Saturday, November 28, 2009
Homework for Monday, 11/30
Make sure you are prepared for your group's discussion day on Tuesday! You will be graded on your completion of group evaluation and the extent of your group's discussion and fulfillment of expected reading tasks.
Monday, November 16, 2009
For Tuesday
Finish "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" and be prepared to discuss...what was the experiment? What was the meaning/moral of the story?
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Homework for Friday, 11/13
Mr. Greiving here, guest blogging for Mrs. G. Mrs. Greiving says:
Find the TPCASTT form in the entry below and use it/fill it out as you read the poem "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman. Click here to access the poem.
Find the TPCASTT form in the entry below and use it/fill it out as you read the poem "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman. Click here to access the poem.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Self Reliance Assignment #2
Read the passages below. What does Emerson say about the following?
1. Prayer
2. Travel
3. Intellect/Education
Come up with a summary sentence for each section AND relate it to what we know about Transcendentalists and what they believed. If you get stuck, you can use the link in the previous post to help you.
I. In what prayers do men allow themselves! That which they call a holy office is not so much as brave and manly. Prayer looks abroad and asks for some foreign addition to come through some foreign virtue, and loses itself in endless mazes of natural and supernatural, and mediatorial and miraculous. Prayer that craves a particular commodity — anything less than all good, is vicious. Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. It is the spirit of God pronouncing his works good. But prayer as a means to effect a private end is theft and meanness. It supposes duality and not unity in nature and consciousness. As soon as the man is at one with God, he will not beg. He will then see prayer in all action. The prayer of the farmer kneeling in his field to weed it, the prayer of the rower kneeling with the stroke of his oar, are true prayers heard throughout nature, though for cheap ends. Caratach, in Fletcher's Bonduca, when admonished to inquire the mind of the god Audate, replies,
"His hidden meaning lies in our endeavors;
Our valors are our best gods."
Another sort of false prayers are our regrets. Discontent is the want of self-reliance; it is infirmity of will. Regret calamities if you can thereby help the sufferer; if not, attend your own work and already the evil begins to be repaired. Our sympathy is just as base. We come to them who weep foolishly and sit down and cry for company, instead of imparting to them truth and health in rough electric shocks, putting them once more in communication with the soul. The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide. Him all tongues greet, all honors crown all, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him because he did not need it. We solicitously and apologetically caress and celebrate him because he held on his way and scorned our disapprobation. The gods love him because men hated him. "To the persevering mortal," said Zoroaster, "the blessed Immortals are swift."
As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect. They say with those foolish Israelites, 'Let not God speak to us, lest we die. Speak thou, speak any man with us, and we will obey.' Everywhere I am bereaved of meeting God in my brother, because he has shut his own temple doors and recites fables merely of his brother's, or his brother's brother's God. Every new mind is a new classification. If it prove a mind of uncommon activity and power, a Locke, a Lavoisier, a Hutton, a Bentham, a Spurzheim, it imposes its classification on other men, and lo! a new system. In proportion always to the depth of the thought, and so to the number of objects it touches and brings within reach of the pupil, in his complacency. But chiefly in this apparent in creeds and churches, which are also classifications of some powerful mind acting on the great elemental thought of Duty and man's relation to the Highest. Such is Calvinism, Quakerism, Swedenborgianism. The pupil takes the same delight in subordinating everything to the new terminology that a girl does who has just learned botany in seeing a new earth and new seasons thereby. It will happen for a time that the pupil will feel a real debt to the teacher — will find his intellectual power has grown by the study of his writings. This will continue until he has exhausted his master's mind. But in all unbalanced minds the classification is idolized, passes for the end and not for a speedily exhaustible means, so that the walls of the system blend to their eye in the remote horizon with the walls of the universe; the luminaries of heaven seem to them hung on the arch their master built. They cannot imagine how you aliens have any right to see — how you can see; 'It must be somehow that you stole the light from us.' They do not yet perceive that light, unsystematic, indomitable, will break into any cabin, even into theirs. Let them chirp awhile and call it their own. If they are honest and do well, presently their neat new pinfold will be too strait and low, will crack, will lean, will rot and vanish, and the immortal light, all young and joyful, million-orbed, million-colored, will beam over the universe as on the first morning.
2. It is for want of self-culture that the idol of Traveling, the idol of Italy, of England, of Egypt, remains for all educated Americans. They who made England, Italy, or Greece venerable in the imagination, did so not by rambling round creation as a moth round a lamp, but by sticking fast where they were, like an axis of the earth. In manly hours we feel that duty is our place and that the merry men of circumstance should follow as they may. The soul is no traveler: the wise man stays at home with the soul, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, or into foreign lands, he is at home still and is not gadding abroad from himself, and shall make men sensible by the expression of his countenance that he goes, the missionary of wisdom and virtue, and visits cities and men like a sovereign and not like an interloper or a valet.
