Category: Writing

Research the hurricane that hit West Palm Beach in 1928. How were white and black victims treated in the hurricane’s aftermath? What has been done since then to memorialize the black victims of the hurricane? Compare the situation in 1928 to Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Sandy. Is there still inequality in the way that people of different socioeconomic or racial groups are treated in the aftermath of a storm?
Source: Instructors’s Guide:
Their Eyes Were Watching God

“Nonconformist ” by Angela Shelf Medearis
– What is the main mood/emotion of the poem “Nonconformist”? Quote the line which best supports your choice.
– Briefly explain the main ideas in the poem “Nonconformist”
– Quote the line of the poem “Nonconformist” you feel is the strongest example of imagery, and explain which sense it appeals to most.
– How many Stanzas is the poem “Nonconformist”?
– Identify and quote 2 figures of speech/ sound devices from the poem “Nonconformist”.
– How does the poem “Nonconformist” connect with your personal life? Have you, or anyone you know, had a similar experience or feeling? If not, use your imagination to make a fictional experience.
– Make a one sentence theme statement to summarize the poem “Nonconformist”.

Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.
This passage is excerpted from a short story published in 2002.
At the edge of our reservation settlement there lived an old man whose arm was twisted up winglike along his side, and who was for that reason named for a butterfly—Shamengwa. Other than his arm, he was an extremely well-made person. Anyone could see that he had been handsome, and he still cut a graceful figure, slim and of medium height. His head was covered with a startling thick mane of white hair, which he was proud of. Every few weeks, he had it carefully trimmed and styled by his daughter, Geraldine, who traveled in from the bush just to do it.
Shamengwa was a man of refinement, who prepared himself carefully to meet life every day. In the Ojibwa language that is spoken on our reservation,
owehzhee
is the way men get themselves up—pluck stray hairs, brush each tooth, make a precise part in their hair, and, these days, press a sharp crease down the front of their blue jeans—in order to show that, although the government has tried in every way possible to destroy their manhood, they are undefeatable.
Owehzhee
. We still look good and we know it. The old man was never seen in disarray, and yet there was more to it.
He played the fiddle. How he played the fiddle! Although his arm was so twisted and disfigured that his shirts had to be carefully altered and pinned to accommodate the gnarled shape, he had agility in that arm, even strength. Ever since he was very young, Shamengwa had, with the aid of a white silk scarf, tied his elbow into a position that allowed the elegant hand and fingers at the end of the damaged arm full play across the fiddle’s strings. With his other hand, he drew the bow. When I try to explain the sound he made, I come to some trouble with words. Inside became outside when Shamengwa played music. Yet inside to outside does not half sum it up. The music was more than music—at least, more than what we are used to hearing. The sound connected instantly with something deep and joyous. Those powerful moments of true knowledge which we paper over with daily life. The music tapped our terrors, too. Things we’d lived through and wanted never to repeat. Shredded imaginings, unadmitted longings, fear, and also surprising pleasures. We can’t live at that pitch. But every so often something shatters like ice, and we fall into the river of our own existence. We are aware. This realization was in his music somehow, or in the way Shamengwa played it.
Thus Shamengwa wasn’t wanted at every party. The wild joy his jigs and reels brought forth might just as easily send people crashing onto the rocks of their roughest memories and they’d end up stunned and addled or crying in their beer. So it is. People’s emotions often turn on them. Geraldine, a dedicated, headstrong woman who six years back had borne a baby, dumped its father, and earned a degree in education, sometimes drove Shamengwa to fiddling contests, where he could perform in more of a concert setting. He even won awards, prizes of the cheap sort given at local musical contests—engraved plaques and small tin cups set on plastic pedestals. These he placed on a triangular scrap of shelf high in one corner of his house. The awards were never dusted, and sometimes, when his grandchild asked him to take them down for her to play with, they came apart. Shamengwa didn’t care. He was, however, fanatical about his violin.
He treated this instrument with the reverence we accord our drums, which are considered living beings and require from us food, water, shelter, and love. He fussed over it, stroked it clean with a soft cotton handkerchief, laid it carefully away in the cupboard every night in a leather case that he kept as well polished as his shoes.
“Shamengwa,” originally published in the NEW YORKER, by Louise Erdrich. Copyright © 2009 by Louise Erdrich, used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
Which of the following best characterizes the passage as a whole?
A) retelling of the events leading to a character’s downfall
B) description of an event that allows for commentary on a group of people
C)discussion of a character that provides insights into a defined community
D) collection of discrete incidents that illustrate a historic event
E) presentation of an individual who conforms to a common stereotype

