Teachers: If you find something here you’d like to use in your classroom, please find detailed notes/lessons HERE, or feel free to contact me.
Students, here ya go…
Welcome, seniors, to our English 12 page. Here you will find nearly everything you’ll need to navigate the wondrous waters of our Senior English class. We’ll dig deep into the literary landscape and our own writing as we explore the fascinating theme of self-discovery.
The timing couldn’t be better as you enjoy this perfect and pivotal moment in your lives, the end of your high school career, to consider who you’ve been and who you wish to become.
I’m eager to join this journey with you.
Course Materials
Just click on the links below to find daily lessons, homework assignments and other helpful resources.
INTRO STUFF
DAILY LESSON SUMMARY (Updated Regularly)
GENERAL ENGLISH CLASS STUFF
- Participation/Discussions: “Seminar” by Michael Kahn (See p. 3 for “types” of seminars, but feel free to read in its entirety)
- History of English in 10 Minutes (Video)
- Daily Dose “Right Word” packet (See Metzler in person or SEE THIS LIST)
- Daily Dose Recording Sheet
- Your Journal Journey
- Literary Analysis: West Wing “Two Cathedrals” (Background)
- Literary Analysis: West Wing “Two Cathedrals” (Your Notes)
- Most Interesting Character Ever
- Austin’s Butterfly (The power of revisions)
GRAMMAR GRIND
- Your Proofreading Partner
- Grammar Choices are Moral Choices?
- Grammar Grind Bonus
- Sandwich Model Intro
- Sandwich Model Within Paragraph
- Fine Art of Snippet
STUDENT SELECTED INDEPENDENT READING
- Intro Cover
- Letter Home
- Word Diary-vocab tracker
- Need to Read Recommendations
- Page Rage Recommendations
- Final Presentation
COLLEGE ESSAYS
- College Essay: Both Art & Science. Give It Structure. Make It Sing!
- Common App Essay Prompts (2015-16)
- Tips From Admissions Officers @ Leading Colleges
- Admissions Essays Go Onstage (NPR)
- 5 Exceptional Essays (NPR)
- The Most Famous College Admissions Essay Ever (Note: Been done!)
- Lessons From College Essays (NPR)
- The Art of the Essay (NPR)
- As Deadlines Near, Students Sweat It Out Over College Essays (Washington Post)
- The Famous U. of Chicago Essay Prompts (2015-16)
- U. of Chicago Past Prompts
- Writing the Common App. Essay (NOTE: Provided by commercial interest)
- 7 College Essay Topics to Avoid
- College Essays That Stand Out
- Admissions Revolution (Sept. 2015)
- Dissecting a Successful Essay (2016)
LITERARY CRITICISM – LIT LENSES
- Literary Lenses Group Presentation Packet 2015
- William Carlos Williams, The Use of Force
- Use of Force Presentation by G. Vassiliou
- Modern Literary Theory
- Types of Literary Criticism
- Critical Approaches to Literature
- Literary Theory & Schools of Criticism
- Critical Theory – Approaches to Analysis and Interpretation of Literature
- What Makes a Hero? Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey (Video)
- The Hero’s Journey – Interactive Adventure
- Freud – Psychoanalytic
- Freud’s Id-Ego-Superego
- Jung’s Collective Unconscious & Archetypes
- More Archetypes
SOME SHORT STORIES
- The Lottery by Shirley Jackson*
- The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman*
- Boys & Girls by Alice Munro
- Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates
- An Act of Vengeance by Isabel Allende
- A&P by John Updike
*You may have encountered these first two before, but I ask that you look at them anew with fresh eyes, through a fresh lens.
- Literary Analysis Notes Page
- Thinkin’ About Theme Exercise Sheet
- Short Story First-Take Analysis
- Short Story Smorgasbord Team Presentations
- Short Story Analysis Essay
- BONUS: Optional Short Story Essay Re-Write
- The Lottery (Movie)
- A & P (Movie)
- This is Water by David Foster Wallace (a nice companion for A&P)
- Smooth Talk (Movie Review by Roger Ebert)
LORD OF THE FLIES
- The Island (artist’s rendition)
- Silver Linings Playbook LOF Synopsis (“…still need to read it, though.”)
