John McCain Debate Videos

In debate, people pay just as much attention to how you say something than the actual words you use. The following videos show how body language and other nonverbal forms of communication affected world events.

This 1st video shows clips of the 3rd Presidential Debate from the 2008 election. It is widely known in political circles that, following this debate, John McCain had lost the election. Some have assumed that it was due to his poor performance and attitude he displayed in this debate.



These next 2 clips show the reaction from newscasters, political pundits, and the general public to McCain's body language in the debate.






So after watching these videos, ask yourself how you look when presenting in front of a crowd. Do you display confidence, contempt of the opposition, or even a complete lack of caring? Remember, even if you don't know the answer to this question, your audience does.

The Road/Metamorphosis - Where to Buy

For our next unit, many of you will be reading either the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy or Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. You need to have found a copy of your assigned book by A Day - Monday, March 14 or B Day - Tuesday, March 15. New copies of either book start at $7.99, and used copies generally range from $1-$5.

Both are incredibly popular novels that should be rather easy to find at any major bookstore, including Borders, Barnes and Noble, and even Fred Meyer. If you are looking for used copies, click on the websites below and search for the name of the novel with the author's name. Keep in mind, if you choose to have a book shipped to you, it may take 2-3 weeks to arrive, so you would need to do order it in the next day or so and place it on a rush order.

Powell's
Dollar Books
Amazon
Abebooks

I also highly recommend checking with your local neighborhood library, or even your home school's library, as they may have copies you can check out for free. For those of you reading Metamorphosis, free versions can be found online that you can print off yourself. Simply Google "Kafka Metamorphosis" and you should be able to find a free, online version. If you have any issues finding a copy of the book or have any questions about this upcoming unit feel free email me.

Recognizing Beliefs

Here are the videos and pictures from the "Recognizing Belief PPT." As you look through these ask yourself, what do you think the person who created this is trying to show about what they believe?

"This I Believe"

"This I Believe" began in the 1950's as a radio program that featured essays from famous politicians, corporate leaders, teachers, and even high school students being read by their authors. These essays explored core beliefs about faith, life, or whatever was of utmost importance to the writer. Throughout our upcoming unit we will study these essays to determine how authors use specific narrative details and their own author's voice to create dynamic and interesting writing. Each of you will then have the opportunity to write a narrative essay of your own where you can share your most steadfast beliefs.

Continue to check this blog regularly for updates about the unit and links to various resources.

Click on any of the links below to find out more about "This I Believe" or to check out some of the essays.

This I Believe Official Site

"Finding Prosperity by Feeding Monkeys" by Harold Taw

"Be Cool to the Pizza Delivery Dude" by Sarah Adams

"A Duty to Heal" by Pius Kamau

"There is No God" by Penn Jillette

"The God Who Embraced Me When Daddy Disappeared" by John Fountain
"The Connection between Strangers" by Miles Goodwin

Romanticism Blog Class Links

Here are the links to the Romanticism blogs for all of you to check out. Feel free to explore your classmate's blogs and those of other periods. Also, if something strikes you on another blog, make a comment about it. Start a conversation and connect with each other.

The names and URL's have been taken directly from the memos submitted by each group. As you can see, some groups have the exact same name for their blogs. If this is true of your group, I would highly recommend renaming your blog to something more interesting than just the poet's name. If something has changed (blog name, URL, etc), or if your blog does not appear on this list please email me.

A1:
Coleridge Comberbache; the Man of Two Names

Time to Meet Percy Bysshe Shelley AKA Alyck.
We Love Boys, Especially William Blake
Percy Shelley
Wordzworth 4 Eva
Will Blake Blog?
The Best of Blake

Romantic Poet William Blake

A3:
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Byron's Club
Lord Byron
A Pot of Basil
Blake's Prophecies Revealed
The Blake Blog that is Better then the Best “Blake Blog”

A4:
All About Blake
Coleridge Symbolism and Meanings
William Blake and His Poetry
Different Perspectives on Samuel Coleridge's Poetry
A teenager's view on the works of William Blake

The Young Person's View on William Wordsworth

B5:
The Life and Work of John Keats
Wordsworthians
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: A Tribute to William Blake

The Poems of John Keats

The Rime of a Mariner

The Headless Boyfriend

B7:
John Keats
Lord Byron; c'est la vie
William Wordsworth's "The Thorn"
William Blake's Art and Poetry
Blake's Short Titillations
Blake is My Homie

"The Book of Urizen" - Articles

A lot has been said about this poem. Below are a couple articles about different aspects of "The Book of Urizen":

"Evil and Urizen: William Blake's Visions of a Demiurge - A fantastic article that provides a great breakdown of the poem as well as an interesting interpretation of the relationship of faith and science throughout it.

