Monday, Nov. 2: Fecund Final Thoughts

* Open

• Prayer 
• Wondrous Words:
• Review Assignment: Due Block Day
•  Week 12: Incorporate quotations into your sentences.
  fecund
  fortuitous
  malady
  nuance
  scintillate

• Per. 6-7: I need to check your 20 outside words
• Fecund (adj.): fertile [pronounced fee-kuhnd OR fek-uhnd]

• Latin: fecundus "fruitful, fertile, productive; rich, abundant,
• from fe-kwondo-, fe- "to suck, suckle," also "produce, yield" 
• Melanie Almeder writes in her "Country Love Song" of the "greened fields [that are] slathered, fecund....Then I dream a little dream of you/ and me."  The speaker envisions love unfolding in seasons and landscapes establishing the "country" nature of her sensual affections. 

• Fortuitous: work on your own

* Chaucer

• Memorization
• Final Thoughts
• Retraction
• Fun

HW: Read and annotate this essay analysis overview. This will also help you write or edit your analysis paragraphs properly. 

Here's an interesting passage from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad:

• "She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul" (3.14).

Soccer Tryouts, Anyone?

Sometimes, the World Makes Me Sad

China: One Child Policy Becomes Two (see the article)

But you're still willing to sterilize women and attack them when pregnant: that's sick and evil.

The larger thought, probably, is the way a society seeks to prosper over the death of its children, and in that regard America is little better.

Lord, have mercy; send us better wisdom than we've concocted with our own imaginations, our governments, our technologies...send us Your Wisdom.  

Tomorrow Morning During Flex: Bible Study

Hi,

Tomorrow we begin our book, The Seven, tied to our Revelation study.  Bring your Bible, and we can share books if we don't have enough.  We can always order more for next week. 

See you during Flex.

Enjoy,

Mr. S

Chaucer's Retraction

Here the maker of this book takes his leave

Now I pray to all who hear or read this little treatise, that if there is anything in it that they like, they thank our Lord Jesus Christ for it, from whom proceeds all wisdom and goodness. And if there is anything that displeases them, I pray also that they ascribe it to the fault of my ignorance and not to my will, which would readily have spoken better if I had the knowledge. For our book says, "All that is written is written for our doctrine," and that is my intention. Therefore I beseech you, for the mercy of God, that you pray for me that Christ have mercy on me and forgive my sins, especially my translations and compositions of worldly vanities, which I revoke in my retractions: such as the book of Troilus and Criseyde, and the book of The House of Fame, the book of The Legend of Good Women, The Book of the Duchess, the book of Saint Valentine's day of The Parliament of Fowls, The Canterbury Tales (those that tend toward sin), the book of the Lion, and many another book, if they were in my remembrance, and many a song and many a lecherous lay; that Christ for his great mercy forgive my sins. But for the translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy and other books of saints' legends, homilies, moralities, and devotions, I thank our Lord Jesus Christ and his blessed Mother, and all the saints of heaven, beseeching them that they from henceforth unto my life's end send me grace to lament my sins, and to meditate upon the salvation of my soul, and grant me the grace of true contrition, confession, and satisfaction for sins in this present life,  through the benign grace of him who is king of kings and priest over all priests, who bought us with the precious blood of his heart; so that I may be one of those at the day of judgment that shall be saved. Qui cum Patre et Spiritu Sancto vivit et regnat Deus per omnia secula. Amen.

Here ends the book of The Canterbury Tales,
compiled by Geoffrey Chaucer,
on whose soul may Jesus Christ have mercy.
Amen.

Block Day, Week 11

* Open

• Prayer 

• Quiz

* Vocabulary

• derisive (adj.): expressing contempt or ridicule
•  Latin: deridere "ridiculous"
• The derisive remarks were heard every day; fingernail length mockery was an everyday event in Tae Kwon Do.  

