extra credit, post a response to the following prompt (and feel free to include responses to others' posts in yours): How do you, personally, feel about Nathan and what he's trying to accomplish in the Congo? Sign it with your first name and period.

CNF: We focused on reading Part II from The World Without Us.

Monday, March 11 and Tuesday, March 12

Freshmen: Today we had a seminar on Act I of Romeo and Juliet and then did some prep work before reading Act II. You should read all of Act II for Friday, and have a set of notes or a reflection for that day's seminar. Use your 20 minutes of nightly reading for this homework. Chapter 12 vocab is due on 3/22.

Sophomores: Today we finished our introduction to the Four Stages of the Hero. Due for Wednesday is Book I of The Poisonwood Bible; you should have a seminar prep for that day's class. Chapter 12 vocab is due on 3/22.

CNF: Today we viewed the documentary Addicted to Plastic; we read Part II this week in The World Without Us.

Thursday, March 7

Freshmen: Today we took a vocab exam; your homework is to read Act I of Romeo and Juliet. You should have some sort of seminar prep for our seminar on Monday.

Sophomores: Today we took a vocab exam; your homework is to read Book I of The Poisonwood Bible. It is due on Wednesday, when we will have a seminar. Be sure to have some prep work for that.

CNF: Today, conveniently, we finished An Inconvenient Truth and began reading Part II of The World Without Us.

Western Traditions Honors Project

Western Traditions Honors Project

Successful completion of the honors course is dependent upon successful completion of this project. You are to read the text The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell in conjunction with the novels we read, analyzing each novel according to how the concepts contained in Campbell’s book can be applied to the novels we read as a class.

Each essay should be two to three pages long typed, have an interesting title, and be free of most conventions errors. Most importantly, each essay must explain how the concepts covered in The Hero With a Thousand Faces can be applied to the book we’re reading or how the concepts helped you as a reader understand and interpret the text. You need to cite from both the novel we are reading and Campbell’s book at least twice in each essay. The essays are due “near” the due dates listed – there will be some flexibility there, but the essays need to be handed in reasonably close to the date to earn credit. The essays are worth 100 points each, and the reading itself is worth 50 points. To get credit for the reading, sign off on the box for “I Did the Reading” for each collection of chapters on this sheet and hand it in as your cover sheet with each essay.

We will discuss these concepts each time we have an honors seminar, and it is expected that you will help enrich the learning of all the other students in our course by bringing these concepts up in class discussions and seminars as well. What follows is the list of chapters and the dates that they and the corresponding essays are due. These are also the dates that we will have our early morning honors seminars. These will be held in my room, at 7:30, on the dates listed. These seminars are worth 50 points. If you do not attend, for whatever reason, you will not receive credit for the seminar. If you are late, the maximum number of points you can earn is 40. Come prepared for each seminar having done the required reading as well as having completed the essay. They are not lectures, but rather opportunities for you to share ideas and observations, as well as ask questions, both of me and each other. Bring whichever novel we’re reading as well as The Hero With a Thousand Faces.

Seminar dates:

-2/28

-3/27

-4/18

-5/16






Essay and reading assessment:

Section:	Date Due:	I Did the Reading:	Essay Grade:
Prologue:	2/7

Part I:

1. Departure	2/28
2. Initiation	3/27
3. Return and 4. The Keys	4/18

Part II:

1. Emanations and 2. The Virgin Birth	5/2
3. Transformations	5/16
4. Dissolutions and  5. Epilogue	5/30

Note: There may be some follow-up questions for you on the class blog after each seminar, but these will be announced when appropriate, and will be worth 25 points per entry.

Thanks, that’s it, and I look forward to learning alongside you this semester.

-Mr. Baird

Essay Examples for The Hero With a Thousand Faces

Hi Everyone -
Your essays for The Hero With a Thousand Faces are, for the most part, pretty good. But there's a difference between what's pretty good and what's great, and great is what I want you striving for. A couple of you have turned in truly great essays, and I am posting them below with the writers' permission for you to look, learn from, and model your work after.

The Face of Death, the Voice of Redemption

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is a moving recollection of the life of two Afghan boys whose lives are torn apart by hatred, racism and betrayal. Afghanistan is shown for the beautiful land it is, a home for the two friends, Hassan, and Amir, and their families. Their friendship is torn apart when Amir seeks his father’s approval and at the same time leaves Hassan to the abuses of a psychopath, Assef. Amir can’t bear to live with Hassan after this, and he sets up an incident that forces Hassan and his family away from his home. The Soviet takeover in Afghanistan forces Amir and his father Baba to flee to America. Decades later, after the beginning of the Taliban Regime, Amir returns to Afghanistan seeking to come to terms with the demons of his past life.