In the tempest how might Prospero’s famous line “we are such stuff as dreams are made on” apply to his own magical powers? Why do you suppose some critics have said that Prospero’s words are Shakespeare’s own “farewell” to his audience?
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/tempest/full.html

Read
Othello
– Act III and answer the following:
Link to the reading:
https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/othello/summary/act-3-scene-1
What does Michael Cassio say about Iago, after Iago offers to help him in Act III, Scene 1? (Cassio says this after Iago leaves). What is ironic about Cassio’s statement?
Identify the lines in Act III Scene 3 where you think Othello first believes Iago’s words to be true. Write out the lines, not just the line numbers.
When Iago says, “Trifles light as air / Are to the jealous confirmations strong / As proofs of holy writ” (3.3.370-2), to what “trifle” does he refer, specifically?
From Act III, Scenes 3 or 4, identify one moment in the text where Othello intentionally uses the stereotypes against Moors to describe himself. (Recall stereotypes against Moors from Act I; consult our notes for guidance) Write out the line(s) and identify them with a citation (Act #, Scene#, line #).
What does Emilia mean when she says:
“‘Tis not a year or two shows us a man. / They are all but stomachs, and we all but food; / They eat us hungerly, and when they are full, / They belch us.” (3.4.120-3).

1. Choose a recent happening or any pressing issue in the school or community and make a feature article about it. Make sure to use primary sources in writing your article. You may conduct interviews with involved parties, eyewitnesses/participants, and gather relevant official documents. 2. Research on the proliferation of fake news? Cite 3 causes and propose a particular solution to these causes. In particular, read on the following articles accessed from these websites: a. What is fake news? How to spot it and what you can do to stop it and what you can do to stop it” by Elle Hunt (201. The Guardian) https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/18/what-is-fake-news-pizzagate b. “Fake news” by Ana Marie Pamintuan (2017, The Philippine Star) http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2017/06/2/1713616/fakenews

THINGS FALL APART NOVEL
how does the father-son relationship throughout three generations shape personalities of Okonkwo and Nwoye? the characteristics and the role their fathers play in making them who they are.
“conflicts within the characters are driving forces for actions that creates the plot of the story’, discuss the statement.

Fahrenheit 451 Novel by Ray Bradbury
People are prevented from deep, meaningful thoughts or relationships in Bradbury’s novel.   List specific details about various characters in Fahrenheit 451 that stand as signs that people are unhappy or dissatisfied with their vapid world.  How do those signs express unhappiness and dissatisfaction?

