Exploration of the Trojan War

1. Where did the Trojan War take place? Find a map of it. What are the modern names of the countries that were involved?

2. If you had to get there from "your country," using ancient technologies, how would you have to do it?

3. Create a map of your journey, and write a short description of how you would have to journey to get there.

Welcome to Spring 09, Cycle 5

GRAMMAR AND SPELLING
Last cycle we focused on research and presentation. The focus of this cycle will be reading, interpretation and writing skills.

When entering college, students need to have the reading and writing skills that will ensure success in their classes. By understanding and applying grammar and spelling rules and developing the level of their overall writing, students will find themselves equal to the task.

In order to familiarize yourself with basic, essential grammar rules, access Camilla's Rules of Comma Usage, Camilla's Rules of Apostrophe Usage, and Camilla's Grammar and Spelling Rules. When you proof-read your work, be sure to check it against these rules. Although initially I will review these corrections with you in your papers, as time goes on you will be responsible for correcting the work yourself. I will simply write "commas," or "apostrophes," or "spelling" at the top of the paper, and you will look for the errors and correct them, yourself. This mimics the process needed when writing a paper for college. Be careful not to turn in something that you have not proof-read. You can frequently correct your own mistakes, thus saving the discomfort of presenting a paper that misrepresents your writing level.

Access Tupac Shakur's "Dear Mama" Lyrics at this web site. Copy and paste the lyrics into Word.

Assignment: Without changing the actual words and leaving the slang as artistic license, can you correct the punctuation and spelling? Do so. Put your name at the top and put your work into your folder.

Assessment Criteria

In order to pass this class, you must have the completed the following:

In Your Folder
1. Your "Existential Questions" essay
2. Your 2 research articles for each myth, with the URLs on each
3. Your write up of the research, stated in your own words in the form of a story, written neatly.

In My Flash Drive
4. Your PowerPoint presentation, but you do not have to print it out. It must be saved to my Flash Drive.

Presented to the Class
5. In addition, you must have done your presentation, and been assessed by your peers.

Locate your country in relation to the world

Get this worksheet. Answer the questions.

Creation Myth Presentations

Are you prepared for your presentation? Make sure you have the following:

1) At least two sources for your creation myths in your folder, with the URLs clearly visible on each

2) Your write-up of the creation myth in your own words, legibly hand-written

3) Practice reading your creation myth story aloud, including pronouncing the often unfamiliar names of ancient Gods and places.

4) Your PowerPoint presentation, consisting of step-by-step illustrations to your story. Your PowerPoint presentation must start with a slide of the country or region of origin of your creation myth.

Be prepared to present sometime on or after Wednesday, March 11th, 2009.

Telling Your Creation Myth Story

Assignment: Choose an area of the world that you would like to investigate. Confirm your choice with Camilla. Now investigate the following: What ancient cultures inhabited that geographic area? Each ancient culture has a creation myth. What is the creation myth of the culture and geographic area that you have chosen? Go online and find the myth of how the world was created, and the myth of how mankind was created, from that specific culture.

Once you have found your creation myth, make sure it is from a reliable source. To do that, you should have at least TWO sources. One may be written more simply than the other, but you should know who the organization is behind both texts. Print out a copy of each, making sure the URL is listed on each print-out. Remember, you can find the organization information by going to an "About" link, or going to the root directory.

Then:
1) Read the materials you have gathered
2) Familiarize yourself with the story
3) Write down the story in your own words, without copying exact phrases from your sources. [Hint: You may want to frame your retelling as if you were telling the story to children -- like you would tell a fairy tale.]
4) Plan your presentation. You will read out your version of the story, illustrating it with pictures displayed in PowerPoint.
5) Find pictures to illustrate your story online. They can be from anywhere, but must appropriately illustrate your story. Every presentation must begin with a picture of the country in which the myth originates.

The Myth of Creation in Norse Mythology

In Norse Mythology, there are nine worlds, inhabited by elves, trolls, giants, gods and men. An ice giant and a cow bring life into being. The ice giant feeds on the cow's milk and brings forth gods. The Aesir Gods gain ascendency against their brother jotuns (or giants). The chief of the Aesir gods is Odin, the one-eyed god. The Aesir gods make men, and men populate the earth.

WELCOME TO THE SPRING 2009 SEMESTER, Cycle 1

BASELINE WRITING SAMPLE: EXPLORE OPINION, GIVE EVIDENCE

In our first class we discussed the fact that ancient cultures have many different explanations for how humans came to exist. Today's explanations include God, evolution, and random chance. What is your personal opinion on the topic?


Existential Questions Essay:
Answer these philosophical questions: In your opinion,

1) How did we human beings come to exist?

2) Why are we here? Do we have a purpose? If so, what is it?

Write a 2 page hand-written essay answering these questions. Support your essay with evidence from your own life experience.

Editing Your Story

Each student should be prepared to have their story looked at by the entire class. We will be correcting for grammar, spelling and punctuation. We will also check to see if the writer's style and use of language is consistent with the story's historical setting. For each critique, notes will be taken. Students are responsible for having those notes, and applying what they have learned to their own stories.