"The Book of Urizen" Commentary by Nicolas Barker - In addition to providing some great background on Blake's artistic techniques, Barker explains how the poem fits with Blake's other works. He also gets into some of the differences of the eight original copies of the poem.

"The Book of Urizen" - Art and music mashup

Check out this combination of music and Blake's plates for "The Book of Urizen."

"The Book of Urizen" - Plates

Here are several of Blake's handmade plates for "The Book of Urizen":

These images were retrieved from:

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/B/blake.html#images

http://facstaff.uww.edu/hoganj/contents.htm

http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/public/urizen.G.P5.detail.jpg

Soundtrack Ideas

Listening to music while doing a close reading of a poem or story can be either beneficial or an unnecessary distraction. The difference lies in the nature or style of the music you choose as a background. Generally, you should never listen to anything that contains words while reading or writing. This may seem strange, but in reality the words being sung around you will steal some of the focus away from the words you are trying to read or write. To test this, try writing a paper while having a spoken conversation with someone and see how easy it is to create quality work. Also, your music choice should reflect the mood of whatever it is you are working on. Listening to something incredibly poppy and happy may not mix well with gothic poetry. No matter what style of music you enjoy, I can pretty much guarantee there is a group or artist that specializes in instrumental versions of that genre. There are instrumental hip hop, rock, metal, electronica, pop groups out there, you may just need to do some research to track them down. And don't forget about the abundance of jazz and classical music out there that has no words.

Need help discovering these types of artists? Many of you already know about Pandora, a free online radio station that builds a personal playlist for you based on bands or songs that you provide it. This site is a great way to discover new music while at the same time providing a free and appropriate musical background.

Soundtrack suggestion for "The Book of Urizen": Should be dark, epic, and probably rock based.

Bands:

This Will Destroy You

Explosions in the Sky

Isis (there are background vocals but they are almost impossible to understand)

"The Book of Urizen" - First Impressions

It would be incredibly difficult after only one read to actually give an accurate description of what happens in "The Book of Urizen." From what I can tell, Urizen was an immortal who wrote a book that established the seven deadly sins and many other religious elements. He was then trapped in a dark pit for several "ages" where he experienced nothing but woe. The rest of the poem mirrors much of the book of Genesis in the Bible. There is a creation story but it is seen from the perspectives of the immortals. Urizen helps with the creation of man but is later horrified to discover that the beings he created are completely miserable. Near the end of the poem, Blake makes clear what his primary message is. After the description of the pain Urizen sees Blake writes, "And all call'd it, The Net of Religion" (Ch. 25, Line 22). The poem ends with man establishing the foundations of Christianity and Urizen's descendants leaving the land of Egypt.

Blake's style is characterized by biblical prophecy and vivid imagery. Descriptions of blood, rage, misery, and a dark cavernous abyss permeate the text. Overall, this poem is dark, epic, and powerful. Additional research will be necessary to get a better impression of exactly who or what Urizen, Los, Enitharmon, and others are supposed to represent. After giving more time and focus to this poem I will undoubtedly come to different or more thought out conclusions as to what exactly is going on.

Note to students: Remember that we are not expecting you to fully understand anything we have you read after only one sitting. There is nothing wrong with misinterpreting or misunderstanding aspects of a poem after a quick first read. The goal is for you to do additional reading and research in order to form a fuller opinion. This blog provides an opportunity to get your first impressions out there and begin to at least gain a basic understanding of the text.

William Blake's "The Book of Urizen"

Click on the link below to find an online copy of William Blake's "The Book of Urizen."

http://facstaff.uww.edu/hoganj/contents.htm

Many of the poems we will be studying in this unit can be found online for free. Different sites will have various features. I chose this particular site because it was put together by a university professor and contains several additional resources about Blake, his work, and other romantic poets. If you choose to have a link on your blog to a particular site make sure that it is both school appropriate and related to your topic.

An Introduction

This blog will have dual purposes. First, it's a way for me to connect with all of you better and give a behind the scenes look at your English class. In addition to postings on whatever our current unit happens to be, I will also provide links to articles that relate to the class, interesting videos, or comments and suggestions for various assignments.

Since each of you will be building a blog that highlights a certain poem or poet, I wanted to create a model version that will help give you an idea of the types of posts that we expect. The poem I will be focusing on is William Blake's "The First Book of Urizen." Throughout this unit I will post personal comments or thoughts on the poem as well as videos or pictures that relate to it.

Please check back here regularly for updates and if you have any questions feel free to email me.