Scribe: 12.10.2008
Period 4
- I forgot I was scribe for the first couple of minutes so the beginning of class was kinda hazy, but I don’t think anything major happened.
- · Whores(?) passed out the syntax worksheet, which was about a passage from Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street.
- · Everyone was most mostly talking about the PSAT/NMSQT scores that I guess we got back today
- · Unlike insects, which are stimulus-response, humans are stimulus-choice-response
- · The syntax paper was mostly tedious, as can be seen by the repetitive and drawn out dependent clauses which create a feeling of hopelessness, and then the independent clause at the end containing the part about the trees offered relief.
- · Yoda speaks latin.
- · Mr. Egdridle taught the class that when you kill someone, you should look sorry so you won’t get a ticket. Mentioning that you’re a teacher helps too. (or eagle scout if you’re carfi)
- · MR. ELDRIDGE: “I’M A BIG FAN OF COLONS.”
- · Janitor Moses then randomly walked in to deliver a paper package in the middle of class, which looked highly suspicious, probably either quiz
- · Olivia’s apply sentence was apparently very smooth, and English teachers read books not because they care about the plot, but they like going on a ride. (???)
- · We briefly re-discussed nature, and how everyday is a holiday
- · A bunch of people forgot their Scarlet Letter book, which I guess we were supposed to bring today
- · We went over the first chapter of the Scarlet Letter again, this time looking carefully at the language:
- o The rose-wild, untamed, like nature, which is beautiful but also treacherous.
- o The syntax of the sentence of the origins of the rosebush was highly uncertain with the repetition of key words like “whether” at the beginning
- o The story is like prison, and we’re looking out, as if we’re the sin inside
- o One cannot trust the rosebush (thorns).
- o Anne Hutchinson, who was antinomian, was the perfect embodiment
- o Hawthorne condemned Emerson’s view of nature with his own view, conveyed in the Scarlet Letter: One finds the Black Man in nature, not God as Emerson implied
- · I just realized that Tera-Lynn had been on the couch the whole day, lucky.
- · Ed was absorbed with the palm of his hand.
- · Emerson = Good, still highly current and discussed. He and Thoreau started the conservationist movement with their views of nature.
- · Now here’s some stuff in my notes that I couldn’t figure out and had no place to put:
- o BAMF
- o Tricia hates you
- o Joker smile=creepy
- o Ethan says hate nothing but uncle
- o Gooberman
- o English weed for Mr. E
- o I had great paper catching skills but poor paper retention skills
Period 5
Hey Period 5.
Class started today with lots of people stressing out about when the Virtue Essay is due. Eldridge then took time to talk to the entire class and tell us that on Friday we should bring in whatever we have done on the Virtue essay into class on Friday. By the way by the time you’re done working on it today (yes you should be working on it today) you should be done with steps one through five.
We then had a few minutes to work on our syntax worksheets before Eldridge whinnied/coughed to get our attention.
The quote: “When I am too sad and too skinny to keep keeping, when I am a tiny thing against so many bricks, then it is I look at a tree”
-The House on Mango Street
After establishing that this quote was in fact grammatically correct and in fact had perfect grammar as well as so weirdness going on in various places in the room- Something about Dessouky eating canary (it’s the look on his face). But anyways, the quote is two dependent clauses followed an independent clause. The independent clause ties the rest of the sentence together. Next the Apply section and a question about Yoda talking with verbs at the end of sentences or something similar to that-I don’t really know. Carfi’s apply about a bad test grade was the best, I didn’t get all of it but it was kind of rhymed and it said something about red marks and that “damn Sean Wang.” Nice Carfi.
Also there were 2 48/50 Zachglasser jokes today =)
Oh and if you want some really intense reading try Cloud Atlas (five stories in one that are all completely different) or Hopscotch (only two stories in one, but with an added flipping back and forth thing). They seem really interesting, but that you probably need a lot of time to digest them.
Then we went back to Emerson’s Nature. Apparently our class wants to know Emerson the person and not Emerson’s writing so much. But what we did go over that was related to Emerson’s writing was that Emerson’s vegetables line is referring to vegetation and trees. He’s waving to the trees when they “wave” to him.
- ~But he was revolting against the fragmentation of life.
- ~He’s not a purist, he’s a conservative, quintessential family man
- ~Being independent is being self-reliant and he would probably say why work and waste your life working in a factory to live a life of “comfort” when you can be self reliant and live off of the earth and be in tune with god (that last bit-the being in tune with god part was my assumption)
- ~Also, our class is about 1/2 day behind
- ~MEMORIZE LINES
Movement over to Scarlet Letter:
It’s all ironic.
He’s talking about a Utopian society where we first built a jail and a graveyard, the two things that humans fear most (death and imprisonment)
- ~the Rose is beautiful but deceitful,
- ~Civilization=the black flower (black flower=madness and chaos)
Also 2nd half of the study guide for Self-Reliance is supposed to be due tomorrow, however, our class is now a day behind, so we’ll see how that goes tomorrow, so do it tonight.
Don’t forget about your outside read or the green packet on Thoreau which we’re going over some time next week.
Danielle Broder
Filed under: Daily Scribe and tagged Nature, Syntax, The Scarlet Letter
@Sean, you amaze me. How can you be so scattered and still get such high scores? The police thing is when I jaywalked on accident; Janitor should be Custodian; and we English teachers tend to read for the style, not the plot (who said anything about a ride?).
