Sergei O'Sullivan 10/28

Friday, in class our objectives were "IWBAT evaluate how certain artist use particular romantic characteristics to develop theme" and "
IWBAT analyze romanticism point of view regarding the American dream". Later in class

in small groups we talked about the 10 characteristics and how not all ten will be in each piece of literature.

Which are the Least and most prevalent in romantic literature. This was the classes conclusion.

Most

1. 5- Champions individual freedom and worth of the individual
2. 3-block out the artificiality of civilization and seek unspoiled nature
3. 4- Prefer youthful innocence
4. 1-Values feeling and intuition over reason
5. 10- Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture
6. 6- Romantics contemplate nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development
7. 2-Place faith in inner experience and the power of imagination
8. 7 -Look backwards to the wisdom of the past and distrust progress
9. 9- See poetry as the highest expression of the imagination
10. 8- Finds beauty and truth in different/rare places, super natural realm introduced (fantasy/horror)

Least

After, we started talking about the American Dream again. We determined that success can be different for different people. That's why when romantics, like Rip Van Winkle, are successful in their own way. Yes, they are not raking in cash, but they are happy and they accomplished success in their own eyes.

Alex Pegher 10/27

 Today in class we were given a few options. We could read the poem Song of the Open Road by Walt Whitman, or we could explore the national parks through google. Continuing with reading "Rip Van Winkle" we were told to connect the exploration of the national parks to either "Rip Van Winkle" or the poem. If we didn't finish connecting the exploration to one of the two pieces of literature or still had to finish the analysis of Rip Van Winkle, then we were instructed to finish those for homework. Overall a very interesting day, as I personally did not know that google had this available. Being able to explore even a pixelated version of a national park from any computer is very cool, and it only makes you want to visit those places more.

Image: Bryce Canyon, one of the locations we explored through google

Kayla Edwards
Today we started class by looking at “The Valley of the Yosemite” 1864 by Albert Bierstadt. This is a painting of Yosemite Valley, one of the first national parks in California. In mid 19th century there was the California Gold Rush so people rushed there and they made a national park. You can see the romanticism through the warm colors and the way they reflect off the water. This painting shows the romantic element of shunning the artificiality of civilization and seeking unspoiled nature because there are no buildings or people or civilization, it is only nature. Also the calmness of the water brings in animals creating beauty and nature to it. Also the very large rocks show the romantic  element of contemplating nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development because they make you realize how small you are in the world. Next we read “Rip Van Winkle” by  Diedrich Knickerbocker (Washington Irving) and found each element within it. What is interesting about this text is that Diedrich Knickerbocker is a fake person whom Irving created to narrate his stories. This was probably to give the stories authenticity because they were about early Dutch settlers. The main purpose of today's class was to practice identifying the elements of romanticism in writings and paintings. This skill is important because it can help us understand the author's purpose. As previously discussed in class, history is reflected through writing, and there is a constant swing between romanticism and rationalism so by reading a text from a certain year, and finding more romantic elements, we will know that during this period people were in a more romantic state rather than rational state.
Here is Bierstadt's "Valley of the Yosemite"

Kevin Berlin 10/26/16

Kevin Berlin

10/26/16

In today's class we went into more depth on qualities of romanticism.

We analysed a painting of the Yosemite Valley created by Albert Bierstadt. We broke into small groups and talked about how the picture makes us feel and why it makes us feel that way. Our response was that the picture made us happy, and made us appreciate life because of the pretty colors from the sunset. Along with the calm water and the deers drinking making us feel peaceful and relaxed.  Analysing this painting was beneficial to us because it helped us see the elements of romanticism.  

After we worked on analysing the picture, we partnered up with a classmate and worked on the Google Classroom assignment. The assignment “Rip Van Winkle” asked us to read a story, then post comments to the story where we see any example of an element of romanticism. When we finished that, we then had to write a one paragraph response about what the story reveals about american identity and what would people who hadn’t been to America think about the story. I thought this was a good question because it really made me think about what foreign countries think about America as a country, and americans as people.