- Lord of the Flies Audiobook (11 of 12 chapters)
- Naked & Afraid
- Survivorman
- Man vs. Wild
- Survival IQ
- John Locke – Two Treatises on Government
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Nature, Wholeness & Education
- Thomas Hobbes Political Philosophy
- William Golding Nobel Prize Lecture (1983)
- LOF Meets Simpsons (“Das Bus”)
- LOF Meets Spongebob (“Club Spongebob” Magic Conch)
- Four Desires Driving All Human Behavior (Bertrand Russell)
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- A Helpful LOF Resource
- Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
- Plato’s Ship of State
- Good vs Evil Project
- Good vs Evil Format Model
**Some Resources for Good-Evil Project**
- Is Man Inherently Good or Evil (CNN 2103)
- Locke vs. Hobbes: Founders of Modern Political Science (UMW Western Civ Blog 2012)
- Are Humans Good or Evil? A Brief Philosophical Debate (Harpers 2014)
- Are We Naturally Good or Bad? (BBC 2013)
- Are We Inherently Good or Evil? What Babies Teach Us About Morality (Why We Reason 2011)
- Are People Fundamentally Good or Bad? (QUORA 2014)
- Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
NIGHT
- Basics of Judaism (BBC)
- Judaism 101
- Jewish Virtual Library (Begin with Elie Wiesel; follow hyperlinks)
- The Life & Work of Elie Wiesel (PBS)
- Elie Wiesel’s NIGHT (Wikipedia)
- The Story of NIGHT (NY Times 2008)
- The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity
- Oprah & Elie at Auschwitz (Video :45)
- Paper Clips Project (oneclipatatime.org)
- Abu Ghraib Torture & Prisoner Abuse
- Few Have Faced Consequences for Abu Ghraib (2015)
- Stanford Prison Experiment (Detailed Exploration)
- Our Capacity for Evil (Zimbardo’s Prison & Milgram’s Shocks)
- The Power of the Situation (Stanford Prison Experiment)
- Learning & Conditioning (Classical Conditioning)
- Difference Between Classical & Operant (Skinnerian) Conditioning
- The Psychology of Evil (TED Talk w/ Philip Zimbardo)
- The Holocaust & Modern Day Genocide (PulitzerCenter.org)
- Past Genocides (EndGenocide.org)
- LOUD LINES From NIGHT (Notes Sheet)
- Night Study Questions
- BONUS Opportunity – NIGHT
HAMLET
Is Wrigley Field a modern-day Globe Theater? What?! Huh? Have you heard of the Globe’s “groundlings” or Wrigley’s “bleacher bums?” And what about the way they’re designed or the way they fly their flags? In the end, it’s just people trying to enjoy a performance. Here’s more Shakespeare stuff…
Globe Theater:
- Globe Theater
- Globe Theater Virtual Tour
- The Globe & Shakespeare
- Imagining & Re-Imagining The Globe Theater
- What is Drama?
Shakespeare Smorgasbord:
- Shakespeare Bio
- There’s No Escaping Shakespeare (NYT Video)
- Shakespeare Brief & Naughty (Video)
- The Shakespeare Mystery
- Folger Shakespeare Library
- Absolute Shakespeare
- Ye Olde Shakespearean Insults
- Shakespeare Escapes the Plague?
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
- Shakespeare in Modern English?
- Shakespeare Online
- Shakespeare Subject to Change (Interactive)
- Aristotle’s Poetics – Tragedy
And here’s a Hamlet Hodgepodge:
- Hamlet Online
- Hamlet Language: Verse & Diction
- Speaking Shakespeare – Rhyming Couplets
- Deception in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
- Hamlet’s “Antic Disposition”: Is Hamlet’s Madness Real?
- 5 Classic Solutions for “The Hamlet Problem” (Delay, delay, delay…..)
- “The Long Goodbye: Hamlet’s Not Depressed, He’s Grieving” (Meghan O’Rourke)
- Supreme Court Justice Puts Hamlet on Trial (PBS Report)
- Full Video of Mock Trial of Hamlet (Murder, Madness & Mindset w/Supreme Court Justice Kennedy)
- Hamlet in Pop Culture
- Green Eggs & Hamlet (text)
- Green Eggs & Hamlet (video)
- Gilligan’s Island Does Hamlet (Video)
- Simpsons Do Hamlet (Wiki Details)
- Simpsons Do Hamlet (Video)
- Carol Burnett Hamlet (video)
- Rowan Atkinson & Hugh Laurie (Shakespeare Meets Editor)
- Sassy Gay Friend – Hamlet’s Ophelia (Video)
- Hamlet Misc. (w/character charts & artful synopsis)
The Best Damn Shakespeare Reference Ever!!! (For finding quotes & characters & cross-referencing everything. Enjoy!)
