On My Own

Our hour concentrated on the tone map of "On My Own" from Les Miserables. Partnerships created a tone map on construction paper and then wrote a paragraph detailing one pattern from the map and analyzing why the author uses this pattern. If you were absent, you are expected to complete this activity solo.

Logos, ethos, pathos will be the start of next week.

Tone Mappage

Today we witnessed "desperate" circles of pain, "seductive" winks, and "dreamy" detentions. No, this was not a soap opera; it was our group tone identification skits. Team positive, team negative, and team neutral dazzled us with words and actions befitting their chosen tone words.

From there, we transferred our tone analysis to the written word by reading "Siren Song" and creating a class tone map on the board. Remember, a tone map begins with identifying the shifts of a given text, identifying each section with a specific tone word, indicating two words as the range, and then plotting the points on the map.

At the end of our abbreviated hour, we began "On My Own," in which you identified its tone shifts. During Friday's class, you will create a partner tone map and its additional analysis.

Team Diction and Tone

To wrap up our mini diction unit, you worked in groups to construct a team essay on Emerson's "Education."

For the second half of the agenda, we played with tone and how we can identify varying tones verbally. For next class, we will continue with this step when you "perform" your conversations and your classmates guess your specific tones. Then, we will move into the written word with tone shifts and tone maps.

Diction Rhetorical Analysis

To begin class, partnerships shared their diction analysis of the assigned reading for Emerson's "Education." I used too many prepositional phrases in that last sentence, but I accept and acknowledge the fault.

Then, students were assigned groups to make a team essay answering this prompt: How does Emerson use diction to reflect his purpose? Students should have a draft of their individual assignment, i.e. paragraph, for the start of class tomorrow.

*If you were absent, you will be need to write a paragraph on your own answering the above prompt. While this paragraph should be detailed and quite lengthy with evidence, do not feel that you need to analyze all of the diction present in the text. Select a specific type or pattern and concentrate on that for the paragraph. You are creating, in essence, a strong body paragraph.

Diction

After an impromptu writing time, we began work on our next element for rhetorical analysis: diction. Utilizing quotes and paragraphs, we broke down the usage of diction via patterns, shifts, repetition, and parallelism. The key to analyzing diction is look at each word or phrase and magnify its significance to the text as a whole.

Your syntax essay is due on Monday.

Syntax Evaluations

During today's class, you self-evaluated your syntax essays by focusing on the following essentials:

• Providing an original, related hook
• Incorporating the author and title into the introduction
• Answering the prompt in the thesis
• Constructing paragraphs with topic sentences and concluding sentences
• Specifying types of syntax (simple, complex, interrogative, exclamatory)
• Adding evidence from the text with a citation
• Explaining the "why" for every syntax example
• Writing a memorable concluding paragraph
• Writing in present tense
• Writing in third person
• Writing clean, detail-oriented essays

The final draft of the essay will be due on Monday. Tomorrow, we will have a brief question session for you. Then, we will be moving onto diction analysis. 

Syntax Prompt

After reviewing syntactical patterns in "Superman & Me," you were given the rest of the hour to complete a 3-4 paragraph mini essay on the following prompt: How does Sherman Alexie use syntax to reflect his purpose in "Superman & Me"? For class tomorrow, bring in a hard copy, which we will be using for self-evaluation purposes.