Gloucester Project (part 5): Personal Essay & "Something Else" [The End!]

The last step is to write a personal narrative/personal essay (650 words or fewer) about an aspect of Gloucester and to make "something else" small but awesome in response to an aspect of Gloucester (a couple poems, a series of photographs, a sculpture, a very short film, a drawing, a painting, a loaf of nisu bread, etc.). (For those curious about such things 40% of your exam grade will be based on your "real world" rhetoric, 30% of your exam grade will be based on your personal narrative/personal essay, 15% of your exam grade will be based on "something else" (small but awesome), and 15% will be based on the work you complete from 12:30 - 2:00 in the library on Friday, June 20. You will get a zero on the exam if you do not show up at all on Friday.)

Directions for the personal essay/personal narrative are below followed by an example.

***

Directions for Personal Narrative 

Due Friday, June 20 at the final exam

* [Minimum requirement] Prewriting: Go somewhere or do something (have an experience) related to an aspect of Gloucester and a question. Or, think of an experience (or experiences) you have had in the past related to an aspect of Gloucester and a question.

* [Minimum requirement] Write a personal narrative by telling the story of an experience in an engaging, organized manner; by vividly and suggestively describing the characters, setting, and events involved in the experience; and by reflecting on the meaning of the experiences).

* [Minimum requirement] The essay must be 650 words or fewer in length (twelve-point font, double-spaced.) You must have paragraphs.

* [Minimum requirement] Give your personal narrative an appropriate and suggestive title.

·        Narration: Narrate a specific experience (and along the way describe and reflect). Bring the experience alive and bring your thoughts & feelings alive for the reader. 

·        Description: Describe the experience by presenting engaging, suggestive, and vivid sensory imagery (sight, sounds, textures, smells, and/or tastes). The descriptions should create a tone and mood. The descriptions should complement your reflective thoughts and feelings about the experience.

·        Reflection (insights & beliefs): Reflect on the meaning of the experience. What did the experience suggest or reveal? Or, how did it challenge or solidify your beliefs or understandings? Reflect on what you experienced, saw, and felt. Develop these thoughts and feelings. You might also think about prior experiences, memories. You might also think about your research. Reflect on it all. Make meaning. Understand the difference between insight and cliché.

·        Organization:  As the story of the experience progresses in a well-paced, logical manner, the reflections on the meaning of the experience should be woven in—not just tacked on at the end. Make sure there are transitions between sentences and paragraphs.

·        Command of writing conventions: Proofread. Write properly punctuated and complete sentences. Choose words carefully; use them correctly; spell them correctly. There should be no run-on sentences and no homophone errors. If your essay contains dialogue, remember that each utterance should be given its own paragraph.

·        Command of personal style: Philip Lopate says, “the hallmark of the personal essay is its intimacy.   The writer seems to be speaking directly into your ear, confiding everything from gossip to wisdom....”  I want to hear you—the thoughtful, observant, reflective you—on the page. The style of this essay should convey intimacy with the reader and care with language, including vivid, suggestive word choices and varied sentence structures.

OR

Directions for Personal Essay

Due Friday, June 20 at the final exam

* [Minimum requirement] Prewriting: What belief or insight about Gloucester (or an aspect of Gloucester) is most important to you?

* [Minimum requirement] Write a personal essay by exploring a belief or insight about Gloucester or an aspect of Gloucester; use vivid and suggestive description of narrative elements (such as characters, setting, and events) to explore and develop the belief or insight.

* [Minimum requirement] The essay must be 650 words or fewer in length (twelve-point font, double-spaced.) You must have paragraphs.

* [Minimum requirement] Give your personal essay an appropriate and suggestive title.

·        Reflection (insight and/or belief): Explore and develop the belief or insight about Gloucester. Reflect on what you have seen and felt. Develop these thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. (Think about prior experiences, memories. Think about your research. Reflect on it all. Make meaning. Understand the difference between insight and cliché.)

·        Narration: Explore and develop your belief or insight by including narrative elements like characterization, setting, and events. Bring the experience alive and bring your thoughts & feelings alive for the reader. 

·        Description: Use engaging, suggestive, and vivid sensory imagery (sight, sounds, textures, smells, and/or tastes) to explore and develop your belief or insight. The descriptions should be woven together with thoughts and feelings about the images.