• effeminate (adj.): (of a man) having or showing characteristics regarded as typical of a woman; unmanly.
• Latin: ex "out of", femina "woman"
• While some men are naturally less assertive than others, a forced effeminate affectation in a man is ostentatious and displays internal confusion through an outward performance.
• ostentatious (adj.): characterized by vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress or attract notice.
• Latin ostentationem "showing, exhibition, vain display" 
• If a young man drove to school in a rhinestone-encrusted Mercedes featuring fluffy feathered headrests, it would be an ostentatious, effeminate display, worthy of derisive jeers...except on Pink Friday.  

* Note for Mrs. Price (optional; bring to Mr. Schwager by block next week)

• What do you enjoy most about MVC?

• What have you learned about the Lord at MVC?

* Review Journal Questions

HW: Outside Reading

• Next Week: read and annotate this essay analysis overview.   We will quiz on analysis writing next week. This will also help you write or edit your analysis paragraphs properly.

If a young man came to school in a rhinestone-encrusted Mercedes featuring fluffy feathered headrests..it would be an ostentatious, effeminate display, worthy of derisive jeers...even on Pink Friday. 

Mr. Schwager Not Available on Wednesday During School Hours

Dear students,

I've been asked to proctor the PSAT, so I cannot meet you tomorrow as I had hoped might be possible (unless you come right after school).

I will work to get your college essays scored by block day, though.

Enjoy your day off of regular school.

All the best,

Mr. S

Satire, Chaucerian Style!

Is it possible for farts and faith and Colbert and Chesterton to go together?  Check out this interesting book review.

Tuesday, 10/26/15: Corpus Corpses vs. Corpus Christi

* Open

• Corporeal (adj.): having a body; tangible
• Latin: corporeus ‘bodily, physical,’ from corpus‘body.’
• If you are from Corpus Christi, Texas, you might try to (not try and) find the metaphorical body of Christ in a local church.  But His literal, corporeal body? That's beyond the wee wisdom of Mr. Schwager; you'll have to study the Bible. 

* Review
 
* Turnitin.com goodness:

• per. 1: 11025230
• per. 3: 11025852
• per. 4:  11025881
• per. 6:  11025865
• per. 7:  11025874
• password for all classes: mvcs

* Work in Class


HW:

• Chaucer Journal 1-8 (no grace period)
• 20 Vocabulary Words of Your Own from Your Reading
• Analysis Printed and Sent to Turnitin.com
• Do you have three vocabulary words included from your personal list?  Add them today. 
• If you wish, you may write a third college essay for part 3 (and only part 3) of your three part analysis assignment. 
• Grace period: College pressed, stressed students: I will not count this three-part assignment late until after your block day next week.  

 


Does our hospitality take life?

Or give it...

Memorization from The Canterbury Tales: The Prologue, by Geoffrey Chaucer

 So, after listening to this rap version, we wondered if we might make a project of it.  Yes, you may; no, you do not need to. 

If not, you'll simply stand and recite in class.  You will get one point for each line that is correct.  You do not have to pronounce it the same way we do in class, but you must try.  You will get up to 12 points for your lines and up to 8 points for your convincing delivery, posture, clear pronunciation, and eye-contact (20 points possible).  You will not lose points related in any way to accent.

Here are the parameters, should you decide to make it a project: 

• This must a performance in class or on video. 
• This must be performed without visual reading aids for the performers (such as cards you're reading). 
• Number of persons allowed per group: 1-7
• All persons in your group must recite the entire passage below, whether together or otherwise, though not all students need to be in every frame of every shot.  
• Due date: Monday, Nov. 16th
• You, also will receive up to 12 points for your lines and up to 8 points for excellent and/or entertaining delivery (20 points possible).