            Our guide to the story Joseph Campbell speaks first of initiation, the acceptance of the path set out before the hero, saying, “A blunder—apparently the merest chance—reveals an unsuspected world, and the individual is drawn into a relationship with forces that are not rightly understood” (Campbell 42). He goes on, “As a preliminary manifestation of the powers that are breaking into play…coming up as it were by miracle, can be termed the herald…the call to adventure” (Campbell 42). In the case of the Kite runner the call comes from an old friend of Amir’s, Rahim Kahn. The power of the call, the one that gives it a heroic quality, originates in Rahim’s words moments before hanging up, “Come. There is a way to be good again” (Hosseini 192).

            The description of the heroic call is a remarkable one indeed,

…“the call to adventure”—signifies that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his spiritual center of gravity from within the pale of his society to a zone unknown. This fateful region of both treasure and danger may be variously represented: as a distant land, a forest…but it is always a place of strangely fluid and polymorphous beings, unimaginable torments, superhuman deeds and impossible delight (Campbell 48).

Amir’s call to heroism fits this description perfectly. He has a treasure in Afghanistan that is immensely powerful, that means more to him than anything. This is described to a boy he finds there, Sohrab, a son of his friend Hassan who says,

“I want my old life back.” I [Amir] didn’t know what to say where to look, so I gazed down at my hands. Your old life, I thought. My old life too. I played in the same yard, Sohrab. I lived in the same house. But the grass is dead and a stranger’s jeep is parked in the driveway of our house, pissing oil all over the asphalt. Our old life is gone, Sohrab, and everyone in it is either dead or dying. It’s just you and me now. Just you and me (Hosseini 354-355).

This describes the call to heroism perfectly; it talks of a place of glorious treasure, of unrecalled bliss. And now, it is a place of terrible torment, of the horror of the Taliban, and the desire for death as an escape from the dismal reality of Afghanistan. This is the call the readers watch Amir answer, the call to bring a splash of green to a dull shell shocked landscape.

            But the answer to the call is at first shown in another light, when, “…we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered; for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests” (Campbell 49). And Amir very nearly does that, for a second time. The first case is when he buries his past, never to tell another soul for decades, not his father, not his wife, not his most trusted friends. However, “…as we have seen: ‘Well able is Allah to save.’” (Campbell 61). Amir’s first savior comes in Rahim Kahn, a man who knows Amir’s dark secret, his betrayal of his dear friend Hassan. He can help Amir take up a burden that Amir can no longer carry himself. He can be, “…the great figure of the guide, the teacher…” (Campbell 60). Rahim can bring Amir’s past to light, he can show Amir the way to right his past wrongs, and draw him back to the realm of his childhood. All the same, Amir still nearly leaves Afghanistan, assured by himself, “I can’t go to Kabul, I had said to Rahim Khan. I have a wife in America, a home, a career, and a family” (Hosseini 226). But this time, Amir knows, he cannot go home to America, not without the son of his best friend, not with redemption so close at hand. And he tells us as much moments later, “…how could I pack up and go back home when my actions may have cost Hassan a chance at those very same things?” (Hosseini 226).  

            Answering the call opens the hero up to a new world, one where his life is transformed on a grand scale. Amir learns that he will find redemption only after sacrifice and death to self. In a certain sense, Amir goes back to Afghanistan to die, to subject his rationality to the monsters of the subconscious, where it will certainly meet its end. Campbell discusses this in terms of guardians of the mind. “…the hero goes forward in his adventure until he comes to the ‘threshold guardian’ at the entrance to the zone of magnified power” (Campbell 64). This is the rationality of the hero, as he crosses the boundary from conscious to subconscious, from his own will, to the will of another, from the US to Afghanistan, his mind tries to stop him, telling him to think it through, or simply refuse the choice of descent. “These are the threshold guardians to ward away all incapable of encountering the higher silence within” (Campbell 77). These are the guardians Amir faced when he agreed to go to Kabul. These are the guardians he convinced to allow him to pass when he stays at the soccer stadium to meet an executioner. Now, he enters the arena of the hero.