Some Helpful Hamlet Handouts:
- Hamlet Stuff to Keep in Mind
- Hamlet Characters Overview
- Hamlet “Loud Lines” Notes Sheet
- Hamlet Character Analysis (Metaphor/Graph)
- Hamlet Character Analysis ESSAY
- Heaping Helping of Hamlet Team Presentations
- Reduced Hamlet Live & Unplugged
- The Bard’s Hokey-Pokey (That’s right, sing it Shakespeare Style!)
- The Grief’s the Thing? (Assignment for O’Rourke article-see link above)
- Hamlet Bonus: Creating Couplets
A Final Hamlet Question:
- Any parallels to West Wing’s Jed Bartlet? (You may wish to think on this.)
- “Of Princes & Presidents” Assignment Handout
- Hamlet & Jed (Rock-Poster Template)
- Hamlet & Jed (Punk-Poster Template)
- The Great Debate – Hamlet vs. JB
- Aristotle & Tragedy Handout
- Oedipus The King (Reduced!)
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST
- Cuckoo’s Nest “Loud Lines” Notes Sheet
- Cuckoo’s Nest Team Presentations
- Ken Kesey & the Merry Pranksters
- How a Bus Trip Created the Psychedellic 60s
- The Art of Fiction (Kesey Interview in Paris Review): “McMurphy is a particular American cowboy hero, almost two-dimensional. He gains dimension from being viewed through the lens of Chief Bromden’s Indian consciousness.”
- Ken Kesey Obituary
- Pop Culture Newsmakers – Ken Kesey (PBS)
- Still Cuckoo After All These Years
- Magic Trip (The Film)
- Ken Kesey Talks About the Meaning of the Acid Tests
- Ken Kesey on Misconceptions of Counterculture (NPR)
- Ken Kesey’s Wars: Cuckoo’s Nest at 50
- Cuckoo’s Nest Film Trailer
- Mental Floss: 15 Things You Might Not Know About Cuckoo’s Nest (The Film)
- “Roll the Dice” by Charles Bukowski (Video version w/text)
- Another “Roll the Dice” (Video Version/No text)
Dipping Our Toes in Some Slippery Psychiatric Science:
- Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause
- Lobotomy: Definition, Procedure & History
- A History of the Ice Pick Lobotomy
- The Lobotomist (The American Experience PBS Documentary)
- Electroconvulsive Therapy (Mayo Clinic)
Since it’s nearly impossible to explore this book without the context of the author’s LSD experiences, here are a few links with LSD facts (Of course, your Chemistry teacher would be a good resource, too):
RESEARCH PROJECT
Senior Research Kick Off Questions (PDF)
Research Guide Packet:
- Cover
- Intro & Checkpoints
- Annotated Bibliography
- Tips For Thesis
- FULL Sentence Outline Sample
- Research Paper Rubric
Helpful Tools to Get Started:
- Internet Source Decision Flowchart (PDF)
- Finding Reliable Sources
- Notetaking: Source + Notes Combo Model (PDF)
- Focus Questions Info Sheet (PDF)
- Works Cited Model
- Quick-Look at Parenthetical Citation
- Proper MLA Formatting Guide
- EasyBib (Generates Bibliographic Info)
- MLA Sample Paper (PDF)
- MLA Sample Paper 2 (PDF)
- MLA Parenthetical Citation Samples (PDF)
NOTE: Please see Mr. Gunner’s GREAT resources for Argumentative Essays Below
More Helpful Tools:
- MLA Formatting: The Basics (Video Tutorial)
- MLA Formatting: List of Works Cited (Video Tutorial)
- MLA Style Essay Format Using Word (Video Tutorial)
- What is Plagiarism? (Note additional resource links)
- Online Writing Lab (OWL – Purdue) – You’ll find everything you need right here!
- Research Guide (compliments of New Trier HS)
- A Makeover for MLA Documentation? (2016)
Thanks to Mr. Gunner, Retired Colorado HS Teacher, for these GREAT resources:
- Research Paper Process
- Outline Sample (Using COMPLETE Sentences makes drafting easier later!)
