PREMIER CURRICULUM SERIES
Based on the Sunshine State Standards for Secondary Education,
established by the State of Florida, Department of Education
ENGLISH 1
Author: Patrick McCann
Copyright 2009
Revision Date:12/2009
INSTRUCTIONS
Welcome to your Continental Academy course. As you read through the text book you
will see that it is made up of the individual lessons listed in the Course Outline. Each
lesson is divided into various sub-topics. As you read through the material you will see
certain important sentences and phrases that are highlighted in yellow (printing black &
white appears as grey highlight.) Bold, blue print is used to emphasize topics such as
names or historical events (it appears Bold when printed in black and white.) Important
Information in tables and charts is highlighted for emphasis. At the end of each lesson are
practice questions with answers. You will progress through this course one lesson at a
time, at your own pace.
First, study the lesson thoroughly. (You can print the entire text book or one lesson at a
time to assist you in the study process.) Then, complete the lesson reviews printed at the
end of the lesson and carefully check your answers. When you are ready, complete the
10-question lesson assignment at the www.ContinentalAcademy.net web site.
(Remember, when you begin a lesson assignment, you may skip a question, but you must
complete the 10 question lesson assignment in its entirety.) You will find notes online
entitled “Things to Remember”, in the Textbook/Supplement portal which can be printed
for your convenience.
All lesson assignments are open-book. Continue working on the lessons at your own
pace until you have finished all lesson assignments for this course.
When you have completed and passed all lesson assignments for this course, complete
the End of Course Examination on-line. Once you pass this exam, the average of your
grades for all your lesson assignments for this course will determine your final course
grade.
If you need help understanding any part of the lesson, practice questions, or this
procedure:
 Click on the “Send a Message to the Guidance Department” link at the top of the
right side of the home page
 Type your question in the field provided
 Then, click on the “Send” button
 You will receive a response within ONE BUSINESS DAY
ENGLISH 1
About the Author…
Mr. Patrick McCann taught English (Language and Literature) 9 through 12 for the
past 13 years in the Prince Georges County (MD) school system. He holds B.A.’s from
the University of Maryland (College Park) in English (1980) and English Education
(1991).
Mr. McCann was a Master Teacher in the Intel Teach to the Future Technology
Program in 2002 and 2003. Previously, Mr. McCann lectured numerous sessions of
“African-American Culture” to fellow teachers in Prince Georges County, MD. His
Advanced Placement Certificate in teaching is current through June, 2009.
________________________________________________________________________
English 1
by Patrick McCann
Copyright 2008 Continental Academy
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
For the Continental Academy Premiere Curriculum Series
Course: 1001310
Published by
Continental Academy
3241 Executive Way
Miramar, FL 33025
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ENGLISH 1
Dear Student,
Welcome to English 1, your first high school Language Arts class. We hope
that you enjoy this class! We want to help you practice and improve your
communication skills (reading, writing, listening, viewing, speaking, and
computer use).
In the class, you will experience and respond to a broad variety of literature
and literary forms. You will read short stories and poems, write paragraphs and
essays, and view a movie adaptation of a famous play. It’s a good idea for you to
preview the class by skimming through the packet. Once you’re ready, let’s
begin!
Patrick F. McCann
For Continental Academy
Editor’s note: None of the material that you are asked to write is to be
submitted. It is to enhance your learning experience and prepare you for
completing the graded assignments and the essay, Answers to questions are
provided at the end of the textbook.
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ENGLISH 1
OUTLINE FOR ENGLISH 1
Lesson 1 - Introduction to Language Arts
What is Language?
Learning Styles
Vocabulary Skills
Computer Literacy
Lesson Review
7
Lesson II - Reading Strategies
Enjoying and Understanding What You Read
Pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading strategies
Main Ideas
Predicting
“The Diamond Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant
Graphic Organizers and Answering Questions
11
Lesson III - The Writing Process
Writing as a Process
Pre-writing
Paragraph of Persuasion
Moving from Pre-writing to Rough Draft
Proof-reading and Re-writing
Reviewing the Writing Process
Active and Passive Voice
Independent and Dependent Clauses
Apostrophe Usage
25
Lesson IV - Elements of Literature
Characters
“Mother” by Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin)
Spotlight on the Author -- James Joyce
Two Stories by James Joyce (Araby” and Eveline”)
Creative Writing – Writing Eveline’s Future
37
Lesson V - Poetry and Drama
61
Poetic vocabulary
“Trees” by Joyce Kilmer
“We Alone” by Alice Walker
“Harlem” and “Dreams” by Langston Hughes
Figurative Language – Metaphors and Similes
“The Prologue” to Romeo and Juliet
Viewing A Raisin In the Sun or Romeo and Juliet
Writing Assignment – Story Map and Summary of Movie-viewing
Course Objectives
77
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LESSON I
INTRODUCTION
TO
LANGUAGE ARTS
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What is ‘language’? It is how we communicate! The word language comes
from the Latin word ‘lingua’, meaning tongue.
Speaking, however, is not the only way we communicate. Look at the six (6)
pictures on the previous page. Language arts include reading, writing, viewing,
listening, speaking, and using electronic media.
Vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar are primary elements in languages.
The words that we speak, the way that we pronounce those words, and put them
together in a sentence enable us to communicate. Developing vocabulary skills,
enunciating effectively, and constructing sentences are necessary in today’s world.
Identify your main learning style
People learn in different ways, and use different senses (sight, hearing, seeing,
etc) when they communicate. Do you know your learning style? Suppose that you
want to learn the latest news. You can:
• read the newspaper
• watch/listen to the TV
• get on the computer
• listen to the radio
• get on the phone/talk to the neighbors
There are many ways for you to gather and disseminate knowledge and
information. The following websites can help you find your preferred learning style,
and identify strategies for learning:
#1 http://www.chaminade.org/inspire/learnstl.htm (1/09/2005)
#2 http://faculty.deanza.edu/alvesdelimadiana/stories/storyReader$144
a) Circle your preferred learning style, based on viewing website #1.
visual
auditory
kinesthetic/tactile
b) Identify strategies from your preferred learning style in website
#2 that you will attempt to use in this course.
_______________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Increasing Vocabulary Skills
The best way to increase your vocabulary is to read. Other specific ways of
learning vocabulary include:
A. Study the meanings of roots, prefixes, and suffixes
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ENGLISH 1
Many English words and word parts originate from Latin and Greek
vocabulary. Word parts include prefixes, roots, and suffixes. A root is the basic
meaning of the word. Prefixes (and suffixes) are groups of letters added to the
beginning (or end) of a word that change how that word is used.
‘distasteful’
Prefix: ‘ dis’
Root: ‘taste’
Suffix: ‘ful’
The root ‘taste’ contains the basic meaning. The prefix ‘dis’ means not. The
suffix ‘ful’ means full. ‘Distasteful’-- ‘full of no taste’.
B. Looking at words ‘in context’
Another way to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word is to notice
the other words (text) in the sentence. They give clues to meaning.
Example: “The teacher made students sit as immobile as furniture.”
Furniture does not move. This is a clue to the meaning of ‘immobile’. One
can also use knowledge of the prefix ‘im’ (not) and the root ‘mobile’ to
understanding its meaning as ‘not moving’.
C. Using a dictionary or Roget’s Thesaurus
Keep a dictionary handy when reading and writing. Some dictionaries give
examples of how to use a certain word in a sentence. A thesaurus provides synonyms
(words with similar meanings) to help the writer or speaker use a variety of words.
To find synonyms online (in Microsoft Word), go to ‘Tools’, ‘Language’, then
‘Thesaurus’).
COMPUTER LITERACY
Moving from this…
to this!
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ENGLISH 1
Computer literacy is essential for today’s learner. You should be accessing this course
both on paper and online. If you do not have a computer available, access one as soon as
you can. A good place to start is at your local public library.
We begin with a short online vocabulary activity to assist you in finding synonyms
(words with similar meanings, or ‘similar names’) for words that you will want to use to
make your writing more varied and wide-ranging.
Computer Activity #1 -- Finding synonyms
Place your cursor on this word --> ‘language’. Go up to your toolbar and
click ‘Tools’, then Language’, then ‘Thesaurus’. Three meanings arise:
‘verbal communication’, ‘tongue’, and ‘words’. Now, go to ‘tongue’. Note 6
synonyms listed:
‘idiom’, ‘lingo’, ‘foreign language’, ‘dialect’, ‘patois’, ‘vernacular’
Your turn:
Place your cursor on ‘grammar’. Go to ‘Tools’, ‘Language’, ‘Thesaurus’.
What synonyms do you find? a.__________________
b. ___________ ______________ c. _____________ _________
Lesson I Review
1. What are the three basic elements of a language? _____________,
__________________________, and _________________________.
2. Another word/term for grammar is _________________________.
3. List three ways to learn vocabulary
A. ___________________________________________________
B. ___________________________________________________
C. ___________________________________________________
4. Which of the following contains the main meaning of a word?
(Circle the correct answer.)
prefix
root
suffix
5. What is the prefix in the word ‘prefix’? ____________
6. What is the root word in the word ‘prefix’? __________________
7. What is the suffix in the word ‘prefix’? ______________________
8. Define synonyms. _________________________________________
9. How does one find synonyms online? ________________________
10. Identify the six different areas of communication skills.
________________________________________________________
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LESSON II
READING
STRATEGIES
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ENGLISH 1
ENJOYING AND UNDERSTANDING WHAT YOU READ
It you don’t enjoy reading, you will never become a good reader.
Find something that you like to read (novels, short stories, poems,
newspapers) and read it!
If you don’t understand a sentence (or an entire passage) due to certain words,
find out what those words mean. Sometimes you might recognize a word, but don’t
comprehend it. Research the meaning of the word the first time that you encounter it.
STRATEGIES AND TIPS FOR READING
Reading, just like writing, is a process. There are many strategies to improve
our reading skills and gain more from what we read. These include pre-reading,
during reading, and post-reading strategies. We will introduce a few of them in
this packet, including vocabulary exercises, making predictions, graphic organizers.
Some during reading strategies include:
1. Take Notes - If it is material that you can write on, do so. Use a
highlighter, underline, mark with an * (asterisk).
2. Question – When a word, statement, or action is unclear,
question it. It may become clear later.
3. Connect – Make connections with people, places, and things
you know.
