Assessments

ENGLISH 11 Assessment Page

**Assessment #7** //: Slaughterhouse-Five //: Critical Essay Please respond to one of the following questions below in a critical essay of approximately three pages in length. You may also write on a self-designed question, though you must get that question approved before you begin writing. You will be graded on the following: - Your ability to organize an argument around an argumentative and falsifiable thesis statement. - Your ability to follow the assertion-evidence-explanation progression in your body paragraphs. - Your ability to both select and closely read relevant pieces of textual evidence in support of your argument. - Your ability to avoid any discussion of the novel’s plot. - Your ability to construct a thought-provoking and original conclusion that resists the urge to restate the thesis. - Grammatical areas of focus: pronoun agreement and reference, comma usage, sentence completeness, subject-verb agreement. This essay is due in class on Thursday, April 18th. A rough draft is due on Wednesday, April 17th.


 * 1) 1. What is the relationship between Billy Pilgrim’s experience in the war and his abduction by the Tralfamadorians? Why does the novel incorporate this abduction to create an “anti-war” novel? What function does this seemingly irrelevant episode serve?


 * 1) 2. What is the role of fate in this novel? How is fate juxtaposed by the illusion of free will? What relationship does this idea have to the American concept of war?


 * 1) 3. The novel tells us that Billy grows rich because “frames are where the money is” (24). Consider the difference between the purpose of lenses and frames in literary analysis when answering this question. What is the purpose of a lens? What is the purpose of a frame? Which one would you consider more important? Why?


 * 1) <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">4. What is the relationship between truth and fiction in this novel? How is that relationship defined through Vonnegut’s employment of history, time travel, and dreams in the life of Billy Pilgrim?


 * 1) <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">5. After Billy’s capture, the narrator states: “Nobody talked. Nobody had any good war stories to tell” (55). What constitutes a “good war story?” To what extent can this novel be considered a good war story?


 * 1) <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">6. Throughout this novel, Vonnegut mixes and fuses seemingly disparate elements—high and low diction, for instance, or words and images. Why does Vonnegut engage in this sort of mixing? What does the technique add to the novel as a whole?

Assessment #6: Personal Essay For this assessment, you will write a shorter personal essay on the following prompt. Your essay should be approximately 500 words long. You may not exceed 650 words. Please indicate the word count when submitting the essay. Throughout //Slaughterhouse-Five//, Billy Pilgrim experiences a variety of failures, setbacks, and reversals. Despite these obstacles, Billy lives a life of consequence and meaning. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn? (NB – This question happens to be one of the five prompts on the Common Application).

You will be graded on the following:

- Your ability to tell a story about a moment of failure. - Your ability to select vivid and precise details to illustrate that moment of failure. - Your ability to show (not tell) a central theme or idea about your own character through your story. - Your ability to use active verbs to eliminate clutter and wordiness. - Grammatical areas of focus: sentence completeness, comma usage, agreement, reference.

This essay is due in class on Monday, April 8.

English 11 - Assessment #3

Oral Explications/Presentations of “Song of Myself”

The purpose of your creative and critical presentation is to explicate one canto from “Song of Myself” in fifteen to twenty minutes. Your explication should be not only critical and scholarly, but also creative and enlivening.

__Details__:
 * 1) Prior to your presentations, I will teach Cantos 1-10 and 11. In class, we will come at these cantos from a variety of angles to reveal some of your presentation possibilities. We will also strive to understand some of the dominant features of the poem that persist throughout.
 * 2) Starting Wednesday, January 30, you will be responsible for presenting your cantos. Your oral explication and presentation counts as a major assessment, so this is something you will want to devote plenty of time and effort to.

__Process__:
 * 1) The most effective way to garner information for this oral explication is by following the “Reading and Understanding Poetry” handout. This will give you a fairly methodical way in which to move through the poem.
 * 2) Look up every noun, verb, adjective, and adverb in the canto, even those that you think you may know. The OED (found at Randolph Library website) will give you an amazing range of possible meanings.
 * 3) Come up with an assertion—essentially a statement of what you believe a central purpose and effect of the canto to be. This central argument should serve as the backbone of your presentation, and all information you put forth and presentational strategies should somehow link back to it.