I have no churlish objection to the circumnavigation of the globe for the purposes of art, of study, and benevolence, so that the man is first domesticated, or does not go abroad with the hope of finding somewhat greater than he knows. He who travels to be amused or to get somewhat which he does not carry, travels away from himself, and grows old even in youth among old things. In Thebes, in Palmyra, his will and mind have become old and dilapidated as they. He carries ruins to ruins.
Traveling is a fool's paradise. We owe to our first journeys the discovery that place is nothing. At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern Fact, and sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from. I seek the Vatican and the palaces. I affect to be intoxicated with sights and suggestions, but I am not intoxicated. My giant goes with me wherever I go.
3. But the rage of traveling is itself only a symptom of a deeper unsoundness affecting the whole intellectual action. The intellect is vagabond, and the universal system of education fosters restlessness. Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home. We imitate; and what is imitation but the traveling of the mind? Our houses are built with foreign taste; our shelves are garnished with foreign ornaments; our opinions, our tastes, our whole minds, lean, and follow the Past and the Distant, as the eyes of a maid follow her mistress. The soul created the arts wherever they have flourished. It was in his own mind that the artist sought the model. It was an application of his own thought to the thing to be done and the conditions to be observed. And why need we copy the Doric or the Gothic model? Beauty, convenience, grandeur of thought and quaint expression are as near to us as to any, and if the American artist will study with hope and love the precise thing to be done by him, considering the climate, the soil, the length of the day, the wants of the people, the habit and form of the government, he will create a house in which all these will find themselves fitted, and taste and sentiment will be satisfied also.
Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every great man is an unique. The Scipionism of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow. If anybody will tell me whom the great man imitates in the original crisis when he performs a great act, I will tell him who else than himself can teach him. Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned thee and thou canst not hope too much or dare too much. There is at this moment, there is for me an utterance bare and grand as that of the colossal chisel of Phidias, or trowel of the Egyptians, or the pen of Moses or Dante, but different from all of these. Not possibly will the soul, all rich, all eloquent, with thousands cloven tongue, deign to repeat itself; but if I can hear what these patriarchs say, surely I can reply to them in the same pitch of voice; for the ear and the tongue are two organs of one nature. Dwell up there in the simple and noble regions of thy life, obey thy heart and thou shalt reproduce the Foreworld again.
(copied from http://www.youmeworks.com/selfreliance.html)
1. Prayer
2. Travel
3. Intellect/Education
Come up with a summary sentence for each section AND relate it to what we know about Transcendentalists and what they believed. If you get stuck, you can use the link in the previous post to help you.
I. In what prayers do men allow themselves! That which they call a holy office is not so much as brave and manly. Prayer looks abroad and asks for some foreign addition to come through some foreign virtue, and loses itself in endless mazes of natural and supernatural, and mediatorial and miraculous. Prayer that craves a particular commodity — anything less than all good, is vicious. Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. It is the spirit of God pronouncing his works good. But prayer as a means to effect a private end is theft and meanness. It supposes duality and not unity in nature and consciousness. As soon as the man is at one with God, he will not beg. He will then see prayer in all action. The prayer of the farmer kneeling in his field to weed it, the prayer of the rower kneeling with the stroke of his oar, are true prayers heard throughout nature, though for cheap ends. Caratach, in Fletcher's Bonduca, when admonished to inquire the mind of the god Audate, replies,
"His hidden meaning lies in our endeavors;
Our valors are our best gods."
Another sort of false prayers are our regrets. Discontent is the want of self-reliance; it is infirmity of will. Regret calamities if you can thereby help the sufferer; if not, attend your own work and already the evil begins to be repaired. Our sympathy is just as base. We come to them who weep foolishly and sit down and cry for company, instead of imparting to them truth and health in rough electric shocks, putting them once more in communication with the soul. The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide. Him all tongues greet, all honors crown all, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him because he did not need it. We solicitously and apologetically caress and celebrate him because he held on his way and scorned our disapprobation. The gods love him because men hated him. "To the persevering mortal," said Zoroaster, "the blessed Immortals are swift."