4. Clarify Watch for answers to your earlier questions.
5. Evaluate – Respond to what you read. Draw conclusions
about characters, actions, and the whole story.
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MAIN IDEAS, DETAILS, ASSUMPTIONS AND
INCORRECT FACTS
Unskilled readers sometimes confuse the main idea of a passage with details
in that passage. In literature, the main idea of a selection is called ‘theme’.
Another common error is confusing facts and opinions. Read these first two
paragraphs from “The Diamond Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, then answer
the questions that follow. Answers are on the next page.
“The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes
are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no
expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and
distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of
Public Instruction.
She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy as if
she had really fallen from a higher station; since with women there is neither caste nor
rank, for beauty, grace and charm take the place of family and birth. Natural ingenuity,
instinct for what is elegant, a supple mind are their sole hierarchy, and often make of
women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies.”
1. The main idea of this selection is:
a. The girl was pretty and charming
c. She was unhappy because she was poor
b. She married a rich man
d. She had ingenuity
2. The girl “had really fallen from a higher station…” is
a. the main idea of the selection
b. a detail within the selection
c. an assumption or opinion
d. an incorrect fact
3. “…with women there is neither caste nor rank…” is
a. the main idea of the selection
b. a detail within the selection
c. an assumption or opinion
d. an incorrect fact
4. She married a clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction.
a. the main idea of the selection
b. a detail within the selection
c. an assumption or opinion
d. an incorrect fact
1) The main idea of the selection is that the girl was unhappy because she was poor.
She was pretty and charming, but that is only a detail of the selection. She didn’t
marry a rich man, so that is an incorrect fact. It is an assumption that she had
ingenuity.
2) The girl “had really fallen from a higher station” is incorrect.
3) “…with women there is neither caste nor rank…” is an opinion.
4) She married a clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction is a detail.
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VOCABULARY PRACTICE
Give at least two synonyms for each of the following words:
(Hint: ‘Tools’, ‘Language’, ‘Thesaurus’ on your Microsoft toolbar)
ingenuity ___________________________________________________
dowry ______________________________________________________
caste ______________________________________________________
supple _____________________________________________________
hierarchy __________________________________________________
Making Predictions
Making predictions is a (pre-reading) strategy for increasing one’s knowledge of a
story. Make a prediction as to what may happen in “The Diamond Necklace”, which
begins on the next page.
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
You can always make another prediction about the story, or revise your original
prediction once you have begun reading.
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VOCABULARY PRE-READING EXERCISE FOR “THE DIAMOND
NECKLACE”
Select the correct definition or synonym for the underlined words.
Mathilde suffered ceaselessly…
Natural ingenuity, instinct for what is elegant…
She danced with rapture, with passion, intoxicated by pleasure
"Yes, I felt it in the vestibule of the minister's house."
And she smiled with a joy that was at once proud and ingenuous.
creativity, resourcefulness _________________
honest, sincere _______________
without end ______________________
bliss, joy, ecstasy _______________
entrance hall, foyer ___________________
“The Diamond Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant (1907)
The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes
are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no
expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and
distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of
Public Instruction.
She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy as if
she had really fallen from a higher station; since with women there is neither caste
nor rank, for beauty, grace and charm take the place of family and birth. Natural
ingenuity, instinct for what is elegant, a supple mind are their sole hierarchy, and
often make of women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies.
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ENGLISH 1
Mathilde suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born to enjoy all delicacies and all
luxuries. She was distressed at the poverty of her dwelling, at the bareness of the
walls, at the shabby chairs, the ugliness of the curtains. All those things, of which
another woman of her rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and
made her angry. The sight of the little Breton peasant who did her humble
housework aroused in her despairing regrets and bewildering dreams. She thought
of silent antechambers hung with Oriental tapestry, illumined by tall bronze
candelabra, and of two great footmen in knee breeches who sleep in the big
armchairs, made drowsy by the oppressive heat of the stove. She thought of long
reception halls hung with ancient silk, of the dainty cabinets containing priceless
curiosities and of the little coquettish perfumed reception rooms made for chatting
at five o'clock with intimate friends, with men famous and sought after, whom all
women envy and whose attention they all desire.
When she sat down to dinner, before the round table covered with a tablecloth
in use three days, opposite her husband, who uncovered the soup tureen and
declared with a delighted air, "Ah, the good soup! I don't know anything better
than that," she thought of dainty dinners, of shining silverware, of tapestry that
peopled the walls with ancient personages and with strange birds flying in the midst
of a fairy forest; and she thought of delicious dishes served on marvelous plates and
of the whispered gallantries to which you listen with a sphinx-like smile while you
are eating the pink meat of a trout or the wings of a quail.
She had no gowns, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that. She felt
made for that. She would have liked so much to please, to be envied, to be charming,
to be sought after. She had a friend, a former schoolmate at the convent, who was
rich, and whom she did not like to go to see any more because she felt so sad when
she came home. But one evening her husband reached home with a triumphant air
and holding a large envelope in his hand. "There," said he, "there is something for
you."
She tore the paper quickly and drew out a printed card which bore these
words: “The Minister of Public Instruction and Madame Georges Ramponneau
request the honor of M. and Madame Loisel's company at the palace of the Ministry
on Monday evening, January 18th.”
Instead of being delighted, as her husband had hoped, she threw the invitation
on the table crossly, muttering: "What do you wish me to do with that?"
"Why, my dear, I thought you would be glad. You never go out, and this is
such a fine opportunity. I had great trouble to get it. Every one wants to go; it is
very select, and they are not giving many invitations to clerks. The whole official
world will be there."
She looked at him with an irritated glance and said impatiently: "And what do
you wish me to put on my back?" He had not thought of that. He stammered:
"Why, the gown you go to the theatre in. It looks very well to me." He stopped,
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distracted, seeing that his wife was weeping. Two great tears ran slowly from the
corners of her eyes toward the corners of her mouth.
"What's the matter? What's the matter?" he answered. By a violent effort she
conquered her grief and replied in a calm voice, while she wiped her wet cheeks:
"Nothing. Only I have no gown, and, therefore, I can't go to this ball. Give your
card to some colleague whose wife is better equipped than I am."
He was in despair. He resumed: "Come, let us see, Mathilde. How much would
it cost, a suitable gown, which you could use on other occasions--something very
simple?" She reflected several seconds, making her calculations and wondering also
what sum she could ask without drawing on herself an immediate refusal and a
frightened exclamation from the economical clerk. Finally she replied hesitating: "I
don't know exactly, but I think I could manage it with four hundred francs."
He grew a little pale, because he was laying aside just that amount to buy a gun
and treat himself to a little shooting next summer on the plain of Nanterre, with
several friends who went to shoot larks there of a Sunday. But he said: "Very well. I
will give you four hundred francs. And try to have a pretty gown."
The day of the ball drew near and Madame Loisel seemed sad, uneasy,
anxious. Her frock was ready, however. Her husband said to her one evening:
"What is the matter? Come, you have seemed very queer these last three days."
And she answered: "It annoys me not to have a single piece of jewelry, not a single
ornament, nothing to put on. I shall look poverty-stricken. I would almost rather
not go at all." "You might wear natural flowers," said her husband. "They're very
stylish at this time of year. For ten francs you can get two or three magnificent
roses." She was not convinced. "No; there's nothing more humiliating than to look
poor among other women who are rich."
"How stupid you are!" her husband cried. "Go look up your friend, Madame
Forestier, and ask her to lend you some jewels. You're intimate enough with her to
do that." She uttered a cry of joy: "True! I never thought of it."
The next day she went to her friend and told her of her distress. Madame
Forestier went to a wardrobe with a mirror, took out a large jewel box, brought it
back, opened it and said to Madame Loisel: "Choose, my dear." She saw first some
bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian gold cross set with precious stones,
of admirable workmanship. She tried on the ornaments before the mirror, hesitated
and could not make up her mind to part with them, to give them back. She kept
asking: "Haven't you any more?" "Why, yes. Look further; I don't know what you
like."
Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin box, a superb diamond necklace, and
her heart throbbed with an immoderate desire. Her hands trembled as she took it.
She fastened it round her throat, outside her high-necked waist, and was lost in
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ecstasy at her reflection in the mirror. Then she asked, hesitating, filled with anxious
doubt: "Will you lend me this, only this?" "Why, yes, certainly." She threw her
arms round her friend's neck, kissed her passionately, then fled with her treasure.
The night of the ball arrived. Madame Loisel was a great success. She was
prettier than any other woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling and wild with joy.
All the men looked at her, asked her name, sought to be introduced. All the attaches
of the Cabinet wished to waltz with her. She was remarked by the minister himself.
She danced with rapture, with passion, intoxicated by pleasure, forgetting all
in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her success, in a sort of cloud of
happiness comprised of all this homage, admiration, these awakened desires and of
that sense of triumph which is so sweet to woman's heart. She left the ball about
four o'clock in the morning.
Her husband had been sleeping since midnight in a little deserted anteroom with
three other gentlemen whose wives were enjoying the ball.
He threw over her shoulders the wraps he had brought, the modest wraps of
common life, the poverty of which contrasted with the elegance of the ball dress. She
felt this and wished to escape so as not to be remarked by the other women, who
were enveloping themselves in costly furs. Loisel held her back, saying: "Wait a bit.
You will catch cold outside. I will call a cab." But she did not listen to him and
rapidly descended the stairs. When they reached the street they could not find a
carriage and began to look for one, shouting after the cabmen passing at a distance.
They went toward the Seine in despair, shivering with cold. At last they found
on the quay one of those ancient night cabs which, as though they were ashamed to
show their shabbiness during the day, are never seen round Paris until after dark. It
took them to their dwelling in the Rue des Martyrs, and sadly they mounted the
stairs to their flat. All was ended for her. As to him, he reflected that he must be at
the ministry at ten o'clock that morning. She removed her wraps before the glass so
as to see herself once more in all her glory. But suddenly she uttered a cry. She no
longer had the necklace around her neck!
"What is the matter with you?" demanded her husband, already half
undressed. She turned distractedly toward him. "I have--I have--I've lost Madame
Forestier's necklace," she cried. He stood up, bewildered. "What!--how?
Impossible!" They looked among the folds of her skirt, of her cloak, in her pockets,
everywhere, but did not find it. "You're sure you had it on when you left the ball?"
he asked.