__Presentation__: Fifteen to twenty minutes is a long time, so you need to think of how you are going to keep your audience interested. If you plan on delivering a long lecture on your canto, you may run the risk of boring the audience and earning a poor grade (In other words, do not lecture). Avoid simply quoting and explaining line by line. Conversely, if you just ask lots of questions or make up some sort of ridiculous game, you may not hit the substance of the poem. Therefore, you need to present your canto in a way that will strike a balance between giving good, in-depth, and thoughtful information and ensuring that the audience maintains a high level of interest and engagement. You might employ visual and auditory aids, though I would stress that the most pivotal way to keep your audience is by being **creative**. ** Attach yourself to the experience of the poem/canto, and recreate that experience for your audience. I strongly advise you to consider other forms of visual, aural, and artistic communication in making your argument come alive for your audience. **

Assessment #1: A Mid-Year Portfolio Your assessment will be in two parts. The first part of the assessment asks you to collect a representative sample of work that you completed over the first semester. The second part asks you to present an argument about yourself as an English student based on the work that you compiled.


 * PART 1: The Compilation**

Your portfolio REQUIRES A FOLDER WITH POCKETS. If it has the little three-pronged doodads, that’s fine, too, and those things are helpful. It should contain between five and seven essays (depending on your choices). It MUST contain at least one of the following:

- An in-class passage analysis - An analytical essay - A personal essay - The first semester exam - A piece of work that you consider your “strongest” to date. - A piece of work that you consider your “weakest” to date. - A piece of work you consider your most “creative” to date.

Five or more pieces of writing and a folder with pockets will earn you 100% on this part of the assessment. YOU ARE STRONGLY RECOMMENDED TO INCLUDE GRADED COPIES OF YOUR WORK.


 * PART 2: The Essay**

In an essay of approximately two pages, answer the following question: **How have I changed as a reader, writer, speaker, and thinker?** How does my work validate or challenge that perception of change? Who do I wish to become as a reader, writer, thinker, and speaker? How can I achieve that definition of who I wish to become?

Your answer to the emboldened question must be exact and should form the thesis/controlling idea of this essay. If you do not feel that you have changed in any of these areas, your thesis should pose reasoning as to why. For evidence, you should make specific and precise reference to your own work. You may also utilize teacher comments as a form of evidence. YOU MAY NOT MAKE ANY REFERENCE TO GRADES AT ANY POINT IN THE EVALUATION.

Questions to consider: - From what writing assignment did you learn the most? - Which piece of writing in your folder is most important to you? Why? - What brought fun and joy to the writing process? - Where have you made significant improvement? - What obstacles continue to hold you back from being the student you want to be in the English classroom? - How would your peers describe you as an English student?

This assessment will be evaluated for the following:

- Your ability to make and defend a precise claim about yourself as a reader, writer, thinker, and speaker. - Your ability to evaluate your progress and to make accurate claims about how you must continue to improve upon your skills. - Your ability to write creatively and persuasively about yourself. - Your ability to write with grammatical precision.

An outline of this essay is due on Wednesday, 1/9/13. A rough draft of this essay is due on Thursday, 1/10/13 A final draft of this essay is due on Friday, 1/11/13.

Assessment #9: The Sermon

This assignment develops the students’ capacity to analyze and interpret sermons, which were especially important forms of communication in the colonial period of American history. By examining the speaker’s (writer’s) purpose, audience, and subject, students will be more aware of how these three fundamental elements of all good writing shaped the structure, style, and content of a sermon, producing powerful effects on listeners and subsequent readers. As students explore the special authority conferred upon this form of public speaking and realize the complex objectives and methods of preachers, which were dependent upon their time and place, they will not only have a better appreciation of the sermons themselves and the impact they had on the congregations which witnessed them, but also a better understanding of how the devices of persuasive expression can be used with skill and force, both then and now. To finally demonstrate their learning about how sermons have shaped the spiritual life of America, students will be required to compose a sermon on a contemporary theme of their choice, using all the powers of persuasion and rhetorical skill they have discovered in reading and analyzing sermons of the past.

For this assessment, you will compose and deliver a sermon of at least four but no more than six minutes in length (sermons longer than 6 minutes or shorter than 4 minutes will not earn a grade above C).