As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect. They say with those foolish Israelites, 'Let not God speak to us, lest we die. Speak thou, speak any man with us, and we will obey.' Everywhere I am bereaved of meeting God in my brother, because he has shut his own temple doors and recites fables merely of his brother's, or his brother's brother's God. Every new mind is a new classification. If it prove a mind of uncommon activity and power, a Locke, a Lavoisier, a Hutton, a Bentham, a Spurzheim, it imposes its classification on other men, and lo! a new system. In proportion always to the depth of the thought, and so to the number of objects it touches and brings within reach of the pupil, in his complacency. But chiefly in this apparent in creeds and churches, which are also classifications of some powerful mind acting on the great elemental thought of Duty and man's relation to the Highest. Such is Calvinism, Quakerism, Swedenborgianism. The pupil takes the same delight in subordinating everything to the new terminology that a girl does who has just learned botany in seeing a new earth and new seasons thereby. It will happen for a time that the pupil will feel a real debt to the teacher — will find his intellectual power has grown by the study of his writings. This will continue until he has exhausted his master's mind. But in all unbalanced minds the classification is idolized, passes for the end and not for a speedily exhaustible means, so that the walls of the system blend to their eye in the remote horizon with the walls of the universe; the luminaries of heaven seem to them hung on the arch their master built. They cannot imagine how you aliens have any right to see — how you can see; 'It must be somehow that you stole the light from us.' They do not yet perceive that light, unsystematic, indomitable, will break into any cabin, even into theirs. Let them chirp awhile and call it their own. If they are honest and do well, presently their neat new pinfold will be too strait and low, will crack, will lean, will rot and vanish, and the immortal light, all young and joyful, million-orbed, million-colored, will beam over the universe as on the first morning.
2. It is for want of self-culture that the idol of Traveling, the idol of Italy, of England, of Egypt, remains for all educated Americans. They who made England, Italy, or Greece venerable in the imagination, did so not by rambling round creation as a moth round a lamp, but by sticking fast where they were, like an axis of the earth. In manly hours we feel that duty is our place and that the merry men of circumstance should follow as they may. The soul is no traveler: the wise man stays at home with the soul, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, or into foreign lands, he is at home still and is not gadding abroad from himself, and shall make men sensible by the expression of his countenance that he goes, the missionary of wisdom and virtue, and visits cities and men like a sovereign and not like an interloper or a valet.
I have no churlish objection to the circumnavigation of the globe for the purposes of art, of study, and benevolence, so that the man is first domesticated, or does not go abroad with the hope of finding somewhat greater than he knows. He who travels to be amused or to get somewhat which he does not carry, travels away from himself, and grows old even in youth among old things. In Thebes, in Palmyra, his will and mind have become old and dilapidated as they. He carries ruins to ruins.
Traveling is a fool's paradise. We owe to our first journeys the discovery that place is nothing. At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern Fact, and sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from. I seek the Vatican and the palaces. I affect to be intoxicated with sights and suggestions, but I am not intoxicated. My giant goes with me wherever I go.
3. But the rage of traveling is itself only a symptom of a deeper unsoundness affecting the whole intellectual action. The intellect is vagabond, and the universal system of education fosters restlessness. Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home. We imitate; and what is imitation but the traveling of the mind? Our houses are built with foreign taste; our shelves are garnished with foreign ornaments; our opinions, our tastes, our whole minds, lean, and follow the Past and the Distant, as the eyes of a maid follow her mistress. The soul created the arts wherever they have flourished. It was in his own mind that the artist sought the model. It was an application of his own thought to the thing to be done and the conditions to be observed. And why need we copy the Doric or the Gothic model? Beauty, convenience, grandeur of thought and quaint expression are as near to us as to any, and if the American artist will study with hope and love the precise thing to be done by him, considering the climate, the soil, the length of the day, the wants of the people, the habit and form of the government, he will create a house in which all these will find themselves fitted, and taste and sentiment will be satisfied also.
Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every great man is an unique. The Scipionism of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow. If anybody will tell me whom the great man imitates in the original crisis when he performs a great act, I will tell him who else than himself can teach him. Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned thee and thou canst not hope too much or dare too much. There is at this moment, there is for me an utterance bare and grand as that of the colossal chisel of Phidias, or trowel of the Egyptians, or the pen of Moses or Dante, but different from all of these. Not possibly will the soul, all rich, all eloquent, with thousands cloven tongue, deign to repeat itself; but if I can hear what these patriarchs say, surely I can reply to them in the same pitch of voice; for the ear and the tongue are two organs of one nature. Dwell up there in the simple and noble regions of thy life, obey thy heart and thou shalt reproduce the Foreworld again.
