No Place Like Home Syllabus 9/22-9/29
Tuesday 9/22
CLASS: Response # 2 due. Discuss and write about poems in Here, Bullet.
HOMEWORK: Begin Response # 3: Choose any two poems that struck you most in what we have read of Brian Turner’s collection and that seem to speak to each other on some level (perhaps they deal with similar themes, problems, images, or questions). Begin a draft of a 2 page response in which you explore answers to the following questions: What connections do you find between the two poems? For example, what particular images, questions, or themes emerge in both works? How do the poems build on one another? Ultimately, what do you think these two poems communicate or problematize about the experience of being at war or coming home from war (this war, or war in general)? Weave short pieces of evidence from the poems into your response. Make sure to analyze the evidence thoughtfully and to use correct parenthetical citations. When discussing two different works by the same author, as we are doing in this response, you must include the title of the poem and the line number in your parenthetical citations. For instance (“Sadiq” 2). Remember to use slashes (/) to indicate line breaks if you are quoting more than one line of a poem. Bring in a first draft of your writing tomorrow.
Wednesday 9/23
CLASS: Share drafts in small groups. Respond to each other’s drafts in small groups/pairs with questions for further consideration, ways to push analysis further. What writing advice can you offer your partner? What can you learn from your partner’s writing/analyses?
HOMEWORK: Complete Response # 3.
Thursday 9/24
CLASS: Response # 3 due. Introduction to The Odyssey; terms, characters, background on Homer. Begin reading The Odyssey, Book 1 together.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey, Book 1
Friday 9/25 – Unit 2: Home and the Homefront
CLASS: Discuss Book 1: Status of the homefront; who is left behind. Telemachus; beginning and purpose of his journey, call to action. Fathers and sons.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate The Odyssey: Book II, lines 1-163 & 300-477; and excerpts from Since You Went Away: WWII Letters from American Women on the Homefront. Wives, girlfriends, children, and mothers.
Monday 9/28 – No School
Tuesday 9/29
CLASS: Discuss The Odyssey, Book II. Life on the homefront. Odysseus’s “true son”; Penelope and the suitors. The image of home soldiers hold; the image of the soldier those at home hold.
HOMEWORK: Read and annotate excerpts from The Warrior, A Mother’s Story of a Son at War. Complete Response # 4: Write your own “letter poem” from the perspective of either Penelope or Telemachus, addressing Odysseus. Take the time to imagine and embody the character, perspective, and voice from which you are writing. Use the examples of poetry we have read thus far as inspiration. (1-2 pages, typed).