Welcome To Honors English
DAY ONE
August 7th
Welcome To AP English Language
and Composition
DAY ONE
August 7th
“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal
from listening carefully. Most people never
listen.”
~Ernest Hemingway
• Did you know that we spend roughly 60
percent of our communication time
listening….
• BUT WE ARE NOT VERY GOOD AT IT!
• WE RETAIN JUST 25 PERCENT OF WHAT WE
HEAR
What is listening?
• Let’s define it as making
sound.
meaning from
It’s a mental process. And we use some pretty cool
techniques to do this. One of them is called pattern
recognition.
• For example, we recognize pattern to distinguish—and
we recognize our name especially.
• Differencing is a listening technique .
• If I left this on for a couple of minutes,
you would literally cease to hear it.
Sound Places Us in Space and Time
• If you were to close your eyes right
now…
• What are you aware of?
– Can you tell what size the room is? How?
– What about the fact that there are other students
sitting around you?
Did you know that…
• Hearing is the first sense to develop in the
womb…
• The ear continues to hear sounds—even
as you sleep.
• 37 percent of children with only minimal
hearing loss fail at least one grade.
And what does sound do to us?
Sound affects us physiologically!
• It changes your heartbeat
• Your breathing
• Your brainwaves
–Waves are physiologically the most pleasing
to our senses because they mimic our
breathing pattern.
Sounds Affect Us Psychologically
• For example, music can change our moods.
• What is it about music that affects us?
• Research suggests that the sounds of birds
actually affect us psychologically. We feel
safe when birds are chirping.
Cognitively
• How well do you think in a noisy classroom?
• What is it like to be in a silent classroom?
Behavior
• We move away from unpleasant sounds.
• We move toward pleasant sounds.
The Sound of Silence
• Be quiet for 10 seconds.
• What did you hear?
Channels of Sounds
• Listen. What do you hear now?
INTENTION
• INTENTION is very important to listening.
– How might intention to
specifically in a classroom?
listen be important
Listening Task
• Over the course of the semester, we are going to
invent our own listening pattern in this classroom,
among others.
• TASK. I want you to number off from 1 to
however many of you there are. There will be
NO discussion about how you will do this.
• Without talking, please proceed… If two or more
people speak at the same time, we will begin again.
• How did you do?
• As a class, you just invented a
pattern of listening and
speaking!
• Through this type of invention, we will
build our classroom community.
• Together we will find meaning and
purpose through invention in the
material that is new to you.
Reading and Writing Task One
READ IT!
• As we read the following character descriptions,
think about words or phrases that you think describe
the character.
• Annotate your text. Circle or underline the words
you like--positive words and the negative words.
• Categorize the words: hair, face, hands, movements,
clothes, personality, or any other relevant category.
• Do any of the words have similarities from text to
text?
• What patterns did you notice?
From Chapter 15 of David Copperfield
When the pony-chaise stopped at the door, and my eyes were intent upon
the house, I saw a cadaverous face appear at a small window on the ground
floor (in a little round tower that formed one side of the house), and quickly
disappear. The low arched door then opened, and the face came out. It was
quite as cadaverous as it had looked in the window, though in the grain of it
there was that tinge of red which is sometimes to be observed in the skins of
red-haired people. It belonged to a red-haired person - a youth of fifteen, as I
take it now, but looking much older - whose hair was cropped as close as the
closest stubble; who had hardly any eyebrows, and no eyelashes, and eyes of
a red-brown, so unsheltered and unshaded, that I remember wondering how
he went to sleep. He was high-shouldered and bony; dressed in decent black,
with a white wisp of a neckcloth; buttoned up to the throat; and had a long,
lank, skeleton hand, which particularly attracted my attention, as he stood at
the pony's head, rubbing his chin with it, and looking up at us in the chaise.
'Is Mr. Wickfield at home, Uriah Heep?' said my aunt.
'Mr. Wickfield's at home, ma'am,' said Uriah Heep, 'if you'll please to walk in
there' - pointing with his long hand to the room he meant.
