English 11 May 12, 2014
Agenda - 5/12/2014 Collect Teenage Wasteland worksheets and compare/contrast chart Journal/SSR SOL Demo SOL Practice Notes Walt Whitman Song of Myself and O Captain, My Captain Homework: Finish Walt Whitman Analysis and remember your Reading SOL is Thursday, May 15!
Writing Prompt The Worst Time of Life 5/12/2014 What was your most humiliating experience of high school (or middle school)? Can you laugh about it now, or is it still embarrassing? Write a ½ page, possibly funny, description of it.
Reading SOL - Demo http://vaassessments.com/v/readingdemo/
Synonym & Antonym Synonym a word having the same or nearly the same meaning as another Example sad, bittersweet, doleful, mournful, heavy-hearted, melancholic, pensive, wistful Antonym a word opposite in meaning to another Example sad vs. glad
Simile a comparison of two things using like or as EXAMPLE: Common contemporary similes are running like a bat out of hell and working nonstop as if possessed. Perhaps the best known simile in English poetry is Robert Burns s line: My love is like a red, red rose.
Metaphor a direct comparison of two unlike things a type of figurative language in which a statement is made that says that one thing is something else but, literally, it is not. EXAMPLE: It s raining cats and dogs outside.
Personification Giving human traits to animals, ideas, or inanimate objects EXAMPLE: The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky.
Hyperbole an extravagant exaggeration. a figure of speech that is a grossly exaggerated description or statement. In literature, such exaggeration is used for emphasis or vivid descriptions. EXAMPLE: I had so much homework, I needed a pickup truck to carry all my books home!
Alliteration repetition of an initial sound in two or more words of a phrase, line, or sentence. It is usually a consonant and marks the stressed syllables in a line of poetry or prose. EXAMPLE: Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck
Irony something humorous based on contradiction
Dramatic Irony The audience or reader knows something important that a character does not know
Situational Irony The contrast between what a reader or character expects and what actually happens Fire station burning
Verbal Irony Occurs when a writer or character says one thing but means another Example: I am so sad
Tone This is the writer's attitude toward the material and/or readers. It may be playful, formal, intimate, angry, serious, ironic, outraged, baffled, tender, serene, depressed, etc.
Mood The atmosphere that pervades a literary work with the intention of evoking a certain emotion or feeling from the audience. In drama, mood may be created by sets and music as well as words; in poetry and prose, mood may be created by a combination of such elements as SETTING, VOICE, TONE and THEME. The moods evoked by the more popular short stories of Edgar Allen Poe, for example, tend to be gloomy, horrific, and desperate.
Literal and Figurative Language Literal language refers to words that do not deviate from their defined meaning. Figurative language refers to words, and groups of words, that exaggerate or alter the usual meanings of the component words. Figurative language may involve analogy to similar concepts or other contexts, and may involve exaggerations.
Theme the general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to express. All of the elements of literary terms contribute to theme. A simple theme can often be stated in a single sentence.
Assonance & Consonance Assonance - the repetition of vowel sounds, usually within words. Consonance - repeating the final consonant sounds of words. Writers usually focus on the accented syllables or the more important words to use in this technique. In this excerpt from the poem The Raven, note the ur sound used in assonance, the t sound used in consonance: And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating` 'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door - Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; - This it is, and nothing more,'
End Rhyme in poetry, a rhyme that occurs in the last syllables of verses. Example: Robert Frost s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening : Whose woods these are I think I know, His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.
Internal Rhyme the rhyming of words within a line of poetry, not just at the end of the lines. Examples of Internal Rhyme: Jack Spratt could eat no fat The cat sat on the mat Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard Simple Simon met a pie man The crazy moose is loose in the caboose
Denotation Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the "dictionary definition." For example, if you look up the word snake in a dictionary, you will discover that one of its denotative meanings is "any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions."
Connotation Connotation, on the other hand, refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to that word. The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings. The connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger.
Author s Purpose An author writes for many reasons. An author may give you facts or true information about a subject. If so, they are writing to inform. Some authors write fiction stories or stories that are not true. They write these stories to entertain you. Other authors may write to persuade or to try to get you to do something. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skx6rnniku M&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_ safety_mode=1&safe=active
What is the author s purpose if the passage contains... Facts or true to Inform or Teach Information? Fiction? to Entertain Tries to get you to do something? to Persuade or Convince
Walt Whitman Walt Whitman was an American poet whose verse collection Leaves of Grass is a landmark in the history of American literature. Synopsis Poet and journalist Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819 in West Hills, New York. Considered one of America's most influential poets, Whitman aimed to transcend traditional epics, eschew normal aesthetic form, and reflect the nature of the American experience and its democracy. In 1855 he selfpublished the collection Leaves of Grass, now a landmark in American literature.
Leaves of Grass In the spring of 1855, Whitman, finally finding the style and voice he'd been searching for, self-published a slim collection of 12 unnamed poems titled Leaves of Grass. Whitman could only afford to print 795 copies of the book. Leaves of Grass marked a radical departure from established poetic norms. Traditional rhyme and meter were discarded in favor of a voice that came at the reader directly, in the first person. On its cover was an image of the bearded poet himself. The book received little attention at first, though it did catch the eye of fellow poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote Whitman to praise the collection as "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom" to come from an American pen. Fascinated by this newcomer to the poetry scene, Emerson dispatched writers Henry David Thoreau and Bronson Alcott to Brooklyn to meet Whitman. Whitman, now living at home and truly the man of the homestead (his father passed away in 1855), resided in the attic of the family house.
The Civil War In 1862, Whitman moved to Washington D.C. His brother George, who fought for the Union, was being treated in the capital for a wound he's suffered in the war. Whitman ended up staying in Washington for the next several years. He found part-time work in the paymaster's office and spent much of the rest of his time visiting wounded soldiers. This volunteer work proved to be both life-changing and exhausting. By his own rough estimates, Whitman made 600 hospital visits, seeing more than 100,000 patients. The work took a toll physically, but also propelled him to return to poetry. He published an new collection called Drum-Taps, which represented a more solemn realization of what the Civil War meant for those in the thick of it.
Later Years But in 1873 his life took a dramatic turn for the worse. In January 1873 he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. In May he returned home to see his ailing mother, who died just three days after his arrival. Frail himself, Whitman found it impossible to continue with his job in Washington and relocated to Camden, New Jersey, to live with his brother George. Over the next two decades, Whitman continued to tinker with Leaves of Grass. An 1882 edition of the collection earned the poet some fresh newspaper coverage. That in turn resulted in robust sales, enough so that Whitman was able to buy a modest house of his own in Camden. These final years proved to be both fruitful and frustrating for Whitman. His life's work received much needed validation in terms of recognition, but the America he saw emerge from the Civil War disappointed him. His health, too, continued to deteriorate. On March 26, 1892 Walt Whitman passed away in Camden. Right up until the end, he'd continued to work with Leaves of Grass, which during his lifetime had gone through seven editions and expanded to some 300 poems.
Song of Myself Read the poem (Page 400-403 in your yellow textbook). Answer the questions about imagery and sound techniques provided.
O Captain, My Captain Read O Captain, My Captain (a poem about Abraham Lincoln) and compare this poem to Elegy for J.F.K. (about John F. Kennedy) There are some weird similarities between the two presidents