(copied from http://www.youmeworks.com/selfreliance.html)
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Whoops - Self-Reliance Link
Hey gang - sorry. Here are the instructions for Self-Reliance.
1. Highlight any WORDS you aren't sure about
2. Highlight in another color any ALLUSIONS
3. Highlight in another color any good QUOTES that you really like.
4. Highlight or circle any references to NATURE.
If you have trouble understanding, you can use this link (http://www.youmeworks.com/self_reliance_translated.html) - it's a modern day version.
1. Highlight any WORDS you aren't sure about
2. Highlight in another color any ALLUSIONS
3. Highlight in another color any good QUOTES that you really like.
4. Highlight or circle any references to NATURE.
If you have trouble understanding, you can use this link (http://www.youmeworks.com/self_reliance_translated.html) - it's a modern day version.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Snow Day Assignments! :)
Hey gang! Before you get too excited about making snowmen, make sure you complete these assignments. Feel free to sip on some hot chocolate while you work :)
1. Go to THIS LINK and print out "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
2. THEN - go to THIS LINK and download and print the TPCASTT form (both pages).
3. Use the TPCASTT guide to help you understand the poem - complete it as you read. Bring the filled-out TPCASTT sheet to class on Tuesday.
4. Read THIS ARTICLE on transcendentalism - be prepared for a short quiz addressing WHAT exactly transcendentalism is & what they believed. (Note: This article is written by a women's studies professor, so there is a little bit of bias. Sorry, Jon & Ben...)
1. Go to THIS LINK and print out "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
2. THEN - go to THIS LINK and download and print the TPCASTT form (both pages).
3. Use the TPCASTT guide to help you understand the poem - complete it as you read. Bring the filled-out TPCASTT sheet to class on Tuesday.
4. Read THIS ARTICLE on transcendentalism - be prepared for a short quiz addressing WHAT exactly transcendentalism is & what they believed. (Note: This article is written by a women's studies professor, so there is a little bit of bias. Sorry, Jon & Ben...)
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Hoemwork for Friday, 10/30
Click on this link to get to the online version of Masque of the Red Death. Copy and paste the text into a word processing document.
Print it out, read it and MARK your copy with the following:
- examples of allusion
- mentions of colors
- types of irony (verbal, dramatic, and situational)
Print it out, read it and MARK your copy with the following:
- examples of allusion
- mentions of colors
- types of irony (verbal, dramatic, and situational)
Monday, October 26, 2009
Homework for Tuesday, 10/27
Read The Bells (and the introductory material) by Edgar Allan Poe. Check out the questions at the end of the chapter and think about the answers, don't write them down. BUT be prepared to answer them....
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Homework for Friday, 10/23
For Friday:
WHOOPS! My bad - I said look up Emerson quotes below but said Thoreau in class. My bad - I'd prefer you to look up Thoreau, but if you already looked up an Emerson quote that is okay.
Look upRalph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau quotes/quotations. Find one that you really like and bring it to class on Friday.
THEN. Look up information on either Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, or William Cullen Bryant. You may use Wikipedia to help you get started. Find out 3 interesting facts about one of these men (you choose who you want to research) *AND* get the sources for these facts (should be credible, scholarly websites, books, or articles - not Jim Bob's World o' Waldo Emerson)
WHOOPS! My bad - I said look up Emerson quotes below but said Thoreau in class. My bad - I'd prefer you to look up Thoreau, but if you already looked up an Emerson quote that is okay.
Look up
THEN. Look up information on either Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, or William Cullen Bryant. You may use Wikipedia to help you get started. Find out 3 interesting facts about one of these men (you choose who you want to research) *AND* get the sources for these facts (should be credible, scholarly websites, books, or articles - not Jim Bob's World o' Waldo Emerson)
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Homework for Tuesday, 10/20
Those of you who weren't in class on Friday, we modified the test a little bit. You're going to do this last portion at home.
This is an Advanced Placement English exam question. Set a timer for 45 minutes, read the question, and HAND-WRITE your answer. It is to be written in essay format (introduction, body, conclusion). Do not use specific quotations from the book - just your own knowledge of the text is fine.
Here is the question:
One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in The Scarlet Letter struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.
There is no length requirement on this essay - however, you should be able to plan and complete it in a 45 minute time period. Good luck!
This is an Advanced Placement English exam question. Set a timer for 45 minutes, read the question, and HAND-WRITE your answer. It is to be written in essay format (introduction, body, conclusion). Do not use specific quotations from the book - just your own knowledge of the text is fine.
Here is the question:
One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in The Scarlet Letter struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.
