Monday, October 5, 2009

Vocabulary Classwork and Homework (due 10/6)

Use context clues to define the words in bold.

1. A person of great virtue not only knows what is right, but also does what is right.

2. His bride in her white gown was an angelic vision.

3. The library is a repository of books.

4. While church hymns are considered religious music because of their use in ritual, hip hop and rap are considered secular because they are not about religious ideas.

5. We are all going through a great hardship because of the recession.

6. There are still many isolated Amazonian tribes untainted by modern technology.

7. It's agony when you're late for school and you just miss the bus.

8. It sounds like nonsense that you could use toothpaste to power your radio.

9. There is a lot of potential business in new communications technology.

10. Our parents labor for our well-being by supporting us financially and emotionally.

11. I knew my little brother was up to some mischief when I saw mustard on the dog's nose.

12. My hands were idle as I waited for an idea to inspire my journal for the day.

13. Children need to learn to account for their actions by being responsible for what they do.

14. There is a contradiction when we say we believe something and then do the opposite.

15. The people who lived under Queen Victoria in England during most of the 19th century are known as Victorians.

16. Some people feel ambivalent towards religion; they may not be sure if they believe in God, or perhaps they don't agree with everything their church tells them.

Homework: use each of the words above in your own sentence.

Bring Alice in Wonderland Tomorrow

Please bring a copy of Alice in Wonderland tomorrow.

If you gave me $4.00 and still do not have a book, I hope to have the late shipments for those who paid me after 9/21 tomorrow.

If you did not pay me $4.00, you are responsible for purchasing or borrowing your own book. Coming to class without the book is considered being unprepared. Make sure you have a copy!

Journal for the day

All sections:

Write a "How-to" for an activity you like to do. Include detailed directions and questions a person should ask themselves while doing your activity.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland


Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland

Read the passage below and answer the questions on loose-leaf:
Lewis Carroll was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson at Daresbury in Chesire. His father, the Reverend Charles Dodgson, was at that time Curate of the parish. During one picnic – on July 4, 1862, on a blazing summer afternoon – Charles Lutwidge Dodgson began to tell a long story to Alice Liddell (died in 1934), who was the daughter of Henry George Liddell, the head of his Oxford college, where Dodgson was a professor of mathematics. The Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was born from these tales.


Originally the book appeared under the title Alice's Adventures Under Ground. The story centers on the seven-year-old Alice, who falls asleep in a meadow, and dreams that she plunges down a rabbit hole, where finds herself first too large and then too small. She meets such strange characters as Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the King and Queen of Hearts, and experiences wondrous, often bizarre adventures, trying to reason in numerous discussions that do not follow the usual paths of logic. Finally she totally rejects the dream world and wakes up.
  1. What is Lewis Carroll's real name?
  2. What was his profession?
  3. What was the original title for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland? Which title do you prefer? Why?
  4. What is the basic plot of Alice in Wonderland?

The author's life and work has become a constant area for speculation and his exploring of the boundaries of sense and nonsense has inspired a number of psychological studies and novels – and perhaps also the famous English philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. The humor of Joseph Heller's famous war novel Catch-22 (1961) is much in debt to Dodgson. In Catch-22 the story centers on the USAF regulation, which suggests that willingness to fly dangerous combat missions must be considered insane, but if the airmen seek to be relieved on grounds of mental reasons, the request proves their sanity. The same laws dominate the Wonderland: "'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' 'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. 'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.'"

  1. Re-read the paragraph above. In your own words, explain the impossible logic of Wonderland using the conversation Alice has with the Cheshire Cat.

According to Carl Jung, "a typical infantile motif is the dream of growing infinitely small or infinitely big, or being transformed from one to the other – as you find, for instance, in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland." (in Man and His Symbols, 1964) Modern physicist have often compared the world of Lewis Carroll with the incredible phenomena of quantum reality – such as cats that are both alive and dead at the same time ('Schrödinger's cat') or with particles that change their identities for no apparent reason. They are against Alice's common sense: 'I can't believe that!' said Alice. '... one can't believe impossible things. But the White Queen has her own principles: "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.' (from Through the Looking Glass)
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes - and ships - and sealing wax -
Of cabbages - and kings -
And why the sea is boiling hot -
And whether pigs have wings."
(from 'The Walrus and the Carpenter')
  1. What does Jung say about Alice in Wonderland?
  2. What is the Alice connection to modern physics? Do you think those ideas are “against common sense?

At the time of their publication, Alice's adventures were considered children's literature, but now Dodgson's stories are generally viewed in a different light. His work has fascinated such critics as Edmund Wilson and W.H. Auden, and logicians and scientist such as Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell. Virginia Woolf remarked, "the two Alices are not books for children; they are the only books in which we become children". In the 1960s rock musicians and hippies were attracted to the surrealistic world of Wonderland, which inspired such songs as Jefferson Airplane's 'White Rabbit' and The Beatles's 'I am the Walrus'.

Dodgson also wrote mathematical works, of which Condensation of Determinants (1866) and An Elementary Treatise On Determinants (1867) established his fame as a significant mathematical theorist. Moreover, Dodgson was a rather exceptional student of Aristotelian logic, and he delighted his friends with games, puzzles and riddles. Dodgson's mock-heroic poem, The Hunting of the Snark (1876), ending with the line "For the Snark was a Bojuum, you see", received mixed reviews when it appeared. The meaning of the poem, which tells of the journey to capture the mythical Snark, has puzzled generations of readers. "I'm very much afraid I didn't mean anything but nonsense!" Dodgson later said.



8. What are some examples of the influence of the Alice books in popular culture?

9. What do you think Virginia Woolf meant by "the two Alices are not books for children; they are the only books in which we become children." What's the difference between a book for children, and a book where we become children?


Journal for the day

All sections:

Freewrite!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Themes!


Themes Classwork /8
Mrs. Koza
10th Grade English


Name:__________________________________________ Section:__________________________


Themes!
An idea you can talk about in lots of different ways


Each set of lines below has a theme. What is it? (3 points)


So, yesterday it was my friend Stacey.
Two days ago I had to get something in my locker.
Three days ago Mr. Rich kept me too long!
But today... I'm late because I didn't hear the bell!


What's the theme?


__________________________________


In Chemistry, Mr. Ap helps us after school.
In English, I get too much of it.
For Geometry, my older brother helps me.
By the time I start on Global, my favorite TV show is on.


What's the theme?


___________________________________


Becky told me it was Marie.
Marie told me it was really Teresa.
Then, of course, Teresa blabbed on Becky.
And in the locker room, I heard it was me!


What's the theme?


____________________________________



Now, make your own!
(5 points)


In this activity, you will work in a group to brainstorm different ideas that fall under the same theme. Be prepared to write your own riddle (like the ones on the other side of this sheet) and share it with the class! (We'll be trying to guess the theme!)


Theme (I will provide this to your group): _______________________


With your small group, brainstorm some different ways you can talk about your theme. Come up with a few examples or situations in which your theme comes up (these will be your clues). What does this idea make you think of?



Now, choose an example and turn them into clues for your riddle:


Line 1:


Line 2:


Line 3:



Line 4:

Journal for the day

All sections:

What is your favorite book / fairy tale / story? What do you like about it? Why?