How incredible! The constructed response short answers for our final ISTEP + practice test scores increased by nearly 60% over the last two weeks.  I am so impressed. Good Work Sophomores!

Today, we completed the ISTEP+ English 10 Practice Test – If you missed the practice test today you need to see Mrs. Richie to get it made up prior to the end of the week. This is very important as we take the actual ISTEP+ Eng. 10 tests next week.

Detention slips were also sent to the office today for any students with 4 or more NHI’s.

 

 

After two days of refreshing our grammar and word usage skills, today we are moving on to Successful Writing Strategies as needed in academic / test prompt response writing. As your The Great Gatsby essays are being returned and you prepare for the written portion of the ISTEP 10 test, here are some tips to keep in mind.

• Write Concisely: Eliminate Wordiness
• Eliminate All Unnecessary Words and Phrases
  •      Substitute “although” for “regardless of the fact” or “in spite of the fact”
  •     Substitute “since” for “because of the fact”
• Most sentences that begin “There is” or “There are” or “The reason why…is” are unnecessarily wordy and should be rewritten.
• Sometimes “to be” and “that” can be omitted.
• Pronouns are pointing words. When you speak, a nod can show which of two people or things you mean. When you write, there is no nod to identify exactly which person or thing you mean. Often, if the pronoun reference isn’t clear, a reader can’t tell who did what.
• If necessary, drop the pronoun and substitute the noun you are pointing to.
• Avoid using vague pronouns.
• Keeping sentence elements parallel in construction demonstrates good organization.
• Eliminate meaningless sentence extenders such as:
  • in my opinion
  • obviously
  • I feel
  • it seems to me
  • for the purpose of
  • the fact is
  • all things considered
  • without a doubt
  • in conclusion

After reviewing this list carefully, log into Canvas and take

Close Reading ISTEP+ Practice.

Remember that all homework packets given out yesterday are due by the end of school tomorrow (Friday).  Additional homework packets may be assigned tomorrow based on the results of today’s classwork.

There is no such thing as being able to teach to the test when it comes to Language Arts. The entire test is about reading and understanding passages, both literature and informational.  The chances of me selecting any passage that would actually show up on the test are pretty much impossible.  However, we can review and practice the basic skills needed to be ready for the tests.

Welcome to Eng. 10 ISTEP Boot Camp

For the next 10 days you are a recruit in Mrs. Scales’ specially designed “We Are ALL Going to Pass the ISTEP” boot camp.  We will begin with basic skills conditioning and build up to a pretty close to full length practice test. By the time that test comes around, you will be feeling confident and sure of your abilities to do your very best. In the mean time, get ready – boot camp is rarely fun.

We are beginning today by making sure your final Great Gatsby essay has been submitted through Turnitin. This is the last actual graded assignment you will be doing for a little while. It will be returned to you with specific comments on how the essay would have been graded using the ISTEP writing rubric.

Next it is time to get started with our conditioning. Log into Canvas and take the Grammar Diagnostic Test 1.   This is a general review of basic English skills you should all know.  Let’s get a measure of where we all stand as I put our conditioning regiment for the next 10 days into place.

If you finish the Diagnostic Test early you may pick up one of the paper practice test packets from the front of the room to work on. You should continue working until the bell rings.

Once again, Welcome to Boot Camp.

As your bell work, prior to reading the rest of the blog post for today, correct the following sentence(s). Leave a comment on this post with the sentence written correctly. This includes capitalization, punctuation, word choice, spelling, and issues of sentence structure.

the sahara in north aftrica is the largest dessert in the world; measuring aprox. three point five million square cubic miles.

Now, on with today’s lesson.

Great stories articulate and explore the mysteries of our daily lives in the larger context of the human struggle. The writer’s voice, style, and use of language inform the plot, characters, and themes. By creating opportunities to learn, imagine, and reflect, a great novel is a work of art that affects many generations of readers, changes lives, challenges assumptions, and breaks new ground.

Make a list of the characteristics of The Great Gatsby. What elevates a novel to greatness? Discuss, within groups, other books that include some of the same characteristics. Do any of these books remind them of The Great Gatsby? Is this a great novel? A great writer can be the voice of a generation.

What kind of voice does Fitzgerald provide through Nick and Gatsby?

What does this voice tell us about the concerns and dreams of their generation?

According to avant-garde writer Gertrude Stein, this was the novel of the Lost Generation. How might it represent the hopes and dreams of Americans during the 1920s?

If you were the voice of your generation, what would be your most important message? Why might you choose to convey this in a novel rather than a speech or an essay? What story would you tell to get your point across?

Writing Exercise

Advanced students can come up with their own essay topics, as long as they are specific and compelling. Other ideas for essays are provided here.

For essays, students should organize their ideas around a thesis about the novel. This statement or thesis should be focused, with clear reasons supporting its conclusion. The thesis and supporting reasons should be backed by references to the text.

