Analytical Blog Example

      Here's an example of an analytical blog post from the first time that I taught this class.  As you can see, it was about the same type of year, but this student was already delving into her essential questions.  You can do the same, or you can write about a literary device, strategy, or theme.  Just make sure that you are analyzing, not summarizing.  Have fun with it! 👀

Essential Question 9/26/14: What was van Gogh's process and motivation?

As I am coming to the last few pages of Letters to Theo, van Gogh's motivation is becoming more intense and his process, well, a little bit crazed. What was at the beginning a sweet, heartwarming story about a simple painter trying to make his way has taken a sharp turn into something much darker. At the point I am now reading, van Gogh has been hospitalized on and off during the year due to “overexcitement”, hacking off part of his ear, and thinking that his friends want to kill him. Although this has been a hard portion to read, I think that van Gogh's crazed, "overexcited" state has given me a lot of insight into who he is as an artist.

Van Gogh is, at his essence, a hard worker. Throughout his letters he has accounted the ways that he strives to bring light and life and beauty to the people through his artwork. He works day and night sometimes; usually his schedule is twelve hours of work and eleven of sleep with meal breaks in between if he can afford food that week. As I continue reading, van Gogh's working day goes from "I work only from nine until six..."(11) to "My money ran out on Thursday and I have lived for four days on twenty three cups of coffee, with bread for which I still owe." (393) Needless to say, his process has steadily gotten more intense and unhealthy as the book progresses. Van Gogh’s work day mostly consists of spending his money on paints instead of food and feeling like he cannot eat because he has not earned his bread by selling artwork. In general, this book is getting incredibly sad. I wish I could say it all turns out well in the end.

Upon closer look, one can see that van Gogh’s creation of art was never a cookie cutter process. One of his biggest desires was to be a master colorist, so the paints he used were often the most important part of his artwork. He thought very highly of his colors- he said that one should never use pure blue in flesh because it looks dead and woody, that the browns in leather are truly purple and red, that the mood of a person determines the colors of the portrait. The colors were certainly a big part of working for him. In one of his many paragraphs about the effect of colour, and one of my personal favorite passages, van Gogh describes his intentions behind The Night Cafe. He says “I have tried to express the terrible passions of humanity through red and green.” (383) and goes on to detail his intentions behind the placement and use of blood red, dark yellow, lemon yellow, green, orange, and violet. Van Gogh treasures his pigments as the life of his artwork, and they are by far the most important elements of his art.

For context, here are two of van Gogh's self portraits- one of his first, about ten years after he started writing to Theo, and one of his last, just a few months before he committed suicide. Note the difference in colors- the first was warm, loose, and precise, whereas the last is cold and a little harsh. Notice how he uses blue in the flesh, which as I mentioned before, he warned against because of the dead look it gives the subject.

 

Self Portrait with Dark Felt Hat. Spring 1886, Oil on Canvas, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam.

Self Portrait. September 1889, Oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

First Quotation Blog

        Tomorrow you all have your first quotation blog post due, so I wanted to review the assignment and post an example from the summer class.  The one below includes everything you need: 

a title to your post, 

the book, 

the author, 

how much you've read, 

a paragraph providing context before you get to your quote,

something interactive (cited),

the quotation itself (with a citation, which I actually don't see in the example)

a paragraph analyzing the quote,

another paragraph relating it to something in your life and/or society at large. 