Notes from Class So Far (These grammar, spelling and punctuation rules have also been articulated in my handouts, clickable from this blog)

1) When connecting two sentences, use a comma before the connecting word.

2) If there's no connecting word, use a period and start a new sentence.

3) Proof read!

4) Names are always capitalized.

5) Surround dependent clauses with commas.

6) Use words and expressions that fit the time period (era).

7) Use quotation marks at the beginning and end of someone speaking.

Welcome to Cycle 3

It's now time to finish the rest of your story. For those of you who attended Cycle 2, the final first draft of your story must be 10 typed pages. If you did NOT attend Cycle 2, your final first draft must be 5 typed pages. All stories must be fictional, but based on historical fact, and historically accurate.

Writing the Short Story

Write a story involving the neighborhood that you have researched. The story should be entirely fictional, but must include historical facts from your research, and/or take place at another point in history in that neighborhood. The story must be 10 - 20 hand-written pages long. Typed, your story will be at least 10 pages, with 1.5 line spacing and 12 point Arial font.

By December 5th, you must have at least 7 hand written or 5 typed pages. We will be going over your stories for grammar, punctuation and spelling on an ongoing basis. Your final draft of those pages of must be proof-read and corrected by you for comma, apostrophe and spelling errors, using the handouts you have received in this class.

"My New York" Project

The class began with an essay entitled, "My New York." It was inspired by essays in the New York Times. The Times interviewed ten 17-year-olds from various neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs of New York City, asking them to describe their experiences as New Yorkers.
Read them here:

My So-Called Gossipy Life

'If I'm Not Busy, I Complain That I'm Bored, but When I Am Busy, It's Like, Oh, My God.'

'I Was the Most Athletic Girl, the Best Girl Playing Sports.'

ALL DRESSED UP
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

'My Family Has High Hopes for Me Because They Know I'm Going to Do Great Things.'

PIN MONEY
Angst Amid the Artichokes

'You Don't Have to Do Bad Things to Be in a Gang. You Don't Have to Do Anything You Don't Want to Do.'

SOPHISTICATED LADIES
Girls, Mean and Otherwise

UP AND ABOUT
University Blues

'A Lot of Girls Like Me Because I'm Original and Enthusiastic and Also Because I Like to Play the Piano.'

'We're Always Talking About How We All Want to Have Boyfriends, and How We Have So Much Love to Give but No One to Give It To.'

THE HANG
The Island of Black Jeans

'My Parents Had This Big Argument Over Whose Fault It Was, Why I Chose to Be This Way.'

'Our Year Is the Most Competitive Year in the History of College Applications. Or Something Like That.'

'Some People Are Like, "Why Are You All Dressed Up in School?" but People Judge You by the Way You Take Care of Yourself.'

'I Had to Work, Because if I Didn't, There Wouldn't Be Food on the Plate.'

Where They Were, on That Day

ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER:
When He Was Seventeen
By CHRISTOPHER SORRENTINO

ASSIGNMENTS:
1) Write your own "My New York" story. Write about any neighborhood within the five boroughs of New York City, and your relationship to that neighborhood. Remember, New York City includes the "Other Islands," such as Roosevelt Island, Riker's Island, Wards and Randall's Island, Ellis Island, Governor's Island, and many others. You may write about those as well, if you so choose. You may write about where you live, or a place where you love to hang out. Your essay should be approximately two typed pages (Times New Roman 12 point font, 1.5 line spacing).

2) Research the neighborhood: What was going on in the neighborhood 200 years ago? 150 years ago? 100 years ago? 75 years ago? 50 years ago? 40 years ago? 20 years ago? What is it like now? Using Google, find information about your neighborhood's history. Remember to check the URL (web address) of the sites you go to for the validity of their information by going to the "about us," or root directory pages. Be sure to use more than one source for your research material. Print out your research materials and put them in your folder.

3) Read your materials. Highlight relevant information that focuses on your specific neighborhood.

4) Write up your research. On lined paper, describe the history of your neighborhood as you understand it. Make sure your write-up is written IN YOUR OWN WORDS. Do not plagarize. That means do not copy the words right out of the sources that you have used. Make sure to cite your sources, listing the title of the website and the URL, as you describe the information you have gathered. All research materials from the internet must be printed out, and must be in your folder when you hand in your research write-up.

5) Create a PowerPoint presentation illustrating your research. Use Google Image Search to find your pictures. Remember to VARY YOUR SEARCH TERMS in order to find pictures that illustrate the history of your chosen neighborhood. The PowerPoint presentation will be displayed behind you as you give your presentation on the history of your neighborhood. You should not include all the text from your write-up. Use words sparingly, and historical images generously.

6) Prepare the spoken part of your presentation. Plan out what you are going to say, and how you're going to say it. You may use note cards or notes from your write-up during the presentation. The audience of your fellow students will assess your presentation according to the Presentation Assessment Rubric handed out in class.