 Middle English
(Click HERE for audio)

            Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
            The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
            And bathed every veyne in swich licour
            Of which vertu engendred is the flour,
5         Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
            Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
            The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
            Hath in the Ram his half cours y-ronne,
            And smale foweles maken melodye
10         That slepen al the nyght with open eye,
            So priketh hem Nature in hir corages,
            Than longen folk to goon on pilgrymages, 


           

 Modern Translation

           When in April the sweet showers fall
            And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all
            The veins are bathed in liquor of such power
            As brings about the engendering of the flower,
5         When also Zephyrus with his sweet breath
            Exhales an air in every grove and heath
            Upon the tender shoots, and the young sun
            His half-course in the sign of the Ram has run,
            And the small fowl are making melody
10         That sleep away the night with open eye
            (So nature pricks them and their heart engages)
            Then people long to go on pilgrimages

Juxtaposing Joy and Madonna

Here are a couple (not a few) interesting articles of recent note:

• "You're Not Chesterton, and God's Cool With That" (G. K. C.)
• "Madonna: Stripper Poles Don't Make You Interesting" (Juxtaposition and Deconstructionist Criticism) 

Game On, Chaucer!

* Open

• Austere (adj.): severe in manner or appearance; strict; without ornament; rough
• Etymology: Greek: austeros "bitter, harsh," especially "making the tongue dry" (originally used of fruits, wines)
• The austere period preceded the decadence of Rome, and with the decadence came the eventual disintegration. 
• Now please compose your own sentence with 
• the word
• a usage problem word (see the right side of the blog)
• and a comma, semicolon, or colon 

• By the end of this week, you should have 20 words (with a definition and example sentence) from your own reading. 

• Recitation

*  Now read and respond to "The Pardoner's Tale" in the Chaucer guide.

HW: Reading and Journal

Out of Class Experience: Quarter 2

Unfortunately, I missed that author event in Watsonville.  It was the NHS induction night, so it was not ideal anyway. 

However, here are two contest opportunities:

• Fiction, nonfiction, poetry: Bennington College Contest
• Deadline: November 1
• Essay: American Foreign Service Essay Contest
• Deadline: March 1

If you win or place in a challenging contest, I will give you extra credit (in addition to the out of class assignment fulfillment).

 

Bible Study: Revelation

Please let Ryan De Los Santos (ryandelossantos@students.mvcs.org) know if you'd like to join our Friday Flex Bible study in the book of Revelation using pastor Rene Schlaepfer's book The Seven as our guide.  He will bring a copy for you next week.

Thank you!

Mr. S

Week 10 Notes:

• Author: John the Apostle
  Location: Patmos (island exile/prison)
  Date: A.D. 70-95
  Controversial Interpretations, Historically
  Title: Koine Greek: ἀποκάλυψις apokalypsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation" of Jesus.
  The only book that promises a blessing when you study it, so join us!

 

Savvy Sav in the Sentinel

Block Day, Week 10: Gawain to Chaucer

* Open

• Inscrutable (adj.): unfathomable; mysterious; impossible to understand
• Latin: in "not, opposite of" + scrutari "examine" 
• The inscrutable nature of Donald Trump's success will eventually be uncovered: he's using mind control. 
• Wizened (adj.): withered; wrinkled; dried up (esp. due to age)
• Anglo Saxon: wesanen "to dry up, shrivel, wither"
• The carcass of the doe showed explicit proof of the hunter's sad mistake: bullet holes in the wizened hide told the tale.

* Quiz

* Finish Video

* Chaucer

HW: Chaucer  (the Prologue Reading and Journal Questions)

Can You See Back to Your Future?

Wednesday, 10/21: Sir Gawain Rides On

Open

•  Survey Results: 71+% prefer the blog, so that's what I'll do (my apologies for assuming otherwise).  50% could use another college essay, so I'll make a homework assignment in the future with essay option. 

• exonerate (verb):  absolve (someone) from blame for a fault or wrongdoing, especially after due consideration of the case; acquit

Etymology: from Latin: from ex- "off" + onus "burden"

Example: Between you and me, I think a criminal was just exonerated: he had the most evidence among the runners linking him to the heinous jay-walking incident, yet he sauntered away without so much as a reprimand!