            Campbell starts a discussion of the hero’s conflict by using the battle between Prince Five-weapons, and an ogre with sticky hair. This ogre has the young prince trapped, and totally outmatched, and yet the prince is not afraid, as he tells us, “…‘why should I be afraid? For in one life one death is absolutely certain’” (Campbell 72). Amir says something rather similar when he faces his ogre, Assef, the same man who split up Hassan and Amir. “I don’t know what emboldened me to be so curt, maybe the fact that I thought I was going to die anyway” (Hosseini 285) Campbell continues,

As a symbol of the world to which the fives senses glue us, and which cannot be pressed aside by the actions of the physical organs, Sticky-hair was subdued only when the Future Buddha, no longer protected by the five weapons of his momentary name and physical character, resorted to the unnamed, invisible sixth: the divine thunderbolt of the knowledge of the transcendent principle….Therewith the situation changed. He was no longer caught, but released; for that which he now remembered himself to be is ever free…and he was rendered self denying (Campbell 73).

Fear which had up till now dominated Amir is unable to hold any power over him. Thus he can feel, “Healed at last. I laughed” (Hosseini 289). Fear did not conquer him, so neither can Assef break him with his brass knuckles. Just as the weapons of the prince were a trap of the senses, so was Amir trapped by his past. But now he is, just like the prince, freed from his past as he says, “…in some hidden nook in a corner of my mind, I’d been looking forward to this” (Hosseini 289). His subconscious condoned something his conscious never would, and by giving in, by entering the realm where both sides had a voice, Amir could at last sever himself from the chains of his past.

            Amir in this passage also learns to pass by, “‘The highest spirit of reason, who bars the way until he has been overcome’” (Campbell 73). Until his fight with Assef, he would have fled any danger, ruled by common sense. But now he realizes what he must undergo to finally be free, and by, “Self-denying, he became divine” (Campbell 73). He has found a way past, “…the clashing rocks that crush the traveler, but between which the heroes always pass” (Campbell 73). Amir has been, “…swallowed into the unknown, and would have appeared to have died” (Campbell 74). In this case, death is not just symbolic, but literal, Amir had not only died to himself, to be reborn, but did in fact, appear to have died.

Amir has now undergone the trials he must endure to receive his redemption, and now he recognizes, “...the life centering, life renewing act” (Campbell 77). He knows he must take Sohrab back to America, but this will prove to be nearly as challenging as his bargain with Assef.

The reason for this difficulty is Sohrab, after all his difficulties, his sorrows, threats, trials, and the like, has finally closed the door on life. At first he tries to do this violently, with a hotel razor blade. Then, when he is saved against his will, he becomes silent. Campbell, somewhat surprisingly has words on this subject as well, saying

Willed introversion, in fact is one of the classic implements of creative genius and can be employed as a deliberate device. It drives the psychic energies into depth and activates the lost continent of unconscious infantile and archetypal images…It cannot be described, quite, as an answer to any specific call. Rather, it is a deliberate, terrific refusal to respond to anything but the deepest, highest, richest answer to the as-yet-unknown demand of some waiting void within: a kind of total strike, or rejection of the offered terms of life, as a result of which some power of transformation carries the problem to a place of new magnitudes, where it is suddenly and finally resolved (Campbell 53-54).

Sohrab, as we have already seen, desperately wants to return to his old life, and sees this as a means to that end. He also uses it to show his foster parents that he will not respond to anything except the deepest and most powerful recollection of his old life. This is something Amir and his wife do not realize, until Amir sees a kite go up once more into the sky. He recalls the long hours he and Hassan had spent on kite fighting and running, their greatest passion, and at the same time, the thing that would drive them apart. He recalls, “The last time I had felt a rush like this was that day in the winter of 1975, just after I had cut the last kite when I spotted Baba on our rooftop, clapping, beaming” (Hosseini 370). Amir hands Sohrab the spool of string, and a kite, and suddenly, “The glassy, vacant look in his eyes was gone” (Hosseini 369). A kite falls and Amir turns and asks, “‘Do you want me to run that kite for you?’…I thought I saw him nod. ‘For you, a thousand times over,’ I heard myself say. Then I turned and ran.” In the words of Hassan, Amir now brings new life to Hassan’s son, and completes the cycle of redemption.

English Honors

2/27/13

Two Calls to Heroism

            The first chapter of Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, is aptly titled Departure. It vividly describes the process by which heroes embark on their journeys. Campbell explains, over the course of several subchapters, how heroes are called to duty by a herald (someone who summons the hero to adventure, usually with a crisis). Some heroes accept the call unflinchingly, while others shy away in diffidence. In The Kite Runner, Amir, the protagonist, faces several opportunities to be heroic. He is a unique hero because he acts cowardly in some instances and heroically in others. The first chapter in Campbell’s book helped me make sense of Amir’s seemingly erratic heroic behavior. (Quite significantly, Campbell’s insight also made me realize that Amir is a hero).

