LEARNING TARGETS:  

• 1st and 2nd Hour:  Be able to explain how Fitzgerald uses chapter 1 to establish SETTING and CHARACTER
  • Complete character handout at classroom.
• 5th Hour: Work Day (Final Drafts)
• 6th Hour:  Be able to explain:
  • How Steinbeck’s background figures into the themes of Of Mice and Men.
  • The basic definitions of SOCIALISM and COMMUNISM.

5th and 6th Hours: Here’s a sample literary analysis paper you can use.

1&3:

1. Took Vocab test Unit 8
2. Had time to work on Final Draft of Paper (due tomorrow)
3. Book Quiz/Test/Tuiz/Quest tomorrow

5&6

1. Took Vocab Quiz unit 8
2. Time to Work on Drafts (Due Thursday)

C.E. was absent at a conference

1&3: Worked on final draft of paper

5&6: Finished Gatsby film and worked on first draft of paper.

LEARNING TARGETS:

1st and 2nd Hour:  You will be able to explain the following about an MLA works cited page:

1. What it is
2. Why it exists
3. How it differs from a bibliography
4. What it looks like in a sample paper.

LEARNING TARGETS:  

1st and 2nd Hour:  By the end of class you should be able to identify key elements in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s biography (things that influenced his life/important experiences).

FITZGERALD BIOGRAPHY

LEARNING TARGETS:

• First and Third Hours:  Complete Draft of Of Mice and Men paper.
• 5th/6th Hours:  by the end of today, you’ll be able to map the action in chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby.IN CLASS:  we mapped the action in chapter 7 of Gatsy after taking questions and discussing it.
  • How to make your map
    • You may choose whatever technique you wish.  A simple and effective plan might be to plot the locations (settings) on your map then number the different key events near the places where they happen.
    • In the legend, include a brief (1-2 sentence MAXIMUM) description of the events AND a quote from the novel, with proper citation, that represents that action.

  HOMEWORK: READ CHAPTER 8 by WEDNESDAY!

IMPORTANT THING #1: The question from the handout for chapter four is mistyped.  It should read:  How does Candy’s comments to Crooks and Lennie tie the dream of the land/farm to larger political and economic issues (and Steinbeck’s overall message)?

Here’s the quote in question:

• Candy cried, “Sure they all want it.  Everybody wants a little bit of land, not much.  Jus’ something that was his.  Somethin’ he could live on and there couldn’t nobody throw him off of it.  I never had none.  I planted crops for damn near ever’body in this state, but they they wasn’t my crops, and when I harvested ’em, it wasn’t none of my harvest.  But we gonna do it now, and don’t make no mistake about that.  George ain’t got the money in town.  That money’s in the bank.  Me an’ Lennie an’ George. We gonna have a room to ourself.  We’re gonna have a dog an’ rabbits an’ chickens.  We’re gonna have green corn an’ maybe a cow or a goat.”  He stopped, overwhelmed by the picture. (John Steinbeck,  Of Mice and Men, p. 76)
• Notice the picture Steinbeck paints in the part in red italics.  It’s emphasizing the fact that although the workers do all of the work that grows the products of the farm, when those products are sold, the workers see very little of the profit.  In contrast, on the farm, all of the rewards of their work would come back to them.  This is quite similar to what Karl Marx was talking about when he came up with the idea of socialism (where the workers run the businesses for the good of the workers, not for profit).  Consider the possibility that this paragraph is very important to understanding what Steinbeck was preaching.

IMPORTANT THING #2:  Also, before you start writing your paper, read this sample essay (and the comments).   Don’t worry–this was written by a veteran essay writer: a real pro.  Yours does not have to be as sophisticated as this.  What I encourage you to notice is how the quotes from the novel are SHORT.  Don’t go copying down whole paragraphs of the novel.  Use the few short bursts that support your own original ideas.

FIRST AND THIRD HOUR:  Watched movie version of “Of Mice and Men” with a couple of stops to discuss thematic issues.

FIFTH AND SIXTH HOUR:  read chapter 6.  HOMEWORK: Read Chapter 7 before you get to class Friday!! 

• Learning target:  by the end of class you should be able to explain
  • How Jay Gatsby came to be.
  • What is meant by “Platonic conception of himself”?
  • What does chapter six have to tell us about Fitzgerald’s themes of the old West.
  • CHAPTER 6 Presentation