PARCC-Style LotF Essay

Lord of the Flies prompt

William Golding described the theme of The Lord of the Flies thusly: 

"The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable."

In an essay, analyze what is revealed regarding the individual, human nature, morality, and society in the works we have covered thus far this year.

• Your essay must include multiple, relevant, and specific references to:
• The Lord of the Flies
• "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street," "I Shot an Arrow into the Air," "Miri" (the episode of Star Trek), or Hell in the Pacific
• Any other major work covered this year...
• The Crucible, "The Minister's Black Veil," "Young Goodman Brown," Walden, or Into the Wild

The completed essay must be at least 5 paragraphs in length.

Homework: 1/19-1/23

Your independent work for the week consists of locating 10 examples of literary devices used in Golding's The Lord of the Flies.

• Note: You are looking for ten different devices; you cannot simply find ten examples of asyndeton.

Look for examples of these devices:

1. Asyndeton
2. Polysyndeton
3. Allegory
4. Chiasmus
5. Didactic
6. Pedantic
7. Aphorism
8. Analogy
9. Invective
10. Anaphora
11. Synecdoche
12. Allusion
13. Homily
14. Apostrophe
15. Hypophora
16. Litotes
17. Pun

I suggest picking a chapter and engaging in some close reading. Chapters 7 and 8 will likely be particularly ripe for the picking, as they are filled with symbolism and figurative language.

You need to include a quote from the novel, and a brief explanation as to what device is used. Here is a sample (Yes, you may steal it.):

Asyndeton

Chapter 12: "Cry of the Hunters" - "He shot forward, burst the thicket, was in the open, screaming, snarling, bloody."

No conjunctions are used to emphasize Ralph's frantic behavior and mindset.

• Your list of ten is due Friday, 1/23.

Regarding Star Trek and the upcoming essay prompt: If you are not a fan of classic, 1960's television science fiction, please feel free to watch this film instead. You can use it as an example for the fore-coming writing task.

SAT Catch-up: 1/12-1/23 - Due Mon. 1/26

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PMqLZLc5DcOgfk3IhqnIZN8Mvgc-sPvL-T5DT7YjxIE/pub

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street

 Rod Sterling, the creator of The Twilight Zone, wrote this episode, which he described as a suburban Lord of the Flies. In a comment left on this post, explain what you think this episode reveals about human nature.

• 1 thoughtful paragraph will suffice.
• Due before class on Friday (1/23)

PARCC Writing Task

Warning: The following prompt comes directly from the state.

Use what you have learned from reading "“Daedalus and Icarus"” by Ovid and “"To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph"” by Anne Sexton to write an essay that provides an analysis of how Sexton transforms “Daedalus and Icarus.”

As a starting point, you may want to consider what is emphasized, absent, or different in the two texts, but feel free to develop your own focus for analysis.

Develop your essay by providing textual evidence from both texts. Be sure to follow the conventions of standard English.

Here are the texts:

The excerpt from the Metamorphoses: 

http://www.parcconline.org/sites/parcc/files/Gr%2010%20Literary%20Text%20Daedalus.pdf

The Anne Sexton poem:

http://www.parcconline.org/sites/parcc/files/passage10.pdf

Here is the rubric (Look at the first one):
http://www.parcconline.org/sites/parcc/files/Grade%206-11%20July%2029%20Rubric%20Final.pdf

Suffice it to say, one must have "clear and convincing reasoning" fully supported by "relevant textual evidence."

Thus, I feel it would be wise for your essays to contain at least two specific and effective references to each work.

• Also, your responses should be at least four paragraphs in length.

• Typed, completed essays are due tomorrow (1/21/15)! You have today to get started: get cracking!

This is Sam Berns. He died approximately one year ago. Please watch this wonderful young man's TED Talk and leave a thoughtful comment on this post (Due prior to school on Tuesday, 1/20). Have a lovely weekend, all.

PARCC Preparation!

It has arrived! PARCC!

PARCC!

PARCC!

PARCC!

 PARCC! PARC! PAERASDF! PARCC! OARCC! PARECC! PPPARRAC! PPAPAPRC!PAARCC!

parcc...

Darth Vader: NJ's PARCC test enforcer - "I find your lack of higher level thinking disturbing."

To prep for the PARCC, we will complete the sample 10th grade Language Arts questions.

Palpatine: the PARCC architect - "Good. Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you."

So, the good news is that the state plans on including some really relevant, contemporary readings.

You know, epic Roman poetry from the 1st century. 

I'm not kidding: one of the sample poems is from the year 8. 8AD.  2007 years ago.

And I thought the wait between Empire and Jedi was long.

Unlike the previous state assessment, the HSPA, which focused more predominantly on non-fiction readings, the PARCC seems to have a more literary bent.

And, from what I can gather, the Language Arts component of the PARCC will focus more on higher level literary passages. As I previously hinted, there is some seriously old stuff on the sample question. The sample question also involves comparison/contrast and the incorporation of textual support.

The state provides a section of Ovid's Metamorphoses. A Roman poet, Ovid compiled over 250 myths in a 15 book collection. As a Roman epic, the Metamorphoses attempts to cover the entirety of the history of Ancient Rome, beginning with the birth of civilization and ending with the deification of Julius Caesar.

Ovid

The state provides a section of Book VIII focusing on Daedalus and Icarus. In this section of the poem, Ovid decides to retell a story from Homer's Odyssey. 

Daedalus is the father of Icarus.

Dad's on the left.

He is also responsible for creating the labyrinth in Crete. You know, the maze that is home to the Minotaur.

To prevent the public from learning his knowledge of the labyrinth, Daedalus and his son Icarus are locked up in a tower by the king of Crete. Because the king controls the land and the sea routes out of Crete, Daedalus devises a scheme to escape through the air. He fabricates a set of wings for his son, Icarus made of wax and feathers. He then warns his son not to fly to close to the sun, as its heat will melt the wax, and not to fly too close to the sea as the water will soak the feathers. 

Icarus, exhilarated by flight, gets too close to the sun, loses his wings, and drowns.

Icarus is pictured in the lower right half of the painting. What a dingus!

Icarus symbolizes the pride of man--our human aspirations to emulate God. You know, pride comes before a fall, blah, blah, blah.

Hopefully this background information will help!

The second reading provided  by the state is an Anne Sexton poem.

And get this: She was alive during the 20th century!

It concerns the myth of Icarus: "TO A FRIEND WHOSE WORK HAS COME TO TRIUMPH"

AP LANG TERM QUIZ: FRIDAY JANUARY 16th

1. Asyndeton
2. Polysyndeton
3. Allegory
4. Chiasmus
5. Didactic
6. Pedantic
7. Aphorism
8. Analogy
9. Invective
10. Anaphora
11. Synecdoche
12. Allusion
13. Homily
14. Apostrophe
15. Hypophora
16. Litotes
17. Pun