From Chapter 1 of Tess of D’Urbervilles
“On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was
walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the
adjoining Vale of Blakemore, or Blackmoor. The pair of legs that
carried him were rickety, and there was a bias in his gait which
inclined him somewhat to the left of a straight line. He
occasionally gave a smart nod, as if in confirmation of some
opinion, though he was not thinking of anything in particular. An
empty egg-basket was slung upon his arm, the nap of his hat was
ruffled, a patch being quite worn away at its brim where his
thumb came in taking it off. Presently he was met by and elderly
parson astride on a gray mare, who, as he rode, hummed a
wandering tune.”
From Chapter 1 of A Christmas Carol
Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching,
grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel
had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold
within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his
gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty
rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low
temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one
degree at Christmas.
External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry
weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent
upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to
have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over
him in only one respect. They often "came down" handsomely, and Scrooge never did.
Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are
you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children
asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to
such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him; and when
they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would
wag their tails as though they said, "No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!"
But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded
paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call
"nuts" to Scrooge.
Discuss
• What patterns did you notice?
• What contributed to the effective invention of
each character?
Writing It!
• You are going to invent a
character.
• Choose a button.
–Write down a description of the
button you have selected—you
will have to give the button back
to me before you leave.
–What article of clothing was the
button attached to?
–Describe the item of clothing the
best that you can…
• Old, new, used, blue, soft,
• Protective, light-weight…
Metaphor or Simile
• Can you liken the piece of clothing or the
button to something unexpected?
–Who wore this item of clothing?
–Describe this person
• Physical attributes
• Actions
• Thinking
• Speaking
–Now, invent a character description.
Imagine your character sitting
somewhere. It could be at a bus
station, at the opera, in a classroom,
beside a grave marker—you decide.
Create your character description.
–This is your first writing piece for me.
Please consider that before you turn it
in. Be ready to share your description
when we meet next.
Ethos
Day Two: August 9th/10th
How does the speaker establish
credibility with his audience?
About the Author
Toni Morrison was born Chloe Ardelia
Wofford on February 18, 1931 in
Lorain, Ohio to George and Ramah
Wofford.
She had three other siblings and
grew up in a working-class family.
As a child, Morrison read constantly
and her favorite authors were Jane
Austen and Leo Tolstoy.
She has two children.
Author's Professional Background
•
•
•
•
Morrison received a B.A. in
English from Howard in 1953
She earned a Master of Arts
degree, also in English, from
Cornell University in 1955
Morrison became an English
instructor at Texas Southern
University in Houston, Texas
(from 1955-57) then returned to
Howard to teach English
She worked as a textbook
editor she went to work as an
editor at the New York City
headquarters of Random
House
o played an important role in
bringing black literature into
the mainstream
• Morrison taught English at two
branches of the State University
of New York.
o In 1984 she was appointed to
an Albert Schweitzer chair at
the University at Albany, The
State University of New York.
• From 1989 until her retirement in
2006, Morrison held the Robert F.
Goheen Chair in the Humanities
at Princeton University
• WOULD YOU THINK
THAT SHE IS A
CREDIBLE WRITER?
READ IT! Toni Morrison
• "I walk alone except for the eyes that join me on
my journey. Eyes that do not recognize me, eyes
that examine me for a tail, an extra teat.
Wondering eyes that stare and decide if my navel
is in the right place if my knees bend backward
like the forelegs of a dog. They want to see if my
tongue is split like a snake's or if my teeth are
filing to points to chew them up. To know if I can
spring out of the darkness and bite.
• Inside I am shrinking. I climb the streambed
under watching eyes and know I am not the
same. I am losing something with every step I
take. I can feel the drain. Something precious
is leaving me. I am a thing apart.
• With the letter I belong and am lawful.
Without it I am a weak calf abandon by the
herd, a turtle without shell, a minion with no
telltale signs but a darkness I am born with,
outside, yes, but inside as well and the inside
dark is small, feathered and toothy. Is that
what my mother knows? Why she chooses me
to live without?"
Toni Morrison--from ‘The Site of
Memory’
• [Fiction] is the product of imagination—
invention—and it claims the freedom to
dispense with ‘what really happened,’ or
when it really happened, and nothing in it
needs to be publically verifiable, although
much in it can be verified.