There is no length requirement on this essay - however, you should be able to plan and complete it in a 45 minute time period. Good luck!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Homework for Friday, 10/16
Hey gang - your homework is to finish your study guide. If you need help with one of the answers, try your best and then contact a classmate or use another resource.
This test is going to be tough, I'm not going to lie. There will be LOTS of quotations. One thing I forgot to mention is that there will be some literary terms like allusion, dramatic irony, and foreshadowing in there.
If you weren't there on Tuesday, click here to access the study guide passed out in class.
This test is going to be tough, I'm not going to lie. There will be LOTS of quotations. One thing I forgot to mention is that there will be some literary terms like allusion, dramatic irony, and foreshadowing in there.
If you weren't there on Tuesday, click here to access the study guide passed out in class.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Homework for Tuesday, 10/13
Finish The Scarlet Letter in order to answer the question - do Hester and Arthur get to spend eternity together?
Please also finish your study guide.
Please also finish your study guide.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Homework for Friday, 10/9
Finish Chapter 21 (the one we started in class) to make a "chilling" discovery, then read Ch. 22. Make sure you're filling out your study guide as we go along!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Homework for Tuesday, 10/6
Finish Ch. 19-20 of Scarlet Letter. Make sure you're filling out your study guide (handed out in class) as you go - please fill out the information from the chapters we covered before you got the study guide :)
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Homework for Friday, 10/2
Read Chapters 17-18 - completed study guides from Chapters 9-15 are due on Friday. I'll have new study guides for you!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Homework for Friday, 9/25
Read Chapter 11-13 of the Scarlet Letter - fill out your Active Reading organizer as you go.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Homework for Monday, 9/21
Hey gang, read Chapters 9-10 of Scarlet Letter. Fill out the Active Reading portion of your study guide, but only for Chapters 9-10. :) Be prepared for potential quizzification....
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Homework for Friday, 9/18
Just a reminder - you should have finished Chapters 6-8 of Scarlet Letter by FridayYou should also fill out the questions on the study guide :) You should also write a 2-3 sentence summary for chapters 2-8. Tell what major events take place in each chapter - if a friend needed to know what happened, what would you tell them?
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Homework for Monday, 9/14
Read Chapters 4-5 of The Scarlet Letter. As you read, fill out details for the characters on the second page of your study guide. Be prepared for a little reading quiz on Tuesday....it'll help to know your characters!!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Homework for Friday, 9/11
1. Read Chapter 1 of The Scarlet Letter and look for descriptive words. Draw a picture based on the descriptive words. I won't grade you on your artistic talent, but you should present a product that shows good effort and attention to the details of the passage. Your finished drawing should be on a sheet of 8 and 1/2 by 11 inch paper (regular printer paper) and should include color (because the author did!)
2. Read the guide "Before You Read..." handed out in class.
3. Read Chapter 2 - try to focus on the descriptive words instead of getting caught up in the heavy language :) There might be a little quizzy-quiz on Friday...
2. Read the guide "Before You Read..." handed out in class.
3. Read Chapter 2 - try to focus on the descriptive words instead of getting caught up in the heavy language :) There might be a little quizzy-quiz on Friday...
Thursday, September 3, 2009
THIS JUST IN.
Major schedule changes coming up. If you've already read the intro to Frederick Douglass' autobiography, pat yourself on the back. If not, then don't worry about it!
Don't forget to view the Dec. of Independence (linked below) and fill out the worksheet (linked below)
Don't forget to view the Dec. of Independence (linked below) and fill out the worksheet (linked below)
Dec. of Independence wkst
Click HERE to get the Declaration Worksheet to help you with today's homework.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Course Calendar and Declaration
The current course calendar is linked to the left under Useful Links
Please watch the Declaration of Independence (embedded below) - worksheet for Thursday is coming soon!
Please watch the Declaration of Independence (embedded below) - worksheet for Thursday is coming soon!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Homework for Monday, 8/31
In your literature textbook, read the sections "The Puritan Tradition" and "The New Nation", beginning on p. xvi. Answer the following questions and BRING THEM TO CLASS on Tuesday (don't answer in the comments!)
Then read p. 385 - the introduction to Patrick Henry's speech in the Virgina Convention.
Questions:
1. After reading this section about the Puritans, what sentences/phrases do you think support the background information and text of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"? Please quote at least one sentence from today's reading and support your answer with ideas from your reading and Friday's Socratic Seminar.
2. What did you think about the "contradictions" of ideas of equality described in the reading? What bias do you find in the section "The New Nation"?