Read the short play
Trifles
below and respond to the questions 1 – 12.
TRIFLES
By Susan Glaspell
CHARACTERS
George Henderson, county attorney
Henry Peters, sheriff
Lewis Hale, a neighboring farmer
Mrs. Peters
Mrs. Hale
SCENE
1) At the time this play was written, kitchens were generally closely associated with women. What does the condition of this kitchen imply about the condition of John Wright’s wife?
The kitchen in the now abandoned farmhouse of John Wright, a gloomy kitchen, and left without having been put in order—the walls covered with a faded wall paper. Down right is a door leading to the parlor. On the right wall above the door is a built-in kitchen cupboard with shelves in the upper portion and drawers below. In the rear wall at right, up two steps is a door opening onto stairs leading to the second floor. In the rear wall at left is a door to the shed and from there to the outside. Between these two doors is an old-fashioned black iron stove. Running along the left wall from the shed door is an old iron sink and sink shelf, in which is set a hand pump. Downstage of the sink is an uncurtained window. Near the window is an old wooden rocker. Center stage is an unpainted wooden kitchen table with straight chairs on either side. There is a small chair down right. Unwashed pans under the sink, a loaf of bread outside the bread-box, a dish towel on the table—other signs of incompleted work.
At the rear the shed door opens and the Sheriff comes in followed by the County Attorney and Hale. The Sheriff and Hale are men in middle life, the County Attorney is a young man; all are much bundled up and go at once to the stove. They are followed by the two women—the Sheriff’s wife, Mrs. Peters, first: she is a slight wiry woman, a thin nervous face. Mrs. Hale is larger and would ordinarily be called more comfortable looking, but she is disturbed now and looks fearfully about as she enters. The women have come in slowly, and stand close together near the door.
COUNTY ATTORNEY
(at stove rubbing his hands)
: This feels good. Come up to the fire, ladies.
MRS. PETERS
(after taking a step forward)
: I’m not—cold.
SHERIFF
(unbuttoning his overcoat and stepping away from the stove as if to mark the beginning of official business)
: Now, Mr. Hale, before we move things about, you explain to Mr. Henderson just what you saw when you came here yesterday morning.
COUNTY ATTORNEY
(crossing down to left of the table)
: By the way, has anything been moved? Are things just as you left them yesterday?
SHERIFF
(looking about)
: It’s just about the same. When it dropped below zero last night I thought I’d better send Frank out this morning to make a fire for us—
(sits right of center table)
no use getting pneumonia with a big case on, but I told him not to touch anything except the stove—and you know Frank.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: Somebody should have been left here yesterday.
SHERIFF: Oh—yesterday. When I had to send Frank to Morris Center for that man who went crazy—I want you to know I had my hands full yesterday. I knew you could get back from Omaha by today and as long as I went over everything here myself—
COUNTY ATTORNEY: Well, Mr. Hale, tell just what happened when you came here yesterday morning.
HALE
(crossing down to above table)
: Harry and I had started to town with a load of potatoes. We came along the road from my place and as I got here I said, “I’m going to see if I can’t get John Wright to go in with me on a party telephone.” I spoke to Wright about it once before and he put me off, saying folks talked too much anyway, and all he asked was peace and quiet—I guess you know about how much he talked himself; but I thought maybe if I went to the house and talked about it before his wife, though I said to Harry that I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John—
COUNTY ATTORNEY: Let’s talk about that later, Mr. Hale. I do want to talk about that, but tell now just what happened when you got to the house.
HALE: I didn’t hear or see anything; I knocked at the door, and still it was all quiet inside. I knew they must be up, it was past eight o’clock. So I knocked again, and I thought I heard somebody say, “Come in.” I wasn’t sure, I’m not sure yet, but I opened the door—this door
(indicating the door by which the two women are still standing)
and there in that rocker—
(pointing to it)
sat Mrs. Wright.
(They all look at the rocker down left.)
COUNTY ATTORNEY: What—was she doing?
HALE: She was rockin’ back and forth. She had her apron in her hand and was kind of—pleating it.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: And how did she—look?
HALE: Well, she looked queer.
COUNTY ATTORNEY: How do you mean—queer?
HALE: Well, as if she didn’t know what she was going to do next. And kind of done up.
COUNTY ATTORNEY
(takes out notebook and pencil and sits left of center table)
: How did she seem to feel about your coming?
HALE: Why, I don’t think she minded—one way or other. She didn’t pay much attention. I said, “How do, Mrs. Wright, it’s cold, ain’t it?” And she said, “Is it?”—and went on kind of pleating at her apron. Well, I was surprised; she didn’t ask me to come up to the stove, or to set down, but just sat there, not even looking at me, so I said, “I want to see John.” And then she—laughed. I guess you would call it a laugh. I thought of Harry and the team outside, so I said a little sharp: “Can’t I see John?” “No,” she says, kind o’ dull like. “Ain’t he home

43- A small group of entering second-grade students demonstrates mastery of closed-syllable words with all five short vowels in their reading and writing, including in CCVC and CVCC words, but they have not yet mastered long-vowel-pattern words. Following the continuum of phonics instruction prescribed in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR), which of the following phonics skills should the teacher plan to teach next to the students?
A- decoding and spelling words with the silent-e pattern for all five vowels.
C- decoding words with silent consonants, such as knot and gnat.
D- applying knowledge of syllable division patterns, such as VC/CV, V/CV, and VC/CCV, to decode two- and three-syllable words