·        Organization:  As the essay progress the belief or insight should grow, evolve and flow with description and narration woven in to help the growth, evolution, and flow. Make sure there are transitions between sentences and paragraphs. The writer should seem to be exploring the thought and belief not just stating and supporting it. Edward Hoagland suggests, “A personal essay is like the human voice talking, its order the mind's natural flow, instead of a systematized outline of ideas” Douglas Hunt writes that personal essays are "not reports of objective truth but explorations of...attitudes and thoughts." A “five paragraph”-style essay will not work.

·        Command of writing conventions: Proofread. Write properly punctuated and complete sentences. Choose words carefully; use them correctly; spell them correctly. There should be no run-on sentences and no homophone errors. If your essay contains dialogue, remember that each utterance should be given its own paragraph.

·        Command of personal & exploratory style and voice: Philip Lopate says, “the hallmark of the personal essay is its intimacy.   The writer seems to be speaking directly into your ear, confiding everything from gossip to wisdom....”  I want to hear you—the thoughtful, observant, reflective you—on the page. The style of this essay should convey intimacy with the reader and care with language, including vivid, suggestive word choices and varied sentence structures.

Gloucester Project (part 4): Mini-lessons

As you worked on creating your real world rhetoric, we used class time to learn more about Gloucester and to learn more about the different ways people respond to living in a polis.

To achieve that goal, we completed several mini-lessons.

First, we worked on writing narratives based on research into an aspect of Gloucester: describe a character (real or invented), describe a setting, and narrate an event involving the character and setting.

Second, we worked on writing poems about the aspects of Gloucester we studied and researched. (The poetry exercises are below*.)

Third, we created satirical maps of Gloucester (or parts of Gloucester) using "Judgmental Maps" as a model.

Fourth, we studied seven Gloucester painters, eventually focusing on one painting by one artist. (Artists and questions are below+.)

You've handed in the satirical maps. Make sure you share the other activities with me by Wednesday, June 18.

**************************************************************************

+ Fitz Henry Lane

Mary Blood Mellen

John Sloan

Marsden Hartley

Edward Hopper

Theresa Bernstein

Stuart Davis

Nell Blaine

What do you notice about the painting? (subject, line, shape, color, composition)

What sort of choices is the painter making?

As a whole, what do the choices suggest? How do they affect you? (This can be quite subtle. It doesn’t have to be spectacular.)

What aspect of Gloucester is depicted? How does the painting affect how you see that aspect? (This can be quite subtle. It doesn’t have to be spectacular.)

*

Writing Poetry for the Cape Ann Multigenre Project

Write 2 poems that in some way address your topic.

1. Spontaneous Poem

To activate your subconscious mind, do the following:

·         Free write about your topic for five minutes. (This is stream of consciousness writing.)

·         Pick ten vivid, interesting, revealing words from your stream of consciousness free-write.

·         In five minutes write a ten-line poem in which each line contains at least one of the ten words and in which each of the ten words is used at least once.

·         Make a title using a phrase from your stream of consciousness free-write.

·         The point of this poem is to emphasize spontaneity, whimsy, seeming randomness, linguistic daring, absurdity, surreality, etc.

2. Metaphor Poem

·         Start with your topic. Brainstorm aspects of the topic (for example, Fitz Henry Lane=schooners, house atop Harbor Loop, oil paint, crutches, apple-peru, etc.) as well as feelings and concepts associated with the topic (for example, Fitz Henry Lane=luminism, beauty, realism, observation, etc.)

·         Then create metaphors for items in either list. For example,

o        Lane’s crutches = Lane shed wooden legs  to sit and paint.

o        The discovery of Lane’s real middle name = Lane became a new person though he’d been dead for decades.

o        Luminism = The sky swallowed a light bulb.

o        Attitude of scholars who thought Fitz Henry Lane’s middle name was “Hugh” = A boy wearing a dunce cap proudly stands at a podium to  tell everyone who can hear him, “This dunce cap is not mine.”

·         String the metaphors together. Edit them. Revise them. Expand them. Contract them. Use your ear, your mind’s eye, and your sense of the language of images to guide your revision.

·         Your poem should include at least three metaphors.

3. Ekphrastic Poem

·         Choose an object or work of art (a photograph, statue, song, film, poem, story, painting, etc.) related to your topic.