        Let's get this first one off to a great start.  Good luck. ✋

Wednesday- Week Six 

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Pages 1-62

       When I picked out the books I was going to read throughout this course, I only chose four. It is the final week and I did not have a fifth novel prepared. Before, while during research, this novel constantly came up when looking at the most popular dystopian novels, so I decided to read it. So far, I am about half way into this book, and am enjoying it a lot. First off, the reader is introduced to Guy Montag, a firefighter who has the number '451' carved into his working hat; corresponding with the name of the novel. Instead of putting out fires, he is lighting items on fire and is basically burning a house down. Right off the bat, that is an odd thing for someone, let alone a firefighter to be doing. It is later revealed that firefighters actually do not ever put out fires, which is very ironic. He then gets himself cleaned up, then leaves the station at around midnight. Again, a pretty odd thing to do. Montag waits for the subway to take him home and meets a new neighbor of his, a young woman named Clarisse. She is a person who gives him a usual, uncomfortable feeling. He says it gives him a bad taste in his mouth and leaves him feeling a bit uneasy. She is very straight forward with him and  says things that not many people would say. She asks him if he goes against the laws they have to read books instead of burning them, he of course says no. Clarisse tells him right away that she is crazy and does not truly agree with how their society, or the people in it, operate. She asks Montag a very simple question: if he is happy. He takes a minute to think about it, and although he says that Clarisse is a bit arrogant for asking that, I believe that his contemplating has some significance. 

source: google images

       “I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane.”

       This quote was said by Clarisse who always seems to speak her mind. I really enjoy this quote because it is coming straight out of a seventeen year old's mouth. Throughout society we always hear things about the age sixteen or eighteen, but I feel as if seventeen is always neglected a bit. There may not be life altering things happening at this age, but things happen as a person lives their life and people change. Clarisse, as a character, is just starting to figure out who she is as a person and who she is in her society. This is difficult for a teenager as it is, but with the odd living habits she has to deal with it is definitely harder. She is prohibited from reading, the people put in charge to protect her, will never really help her when she is in need. She may go a little crazy from time to time. But that is just her being a teenager in her living environment.

       I can relate to this quote as a seventeen year old girl even though the way Clarisse and I are living is very different. Every person ever, no matter what the age has felt crazy at some point or another throughout their life. I honestly did enjoy reading and finding this quote because it is relatable. I cannot even imagine living in any dystopian society. Throughout every novel I have read so far, there are drastic differences that affect my day to day life. So, personally, living in these characters' shoes would be extremely hard for me. Being a seventeen year old, for the most part, is probably tougher for Clarisse than it is for me, currently. 

Creating a Plan for Quarter One

      

       Though this is an independent class, there are certain requirements I've set up to make it optimally successful.  One of the main guidelines is that while you choose a topic, you aren't just going to wing it for the rest of the quarter.  I want you to know where you are starting, where you are going, what you want to learn, and what resources you're going to use.  Therefore, the first thing that we have to do to have a great experience in this class is to make a plan for the quarter.  The plan has four requirements:

1.  Introductory paragraph with your topic and your reasons for wanting to study this topic.

2.  Essential questions for the quarter (remember that essential questions are open ended).

3.  List of books that you will read for the quarter (must equal at least 80-100 pages a week).  It's better to have too many books rather than too few.  I'd say minimum of four.

4. Schedule of reading.  For this you can download a calendar or simply type a list of weeks and which books/pages you plan to be on each week.

       To make this more clear, I have included an example from this summer's class.  Below is Ashley's, which she had to revise midway through the summer because she had already read and blogged about all of her books! :)

       I am so excited to see what you choose and post by Tuesday. Feel free to get this done far earlier and begin your reading as you have your first posts due soon after! (See School Loop for these dates.)  

Good luck! :)

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

The Plan

1. The topic I have chose to focus on in all of my readings this summer is coming of age. When it comes to books I have always enjoyed stories about the different kinds of ways people have grown up. It interests me to see just how much one individual can influence another ones life. People make mistakes and have different upbringings. It is compelling to see how people take what they have experienced in their adolescence to there adult lives.

2. Essential Questions:

• How can an individual change someones life?
• What does one do to change there path in life?
• Is there a certain age where you can stop learning about life?
• Is there a "right" way to live life?