The story Rip Van Winkle is about a man who went to sleep before the American War of Independence to get away from his nagging wife. However, the man wakes up 20 years later to a free independent United States, finding out that his wife had died, and his friends and family are gone. The story is pretty much about the change of America from before the War of Independence to after, and how much things have changed, and how much progress America has made as a country.

John DePreker 10/25/16

10/25/16

“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and

measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured

with much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

     In todays class we went over the 10 Characteristics of American Romanticism. We  then applied them to the poem above. Period 8 had done better then period 6 in finding all 10 characteristics in the poem rather then their findings of 9. After reading through that Mr. Rivers introduced us to a scene from a movie. What occurs in this scene starts of as boys sitting during class when the teacher (world famous actor Robin Williams) calls on a student to read an excerpt from the book they were reading. He then tells the students to rip the introduction because, of his own personal thoughts of the creator. Now how strange is that! Teachers would never tell students to conduct this behavior. At first the students a reluctant but when one follows along the rest do as so.  Mr. Rivers then put a question that read as followed.
     .

How does the film show ONE of our elements of Romanticism?

My response to the question was that the scene to me relates to #3 (Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seek unspoiled nature)

I believe that this element of romanticism is shown in this film because, they are ripping pages out of the notebook which is basically unspoiled nature. To me this  just seems ridiculous that they can do that. It also shuns our civilization of treating our books with respect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpeLSMKNFO4

Callie Bevacqua 10/24

10/24/16

 Class started out with a discussion about rationalist and romanticists. If you are still confused about these ideas;

• A rationalist is someone who relies on knowledge and facts to justify their thoughts. 
• A romanticist is someone who goes with their gut feeling and relies on their emotions to justify their actions/thoughts.

             Each table group had to share al loud a rational and romantic version of the same topic that they chose. (This was a recap of an assignment that we had to write on Friday) For example, my table group used the topic of going out to eat. A Rationalists would not be a fan of going out to eat because it can become very expensive and not as healthy as eating at home. A romanticist would love the idea of going out to eat because it brings together friends and family, and its an over all fun, relaxing time.  I personally thought this activity benifitted my understanding with the comparison of romanticism and rationalism.
       We continued taking notes on;

Characteristics of American Romanticism 

Values feeling and intuition over reason

1. Places faith in inner experience and the power of imagination
2. Shun the artificiality of civilization and seek unspoiled nature
3. Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication
4. Champions individual freedom and the worth of an individual

6. Contemplates nature's beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development  

7. Look backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress.

8. Finds beauty and truth in exotic locales, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of imagination.

9. Sees poetry as the highest expression of imagination

10. Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture.

I personally think romanticism plus a little bit of rationalism is the ideal lifestyle to live.
Romanticist love poetry and find it very powerful and expressing.

Hannah Newbold - Blog 10.21.16

         This Friday, Mr. Rivers was not in class. Although, there was an assignment that was left to do, it can be found on the google classroom. Every student individually had to pick a topic and write one paragraph about a romanticists point of view on the topic and then another paragraph on a realists point of view on the same topic.

If it helps my topic was on the debate on whether the 1900s Armenian Genocide should be acknowledged as infact a genocide nationally. BUT others at my table wrote about more general topics like abortion and gun laws, so it may make it easier to pick an already debated topic or something you know much about.

           Thats what we did for the whole class period.. 

Jake Zerillo Blog 10/20/16

Today in class we had two important topics that we wanted to focus on and excel at. The first one that i will be able to or for short, IWBAT analyze changes in literary and historical trends, or to be able to analyze the change of literature over time. The second one which i thought we focused on a little bit more than the first one is IWBAT identify how romanticism contrasts rationalism. At the beginning of class we decided to start off with two questions. The first question asked what would a rationalist say about your morning yesterday? After having heard everyones answer combined with mine heres what i would say the best answer is. A rationalist that it was great that the students took the PSAT's because it will prepare them for the SAT's and it will also show the data that most kids got wrong, therefore teachers can improve on teaching that section too. The second question asked what would a rationalist say about your afternoon yesterday? The best answer that i got for this one is a rationalist would not like what we did because they would've thought there would be better things to do than sit outside like taking a test or a final. When we went outside we talked about or feeling or emotion which leads to the next thing we talked about which is romantics. 