·         Write a poem in which you respond to the work of art as if you were speaking directly to it, or as if you were an outsider (a newcomer, a tourist, a foreigner, an alien) seeing it for the first time without context, or as if you were inside the art, or as if you were the art/object.

·         In the title of the poem let the reader know what object or work of art you are responding to and from what perspective you are responding to it.

There’s a photograph-poem exercise and a poem responding to an Escher drawing later in the packet.

4. Poem-based-on-another-Cape-Ann-poem Poem Write a poem in response to one of the poems in the Cape Ann poem packet. (In the poem, in the title, or in a note, let the reader know to what poem you are responding.)

I put an example of a Kenneth Koch poem based on a William Carlos Williams poem at the end of the packet.

5. Traditional Form Poem (Italian sonnet, English sonnet, villanelle, sestina, tanka): Write a poem about your topic using a traditional poetry form.

Directions for traditional forms can be found at the end of the packet.

6. Create-Your-Own-Form Poem

·         Choose a form (tanka, haiku, acrostic, mesostic, double acrostic, sonnet, villanelle, limerick, sestina, etc.) and revise the rules so there are at least three constraints* (rules), or invent a form of your own with at least three constraints* (rules).

·         Use the constraints to write a poem in response to your topic or some aspect of the topic.

·         In a note below the poem write down the three rules.

* Constraints can refer to rhythm and sound: rhyme scheme, alliteration, syllable count, stressed syllable count, etc. Constraints can refer to words and concepts: a particular word has to be in each line or stanza, a particular word cannot be used, a particular type of word (a color, a season, a name, etc.) must be used, etc. Other constraints: no words with the letter “e” or every line must have one word than the line previous or the words on the page must be arranged to look like the object being described.

 7. Visual-Found poem using your research  

• Take five sentences directly from your research and/or from anything you’ve already written for the Gloucester Project.
• Make the sentences into a poem by using a title, arrangement, line breaks, spacing, and font size and type. The purpose of this activity is to emphasize the visual aspect of poetry.
• Create a title.

8. Erasure poem using your research

* Begin with a passage of text from your research.

* Erase, cross-out, or color over text to create a poem comprised of the words left behind.

* Click here for examples.

Another Ekphrastic Exercise (Alternative Version of Option #3)

If you like photography you might try this…

Go Inside a Photograph

by Hoa Nguyen

For this exercise, you will need a photograph. This can be a photo of yourself, family members, or strangers. I find it most generative if there is some temporal distance between yourself and the subject of the photograph i.e.: an archival or historical photo for which you have no direct memory.

Study your photo in detail. Imagine what is just beyond the borders of the frame. If it is in black and white, imagine it in color. Assign it smells, textures, sounds. Imagine that you can step inside the frame and walk around, experiencing that moment in time.

Now begin to write. Include as much sensory detail as possible; make up other detail, speculate. Be sure to pay attention to the rhythm and sound of your lines as you lay them down. If you get stuck, try repeating a word or phrase. Read your text out loud and strike out any awkward sounding lines. Arrange the lines on the page, give it a title and call it a poem.

Here is my attempt. I chose a black and white photograph of myself as an infant, taken in Vietnam circa 1968. Notice my use of rhyme and slant rhyme (side/wide, hammock/hot/ work/ merchant, Minneapolis/ violence) and repetition (formula, white).

BABY WITH STRAW HAIR (SAD EYES)

I'm banana shaped in the baby hammock

The floor is woven      I'm crying it is so hot

and formula fed formula so mother can work

The "papers" say occupation = merchant

she might have been a "bar girl"         stepfather is white

& black     grey & white            white things come

in snaps          pictures          a dirt road is wide

for military vehicles   oxen on the side

This is a penny strung on thin rope

Press a penny to your mouth   avoid corners

Pierce a cold cold coil (Minneapolis)

Violence contained in mashed potatoes

Ekphrastic Example (example of option #3)

Art by M.C. Escher, Copyright 1999 Cordon Art, B.V.-Baarn-Holland

Rind

The critic

resolves her sonnets

into empty feet.

The boss

rejects proposals

he has barely skimmed.

The husband

compares her pilaf

to swill for hogs.

The gas

she hopes will kill her

leaks away.

The analyst

                      unpeels her

                                              till she disappears.

