Portfolio Reflection Guiding Questions

Today you received back your portfolios from this year. Here were the guiding questions for your reflective writing:

1. Which piece of writing are you most proud of this year? Why?

2. In looking at these artifacts, think about your writing process and confidence. Have they changed over the course of this year? Do you think your writing or writing process have improved? What is your evidence for such changes? Have you developed a reliable approach to writing that helps you generate something good?

3. Reread your "Value of Literature" essay. Do you still agree with yourself? What new or different value do you see in reading literature?

4. Consider the texts we read this year for this class. Which of these did you enjoy? Why? Which didn't you enjoy? Why? What were the major themes or big ideas you will take with you?

Calendar & Final

We have just two weeks left! HERE is the calendar and an explanation of your final. This final is an essay or piece of writing that offers you an opportunity to say goodbye to high school (forever!). It should be reflective, personal and thoughtful. I hope it is also a meaningful final assignment.

Steve Jobs' Commencement Address

Today we watched Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address:



In our blue books we wrote reflectively:
What are the three important moments or relationships in your life that have shaped who you are today? 

This weekend...

continue work on your Outside Reading Project. It is due fully finished Friday, May 20th. You will share them with your classmates on that day.

Outside Reading -- PROJECT

You should now have finished your Outside Reading book! This week we begin work on the project for your book. This project is meant to be creative. HERE are some ideas.

This project is due Friday, May 20th.

Test Tomorrow!

Don't forget to study so you feel prepared for tomorrow's test.

Seminar Tomorrow, Exam Wednesday

Tomorrow is our last seminar for The Awakening. You should be fully finished with the book by then. In order to participate you must also complete some questions. HERE are the directions. This document also contains the study guide for your exam on Wednesday.

Important Date Reminders

The Awakening synthesis response (due two days ago) -- write reflectively about issues in feminism, The Awakening and any other text we have studied during this unit. Show me your deep thinking around these issues, using specific reference to texts.

Finish The Awakening -- due Tuesday, April 26th (last seminar that day)

Naturalism & The Awakening EXAM -- Wednesday, April 27th

Finish your selected outside reading book -- due Monday, May 2nd

Wuthering Heights essay rewrites -- due Monday, May 2nd 

AP Exam -- Wednesday, May 4th

My Last Duchess

Today we spent time reading and discussing Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess."

In groups you discussed:

• What are the new words you need to define in order to make meaning of this poem?
• What do you notice about poetic form?
• Who is the speaker of this poem and to whom is he speaking? What are the two of them negotiating at the end of the poem? 
• They are looking at a painting -- who is featured in this painting? Where is this painting hung?
• What are the subtle suggestions about the poem's narrator? What does his monologue reveal about his anxieties?
• What might have happened to the last Duchess? 
• What connections can you make to The Awakening?

This is a really creepy poem once you spend time considering it. If you like it, Browning has another one about a woman who is punished by her lover (Porphyria's Lover).


Tomorrow is Seminar #4. You should be read through the end of chapter 30. In addition to reading, your assignment is to select three passages that you find important and worth discussion tomorrow. Come ready with page numbers, comments and questions for the group.

Seminar Today & Writing Assignment

Today was Seminar 3 for The Awakening and Thursday is Seminar 4. Both of these days we will discuss the connections between The Awakening and the feminist movements.

After your seminars, you will write responsively about the readings and your classmates comments. HERE are the optional prompts and the writing directions.

Be sure to read!

You should be finished through chapter 24 of The Awakening tomorrow!

Feminism, Masculinity & The Awakening

Today you will split into groups to investigate various excerpts and issues surrounding the different feminist movements. There is no one feminism but a variety of ways that men and women have talked about women's rights over the last several decades.

Directions: As you read your assigned materials, take notes. Pull out 2-3 quotes from each source that you feel are essential for understanding that source. Write down connections to "The Awakening" and any other reactions or connections you may have. If you have time, discuss what you watched/read with your group. Your goal is to arrive at a deeper insight and prepare comments for tomorrow.

