English 9 SPECTRUM
Today we finished  Act II, scene iii. On Monday we will be finishing Act II and begin working on one of our assignments for Romeo and Juliet. Please bring both letters you have written to this point.

English 10
Today we went over the main ideas that show similarities and differences between "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Tell-Tale Heart". After, we took a look at a synthesis paragraph that we will be using for your first in-class writing sample on Friday.

Several of you were away today for the field trip. Check below for the paragraph that we used as a sample:

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What effect does the unreliable narrator have on the mood?

        The unreliable narrator is a first person’s point of view that acts to create confusion or blur the lines between what is fantasy and reality within the context of a story. This form of diversion can be noted in both of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado,” as both works are told through the narration of an unreliable narrator. Poe uses this to his advantage in order to heighten the mood surrounding the two stories, both of which mainly focuses on suspense and horror; for instance, the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” almost outwardly reveals that he is an unreliable narrator when he implies that he has been accused of being a mad man by others in society. Because the reader cannot distinguish whether or not the narrator is telling the truth or plainly speaking from a lunatic’s perspective, the reader is left to wonder which part of his narration can be considered true and which cannot. Likewise, in “The Cask of Amontillado,” Poe utilizes the unreliable narrator in order to increase the tension of the suspense involved in the story; Montresor is seemingly a genuine, affable character on the surface, yet deep down below, he is filled with dense darkness and most likely some form of insanity, as he walls up an individual who is still alive and takes pleasure in this feat. However, despite the unreliable narrators’ insanity in both stories and the initial unreliability of their nature, the absolute consistency and persuasive voice have quite a powerful influence on the reader, thus creating that obscurity between what is real and what is not, which in turn works to intensify tension in the stories for the reader.

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Tomorrow you will be getting a similar topic. The goal here is to begin synthesizing ideas and connections between texts. Some of you have done text to text, text to self, or text to world connections. This is the next step, where we draw conclusions about a literary element - in the case of this example, mood.

Homework

Read the short story on page 29, "The Red-Headed League" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It's a lengthy story, but please have it read before tomorrow, as we'll begin discussing plot.

English 12AP

Today we went over "To an Athlete Dying Young" by Housman.

We discussed the purpose of a bell curve and how it is implemented on the AP exam. Here's a great site to help you calculate a passing mark for University credit: APPASS.COM

Tomorrow is Friday, which means there's a very good chance we'll be doing some writing.

Homework
Finish your analysis of the poem, "Bright Star, would I were steadfast as thou art-" and be ready to discuss it tomorrow!