Poem by Catherine A. Callaghan, Copyright 1999 Catherine A. Callaghan

Poem based on another poem (example of option #4)

The first poem inspired the second poem.

This Is Just to Say

by William Carlos Williams

        I have eaten

        the plums

        that were in

        the icebox

        and which

        you were probably

        saving

        for breakfast

        Forgive me

        they were delicious

        so sweet

        and so cold

***

Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams

by Kenneth Koch

     1

I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.

I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do

and its wooden beams were so inviting.

     2

We laughed at the hollyhocks together

and then I sprayed them with lye.

Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.

     3

I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the

                                                        next ten years.

The man who asked for it was shabby

and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.

     4

Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.

Forgive me. I was clumsy and

I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!

Poetic Forms (directions for option #5)

Sestina

Length: 39 lines (six six-line stanzas with a final stanza of three lines)

Rhyme scheme: none

Rhythm: varied

Other: 123456, then the words ending the second stanza's lines appear in the order 615243, then 364125, then 532614, then 451362, and finally 246531. These six words then appear in the final tercet as well, with the tercet's first line usually containing 1 and 2, its second 3 and 4, and its third 5 and 6.

Italian Sonnet (in English)

Length: 14 lines

Rhyme scheme: ABBAABBA CDECDE

Meter (rhythm): iambic pentameter

Other: volta (shift) at line nine

English Sonnet

Length: 14 lines

Rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Rhythm: iambic pentameter

Other: volta at line nine, couplet provides closure or resolution or twist.

Ballad

Length: varies

Rhyme scheme: usually ABCB

Rhythm: four-beat line followed by three-beat line, etc. (Beat=stressed syllable)

Other: ballads tell a story

Villanelle

Length: nineteen lines

Rhyme scheme: ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA

Rhythm: usually tetrameter or pentameter

Other: The first and third line in the first stanza are repeated in several places. The first line is repeated at the end of the second and forth stanzas and in the third line of the last stanza. The third line is repeated at the end of the third and fifth stanzas and in the very last line of the poem. Here’s the scheme: A1bA2  abA1  abA2  abA1 abA2 abA1A2.

Limerick

Length: five lines

Rhyme scheme: AABBA

Rhythm:

anapestic (unstressed, unstressed, stressed syllables: da, da, DUM)

or amphibrachic (unstressed, stressed, unstressed syllables trimeter: da, DUM, da)

with three stressed syllables in lines 1, 2, and 5; and

two stressed syllables in lines 3 and 4.

Other: Limerick’s are usually playful, often absurd.

Haiku

Length: three lines

Rhyme scheme: none

Rhythm: five syllable, seven syllables, five syllables

Other: traditional haiku refer to the seasons directly or indirectly (kigo), and include a “cutting word,” a break in the text (kireji).

Tanka is a variation with the following syllable pattern: 5-7-5-7-7.

Renga is linked “tanka” 5-7-5, 7-7; 5-7-5, 7-7; etc.; finishing with an additional 7-7.

Other Poetic forms

Acrostic variations: end-acrostic, double acrostic, mesostic

Anaphora (repetition of line or sentence beginnings), epistrophe (repetition of line or sentence endings)

Kerouac’s book of blues: one page poem

Olson’s projective verse (composition by field): treat the page like a musical score and/or artist’s canvas

Oulipo Experiments:

N+7: where each substantive or noun in a given text, such as a poem, is systematically replaced by the noun to be found seven places away in a chosen dictionary.

George Perec’s La Disparition (A Void in English): no words in the work include the letter “e”

Gloucester Project (part 3): Real World Rhetoric Based on Research

{Note: All of the researched arguments about social issues have been commented upon and graded. Some of you need to fix a few things before I can give you a grade.}

Tuesday (May 27)
Take a look at the mind map (or web) that has (1) your guiding question, (2) what you think you need to know (or what will you need to interpret) in order to address the question, and (3) where you might find out what you need to know (or what will you need to interpret).

(1) Have you grown more confident and excited about your guiding question? If not, how have you changed your mind about your guiding question? How might you make it stronger?
(2) Have you found what you need to know? What have you found that is useful even though you weren't looking for it? What else do you need to know?
(3) Did you find the sources of information you wanted to find? Where else might you look? Who else might you talk to? What sources of information surprised you?