Then read p. 385 - the introduction to Patrick Henry's speech in the Virgina Convention.
Questions:
1. After reading this section about the Puritans, what sentences/phrases do you think support the background information and text of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"? Please quote at least one sentence from today's reading and support your answer with ideas from your reading and Friday's Socratic Seminar.
2. What did you think about the "contradictions" of ideas of equality described in the reading? What bias do you find in the section "The New Nation"?
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Monday's homework!
Coming soon to a blog near you. Great job on the Socratic Seminar on Friday - you guys rocked and came up with a lot of stuff I hadn't even thought of! :)
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Guidance!
Okay gang, I've had some questions on what in the world I want you to do for tomorrow.
I want you to write 3-4 questions using higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (in other words, not just "Who was Jonathan Edwards" but more complex stuff). I'm posting some links here to help you write questions:
Link #1 (will download a PDF file)
Link #2
The questions are to be about either the background info you read, the actual text of "Sinners", or both (I would like you to write at least ONE questions for each work...in other words, don't write all your questions based on the background info).
Think of this - if I was making an essay test for "Sinners" - what might I ask you? Then use that information to help you write your own questions.
BY THE WAY - when you type your comments/responses, I'd recommend typing them up in a program like Microsoft Word or something FIRST, then copy and paste it into the comment form. I know some of you guys have been having some troubles with the website crashing. I may look into getting another blog. Stay tuned.
I want you to write 3-4 questions using higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (in other words, not just "Who was Jonathan Edwards" but more complex stuff). I'm posting some links here to help you write questions:
Link #1 (will download a PDF file)
Link #2
The questions are to be about either the background info you read, the actual text of "Sinners", or both (I would like you to write at least ONE questions for each work...in other words, don't write all your questions based on the background info).
Think of this - if I was making an essay test for "Sinners" - what might I ask you? Then use that information to help you write your own questions.
BY THE WAY - when you type your comments/responses, I'd recommend typing them up in a program like Microsoft Word or something FIRST, then copy and paste it into the comment form. I know some of you guys have been having some troubles with the website crashing. I may look into getting another blog. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God
Background Information: Read this background information in preparation for reading the actual sermon (Click Here to access the reading assigned for Thursday). Remember, you'll need to prepare 3-4 questions or points to use in a Socratic Seminar for Friday. Watch for tone (attitude), style, metaphors!, and the information from the introduction. Use your Bloom's Taxonomy and Socratic Seminar handout to help you write the questions. (Reminder - you need to write questions using the top 3 levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, not the bottom three!)
The Puritans believed that the real power of a sermon was to be found in its words, rather than its delivery. Since the words were thought to be divinely inspired, it was believed that the words alone carried enough power to affect the congregation. As the preacher was simply a flawed agent of God’s work, his presentation of the sermon was expected to be as unadorned as possible, so that the delivery of the sermon would not distract listeners from the words. Preachers usually spoke their sermons in a deliberate monotone. Consider this effect as you read “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
Compiled by Chris Torino, information from www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/sermstru.htm
Jonathan Edwards’ infamous “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was first preached on July 8th, 1741 at the height of New England’s first Great Awakening. Since that time, the sermon has been re-preached, published, and widely circulated. “Sinners” has become the very stuff of American legend; it is one of the most anthologized pieces of writing in America, and it has long been a part of American history and literature curricula. The popularity of the sermon is, however, a mixed blessing. While the sermon’s circulation has fortunately acquainted many Americans with the impressive legacy of Jonathan Edwards, the way in which the sermon is often read or taught has significantly skewed the popular understanding of Edwards and his Puritan heritage in an unfairly negative direction.
The subjects touched upon in the sermon – namely, human sinfulness, the uncertainty of existence, God’s ultimate power over salvation, the need for a Christian lifestyle, the chance of redemption, and the importance of conversion – were very familiar to New England churchgoers. When Edwards preached “Sinners,” the Great Awakening (The term is...used...to refer to American religious revivalism that the Protestant Reformation inspired during and after the 1500s, as well as to identify general religious trends within distinctly U.S. religious culture -- Wikipedia.org) was fully underway, and the doctrinal notion of “conversion” was a topic with which churchgoers were eminently familiar. According to Puritan doctrine, the process of conversion was more complicated than simply professing allegiance to a church; conversion involved the influence of divine grace, which could cause a person to be truly awakened to God and Christianity. Once converted, a person had a chance of salvation, but only God could induce conversion.
