Open Response on Albert Camus’ The Stranger

Periods 5 & 6

due: Thuirsday, October 4th.

Your goal here is to develop your own thesis.

However, your thesis must be based on explications of two different passages in The Stranger. (See handout on passage explication)

• How do the passages connect?


• Are you investigating both author’s purpose and how the author achieves meaning though language?


• Were you able to avoid cliché (like the plague inside the box of living life to the fullest because it is a rollercoaster of emotions that we must take one moment at a time)—this paper should be about the novel?

Camus (Post Class Discussion) Period 6

due date: Saturday, September 22

Grading Criteria: Same as Discussion & Open Response

• 40 points: Quality of Response, Use of Evidence, Analysis of Evidence, & Conventions

1. Directly respond to something someone said in class. It helps to start with something like "When Blank was speaking, he (or she) mentioned that (paraphrase or quote extensively from your notes). . ." and then continue the dialogue in writing. Again, I am looking for depth with these posts (and they should probably be 300-500 words).

Period 6 post here Period 6 post here Period 6 post here

Camus (Post Class Discussion) Period 5

due date: Saturday, September 22

Grading Criteria: Same as Discussion & Open Response

• 40 points: Quality of Response, Use of Evidence, Analysis of Evidence, & Conventions

1. Directly respond to something someone said in class. It helps to start with something like "When Blank was speaking, he (or she) mentioned that (paraphrase or quote extensively from your notes). . ." and then continue the dialogue in writing. Again, I am looking for depth with these posts (and they should probably be 300-500 words).

Period 5 post here Period 5 post here Period 5 post here

Red Shift (Fill in the Blank) Poem

Here's a clip of Ted Berrigan on youtube reading poetry. I hope you find it inspirational, or can at least view it from your computer. He's reading about New York City here. What would you say about Malden?

Assignment:

This may surprise you after our lengthy discussions of this poem, but this poem was written as a fill-in-the-blank poem. I don't have the original (it was published in a poetry magazine in the 60s), but I went ahead and blacked out a bunch of phrases for you to fill in. See how easy it really is! (The last line, by the way, was an attempt at sarcasm.)

Post your new poems in the comment field by Wednesday at midnight.

Painting is by Alex Katz.

Red Shift Explication Assignment

Here is the link to the text of "Red Shift"





Here is the audio link to the text of "Red Shift"





Your open response paper explicating this poem is due on Wednesday. I would like a hard copy when you walk into class. Please reference the handouts, especially on how to craft a complex thesis.

Finally, a not-so-subtle reminder for those of you who have forgotten some “poetic truths” over the summer: 1. It is the speaker of a poem (not the narrator) who “speaks” the lines; it is also not the poet or the poem who speaks. 2. Indicate line breaks / with a slash. Indicate stanza breaks // with two slashes.

Remember, just because you say so doesn’t make something true. You need to prove it. (As explicators of writing, we must stick to what we can prove.) Also, avoid cliché like the plague (this, for instance, is a cliché.) It is a lazy use of language.

Beginning your blog experience

Hello Bloggers.

Three Blue and Gold Rules:

1. Compose your comments in Word and paste in when you are complete. If the internet crashes while you are composing, you will lose all your work.


2. Sarcasm is basically impossible to pull off in this forum. Keep all dialogue professional, courteous, and appropriate. This is a virtual classroom and once you post your comments, there is a record of them. This is the reality of the world you live in and you may as well learn how to perform in it.


3. Never post your last name. (You do not want a literary stalker.) This site is publicly viewable. Simply write your first name, last initial and period number.
   

First, go ahead and vote on the poll question in the right hand column.

Next: You should spend the rest of class time seeing how the comment forum can work.

• Post a comment about your intentions for your independent reading project. Specify both what you are choosing to read and why (which should include an explanation of your independent reading plan for the year.)


• After you post your paragraph, scroll through the comment section until you read a post that you like. Respond to that post (another paragraph). It helps to start with something like: “Dear (blank), I was interested in your comments on (blank).” Then you may want to quote something he or she said and continue the idea, or ask a specific question, or move on to a related topic. Intellectual dialogue is the key here.

Photo of Salvador Dali with rhino mustache tied with flowers. He claimed that he wore his mustache this way because it pointed toward God.