Poe

Fall of the House of Usher:

• Gothic and horror themes, suspense, dejection, melancholy
• Psychological illnesses
• Madness: Usher has schizophrenia or split personality
• Frontier gothic: confusion in the night, constricted society, huge mansion
• Symbol of crumbling mansion, which seems to have its own sentience (eye-like windows, perceive things)
• Beautiful young woman dies
• Plenty of symbolism in mansion, status of minds, etc. Also foreshadowing through pink color of Madeline's cheeks

Berenice:

• Evident psychological illnesses, hallucinations
• Blurred barriers
• We doubt the reliability of the narrator
• Liminal space once again of love and death
• The beautiful woman dies a violent, horrible death, just like "Usher." Is this to create a more heart-wrenching ending or is a comment on the beautiful and prized things in life?

Tell-Tale Heart:

• Use of sounds to build suspense: from silent and still to shrieks, screams, and groans; beating heart and ringing; only he hears the heart beating
• Obsession with the eye similar to the obsession of the narrator in "Berenice" to teeth
• Affliction of the nerves
• Relation of insanity and morality
• Very intense and long descriptions of paranoia, fear, guilt, horror, and more; Poe's gift is his description of emotion and setting
• Undermining of rationalism in American Gothic: perversity of the self, whether it is acknowledged or not
• Punishment within religion and American Gothic; punishment isn't always justified, although this narrator attempts to; grotesque punishment
• Major theme within American gothic is the murderer's fixation: very concerned with the here and now as opposed to higher reason
• Because the narrator's motive can't be ascribed to logic or reason, it blatantly defies the themes of reason and rationalism in this era
• Ambiguity is another characteristic of American Gothic literature: what happens to our narrator? How do the police react to his outburst?
• Comedic irony: insistence on rationality and attention to detail
• Evil eye: also references to this in Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu faiths as cause for unexplained illnesses or misfortunes; to counteract such misfortune, extraction and distraction serve to dissolve the evil

Poems: Browning, Rossetti, and Dickinson

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Sonnets

• Juxtaposition of love and pain
• Receive love based on self-worth
• Romantic love, outward expression, love can be clumsy
• Death, love, and the liminal space between them

Christina Rossetti: Who Shall Deliver Me?

• Who is this "someone"? Is it God, herself, or a man?
• Grace can take away our pain; very religious undertones
• Lots of self loathing and anger
• Similar themes as found in Paul's letter to the Romans

Emily Dickinson: "For each ecstatic instant" and "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant"

• Self-worth
• In "Ecstatic" Dickinson alleges that happiness is bittersweet; you can't know happiness without some pain, which is what Austen alleges in Persuasion
• Little structure
• Truth is ambiguous and can be many things

Persuasion response

Anne grows up a lot in this novel; by the end she can't be persuaded as easily as she was by Lady Russell. She is also very perceptive which allows her to form better judgments based solely on her own observations. There is very little discussion of gender save the scene toward the end when Anne and Harville discuss the constancy of women in love; their discussion flows over to art expression in which men have more advantage and tend to paint women in a poor light. Another image of women is the role of Mary Musgrove in the novel; she is ironically made a mother, but her number one concern is herself. She uses her children to get what she wants, such as the case of her son's injury. Anne is definitely presented as the heroine of the story, but does that make her the modern heroine? She doesn't possess many of the characteristics we expect to find in heroines, but she is strong of character, expects people to do good things, enjoys intelligent discussion, and strays from gossip and persuasion. If not a modern hero, she was a hero for her time, at least. Anne also has much of the Elliot pride in her, but it affects her differently than it does Sir Elliot or Mary; instead, Anne takes pride in elegance of mind and amiability. I think this makes Anne a more realistic character; she has her flaws, but they aren't overwhelming, and she puts her abilities and mind to good purpose.