The message of “Sinners” was a familiar and important one for the Puritans. They couldn’t know whether they were truly converted, and they couldn’t make their conversion happen; the most they could do, as Edwards implied, was to make their conversion more likely by living a truly Christian life, characterized by both internal thought and external action. In order to foster the notion that humans could not merit their own conversion or salvation, Edwards emphasized in “Sinners” the fact that God had inexplicably chosen not to cast many sinners into hell. Through “Sinners,” Edwards attempted to demonstrate that God was omnipotent and beyond human understanding, an assertion that defied the tendency to anthropomorphize God and to impose human logic upon divine actions. Edwards emphasized the importance of the New Birth, which entailed living a Christian life, which would serve the dual purpose of bringing glory to God (which was an assumed purpose of human existence) and making one’s conversion more likely. To ignore the Christian tenets that God had outlined for the benefit of humanity would be, Edwards implied, an affront to God that would be deserving of God’s wrath. In order to awaken his audience to the power of God, Edwards evoked vivid images of God’s wrath, employing fierce metaphors drawn from the Bible and from his own work.
Upon reading “Sinners,” modern readers might assume that Edwards was a particularly angry or vengeful man, but it is important to remember that “Sinners” was simply a product of a genre – it was fire-and-brimstone, preaching at its most eloquent and effective. Readers may be shocked to learn that it was Edwards’ habit to preach his sermons in a measured monotone, which he did in the hopes that his own intonations would not distract from the divine messages being conveyed by the words of the sermon. We can, therefore, be fairly sure that “Sinners” was not screamed at the many audiences that it was preached to. It is also important to remember that only a fraction of Edwards’ sermons fall into the fire-and-brimstone category. This genre was, for Edwards, the exception rather than the rule. Other of Edwards’ sermons focused on topics such as the love of God, the wonder of Christ, and the glory of the natural world.
Upon reading “Sinners,” modern readers might also be inclined towards the belief that the sermon is simply a ‘holier than thou’ treatise of condemnation. However, one must remember that Edwards saw preaching as a form of prophesying, of doing God’s will and helping humanity by conveying God’s message to the world in an effective manner. The evocative images of hell and the fire-and-brimstone style, although unsavory, would have been a means to this end. And one has only to read Edwards autobiographical “Personal Narrative” to discover that he was vastly unsure of his own conversion and amply convinced of his exceptional sinfulness and unworthiness. In preaching “Sinners,” Edwards was attempting to help listeners and readers by awakening them to the horrible truths over which he had long agonized. And when Edwards speaks emphatically of the possibility of one parishioner being condemned to hell, readers can see Edwards’ own compassion and humanity on full display.
Questions:
1. Why would some people see Edwards' sermon as negative in tone?
2. After reading the background information, what personal reasons might have motivated Edwards to choose this topic?
3. What was surprising about the delivery of Puritan sermons?
The Puritans believed that the real power of a sermon was to be found in its words, rather than its delivery. Since the words were thought to be divinely inspired, it was believed that the words alone carried enough power to affect the congregation. As the preacher was simply a flawed agent of God’s work, his presentation of the sermon was expected to be as unadorned as possible, so that the delivery of the sermon would not distract listeners from the words. Preachers usually spoke their sermons in a deliberate monotone. Consider this effect as you read “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
Compiled by Chris Torino, information from www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/sermstru.htm
Jonathan Edwards’ infamous “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was first preached on July 8th, 1741 at the height of New England’s first Great Awakening. Since that time, the sermon has been re-preached, published, and widely circulated. “Sinners” has become the very stuff of American legend; it is one of the most anthologized pieces of writing in America, and it has long been a part of American history and literature curricula. The popularity of the sermon is, however, a mixed blessing. While the sermon’s circulation has fortunately acquainted many Americans with the impressive legacy of Jonathan Edwards, the way in which the sermon is often read or taught has significantly skewed the popular understanding of Edwards and his Puritan heritage in an unfairly negative direction.
The subjects touched upon in the sermon – namely, human sinfulness, the uncertainty of existence, God’s ultimate power over salvation, the need for a Christian lifestyle, the chance of redemption, and the importance of conversion – were very familiar to New England churchgoers. When Edwards preached “Sinners,” the Great Awakening (The term is...used...to refer to American religious revivalism that the Protestant Reformation inspired during and after the 1500s, as well as to identify general religious trends within distinctly U.S. religious culture -- Wikipedia.org) was fully underway, and the doctrinal notion of “conversion” was a topic with which churchgoers were eminently familiar. According to Puritan doctrine, the process of conversion was more complicated than simply professing allegiance to a church; conversion involved the influence of divine grace, which could cause a person to be truly awakened to God and Christianity. Once converted, a person had a chance of salvation, but only God could induce conversion.