1. Is Fitzgerald writing a love story that embraces American ideals, or a satire that comments on American ideals? Have students refer to passages and quotes to build a thesis.
2. In Chapter 6, Nick says, “You can’t repeat the past.” Gatsby replies, “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!” (p. 110). Gatsby then describes a moment when he had kissed Daisy. Nick describes Gatsby’s memory as “appalling sentimentality,” after which Nick himself remembers a “fragment” and an “elusive rhythm” (p. 111). Are these passages about Nick or Gatsby? What has Nick forgotten that he is trying to retrieve? Finally, does Gatsby misuse the past and his memories in order to enliven the present? Does this make him part of the Lost Generation?
3. Originally titled On the Road to West Egg, then Trimalchio, then Under the Red White and Blue or Gold-Hatted Gatsby, Fitzgerald had difficulty settling on his title. Help F. Scott Fitzgerald rename the novel. Provide an argument to explain why your new title ideally suits the story.
4. Nick says: “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known” (p. 59). When you consider his role as narrator, do you believe that he is honest? Are his depictions of others honest? If he is not honest, why does he believe he is so honest?
5. Examine the last page of the novel. Fitzgerald writes, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter— to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.…And one fine morning—” (p.180). Why does Fitzgerald leave this sentence unfinished? What does Nick think will happen one fine morning? Are hopes and dreams always centered on a future belief? Is this more important than the actual satisfaction of one’s desires? Why or why not?

Work on your essays in class where I am available to assist with outlines, drafts, and arguments. Partner with another student to edit outlines and rough drafts.

This essay or the revision of your first Great Gatsby essay (due on Tues.) will be your final exam for The Great Gatsby.

Before you begin today’s vocabulary test, look at the front board. Are the two most pivotal points that you selected from chapter 7 already represented? If not add what you thought to the board.

Vocabulary Test on Chapter 6 & 7 List

Read Chapters 8 and 9 (pp. 147–180). Why does Nick think that Gatsby “paid a high price for living too long with a single dream” (p. 161)?

Homework – Finish any reading of Chapters 8 – 9 not completed in class.

Turn TTG Chapter 1 – 6 Essay into Turnitin

Novels trace the development of characters who encounter a series of challenges. Most characters contain a complex balance of virtues and vices. Internal and external forces require characters to question themselves, overcome fears, or reconsider dreams. The protagonist may undergo profound change. A close study of character development maps, in each character, the evolution of motivation, personality, and belief. The tension between a character’s strengths and weaknesses keeps the reader guessing about what might happen next and the protagonist’s eventual success or failure. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores characters in relation to their landscape, their wealth, and their prior relationships. The more we know about these characters, the more their lives shift from idyllic islands of wealth to colorless portraits floating through a “valley of ashes” with “grotesque gardens.” In this lesson, examine Fitzgerald’s ability to present characters in both their ideal and real countenances.

Read Chapter 7 (pp. 113–145).

Homework – Finish Reading Chapter 7 (pp. 113–145). Come to class with the two most important turning points in the plot of the novel.

Here are two examples of the kind of response to today’s essay assignment that  students might take.  You may take a very different approach to your essay response content, but your essay must link together the answers you came up with to all three of the questions asked in the assignment.

*Remember that the formatting is to be double spaced with no space between paragraphs.

Your essay must be finished and ready to upload to Turnitin when you come to class tomorrow. 

 

Student Name

Mrs. Scales

Eng. 10

8 February 2016

Sophisticated, Not Content

            In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby everything has a significance that isn’t always apparent when it is first read. Nearly everything that Fitzgerald writes comes to mean more when added to additional information further into the book. He does this through descriptive detail as well as the character dialog his complex characters deliver. When Daisy first utters, “Sophisticated—God, I’m sophisticated!” (17) the reader is unaware of the lack of satisfaction Daisy has found in her sophisticated life at a time in history when other women are stepping out of the traditional roles ascribed to them to live more carefree, spirited lives. At a time when women were throwing themselves into a life of fun, parties, and freedom Fitzgerald’s Daisy seems trapped in a life as desolate as glim as the valley of ashes separating the two sophisticated neighborhoods of East and West Egg from the modernized New York City.

Daisy Buchanan was born into sophistication. She did the sophisticated thing and marries someone from a wealthy class and a high standing family. They moved to the more sophisticated East Egg. While at the same time, her first true love struggled to acquire sophistication through amassing a fortune and buying a home in West Egg, which is known for it’s crassness and less sophisticated roots. All the time, neither character finding happiness nor contentment in either location.

As both main characters develop through Fitzgerald’s poignant story we see how desperate, unhappy and void of satisfaction their inner lives are in comparison to the sophisticated outer lives they are both living. Neither Daisy, nor Gatsby find happiness though they both live in sophisticated wealthy situations. Just as Fitzgerald describes the dark and desolate stretch of the Long Island Sound known as the valley of ashes, both Daisy and Gatsby live unsatisfied lives that do not bring them happiness. Their youthful hopes and dreams have decayed  into the reality of a dark and harsh spirit breaking existence that mirrors the plight of those less fortunate and less sophisticated inhabitants of the valley of ashes.