Now create your own sentence using the following:

1. A semicolon or colon
2. Exonerate
3. A red word from our usage list 

* Video

• Link to Watch More if Your Wish

* Sir Gawain Note Card 

 
HW: Finish Your Sir Gawain Note Card; Review for Your Quiz (thesis, semicolon, colon, Sir Gawain)

Tuesday, 10/20/15

• Senior Check In Survey
•  Din (noun): a loud, confused sound; a tumultuous clamor
• Old English dyne “to make noise" 

"Once by the Pacific" by Robert Frost

The shattered water made a misty din.
 Great waves looked over others coming in,
 And thought of doing something to the shore
 That water never did to land before.
 The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
 Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
 You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
 The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
 The cliff in being backed by continent;
 It looked as if a night of dark intent
 Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
 Someone had better be prepared for rage.
 There would be more than ocean-water broken
 Before God's last 'Put out the Light' was spoken. 

Now create a sentence that has a semicolon or 

colon and incorporates one red usage issue into 

each sentence.

•  More semicolon and colon rules to consider:
• Use a semicolon between items in a series containing internal punctuation.
• Use a colon after an independent clause to direct attention to a list, an appositive, or a quotation.
• Video
• If time: Review Assignment: Outside Reading: Beautiful, Good, and True
• Due Block Day Next Week (Oct. 29-30)
• Incorporate at least three of your personally chosen vocabulary words into your work.  Underline them when you use them.
• Printed, MLA format
• Requiescat in pace: Begin Writing
  

Monday, 10/19: Blazing a Brazen Path into Quarter 2, Kind Of

• Choose a New Seat
• Brazen (adj): impudent, shameless, boldfaced
             Etymology: Old English bræsen "of brass,"
  

  The brazen bat bit my face when I refused to accept its terms: become its slave or die!
• Grammar rules reminder:
• Use a semicolon between closely related independent clauses not joined with a coordinating conjunction.
• Use a semicolon between independent clauses linked with a transitional expression.

• Review the quarter and week
• Reminders
• Turn off notifications
• Turn off more notifications
• “Mr. Schwager, please play us a video.”  Little did Johnny knew what he had asked for, bru-ha-ha.  Go, go, gadget Gawain!
• Requiescat in pace:  Work on a Gawain Card (don’t forget the terms associated)
  
  

  

  The first serious barbecue pit: the brazen altar of the Old Testament.  It may not suit the vegetarian, but it's much to be preferred over the brazen bulls of the Roman times.

Out of Classroom Experience

You may handwrite this on paper or type it and print it. Turn it in to Mr. Schwager 1 week prior to the final week of the quarter.

Name:

Mr. Schwager

_______ English __________

Date:

Out of Classroom Experience

Please take your skills, dreams, interests, and passions out of our classroom and into the world at large.  You may hear a visiting author at a local bookstore, attend an evening literary poetry reading or lecture (such as the library offers), enter a contest, or submit work for publication (consider a local paper; send off poems to a magazine; finally publish that novel).  If you are uncertain whether your event qualifies for this assignment, please ask.

Answer each prompt below in three or more complete, grammatically correct sentences.

1.  Describe your experience and how it relates to our course.

2.  Tell me something interesting that you learned from this experience.  How might you use this experience to move forward in your own academic development?

Ronald Reagan Scholarship

Up to 10k per year: Click Here

Block Day: Thesis

* Open

• Grammar: Copy and Punctuate Psalm 23 (King James Version)
  
  The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want
  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters

* Vocabulary

nebulous (adj.): in the form of a cloud or haze; unclear; vague; ill-defined

from Latin nebulosus "cloudy, misty, foggy, full of vapor."

Example: Composing a thesis is an absolute mystery to me; sadly, this nebulous witchcraft is demanded of me weekly.