- Argumentative Essay Plan/Format
- Argumentative Essay Style (Structure, Diction & Tone)
- Argumentative Essay Template
- “They Say/I Say” Templates – Help get your language right!
Some Video Tutorials for Bib Cards & Note Cards (aka Old School = Good School)
- Writing the Research Paper (Carleton College)
- How to Develop a Good Research Topic
- How to Write a Note Card for Research Paper
- Research Bib & Note Cards
- Taking Notes for Research Papers – (Use following Focus Question Info Sheet PDF)
- Focus Question Info Sheet (PDF)
INTO THE WILD
- Loud Lines Handout: Into the Wild
- Journal Entry #1
- Journal Entry #2
- How People Learn to Become Resilient
- Thoreau’s Walden, Present at the Creation (NPR Audio)
- Carine McCandless talks of “The Wild Truth”
- ABC 20/20 Episode: “Into the Wild”
- Chris McCandliss’ Sisters Return to His Alaskan Home
- “Return to the Wild” (2015 Documentary)
- “Return to the Wild” (Shorter Version)
- Jessica Watson Sails Solo Around the World (Ted Talk 2014)
FENCES
- August Wilson (Wiki)
- August Wilson Bio
- American Masters – August Wilson “The Ground on Which I Stand” (PBS video)
- All things August Wilson (NY Times Archives)
- August Wilson Theater & More
- August Wilson Website
- August Wilson’s Blues Poetry (esp. FENCES section!)
- Last Piece of AW’s Legacy Comes Home
- Shopping for Jazz Records with August Wilson
- Remembering August Wilson
- What’s Denzel Washington up to?? (All Wilson Plays coming to HBO?)
- Denzel’s FENCES into Production (2016)
- VIDEO: Interview with August Wilson (Bill Moyers)
- Show Clips: Denzel Washington in FENCES (Video)
- Troy Maxson: Heart, Heartbreak as Big as the World
“THIS I BELIEVE”
- “This I Believe” Homepage
- Essay Writing Guidelines
- Original Invitation from Producers (MUST READ!)
- “Be Cool to the Pizza Dude” (Featured Essay)
- Other Featured Essays
- Browse Essays by THEME
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
Deep Dive: Loud Line Exercise Model
- You’ll do 2 “Deep Dive” Quote Pages for whole book
We’ll do the following (REQUIRED):
- The Things They Carried
- How to Tell a True War Story
- On the Rainy River
- Speaking of Courage
- Sweatheart of the Song Tra Bong
- PLUS any 3 others of your choosing
*** By all means, read more if you wish. I think you’ll be taken with this text!!***
- VIDEO: Tim O’Brien Tells a True War Story (aka the Power of Literature)
- VIDEO: “Big Think” Interview w/Tim O’Brien
- “The Things They Carried” read by Alan Cranston (Audio 47:33)
- “On the Rainy River” (Audio 45:20)
- VIDEO: “A Soldier’s Sweetheart” (1:51:19)
- War Letters: Rochester Writes Home (Brother Wease Reads)
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
Tennesse Williams: A Life of Theater (Video)
REVIEW: Ben Foster Brings His Beast Mode to “A Streetcar Named Desire”
REVIEW: A Darwinian Streetcar with a Feminist Streak
POETRY
Parking Lot Poetry Assignment (PDF)
Bringing Poetry to the People (Some Ceiling Samplings)
Parking Lot Poetry Samples/Models (Browse & Brainstorm)
Poetry Potpourri:
- Stephen Colbert & Billy Collins: “To My Favorite 17-Year-Old High School Girl”
- Samuel L. Jackson Performs “Boy Meets World”
- Daniel Radcliffe Raps Blackalicious “Alphabet Aerobics”
- Your Favorite Celebs Reading Favorite Poems (Video Links)
- 90 Famous Authors & Celebs Read Poetry & Stories
- Famous Poets & Poems
- Famous Poets & Poems (“Top 50”)
- “Top 500 Poets & Poems” (AllPoetry.com)
- “Best Poems”
- Favorite Poem Project (By Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky)
- 100 Sites for Poetry Lovers
- Poetry Foundation
- United States of Poetry
- More United States of Poetry
FILM