Sophs---Sound Your Barbaric Yawp! (extra credit)

How's this for a good deal?

For EXTRA CREDIT, write a "song of yourself" in the style of Walt Whitman. This is a fourth quarter assignment, and it must be posted before Wednesday night, 9:59 p.m. It will get you four extra credit points.

That's right! You get EXTRA CREDIT for bragging about yourself.
It's just this easy.

Write in first person.
Write in free verse.
Use eclectic (choosing the best from a variety of sources) words and phrases (slang, common language, foreign expressions if you dare).
Use parallel structure and repetition.
Make lists to create a rhythm (since Whitman doesn't use meter)


These are all distinctive elements of a Whitman poem.

MINIMUM OF 30 EXTENDED LINES or 200 words.

Why limit yourself? I could go on forever about myself!

The first four posts are pretty good examples from last year's sophomores.

SOPH EXTRA CREDIT-The Story of the Bad Little Boy

Read the entry and complete the assignment that follows for four points extra credit.

Follow this link to read The Story of the Bad Little Boy, a Mark Twain parody of a Sunday school story.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Sunday School stories were moral tales written for the little boys and girls who learned the difference between right and wrong at their local churches in Sunday School.

These stories always ended with a good dose of poetic justice. The good boys and girls were rewarded; the not-so-good boys and girls were summarily punished, learned the error of their ways, and turned out to be model boys and girls themselves.

Mark Twain pokes fun at these stories in The Story of the Bad Little Boy.

Assignment

For extra credit, answer these questions:

1. Define a parody. How is The Story of the Bad Little Boy a parody of the stories in Sunday School books.

2. What details contribute to the humor of The Story of the Bad Little Boy?

3. What details contribute to the serious theme of The Story of the Bad Little Boy?

4. What storytelling "tricks" does Twain use to make the story entertaining, if not humorous?

Research Paper Help--The Owl and dianahacker.com

The University of Purdue Online Writing Lab, also known as the Owl, is one of the best college on line sites of its type in the country.

Here is a link to the site, which offers, among MANY other things, a detailed and step-by-step approach to the entire research paper process. Once there, the links in the upper left hand corner will be most useful. Click on the link for grades 7-12 instructors and students (there's plenty of good stuff here) Then scroll down to Different Kinds of Essay Genres and click on writing a research paper.

OK, if you're ONLY interested in research paper help, just click on the final link. But it might be useful and interesting to familiarize yourself with the entire site, if not for this assignment, but for later in your education (like college) where you'll be asked to write many papers.

Would you like to read a good 6-8 page research paper? Then click on this sample MLA paper from dianahacker.com. It includes a works cited page, too.

Blue Class--New England Test Review

Blue class, post your questions and answers here before Thursday night at 9 p.m.

Of course, indicate the initials of those people in your group.

Green Class--New England Test Review

Green class, post your questions and answers here before Thursday night at 9 p.m.

Of course, indicate the initials of those people in your group.

Yellow Class--New England test review

Yellow class, post your questions and answers here before Thursday night at 9 p.m.

Of course, indicate the initials of those people in your group.