Modern day comparison: Cinderella

Themes:

• Upward class movement: juxtaposition of lower class men who are amiable and caring to upper class men (Elliots) who are vain and arrogant
• Beauty: Anne versus Elizabeth
• Pride
• Assumptions that lead to pain or embarrassment
• Persuasion v autonomy
• Confusion is huge throughout the novel; Wentworth and Anne are confused regarding each other; Elliot trying to win Anne; internal struggle, too
• Humor: Mary and Sir Walter are hugely funny; they are foil to the complicated arena of Wentworth and Anne, and they serve many similar functions as the comedic foils in Shakespearean plays
• Suppressed emotions

Austen in context:

• Women in this period are supposed to be fragile; they can't express anger, but boys can express anger if it is in a directed arena; they are considered weak
• Passionate and intense feeling are only acceptable if they serve the family=family unity is extremely important, as Anne proves through her fidelity to her family's happiness
• Within novels, emotions are never really conquered because there would be no rebellion and no room for growth
• The healthy way for a young man to focus his anger was through politics or work; Wentworth proves this by immersing himself in the navy
• 3 most threatening emotions: anger, fear, and jealously. Anne experiences some of these, but she doesn't allow them to rule her, making her the picture of emotional perfection in the Victorian Era.

Multicultural strategies of Teaching

Collected from Romo, Serrano, etc:

1. Create multicultural clubs
2. Bring student experiences into lessons
3. Travel
4. Focus on guided learning rather than being the popular teacher
5. Keep learning and reeducating yourself: "The real purpose of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things"
6. Reflection!!!!
7. Challenge harassment
8. Allow for opportunities to speak and write about multiculturalism
9. Cultivate student esteem and responsibility
10. Help students understand peer pressure
11. Mentor
12. Respect on both sides
13. Socially engaged students/citizens
14. Use simulation and role-playing
15. Need to be intentional
16. Struggle for students
17. Challenge student assumption and be aware of our own attitudes
18. Take risks
19. Validate students' culture and experiences
20. Remain open to new perspectives
21. Humility, flexibility, courage
22. Feedback is important--develop accountability groups with the staff
23. Education should shake up our world views
24. Be aware of silencing
25. Hold students to high expectations
26. Be open and frank with students

Overwhelmed

I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. As a teacher, I want my students to learn so much that I don't think they are going to be exposed to before. I want them - my English students - to know and care about their environment. They are just as responsible as anyone else for the climate, and they should be aware of that. So many people are ignorant these days, and that's just ridiculous. And it would be so easy to work that into our curriculum. My 12th grade teacher did; I wrote a paper about it. Furthermore, students aren't exposed enough to politics; I certainly didn't know all the facts surrounding the Iraq war; I voted for the president that my Dad voted for. Students should be well-informed and excited to be participating in their community. Of course, most of my students won't be of age, but I can still prepare them and make them curious. This, too, can be implemented using a paper or project, but I'd really like to find a novel about it that would be relatable. Maybe Anne Frank would have a good correlation? - I could argue that Germans weren't aware of what was going on around them, so my students should be aware....Or maybe something different.

Also, students should be expressing their own opinions; a journal is perfect for this because it allows them to get their own ideas out. Maybe that's how I'll get them interested in all this stuff. Because I also want them to be aware of their surroundings and aware of the racism and discrimination in their schools and homes. Journal entries prompting them to discuss this would certainly raise awareness; and we could discuss it in class. A good book to tie this in: Anne Frank, while I'm on it! Also, The Color Purple is good, the Awakening, and the Merchant of Venice. Another way to promote multiculturalism is to have my students read a diverse selection of books: Their Eyes Were Watching God; Haroun and the Sea of Stories; Good Luck Club; When I was Puerto Rican; Merchant of Venice again; Arabian Nights; Fall Apart; Frankenstein.

