Discuss Your Reading: The Poems of Robert Frost

Discussion Topic

Now you'll have a chance to discuss your interpretations of "Design" and "The Most of It" by focusing on the speakers in each poem. Post a message that responds to one or more of the following questions:

• Who is the speaker in each poem?
• Is the speaker's identity important? Why or why not?
• How is the speaker revealed in each poem?
• What are the qualities of the two speakers?
• How are the two speakers either alike or different?

As a follow-up posting, ask a question of your own or post whether you agree or disagree, and why, with a classmate's interpretations.

Scoring

This discussion is worth a maximum of 15 points. You'll get 10 points for your first posting. Your instructor will give you another 5 points if you post a follow-up comment or question that furthers the discussion.

Discuss Your Reading: The Collar

Discussion Topic

click for your focus sheet

In George Herbert's "The Collar," the speaker begins by voicing an intense resistance to divine authority. But by the end of the story the speaker has moved to a position of profound yielding. Post a message that responds to one or more of the following questions:

• In what ways does the symbol of the collar appropriately represent the relationship depicted in the poem?
• What is the paradox at the heart of the metaphor of the collar (the conceit)? How is the tension of the paradox resolved?
• What things constrain the speaker? What's the speaker's attitude toward these constraints? Is his attitude consistent throughout the poem?

As a follow-up posting, state whether you agree or disagree, and why, with a classmate's interpretation of the poem.

Click your focus sheet to learn more about symbols in literature.

Scoring

This discussion is worth a maximum of 15 points. You'll get 10 points for your first posting. Your instructor will give you another 5 points if you post a follow-up comment or question that furthers the discussion.

Discuss Your Reading: High Holy Days

click for your reading guide

Discussion Topic

In this activity, you'll discuss your ideas about the poem "High Holy Days." Post a message that responds to one or more of the following questions:

• How would you characterize the speaker? Who is she? What's her attitude toward what she's describing and encountering over the course of the poem? Does her attitude or tone change at all?
• What's the purpose of including seemingly unnecessary, narrative details in the poem? These include references to the itchy suit the speaker wears, the yarmulke covering her father's bald spot, how her mother readjusts her skirt, etc. What does the speaker communicate by including such details?

As a follow-up posting, ask a question of your own or state whether you agree or disagree, and why, with a classmate's interpretation of the poem.

Click your reading guide to learn about motive and purpose and how they're relevant to these discussion questions.

Scoring

This discussion is worth a maximum of 15 points. You'll get 10 points for your first posting. Your instructor will give you another 5 points if you post a follow-up comment or question that furthers the discussion.

Classwork & Discussion: November 5, 2010

1. Take out your rough draft to show the substitute. He will be checking this as a project assignment.

2. Complete your blog entry on Sweat.

3. Take the final Quiz in the 2.1 Unit. Due by the end of today.

4. In the comments below, comment on your first draft. What difficulties did you have? How is this similar or different from writing a rhetorical essay?

5. Peer edit with one other person (annotate and write a letter to your partner) and bring in your rough draft in for conferencing on Monday.