And my favorite, was that everyone was soooo mad that I just gave everyone ‘S’s for Citizenship and WorkHabits. I guess you’ll have fun explaining that one to your parents.
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Mr. E, if you thought the daily scribe notes were scattered, you should see my single folder for all my classes. Actually, I guess that means I’m pretty centralized, cause I know where everything is. It’s the specifics that are much more hazy.
I have no idea how you can jaywalk on accident, though. Maybe you were walking and accidentally veered off and crossed the street without realizing it? I like my killing someone example better, it’s much more black and white.
And finally, I’m completely fine (satisfied?) with the S in citizenship and work habits. I don’t know what everyone was smoking on. Overachievers.
BTW, did anyone else notice that there’s only like five different authentication picture things? Kinda defeats the point.
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when exactly is the Virtue Essay due?
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@Mr. E, I’m pretty sure teachers like to mess with students on the citizenship grades. Last year, Mr. Doone gave Chris Rini an N in citizenship. When Chris asked why he received such a poor score, Doone started laughing and said he thought it would be funny
…good times.
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I like O’s on my report card
@Andrew Lee, just in case you didn’t hear in class today, bring your Virtue Essay (or however much of it you have complete) to class tomorrow.
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Looking deeper into the Scarlet Letter helped me appreciate Hawthorne a lot more. I especially like the irony of the rose bush. It grows out of the threshold of the prison, therefore offering its sympathy to the prisoners (Nature has a sympathetic trait). But roses are not all beautiful and adorable – they do have thier thornes. And there exists the irony that even the beautiful have flaws that are sometimes painful. I also found it interesting how Hawthorne and Emerson are enemies. They with a duel of words, of wisdom. I have to agree with Emerson’s views more – be yourself, have self-trust, and happiness will follow =)
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I agree with gellan. We only went through like a page and a half in the scarlet letter and found like 4 different ironic details.
And in regards to “Nature” I am glad we got to do a retake on the quiz. After taking it the first time I went back and reread it, just in case we would get another chance, and to have a better understanding. Since today’s scribe is not up yet i do not know what our homework was or what happened in class. Anyone want to fill me in? I did the syntax worksheet for today, but that was it.
night!
hayley
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I also agree with Gellan. It was so easy to miss out on details (like the rose bush having thorns) and focus on outer appearances (the beauty of the rose bush), but now that we go over such important details, I see a completely different side of the novel.
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So i wonder, whenever I close read something, it always takes me a long time to absorb all of the information and really understand what the author is trying to convey. When we were assigned to read the scarlet letter, i just read it like a story and looked for the plot, but i didn’t really pay attention to Hawthorne’s irony and paradoxes etc. Which brings me back to my question, how do you know if your close reading is, in fact, close enought? Is it a skill that will eventually get stronger, or are some people just born luckier than others?
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yeah sean i noticed that too
but at least they’re easy to read not like those crazy ones you can’t even type in right because they’re so obscure
besides, who would be trying to infiltrate a high school english site?
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Tera-Lynne, me have the same exact problem! When we had to read “Self-Reliance,” and “Of Studies” and had to annotate it, it took me a long time to really absorb and fully comprehend what the authors were trying to convey. Yet when I read TSL, I basically just read it to enjoy the story and understand the plot. However, as we go back to reading it, looking for the in-depth meaning, I can better understand what Hawthorne is trying to say about society and nature. I believe that close reading is a skill that takes time and practice; as we read more, I’m sure that we will be able to recognize authors’ various messages and attitudes towards certain things.
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Yeah, I agree with Tricia and Tera-Lynne: Close reading takes a loonggg time. Everyday we take at least like 10-15 minutes analyzing our lit. device sheets, and granted, we waste a lot of the time catching food in our mouths, but still-we end up having an epiphany about the new meaning of what we analyze. Sometimes I wonder how Hawthorne wanted normal people to understand what he was writing about.. maybe the book was only meant for some people, not others.
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I guess it is easier to close read if you understand the historical and cultural context of a piece of literature. For example, the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount sound like a string of LSD induced non sequiturs. For example, how can the meek inherit the earth, the mourners find comfort, the poor in spirit find heaven? But, if you are familiar with his theology, then they not only kinda make sense, but might possibly support his views quite well. I am not too familiar with the theology of Jesus, but from what I’ve read in Matthew I can assume that Jesus’ theology was that of forgiveness. It is counterintuitive, because man’s natural instinct is to deal justice to those who deserve it. The loose counterintuitive theology of Jesus also counters the strict laws of the Jewish lawyers. So the paradoxical beatitudes become much easier to understand once you have a tenuous grasp of Jesus’ theology. I hope I am not too far off the mark here, because I am not very Christian, but still. The Beatitudes still don’t make sense to me, but I kind of get the gist of it. Similarily, The Scarlet Letter became easier to understand once I read Emerson, especially all the references to nature. I think we should have read Emerson before we read TSL, because it would’ve made a lot more sense.
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@Dylan, you’re on to something. The more you know, the more you can figure out. And, yes, forgiveness is the core of the Sermon on the Mount, but that is mostly necessary b/c it is impossible to follow God’s law both exteriorly and interiorly. So without forgiveness, we are doomed.
As for TSL, the more you know, the more you know. This is why English proper is comprised of chemistry, biology, physics, history, sociology, psychology, economics, language theory, art, geography, philosophy, theology, etc. etc. Abd personal experience. Anything that can be conveyed in words is fair game. To read and write well requires the whole self and the whole mind, applied.
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