The message of “Sinners” was a familiar and important one for the Puritans. They couldn’t know whether they were truly converted, and they couldn’t make their conversion happen; the most they could do, as Edwards implied, was to make their conversion more likely by living a truly Christian life, characterized by both internal thought and external action. In order to foster the notion that humans could not merit their own conversion or salvation, Edwards emphasized in “Sinners” the fact that God had inexplicably chosen not to cast many sinners into hell. Through “Sinners,” Edwards attempted to demonstrate that God was omnipotent and beyond human understanding, an assertion that defied the tendency to anthropomorphize God and to impose human logic upon divine actions. Edwards emphasized the importance of the New Birth, which entailed living a Christian life, which would serve the dual purpose of bringing glory to God (which was an assumed purpose of human existence) and making one’s conversion more likely. To ignore the Christian tenets that God had outlined for the benefit of humanity would be, Edwards implied, an affront to God that would be deserving of God’s wrath. In order to awaken his audience to the power of God, Edwards evoked vivid images of God’s wrath, employing fierce metaphors drawn from the Bible and from his own work.
Upon reading “Sinners,” modern readers might assume that Edwards was a particularly angry or vengeful man, but it is important to remember that “Sinners” was simply a product of a genre – it was fire-and-brimstone, preaching at its most eloquent and effective. Readers may be shocked to learn that it was Edwards’ habit to preach his sermons in a measured monotone, which he did in the hopes that his own intonations would not distract from the divine messages being conveyed by the words of the sermon. We can, therefore, be fairly sure that “Sinners” was not screamed at the many audiences that it was preached to. It is also important to remember that only a fraction of Edwards’ sermons fall into the fire-and-brimstone category. This genre was, for Edwards, the exception rather than the rule. Other of Edwards’ sermons focused on topics such as the love of God, the wonder of Christ, and the glory of the natural world.
Upon reading “Sinners,” modern readers might also be inclined towards the belief that the sermon is simply a ‘holier than thou’ treatise of condemnation. However, one must remember that Edwards saw preaching as a form of prophesying, of doing God’s will and helping humanity by conveying God’s message to the world in an effective manner. The evocative images of hell and the fire-and-brimstone style, although unsavory, would have been a means to this end. And one has only to read Edwards autobiographical “Personal Narrative” to discover that he was vastly unsure of his own conversion and amply convinced of his exceptional sinfulness and unworthiness. In preaching “Sinners,” Edwards was attempting to help listeners and readers by awakening them to the horrible truths over which he had long agonized. And when Edwards speaks emphatically of the possibility of one parishioner being condemned to hell, readers can see Edwards’ own compassion and humanity on full display.
Questions:
1. Why would some people see Edwards' sermon as negative in tone?
2. After reading the background information, what personal reasons might have motivated Edwards to choose this topic?
3. What was surprising about the delivery of Puritan sermons?
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Legends Project
In class on Friday, we'll be talking about your Legend project (due NEXT Friday!). As part of your grade, you'll be asked to format your paper correctly using MLA Formatting. If you don't know what in the world that is, NEVER FEAR! Here's a link to show you exactly what you need to know. If you can't figure out how to do some of this stuff, use the help program in the word processing program you use on your computer OR try googling it OR e-mail me! :)
Online Writing Lab: Paper Formatting
Online Writing Lab: Paper Formatting
Monday, August 17, 2009
First Assignment!
Your assignment, should you choose to accept it (and you'd better), is to read the section Literature, History, and the American Experience (only pages xiv and xv). Answer the following questions in a comment below and respond to at least one other student's comment (make sure you use a name I can recognize so that you can get credit for the assignment, and please include the name of the student to whom you are responding).
Questions:
1. Evaluate this selection for any type of bias. Which group of people does the selection favor?
2. Select a different point of view and describe how the information would change if told from that point of view.
3. What is the tone of this selection (especially the second page)? Use different words from those other students have already used :)
Ready? GO! If you don't understand the question, post what you don't understand about it in a comment below and we'll help you!
Questions:
1. Evaluate this selection for any type of bias. Which group of people does the selection favor?
2. Select a different point of view and describe how the information would change if told from that point of view.
3. What is the tone of this selection (especially the second page)? Use different words from those other students have already used :)
Ready? GO! If you don't understand the question, post what you don't understand about it in a comment below and we'll help you!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
In the beginning...
Here is the site we'll use for class communication. You can comment on homework, the day's readings, class discussions, etc. More information about how to use this site will be in class on Day One.
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