Upcoming Major Work (Essays, Tests, Projects)
Friday, Sept. 19:          In-class closed book assessment, All the Pretty Horses
Wednesday, Sept. 24:  Personal Essay--First Draft & Peer Response Day (turnitin.com by 9:55)
Wednesday, Oct. 1:     Personal Essay--Final Draft & Peer Response Day (turnitin.com by 9:55)


TODAY IN CLASS
1) Hand-out for Personal Essay distributed.

Here are two links which provide helpful support for the Common Application topics.  Please don't wait until you start writing your paper to consult these sites; the material might be useful as you narrow the topic choices and start to generate ideas.

http://collegeapps.about.com/od/essays/a/common-application-essay-prompts.htm

http://www.collegeessayadvisors.com/portfolio-items/2014-15-common-application-essay-prompts-a-guide-topics/

2) "The Chrysanthemums"
A question tossed up for grabs:  could this story be considered a bildungsroman?  Different initial opinions. . . some were not sure enough of the definition to lean one way or another.

Close reading of text--I do not wish to summarize since the classes ended at different points. We got to the tinker's description of the chrysanthemums in 3rd; in 4th there was the oops moment (my fault) when I realized I'd skipped over an important interchange that we had to double back and pick up.  Sorry!  We will pick up with the paragraph describing the tinker's appearance; note though, if you were packing up in the waning moments when I should have just stopped, that his age is left both unspecified and deliberately difficult to pin down.  Steinbeck provides conflicting evidence.  We will move on from there!

FOR TOMORROW
Start considering essay topics.
We will hear from a counselor.
We will do 3 to 5 minutes only on Steinbeck, just so we can set up a short writing task for Monday.
The summer reading novel:

• Why all the violence?  
• What are some theme STATEMENTS?  (not theme ideas/topics/phrases, but a claim that can be stated as a sentence?
• Which overall structure seems best to fit your sense of John Grady's experience and development, the use of other characters (major and minor), and as a vehicle for theme(s)?