Share some of what you've learned and some of what you've been thinking about related to your topic and question.
Relate what you've learned and what you've been thinking about to the bigger issues faced by Gloucester as a whole.
**********************
Tuesday night through class time on Thursday
Write a proposal (500-1000 words) for using your research to create a substantial piece (or several smaller pieces) of real world rhetoric based on your research. Due Thursday May 29.

Your proposal should include (1) a specific description (including format, length, and participants in the project^) of the real world rhetoric* that you want to produce; (2) an explanation of how your  real world rhetoric will develop a clear, insightful position in response to the essential question about your topic that you've developed; (3) an explanation of how you plan to use the research you've gathered (and, perhaps, additional research you will gather) in your real world rhetoric; (4) an explanation of how the real world rhetoric will persuade, inform, and engage readers/viewers; (5) an explanation of how the real world rhetoric will reach beyond your teacher and AP classmates at Gloucester High School to a larger audience; and (6) a plan (with dates) for creating the real world rhetoric (in other words, what parts of the project will you get done by what dates?). Write the proposal as a letter to me from you (and any other group members if any). Use Google Docs to share the proposal with me.

^You may work with colleagues from C-block or F-block on the real world rhetoric. Make sure the project is ambitious enough to justify multiple group members.

*Possible real world rhetoric products:
>A series of commentaries written for local newspapers: "My View," letters to the editor, submissions to Good Morning Gloucester, etc.
>A documentary addressing your topic and question uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo, etc. and/or shown at the Hive, Cape Ann Community Cinema, etc.
>A work of creative writing--short stories, script, and/or poems--made public on a website and/or performed at a public reading or on video/audio.
>A website and/or social media campaign addressing your topic and question.
>An exhibit, addressing your topic and question, shown at a library, website, other space...
>A tour, addressing your topic and question, organized, mapped, and recorded
>An educational curriculum, , addressing your topic and question, with unit map, assessments, rubrics, and lessons to share with teachers in the Gloucester Public School system.
>Other...
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Thursday May 29 through Thursday June 12
Create your real world rhetoric and annotated bibliography* to be ready for presentation in class Thursday June 12. 

*Annotations will include summary of the source, analysis of the source, and explanation of how the source contributed to the real world rhetoric.

 Make sure your real world rhetoric and/or annotated bibliography is ready by class time on Thursday, June 12. Also, make sure your revised* proposal is ready on Thursday, June 12. The rest of the project must be completed by the end of the day on Monday, June 16.

* Your revised proposal should include (1) a specific description (including format, length, and participants in the project^) of the real world rhetoric that you have produced; (2) an explanation of how your  real world rhetoric develops a clear, insightful position in response to the essential question about your topic that you've developed; (3) an explanation of how you have used research in your real world rhetoric; (4) an explanation of how what you have produced persuades, informs, and engages readers/viewers; (5) an explanation of how the real world rhetoric reaches beyond your teacher and AP classmates at Gloucester High School to engage a larger audience; and (6) a description (with dates) of everything you have done to produce the real world rhetoric. Revise the proposal in the form of a letter to me from you (and any other group members if any). Use Google Docs to revise the proposal you have shared with me.

Gloucester Project (part 2): research and response

(1) What does the Gloucester in your head look like?
Monday in class make a literal map of Gloucester from memory.

(2) What issues will we need to explore more deeply in order to answer the question "What is Gloucester"?
* In class on Monday make a mind map (a.k.a. web) of the issues we will need to explore in order to answer the question "What is Gloucester?"
* Connect the questions to issues and connect the issues to sources: readings, experiences, and observations.
* Monday night (1) expand your map of the issues to include connections to all of the readings in the "Ways of Looking at Gloucester" packet


(3) Choose an aspect of Gloucester to examine more closely in relation to one of the questions that emerged from our discussion. (We decided that in order to understand Gloucester we would need to address the following issues.)

Possible Questions
How does tension between what is hidden or concealed and what is open or known affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between change and continuity affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between insiders and outsiders affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between "us" and "them" affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between connectedness and isolation affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between homogeneity and heterogeneity affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between nature and industry affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between care-taking and exploitation affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between leisurely enjoyment and rugged resilience (grit) affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between civic pride and civic critique affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between beauty and ugliness affect the polis of Gloucester?
Other???