Glogster

"Reading Jane Eyre" by Smith

To shortly sum up Smith's article, the themes of a Gothic novel are huge in Jane Eyre, but they are more subdued than in other works such as those by Poe. Within Jane Eyre the Gothic turns what is commonplace phenomena into the symbolic. The three key Gothic scenes within the novel are 1) Jane reads about Bewick's History of Birds, 2) Jane's dream of Bertha Mason, and 3) descriptions of Bertha. Smith also concludes that race in the novella outlines tensions between the rational and irrational. Bertha and Jane are really only separated by race because they are very similar in passion and will. Smith notes differences between the West-Indies and Europe: the first is described as sulpher and bloody, while Europe is described as fresh and pure.

Benito Cereno

Herman Melville

• worked on a ship; was a whaler; lived with cannibals for a while
• when "Benito Cereno" was published, the Civil War was pretty much inevitable

Themes

• human depravity, sea adventure, slavery, gothic
• epistemology: how do we know what we know? (senses, reason, emotion)

Symbols

• San Dominick=self-contained universe, Oatum-Pickers
• Bachelor's Delight=success/prosperity, similar to Bachelor in Moby Dick, very male-dominated world
• Don Benito=means blessed
• Captain Delano=named after a Hebrew general, served usurper Absalom
• White skeleton
• Knot=symbol of Delano's struggle to understand; could also be opportunity to reach out to Delano through a coded message
• Key in the padlock=white supreme race holds key but now in chains and it's inverted; slave owners now slaves themselves
• Spanish flag around neck during shaving=Delano sees it as colorful decoration, but it's meant to lower the flag because it's now a rag

Notes

• rise of the U.S. vs. Spain
• it was a real event; slavery was considered corrupt at this point
• stance on slavery as a crippling state
• Babo isn't stereotypical slave: he's intelligent and small
• is Melville critical of slavery? He leaves Babo dignified in death
• Amasa is a fool - he's ignorant and naive
• Melville seems to be very against slavery
  
• are Delano's coughing fits on purpose? are they a cover-up or do they serve to distract when Delano gets too close?
• did Delano remain ignorant because he didn't know what to do with the knowledge, because he couldn't face the cruelty, or to protect himself physically?
• contemporary examples of skewed frame of reference: Bush (enforced democracy); Le Mun Wah's documentary on racism and white supremacy and naivete; creationism v evolution
• "Follow your leader"=does it mean that Benito was meant to follow Babo (in death) or Aranja (who was literally placed on the front of the ship); also, Civil war propaganda
• also like Orwell's 1984=words are all inverted, have double meanings
• told from Delano's perspective as opposed to Babo's because it's a mystery; also told from black slave's perspective which would not have been published then; furthermore, mysteries are all the rage during this time (Poe, Bronte)
• get main story from a deposition which is odd
• compared to Uncle Tom's Cabin (in which the lead black is docile), this slave narrative enjoyed strikingly less popularity, probably because the blacks revolted
• Babo's character=changes throughout novel; starts out sugary and false; are we sposed to be rooting for him, and is he the hero; shouldn't Babo have understood the evils of slavery
• inversion of slavery=this slavery was disguised whereas in the south the more slaves you had the richer you were deemed
• Babo's slaes had someone to rescue them; people cared about their lives and rights

The good and bad of technology

Reasons to consider technologically-based products:

• engaging and fun

Drawbacks:

• too advanced
• access
• preference
• malfunctions
• can hurt development in a certain aspect of student learning (spelling)

Affects three E's:

• enhancing because allows more development of a topic
• efficient if teacher knows what they're doing

Examples of three E's:

• digital story
• blogs
• webquest
• prezi/powerpoint (with action buttons!)
  

Helpful hints:

• when you are going to have students work on a computer, check ahead of time to make sure technology works
• when using powerpoint, you can create an action button by right clicking on a shape, select hyperlink, and click the page you want it to refer back to
  

Jane Eyre discussion

The last quarter of Jane Eyre deals with several interesting themes that we see throughout the novel. At this point, Mr. Rochester has just been found out, and his and Jane's marriage falls through. When Jane attempts to leave, Mr. Rochester says a few unsavory things. He stands in front of the door to prevent Jane from leaving, and he also says that he will resort to violence if she does not see his side. On the other hand, there is also this cultural expection during the Victorian age that men will be aggressive and forceful. Jane is unusual because she rebels against him, and she continually says that she has little fear of him.

