Are You Scheduled for Ms. Farinas' Class?

Schedules are starting to make their way out to students. If you're scheduled to have Ms. Farinas as your Pre-AP English II teacher, please check out her website: farinas127.blogspot.com.

Sample Summer Project Response

To give you an idea of what I'm looking for in the summer project, here's an example from the novelization of the classic TV show Battlestar Galactica. (Many movies/TV shows have book tie-ins -- or are based on novels/short stories -- so if you know of an allusion in a movie/TV show, search Amazon for a novel/short story you can use for this assignment.)

In Battlestar Galactica, a novel by Glen A. Larson and Robert Thurston, we are introduced to Apollo, son of Adama (and brother of Athena) in Chapter One: "As they hurtled toward the old moon, Apollo felt uneasy that there should be any kind or disturbance within the unpopulated Lianus Sector (paragraph 19)." Apollo shares the love of truth (the disturbance where there should be none troubles him) and his deadly accuracy with his spacecraft (not quite a "silver bow," but they are silver) with his Greek god namesake. Furthermore his name, and that of his sister, reveal their father to be all-powerful and Zeus-like, as in the Greek myth, even though he (Adama) does not share the name of the supreme ruler in the Greek Pantheon.

Battlestar Galactica is taken, but if you can find a Magnum, P.I. or Die Hard with a Vengeance novelization you'll have a couple Zeus allusions to play with (and an Apollo, too, with the Magnum).

Got it? If you have questions, enter them in the comments.

Comments Are On

This year I am leaving blog comments on. This will afford students the opportunity to ask me questions and interact with each other.

Participation should be kept classroom-appropriate at all times. Abuse will result in (me being unimpressed with you) and comments being turned off.

Update 6/13
Due to a couple spam comments, I have turned comment moderation
on. This means your comment will not automatically appear, but if it's a legitimate comment it'll show up relatively soon.

Get a Jump on Next Year

One of the first assignments next fall will be to subscribe to this blog. This will enable you to receive an alert when the blog is updated with assignments or information that may be crucial for your success in this class.

To get a head start (and impress me), please click the "Follow" link in the right-hand sidebar. Complete the steps to subscribe to blog updates.

Update 6/22
You may have to scroll up to the top of the page to find the "Follow" link; it's just to the right of a "g" Google logo.

2010/2011 English II Pre-AP Summer Assignment

Read the following sections of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.

Part One: The Gods, the Creation, and the Earliest Heroes

1. The Gods: All
2. The Two Great Gods of the Earth: Both
4. The Earliest Heroes: “The Cyclops Polyphemus” & “Flower Myths”

Part Two: Stories of Love and Adventure

3. The Quest for the Golden Fleece
4. Four Great Adventures: All

Part Three: The Great Heroes before the Trojan War

1. Perseus
2. Theseus
3. Hercules

Part Six: The Less Important Myths

1. Midas—and Others: “Midas” only

In an allusion a literary figure can be used as a reference point for the reader to understand the struggle, power or trait of a character in the story being read. For instance if a character is referred to as a “Romeo,” the reader should immediately understand that the character is one who loves whole–heartedly, but not necessarily wisely. If one character says sarcastically of another “I half expected him to start asking ‘please, George, can I have a rabbit…’,” the reader should catch the reference to Lenny in Of Mice and Men and understand that this character is not bright, but also potentially dangerous.

After reading all assigned sections, find twelve (12) allusions to the Gods/Goddesses/Heroes in other works of literature (fiction, poetry). Cite the author and work, and quote the paragraph/stanza where the allusion occurs. In 1-3 sentences explain why you believe the author/poet used that allusion to strengthen the reader’s understanding of the character/situation under consideration. (Internet search engines are your friend, but I will be double checking for plagiarism; be sure to answer with your own ideas/words.)

This will constitute your project for the first six weeks of the 2010/2011 school year. It will be due the first Friday we are back from summer break (August 27th). If you miss the first week of school it will be due immediately upon your arrival. We will also be working with this material over the first two weeks of the school year (during which time you will begin reading How to Read Literature like a Professor, so do not expect to “catch up” as we go along). Students who enroll in Pre-AP English II with having the benefit of having had the summer to do this assignment will have to make it up by the end of the first six weeks or will lose 20% of their grade.

If you have questions, email me over the summer: cmikesell-at-dallasisd.org.

2010/2011 Reading List
(90% of reading will be done at home; students are expected to acquire their own copies of all texts)
Mythology, Edith Hamilton
How to Read Literature like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster*
The Pearl, John Steinbeck
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
Othello, William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

*Of all the texts, I expect this will be rather difficult to find. Begin looking for it at Half Price Books or Amazon Resellers sooner, rather than later. You need to have your copy of the book when school begins, as you'll begin reading it at home the first week of class.