Possible Topics
If you're still not happy with your topic here are some more ideas that you maybe have not considered.

Arts:

Examples:

• poetry (Charles Olson, Vincent Ferrini, Jeremy Ingalls, T.S. Eliot, etc.)
• fiction (Peter Anastas, Jonathan Bayliss, Anita Diamant [on Dogtown], Rudyard Kipling [on Gloucester  etc.)
• non-fiction (Judith Sargent Murray [on women's rights], Mark Kurlansky, Sebatian Junger, etc.)
• music (Herb Pomeroy, Willie Alexander, etc.)
• painting (Fitz Henry Lane, Winslow Homer, Marsden Hartley, Nell Blaine, John Sloane, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, etc.)
• photography (Ernest Morin, Anne Rearick, Nubar Alexanian, Paul Cary Goldberg, Leslie Bartlett, etc.)
•  sculpture (Walker Hancock, Paul Manship, etc.)
• dance (Carl Thomsen, Sarah Slifer)
• theatre (Israel Horowitz, Nan Weber)
• film (documentarian Henry Ferrini, The Perfect Storm, Captains Courageous)
• graphic narrative/comics (Greg Cook, Tony Millionaire, etc.)

Culture:

Examples:

• ethnic and religious practices and traditions (St. Peter’s Fiesta, the Portuguese Crowning Ceremony, the first Universalist Church in America),
• civic traditions (like Lanesville’s infamous parade, the Horribles Parade),
•  public art and architecture (City Hall, Dogtown rocks, the Man at the Wheel statue, the Fisherman’s Wife statue),
• civic institutions (schools, Fisherman’s Wives Association, St. Peter’s Club)
• industries (trade, fishing, tourism, quarrying)
• cultural figures (Hannah Jumper, Roger Babson, Ebenezeer Babson, Howard Blackburn, Judith Sargent Murray, A. Piatt Andrew, Ben Smith, Manuel Lewis, Newman Shea)

[You might also focus on culture in a particular section of the city.]

(4) Get started with your research into your topic & question. You'll need double-entry notes for five or more sources (at least ten pages of notes) by Tuesday, May 27.
* In class on Wednesday May 21 write a question to guide your research by combining the topic & question chosen in step 3. 
 Based on my observations in class on Thursday, I think it will be helpful to spend the first part of class on Friday doing a mini-lesson on what makes a good research question for this project. To create our research questions we're applying one of the big essential questions about Gloucester (see above) to a narrower aspect of Gloucester's polis. This question should be carefully crafted. Spend some time working on it. Make sure it's clear and focused. Ask a peer, is my question clear and focused enough that you could use it to guide research? If the answer is yes: dive back into researching a response to the question. If the answer is no: work on refining your question
* Put that question at the center of a map/web.
* Make a map of (1) the kind of information you hope to find on your question and (2) where you might go looking for that information. (See below for resources.)

Ask me lots of questions during class time.
Be resourceful. Use GHS library resources [mini-lesson on Tuesday], Sawyer Free Library resources [mini-lessons on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday], living experts [mini-lesson on interviewing on Wednesday], and reputable internet* sources [mini-lesson on Thursday].
________________________________________________
*internet sources to consider
gloucestertimes.com (local daily newspaper)
ghwalk.org (Gloucester Harbor Walk website with information on 42 aspects of Gloucester art and culture)
quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/25/2526150lk.html (demographic, social, economic, and housing census information)
galesites.com/menu/mlin_n_glchs (Gloucester High School Gale Resources)
books.google.com (I've found a lot of good information and many full books by searching here.)

search for websites of organizations related to your topic (Gloucester Writers Center (this website has video and audio recordings of creative writers and researchers), St. Peter's Club, Cape Ann Museum, etc.)

think of video too: search for your topic using youtube and vimeo (No Pretty Prayer about the Sicilian community in the Fort; Polis is This about Charles Olson, his writing, and his relationship to Gloucester; The Greasy Pole (award winning documentary)

Something new (posted on Huffington Post today, Friday, May 23) for those of you looking at the relationship between the picturesque and the gritty in Gloucester:
Gloucester among "15 of New England's Most Picturesque Towns" (sic)

Gloucester Project (part 1): Charles Olson, Polis, and Finding out for Yourself

In class over the next couple of days you will take active viewing notes on a documentary, Polis is This.
(If you miss a day you can find the documentary broken into six parts here.)