"Yes, I felt it in the vestibule of the minister's house." "But if you had lost it in
the street we should have heard it fall. It must be in the cab." "Yes, probably. Did
you take his number?" "No. And you--didn't you notice it?"
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"No." They looked, thunderstruck, at each other. At last Loisel put on his
clothes. "I shall go back on foot," said he, "over the whole route, to see whether I
can find it." He went out. She sat waiting on a chair in her ball dress, without
strength to go to bed, overwhelmed, without any fire, without a thought. Her
husband returned about seven o'clock. He had found nothing.
He went to police headquarters, to the newspaper offices to offer a reward; he went
to the cab companies--everywhere, in fact, whither he was urged by the least spark
of hope. She waited all day, in the same condition of mad fear before this terrible
calamity. Loisel returned at night with a hollow, pale face. He had discovered
nothing. "You must write to your friend," said he, "that you have broken the clasp
of her necklace and that you are having it mended. That will give us time to turn
round." She wrote at his dictation.
At the end of a week they had lost all hope. Loisel, who had aged five years,
declared: "We must consider how to replace that ornament." The next day they
took the box that had contained it and went to the jeweler whose name was found
within. He consulted his books. "It was not I, madame, who sold that necklace; I
must simply have furnished the case." Then they went from jeweler to jeweler,
searching for a necklace like the other, trying to recall it, both sick with chagrin and
grief.
They found, in a shop at the Palais Royal, a string of diamonds that seemed to
them exactly like the one they had lost. It was worth forty thousand francs. They
could have it for thirty-six. So they begged the jeweler not to sell it for three days
yet. And they made a bargain that he should buy it back for thirty-four thousand
francs, in case they should find the lost necklace before the end of February. Loisel
possessed eighteen thousand francs which his father had left him. He would borrow
the rest.
He did borrow, asking a thousand francs of one, five hundred of another, five
louis here, three louis there. He gave notes, took up ruinous obligations, dealt with
usurers and all the race of lenders. He compromised all the rest of his life, risked
signing a note without even knowing whether he could meet it; and, frightened by
the trouble yet to come, by the black misery that was about to fall upon him, by the
prospect of all the physical privations and moral tortures that he was to suffer, he
went to get the new necklace, laying upon the jeweler's counter thirty-six thousand
francs.
When Madame Loisel took back the necklace Madame Forestier said to her
with a chilly manner: "You should have returned it sooner; I might have needed it."
She did not open the case, as her friend had so much feared.
If she had detected the substitution, what would she have thought, what would she
have said? Would she not have taken Madame Loisel for a thief?
Thereafter Madame Loisel knew the horrible existence of the needy. She bore
her part, however, with sudden heroism. That dreadful debt must be paid. She
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would pay it. They dismissed their servant; they changed their lodgings; they rented
a garret under the roof.
She came to know what heavy housework meant and the odious cares of the
kitchen. She washed the dishes, using her dainty fingers and rosy nails on greasy
pots and pans. She washed the soiled linen, the shirts and the dishcloths, which she
dried upon a line; she carried the slops down to the street every morning and
carried up the water, stopping for breath at every landing. And dressed like a
woman of the people, she went to the fruiterer, the grocer, the butcher, a basket on
her arm, bargaining, meeting with impertinence, defending her miserable money,
sou by sou. Every month they had to meet some notes, renew others, obtain more
time.
Her husband worked evenings, making up a tradesman's accounts, and late at
night he often copied manuscript for five sous a page. This life lasted ten years. At
the end of ten years they had paid everything, everything, with the rates of usury
and the accumulations of the compound interest.
Madame Loisel looked old now. She had become the woman of impoverished
households--strong and hard and rough. With frowsy hair, skirts askew and red
hands, she talked loud while washing the floor with great swishes of water. But
sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down near the window and
she thought of that gay evening of long ago, of that ball where she had been so
beautiful and so admired.
What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows?
who knows? How strange and changeful is life! How small a thing is needed to make
or ruin us! But one Sunday, having gone to take a walk in the Champs Elysees to
refresh herself after the labors of the week, she suddenly perceived a woman who
was leading a child. It was Madame Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still
charming. Madame Loisel felt moved. Should she speak to her? Yes, certainly. And
now that she had paid, she would tell her all about it. Why not? She went up.
"Good-day, Jeanne." The other, astonished to be familiarly addressed by this
plain good-wife, did not recognize her at all and stammered: "But--Madame!--I do
not know--You must have mistaken." "No. I am Mathilde Loisel." Her friend
uttered a cry. "Oh, my poor Mathilde! How you are changed!" "Yes, I have had a
pretty hard life, since I last saw you, and great poverty--and that because of you!"
"Of me! How so?"
"Do you remember that diamond necklace you lent me to wear at the
ministerial ball?" "Yes. Well?" "Well, I lost it." "What do you mean? You brought
it back."
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ENGLISH 1
"I brought you back another exactly like it. And it has taken us ten years to
pay for it. You can understand that it was not easy for us, for us who had nothing.
At last it is ended, and I am very glad." Madame Forestier had stopped. "You say
that you bought a necklace of diamonds to replace mine?" "Yes. You never noticed
it, then! They were very similar." And she smiled with a joy that was at once proud
and ingenuous. Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her hands. "Oh, my poor
Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste! It was worth at most only five hundred
francs!"
Now that you have read “The Diamond Necklace”, answer the following
questions on the next page, then complete the short story information
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ENGLISH 1
Post-reading activity
Questions about “The Diamond Necklace”
1. How would you describe Mathilde? __________________
_________________________________________________
2. How would you compare the ending of this story to the ending of
“Cinderella”? ____________________________
_________________________________________________
3. What else could Mathilde have done when she received the invitation
to the ball, and when she lost the necklace?
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
4. What did the necklace cost Mathilde and her husband?
_________________________________________________
5. What did Mathilde gain from this experience?
_________________________________________________
6. What besides riches can/should people care about?
______________________
________________________
______________________
________________________
7. Identify the theme of the story in one word or sentence.
_________________________________________________
Post-reading activity
Using Graphic Organizers
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ENGLISH 1
Graphic organizers help us ‘visualize’ information; they give us a picture, and
allow us 'to see' patterns and relationships. The pictures in this packet help us
visualize our stories. We use graphic organizers (story maps, Venn diagrams,
drawings, etc.) to help students learn material more profoundly. Keep track of the
stories that you read in the graphic organizer entitled “Short Stories – Break Them
Down” on page Below is a completed Story Map for “The Diamond Necklace”. A
Story Map form can be found at the end of the packet on page 72.
Story Map
Title
“The Diamond Necklace”
Author
Guy de Maupassant
Setting:
19th century France
Characters: Mathilde, her husband, Madame Loisel
Problem: Mathilde is unhappy that she is poor, and she wants to live the life of a
richer woman.
Event 1: Mathilde is invited to a ball, but has no jewelry to wear.
Event 2: Mathilde borrows a necklace from Madame Loisel.
Event 3: Mathilde has a wonderful time at the event.
Event 4: Mathilde realizes that she has lost the necklace.
Event 5: Mathilde and her husband work for years to replace it.
Event 6: Mathilde learns that the original necklace was only paste.
Solution: “Don’t worship money and gold.” (or something similar)
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LESSON III
THE
WRITING PROCESS
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THE WRITING PROCESS
Writing is not a step, but an entire process. Immature writers substitute a rough
draft for a finished essay. Don’t make the mistake of turning in the first words that
come to mind! Read through all the steps in the writing process. Employ each step
every time you write. Make it part of your writing process!
•
•
•
•
•
•
26
Pre-writing, or getting ready to write -- Pre-writing exercises include
brainstorming, webbing/clustering, outlining, and using graphic organizers.
Rough Draft – Immature writers confuse this step for the entire writing
process. The rough draft is merely a first copy of the finished product.
Proof-reading -- Look over what you have written; share it with a friend.
Come back to it later for a fresh look. (This does not happen when you try to
do everything at the last minute!)
Revising -- Re-visit major themes in your essay. What is your message?
Content is the most important part of what you say. Wouldn’t you prefer a
diamond in a paper bag to trash in department store wrapping?
Editing -- Correct mistakes in spelling and punctuation. Improve sentence
structure and vary word usage. Eliminate excess (repetition, unnecessary
details, etc.) Additional revision of main ideas may be the next step now,
rather than proceeding to publication of the final copy.
Final draft -- Type, spell-check, and grammar-checked your final copy. Find
Spelling and Grammar under ‘Tools’ in your toolbar.
ENGLISH 1
PRE-WRITING
Planning leads to better writing. The more effort that one gives to planning, the
better the writing sample. Pre-writing (as the prefix ‘pre’ suggests) includes all the
planning that a writer does before writing a rough draft.
Writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper is different than writing to a college
admissions department. Writers must ask themselves questions like… “What is my
purpose for writing?” “What is my topic?” “Who is my audience?” “What is the
format?” “How long will my writing be?”
Methods of pre-writing include brainstorming, webbing (also known as
clustering), outlining, and using graphic organizers. Brainstorming means just that,
storming one’s brain for ideas. It is similar to making a grocery list.
Webbing, or clustering, is the process of putting similar ideas together. Often,
three or four related ideas can give one the raw material for a well-written
paragraph.
Graphic organizers, like brainstorming and webbing, help writers to think
creatively and generate ideas. They also help to overcome ‘writer’s block’, the
situation when there is something blocking you from writing! Examples of graphic
organizers (Venn diagrams, character sketches, sequence chains, etc.) are included
in this packet.
Outlining presents both a basic overview and the important details of one’s
writing. One might outline for an essay, a term paper, a book review, speech, or
even a reading assignment. Look back to Page 6 for an informal outline of this
class.
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ENGLISH 1
WRITING ACTIVITY: PARAGRAPH OF PERSUASION
One cannot learn about the writing process without writing! Please select one
of the following topics for a short 2-3 paragraph essay. Once you choose the topic,
write down your thesis sentence. Then brainstorm some ideas for persuading others.
You don’t have to use every idea that you generate. Once you have enough ideas,
decide how you will group and present them in separate paragraphs.
A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
Which team will win this year’s World Series?
Should a wall be built between the entire U.S. and Mexican border?
Gays and lesbians should/should not be allowed to marry.
Abortion should/should not be legal.
The minimum age for drinking alcohol should/should not be changed from
21 to 18.
F) The NBA should/should not have a dress code.
G) Choose a topic about which you want to change someone’s opinion.
