Edgar Allen Poe birthday

Today (Thursday) was the 203rd anniversary of Edgar Allen Poe's birth. For years a mysterious figure had visited his gravesite and left behind a bottle of cognac each on year on his birth date. He didn't show this year. Here's a video that goes into the background.

Stories for Poems

Here are a few stories to consider:

Story 1

Story 2

Story 3

Story 4

Story 5

Story 5

Story 6

How to use peer review feature on turnitin ...

Go to this url on turnitin to find a tutorial on how to use the peer review feature of turnitin.

A Plethora of Words

imperviousness, indelicacy, abnormal, drudgeries

intermittent, perverse, mused, coexists

ostensible, credulous, impartiality, implication

dejection, altruism, aloof, innocuous

prosaic, proverbially, panoramic, inexorable

Homework for Tuesday

Give your assessment of Chapter 3. Create a brief summary. Then choose the moment that you find either most important or most striking and explain the significance of the scene, and why you believe it's important. (This doesn't have to be the most dramatic scene or the most important from the standpoint of plot.)

Times articles

Choose one of the following articles and write a response in which you a) briefly explain what the article is about and briefly state your opinion or view in response to it (first paragraph); b) detail the articles main points (second paragraph); and c) elaborate on your opinion in response, using evidence from the article to back up your point (third paragraph). One page minimum. Due Monday, October 31.

Use turnitin.com to file your work.

Articles: horses, Murakami, homework, bike trip, end of Nazism in Germany

Hurrah! More vocabulary!

disparities, contortions, solicitations, obstinately subdued

irrepressible, lamentable, whimsical, nebulous aspirations

rambling, milieu, tumult, credulity, inclination

deluded, idiosyncrasies, foreboding, antagonistic, prosperity

What are stories supposed to do?

Remember when we talked about Junot Diaz on our first day of class? In addition to being a novelist and short story writer, he's the editor of a literary magazine, the Boston Review. Here's how he describes what he's looking for in a good short story. (I'd like you to consider how this could apply to your own writing)

“I’m looking for fiction that resembles the Thirty-Mile Woman from Toni Morrison’s Beloved: ‘She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.’ Or as Takashi Murakami puts it: ‘We want to see the newest things. That is because we want to see the future, even if only momentarily. It is the moment in which, even if we don’t completely understand what we have glimpsed, we are nonetheless touched by it. This is what we have come to call art.’ I’m looking for fiction in which a heart struggles against itself, in which the messy unmanageable complexity of the world is revealed. Sentences that are so sharp they cut the eye."

More vocabulary words

admonishing, circuitous, depleted, consoled,complacency, ambiguity, mystically, repugnance, fastidiousness, perplexity, provocation, conjecture, coquetry, perpetual, discomfiture, disillusionment, conducive, pessimism, promenade vindication, seclusion, denouement, denunciation, grotesqueness

Creativity and "flow"

Watch this video by the the social scientist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and come to class prepared to discuss his ideas involving creativity, fullfillment, and flow.

Registering for Engrade ...

Grades for this class will be recorded on Engrade, the online grading system. How to sign up:

1) Go to Engrade at www.engrade.com.

2) Click on Sign Up, and then click on Student.

3) In the box provided put your information: teacher name-student id-special access code. Example: mrvilbig-284950604-5403.

4) Note: mrvilbig is spelled with no capitals or periods; I'll give you your special access code in class.

5) Click next and set your own username and password.

Once you are registered, you and your parents or guardians can check grades at any time.

9/11 Reactions

The playwright Christopher Shinn offers some thoughts on his personal reaction to the September 11 attacks and how they affected his writing. I'd like you to watch the video this weekend and think about his reaction for a discussion in class on Monday. What was the main way, in his view, that his focus as a writer changed? He questions whether television and movies will be able to address the profound issues raised by the September 11 events. Why do you think he takes this view? What are your own thoughts?

Contact

I can be reached at (718) 724-8500. Leave a message, and I will return the call as soon as possible. A more effective way to reach me is to write an email using your Engrade account. Or you can email at my Dept. of Education email: pvilbig@schools.nyc.gov.

Grades

Grades will be based on the following:
Tests/ at home writing and projects (including creative writing projects): 40 percent
Classwork, quizzes, and homework: 60 percent
Total: 100 percent

How we'll work:

For creative writing, we will use a workshop approach, in which you'll share your work with other writers in the class and get their feedback. (More on this later.)

For each book or literary work we read, you’ll be expected to read about 15 to 25 pages a night. In addition you will sometimes have homework in which you'll be asked to write brief responses or answer questions about your reading or topics for class discussion. You can expect that for each book or literary work, you'll write one at-home essay and have one to two tests. Pop quizzes occur whenever the teacher (me) gets the sense that students are not reading the material!

IMPORTANT: Grades are cumulative. That means the grades you make now count as much as the grades later in the semester. So it's important to work hard from the very beginning and not dig yourself into a hole in the first weeks of our class.

We will use Engrade, an online grading system in this class. I’ll give you information shortly about how to register. You’ll have your own account, where I’ll post grades. Your parents or guardians should be given access to your account.

Welcome to Creative Writing!

