Dear students,

Again, thank you for all of your hard work!  Last week we wrote creative, Kafkaesque shorter stories and shared those stories with a small writing group. I hope you have had a chance to make revisions to your story (so that it is more Kafkaesque). By the way, I would like to thank my group for providing valuable suggestions for how to improve my creative writing.

1. Please proofread your shorter story prior to publishing in the ‘comment’ section of this post. Be sure to provide your user name (as I previously approved it); otherwise this website will think you are a different user.

2. Upload your shorter story. Due Monday at the start of class.

3. Provide positive comments about your classmates’ stories, specifically citing examples of Kafka’s style in their writing. Due Monday at the end of class.

Kind Regards,

Mr. Coey

Dear IB English students,

You continue to impress me with your creative ideas and commendable work ethos. You take risks while remaining true to your academic principles. You are growing as critical thinkers and writers.

Due Wednesday, March 5th is the following:

Reflective Statement of 300-400 words.

Sorrow of War essay of 1200-1500 words*.

*nearly all of the exemplary essays I have reviewed have used the words available.

Click below to access a sample essay with examiner’s comments.

Exemplary Essay and Reflective Statement

(Extra-credit awarded if by Monday you can tell me how many times the author’s name, Mulisch, is used in the sample ‘exemplary essay’ from above)

Enlish HL sample 9 examiner comments

Rubric for World Literature Essay

Given my experience with these essays, in addition, I ask you to keep the following in mind:

1. Write with your novel open and in front of you. So many errors in reasoning or citing can be easily avoided if you write with your novel open and refer to the text as you develop your essay.

2. Proofread for ‘dead words’ and active voice verbs. For a list of awesome verbs to use in an essay try this list of Verbs for Literary Essays.

3. Ask yourself if your topic sentences are ‘mini-thesis statements’. Do your topic sentences relate to your thesis?

4. Where in your essay are you discussing Bao Ninh’s choices? Some writers choose to write about Ninh in each body paragraph, while others reserve that discussion for the conclusion of the essay. Either way, you MUST discuss his choices as they relate to your topic. Be sure to answer the questions ‘why?’ and ‘how?’

5. Relax. Yes you may just write the greatest essay of your life over the next five days, but it is possible it will take much longer. Have a growth mindset! And, above all else, remember you are already awesome.

This week we begin our study of William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet.  For much of our performance references, I will use the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2010 production, which is available on PBS and on YouTube (parts one and two). Patrick Stewart plays Claudius–amazing! It is your responsibility to find the time (3 hours) to see this production at least once in its entirety, for we are only examining scenes taken out of context.

Also, check back this week for an updated list of resources for all things Shakespeare. Generally the introduction to the work provides historical information about Shakespeare’s life and times.  You should have this background reading as well.

Kind Regards,

Coey

Dear students,

Rather than write an essay or practice commentary for a week, I think we are ready for a bit of creative expression to help us delve back into the novel and make connections. To see that end, we are using Prezi.com, a unique presentation application. Below is a list of possible starter questions, but I don’t want you to be limited by them. For example, I am developing my Prezi around the idea of comparing the Beatles song “Within You Without You” and the moral issue surrounding truth in the novel. So be creative.

Visit Prezi.com, sign up for a free account, and look at some of their sample presentations for inspiration.

• Agree or disagree that Huck Finn defines American literature and that all modern literature comes from Huck Finn, as Hemingway suggests.
• In what ways is Huck and Jim’s story also the story of America?
•  “Art could be created out of the American language.” What is so significant about Huck’s voice and point of view?
• Explore Huckleberry Finn as a work of picaresque fiction.  How does Twain use this genre to advance his ideas?
• What would it be like to see the novel through Jim’s eyes? How would the story change and how would the message change?
• How does Twain straddle Romanticism and Realism?  How does he use these two literary movements to advance his ideas?
• A psychological analysis using Freud’s theories may provide valuable insights into Huck’s internal conflicts. What is revealed about Huck’s society through a Freudian analysis?
• Juxtapositions provide the reader with an explicit or implied means of comparison. Which juxtapositions do we notice and appreciate? What are the effects of the juxtapositions?
• To what extent do you agree that Huckleberry Finn is about “race and space?” How are these two concepts meant to work together to advance Twain’s ideas.
• How are women depicted in the novel? What might these depictions say about Twain’s view or about society’s view of women?
• What might Twain’s arguments be in favor of either moral relativism or moral absolutism?
• In what ways is Huckleberry Finn a long deconstruction of the fallacious myths of the South?

Dear students,

Please reply to this post by Monday and provide a response to the two questions below:

What is the most crucial choice Twain made in writing Huckleberry Finn?