Just as Fitzgerald lays out a path from privileged sophisticated lives out on Long Island, through the valley of ashes, to New York City, his characters follow a developmental path of youthful optimism for a future of sophistication and happiness that gets derailed by the destructive decisions they make, taking them into a hopeless, desperate state of being, void of satisfaction. To really understand just how unsatisfied Daisy’s life has turned out readers must pull together the skillfully crafted details that so powerfully define the internal struggles, disappointments, and resulting decisions that Fitzgerald’s characters are created from.

Works Cited

Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby. New York City: Scribner, 2004. Print.

 

Example 2

Emma Davis
Mrs. Scales
English 10 Honors
8 February 2016

Contemptuous Sophistication

The old generation ideals and the new generation ideals are both clearly displayed by the characters in The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. There is also one character whom struggles with making a decision as to which side she wants to be on: Daisy Buchanan. When Daisy exclaims, “Sophisticated―God, I’m sophisticated!” she is implying that she is disgusted by her choice of sophistication over happiness, but her undeniable lack of the free spiritedness of the 1920’s deters her from making he change(p. 17). Like the valley of the ashes, Daisy is stuck in a lonely desolate place between two seemingly wonderful lifestyles.
Daisy Buchanan has chosen a life of sophistication and class with Tom Buchanan, an utterly arrogant, close-minded and hulking man. She has made this decision in spite of an undying and passionate love she has with a newly rich man from a poor background named Jay Gatsby, whom would’ve given her happiness but not sophistication. When Jay Gatsby and Daisy are reunited thanks to Nick she is forced to reconsider her decision and given the chance to change her mind. Daisy has trouble with this decision because while she hates the fact that she is living this life of depressing sophistication, she also struggles to let go of it because she is scared to make herself and her family look bad; she is stuck in this presumable valley of ashes and doesn’t know exactly how to escape. This hesitation is an example of Daisy’s nonconformity to the Age of the Flapper within which women stood up for themselves and didn’t care about what others thought.
Daisy may send herself further into a state of self pity and resentment by choosing not to leave Tom. On the other hand she may take the step out of the valley of ashes into modern happiness, a life with Gatsby.

Works Cited

Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby. New York City: Scribner, 2004. Print.

The Great Gatsby Chapter 1 – 6 Test is on Canvas

After the test, class and homework:

Consider whether any of the main characters have changed in the novel’s first six chapters. Examine Tom, Daisy, Nick, Jordan, and Gatsby. Are there any moments when these characters have a realization about their circumstances or change a firmly held opinion? In the beginning of the novel, Daisy says contemptuously “Sophisticated—God, I’m sophisticated!” (p. 17).

1. Now that we know more about Daisy, what did she mean?
2. Does her life represent the free spirit of the Roaring Twenties? If not, why not?
3. How does the way Fitzgerald describes the Long Island landscape parallel the internal struggles of the main characters?

Write an essay answering answering all three questions. The essay will be due at the start of class tomorrow.  Remember that an essay has an introductory paragraph with a strong thesis, body paragraphs that each have a topic sentence and as a whole support your thesis, and a conclusion.  This assignment will replace your FRJ entries for this week.

Today we tied together four of our Essential Academic Words with our study of The Great Gatsby. The following image was posted on the blog with the following directions:

Today’s exit ticket is to leave a comment in which you Describe the image above,  Explain how this applies to The Great Gatsby and, Determine why you prefer one (the book, the movie) over the other. Be sure you Organize your thoughts in your comment. 

In class we reviewed the precise meaning of each word:

Describe – to report what one observes (sees) or does by illustrating, reporting or representing what is seen. For this example, that means looking at the image and telling us what is seen or observed.

Explain – providing reasons or interpretations for what or of what has been observed by clarifying, demonstrating, or discussing the meaning of (the why, what, or how). For this example, what does the image mean.

Determine – to make a decision or arrive at a conclusion after considering all possible options, perspectives, or results. This may include establishing, identifying, or defining. For this example, which do you personally prefer movies or books.

Even after making these distinctions about what you were being asked to do as an exit ticket, everyone did not get all of their points.  This is important because specifically determining what a test question is asking for will result in how accurate your response is.

You have another exit ticket for Tuesday – To make up any points you lost on Monday’s exit ticket, review your score and comment from Monday’s exit ticket. If you did not score full credit (10 points) leave a comment today that explains specifically what steps you missed in your response from yesterday.  For example, if you only received 3 points you only answered 1/3 of the required comment. You may have jumped right into determining whether you like movies or books best.  If you received 7 points you missed one of the three requirements. You may have explained the image and determined which you prefer but not described the image. Leave a comment on this post fully explaining what you missed in your first response.