Thesis sentence
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Ideas
a) ________________________________________________________
b) ________________________________________________________
c) ________________________________________________________
d) ________________________________________________________
e) ________________________________________________________
f) ________________________________________________________
g) ________________________________________________________
h) ________________________________________________________
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ENGLISH 1
MOVING FROM PREWRITING TO THE ROUGH DRAFT
Select your best ideas. You need not pick them all. Make sure they relate to each
other and the topic. Are they in a logical order? Do they fit in the same, or different,
paragraphs?
It’s time to write, write, then write some more. Write until you have exhausted
your ideas on the topic; only then are ready to revise. If you haven’t enough content
to work with, go back to your pre-writing for more ideas and details. It is easier to cut
out unnecessary words and details, than to add words that don’t aid your writing.
Now, write a 2-3 paragraph essay of persuasion, beginning with your thesis sentence.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________
PROOF-READING AND RE-WRITING YOUR ESSAY
Proof: a trial sheet of printed material to be checked and corrected.
Here is where the writing process breaks down for many immature writers.
They actually think that they are done! It is time, however, to “read the proof”,
then revise and edit.
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ENGLISH 1
Rewriting is BOTH Revising AND Editing
There are two parts to the rewriting process. Revising is all about the content
(the BIG ideas) of your writing; editing is about the packaging (grammar,
spelling, punctuation, etc.). Revise your ideas before you edit (correct for
spelling, punctuation, and grammar). Every time your change ideas, you’ll have
to re-edit.
Consider these analogies. If you are buying a gift for someone you love, would
you buy a trashy present? Would you buy a good present, then present it in an
old paper bag?
When you are editing your final draft, you can once again use your Microsoft
Word to correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Misspelled words will have
a red squiggly line under them. (example: example). Punctuation and grammar
mistakes will have a green underlining (example: I don’t have no money.) Go to
‘Tools’, then
‘Spelling and Grammar’. In the previous example, you will be instructed to use
‘any’, instead on ‘no’.
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ENGLISH 1
REVIEW OF ‘THE WRITING PROCESS’
Identify four different pre-writing techniques.
____________________________________________________________
What is the difference between revising and editing? _______________
________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
What stage in the writing process do immature writers confuse with the entire process
itself? __________________________________________
Why is it helpful to share your writing with another, and/or to come back and look at it
the next day? ________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Identify 2 ways to eliminate excess from one’s writing. __________________________
________________________________
How does one get a computer to check your grammar and spelling, and offer synonyms
to vary word usage? _____________________________
_____________________________________________________________
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The Writing Process
Please fill in the blanks with the words from the bottom of the page.
Writing is more than a ________, it’s a ______________. The first step of the
writing process is ___________________. Examples of prewriting include
_______________________, ________________, and _______________. Another
name for webbing is clustering, because the writer groups ideas into clusters.
The writer’s 2nd step is the __________ __________. The rough draft is a first
copy of the final piece; it is not the final product. The 3rd step is _______________.
To proofread means to examine a document (proof) in order to make changes.
The 4th step in the process is _____________. Rewriting an essay includes two
essential parts. These two parts are ________________ and ______________.
Writers should ____________ before they ________ in order to develop main ideas
before correcting mistakes in the communication of those ideas.
The 5th and final step of the writing process involves typing the __________
__________. Spell-check, grammar-check, and type your final draft before
submitting it.
rough draft
proofreading
revise
final draft
step
process
edit
prewriting
editing
rewriting
revising
outlining brainstorming webbing
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Active and Passive voice
The verb (and sentence) is in the active voice when the subject of the sentence
performs an action. The verb (and sentence) is in the passive voice when an action is
performed on the subject. Examples:
Active voice:
The dog bit the man.
Who broke the window?
The rain fell.
Passive voice:
The man was bitten by the dog.
The window was broken by whom?
?????
It is usually better to write in the active voice, which is more forceful and
concise than the passive. Click on a passive voice sentence, then go to ‘Tools’,
then ‘Spelling and Grammar’ on your toolbar. You will see suggestions for
changing sentences from passive to active voice.
Employ the passive voice sparingly, or when the actor is unknown (“The
money was stolen out of my wallet.”). Another occasion is when focusing on the
object of the action.
Example: The Yanks were eliminated in the 1st round of the playoffs.
Moving from Passive Voice to Active Voice
Change the following sentences from passive to active voice.
(We have answered the first example for you.)
The house was destroyed by the hurricane.
The hurricane destroyed the house.
The game was won by our team. ______________________________
The pie was eaten by Joe. ____________________________________
The day was ruined by Joan. _________________________________
The man was arrested by the police yesterday.
______________________________________________________
The man was arrested yesterday. ____________________________ *
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ENGLISH 1
Independent and dependent clauses
An independent (or main) clause expresses a complete thought and can
stand alone as a sentence. A dependent, or subordinate, clause does not express a
complete thought and cannot stand alone.
Independent clauses
Dependent clauses
We arrived.
The game is over.
Stand!
We were hungry
When we arrived
After the game is over
I stand when
We were
It is usually better to begin your sentences with the independent clause.
Note the difference between the following sentences.
When we won the game, they cheered for us.
They cheered for us when we won the game.
Write 4 sentences below in the active voice, beginning with an independent
clause. We have given you two examples.
She thanked us for baby-sitting her children Friday night.
We cleaned the house after the party was over.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________
Which format is usually the most efficient sentence?
a. Passive voice, dependent clause first
b. Passive voice, independent clause first
c. Active voice, dependent clause first
d. Active voice, independent clause first
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Correct Use of the Apostrophe
Use the apostrophe in the following cases:
A. Possession - To form the possessive of a singular noun, a plural noun not
ending in ‘s’ , or a possessive adjective, add an apostrophe and a ‘s’.
Examples: Frederick’s life
Douglass’ autobiography
A dollar’s worth of candy
A week’s vacation
The girl’s coat
brother-in-law’s
To form the possessive of a plural noun ending with ‘s’, add the apostrophe
only)
Examples: Two weeks’ vacation
Two dollars’ worth of candy
The girls’ bathroom
An indefinite possessive pronoun requires an apostrophe and an ‘s’.
Examples: one’s, anybody’s, everybody’s, everyone else’s
B. Contraction/omission - Use an apostrophe in contractions when combining
two words into one, or when omitting numbers or letters
Examples:
do not/don’t
will not/won’t
Class of ’07
C. Plurals of letters, numbers, symbols, and words used as words
Examples: How many a’s are in banana?
Don’t use so many but’s in your writing!
Common errors:
1. Inserting the apostrophe in the wrong place.
Example: does’nt
2. Personal possessive pronouns (his, hers, ours, yours, theirs) do not require an
apostrophe because possessive pronouns already show possession.
3. Confusing the contraction it’s with the possessive pronoun its
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ENGLISH 1
Examples: It’s hot in here!
Its coat was very furry.
4. Confusing the possessive who’s with the relative pronoun whose
Examples: Who’s the leader?
Whose coat is this?
Please place apostrophes where needed in the following sentences:
(or take them out if they’re unnecessary!)
1. Whats the reason why you are late?
2. Who’s book is this on the shelf?
3. There’s not a single dollar in my wallet.
4. Their’s is not to question why, their’s is but to do or die.
5. He signed the letter your’s truly.
6. Marys my mothers name.
7. Its about time you got here.
8. That coat is hers.
9. How many As did you get on your report card?
10. She doesnt love me anymore.
11. It’s anybodys guess who will win the Super Bowl.
12. Frances book is torn.
13. Michaels book is lost.
14. I hope to graduate in 08.
15. I have two brothers-in-law.
16. That’s my father-in-laws car.
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LESSON IV
ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE
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Short Stories – Break them down!
(Use this page to keep track of the stories that you have read.)
Title
“My
Mother”
“Eveline”
“Araby”
“The
Diamond
Necklace”
38
Author
Setting
Characters Plot
(time/place)
(action)
Theme
(message)
ENGLISH 1
Characters
Characterization often takes first priority in a short story. In “My Mother”,
the author paints a picture of her mother. Please read the story and write a short
character sketch (essay) about the author’s mother. We completed the graphic
organizer on the page following the story as a way of helping you with your prewriting.
“MY MOTHER”
By ZITKALA-SA (Gertrude Bonnin), Dakota Sioux Indian
A wigwam of weather-stained canvas stood at the base of some irregularly
ascending hills. A footpath wound its way gently down the sloping land till it
reached the broad river bottom; creeping through the long swamp grasses that bent
over it on either side, it came out on the edge of the Missouri.
Here, morning, noon, and evening, my mother came to draw water from the muddy
stream for our household use. Always, when my mother started for the river, I
stopped my play to run along with her. She was only of medium height. Often she
was sad and silent, at which times her full arched lips were compressed into hard
and bitter lines, and shadows fell under her black eyes. Then I clung to her hand
and begged to know what made the tears fall.
"Hush; my little daughter must never talk about my tears"; and smiling through
them, she patted my head and said, "Now let me see how fast you can run today."
Whereupon I tore away at my highest possible speed, with my long black hair
blowing in the breeze.
I was a wild little girl of seven. Loosely clad in a slip of brown buckskin, and lightfooted with a pair of soft moccasins on my feet, I was as free as the wind that blew
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my hair, and no less spirited than a bounding deer. These were my mother's pride,-my wild freedom and overflowing spirits. She taught me no fear save that of
intruding myself upon others.
Having gone many paces ahead I stopped, panting for breath, and laughing with
glee as my mother watched my every movement. I was not wholly conscious of
myself, but was more keenly alive to the fire within. It was as if I were the activity,
and my hands and feet were only experiments for my spirit to work upon.
Returning from the river, I tugged beside my mother, with my hand upon the
bucket I believed I was carrying. One time, on such a return, I remember a bit of
conversation we had. My grown-up cousin, Warca-Ziwin (Sunflower), who was then
seventeen, always went to the river alone for water for her mother. Their wigwam
was not far from ours; and I saw her daily going to and from the river. I admired
my cousin greatly. So I said: "Mother, when I am tall as my cousin Warca-Ziwin,
you shall not have to come for water. I will do it for you."
With a strange tremor in her voice which I could not understand, she answered, "If
the paleface does not take away from us the river we drink."
"Mother, who is this bad paleface?" I asked.