3.  Books for the summer:

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (224 pages)
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (336 pages)
• Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (208 pages)
• Looking For Alaska John Green (256 pages)

4. The Plan:
June 14-20:  The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1-130)
June 20- 26: The Perks of Being a Wallflower (130-224)
June 27- July 1: The Secret Life of Bees (1-100)
July 2-6: The Secret Life of Bees (100-200)
July 7- 15: The Secret Life Of Bees (200-336)
July 16-20: Speak (1-100)
July 21-25: Speak (100-208)
July 25-31: Looking for Alaska (1-256)

Source: Google Images

Course Outline

Topics in Literature

Ms. Fichera

Fall 2017

Overview:

Welcome to what I hope will be a great new opportunity to explore literature in a way that you’ve never quite before.  I am so excited to get started!  As I think you know, this class is not going to function in the same way that your previous three years of high school English have.  Instead, each of you will be designing your own curriculum for the semester and pursuing it independently (with my support, of course).  The idea is this:  each quarter you will choose a particular area of literary interest to study.  You will come up with a plan:  essential questions, books, and a schedule.  Once this plan has been submitted and approved, you will pursue this area of interest until the end of the quarter, reading daily and posting to a blog three times a week, then you will do the same for the second quarter of the semester.  We will meet daily in my classroom, but we will also communicate via the class blog that I keep.  

Requirements:

1.      Read and write about your area of study five days a week.  This should total approximately 80-100 pages of reading and three pages of writing per week.

2.      Keep a composition book for each quarter.  In it, log the pages of your reading, take notes (this should be done in your  own way, perhaps with thinking routines or quotations but should not only be facts, though I imagine that there will be some), and record and define at least ten new vocabulary words each week.

3.      Keep a blog for class and post to it three times a week.  You will have three different types of posts due. 

a.       Friday blog – This is the simplest entry, the most factual.  Please tell me the name of the book and author you have been reading this week since the previous Friday; our reading schedule will run from Friday to Friday (example Heading Home with Your Newborn – Laura Jana and Jennifer Shu), what pages you read (example: 1-113), and list and define ten new vocabulary words from your reading and what pages you found them on (example: colic – persistent crying in an otherwise healthy baby – p. 113).  

b.      Tuesday blog – Relatively informal entry.  500 word minimum. This entry needs to be based around a quotation that you read over the course of the week that inspired you to think and reflect, ideally on something personal.  There should be three parts to your entry.  The first should provide some context of where you are in your book, the second have the quotation and an analysis of the quotation, and the third should be a personal connection or reflection to your life, your school, society in general, etc. 

c.       Thursday blog – More formal, though you can still use “I.”  500 word minimum.  This entry should be more intellectual, analyzing a particular element of your reading for the week. You might choose a symbol, motif, theme, something about the style of writing, etc., but this one will be more typical of what you would write about in an English class. 

Your blogs are due by the time class starts on Tuesday, Thursday, and Fridays.  However, I would not necessarily recommend that you work on these entries during school on the day that they are due as they make up 100% of your grade for the semester. 

I’m hoping that your blog is something that you will be really proud of, so make it interesting!  Add pictures, links, music, etc. (and make sure to cite them! Ask me or see Ms. Costello if you need help with this).  It should not just be type with no “extras.”  In that case, you would be doing the work in a notebook.  So instead, make it informative, but most importantly make it your own. J

4.      Be passionate and independent. 

Final Thoughts:

If this seems like a lot, remember two things:  the topic is one that you have chosen yourself, so reading and writing about it should not feel like traditional work, and you will be using our class time (fifty minutes per day) in addition doing homework (about thirty minutes per day).  That’s a lot of minutes learning about something that you care about, and I’m sure the time will fly by.  You might have noticed that my examples above were about having a baby, which I do, so that’s a topic that I have been reading a lot about in the past couple of years.  Because I have a personal connection to the topic, I’m motivated to read about childhood and parenting, even when I’m tired or busy.  I want you to choose two topics that you will be similarly excited about and which will make you feel like English is not work so much as something that is enriching your life.

            I had been dreaming about teaching a class like this for ages, and we’re now on our third year of offering it.  Of course there have been some bumps in the road, like in any new experience, but I know that my previous students read and learned a lot more (and about topics that really interested them) than they ever had before.  I hope that you will, too, and that you are genuinely excited to get started.  Please keep an open dialogue with me about topics/books you are considering, any trouble you are having with the blog posts, or anything else that needs clarifying.  We will also use Ms. Costello and the library as a regular resource. I’m excited to return from my maternity leave to two sections of this class, and I genuinely look forward to reading about your projects (and learning from you!) every day. J

"One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested."

— E. M. Forster