Your sermon may be on any subject that is relevant to your audience, and you need not incorporate any element of faith or religion in the sermon (you are at no advantage in giving a religious sermon or utilizing a religious text, though you may do so if you choose). You must follow the structural framework of the sermon as discussed in class (text, doctrine, application and use), but you need not be rigid to the structure as long as the logic of your argument is apparent.

You will be graded twice: once on delivery (by your peers) and once on the quality of writing (by me). In other words, this assessment will count for double the other assessments and will account for nearly 20% of your second quarter grade. In other words, this is a big assessment. You will be graded on the following:

- Your ability to follow the sermon structure. - Your ability to make an argument using rhetorical appeals and rhetorical devices. - Your ability to share something useful and relevant with your audience. - Your ability to deliver the sermon clearly (please consult performance rubric). - Grammatical areas of correction: commas, sentence completeness, subject-verb agreement, active verb usage.

A full rough draft of your sermon is due in class on **Monday, December 10th**. You will submit a revised draft for grading on **Tuesday, December 11th**. Sermons will be delivered in class on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (12/11-12/13). Order will be determined by random draw.

Assessment #8: //Persuasive Essay// For this assessment, you will write a persuasive essay of two pages in length (maximum). You may choose any topic to write about as long as that topic has some sort of school, local, regional, or national relevance and as long as you can take a clear position on that topic.

You will be graded on the following:

- Your ability to explain the issue and to show its relevance to you. - Your ability to craft your argument around a position (in other words, a clear and precise thesis that takes a position on the issue). - Your ability to use logos, ethos, and pathos in the execution of your argument. - Your ability to use at least two rhetorical techniques in emulation of Douglass’ //Narrative//. (some possibilities include inversion, repetition, irony, overstatement, understatement, digression, caesuras, rhetorically balanced sentences, turn of phrase, imagery, litotes, apostrophe, or whatever else you might find—this is a list off the top of my head). - Comma usage, sentence completeness, and subject-verb agreement.

This essay is due in class on Tuesday, December 4th.

Assessment #7: //Bless Me, Ultima// – Critical Essay For this assessment, you will compose a critical essay on one of the topics listed below. You may also devise a topic of your own. You will be graded on the following: - Your ability to devise an argumentative, falsifiable, and thematically driven thesis and to let that statement form the backbone of the essay. - Your ability to devise paragraph assertions that relate directly to the thesis and are thematic or analytical in nature. - Your ability to closely read and analyze your evidence. - Your ability to avoid any discussion of the plot (beyond a phrase). - Your ability to cite your quotations properly. - Grammatical/Stylistic areas for correction: sentence completeness, active verbs, present tense verbs, proper use of commas. An outline of this essay will be due in class on Thursday, November 15th. A rough draft of at least three full pages in proper format (TNR 12 Dbl. Spaced, 1 inch margins) is due on Friday, November 16th. A final draft of NO MORE THAN THREE PAGES in proper format is due in class on Monday, November 19th. TOPICS: <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">1. How does //Bless Me, Ultima// complicate—and force a reappraisal of--stereotypical assumptions about American identity? Feel free to make reference to your own identity and to contemporary politics of identity in your essay. Feel free, too, to allude to current events in the US as a way to deepen your discussion. These references and allusions cannot dominate the essay, however. Consider using them in the introduction and/or conclusion.

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">2. As the protagonist of this //bildungsroman,//Antonio negotiates many tensions and dualities as he tries to define his own place in the world. Select one of these dualities and analyze the ways in which he negotiates it. Feel free to expand your analysis into a discussion of relevant tensions and dualities in contemporary American life.

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">3. The llano features prominently in //Bless Me, Ultima//: Analyze how the southwestern setting of the novel serves not only as a backdrop to the plot but also as a central theme in the novel. Feel free to extrapolate from your analysis a larger philosophical exploration of the significance of geography to identity.

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">4. War and its aftermath provide a fraught backdrop to //Bless Me, Ultima//. Analyze the ways that war functions within the plot, characters, and themes of the novel. Feel free to extend your analysis of the novel into an exploration of the role of war in contemporary life in the United States.