"My little daughter, he is a sham,--a sickly sham! The bronzed Dakota is the only
real man." I looked up into my mother's face while she spoke; and seeing her bite
her lips, I knew she was unhappy. This aroused revenge in my small soul. Stamping
my foot on the earth, I cried aloud, "I hate the paleface that makes my mother cry!"
Setting the pail of water on the ground, my mother stooped, and stretching her left
hand out on the level with my eyes, she placed her other arm about me; she pointed
to the hill where my uncle and my only sister lay buried.
"There is what the paleface has done! Since then your father too has been buried in
a hill nearer the rising sun. We were once very happy. But the paleface has stolen
our lands and driven us hither. Having defrauded us of our land, the paleface forced
us away.
"Well, it happened on the day we moved camp that your sister and uncle were both
very sick. Many others were ailing, but there seemed to be no help. We traveled
many days and nights; not in the grand, happy way that we moved camp when I was
a little girl, but we were driven, my child, driven like a herd of buffalo. With every
step, your sister, who was not as large as you are now, shrieked with the painful jar
until she was hoarse with crying. She grew more and more feverish. Her little hands
and cheeks were burning hot. Her little lips were parched and dry, but she would
not drink the water I gave her. Then I discovered that her throat was swollen and
red. My poor child, how I cried with her because the Great Spirit had forgotten us!
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"At last, when we reached this western country, on the first weary night your sister
died. And soon your uncle died also, leaving a widow and an orphan daughter, your
cousin Warca-Ziwin. Both your sister and uncle might have been happy with us
today, had it not been for the heartless paleface."
My mother was silent the rest of the way to our wigwam. Though I saw no tears in
her eyes, I knew that was because I was with her. She seldom wept before me.
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ENGLISH 1
Character Sketch – “My Mother”
Emotional Description
Sad and silent, often in
tears (but seldom in
front of her child),
angry with the
palefaces
Physical description
Medium height, hard
and bitter lines in her
face, darkness under
her eyes
My
Mother
History
Daily routine
Her brother and her
daughter died when the
paleface forced them to
travel from their home.
Draws water from the
stream morning, noon,
and evening
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Character Sketch
Now, write a character sketch describing “My Mother”. Refer to the graphic
organizer on the previous page, and add any details that you would like.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________
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Spotlight on the Author
James Joyce 1882 – 1941
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
44
1882 - Born February 2nd in Dublin, Ireland.
Eldest of 10 surviving children (two siblings died of typhoid).
Attends private Jesuit schools, which influenced his writing.
1893 – Family becomes bankrupt and his father loses his job.
1898 – Rejects Catholicism at the age of 16.
1899 - 1902 – Attends University College, Dublin. Goes to Paris to study
medicine, but spends time there writing.
1904 – Returns to Dublin, his mother dying of cancer. He takes to drinking
after her death. Meets Nora Barnacle, and takes her with him to continental
Europe.
1905 – Submits first version of The Dubliners; publisher thinks it too
controversial, and waits until 1914 to publish it.
1931 – Marries Nora Barnacle.
1941 – Dies January 13th.
ENGLISH 1
Two short stories from “The Dubliners” by James Joyce
Setting
“Eveline” and “Araby” are short stories from The Dubliners. Working-class
Dublin, the capital of Ireland, is the setting for all of Joyce’s stories. The fact that
“Eveline” and “Araby” are set in Ireland is an important element to the stories. The
stories contain universal themes, but Ireland’s specific history (dominated by
England and the Catholic Church) makes it the only setting for these stories. We see
many religious symbols and attitudes in both stories.
Themes
The main characters (a 19-year old girl, and a pre-teenaged boy) experience
decision and disappointment in their failed searches for romance and meaning in
life. Themes of paralysis, alienation, and loneliness permeate both stories. Religious
themes are also common. The main characters experience an epiphany, a sudden
discovery or consciousness of the "soul" of a thing.
Point of view (first-person)
Who tells the story and how it is told are important issues in fiction. The firstperson point of view (“I”, “my”) in “Araby” helps readers see through the eyes of
the unnamed narrator.
It is not the young man in “Araby” who tells the story, but his grown-up self.
This helps us both observe him, and experience his feelings. We see the other
characters in the story through his eyes. If anyone else told this story, it would be
entirely different.
Pre-reading Activity for “Eveline”
Have you ever moved from one country to another or even from one city or
state to another? ________
A) If you have, write about it. Think about the locations where you’ve lived, for
what length of time, why you moved, whether you liked it or not, and if you
stayed.
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ENGLISH 1
B) If you haven’t moved before, write about a journey or trip that you have
taken, or wish to take.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_________________________________
“EVELINE” from THE DUBLINERS by James Joyce (1914)
She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaned
against the window curtains and in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne*.
She was tired.
Few people passed. The man out of the last house passed on his way home; she
heard his footsteps clacking along the concrete pavement and afterwards crunching
on the cinder path before the new red houses. One time there used to be a field there
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in which they used to play every evening with other people's children. Then a man
from Belfast bought the field and built houses in it—not like their little brown
houses but bright brick houses with shining roofs. The children of the avenue used
to play together in that field --the Devines, the Waters, the Dunns, little Keogh the
cripple, she and her brothers and sisters. Ernest, however, never played: he was too
grown up. Her father used often to hunt them in out of the field with his blackthorn
stick; but usually little Keogh used to keep nix and call out when he saw her father
coming.
Still they seemed to have been rather happy then. Her father was not so bad then;
and besides, her mother was alive. That was a long time ago; she and her brothers
and sisters were all grown up her mother was dead. Tizzie Dunn was dead, too, and
the Waters had gone back to England. Everything changes. Now she was going to go
away like the others, to leave her home.
*cretonne—heavy, unglazed, printed cotton or linen cloth;
used for curtains, slipcovers, etc.
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Home! She looked round the room, reviewing all its familiar objects which she had
dusted once a week for so many years, wondering where on earth all the dust came
from. Perhaps she would never see again those familiar objects from which she had
never dreamed of being divided. And yet during all those years she had never found
out the name of the priest whose yellowing photograph hung on the wall above the
broken harmonium beside the coloured print of the promises made to Blessed
Margaret Mary Alacoque. He had been a school friend of her father. Whenever he
showed the photograph to a visitor her father used to pass it with a casual word:
"He is in Melbourne now."
She had consented to go away, to leave her home. Was that wise? She tried to weigh
each side of the question. In her home anyway she had shelter and food; she had
those whom she had known all her life about her. O course she had to work hard,
both in the house and at business. What would they say of her in the Stores when
they found out that she had run away with a fellow? Say she was a fool, perhaps;
and her place would be filled up by advertisement. Miss Gavan would be glad. She
had always had an edge on her, especially whenever there were people listening.
"Miss Hill, don't you see these ladies are waiting? Look lively, Miss Hill, please."
She would not cry many tears at leaving the Stores. But in her new home, in a
distant unknown country, it would not be like that. Then she would be married--she,
Eveline. People would treat her with respect then. She would not be treated as her
mother had been. Even now, though she was over nineteen, she sometimes felt
herself in danger of her father's violence. She knew it was that that had given her
the palpitations. When they were growing up he had never gone for her like he used
to go for Harry and Ernest, because she was a girl but latterly he had begun to
threaten her and say what he would do to her only for her dead mother's sake. And
no she had nobody to protect her. Ernest was dead and Harry, who was in the
church decorating business, was nearly always down somewhere in the country.
Besides, the invariable squabble for money on Saturday nights had begun to weary
her unspeakably. She always gave her entire wages—seven shillings--and
Harry always sent up what he could but the trouble was to get any money from her
father.
He said she used to squander the money, that she had no head, that he wasn't going
to give her his hard-earned money to throw about the streets, and much more, for
he was usually fairly bad on Saturday night. In the end he would give her the money
and ask her had she any intention of buying Sunday's dinner. Then she had to rush
out as quickly as she could and do her marketing, holding her black leather purse
tightly in her hand as she elbowed her way through the crowds and returning home
late under her load of provisions. She had hard work to keep the house together and
to see that the two young children who had been left to hr charge went to school
regularly and got their meals regularly. It was hard work--a hard life—but now that
she was about to leave it she did not find it a wholly undesirable life.
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She was about to explore another life with Frank. Frank was very kind, manly,
open-hearted. She was to go away with him by the night-boat to be his wife and to
live with him in Buenos Ayres where he had a home waiting for her. How well she
remembered the first time she had seen him; he was lodging in a house on the main
road where she used to visit. It seemed a few weeks ago. He was standing at the gate,
his peaked cap pushed back on his head and his hair tumbled forward over a face of
bronze. Then they had come to know each other. He used to meet her outside the
Stores every evening and see her home. He took her to see The Bohemian Girl and
she felt elated as she sat in an unaccustomed part of the theatre with him. He was
awfully fond of music and sang a little. People knew that they were courting and,
when he sang about the lass that loves a sailor, she always felt pleasantly confused.
He used to call her Poppens out of fun. First of all it had been an excitement for her
to have a fellow and then she had begun to like him. He had tales of distant
countries. He had started as a deck boy at a pound a month on a ship of the Allan
Line going out to Canada. He told her the names of the ships he had been on and the
names of the different services. He had sailed through the Straits of Magellan and
he told her stories of the terrible Patagonians. He had fallen on his feet in Buenos
Ayres, he said, and had come over to the old country just for a holiday.
Of course, her father had found out the affair and had forbidden her to have
anything to say to him.
"I know these sailor chaps," he said. One day he had quarrelled with Frank and
after that she had to meet her lover secretly.
The evening deepened in the avenue. The white of two letters in her lap grew
indistinct. One was to Harry; the other was to her father. Ernest had been her
favourite but she liked Harry too. Her father was becoming old lately, she noticed;
he would miss her. Sometimes he could be very nice. Not long before, when she had
been laid up for a day, he had read her out a ghost story and made toast for her at
the fire. Another day, when their mother was alive, they had all gone for a picnic to
the Hill of Howth. She remembered her father putting on her mothers bonnet to
make the children laugh.
Her time was running out but she continued to sit by the window, leaning her head
against the window curtain, inhaling the odour of dusty cretonne. Down far in the
avenue she could hear a street organ playing. She knew the air Strange that it
should come that very night to remind her of the promise to her mother, her
promise to keep the home together as long as she could. She remembered the last
night of her mother's illness; she was again in the close dark room at the other side
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of the hall and outside she heard a melancholy air of Italy. The organ-player had
been ordered to go away and given sixpence. She remembered her father strutting
back into the sickroom saying:
"Damned Italians! coming over here!"
