Thursday, September 30, 2010

Today in class:

You took a quote quiz on Part II of K Boy;

You submitted your Part II annotations.  I will return the annotations to you on Monday; Part III is due the following Monday;

We  began a discussion of Part II, during which every student will speak at least one time.

Tomorrow, we will finish our discussion;

we will have a vocabulary check over the first page of the third list;

you will turn in your NYT article, read and annotated;  and

you will write in your journal.

Thanks and good night!

Hump Day, Devin! Wednesday, September 30, 2010

Hello Scholars on this beautiful day!

Today in class we did the following:

• PSAT booklets were distributed.  Please start bringing the booklets to class on Tuesday, October 5th.
• First and Second Periods received the full text version of "This is Water."
• Fourth, Sixth, Seventh Periods reviewed the third vocabulary sheet.
• All classes wrote with vocabulary words and situational irony.
• All classes received a NYT article on South Africa to be read and annotated by the beginning of class on Friday.

Tomorrow - Part II of K Boy (read and annotated) is due tomorrow.  You will have a quote quiz.

Friday - know all of the vocabulary words on the front page of the third list and have the NYT article read and annotated.

Monday - Please bring $12 for Zeitoun on Monday.  (If you ordered a book from me.)

Go have some fun in this stunning sun!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Scholars, so sorry for the omission of an entry yesterday. 

Yesterday, you took a scantron multiple choice test.  If you did not take this test yesterday, you MUST by Friday.  You also turned in your green sheet for a grade.

Today, we read in class David Foster Wallace's commencement speech "This is Water" and commented on this piece in writing and in discussion.

Thursday Part II of Kaffir Boy is due, read and annotated.  You will have a quote quiz.

Start learning every vocabulary word on all three lists.  People with large vocabularies are happier and smell better. 

TGIF September 24, 2010

Friday in class we did the following:

Practiced multiple choice questions using Nelson Mandela's Nobel Peace Prize speech.  Your test on Monday will follow the same format.

Wrote in journals about apartheid or any form of oppression.  I have copied and pasted the springboard quotes below in red for your ease of reference.

Springboard for Journal Writing about Apartheid and Oppression

Abhorrence of apartheid is a moral attitude, not a policy.

Edward Heath

Apartheid does not happen spontaneously, like bad weather conditions.

Jonathan Kozol

I will never regret not denouncing apartheid.

Zola Budd

It may be that apartheid brings such stupendous economic advantages to countries that they would sooner have apartheid than permit its destruction.

Oliver Tambo

It must not be forgotten in fairness to the National Government that apartheid is not just a policy of oppression but an attempt – in my opinion an attempt doomed to failure – to find an alternative to a policy of racial integration which is fair to both white and black.

Harry Openheimer

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression from majorities (and the smallest majority on earth is the individual).

Ayn Rand

It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home.

Carl T. Rowan

My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.

Vladimir Nobokov

Never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land shall again experience the oppression of one by another.

Nelson Mandela

No oppression is so heavy or so lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

Joseph Addison

Now I say that with cruelty and oppression it is everybody’s business to interfere when they see it.

Anna Sewell

Oppression that is clearly inexorable and invincible does not give rise to revolt but to submission.

Simone Weil

Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression.

Malcolm X

Racial discrimination, South Africa’s economic power, its oppression and exploitation of all the black peoples, are part and parcel of the same thing.

Oliver Tambo

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

Frederick Douglass

Rise like lions after slumber

In unvanquisable number –

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you –

Ye are many – they are few.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

“Poet to Bigot”

I have done so little

For you,

And you have done so little

For me,

That we have good reason

Never to agree.

I, however,

Have such meager

Power,

Clutching at a

Moment,

While you control

An hour.

But your hour is

A stone.

My moment is

A flower.

Langston Hughes

Monday, your green vocabulary sheet is due, which I have copied and pasted below in green for your ease of reference.

K Boy, Vocabulary, Pt. II

WORD	DEFINITION	P.O.S.
Oracle (123)
Wizened (126)
Admonish (126)
Inscrutable (127)
Notoriety(127)
Peruse (128)
Paradox (129)
Accosted (130)
Belligerent (132)
Vehemently (132)
Mores (132)
Beacon (134)
Chronic (137)
Bedlam (137)
Pandemonium (138)
Audacity (138)
Rampage (138)
Atrocity (139)
Placidly (143)
Akimbo (146)
Pugilism (153)
August (156)
Dastardly (156)
Mitigate (161)
Flout (161)
Acrimonious (163)
Supine (164)
Ensconced (164)
Limpid (164)
Unintelligible (165)
Lurid (165)
Recapitulate (165)
Mire (166)
Implacable (166)
Enervated (166)
Succumb (167)
Voracious (170)
Augment (173)
Panacea (177)
Enigmatically (182)
Capitulate (184)
Abject (191)
Paternalistic (198)
Contrite (200)
Fusillade (200)
Maverick (203)

Also, you may complete and use during the test Monday the following reference sheet, which is printed in blue for your reference. 

Cheat Sheet for Monday’s Test

Word	Definition	POS
Pervades
Reprobation
Ostentation
Avow
Fain
Panegyrist
Manifest
Enervated
Sepulcher
Oligarchy
Theocracy
Meritocracy
Plutocracy
Xenophobia
Deductive reasoning
Adage
Ad hominem argument
Emulate
Paradox
Non sequitur
Euphemism
Invective
Audacity
Venerable
Chastisement
Disaffection
Vengeance
Parchment
Conscript
Culpable
Nefarious
Conflagration
Garrison
Eradicated
Machinations
Impious
Auspices
Brazen
Elegiac
Nonchalant
Apostrophe
Omniscience
Omnipresence
Scapegoat
Profane

 Monday, it may be wise to bring your Kaffir Boy to class.  You may have time to read Part II, which is approximately 100 pages and is due Thursday.

Finally, please let me know on Monday if you would like to order a copy of Zeitoun from either Barnes and Noble or Border's through me at a teacher discount.

Have a great weekend!