Huck Finn Literary Analysis Paper

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- Research/Literary Analysis Paper     DUE: February 29

Late papers will receive half the credit they would have otherwise received, and probably half the comments from me.

Please familiarize yourself with this rubric, as your grade will be derived from it.

Name____________________________________________ Period_____ Date turned in______

 

1.  Title page with name, date, teacher’s name, title, class, and period	5
2.  Typed, double spaced, 14 font, no spaces between paragraphs, Times New Roman font.  I can’t accept a paper that is not typed.  (Three pages minimum, and of course, you will be docked far more than ten points if you come up short.)	10
3.  Introduction has an attention-getting device that is appropriate for this type of scholarly paper.	15
4.  Thesis statement is well-crafted, thoughtful, and gives the reader a road map of your paper.  No laundry list thesis statements.  Think “over-arching.”	20
5.  Paper is well-organized.  Topic sentences are clear, mini-thesis statements for each paragraph.  All sentence belong in their paragraphs.  Transitions are evident.	20
6.  Sentence structure is sound and varied.	10
7.  Paper contains few or no mechanical errors, such as punctuation, spelling, grammar, and usage.	10
8.  Strong conclusion ties all the information into a nice package.  Your thesis is proven.  (No new information in conclusion.)	15
9.  Work Cited page is flawless.  Refer to: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ A minimum of three sources	40
10.  This paper has accurate parenthetical documentation throughout.  Refer to: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/	40
11.  Ideas are fresh and interesting.  Research is obvious.  You have not merely written off the top of your head, rather you have studied and pondered.  You have come up with ideas that are sound and logical. You are careful not to plagiarize, giving credit where credit is due.	25
12.  Meaningful quotations are woven seamlessly into your own sentences.  Set up the quote.  If you can paraphrase, paraphrase.  If, however, the citation you found is oh-so-wonderful as is, by all means, cite it in all its splendor.	25
TOTAL	235

Poetry Projects

130 points

Memorized Poem, Emerson quote, Thoreau quote:
Due: On the day you signed up on the door
Drop dead date: January 7


100 points
Poetry Log Guidelines: Due January 11

After reading several poems, you must select at least ten different poems by at least seven different poets to include in this collection. You may not use poems we have discussed in class, but you may use other poems by poets we have discussed in class.  You may include only one unpublished poem by an American.  You may include only one set of song lyrics.

Copy each poem into your collection. Be sure to include the title and the poet’s name.
You must annotate, using circles, arrows, whatever, to mark and label the poetic devices and specific insight used in each poem. Be thorough, as you will be deducted for glaring omissions.

You will then write (by that, I mean type) a paragraph for each poem, explicating each one. Look for a "door" into the poem. Is there a point of tension? Is there a shift at some point? You may discuss such as symbols, tone, allusions, alliteration, assonance, rhyme scheme, meter, rhythm, and any other poetic devices used, but be sure to say what those devices DO for the poem. Don’t just note their presence. That’s what the annotations were for. Make meaning. Consider the title. Consider meaning. Make a claim, and back it up. You can do this.


100 points
Original Poetry Booklet Guidelines: Due January 11
You will create ten original poems, using at least seven different forms we’ve learned about in class.
Three, and only three poems may rhyme. At least one poem must rhyme.
Use examples of every poetic device we’ve learned about. (Obviously, you can’t use them all on one poem, but over the course of this assignment, you should utilize each device at least once.)
Look back at some of our poetry experiences in class. Some can be worked up into fine poem.
You need to make an attractive cover, so that the likelihood that you will end up saving this booklet and showing it to your grandchildren is increased.
Please make every attempt to avoid clichés, those over-used, worn out expressions that we’ve all heard before. They have lost their luster, and they will detract from your poem, rather than enhance it. I’m looking for fresh perspectives, unique metaphors, the originality that only you can bring to this assignment. While I’m sure it would be very easy to get away with plagiarizing these poems, I would hope that your honor and your own sense of self would prevent that. Impress me. But more important than that, impress yourself.

Help! I'm Stuck!

Help!!  I’m stuck!  I can’t think of anything to write about.  I have nothing to say.  I don’t wanna do this dumb assignment.  I’m no poet.  This is not fun!

