What is the "American Dream"? What are American values?

Today in class we read an opinion piece from the New York Times entitled "Crumbling American Dreams." You can find it by clicking here.

In class we wrote an initial response to it, identified the issues in it that most grabbed our attention, then tried to understand the point Putnam, the author of the article, was making.

We closed class by naming what he is implying are / should be American values, then included our opinion as to whether we agree that should be a value or not.

We'll use those thoughts in class tomorrow as the jumping-off point for our new unit.

*Please remember to buy the next three books: Walden, Civil Disobedience, and Self Reliance.

next books!

As we finish our work with Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby next week, we will turn our attention to a very different set of issues and ideas.

Please purchase these books for Tuesday - all of them are available at the bookstore:

Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau - $1
Walden - Henry David Thoreau - $3
Self Reliance - Ralph Waldo Emerson - $3

The Great Gastby - peer feedback on essays

Today you will be providing feedback to at least one, hopefully two, other students.  You will also be receiving feedback on your work.

Please use this document to guide your feedback.  Be sure to print it out so I can give it to the writer.

Thanks for your thoughtful attention and hard work!

The Great Gatsby - essay workshop

Today you have class time to work on your essay by preparing an outline for it.

We'll start by looking at some sample paragraphs from the recent quiz.  Open this document and follow along as we discuss the strengths and challenges of each one.

Go to this link and use the document for your work.  Note the number of quotations is merely a suggestion, but should be a good starting point.

For class tomorrow, bring in a copy of your outline, either typed or hand-written.  Please know we will be reading and commenting on each other's work in an effort to better understand the assignment, receive feedback from others, and give feedback to each other.

The Great Gatsby - Chapter 5

Greetings!

I hope you had a great weekend.  Unfortunately I am under the weather and will not be in today.

Please choose a partner to work with for this activity.

For our first quiz last week, I gave you three assertions about chapters 1 and 2 then asked you to prove them by using two quotations from the novel.

For today, you will need to do both parts:

1. Create two assertions about chapter 5.  These can be about characterization, symbolism, the setting, or other aspects of the narrative.
2. For each one, write a paragraph using two pieces of evidence (quotations) from the novel
3. Type out your response, print it, and give it to the sub.

If you finish early, please us the time to read and / or write your next journal response.

See you tomorrow (hopefully!)