Culminating Paper Prompt

By Monday, April 7, please post your prompt for your culminating paper. This should consist of the Big Question you are going to explore and a list of literary works that you might use. Refer to the handout called The Final Tuesday Writing. (Homer says, "Mmmmmmm, culminating paper...)

Beloved

Please post your comments about Toni Morrison's Beloved here.

"Treasure Trove" Found Poem

In the following passage from A Portrait of an Artist, Stephen Dedalus contemplates the power of words:

"He drew forth a phrase from his treasure and spoke it softly to himself:
---A day of dappled seaborne clouds.---
The phrase and the day and the scene harmonized in a chord. Words. Was it their colours? He allowed them to glow and fade, hue after hue: sunrise gold, the russet and green of apple orchards, azure of waves, the grey-fringed fleece of clouds. No, it was not their colours: it was the poise and balance of the period itself "(160).

In class on February 8, you had the chance to create your own found poem from a treasure trove of words in the newspaper. Please share your treasure with the world by posting your poem here.

Portrait of the Artist

If you are posting a summary of the class discussion, please indicate the date of the discussion. Feel free to add comments about the book that you were unable to share in class, and to respond to others' blog comments. You might also post questions that arose from the discussion for consideration in the next discussion.

Discussion Expectations

Please post one expectation for the Socratic seminar that you think will make the format successful and inclusive. Our goals are for everyone to have the opportunity to contribute positively to the discussion, and for the discussion to result in a greater understanding of the literature; your expectation should be one that furthers either of those goals. Please state your expectation in positive terms (that is, behaviors to pursue, rather than behaviors to be avoided), and endeavor not to repeat a previous comment, unless it's to embellish or refine it.

Henry IV, Part 1

If you have discussion responses or other ideas about Shakespeare's King Henry IV, Part 1, please post them here.

Big Idea + Oedipus

Now that you have read and discussed Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, please make a personal connection between the play and your Big Question. For this initial post, please state your Big Question, then go on to explain how Oedipus informs your question. Keep in mind that what connects your question to the play might not be its main themes; perhaps there is a particular quote or a minor character that addresses your question even though it's incidental to Sophocles' main purpose.