February 1/2

We will spend all of February 1 (Gold One) and February 2 (Black 4) in the lab or the library writing your satire pieces.

If you have not finished your Satire Prewriting Guide and "The Lowest Animal" questions, you must do so before you can start writing your piece.

Unit 4 Lesson:5 Mark Twain & Satire

The literary term that we focused on during this lesson was SATIRE.

HOMEWORK: Read "The Lowest Animal" by Mark Twain p. 535 and answer yellow box questions 1-10 within the text. Complete your Satire Prewriting Guide.

The skill that you will be tested over from this lesson are the elements of satire, identifying satire, and understanding what change a piece of satire is trying to make in society.

Mark Twain is considered by many to be the grandfather of comedy. His favorite comedic device was the satire.

Think back to the Bell Work question, do any of your favorite comedic movies, TV shows, or comedians use satire?

Watch this video from one of my favorite TV shows, It's Always Sunny in Philadephia.

What are some examples of irony/verbal irony?
What does the video satirize?

Your task will be to write your own SHORT one page double spaced/200 word satire piece. The following video will provide you with instruction on how to write a satire as well as some ideas on what to write about.

You will need to complete the Satire Prewriting Guide worksheet before you write your satire. It's an easy points portion of your grade. By doing this, your writing and your satire will be much stronger. See me for a printed version. If you want to go ahead and get started, copy and paste everything below, print it out, and start filling in the blanks. You will need to turn this in with your finished product.

What is something that you think is stupid, awful, or ridiculous? (Make sure this is something or someone that deserves be satirized. If you choose a person, it can’t be someone that you know personally. Celebrities, political figures, and professional athletes are fair game though.)
List as many reasons as you can why that person, place, or idea is stupid, awful, or ridiculous. (This is the most important step. Five reasons should be the absolute minimum of reasons you write. The more reasons that you have, the better your paper will be. It will also be easier for you to write!)
Choose whether you will satirize by imitation (parody, mocking) or false praise (sarcasm). If you choose parody, write exaggerations of the things you listed in the box above. If you choose false praise, write sarcastic statements about the things you listed in the box above. These ironic statements that you write should be obviously untrue. (For example, if you were writing a parody of an informative piece about Justin Bieber, you could state that to get his hair “just right” he puts gel on each strand of hair individually.)

Remember that satire isn’t just sarcastic statements. It should be funny, but it should also set an example for the reader. Your goal as a satirist is to persuade the audience to agree with you that the thing/person you’re satirizing is indeed ridiculous. Satire is a tool for humor, but it’s also a tool of change. Make your readers want to change or remove that same stupidity in themselves or the world. State what you’re hoping to behavior or idea you’re hoping to change by below.

Click Read More to see the rubric for your satire writing assignment.

Realism Unit Project

All of the details for the Unit Project are below the cut. You can choose to do this instead of a test. However, you must let me know what you're doing by February 3 (Friday). You will meet with me twice before test day to show me your progress on your project

If you decide to do a project, you cannot come on test day empty handed and take the test instead

EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY!

This music video, "Unloveable" by British rock group Babybird is an adaptation of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." 


For extra credit, watch the video and write down how the director shows the three different types third-person points of view.

Unit 4: Lesson 4: Ambrose Bierce, Point of View, and An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

We took A LOT of notes over the literary term for this lesson, Point of View. Make sure you copy these down! 

Homework: Find two examples of each type of third-person point of view in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge."p. 490


The skill that you will be tested over from this lesson is identifying Point of View.

Why did people think he was so bitter?

Unit 4: Lesson 3: A Mystery of Heroism, War Is Kind, Stephen Crane, Verbal Irony, and Situational Irony

The skills that you will be tested over from this lesson are identifying Situational Irony and identifying  Verbal Irony.

An example Situational Irony would be: A man is walking on a sidewalk . He sees a dog shaking water out of his coat. The man jumps off of the sidewalk to avoid getting wet. The man lands in a mud puddle and gets drenched.

An example of Understatement would be if you said, "Disney World is okay", when it's really your favorite place in the whole world. An example of Exaggeration/Overstatement would be if I said, "I told you to do your homework 1000 times!" Sarcasm is when you say the exact opposite of how you really feel. For example, if I said, "I love it when you guys don't do your homework", that would be sarcasm.


Watch the following video to learn about Stephen Crane, the author of "A Mystery of Heroism" and "War is Kind." When he recites "War is Kind" in the video, look for examples of Verbal Irony.

You will need to read "A Mystery of Heroism" and look for examples of Situational Irony. To review, we played a WAR trivia game over these two selections in the class following this lesson.

Unit 4: Lesson 2: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass & Author Purpose

On January 20/23, our Bell Work reviewed the concept of metaphor. Writers use metaphors to help readers understand unfamiliar concepts. Frederick Douglass used metaphor to persuade readers how brutal and dehumanizing slavery was. 

We moved onto Author Notes over Frederick Douglass. We read his biography of page 463 and filled out a fake Facebook page for Frederick Douglass. Then, we watched the following  video clip about Frederick Douglass to learn why he was so important and influential in the Abolitionist movement.

We also discussed the concept of dehumanization. When someone is dehumanized, their oppressor no longer views them as human. Their human traits or qualities are removed. They are no longer viewed as someone with a soul, a reasoning mind, or complex emotions. Oppressors dehumanize so they can justify the horrible way they treat their victims. They also use this a way to control the minds of their victims. If someone has treated as an animal long enough, over time they will start to behave like an animal. They will obey their master. (Sounds like slavery, right?)

A Child Called "It" is another example of dehumanization that you may be familiar with.

We then went on to make another addition to your Lit. Term Notes. The term we discussed was Author Purpose or the reason why an author writes his text. It is the goal the writer has in mind when he writes.

The Author's Purpose will be one of 3. Figuring out which one is as easy as P.I.E.!

Then, we read "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" and tried to determine his purpose for writing his narrative. When you read Frederick Douglass, you should focus on one of the following things:

Homework:

There was also a quiz over Author Purpose the next time we met as a class.

The skill from this lesson that you will be tested over is how to identify an author's purpose (P.I.E.)

Unit 4: Lesson One: Introduction to Realism

On January 18 and 19, we began Unit 4 over Realism. We read "The Rise of Realism" on page 448. Realist writes rejected the ideals of Romanticism. Basically, Realist are the complete opposites of the Romantics. We reviewed those Romantic ideals to understand what exactly the Realists won't be writing like or about during Unit 4.

The most important thing to gain from this selection is a basic understanding of the elements of Realism and Naturalism. 

Elements of Realism

• Rejection of the idealized, larger-than-life hero of Romantic literature
• Detailed depiction of ordinary characters and realistic events
• Emphasis on characters from cities and lower classes
• Avoidance of the exotic, sensational, and overly dramatic
• Use of everyday speech patterns to reveal class distinctions
• Focus on the ethical struggles and social issues of real-life situations

Elements of Naturalism

• Attempt to analyze human behavior objectively, as a scientist would
• Belief that human behavior is determined by heredity and environment
• Sense than human beings cannot control their own destinies
• Sense of a life as a losing battle against an uncaring universe

Homework: Answer questions 1-3 on page 448. 

Welcome!

I've started this blog to keep you up to date with what we are doing in class each day and to also update those of you have missed out on class sessions.


I don't want you to miss out on helpful videos that we watch in class or notes that we've taken, so I will post them here. It is your responsibility to check this blog to keep up on what you missed while you were out.