Salem Witch Trials
Our first unit in English is stories about the Salem Witch Trials and witchcraft. We read the examination of Sarah Good and the Crucible. The crucible is a story about a group of children in Salem Massachusetts that experiment with witch craft. One of the children, Bettey, goes into a Coma and the entire town explodes in chaos, trying to rid the town of evil and execute any "witches" in the area. The lead girl, Abagail, is behind everything because she put a spell on Goody Proctor trying to kill her, so she could be with John Proctor who she has been secretly having an affair with, but she threatens all of the other girls and forces them not to tell the court which leads to all of the children pointing fingers at different people and trying to get anyone in trouble but themselves. The story has many different plot twists and is very interesting and relevant since Halloween is near.
Reading circles
Since the crucible is a long play, we have broken up into groups of four in class and each will read a different act. We practice in our group and then after we finish, each group goes up in front of the class and performs the act. I was in a group with Jeremy Pacheco, Michael Monte, and Vaughn Browner. We switched the male and female roles to make the act more interesting and to give the characters a new perspective. We discovered that switching the gender of the roles automatically gave the character a different tone of voice and depth.
The Scarlet Letter
Our next book we are reading in English is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This book is about a lady named Hester Pryne and how she had a daughter out of wedlock, with a man other than her husband. Her husband has been missing for years but it does not make the crime any worse in the Puritan society of the early 1900's in Salem, Massachusetts. Her punishment for her sin is that she must embroider a red letter a on all of her clothes and she must stand on a stage in the middle of town and be embarrassed and harassed by everyone in her town. This book tells the stories of her struggle. How she deals with the humiliation, tries to raise her daughter, and keep the identity of the man who is the father a secret.
Extended Analytical Essay
Our next project for English was to write an Extended Analytical Essay on the light and dark side of American Romanticism using two stories we read in class as examples. The stories I chose were The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne which represented the dark side of Romanticism and Song of Myself by Walt Witman which represented the light side. This essay was extremely difficult to write because I have never written an essay of this type. You have to use in text quotes, a new format, and compare and contrast the stories which I am not very familiar with. Also, this essay was intimidating because it is worth 450 points, which is a lot and will impact my grade greatly. I think I did pretty well on it because Dr.Doucette took our first drafts and reviewed them with us and gave us feedback. I corrected all of the mistakes he pointed out and added a few things so I should get a good grade.
The Old Man and the Sea
On January 6th our class took a trip to the library and each got a copy of the short novel The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. We just began reading it, but from what I can tell the story is pretty true to the title. It is about an old fisherman named Santiago and his struggle trying to catch a giant fish in the middle of the ocean single handedly. The story is an easy read but has a lot of hidden meanings and connections to Hemingways life.
Of Mice and Men
On January 6th we also recieved the short novel Of Mice and Men. We also got many different packets on the characters and themes so that we will have a deeper understanding of it when we actually start to read the book after we finish Old Man and the Sea.
We have now read Of Mice and Men and it was my favorite book we read so far. We also wrotea large paper discussing if George killed Lennie to protect him, or for his own selfish needs.
We have now read Of Mice and Men and it was my favorite book we read so far. We also wrotea large paper discussing if George killed Lennie to protect him, or for his own selfish needs.
Fairytale Unit
Our next unit in English is a unit on Grimm's fairytales. In this unit we will read many of the classic fairytales and we will also watch new t.v. versions of the classic stories such as the television program Grimm and Once Upon a Time. We will also be watching a dark comedy called Into the Woods. After reading or watching each thing, we will have to write a one to two page paper.
Term paper
For one of our final projects in English we had to do a term paper on any topic we wanted. It will be half of our grade and be the most in depth writing process we have done all year. I chose to do my paper on my favorite band, A Day to Remember. My sub topic was how their lyrics relate to their audience. We have already done most of the steps before the final product and it will be finished in two weeks. I will update this when it's done.