As she mused the pitiful vision of her mother's life laid its spell on the very quick of
her being--that life of commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness. She
trembled as she heard again her mother's voice saying constantly with foolish
insistence:
"Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!"
She stood up in a sudden impulse of terror. Escape! She must escape! Frank would
save her. He would give her life, perhaps love, too. But she wanted to live. Why
should she be unhappy? She had a right to happiness. Frank would take her in his
arms, fold her in his arms. He would save her.
She stood among the swaying crowd in the station at the North Wall. He held her
hand and she knew that he was speaking to her, saying something about the passage
over and over again. The station was full of soldiers with brown baggages. Through
the wide doors of the sheds she caught a glimpse of the black mass of the boat, lying
in beside the quay wall, with illumined portholes. She answered nothing. She felt her
cheek pale and cold and, out of a maze of distress, she prayed to God to direct her,
to show her what was her duty. The boat blew a long mournful whistle into the mist.
If she went, tomorrow she would be on the sea with Frank, steaming towards
Buenos Ayres. Their passage had been booked. Could she still draw back after all he
had done for her? Her distress awoke a nausea in her body and she kept moving her
lips in silent fervent prayer.
A bell clanged upon her heart. She felt him seize her hand: "Come!"
All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he
would drown her. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing. "Come!" No! No!
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No! It was impossible. Her hands clutched the iron in frenzy. Amid the seas she sent
a cry of anguish. "Eveline! Evvy!"
He rushed beyond the barrier and called to her to follow. He was shouted at to go on
but he still called to her. She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless
animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition.
***************************************************
For an analysis of this short story, see
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-93,pageNum-6.html
or http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-eveline
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Post-reading Activity - Questions from “Eveline”
1. Did Eveline made the right decision? ________
2. Why didn’t she leave? ___________________________________
______________________________________________________
3. Frank is described as ‘kind, manly, open-hearted’. Do you think he would
have made her happy? _________ Why, or why not?
________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
6. Is Frank her only chance for happiness? ____________________
7. Explain your answer. _____________________________________
_________________________________________________________
8. Will Eveline ever leave home? ___________ Explain your answer.
________________________________________________________
Should she stay, or go?
Below, fill in both the good and bad sides of staying at home in Ireland or
leaving for a possible future as a wife in Australia.
We’ve given you a few reasons for staying and going. Add more reasons to
each of the boxes below. The more that you have put in the boxes above, the
easier it will be for you to write.
Stay in Ireland
Her father needs her.
Frank might abuse her.
Leave for Australia
She’ll have respect.
Her father abuses her.
___________________________
___________________________
___________________________
___________________________
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Creative Writing Activity -- Create Eveline’s Future
Young writers often enjoy creative, or descriptive, writing. They get to
create and describe, and let their imaginations roam. We want you to try your
hand creative writing.
Your task is to create Eveline’s future.
Now, choose from one of the following outcomes:
• Eveline stays home in Ireland and is miserable her whole life.
• Eveline stays home in Ireland and finds happiness.
• Eveline leaves for Australia and is miserable.
• Eveline leaves for Australia and finds happiness.
• Eveline find misery, then happiness (or vice versa)
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__________________________________________________________________
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________________________________
”Araby” by James Joyce
North Richmond Street being blind was a quiet street except at the hour when the
Christian Brothers' School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two storeys
stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground The other
houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with
brown imperturbable faces.
The former tenant of our house, a priest, had died in the back drawing-room. Air,
musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all the rooms, and the waste room
behind the kitchen was littered with old useless papers. Among these I found a few
paper-covered books, the pages of which were curled and damp: The Abbot, by
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Walter Scott, The Devout Communnicant and The Memoirs of Vidocq. I liked the
last best because its leaves were yellow. The wild garden behind the house contained
a central apple-tree and a few straggling bushes under one of which I found the late
tenant's rusty bicycle-pump. He had been a very charitable priest; in his will he had
left all his money to institutions and the furniture of his house to his sister.
When the short days of winter came dusk fell before we had well eaten our dinners.
When we met in the street the houses had grown sombre. The space of sky above us
was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted
their feeble lanterns. The cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed.
Our shouts echoed in the silent street. The career of our play brought us through the
dark muddy lanes behind the houses where we ran the gauntlet of the rough tribes
from the cottages to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odours
arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables where a coachman smoothed and
combed the horse or shook music from the buckled harness.
*Araby - a bazaar with an exotic, Oriental theme
When we returned to the street, light from the kitchen windows had filled the areas.
If my uncle was seen turning the corner, we hid in the shadow until we had seen him
safely housed. Or if Mangan's sister came out on the doorstep to call her brother in
to his tea, we watched her from our shadow peer up and down the street. We waited
to see whether she would remain or go in and, if she remained, we left our shadow
and walked up to Mangan's steps resignedly. She was waiting for us, her figure
defined by the light from the half-opened door. Her brother always teased her
before he obeyed and I stood by the railings looking at her. Her dress swung as she
moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side.
Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door. The blind
was pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen. When she
came out on the doorstep, my heart leaped. I ran to the hall, seized my books and
followed her. I kept her brown figure always in my eye and, when we came near the
point at which our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her. This
happened morning after morning. I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual
words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.
Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance. On Saturday
evenings when my aunt went marketing, I had to go to carry some of the parcels.
We walked through the flaring streets, jostled by drunken men and bargaining
women, amid the curses of labourers, the shrill litanies of shop-boys who stood on
guard by the barrels of pigs' cheeks, the nasal chanting of street-singers, who sang a
come-all-you about O'Donovan Rossa, or a ballad about the troubles in our native
land. These noises converged in a single sensation of life for me: I imagined that I
bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes. Her name sprang to my lips at
moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes
were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart
55
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seemed to pour itself out into my bosom. I thought little of the future. I did not know
whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of
my confused adoration. But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures
were like fingers running upon the wires.
One evening I went into the back drawing-room in which the priest had died. It was
a dark rainy evening and there was no sound in the house. Through one of the
broken panes I heard the rain impinge upon the earth, the fine incessant needles of
water playing in the sodden beds. Some distant lamp or lighted window gleamed
below me. I was thankful that I could see so little. All my senses seemed to desire to
veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms
of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: "O love! O love!" many
times.
At last she spoke to me. When she addressed the first words to me, I was so confused
that I did not know what to answer. She asked me was I going to Araby. I forgot
whether I answered yes or no. It would be a splendid bazaar, she said she would
love to go.
"And why can't you?" I asked. While she spoke, she turned a silver bracelet round
and round her wrist. She could not go, she said, because there would be a retreat
that week in her convent. Her brother and two other boys were fighting for their
caps and I was alone at the railings. She held one of the spikes, bowing her head
towards me. The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of
her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the
railing. It fell over one side of her dress and caught the white border of a petticoat,
just visible as she stood at ease.
"It's well for you," she said.
"If I go," I said, "I will bring you something."
What innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that
evening! I wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days. I chafed against the
work of school. At night in my bedroom and by day in the classroom her image
came between me and the page I strove to read. The syllables of the word Araby
called to me through the silence in which my soul luxuriated and cast an Eastern
enchantment over me. I asked for leave to go to the bazaar on Saturday night. My
aunt was surprised and hoped it was not some Freemason affair. I answered few
questions in class. I watched my master's face pass from amiability to sternness; he
hoped I was not beginning to idle. I could not call my wandering thoughts together.
I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life, which now that it stood
between me and my desire, seemed to me child's play, ugly monotonous child's play.
On Saturday morning, I reminded my uncle that I wished to go to the bazaar in the
evening. He was fussing at the hallstand, looking for the hat-brush, and answered
me curtly: "Yes, boy, I know."
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As he was in the hall, I could not go into the front parlour and lie at the window. I
left the house in bad humour and walked slowly towards the school. The air was
pitilessly raw and already my heart misgave me.
When I came home to dinner, my uncle was not yet home. Still it was early. I sat
staring at the clock for some time and when its ticking began to irritate me, I left the
room. I mounted the staircase and gained the upper part of the house. The high cold
empty gloomy rooms liberated me and I went from room to room singing. From the
front window, I saw my companions playing below in the street. Their cries reached
me weakened and indistinct and, leaning my forehead against the cool glass, I
looked over at the dark house where she lived. I may have stood there for an hour,
seeing nothing but the brown-clad figure cast by my imagination, touched discreetly
by the lamplight at the curved neck, at the hand upon the railings and at the border
below the dress.
When I came downstairs again, I found Mrs. Mercer sitting at the fire. She was an
old garrulous woman, a pawnbroker's widow, who collected used stamps for some
pious purpose. I had to endure the gossip of the tea-table. The meal was prolonged
beyond an hour and still my uncle did not come. Mrs. Mercer stood up to go: she
was sorry she couldn't wait any longer, but it was after eight o'clock and she did not
like to be out late as the night air was bad for her. When she had gone, I began to
walk up and down the room, clenching my fists. My aunt said: "I'm afraid you may
put off your bazaar for this night of Our Lord."
At nine o'clock, I heard my uncle's latchkey in the halldoor. I heard him talking to
himself and heard the hallstand rocking when it had received the weight of his
overcoat. I could interpret these signs. When he was midway through his dinner, I
asked him to give me the money to go to the bazaar. He had forgotten.
"The people are in bed and after their first sleep now," he said. I did not smile. My
aunt said to him energetically: "Can't you give him the money and let him go?
You've kept him late enough as it is."
My uncle said he was very sorry he had forgotten. He said he believed in the old
saying: "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy." He asked me where I was
going and, when I had told him a second time, he asked me did I know The Arab's
Farewell to his Steed. When I left the
kitchen, he was about to recite the opening lines of the piece to my aunt.
I held a florin tightly in my hand as I strode down Buckingham Street towards the
station. The sight of the streets thronged with buyers and glaring with gas recalled
to me the purpose of my journey. I took my seat in a third-class carriage of a
deserted train. After an intolerable delay, the train moved out of the station slowly.
It crept onward among ruinous house and over the twinkling river. At Westland
Row Station a crowd of people pressed to the carriage doors; but the porters moved
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them back, saying that it was a special train for the bazaar. I remained alone in the
bare carriage. In a few minutes, the train drew up beside an improvised wooden
platform. I passed out on to the road and saw by the lighted dial of a clock that it
was ten minutes to ten. In front of me was a large building which displayed the
magical name.