After watching and taking the notes on the Polis is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place you should be able to discuss the concept of polis, Charles Olson's relationship to the concept of polis, Charles Olson's relationship to Gloucester as a polis, Charles Olson's ideas about the relationship between education and polis, and Charles Olson's ideas about the relationship between writing (particularly poetry) and polis.
**********************
For homework Monday night (May 13) you will read and annotate an essay called "To find out for yourself" that I wrote as part of a feature on Massachusetts poets (including Charles Olson). The text is an expository essay about the project you're about to begin, so it's a good place to start to find answers to your questions about both the big concepts and the specific details.

After reading and annotating "To find out for yourself," you should be able to discuss the relationship between Charles Olson and the Gloucester project, the relationship between the project and former students, the relationship between competing ideas about what it means to be from Gloucester, the relationship between visible and hidden aspects of Gloucester culture, and the relationship between Gloucester and you.
**********************
By class time on Friday (May 15) do the following in the comment box below.

Write down three aspects of Gloucester's polis (culture, arts, politics, economy, history, ecology, geography, geology, etc.) that you'd like to know more about and explain why. (Or, perhaps you'd like to focus on a geographical part of the polis: Lanesville, Annisquam, Dogtown, downtown, Portuguese Hill, East Gloucester, Ravenswood, Magnolia, West Parish, etc.)

Write two things you know about Gloucester's polis that other people may not know.

Write one substantial paragraph about your relationship with Gloucester's polis.
**********************

Thursday (May 14) you'll read and annotated a prompt and a packet containing different views of Gloucester. Be prepared to discuss this in class on Friday (May 15).

Reminder: Independent Reading Quotation Responses Due Today

Here is a link to the assignment.

Share a Google document or print out your responses.
(Guidelines are the same as for the summer readings, except with a particular focus on developing insightful and specific rhetorical analyses of the passages you select.)

AP Eng Lang Exam Reminders

Final preparation ideas
Review strategies (below)
Review rhetorical analysis vocabulary (here).
Review previous essay of your own or from previous exams (here).
Review previous multiple choice sessions you've completed.
Calculate good day/bad day scores (link below).
Visualize yourself practicing strategies and effectively completing each part of the exam.
Rest. Eat. Pack a snack, favorite pencils, and favorite pens. Get to school on time. Conquer the exam.

In C-block we didn't have enough time to calculate "good day" and "bad day" scores. I was going to post a formula but instead here's the link that Everest and Cody found to AP Pass. Look back over your work. Let's say on your AP multiple choice packets you got 28, 32, and 36 correct. Let's say that on your Consumerism and Commodification essay you got a 5, on rhetorical analysis essays you got as low as a 4 and as high as a 7, and on your most recent argument essay you got a six. Put the low numbers into AP pass. AP pass calculates a 3. Put the high numbers in AP pass calculates a 4. Remember these scores are approximate, but they'll likely help alleviate some stress and give you something to aim for.

Tips for Maximizing your Score on the Multiple Choice Section

Test-Taking Strategies

·         Remember that you have approximately one minute to spend per question. Monitor your progress and stay on pace.

·         Choose the best answer! Sometimes several options are mostly correct or debatable; sometimes none of the options are completely satisfying. Examine all the choices. Read carefully If any part of a choice is not accurate eliminate the choice. Then choose the best of the remaining options.

·         Understand that you need to get approximately half of the multiple-choice questions correct to have possibility of a 3 or better. (60% correct puts you in good shape for a 3 or better.)

·         The questions are of a varied level of difficulty, and they are mixed together—not in order of complexity. Don’t dwell too long on difficult questions. Move to other questions which in some cases will help you answer the move difficult ones.

·         Tackle the easier questions first. Skip any questions that befuddle you, mark them in the margin, return to them after answering the other questions in the section, eliminate as many obviously wrong answers as possible, and make a choice before starting the next reading.

·         Be careful bubbling your answer sheet. Be especially cognizant of skipped numbers and erase changed answers completely.

Reading Strategies

·         Many students benefit from reading the questions (but not the choices) first. You’ll be a more effective reader if you are reading with purpose.

·         Read footnotes and any additional information. Take advantage of all the help the test preparers have given you.