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">5. Analyze the role of religion and spirituality in //Bless Me, Ultima//.

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">6. Analyze the role of school—education—and language in Antonio’s coming of age. Feel free to extend your analysis in to an exploration of the role of education—and language—in the coming of age of contemporary American children.

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">7. Select one of the symbols or motifs in the novel and trace its significance to the story.

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">8. Analyze the role of storytelling in the novel. How do stories contribute to the style and structure of the novel?

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">9. Analyze the role of dreams in the novel, especially as they function to further the plot and to elucidate Antonio’s character and role in the novel.

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">10. Analyze the role of water in the novel.

Mr. Freeman English 11

Assessment #6: //Their Eyes Were Watching God// For your final assessment on //Their Eyes Were Watching God,// you will compose a 3-4 page essay (properly formatted) based on one of the following prompts. You may also write on a topic of your own choice.

You will be graded on the following: 1.) Your ability to craft a thematically driven, argumentative, and falsifiable thesis set up by an effective introduction and “hook.” 2.) Your ability to lead each paragraph with an argumentative assertion that is directly relevant to your thesis. 3.) Your ability to cite and analyze relevant textual evidence in support of your assertions. 4.) Your ability to avoid any mention of the plot. 5.) Your ability to make your assertions precise, convincing, and original.

DO NOT REUSE ANY INFORMATION FROM CLASS DISCUSSIONS. Strive to craft original arguments that move well beyond the scope of our class work. I am looking for original ideas. Keep in mind the practice of academic honesty; avoid performing any outside research or using the internet for any purpose related to this essay (beyond vocabulary and allusions).

On Monday, 10/29, you will have a full outline with explicated evidence due in class. On Tuesday, 10/30, you will have a full rough draft completed in class for peer review. **Failure to produce a FULL rough draft (at least four pages in length) by this date will result in a ten point deduction on your final grade (in other words, your 85 will become a 75).** On Wednesday, 10/31, your FINAL DRAFT will be due in class.

TOPICS: 1.) In 1937, the novelist Richard Wright ( //<span style="background-color: #ebeff1; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Native Son // ) reviewed //<span style="background-color: #ebeff1; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Their Eyes Were Watching God // . He argued: “Miss Hurston voluntarily continues in her novel the tradition which was forced upon the Negro in the theater, that is, the minstrel technique that makes ‘the white folks’ laugh…The novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy.” To what extent do you agree with Wright’s criticism of the novel? (This topic was adapted from the NEH website).

2.) Craft an analysis of the difference and importance of the difference between men’s and women’s dreams in the novel. What is Hurston trying to demonstrate through these differences? If answering this question, be sure to provide an analysis of “the horizon” and the role it plays in the novel.

3.) Analyze gender roles and stereotypes in the novel. What is Hurston showing us about the respective roles that each gender played in the Southern Black society of the 1930’s? To what extent are these gender roles and stereotypes still present today?

4.) Examine the construction of race in this novel. What role does the (largely unseen) white society play in the consciousness of the communities of Eatonville and the Muck? To what extent do black characters in this novel attempt to conform to white values? To what extent are those values rejected?

5.) Discuss the importance of the title to the novel. How does it connect to the rest of the text, and how can it be used to shape our understanding of the novel?

6.) Pick a prominent symbol in the text and provide an analysis of the ways in which that symbol relates/speaks to the novel’s themes.

7.) //Their Eyes Were Watching God// is concerned with issues of speech and language. Janie lacks the words, at first, to express herself, but over time she learns how to express her true feelings in words. Write an analysis of how Janie acquires the necessary language to express herself over the course of the novel. English 11 Mr. Freeman/Ms. Rossuck