            Towards the beginning of The Kite Runner, Amir faced his first call to heroism when he witnessed Assef raping Hassan in the alley. In this instance, Amir refused the call to heroism by doing nothing. Of course, Amir was only a child, but after reading Campbell’s first chapter, it is clear that there is another reason for Amir’s failure to act heroically: there was technically no herald—no one was there to direct Amir onto a path of heroism. Amir was presented with a crisis, but only because he witnessed it himself. Nobody asked Amir to step in and save Hassan. As a child, it is difficult to expect that Amir would have taken heroic action without (or with, for that matter) such provocation. Amir even said, “I ran because I was a coward…I actually aspired to cowardice” (Hosseini, 77). (However, the underlying reason for Amir’s cowardice, which I personally find to be more explanatory of Amir’s failure to act, will be examined in depth later).

            This failure to answer the call of heroism shaped the rest of Amir’s life. Campbell says “Refusal of the summons converts adventure into its negative” (Campbell, 49). Amir’s experience reflects those words.  After refusing the call, Amir and Hassan’s relationship was stifled in awkwardness. Amir responded in the worst way possible: by framing Hassan of theft to remove Hassan from his life. This action is the opposite of heroic.

His second major call to heroism comes in the form of a literal call from Rahim Khan, who, in this role, is the epitome of a herald. This is the beginning of Amir’s journey, what Campbell termed “the call to adventure” (Campbell, 42). When Amir truly enters the hero cycle, however, is when he, after initially refusing, accepts Rahim Khan’s final wish for him to find Sohrab. Embarking on this journey certainly entails danger, and Amir knows it. He has some interpersonal dialogue reflecting upon Rahim Khan’s request, as well as the revelation that he and Hassan are brothers.

I wished Rahim Khan hadn’t called me. I wished he had let me live one in my oblivion. But he had called me. And what Rahim Khan revealed to me changed things. Made me see how my entire life…had been a cycle of lies, betrayals, and secrets…On the rickshaw ride back to Rahim Khan’s apartment, I remembered Baba saying that my problem was that someone had always done my fighting for me. I was thirty-eight now. My hair was receding and streaked with gray, and lately I’d traced little crow’s-feet etched around the corners of my eyes. I was older now, but maybe not yet too old to do my own fighting (Hosseini, 226).

            This soliloquy comes after Amir initially refused Rahim Khan’s request, and right after he has this inner dialogue, he decides to accept the mission of finding Sohrab. Campbell says, “Not all who hesitate are lost…so it is that sometimes the predicament following an obstinate refusal of the call proves to be the occasion of a providential revelation of some unsuspected principle of release” (Campbell, 53). Amir has his revelation that he needs to venture on this quest in his soliloquy above. But, Campbell’s first chapter made me realize that what truly lies at the root of Amir’s revelation was his original refusal to answer the call when he did not stand up for Hassan.

Synthesizing what I have learned about fate, the hero, and what I have learned from this chapter in Campbell’s book, I find this argument to be very compelling: Amir was destined to refuse his first call to heroism so that he could answer the second—and more important—call to save Sohrab. The reason that Amir was fated to refuse the first call was because he perceived himself as a coward. This was Baba’s doing.

Campbell has some relevant ideas here. He says, “One is bound by the walls of childhood; the father and mother stand as threshold guardians, and the timorous soul, fearful of some punishment, fails to make the passage through the door and come to birth in the world without” (Campbell, 52). This is exactly what cripples Amir; he was so afraid of saving Hassan because if he had brought that situation to light, Baba’s admiration for his kite fighting victory would have been very short lived. Amir says, “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay…to win Baba” (Hosseini, 77). It is the fear of dampening this praise from Baba that keeps Amir from saving Hassan. Of course, Baba is also the one who perpetuates Amir’s notion that he is a coward. Although Amir and Baba’s relationship improves drastically upon their move to America, it was Baba’s influence on the early years in Amir’s life in Afghanistan that kept him from interfering with Assef raping Hassan.

After answering the second call to heroism and before achieving success, Amir was forced to fight Assef. This is a fight that parallels the fight between Peekay and the Judge in The Power of One on almost every level. Most importantly, these two fights are between heroes who have embarked on a journey to conquer childhood tormentors. Although I would categorize this action at the end of the hero cycle, Campbell’s chapter about departure is not entirely irrelevant. Campbell tells the story of Prince Five-Weapons, who fights a nearly insuperable foe, yet he fights without fear. Amir and Peekay both fight their adversaries unreservedly—without fear. In Amir’s case, he would have died had it not been for Sohrab’s help, but he was willing to die. It is this fearlessness that makes a hero.