 

If you ever feel like that, here are just a few ideas that may spark your creativity:

 

1.  Make a long list of yellow things, blue, green....  Now substitute one of these words for the kind of yellow you are describing in a poem.  For instance: pond scum green, new leaf green, August sky blue, cotton candy pink, green, the color of a six day old bruise, bumble bee yellow,

spider black, eyes that are fall-into-blue, coat closet black, corn silk yellow,

 

2.  Make a long list of opposite, like black/white, good/evil, weak/strong, angel/devil, bold/timid,

innocent/experienced, flawed/perfect, fat/thin, cold/hot, smart/dumb, soft/hard, beloved/hated, young/old, slick/hick, joy/pain,

 

3.  Select a few key words that you may want to include in a poem.  Now find all the rhyming words you can for each word.  (I do this by writing an alphabet at the top of my page.)  Then, come up with a verse that has rhythm, rhyme and meter.

 

4.  Sit out in nature for 15-20.  Write down your observations.  Listen.  Feel.  Hear.  Look.  Smell.  Taste.  Touch.  Be detailed in your descriptions.

 

5.  Scale it down.  Study one square inch of dirt or floor or wall or ceiling or skin or scalp or chalkboard or sky or animal or water or tile or hair or desk or mirror or fabric or paper or anything.  Record your thoughts.

 

6.  Go to the Deseret Industries.  Buy an old article of clothing.  Put it on and write about who used to own it.  Tell their story in but a few, well-chosen words.

 

7.  Read some poetry by other poets than yourself.

 

8.  Think about the extremes in your life: the most afraid you’ve ever been, the most excited, the most physical pain you’ve ever experienced, the most peaceful, the most fun, the most daring thing you’ve ever done, the most rotten thing, the most noble thing you’ve ever done.  These extremes can prompt  poetry.

9.  Record your dreams.  Keep a notebook by your bed.

 

10.  Write as if you were someone else, something else, an old person, a baby, a person of another race, religion, height, weight, or possibly an inanimate object.

 

11.  Use crayons to write your poetry.  The colors you choose can be telling.  You may even end up revising things as a result of the colors.  They may inspire new thoughts.

 

12.  Wake up early in the morning, before anyone else is up.  Go into the yard, or some other quiet spot.  Record the beginning of a day, or the end of one.

 

13.  Take a bus ride and write about the characters you see, what they look like, where they might be going, make up a past, present, and future for them.

 

14.  Splash cold water on your face. Try to put words to that sensation of shock.

 

15.  Listen to music that is TOTALLY not your type.

 

16.  Go for a walk.

 

17.  Take your writing notebook to a new place.  Create five columns, one for each of your five senses.  Record what your eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose tells you to record.

 

18.  Write about your earliest recollection of life.

 

19.  Write about a pet peeve.

 

20.  Go to an art gallery.  Allow yourself to become inspired by something you see.

 

21.  Read poetry aloud. Feel the sounds of the words as they are formed using your lips and teeth and tongue and nose.

 

22.  Write without stopping.  Write without looking at what you’ve written.  Write until your hand hurts.

 

23.  Write about the weather.

 

24.  Write about love.  Write about envy.  Write about loss.  Write about seemingly insignificant details.

 

25.  Listen.  Listen to the sounds we hear everyday.  Try to come up with a way to spell the words that sound like those sounds.  For instance, how would you spell the sound a kiss makes?

 

26.  Write a list of action verbs, juicy words, delicious words that move, have life, not dreary, boring words.

 

27.  Do a spoof on a well-known poem, nursery rhyme, or fairy tale.

 

28.  Use the following prompts:

                I let go of anger.....

                Right before I fall asleep, when....

                I dreamed....

                “This is just to say...”

                My shadow knows...

                My real name is...

                I will be...

                I remember...

 

29.  Make lists:

Things under my bed, things I have not quite learned, things I wish my parents knew, things I wish my English teacher would do, things I would take with me if my house were on fire, things even my best friend doesn’t know about me, hours in my life I wish I could have back, why we love popcorn, reasons not to try at school, or life, or math, things I’m proud of but shouldn’t be, things my big brother inflicted upon me, qualities my grandmother thinks I possess, secrets I kept,  what I would do with a cloak of invisibility, list what’s in the fridge right now? Cute tricks I performed as a child,  Things I learned  in junior high, what my shadow knows how to do, reasons why I adore English, places my mother used to drag me...

Memorized Poetry Options

In addition to your Hawthorne quote, Emerson quote, and your Thoreau quote, you must memorize and recite a poem by January 3 , 2017.  There will be a sign-up sheet on the door with spots after school, in class, and during SIR.  No poems may be passed off before school.  Please do not ask if you may choose another option.  You may only choose from the following options:

 

#1  On Turning Ten  by Billy Collins

The whole idea of it makes me feel
like I'm coming down with something,
something worse than any stomach ache
or the headaches I get from reading in bad light--
a kind of measles of the spirit,
a mumps of the psyche,
a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.