Assessment #4: Eulogizing Jay Gatsby <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">“As we all know from reading //The Great Gatsby//, hardly anyone attended Jay Gatsby’s funeral. We’re going to give him the funeral he deserved. I expect everyone to dress and behave appropriately for a funeral (weeping is encouraged, but not required), and each of you will write a eulogy to deliver before the class. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">“Eulogy” comes from the Greek roots meaning “good words.” It is a speech that honors someone who has died. Your speech should be at least two minutes long, but not longer than three minutes. Your goal is to honor Jay Gatsby in rich rhetorical language, including such devices as parallelism, anecdote, analogy, and imagery. You should mention specific events in his life as if you were a witness to them (you were – you read the book!). You should write a first sentence that immediately seizes the attention of your audience and a last sentence that sums up your argument. You don’t have to ignore Jay Gatsby’s mistakes, but you should not judge him too harshly, either—‘Speak no ill of the dead’” (Clark web). <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">For this project, you will compose your eulogy either from your own point of view or from the point of view of another character (Daisy, Jordan, Nick, Tom or a minor character in the novel). The persona you assume must be implicitly clear to your audience. Your eulogy must be at least two but no more than three minutes in length. You must employ precise references to the text in your speech, you must use vivid and specific details, and your speech must demonstrate a mastery of the novel. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">You will graded in the following content areas: <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">1.) Demonstrating a clear understanding of Jay Gatsby’s character—particularly his strengths—and being able to articulate that understanding in your voice or in an assumed persona.  <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">2.) Developing a strong hook that engages your audience and an ending that sums up your argument in a thoughtful fashion. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">3.) Using persuasive rhetorical language and devices to convey your ideas originally and forcefully. You are working to convince your audience that Gatsby is a man who deserves “honor.”  <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">4.) Employing “show not tell” strategies in a creative and compelling fashion. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">You will also be graded for delivery. Please refer to the rubric for performance-based assessment on the reverse of this essay. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">This assessment was adapted from: <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">Clark, Tim. “A Eulogy for Jay Gatsby” //High School Bits//. []. Accessed 9/18/12. //The Great Gatsby//: Short Assessment #3

In a one page typed essay, please respond to the following:

As Nick sits in Tom Buchanan’s love shack in Chapter Two, he states:

“I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the Park through the soft twilight, but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild, strident argument which pulled me back, as with ropes, into my chair. Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life” (35).

Find another passage in the first three chapters that shows Nick as being both “within and without,” and show how Nick’s ambivalence towards the values he encounters in the novel helps to express a central theme of the novel.

This is a response essay, meaning that you will draft and revise in 45 minutes. You should not exceed one page.

You will be graded on your ability to use textual evidence effectively and to organize your response around a central assertion.

This essay is due in class on Monday, 9/10/12. Assessment #2: “The Swimmer”

For your essay on “The Swimmer,” you must choose ONE literary device or element from the story and devise an argument that explains both how that element is used and why that element is used. You may choose from any of the following elements:

- Point of view - Diction (choose one word or one “type” of word to explore). - Symbolism (choose one symbol to explore) - Characterization - Setting - Tone - Chronology - Direct Speech/Dialogue - Motif (an element of the text that recurs).

Your essay should be typed and double spaced (proper formatting), and it should be at least two but not more than three pages in length.

YOU MAY NOT DISCUSS ANY ELEMENT OF THE STORY THAT WE DISCUSS IN CLASS.

You will be graded on your ability to do the following: - Devise an argumentative and falsifiable thesis statement that draws a connection between structure and theme. - Allow that thesis statement to serve as central idea of the essay. - Construct paragraph assertions that are argumentative and connected to the thesis. - Use direct textual evidence and show how that evidence supports your assertion. - Show a sophisticated understanding of one THEME related to the story.

You must avoid the following: - Do not use the first person. - Do not summarize the plot at any point. - Do not use quotations without explaining their significance.

A draft of this essay is due Wednesday, August 29th. The final draft of this essay is due Thursday, August 30th.

Mr. Freeman English 11

Assessment #1: Personal Essay

In an essay of approximately two pages (typed, double spaced, standard 12 pt. font and 1 inch margins), write a personal narrative about an object of personal significance to you. Your essay should aim to do the following:

- It should present a narrative—a story—that shows why the object is important to you. You should not tell the audience why that object is important. Focus on illustrating an idea through example. - It should be organized around a controlling idea, though the thesis (why the object is important to you) must be IMPLICIT. - It should describe the object using vivid, descriptive, and precise language. - It should engage the reader with an effective HOOK. - It should be well written. - It should be enjoyable to read (meaning that you should enjoy writing it!).

A draft of this essay is due in class on Thursday, August 16th. A revised draft of this essay is due in class on Friday, August 17th.