Important Reminder

Hello, Everyone,

Just a reminder that an email has gone out to you concerning documents that should be printed and read for the first week of school. It is your responsibility to access the emails and print any posted documents. The mail has attached documents and explanations of how they will be used. Printing and reading now will enable you to save time the first week and be aware of early expectations and assignments. If you do not receive this email by early next week, please notify either Ms. McElroy or me so we can clear up any email address problem we may have. All these docs will be posted on Edline, too,  as soon as our new rosters are activated. It is your job to check Edline regularly for messages, updates, and postings from us.

We hope you are as anxious as we are to meet all of you and begin our journey together this year...only two weeks left!
Mrs. Leach

Prompt #4

King Solomon wrote, "There is nothing new under the sun." Foster applies this precept to his contention that all "writing and telling belong to one big story." Do you agree? How does this idea add to understanding and the richness of the reading experience?

Prompt #5

Discuss the significance of weather in text beyond its relationship to setting. Consider how weather is used to influence the other elements of fiction. What are some examples of the importance of weather in literature you have read?

Prompt #3

In the book How to Read Literature like a Professor Foster claims that the sonnet is critical to the study of poetry for three reasons. One, the sonnet is very common in contrast with some other forms which require in-depth analysis to recognize their form. Two, the sonnet is well liked my both readers and poets. Three, it has an exact shape. Due to its form a sonnet is composed of parts. A Shakespearian sonnet divides up into four parts and other types of sonnets in two parts. The key with sonnets is simply that they must look like a square.  Personally I have always been exposed to sonnets and have always been rather fond of them. I cannot say I have studied them much when considering their form or wording. However, I did take a creative writing class where we had to write ten sonnets for our midterm. Apart from that I really have only read sonnets. My favorite sonnet would have to be Sonnet CVI by William Shakespeare.  The reason it has become my favorite is because of the lines “I see their antique pen would have express'd/ Even such a beauty as you master now,” and “They had not skill enough your worth to sing:/For we, which now behold these present days,/Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.” The explanation is that it makes me realize it does not matter how many times we read works by people like Shakespeare because we cannot deliver them to their full potential. This sonnet makes me think and I believe a sonnet, or a poem in general, should always make you think. Shakespeare mastered the talent of evoking someone deep into the realm of ideas and out of reality.

Prompt #2

I must confess that I am a rereader. Sometimes I do it because I feel as if I missed something.  Examples are the book War and Peace and Crime and Punishment which I had to reread to get the full meaning. Yet, rereading does not always have to be because you did not understand something. There are times when I find myself rereading a paragraph either because I cannot believe what I am reading or because I really like the way it sounds. Then there are the times I read for pleasure. I have read Mythology (by Edith Hamilton) about seven times. I have also read the Iliad and the Odyssey about four times each mainly because I always see something I missed the times before. Rereading can be a chore at times but it can also be a pleasant experience. One tends to overlook a detail assuming it is not important and then upon rereading one realizes how vital that little detail was. Of course, knowing the ending can make rereading a bit dull at times but if you get absorbed you can always see something you missed. Most times, anyway. Every time I reread something I can pay more attention to the details rather than the outcome. It makes for a more relaxed reading and also for a more informative one too.  However, it is crucial that one goes back and rereads something they do not understand. There are times one must accept they are wrong and retrace their steps back to the place they made the mistake. One must also keep in mind that some things will never be clear no matter how many times one might reread. An example is whether Hamlet was really mad. This question has been asked for many decades and remains unanswered. Rereading can open doors one may not have seen before but also requires patience and a great deal of concentration.

Prompt #1

Literacy can be said to be the state of being literate, especially the ability to read and write. It can also be described as a person's acquired education or a person’s own knowledge about an individual subject or field. Then there are people like Foster who describe literacy as being able to see words for more than what they appear to be on a page. To become literate one must study and work hard to become literate in all definitions of the word. One must study the history of a language, the meaning behind words, and in some cases the people behind them. A literate person is one who knows the meaning behind words and effect they are meant to have upon the reader. Textbooks can teach you a lot but they cannot teach you everything. Words are to felt, loved, studied, and appreciated not tossed aside at a whim. A literate person is knowledgeable, and wise because of all they have studied. In many cases being literate makes your thought more complicated and more concrete. In a perfect world a literate person would want to show and teach others so that they too can become literate. As we all know this is not a perfect world. When a literate person reads they do not see just what is in the lines but what is between them. They see the little minute details which remain invisible to others. Literacy is being able to feel the words instead of see them.  

Prompt #1

Literacy has two meanings: the state/quality of being able to read and write, and to have knowledge of a particular field.  So literally, a literate person is one who can read and write.  However, there is always more than the dictionary, dry-cut meaning; In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster states there is a “language of reading”, meaning there is more to literacy than just understanding words put together.  There are certain patterns, underlying meanings, symbols, and knowledge of history a literate person knows that enables them to see more than the words on the page.  From what I’ve picked up from my own personal experience and reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor, I figure the best way to become a literate person, other than being fluent in at least one language and being able to read and write, is to have a vast knowledge of history and of events going on in present day.  Many symbols come from historic events or beliefs, such as the Cross from Christianity.  Most writers write about what is going on around them, meaning the reader must know what was going on around the author during his/her time to understand their work.  These authors, who are literate people, understand the importance of keeping up with current events and being able to form opinions about them.  Their work is usually their opinions on what is going on around them.  So, in a nutshell, literate people understand the importance of history, have their own educated opinions on current events, and are not afraid to speak their opinion through writing. 

Prompt #2

I am a rereader.  There are times when I don’t understand a passage, chapter, or even a whole book if I don’t reread.  I don’t know if it’s because I read too fast for me to do any serious processing or if I just miss what’s important the first time around.  But I reread for other reasons.  Sometimes people reread for pleasure.  I’ve reread almost all of the books in the Redwall series simply because I love the books, and there are over ten books, every book at least 300 pages, in that series.  There are also passages I reread because they’ve moved me in some way: frighten, enlighten, sadden, anger, frustrate, confuse, elate.  Near the end of the book Grapes of Wrath, there was a short passage which paralleled the rotting of unpicked/dropped fruit to dying people.  It actually scared me to read it, but I reread it multiple times before I moved on.  Don’t think this is strange; how many times did your parents reread the headlines that said, “Twin Towers Destroyed” in unreal fear?  Or the people in 1912 in shock when they read the headlines in the papers, “Titanic Goes Down”?  I also reread to check written work.  This may sound pointless to bring up since this is obvious, but it is also a very important point.  Count how many times you reread your blog and posts.  I’ve already reread this blog at least five times before this sentence, and I’m going to reread it at least one more time before I post it.  We probably reread without even thinking about it; we just don’t think of it as analytical class-work when we reread our favorite passage in a book or reread something weird on a billboard or magazine.  Rereading is very important, and will be even more as we move on to more advanced Language Arts classes such as AP Literature.