Example 2: In poems such as "Heritage" and "Atlantic City Waiter," Cullen reflects the urge to reclaim African arts—a phenomenon called "Negritude" that was one of the motifs of the Harlem Renaissance. The cornerstone of his aesthetic, however, was the call for black-American poets to work conservatively, as he did, within English conventions. In his 1927 foreword to Caroling Dusk, Cullen observed that "since theirs is ... the heritage of the English language, their work will not present any serious aberration from poetic tendencies of their times." Braving the wrath of less moderate peers, he further stated that "negro poets, dependent as they are on the English language, may have more to gain from the rich background of English and American poetry than from any nebulous atavistic yearnings toward an African inheritance."

And now, as the night was senescent

      And star-dials pointed to morn—

      As the star-dials hinted of morn—

At the end of our path a liquescent

      And nebulous lustre was born,

Out of which a miraculous crescent

      Arose with a duplicate horn—

Astarte's bediamonded crescent

      Distinct with its duplicate horn. 

--Edgar Allan Poe

* The Evil Thesis Challenge

* Check Focus for Any Issue

* Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Make a Study Card

• Don't forget symbols, numerology, juxtaposition, bob-and-wheel

* Add to your notes as we watch: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

HW: 

• Add two words to your vocabulary (as we have a shorter week):
  paradigm
  urbane
   Work On Your Gawain Study Card (due at the end of next week)

Tuesday, 10/13/15: Thesis, Thesis, On the Blog, Which Is Fairest of Them All?

* Open

• Collusion (noun): secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy, especially in order to cheat or deceive others.
• Latin: colludere: col/com- "together" + ludere "to play," from ludus "game"

• Example to copy: If you want to know about NATO acts of insidious, nefarious collusion, you need to talk to Mr. Eckert.

• Example to read: 
  In "Frost at Midnight” composed from the front room of the Lime Street cottage in the winter of 1798, Coleridge's isolation drives him to test the resources of nature conceived as a mediating agent. The poem dramatizes the poet's sense of vulnerability in the face of a threatening outside world. Part of this feeling must have come from the growing hostility of the community in which he was living. Fear of a French invasion was widespread, and the outsiders were suspected of democratic sympathies, even of collusion with the national enemy. Walking home from Bristol, Coleridge heard himself described as a “vile Jacobin villain.”
• Compose your sentence using a semicolon or colon.

* Thesis Reminders

* Thesis Practice

* Annotations

HW: Annotations

Another Out of Class Opportunity

The Quaker: Contest in Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction

Monday, 10/12/15: Week 9

* Open

• What does the following picture remind you of from medieval social orders? 

 

* Vocabulary

Week 9: Each sentence must have a semicolon or colon. Please label each sentence with the device incorporated.

• autumnal (adj.): characteristic of autumn; past initial maturity or near decline in one's life

•  Origin, uncertain; Latin could relate to Old Irish fogamar, literally "under-winter."

•   “No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face." -- John Donne
• The autumnal season draws on apace: apples and pumpkins and cinnamon I taste.   

Mezzo Cammin [Italian Half Journey]

 Half of my life is gone, and I have let
  The years slip from me and have not fulfilled
  The aspiration of my youth, to build
  Some tower of song with lofty parapet.
Not indolence, nor pleasure, nor the fret
  Of restless passions that would not be stilled,
  But sorrow, and a care that almost killed,
  Kept me from what I may accomplish yet;
Though, half-way up the hill, I see the Past
  Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights,--
  A city in the twilight dim and vast,
With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights,--
  And hear above me on the autumnal blast
  The cataract of Death far thundering from the heights. 

* Do Your Out of Class Experience; Fill Out the Google Response Assignment

HW: Out of Class Experience: Do it Now

Block Day, Week 8: Don't Panic, It's Organic (well, paper and blood, perhaps)

* Open

• Pray

* Middle Age Crisis Quest

* Vocabulary

• Perjury (n.): willfully giving false testimony under oath
• Latin: periurare "swear falsely," 
• from per- "away, entirely" + iurare "to swear"

• After Arron was convicted of perjury, he went to jail. 

• Preposterous (adj.): completely contrary to nature, reason, or common sense; absurd
• Latin: literally "before-behind" (compare topsy-turvy, cart before the horse), 
• from pre "before" + posterus "subsequent."