Another interesting portion of this section is its ties to religion. Religion is discussed earlier in the novel with Helen and Brocklehurst, but here we see Jane's spirituality in contrast to St. John's orthodox religous beliefs. Jane seems to really chafe against his rigidity, and we are given to wonder whether Bronte feels the same. Does she agree that spirituality should be a more personal experience that isn't so tied up in duty and the church? She is at least implying that St. John's religious beliefs prevent him from really loving anyone because he's so single-mindedly focused on God.

Instead of love, St. John advocates utilitarianism, which proposes that the greatest good in this world does the most good for the most people. This is a more Eastern idea typically, and also a more Orthodox idea, whereas modern Western thought advocates the rights of the individual. St. John's emotions, in this context, seem to be further critiqued. His motives, always pure, are never about love.

The love between Jane and Rochester is, on the otherhand, suggested to be pure and worthy love. When Rochester loses his sight and his hand, it only deepens Jane's love for him. But what does his loss of sight and limb signify? It could be a religious symbol; the sermon on the mount says that it is better to lose your sight and to cut off your hand than to lust after someone. Perhaps his loss of sight and hand also emasculates Rochester. It takes away his violence and his threat to Jane, making him a more devoted lover.

Tracing the Emotions:
At Gateshead the key emotions are fear, rage, and pride. At Lowood Jane battles more with despair, shame, resignation, and confidence. She is very concerned with Miss Temple's opinion of herself following Brocklehurst's denunciation. At Thornfield Jane is still pretty immature emotionally: she feels pride, infatuation/desire, and jealousy. At Marsh's End Jane really begins to develop her emotions and her character after making the difficult decision to leave Rochester; she feels gratitude, belonging, healthy, spiritual, and uneasy. Finally, when she returns to Fevindean, she feels primarily love and happiness.

Tools in the classroom

Technology can be used to address different tasks that are used in the educational process:

• Content Exploration Tasks (Google earth, Grammar girl podcasts on Itunes)
• Production Tasks
• Communication Tasks
• Data Production and Analysis Tasks
• Productivity Tasks

Content Exploration is probably the most familiar type of educational task.

• Reference
• Drill & Practice
• Tutorial
• Games (Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego)
• Simulations
• Open-Ended (geo cache for a field trip, GPS, Google Earth, Google Sketch up)

Jane Eyre: Background and themes

Background on Charlotte Bronte:

• only lived to age 39
• lived in rural Yorkshire known as the "Moors"
• went to boarding school where two of her sisters died, just like the girls in Lowood
• she and her sisters wrote intensively together; they all worked as governesses and failed
• distanced herself from Jane Eyre by publishing under "Currer Bell"

Religion:

• Helen represents the modern view of religion (one of hope) while Brocklehurst represents the old view of religion (which is about suffering)
• Both Helen and Brocklehurst are very opinionated in their views
• Jane's emotional gospel: justice, speaks out
• Helen's emotional gospel: puts faith in God, subservient
• Rochester's own moral code: existentialism, his own morality

Romantic versus gothic: many gothic scenes (Red room, Bertha, ominous dreams, nighttime visits)

Modern view of feminism: women shouldn't be confined to cooking, sewing, etc. She values mental and emotional action; furthermore, Jane is guided more by empathy than anything else

Overview of a W200 class

Important information about NETS-T and professional development

NETS-T standards
1. facilitate and inspire student learning and community
2. design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments
3. model digital age work and learning
4. promote digital responsibility and citizenship
5. engage in professional growth and leadership

Professional development:
1. Formal includes conferences, classes, and committees
2. Informal includes reading on my own, experimenting with ideas, new ideas from colleagues, wired.com