You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
but that is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.

But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light.
Back then it never fell so solemnly
against the side of my tree house,
and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
as it does today,
all the dark blue speed drained out of it.

This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number.

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed.

#2  Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

 

#3  Verse 52 from "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman   The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me—he complains of my gab and my loitering. I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable; I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. The last scud of day holds back for me; It flings my likeness after the rest, and true as any, on the shadow’d wilds; It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk. I depart as air—I shake my white locks at the runaway sun; I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags. I bequeathe myself to the dirt, to grow from the grass I love; If you want me again, look for me under your boot-soles. You will hardly know who I am, or what I mean; But I shall be good health to you nevertheless, And filter and fibre your blood. Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged; Missing me one place, search another; I stop somewhere, waiting for you. Excerpted from "Song of Myself," in Leaves of Grass.This poem is in the public domain. #4  Annabel Lee  by Edgar Allan Poe (published 1849)    It was many and many a year ago,    In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know    By the name of ANNABEL LEE;-- And this maiden she lived with no other thought    Than to love and be loved by me. She was a child and I was a child,    In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love--    I and my Annabel Lee-- With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven    Coveted her and me. And this was the reason that, long ago,    In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud by night    Chilling my Annabel Lee; So that her high-born kinsman came    And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre    In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,    Went envying her and me:-- Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,    In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of a cloud, chilling    And killing my Annabel Lee. But our love it was stronger by far than the love    Of those who were older than we--    Of many far wiser than we- And neither the angels in Heaven above,    Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul    Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:-- For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams    Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes    Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,    In her sepulchre there by the sea--    In her tomb by the side of the sea. #5 Asking for Roses Robert Frost A house that lacks, seemingly, mistress and master, With doors that none but the wind ever closes, Its floor all littered with glass and with plaster; It stands in a garden of old-fashioned roses. I pass by that way in the gloaming with Mary; 'I wonder,' I say, 'who the owner of those is.' 'Oh, no one you know,' she answers me airy, 'But one we must ask if we want any roses. 'So we must join hands in the dew coming coldly There in the hush of the wood that reposes, And turn and go up to the open door boldly, And knock to the echoes as beggars for roses. 'Pray, are you within there, Mistress Who-were-you?' 'Tis Mary that speaks and our errand discloses. 'Pray, are you within there? Bestir you, bestir you! 'Tis summer again; there's two come for roses. 'A word with you, that of the singer recalling-- Old Herrick: a saying that every maid knows is A flower unplucked is but left to the falling, And nothing is gained by not gathering roses. 'We do not loosen our hands' intertwining (Not caring so very much what she supposes), There when she comes on us mistily shining And grants us by silence the boon of her roses.

Term 2 Calendar

Crucible Project Due Friday, October 9

The Crucible Projects worth 150 points


Due: October 9 (Please remember the English Department’s nasty little late work policy.)

Choose one:

1. Memorize and act out three full columns of dialogue from the play. You may have no more than three students in your group. Each person should have about the same number of lines. Time should be spent practicing together, finding simple costumes and props, and planning for a smooth and artful performance. Each person needs to be loud enough and lively enough to be heard and understood by the class. The selection of the passage should show key elements of the play. Performance is due October 9.

2. Write a two page biographical research paper on Arthur Miller, using three credible sources. Use Times New Roman, 14 font, and print only on one side of the paper. You must use MLA for your in-text citations as well as a works cited page.

3. Write a sequel to the play. Follow up on one or several surviving characters from the play. Be sure that your story follows logically and plausibly. It needs to be in the form of a play. It should be typed and at least four pages in length, doubled spaced, no bigger than 14 font. You SHOULD sound like Arthur Miller. Your characters SHOULD sound like themselves.

4. If you are currently registered for an art class at Bountiful High, you may be eligible for this option. Plan on spending four hours on this art project. You and I will have to conference about it in great detail, prior to my approving it. Mrs. Magee or Mrs. Sides will be helping me grade your work. See me today if you are interested in this option.

5. Write a three-page research paper about the real Salem Witch Trials, using three credible sources. Use Times New Roman font 14, and print only on one side of the paper. You must use MLA for your in-text citations and have a works cited page. You may do a compare/contrast with The Crucible and the real story, if you wish.