• “The work I do frequently falls in the minds of
most people into that realm of fiction called
fantastic, or mythic, or magical, or unbelievable.
I’m not comfortable with these labels. I consider
that my single greatest responsibility (in spite of
that magic) is not to lie.”
• HOW CAN A WRITER INVENT FICTION WITHOUT
LYING? WHAT DOES MORRISON MEAN?
• “When I hear someone say, ‘Truth is stranger
than fiction,’ I think that old chestnut is truer
than we know, because it doesn’t say that truth is
truer than fiction; just that it’s stranger—meaning
that it is odd. It may be excessive, it may be more
interesting, but the important thing is that it is
random. And fiction is not random”
• WHAT DOES MORRISON MEAN HERE? WHY
ISN’T FICTION RANDOM? WHY IS TRUTH
RANDOM?
• “Therefore the crucial distinction for me is not
the difference between fact and fiction, but the
distinction between fact and truth. Because facts
can exist without human intelligence, but truth
cannot. So if I’m looking to find and expose a
truth about the interior life of people who didn’t
write it (which doesn’t mean they didn’t have it)
then the approach that is the most productive
and most trustworthy for me is the recollection
that moves from the image to the text. Not
from the text to the image.”
• WHAT IS MORRISON SUGGESTING--BY MOVING
FROM IMAGE TO TEXT?
Narrative voice=ethos
• Voice the writer puts forth to the reader
– Credibility = Truth, not just facts
– Ethos = How the writer understands himself AND
how the writer chooses to present this self to
others
• Readers react to the ‘writer’s self’ or ethos—if
it is credible—the reader is willing to listen to
the voice of the writer to hear what the writer
has to say.
Discuss It!
• In groups of three or four, share your character sketch out loud:
– Do you believe the sincerity of the speaker? Why is this believability
important? How do you think the writer creates it?
– Were you moved by a particular description or scene? What do you
mean by ‘moved’? Why is being moved important?
– Did you ‘see’ the person? What details helped you to ‘see’?
• How did the details chosen (or the subject matter, or the language,
or the sentence length, or the organization) influence how you see
the speaker?
• Do you trust the speaker?
– Why do you find yourself accepting the speaker and his view of the
world?
– What makes this particular speaker plausible?
– What could the writer do to strengthen the speaker’s credibility even
further?
READ IT!
Joe Brickhouse saw his dog
get smashed by a garbage truck
in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
He was twelve and smoked Luckies
and had a glass eye.
I won't tell you about the games of marbles,
or how he hurt his sister,
nor shall I discuss in the abstract
his deep-seated contempt for authority
or why he kicked my ass
just because I was his friend and he loved me.
For this is about a dog and a boy
and has virtually nothing to do with Mark Twain
and the rest of American Literature.
It's about a garbage truck
that backed up over a beautiful Lab
and a white kid who wrapped his arms
around the dead animal and gasped for air
and his face turned red then bluish,
whose tears streamed
onto the blood-caked fur of the dog,
and who howled and screamed so loud
at gray and porch-lit 5 a.m.
windows all down Merrimac scraped open,
and T-shirts, drawers, scrungy robes
hobbled onto porches
to stare in wonder
at a human being
who had learned so young
how to talk to the dead.
•
Ethos
of
the
narrator
Joe Brickhouse:
– What is he like? How do you know? Why is his name ‘brick’ +
‘house’?
• His character:
–
–
–
–
What is Joe like at the beginning of the poem?
How is Joe different by the end?
Where does the switch or change occur?
How do you know?
• Narrator:
– How does the narrator present Joe at the start of the poem?
What kind of language does he use?
– How does the voice change by the end? How has the language
changed? How does the narrator portray the ‘switch’? What
kind of language is used?
• Why does the poem matter to the reader?
– How does it present a ‘so what’ or a bigger idea to the reader?
– How and why is this ‘so what’ credible?
Write It! I remember…
• Take a few minutes and list as many events
that you can remember from your childhood.
• Recall these from the many images that
you can recollect from your childhood.