We will be focusing in this class on becoming skilled writers in a variety of genres, but our special emphasis will be on fiction. You'll be asked to write your own short stories and to respond to fictional works of literature in a way that demonstrates your increasing understanding of how fiction works.

This class will take the view that fiction remains one of the most powerful means by which human beings can pose basic questions about the meaning of their lives, about right and wrong, about their place in society, and even the nature of reality itself. In other words, fiction can be seen as a form of philosophy (the branch of knowledge that asks ultimate questions about the meaning of human life), and we'll approach it from the standpoint of the big ideas it addresses, while never forgetting that what makes fiction unforgettable is powerful and dynamic storytelling. Honing your skills in these areas will be a big part of what this course is about.

This class will involve a great deal of writing in which you will be asked to become a self-aware writer and creator, knowledgeable about the traditions of literature and conscious of the choices you make in creating a work. Because good writers are also good readers, we’ll read a wide variety of fiction of high literary polish. I’ll ask you to begin reading as a writer – that is, you will read with the goal of understanding the techniques and methods that permit writers to create their own unique vision and style, while just incidentally writing prose that dazzles and demands attention.

Occupational Handbook (Final Assignment)

For you'll final assignment, you'll access the federal government's Occupational Handbook and other sources to prepare a brief class presentation on a career you're considering entering. You'll find the Occupational Handbook, which lists thousands of professions and gives a run-down on salary ranges, educational requirements, and projected needs, here. Presentations will be made on Monday and Tuesday.

Your critical lens response

Click here to find the sample responses to the critical lens essay you worked on in class today. Go to page 64 and read the response that begins with the quote. Then read the second sample paper that begins o page 67. Compare your own response. How would you rate your effort?

Vocabulary Words!

A: abdicate , abhor, abode, abominable, abstinence , acquiesce, acrimony , adage, adamant, adulterate
B: baffle, balmy, banish , betrothed , blasphemy , boisterous, boorish, brevity, buccaneer
C: callous, captivate , celestial, censure, chasm, chivalrous, clandestine, clemency , conciliatory, condescend
D: debilitate , decorum, degradation, delirium , delusion, deplore , depravity, depreciate, desolate, despicable
E: eccentricity, ecstasy, edifice , effigy , egotistical , elapse , elate, elixir, eloquence , emaciated
F: fastidious, felicity, fervent, fester, fidelity , filial, fluctuate, foible , foliage, formidable
G: garb, genteel, grandeur
H: haggard, haughty, humility , hypocritical
I: idiosyncrasy, ignominious, illuminate , imbecility, imbibe, immaculate, immolate , immure , immutable, impartial, impassable
J: jaunty, jest, jocular
K: kindle , knight
L: laborious , labyrinth , lackadaisical, lament, languish , laudable, lax, liquidate, lithe, livid
M: machination, malady , malefactor , malice, malicious, malignant, mandate , mangy, maudlin, meander, meddle
N: neophyte, nether, nocturnal, notoriety, novice , nuptials
O: obelisk, oblige , obliterate, oblivion, obnoxious , obscure , obsequious, obstinate, odious, ominous, omnipotent
P: palatable, palpitate, paltry, pandemonium, pantomime, papyrus , paragon, paramour , paroxysm , patriarch
Q: quail , quaint, quay , quell , quench, quiver
R: ramble, rant, rapture, ravage, ravenous, rectitude , relinquish, reminiscence , remorse, rendezvous
S: sagacious , sanction, sanctuary, sarcasm , satiate, saunter, scion, scruple, serenity, servile
T: taciturn , taint , talisman , tedious , temperament , tenacious, timidity , tranquility, transgression , traverse, trepidation
U: uncouth, undulate, unmitigated, unparalleled , unsullied , unveil , unwonted , urchin, usurp , utter
V: vacillate, vagabond , vagrant, vanquish , variegated, venal , venerable, venial , veracity, verdant, vicissitude
W: waddle, waft, wallow, wanton , wheedle, witticism, woe , writhe
Y and Z: yore, zealous , zephyr

Frankenfinal!

Take-home essay test: Due Thursday. File using google.docs. Make sure the box that says "send an email notification" is checked. Share with pvilgrade@gmail.com

1) Choose a specific literary element (e.g., theme, characterization, point of view, etc.) or literary technique (e.g., symbolism, irony, figurative language, etc.) that Mary Shelley employs in the final chapter of Frankenstein. Using specific details from the chapter, in a well-developed paragraph, show how Shelley uses that element or technique to develop the chapter.

2) Write a two paragraph critical response (introductory paragraph and one body paragraph that backs up your thesis) in which you discuss the novel Frankenstein from the particular perspective suggested in the Critical Lens. In you essay you must first explain the meaning of the quote, then say whether you agree or disagree with it, and then state how the quote applies to the novel. Finally you must back up your viewpoint using specific references to appropriate literary elements from the novel.

The critical lens: “The difficulty in life is the choice…”-George Moore, The Bending of the Bough, 1900

History of Science Fiction

You should click here to see an amazing graphic representation of the history of science fiction. (And why am I posting it? Because Gothic literature and Mary Shelley are part of it. By the way, you can enlarge the graphic by clicking.