·         After you’ve read the questions and the passage, annotate the reading passage. A blank passage won’t help you to analyze the necessary elements in detail.

Self-Reflection

·         Analyze your answering and guessing techniques. Reflect on how effective you are when you change answers and when you guess from narrowed-down choices.

·         Reflect on what strategies have been most effective during the practice exams.

Adapted by Mr. Cook from Lisa Boyd, Salem High School (GA)

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AP English Language Exam Writing Reminders

concept by Elizabeth Johnson Tsang, adapted for AP EngLang by Mr. James Cook

Pre-Writing

Read the synthesis prompt before reading the synthesis sources. Annotate the sources with the prompt in mind.

Remember the heart of the synthesis essay (Question 1) is the ability to use multiple sources (at least three) to develop your own response to the prompt.

Underline the key directions words in the question: what exactly are you to do and how are you to do it. (If the question says “such rhetorical elements as tone, etc.” then you may choose. If it says “tone,” then you must discuss tone.)

Remember the heart of rhetorical analysis (usually Question 2) is “what is the argument and how does the author use rhetorical strategies and techniques to achieve that purpose?” Use may use SOAPSTone to annotate. The mnemonic device will help you think of elements to analyze and help you avoid merely summarizing and paraphrasing.

Remember the heart of the argument essay (usually Question 3) is stating your position and using well-organized reasoning and evidence to support and develop that position.

Jot down a plan! Don’t start writing until:

·        you have something to say (bold, insightful assertion)

·        you know how you’re going to develop your assertion with specific support

Write the synthesis essay first but you can do the other two essays in any order.

Writing

Be bold and insightful in the introduction.

• The intro must contain a clear statement of your main insight.
• If necessary, leave a space of several lines, then go back and fill with a clear statement of your main insight or a precise word for that insight. (Some of you are better able to write a strong thesis statement after writing the body paragraphs of a rhetorical analysis. Know yourself.)

Q2 organization. (1) Break the reading into sections. Analyze section by section, beginning to end. (2) Create a body paragraph for each strategy. Make sure you capture a sense of the passage as a whole.

Remember that the AP Exam is asking students to recognize and create rhetorical complexity and nuance.

Q1 and Q2. Don’t describe or summarize unless you analyze.

(Don’t describe a technique or summarize a passage unless you analyze how it contributes to your main insight about the meaning.)

Q1 and Q2. The AP rubrics prefer direct quotations to paraphrase. If possible weave the quotations into your sentences.

• Avoid leaving quotations dangling on their own.
• If possible cite the line number of the quotations.
• Remember for Q2: “quote like this” (line 12). & for Q1: “quote like this” (Source A).  (Notice the period after the parenthetical citation.) Or if you embed the citation in your writing: in line 12 the speaker says “quote like this.” (The period goes inside the last quotation mark if you’re citing the line within the text instead of within parentheses.

The conclusion is of lesser importance if you have a strong, insightful introduction and have developed supporting evidence from the poem. But if you have time to offer a strong, insightful, unifying conclusion then do it that indicates the significance of the point you have made; leave the reader with a good impression. [Avoid repeating the introduction. For closure, ask yourself “so what?” – “what’s the big idea I’m asserting in this essay and why does it matter? – and conclude something.]

Try to write to the third page.

Understand the holistic grading rubric:

·        Does the student’s response show an understanding of the prompt’s purpose?

o       Q1 Did the student synthesize at least three sources into a well-developed response to the prompt?

o       Q2 Did the student develop an understanding of how the rhetorical techniques and features contribute to the argument in the passage?

o       Q3 Did the student understand the issue presented in the prompt and develop a well-organized argument on the issue using convincing support?

• Did the student answer (all the parts of) the question asked?
• How well-written and well-organized is the essay?

Miscellaneous Reminders

Put the titles of shorter pieces, like poems, speeches, articles, political cartoons, chapter titles, and essays within quotation marks: “A Modest Proposal,” “Old Father, Old Artificer,” “”On Seeing England for the First Time,” etc. Underline the title of longer works like novels, plays, documentaries, book-length memoirs, book-length arguments: Nickel and Dimed, All Souls, Hamlet, Lord of the Flies, Grendel, The Merchants of Cool, etc.

Errors: strike out neatly with one lime line.

Write with a black (or dark blue) pen.