I will collect your notes. You should plan to draw upon your insights during our seminar, tomorrow.


Group 1: Women's Suffrage

• Overview of the suffrage movement
• Lucy Burns and American Women's Suffrage (video)
• Primary Sources from the Suffrage Movement -- carefully consider the images and what they communicate about the movement
• 7 Things You May Not Know About the Women's Suffrage Movement

Group 2: Betty Friedan and the "feminine mystique"

• Excerpt from Friedan's 1963 Feminine Mystique 
• Read the Friedan excerpt (first three pages of the doc) 
• Read Phyllis Schlafly's response to the women's movement (page 12)
• Read the very last page of the document ("The Equal Rights Amendment")
• Criticism of Friedan

Group 3: Bell Hooks & Black Feminism

• Excerpt from Shaping Feminist Theory (1984)
• Feminism is for Everybody (2000) -- Read the Introduction ("Come Closer to Feminism") and Chapter 1 ("Feminist Politics: Where We Stand")

Group 4: Women and Work in Contemporary American

• Sheryl Sandberg's TED Talk: "Why we have too few women leaders"
• The Problems of "Leaning In"
• Adela Baker's essay "The College Essay I Cannot Submit"

Group 5: The Crisis of Masculinity

• 19th Century Attempts to Assert Masculinity (beards!!!)
• "Why Traditional Manhood is Killing Us" by Mark Greene
• Male Identity Crisis 

For Monday

I hope you all are enjoying a restful break! For Monday, please bring your copy of The Awakening and your outside reading book. You will need to read The Awakening chapters 13-16 but if you finish you have time to read your other book. It should be a pretty relaxing week in class as we weave through a week of testing for the juniors.

DIA pics

I had such a fun time with you at the DIA. Here are some of the pictures from that day. If you took other pictures and wish to share them, email me!

Love you guys!

Outside Reading Book

Today is our Outside Reading Day! You should have a copy of your selected book and we will enjoy a luxurious hour of reading.

Remember to keep up with reading this book. It is due fully read by Monday, May 2nd.

You have no homework over break unless you are making up missed work. Have a great break!

The Awakening Seminar 2 Today!

Today we will have our second seminar about "The Awakening." You should now have read through the end of chapter 12 and also taken extensive notes (which I will collect).

Tomorrow (Friday) please bring your Outside Reading book. You will get points for having the book in hand and for reading throughout the hour.

Weekend Homework

Please be sure you are read through the end of chapter 8 of the Awakening and that you have taken careful notes. If you have already done this, you have no homework!

You also need a physical copy of your outside reading book on Monday.

The Awakening Calendar & Digital Text Copy

HERE is a PDF version of Kate Chopin's The Awakening should you need it on the go!

HERE is our unit calendar.

I will be out of the classroom Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. You job is to read chapters 2-8 by Thursday. You should also take careful notes using THIS notetaker.

On Thursday (March 24th) we will have a seminar discussion. Your notes and deep thinking will help ensure a productive and interesting conversation!

DON'T FORGET! You need to bring your permission slip and $10 by Thursday. You also need a copy of your Outside Reading Book this Thursday.

Today: Women's Rights & Naturalism

We began today by discussing the advice columns to young ladies of the early 20th Century, written by Dorothy Dix.

Then you had a little mini-lecture from me about Naturalism (our next literary period).

HERE are the slides from today. Please study these and understand the key differences between the Romanticism and Naturalism literary movements!

HERE is more great information about American Naturalism.

The great news: NO HOMEWORK THIS WEEKEND! Get a copy of your outside reading book. You must bring a copy next Friday.

yes, I'm going to keep posting pictures of suffragettes

The Women's Movement

Your homework for Friday is to read the advice columns by Dorothy Dix (see handouts from class).

Come tomorrow ready to talk about women and women's rights in American (yipee)!