· Complete a 500 - 700 word essay responding to the following: Making a Difference - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. attempted to make a difference for all people. Use the topic: "What Can I Do to Make a Difference in My Community?" to explain how you can make a difference. · You must be a middle school student or a high school student in the Manatee County School District. · Essay must be your own work. · Essay must be typed and double-spaced. · Each submission must include a cover sheet with the following information: (1) first and last name, (2) complete home address, (3) home phone number, (4) school name, and (5) grade level. · One entry per student. · Middle school and high school Grand Prize winners will read their essay at the Martin Luther King banquet on January 14, 2011. · All winners will take part in the Martin Luther King Parade on January 15, 2011. · Submit entries to the Palmetto Youth Center, Attention: Essay Contest, P.O. Box 608, Palmetto, Florida 34221. · Entries must be turned in or postmarked by December 10, 2010. · All semi-finalists will be notified by January 1, 2011. · The semi-finals will be held at the Palmetto Youth Center on January 6, 2011. Grand Prize $150 & Computer $100 Third Place $75
RULES
Sponsored by the Palmetto Youth Center
Second place
“ I have a dream…”
DEAD POETS’ SOCIETY: Coming of Age in (the 50’s) or (under the shadow of the nuclear age) or (under the shadow of the space race) or (then and now)
As compared to other stories we will read in 1102: Araby, Recitatif, Pair of Tickets, The Lost World
For now, in consideration of the poems you need to recite for Poetry Out Loud, and in consideration of the sonnet you need to write, it’s good timing.
Points for discussion in a paper, blog or presentation might include:
· The relationship between these described 50’s prep school experience and the present public school experience – differences / similarities?
· Mr. Keating’s role in Neil’s death – guilty?
· Practical study vs. Alternative study – what is learned that is outside traditional study techniques? What’s the POINT of education? To absorb a body of knowledge, or to learn to look, think for yourselves, seek?
· Romanticism vs. Realism – which characters embrace which? Why?
· “All the good girls go for jerks, Pittsy…” Agree or disagree? Why? Among the most popular “Coming of Age” themes!
· The role and importance of creativity
· Poem to Dead Poets Society characters?
Todd’s poem:
A sweaty toothed madman
With a stare that pounds my brain
All the time whispering
Truth is like a blanket
That always leaves your feet cold
From the moment you enter crying
To the moment you leave dying
It will never cover any of us
As you wail
And cry
And scream.
“Mr. Anderson believes that everything inside of him is worthless and embarrassing, isn’t that right, Todd? Well, I’m going to show you that you have something very valuable inside of you. I sound my barbaric YAWP to the world!” (What has Todd learned? Translate the lesson into your own terms.) How is truth “like a blanket that leaves your feet cold?”
“Business, Law, Medicine, these are all noble pursuits, necessary to sustain life;
But Beauty, Truth, Love, PASSION - these are what we are alive FOR.
The powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse! Yes, the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse! What will YOUR VERSE be?”
(So, what will YOUR VERSE – your life, your contribution to this little planet among so many others….what will you do with this small, precious time you’re allotted?)
“You see, these boys are food for worms, lads. They’re fertilizing daffodils. Did they make something extraordinary of their lives? Listen to their message to you: CARPE DIEM, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.)”
When can respect for authority conflict with your own personal beliefs?
What does the Dead Poets Society offer the boys that’s missing in their lives?
Write an essay or poem for the National Gallery.
If you want, I’d be glad to set up a once a month poetry café, typical of the 50s, 60s, and 70s ala the Nuyorican Poetry Café, or the Peoples’ Poetry Gathering.
CLASS
BLOCK 1 & 5
Essential Question:What is the legacy for us of the Renaissance period?
Objectives:Students read and analyze sonnets, read section of Macbeth, write a sonnet in modern terms
write a scene from Macbeth (modernized) in groups
Key Terms: Sonnet, rhyme scheme, meter, sacred, secular, humanism, metaphysical, iambic pentameter, octave, sestet, couplet
Bell Work: Write a short paragraph about the differences between the Medieval Period of literature and the Renaissance, as discussed in the homework reading.
Lesson Activities:
Review bellwork.
Art, p. 239 still life, John Donne, p.239 (secular and sacred) Discuss Thomas More
Read "Development of the sonnet" p. 242-3
Italian (Petrarchan), English, Spenserian sonnet
Iambic pentameter
paraphrase the sonnet, discuss
Read p. 256,257, Spenserian sonnet, fire and ice
Begin to collect couplets
"Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
That it can alter all the course of kind" Spenser, Sonnet 30
Sonnet 75, P 258 Spenser
Begin Dead Poets Society
Macbeth next week.
Practice sonnets
College classes:
Review of British Literature overviews (2)
Sonnets
Dead Poets Society
Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?
P. 281-300 Shakespeare’s songs and soliloquies!
Sonnet to “copy” Sonnet 29, Shakespeare
When in despair with Bureauracracy’s lies
I cry, bemoaning stupid legislates,
And text in vain to colleagues more than sighs,
And whine to those near me this wretched STATE,
Wishing I alone could write curriculum guides
Instead of those who rule from empty pates
Rejecting others’ work instead of my own writes
Content to gripe without a hint of working late,
Yet , these hateful thoughts create insights
Until I finally think on you, and then I feel
More like an osprey soaring high above
The Gulf to spot a new and fresher meal,
I love this teaching life with all its quirks
And I’d not choose another place to work.