Things I Didn’t Know I Loved…
by Nazim Hikmet
translated by Mutlu Konuk and Randy Blasing
it's 1962 March 28th
I'm sitting by the window on the Prague-Berlin train
night is falling
I never knew I liked
night descending like a tired bird on a smoky wet plain
I don't like
comparing nightfall to a tired bird
I never knew I loved the sun
even when setting cherry-red as now
in Istanbul too it sometimes sets in postcard colors
but you aren't about to paint it that way
I didn't know I loved the sea
except the Sea of Azov
or how much
I didn't know I loved clouds
whether I'm under or up above them
whether they look like giants or shaggy white beasts
moonlight the falsest the most languid the most petit-bourgeois
strikes me
I like it
I didn't know I liked rain
whether it falls like a fine net or splatters against the glass my
heart leaves me tangled up in a net or trapped inside a drop
and takes off for uncharted countries I didn't know I loved
rain but why did I suddenly discover all these passions sitting
by the window on the Prague-Berlin train
is it because I lit my sixth cigarette
one alone could kill me
is it because I'm half dead from thinking about someone back
in Moscow
her hair straw-blond eyelashes blue
the train plunges on through the pitch-black night
I never knew I liked the night pitch-black
sparks fly from the engine
I didn't know I loved sparks
I didn't know I loved so many things and I had to wait until
sixty
to find it out sitting by the window on the Prague-Berlin
train
watching the world disappear as if on a journey of no return
19 April 1962
Moscow
Write It!
• Go back to your “I remember” list.
– Choose a memory/image and jot down 5 things that
you didn’t realize you loved until your returned to this
memory—five things that come directly from this
memory.
– In other words, finish the sentence, “I never knew I
loved ________.” (I never knew I loved awful floral
cloth napkins my grandmother saved for special
occasions…)
– What you list need not be concrete; while you might
choose such nouns as artichoke hearts, oak trees, or
ninjas, you might also choose such abstractions as
being alone or getting attention.
Write It!
• Once you’ve made your list, share this list out loud with
others and make note of what surprised others in
terms of what they found they loved.
• Now, choosing one item from this list (or stealing
someone else’s item), take a moment and write a few
paragraphs using “I never knew I loved ______” as your
first sentence.
• You must end your paragraph with “I never knew I
loved _______. ” and you must use the phrase “I never
knew…” three times within the text.
• Use the images your remember to guide your writing.
Revision
• Think about your piece—make your writing
matter beyond the writer.
• You want to show your reader—lock in a
relationship with you…
• Show the reader that you are trustworthy,
knowledgeable—that you have good sense,
you are good character—you are benevolent.
Discuss It!
• Share and then revise again as needed…
1. Is there enough for your reader? Too much?
How is the information working with or working
against the writer’s credibility?
2. Is there clear, credible, and compelling attitude?
• Is the writing particular to the author? Is there too
little or too much attitude?
3. Ask “So what?” Does the writing matter beyond
yourself? Is the writing self-indulgent? Is the larger
significance too obvious?
Identifying Ethos
• Ethos can change in a single piece of writing.
• Ethos must be conscious—you do not have
automatic ethos…
Invention = means of discovery
• Writing is a carefully considered process
between the writer, the reader, and the
subject
• The writer has a TRUTH to be conveyed.
Invention is the consideration of the best
possible way to convey that truth to the
writer’s audience.
Artistic v. inartistic proofs
• If a writer wants to prove something—he or
she could use something OUTSIDE the self—
facts, data, images, quotes from others, etc.
Aristotle called these inartistic proofs
(because they came from OUTSIDE the writer)
• For Aristotle, there were three ARTISTIC
proofs (proof that comes from INSIDE the
writer). These are Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.
These are a part of who the writer IS.
• “[Ethos] should be created by the speech itself,
and not left to depend upon an antecedent
impression that the speaker is this or that kind of
man.”
• ETHOS, then, is credibility that comes out of the
writing or speech—NOT credibility readers or
listeners perceive to be true outside of the
writing or speech.
• A person of ethical appeal is one of . . . “Sound
sense, high moral character, and benevolence.”
•
E. Corbett—Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student
Free Will vs. Determinism