I could not find any sixpenny entrance and, fearing that the bazaar would be closed,
I passed in quickly through a turnstile, handing a shilling to a weary-looking man. I
found myself in a big hall girdled at half its height by a gallery. Nearly all the stalls
were closed and the greater part of the hall was in darkness. I recognized a silence
like that which pervades a church after a service. I walked into the centre of the
bazaar timidly. A few people were gathered about the stalls, which were still open.
Before a curtain, over which the words Cafe Chantant were written in coloured
lamps, two men were counting money on a salver. I listened to the fall of the coins.
Remembering with difficulty why I had come, I went over to one of the stalls, and
examined porcelain vases and flowered tea- sets. At the door of the stall a young
lady was talking and laughing with two young gentlemen. I remarked their English
accents and listened vaguely to their conversation.
"O, I never said such a thing!"
"O, but you did!"
"O, but I didn't!"
"Didn't she say that?"
"Yes. I heard her."
"O, there's a ... fib!"
Observing me, the young lady came over and asked me did I wish to buy anything.
The tone of her voice was not encouraging; she seemed to have spoken to me out of a
sense of duty. I looked humbly at the great jars that stood like eastern guards at
either side of the dark entrance to the stall and murmured: "No, thank you."
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The young lady changed the position of one of the vases and went back to the two
young men. They began to talk of the same subject. Once or twice, the young lady
glanced at me over her shoulder.
I lingered before her stall, though I knew my stay was useless, to make my interest
in her wares seem the more real. Then I turned away slowly and walked down the
middle of the bazaar. I allowed the two pennies to fall against the sixpence in my
pocket. I heard a voice call from one end of the gallery that the light was out. The
upper part of the hall was now completely dark.
Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by
vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.
********************************
For an analysis of this short story, see
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-93,pageNum-11.html
or http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-araby
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Post-reading Activity - Questions from “Araby”
1. What does it mean that Richmond street was ‘blind’?
_____________________________________________________
2. Describe the relationship between the narrator and Mangan’s sister.
_______________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
3. What were the first words that she ever spoke to him?
_____________________________________________________
4. What is his state of mind as the date of the bazaar approaches?
______________________________________________________
5. Support your point with examples of his behavior.
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
6. Who else in this story could be the narrator? _______________
7. What role does the narrator’s uncle play in the story?
______________________________________________________
8. How does our narrator’s trip to the bazaar end? ____________
______________________________________________________
9. What could the boy have done to change the outcome of his quest?
______________________________________________________
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LESSON V
POETRY
AND DRAMA
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Poetic Vocabulary – How much do you know?
A. Match the name of the poem with its definition.
Limerick
a 3-line non-rhyming Japanese poem
Haiku
a 14-line rhyming love poem
Sonnet
a 5- line rhyming Irish poem
B. How many lines do each of the following stanzas contain?
Couplet ____ Quatrain ____ Sestet ____ Octet ____
C. Define the following poetic devices.
Hyperbole _____________________________________________
Personification
________________________________________
Metaphor _____________________________________________
Simile
_____________________________________________
Alliteration ____________________________________________
D. Match the poetic device with its example/s.
Personification
“I told you ‘No’ a million times.”
Hyperbole
“Life is a box of chocolates.”
Metaphor
“Life is like a box of chocolates.”
Simile
Alliteration
62
“The moon smiled down on us.”
“dream deferred”, “sugary sweet”
ENGLISH 1
“We Alone” by Alice Walker
We alone can devalue gold
by not caring
if it falls or rises
in the marketplace.
Wherever there is gold
there is a chain, you know.
and if your chain
is gold
so much the worse
for you.
Feathers, shells and sea-shaped stones
are all as rare.
This could be our revolution:
to love what is plentiful
as much as
what is scarce.
First impressions: What you think is the message of “We Alone”?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
Second Look:
Read the poem again.
• How might one view each line (or stanza) by itself?
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•
•
•
What metaphor does the poetess use? _______________
What is the author’s intent?
How might you compare this poem to the theme “The Diamond
Necklace”?
The process of drawing meaning from a poem is called explication. Below is a
response to “We Alone”. You will be asked to do a short explication of a poem
that you will soon read.
Explication of Alice Walker’s “We Alone”
Alice Walker’s poem “We Alone” begins with, “We alone can devalue
gold.” Walker uses the metaphor of a chain to present gold as something that
holds us down, rather than liberates us. She tells us that we can ‘love what is
plentiful as much as what is scarce’.
This poem reminds me of my mother, who believed that people are much
more important than property. My mother knew, and taught her children, that
many things in the world (‘feathers, shells, and sea-shaped stones’) are more
precious than gold.
Mathilde, in “The Diamond Necklace”, met her downfall due to her desire
for riches. That short story can bring a valuable lesson today, for it seems that
people’s current ‘love affair’ with gold is at an all-time high. Meanwhile, what
has always been plentiful (fresh air, water, etc.) is now becoming scarce.
Word Count
How does one find out the length of a piece they have written?
Go to ‘Tools’, then Word Count’. These few paragraphs contain
141 words. A standard 5-paragraph essay is usually 500 words.
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“Trees” by Joyce Kilmer (For Mrs. Henry Mills Alden)
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
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Explication of “Trees”
The shortness of most poetry (compared to long pieces of prose) allows the reader
to read the poem many times in order to draw deeper meaning from it.
1. List three synonyms for ‘explicate’. (Reminder: ‘Tools’, ‘Language’, ‘Thesaurus’
on your toolbar.)
2. What does Joyce Kilmer say about poetry in lines 1 and 2 of “Trees”?
3. How does the picture of trees impact your reading of the poem?
_____________________________________________________________
4. Write a 1-paragraph response to the poet’s opinion in “Trees.”
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
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ENGLISH 1
“Harlem” by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore –And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over –
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load
Or does it explode?
“Dreams” by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
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ENGLISH 1
Figurative Language -Metaphors and Similes
We speak figuratively (not literally) when we say, “She’s as light as a feather.”
Metaphors and similes are examples of figurative language. A metaphor is a direct
comparison between two different objects. A simile compares unlike objects using
the words ‘like’ or ‘as’.
There are 5 similes in “Harlem”. List them.
“dry up like a raisin in the sun”
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
There are 2 metaphors in “Dreams”. List them.
____________________________________
____________________________________
Identify whether the following are metaphors or similes.
“Life is a broken-winged bird…” ____________________
“Does it stink like rotten meat?” ____________________
In your own words, restate what the poet is saying in “Dreams”.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
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ENGLISH 1
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet may be the most famous play in history. It is the story of two
young lovers whose families’ hatreds keep them apart, and eventually doom them.
“The Prologue”, begins the play.
A single narrator, the Chorus delivers “The Prologue”. The poem is in the form
of a sonnet, a 14-line rhyming love poem. The sonnet is written in iambic
pentameter, a ten-syllable line with the accent on every second syllable. As you read
“The Prologue” aloud, give emphasis to every second syllable. We have marked off
the first line for you.
“The Prologue*”
/
/
/
/ /
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona**, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, naught could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.***
* Introduction, foreword, preamble
** Shakespeare is English, the setting for this play is Verona, Italy.
*** The first 11 lines tell the plot of Romeo and Juliet.In the last 3 lines, the
Chorus asks the audience to pay attention to the actors, who will try to explain
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POETRY AND DRAMA
Just as “The Prologue” begins Romeo and Juliet, “Harlem” by Langston
Hughes begins the play A Raisin in the Sun. Poems can begins play; one can also
view a play in movie format.
We ask you here, in preparation for your final writing assignment for this
class, to see or hear one of these movies.
Choose to watch A Raisin in the Sun or Romeo and Juliet. You can...
•
•
•
•
go to the video store and rent the film.
Suggested versions of Romeo and Juliet are:
a) Director Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 version, or
b) The updated 1996 special edition with Leonardo DiCaprio and
Claire Danes
Suggested versions of A Raisin in the Sun include:
a) The 1961 movie with Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee
b) The 1989 movie with Danny Glover and Esther Rolle
go to your local library and find a book, video, or audiotape.
find a place online to view, hear and/or read either play.
look to see if either play is showing on TV.
***********************************************************
After viewing the movie, write an essay (5 paragraphs/500 words)
summarizing the movie. Think about:
• which version of the production you saw (including whether it was in blackand-white or color)
• the actors who played the parts
• the setting of the play
• the action of the play
• the themes involved
Begin your essay with pre-writing. Write down some notes or use some
graphic organizers like the Story Map on the next page.
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STORY MAP
Title:
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Setting:
Characters: _______________
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Problem:
Event 1: ________________________________________ Event 2:
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Event 3: ________________________________________
Event 4: ________________________________________
Event 5: ________________________________________
Solution:
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MOVIE SUMMARY
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ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
Page 10 - Synonyms includes ‘syntax’, ‘language structure’ and ‘sentence rules’.
Page 10 - Basic elements of language -- grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.
Other terms for grammar include syntax, sentence structure, and language rules.
Learn vocabulary by studying the meaning of roots, prefixes, and suffixes, using
context clues (looking at the other words in the sentence), and referring to a
dictionary or Thesaurus. The ‘root’ contains the basic meaning of a word. The
prefix in ‘prefix’ is ‘pre’; the root is ‘fix’; there is no suffix. Synonyms are words
with similar meanings. Find synonyms online by going to your toolbar, and clicking
on ‘Tools’, ‘Language’, ‘Thesaurus’. The different areas of communication skills
are reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and computer usage.
Page 14 - ingenuity -- creativity, resourcefulness, creativity
dowry -- gift, offering (often given by a bride’s father to the groom)
caste -- class, social group, social standing
supple -- agile, flexible, limber
hierarchy -- chain of command, ladder, pecking order
Page 16 - Mathilde suffered ceaselessly…
Natural ingenuity, instinct for what is elegant…
She danced with rapture, with passion,
without end
see synonyms above
ecstasy, joy, bliss
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"Yes, I felt it in the vestibule of the minister's house." entrance hall, foyer
And she smiled with a joy that was at once proud and ingenuous. honest, sincere
Page 22 - Mathilde is young, poor, and wants to be of a higher class (caste).
