Due
Monday Read three short pieces and write a paragraph on your
reaction to each.
Due
Tuesday
First, think about the type of poetry called a "sonnet."
Next, write a few wqords on whatever comes to mind in this
regard. Next, read "Sonnet"
by Billy Collins.
Finally, write a few sentences on your post-reading
reaction and how it is compares and contrasts with
your pre-reading expectations.
Our
teacher
Who is Mr.
Sheil?
I am a dad, a former newspaper
editor and an English major. I was born in New York
City, grew up on Long Island and lived in Dublin,
Ireland, for four years in my 20s.
The older of my children, my
son Eoin, was born in Dublin. Eoin graduated from the
University of Illinois with a math degree, lived with
his fiancée in Ireland for two years while he
worked for a financial company, then was married and got
a job with a financial firm in San Francisco. The
younger, my daughter Siobhan, was born in Louisiana and
plays jazz trombone as a senior at Truman State in
Missouri. She plans to get degrees English and
French, with a minor in jazz. In the spring, she
studied in Martinique. Both are intelligent, civil,
defiant, well-adjusted.
Here are some of the newspapers
where I have worked.
At the age of 50, I began to learn Spanish during a 108-day trip to
Peru. ¿Puedes
hablar español? (Can you speak Spanish?). The top
picture was taken in 2008 on Mount Putucusi, across from
Macchu Picchu in Peru. In nearby Cuzco, I volunteered in
a school for six weeks, helping niños de la calle
(street children), with their schoolwork. This picture is
with some of the students.
For a more detailed look, see my resume.
What's up with English class? Why
is it important, and why should you care? Here's why:
Ever tell a joke? Ever search for a word to describe
something you saw, or how you felt? Of course you have
-- everyone has. But English and grammar and literature
all do much more -- they help you gather the loose
thoughts and feelings running around your head like so
many sheep in a meadow. English language arts acts like
a sheepdog, helping you lead those thoughts and ideas
into a pen, corral them, shear them and turn their
fleeces into a fine wool suit which will be the envy of
all your friends. They'll want to corral their sheep
into their pens, and turn out their own suits and
sweaters. The next thing you know, everyone is dressed
mighty spiffy -- and headed out for a night on the town
and some riveting, invigorating conversation. This is Oscar
Wilde, a famous author and bon vivant
who was born in Dublin.
"Creative semantics
is the key to contemporary government; it consists
of talking in strange tongues lest the public
learn the inevitable inconveniently early."
- George Will --
Newsweek, vol 53, no. 3 1983
aghast
/əˈgast/ (adj.)
1. shocked; struck with
horror or
amazement.
Example Sentence: Martha was aghast
when Harry appeared covered in mud in front of her
friend.
"Araby''
is one of 15 short stories that make up James Joyce's
collection, Dubliners, written between 1904
and 1906 but not published until 1914. Dubliners
paints a portrait of life in Dublin, Ireland, at the
turn of the 20th century. Its stories are arranged in
an order reflecting the development of a child into a
grown man. The first three stones are told from the
point of view of a young boy, the next three from the
point of view of an adolescent, and so on. "Araby" is
the last story of the first set, and is told from the
perspective of a boy just on the verge of adolescence.
The story takes its title from a real festival which
came to Dublin in 1894 when Joyce was twelve years
old.
Joyce is one of
the most famous writers of the Modernist period of
literature, which runs roughly from 1900 to the end of
World War II. Modernist works often include characters
who are spiritually lost and themes that reflect a
cynicism toward institutions the writer had been
taught to respect, such as government and religion.
Much of the this literature is experimental; Joyce's
writing reflects this in the use of dashes instead of
quotation marks to indicate a character is speaking.
When you ANNOTATE a text, you should do five
things:
Highlight, underline, or otherwise mark
important parts (facts, quotes, dates, names, etc)
Circle and LOOK UP unknown words. Write the
definitions in the margins.a
Ask questions about the reading: What don’t you
understand? What do you want to know more about?
Write summaries at the end.
Note reactions/write responses.
Flashback:
an interruption of the action to events that took
place at an earlier time.
A flashback may provide information that
helps readers understand the current situation.
Foreshadowing:
when a writer provides hints that suggest future
events in a story.
A character who tells a story, for example,
may be hinting at events to come.
Inference:
a logical guess or conclusion based on evidence.
Readers contribute to the telling of many
stories through their own background knowledge – and
by inference. Readers combine information in the
story with what they know from their own experience.
When we draw a reasonable conclusion based on clues
or facts in the story, we are “inferring” other
facts, feelings, or events that are not directly
stated.
Point
of View:
the perspective from which a story is told
First
Person POV:a story as
narrated by one of its characters: “I came out of
the theater into the bright light.”
Second
Person POV:focus is
on the person to whom the story is being told (very
rare—used when giving directions or instructions).
Third
Person POV:the
narrator telling the story is NOT in the story.
“Greg went to the window...”
What's up with English class? Why
is it important, and why should you care? Here's why:
Ever tell a joke? Ever search for a word to describe
something you saw, or how you felt? Of course you have
-- everyone has. But English and grammar and literature
all do much more -- they help you gather the loose
thoughts and feelings running around your head like so
many sheep in a meadow. English language arts acts like
a sheepdog, helping you lead those thoughts and ideas
into a pen, corral them, shear them and turn their
fleeces into a fine wool suit which will be the envy of
all your friends. They'll want to corral their sheep
into their pens, and turn out their own suits and
sweaters. The next thing you know, everyone is dressed
mighty spiffy -- and headed out for a night on the town
and some riveting, invigorating conversation. 
"
aghast