• What, some people prefer to texting over face-to-face conversation?  Why, that's preposterous! 

• Before moving on, please compose two sentences that propose preposterous ideas without perjury!

* Outside Reading Revelry

• Remember, you need to copy five words of your own choosing from your reading each week (now that I've reduced the original list by 5 per week).  These could come from your class reading or outside reading.
• Word (with part of speech)
• Definition
• Good Example Sentence 

HW: Enjoy Reading and Annotating Your Book

• Consider Entering a Contest or Sending An Idea to Your Local Paper (take a picture or screenshot of your work before you send it, though)
• Perfect Timing: You could send in a short story (perhaps one you've already written) to the Bookshop Santa Cruz Young Fiction Contest this weekend. Submit online by Sunday night.

Sunny-Jean Says, "Study for your quest

while I study this amazing material."

Wednesday, 10/7/15

* Open

• First, I apologize for all the Google emails. I didn't realize that you were inundated by such messages from me.   
• Note, though, that I have upcoming assignments in your Google Classroom as some of them can be done digitally. 
• This week:
• College Essay #2
• Next week:
• Out of Class Experience
• Outside Reading Annotation (we will do the writing portion in quarter 2)
• Example College Essay for Darker Themes (In general, I would say it is wiser not to include very dark themes in your personal narrative.  It's challenging to show the positive truly eclipse the negative, but it is possible.)

* Inundate (v.): to flood; overflow

• Latin: inundare "to overflow, run over"
• Examples:
• We are inundated by distractions, loosely packaged as information, on social media today.
• "As a young surgeon in training at the  University of California San Francisco General Hospital in the early '80s, my colleagues and I were inundated with an epidemic of young men with fevers, rashes, swollen lymph nodes, and eventually death." -- Richard Carmona
• Before you move on, please compose a sentence with your vocabulary word that features an opening prepositional phrase.

* Show me Your RD; get a peer edit today. 

* Study Guide for a Middle Age Crisis

HW:

• FD of Your Essay Printed in MLA format and including your prompt
• Also please submit your FD to the Google Classroom Assignment
• Study for the Quest
• Grammar:  Sentence Types (Bedford Grammar Basics at the Back of the Book)
• Practice Here 

Tuesday, 10/6/15: Arduous Adventures

* Open

• Please attack this grammar exercise on fragments (link to exercise 3).

arduous (adjective)

• hard to accomplish, difficult to do
• Latin  arduus "high, steep," 
• also figuratively, "difficult" 

Examples

• “In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.”  -- Ghandi
• “I attempt an arduous task, but there is no worth in that which is not a difficult achievement.” -- Ovid
• “True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.”  -- Chesterton

After those excellent notes, create your own sentence that features an opening prepositional phrase.


* Work on Your Rough Draft

HW: Finish Your Rough Draft



Post Script:



"Consolation"

By Robert Louis Stevenson

Though he, that ever kind and true,

Kept stoutly step by step with you,

Your whole long, gusty lifetime through,

      Be gone a while before,

Be now a moment gone before,

Yet, doubt not, soon the seasons shall restore

      Your friend to you.

He has but turned the corner — still

He pushes on with right good will,

Through mire and marsh, by heugh and hill,

      That self-same arduous way —

That self-same upland, hopeful way,

That you and he through many a doubtful day

      Attempted still.

He is not dead, this friend — not dead,

But in the path we mortals tread

Got some few, trifling steps ahead

      And nearer to the end;

So that you too, once past the bend,

Shall meet again, as face to face, this friend

      You fancy dead.

Push gaily on, strong heart! The while

You travel forward mile by mile,

He loiters with a backward smile

      Till you can overtake,

And strains his eyes to search his wake,

Or whistling, as he sees you through the brake,

      Waits on a stile.

* brake: ferns and bushes and such
* stile: stone or wooden ladder or opening in a fence
* What double or triple meaning does "wake" bring to the concluding stanza?