The ending of “Cinderella” was positive, like a fairy tale. The ending of this
story is sad, but there is a lesson to be learned. Mathilde could have worn natural
flowers (as her husband suggested) when attending the ball, or she could have just
decided not to worry about the jewelry she wore. When she lost the necklace, she
could have been honest with Madame Loisel. If she had, she would have saved
herself years of hard work. The necklace cost Mathilde and her husband years of
hard work to repay the cost, which was thirty-six thousand francs. Mathilde learned
hard lessons from this experience, including the price of vanity and the value of
hard work. There are many things more valuable than material riches. These
include family and community, natural beauty, principles, and the pride that comes
from working. The theme of this story is that one shouldn’t worship material things.
Page 27 Pre-writing techniques include brainstorming, webbing/clustering,
outlining, and the use of graphic organizers. Revising is changing major ideas and
themes in one’s writing; editing is correcting for grammar, word usage, spelling,
and punctuation. Immature writers confuse the rough draft with the entire process
of writing. It is helpful to share your writing with another, and/or to come back and
look at it again because feedback helps, and a second look always improves your
writing. Eliminate excess writing by not repeating or adding unnecessary details.
Check grammar and spelling, and find synonyms to vary your word usage by going
to the tool bar above and click on ‘Tools’, then ‘Spelling and Grammar’ or
‘Language’, then ‘Thesaurus’.
Page 32 - Writing is more than a step, it’s a process. The first step of the writing
process is pre-writing. Examples of prewriting include brainstorming, webbing,
and outlining. Another name for webbing is clustering, because ideas group into
clusters. The writer’s 2nd step is the rough draft. The rough draft is a first copy of
the final piece; it is not the final product. The 3rd step is proofreading. To proofread
means to examine a document (proof) in order to make changes. The 4th step in the
process is rewriting. Rewriting an essay includes two essential parts. These two
parts are revising and editing. Writers should revise before they edit in order to
develop main ideas before correcting mistakes in the communication of those ideas.
The 5th and final step of the writing process involves typing the final draft. Spellcheck, grammar-check, and type your final draft before submitting it.
Page 34 Active and Passive Voice Our team won the game. Joe ate the pie. Joan
ruined the day. The police arrested the man yesterday.
“The man was arrested yesterday.” cannot be changed without adding a subject, as
in the previous example.
Page 33 – d) active voice, independent clause first
Page 35 - Apostrophe Usage
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1. What’s the reason why you are late?
2. Whose book is this on the shelf?
3. There’s not a single dollar in my wallet. (Sentence was correct.)
4. Theirs is not to question why, theirs is but to do or die.
5. He signed the letter yours truly.
6. Mary’s my mother’s name.
7. It’s about time you got here.
8. That coat is hers. (Sentence was correct.)
9. How many A’s did you get on your report card?
10. She doesn’t love me anymore.
11. It’s anybody’s guess who will win the Super Bowl.
12. Frances’ book is torn.
13. Michael’s book is lost.
14. I hope to graduate in ‘08.
15. I have two brothers-in-law. (Sentence was correct)
16. That’s my father-in-law’s car.
Page 53 - Post-reading Activity - Questions from “Eveline”
It is hard to say if she made the right decision. One can’t always predict the future.
She didn’t leave because he was both afraid of an unknown future with Frank, and
had made promises to her family. Frank is ‘kind, manly, open-hearted’. He may or
may not have made her happy.
Her fear of the unknown was part of her reason for staying in Ireland. Frank may
be her best, but is not her only chance for happiness, because she is only 19. She
may never leave Dublin, or even her current home.
Page 60 - Post-reading Activity - Questions from “Araby”
Richmond Street was a dead-end street. Our unnamed narrator was infatuated with
Mangan’s sister. She asked if he was going to Araby (the bazaar). He can’t seem to
concentrate on anything as the bazaar approaches. No one else in this story could be
the narrator, because the story revolves too much on the feelings and thoughts of
our unnamed young man. The narrator’s uncle complete insensitivity frustrates our
narrator. His uncle dooms our narrator by making him extremely late for Araby.
Our narrator’s trip to the bazaar ends in frustration and anger, and provides a
growing-up experience for the youth. The boy could have gotten his money early,
and would not have had to wait on his uncle.
Page 63 - Poetic Vocabulary – How much do you know?
A. Limericks are 5- line rhyming Irish poems, haikus are 3-line non-rhyming
Japanese poems, and sonnets are 14-line rhyming love poems.
B. Couplets have 2 lines, quatrains have 4, sestets have 6, and octets have 8.
C. Hyperbole – exaggeration for emphasis
Personification – assigning human characteristics to ideas and objects.
Metaphor - a direct comparison of two unlike objects
Simile – a comparison of two unlike objects, using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’
Alliteration – the repetition of initial consonant sounds
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D. An example of personification is:
An example of hyperbole is:
An example of a metaphor is:
An example of a simile is:
Examples of alliteration are:
“The moon smiled down on us.”
“I told you ‘No’ a million times.”
“Life is a box of chocolates.”
“Life is like a box of chocolates.”
“dream deferred”, “sugary sweet”
Page 67 - Explication of “Trees”
Synonyms for ‘explicate’ include ‘make clear’, ‘give details’, ‘explain’.
Joyce Kilmer says that poetry will never be as beautiful as nature.
Page 68 - Similes in “Harlem” are: dry up like a raisin in the sun
fester like a sore –-and then run?
stink like rotten meat?
crust and sugar over –like a syrupy sweet?
sags like a heavy load
Metaphors in “Dreams” include: Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly”, and
“Life is a barren field frozen with snow”. “Life is a broken-winged bird…” is a
metaphor, “Does it stink like rotten meat?” is a simile. The poet in “Dreams” says
that one most ‘hold fast’ to hopes, dreams, and aspirations, or become unhappy.
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COURSE OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this course is to provide integrated educational experiences in the
language arts strands of reading, writing, listening, viewing, speaking, language, and
literature. The student will:
• Select and use pre-reading strategies that are appropriate to the text, such as discussion,
making predictions, brainstorming, generating questions, and previewing to anticipate
content, purpose, and organization of a reading selection.
• Select and use strategies to understand words and text, and to make and confirm
inferences from what is read, including interpreting diagrams, graphs, and statistical
illustrations.
• Refine vocabulary for interpersonal, academic, and workplace situations, including
figurative, idiomatic, and technical meanings.
• Apply a variety of response strategies, including rereading, note taking, summarizing,
outlining, writing a formal report, and relating what is read to his or her own
experiences and feelings.
• Determine the main idea and identify relevant details, methods of development, and
their effectiveness in a variety of types of written material.
• Determine the author’s purpose and point of view and their effects on text.
• Locate, gather, analyze, and evaluate written information for a variety of purposes,
including research projects, real-world tasks, and self-improvement.
• Identify devices of persuasion and methods of appeal and their effectiveness.
• Select and use appropriate study and research skills and tools according to the type of
information being gathered or organized, including almanacs, government publications,
microfiche, news sources, and information services.
• Analyze the validity and reliability of primary source information and use the
information appropriately.
• Synthesize information from multiple sources to draw conclusions.
• Select and use appropriate prewriting strategies, such as brainstorming, graphic
organizers, and outlining.
• Draft and revise writing
• Produce final documents that have been edited
• Organize information using appropriate systems.
• Write fluently for a variety of occasions, audiences, and purposes, making appropriate
choices regarding style, tone, level of detail, and organization.
• Select and use appropriate listening strategies according to the intended purpose, such
as solving problems, interpreting and evaluating the techniques and intent of a
presentation, and take action in career-related situations.
• Describe, evaluate, and expand personal preferences in listening to fiction, drama,
literary nonfiction, and informational presentations.
• Use effective strategies for informal and formal discussions, including listening
actively and reflectively, connecting to and building on the ideas of a previous speaker,
and respecting the viewpoints of others.
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• Identify bias, prejudice, or propaganda in oral messages.
• Determine main concept and supporting details in order to analyze and evaluate non
print media messages.
• Understand factors that influence the effectiveness of nonverbal cues used in non print
media, such as the viewer’s past experiences and preferences, and the context in which
the cues are presented.
• Use volume, stress, pacing, enunciation, eye contact, and gestures that meet the needs
of the audience and topic.
• Select and use a variety of speaking strategies to clarify meaning and to reflect
understanding, interpretation, application, and evaluation of content, processes, or
experiences (including asking relevant questions when necessary, making appropriate
and meaningful comments, and making insightful observations).
• Use details, illustrations, analogies, and visual aids to make oral presentations that
inform, persuade, or entertain.
• Apply oral communication skills to interviews, group presentations, formal
presentations, and impromptu situations.
• Develop and sustain a line of argument and provide appropriate support.
• Identify the characteristics that distinguish literary forms.
• Identify universal themes prevalent in the literature of all cultures.
• Understand the characteristics of major types of drama.
• Understand the different stylistic, thematic, and technical qualities present in the
literature of different cultures and historical periods.
• Describe and evaluate personal preferences regarding fiction and nonfiction.
• Analyze the effectiveness of complex elements of plot, such as setting, major events,
problems, conflicts, and resolutions.
• Understand the relationships between and among elements of literature, including
characters, plot, setting, tone, point of view, and theme.
• Analyze poetry for the ways in which poets inspire the reader to share emotions, such
as the use of imagery, personification, and figures of speech, including simile and
metaphor; and the use of sound, such as rhyme, rhythm, repetition, and alliteration.
• Recognize and explain those elements in texts that prompt a personal response, such as
connections between one’s own life and the characters, events, motives, and causes of
conflict in texts.
• Apply an understanding that language and literature are primary means by which
culture is transmitted.
• Make appropriate adjustments in language use for social, academic, and life situations,
demonstrating sensitivity to gender and cultural bias.
• Understand specific ways in which language has shaped the reactions, perceptions, and
beliefs of the local, national, and global communities.
• Understand the subtleties of literary devices and techniques in the comprehension and
creation of communication.
• Write text, notes, outlines, comments, and observations that demonstrate
comprehension and synthesis of content, processes, and experiences from a variety of
media.
• Organize information using appropriate systems.
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• Select and use a variety of electronic media, such as the Internet, information services,
and desktop-publishing software programs, to create, revise, retrieve, and verify
information.
• Critically analyze specific elements of mass media with regard to the extent to which
they enhance or manipulate information.
• Understand that laws control the delivery and use of media to protect the rights of
authors and the rights of media owners.
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Author: Patrick McCann
Copyright 2009
Revision Date:12/2009