Twain chose to make Jim a father so that we could better relate to him and empathize with him as a human being who is suffering the loss of his children who were sold into slavery. Without this choice we may not, and possibly 19^th century readers, may not have been able to develop enough sympathy for Jim as a complete, real person. –Mr. Coey’s example

Which scene was most significant in the novel?

“Picks is the thing, moral or no moral; and for me, I don’t care shucks for the morality of it, nohow…I don’t give a dead rat what the authorities thinks about it nuther” (247). This passage helps to develop the moral dilemma Huck must consider. –Michelle’s example 😉 Well, at least I cited you.

A study of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an adventure in understanding changes in America itself. The book, at the center of American geography and consciousness, asks readers to reexamine definitions of “civilization” and freedom, right and wrong, social responsibility and inhumanity. Published in 1885, the novel recounts those pre-civil war days when the controversy over slavery, with designated slave and Free states, disfigured the face of America and its view of itself as a land of the free. Both geographically and otherwise, the story is an examination of life at the center: the center of America’s premiere river, the Mississippi in the middle of the geographical United States, with slave states below, free states above, which is the route toward freedom and escape for Huck and Jim; the center of one of the foremost conflicts on American soil, slavery, which soon results in a civil war; the center of the coming of age of both a young man and a nation that struggle to understand redefinitions of nationhood and freedom, right and wrong; and the center of a shift from Romanticism to Realism in art and letters that would provide for a new way for Americans to express—and re-create—themselves.

But first, Samuel Clemens had to re-create himself and the American novel. How did he do both? From this link, learn more about Clemens’ early childhood and the life experiences that made him Mark Twain.

Dear Students,

Huckleberry Finn is grounded firmly at the center of American geography and consciousness, making it necessary for readers to understand something of the pre-Civil War slavery controversy, free and slave states, and the Mississippi River’s division of East from West and North from South, a primary conduit for people and goods.

We will benefit from reading additional slave narratives, especially of those who escaped slavery via waterways: Frederick Douglass, Linda Brent/Harriet Jacobs, and Olaudah Equiano, all of which are found in Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s Classic American Slave Narratives. These oral histories offer a basis on which to consider Jim’s portrayal in Huck Finn, as well as the attitudes and life styles that surrounded slavery. How accurate is Twain’s portrayal of Jim?

Research Directions: Using Washington State University’s web site, read from the “early examples” of slave narratives, reply to this post with three important passages (quotes) from any of the early slave narrative, develop two questions, and one comment about why you selected the passages you selected. Due today.

If the links are broken, try Project Gutenberg for free ebooks.

Tomorrow, please return to this post and comment on at least two of your classmates’ ideas.

Sincerely,

Mr. Coey

Greetings Class of 2013!

Lately I’ve been thinking about school, which is actually work for me and most of the time fun work.  We have an amazing year planned for IB English and I think we will continue to explore ideas and enrich each other.  For starters, we are exploring and asking questions about the antebellum South through the carefree eyes of Huckleberry Finn, through the wisdom of Frederick Douglass (born into slavery), and through the diction of contemporary African American poet, Nikki Giovanni.

At the end of last semester, we scrambled to put together a great world literature paper, and that was a challenge, especially at the end of the year.  I expect all of you to come to school with a revised world literature essay, striving for closer to the maximum word limit of 1500 words.  Almost every writer could spend at least another page of writing, solely dedicated to the task of evaluating the writer’s choice (part C on the rubric) and discussing the resulting effects and the extent to which you appreciate the writer’s choices.  It seems natural to make this either interwoven into your commentary, or to specifically write about the writer’s choices in your concluding paragraph (albeit a long conclusion).

Given that this world literature paper is worth 25% of your IB grade, and you have total and complete control over the quality of thought and writing that goes into the paper, this is your best opportunity to earn college credit for IB English.  You can knock this essay out of the park and make it a great piece of writing free of errors.

The other IB assessments (oral commentary, Paper one, and Paper two) are all timed assessments. You really don’t get a second chance with those assessments.  Again, this makes the case for you being very thorough and thoughtful with your world literature paper. Remember to include a bibliography, including all the relevant information about the novel, short story, or play you are writing about, and you should include a reference for any of the critical lens ideas you are using from our class handouts.

I hope this email reaches you at a time where you feel you can revise (meaning ‘see again’) your world literature essay and view it in a fresh way.  As always, refer to the text whenever possible and especially as you craft your interpretations.

Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom of the page!

Kind Regards,

Coey

Hey IB English,

Just a quick message to help you find your page on wikispaces.

http://ibenglishwriteon.wikispaces.com/

You can start working immediately in preparation for Monday’s presentations.  We have two days this week with the laptop carts, but that is it.  So please plan accordingly.

Kind Regards,

Coey

Interactive Oral, Reflection Papers, and World Literature