            Does facing two calls to heroism but only responding to one make Amir a hero or a coward? After reading Campbell’s first chapter, I can conclude that Amir is certainly a hero. Failing one out of two calls to be a hero is not like a  student failing one out of two tests. Amir answering the second call was dependent upon his failure to answer the first. By answering the second call, accepting danger, and facing his worst fears, Amir proved himself a hero.           

Update

Apparently, I have to apologize to Lizzie and Paul O for incorrectly assuming they don't follow regularly... sorry. And I have to apologize to Mia for the cheesy joke. Again, sorry.

Mea Culpa

I made an egregious error when I erroneously assumed that only the Rachels followed the blog. Sam S. may follow it even more faithfully than them, if that is possible, so Sam, if you're reading this (and I assume you are, though we know how dangerous that can be), my apologies.

And, Mia, if you follow as well, then this will truly have to be a Mia culpa as well.

Tuesday, March 5 and Wednesday, March 6

Freshmen: Today we got an introduction to Romeo and Juliet. Your task is to read Act I for Monday; you should also have a seminar prep - either a short reflection or five notes (questions and comments; refer to the question stem handout I gave you early in the year). Also due Thursday is Chapter 11 vocab.

Sophomores: Today we got an introduction to The Poisonwood Bible and continued with our Four Stages of the Hero project (Hi, there, Rachels! I think you're the only sophs who check the blog).

CNF: Today we viewed An Inconvenient Truth in conjunction with Part I of The World Without Us.

Monday, March 4

Freshmen: Don't forget about the incoming freshmen dance on Friday from 7-9.

Today we focused on Shakespeare's language and the sonnet, both those you wrote and those of Shakespeare's that you printed and brought in. Your homework tonight is to read whatever of "Shakespeare's Language" that you didn't read in class, and to read "Shakespeare's Life." Take notes on the five most important things from that reading in the notes that you took today on "Shakespeare's Language." Bring Romeo and Juliet tomorrow as we will start it then.

Sophomores: Today we had our final seminar on The Kite Runner. Due on Wednesday at 8 AM to turnitin.com is an essay on the following prompt: Is Amir a hero? Support your answer with evidence from the text, information we have studied in class (including Hero Catch Phrase Project), your own opinion, and an outside source. Turn it in to turnitin.com by 8 AM on Wednesday. If you can't remember how to login or register, see http://bairdenglish.blogspot.com/2012/08/turnitincom-log-in-information.html.

CNF: I thought we had quite the interesting discussion today on Part I of The World Without Us. Good job.

Romeo and Juliet Reading Schedule 2013

Hi. Here is our reading schedule for Romeo and Juliet. We will have a seminar on each Act when it is due. For each seminar, you should have some prep work - either a dozen notes (questions and comments), or a page long reaction/reflection to what you have read.

Act I due Monday, March 11.

Act II due Friday, March 15.

Act III due Tuesday, March 19.

Act IV and V due Tuesday, March 26.

You may find the following website to be helpful or interesting as you read the text: http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/folio/folio.html

The Poisonwood Bible 2013 Reading Schedule

Hi. Here is your reading schedule for The Poisonwood Bible. On each due date we will have a seminar. You should have some sort of seminar prep to aid you that day, be it notes (questions, comments, etc.), or a written reflection. The novel, and our reading schedule, is divided up into seven books.

Wednesday, March 6: Bring the book on this date; we will begin reading this day.

Wednesday, March 13: Book One due.

Wednesday, March 20: Book Two due.

Wednesday, April 10: Book Three due (yes, you have reading over Easter break - sorry).

Monday, April 15: Book Four due. Your taxes are due the next day, I think (I threw that joke in there for the Rachels, since they're the only ones who read my blog anyway).

Thursday, April 25: Book Five due.

Monday, April 29: Books Six and Seven due.

We will start Hamlet (known to his friends as the Hamster, or Hamdog, to others - again, a lame joke to benefit the Rachels) on Wednesday, May 1; please have a Folger's Library edition, not a No Fear Shakespeare edition.

Friday, March 1

Freshmen: Today we learned about the sonnet. You are to find one of Shakespeare's online, print it, and bring it on Monday. Also due Monday is a sonnet of your own. It should be typed, single spaced, a single stanza, and follow all the conventions we covered in class: correct rhyme scheme and meter, without a title and with a turn. Read for 20 minutes this weekend and bring a copy of Romeo and Juliet to class Monday (preferably the Folger's Library edition). Chapter 11 vocab is due next Thursday.

Sophomores: Due for Monday is The Kite Runner and your seminar prep.

CNF: Due for Monday is Part I of The World Without Us.