AP Lit: Pulling Dubliners Together

Friday, October 26, we spent class taking advantage of our new library space.  It’s far too comfortable in there for its own good.

Splitting into groups, each work team selected a motif evident in “The Dead” and uncovered that motif in the rest of Dubliners with the goal of establishing a thematic statement Joyce develops in the collection.  Folks worked diligently and posted their findings and thinking on their newly created WordPress blogs.

We just got into a great conversation about Gabriel & Michael Furey & The Last Supper when the bell rang.  All are encouraged to keep the conversation going online by commenting on the post that inspired it all here.  (Well done, Makenzie.) 

Award-winning book title projects land at the end of next week and Tuesday is the last day to submit revisions of synthesis essays.

AP Lit: Joyce’s “The Dead” – Day One

Wednesday, October 24th, Joyce’s “The Dead” was the story du jour.  Actually, it was only the first day of what will be a two day event.

We discussed theme, symbolism, and the cool thing that lives in-between the two — motif.  And from there we started a close reading in the Food Court.  It was a bit challenging as every idea discussed bred more ideas and new ideas and we were a bit all over the place.

The first blog entry was assigned: If you were to make a film version of “The Dead” what would it look like?  Include at least three links to other online material to support your ideas.

People seemed rather stoked about that.

Friday we will be discussing “The Dead” in relation to other stories in Dubliners.  Friday will have a tighter, more directed focus as the discussion, while not bad, didn’t yield as much substance as it might’ve.

Motif is a challenging idea and it needs time, and specifics, to really sink in.

AP Lit: Frankliners Workshopping and That’s as Far as We Got

Thursday, October 18, we spent the period split into two writing workshops, with Ms. Clark facilitating one and I, the other.  

We used Google Drive to share the documents with one another — this will be the new norm.  It’s so much more efficient and effective than sending attachments again and again.  So we tweaked that out.

A fairly simple plan today, to be sure.

Next class, Frankliners stories are due along with project proposals for independent award winning/finalist novels, plays and poetry collections.  

AP Lit: The Boarding House & Joyce

On Tuesday, October 16, we absolutely devastated Joyce’s “The Boarding House” and uncovered meaning we doubt Joyce even realized was there.  We close read and annotated the story using Diigo.  

We didn’t get an opportunity to workshop the Frankliners stories.  That is the central work for Thursday in class.  (We did get to see more of Joyce’s style in action, however, and that should inform the writing.)