American Romanticism happened in the 1800 to 1860, this happened because of industrialism which was from 1760 - 1840 which the change of new technology and more efficient and faster equipment was made. The biggest things that led to romanticism was things like the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the gold rush in 1849 and the education and reform rise. This is because for the gold rush people had to take a risk and drop everything and leave to travel so far way to find gold that might not even be there by the time they got there. Therefore that would be an example of Romanticism and you no that rationalist wouldn't approve because they do not take risks and moving for land for the Louisiana purchase or moving to take a risk on maybe finding gold are huge risks that only romantics would approve. A good characteristic of American romanticism would be that he or she values feeling over reason. Unlike rationalism were if it not fair or a hundred percent guarantee to help you and it has a risk that is too big then they do not approve of it. 

Lauren Zanetakos

10/19/16

                Today in classroom or should I say outside the classroom we adventured out to the world of nature. Our objective was to write about how nature makes us feel and how romance is the focus of emotion not logic. From the 18^th century into the mid-19^th romance was the prominent in literature. As an example of the difference between the two Mr. Rivers compared the PSAT’s as logic and Walt Whitman who wrote “Leaves in the Grass” in 1855, a piece that was written from the heart not the brain. For our assignment I wrote: When I was immersed in the nature which we call the football field I noticed how the changed leaves were painted across the hillside, or how the warm sun filled my heart with false hope of summer dreams. The fall breeze carries you back in time to one of those moments where you are running and nothing can stop you. the Autumn air reminds me that the end is near. For all the plants and flowers that my parents planted in the spring will be now lost to the first frost.

It hard to believe that a hundred years ago people where consumed by the beauty that is nature instead of being tec. Crazed zombies who don’t appreciate much that isn’t inside their phones.  As time has turned the format of righting has evolved from romance to more of a logic based narrative which is devoid of the passion of the heart.

October 18, 2016 - Skylar Winberry

Today in class we took an in class summative. This  summative consisted of three parts. The fiirst being a fill-in-the-blank kind of answer where you had to chose a slide from a given slideshow and answer the questions, What does this text do? How does this text do it? This section was very straightforward and simple. The next section directed us to Select ANY TWO rhetorical devices. Write a STRONG, succinct paragraph that individually analyzes how those devices develop pathos, logos, or ethos. Make sure that your evidence is introduced, cited, and analyzed. I used Rhetorical question and asyndenton in my paragraph. I first explained how rhetorical questions were used in a speech about homework. Also stating that a rhetorical question is a question with out an answer or an obvious answers. I used the device asyndenton as well. I found this in a speech where viking is speaking to his fellow vikings trying to convince them to fight alongside him. he used asyndenton by repeating the words "you are" at the begging of multiple sentences. The third and final section prompted us to Rewrite the text ANY PURPLE SLIDE so it uses a different rhetorical appeal than it already uses. Use and identify (via comment or parentheses) at least two rhetorical devices. I find it easier to write from logos to pathos, so i chose a slide about whether is is ethical or not to kill live lobsters. It was very scientific to begin with s0 I made it less about the science.

This image has a list of many commonly used rhetorical devices that can be useful to know.

Kelli Vogel
Monday, October 17, 2016


Today in class we discussed the Rhetorical Summative that we are taking during class tomorrow. For the summative we are answering short answer questions but we are allowed to use our notes. To help get a better understanding of what we have to do for the summative, our assignment for class was to write two small speeches, these were not presented to the class. In those speeches we had to incorporate ethos, logos or pathos. For my two speeches I used logos in one and pathos in the other. These speeches could be about anything, whether you chose them from the topic list that we were given or if you made up your own topics. The topic list contained, WHO IS YOUR SPEAKER? WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE? and WHAT DOES YOUR TEXT DO? The next step after choosing your topics you had to create your first speech which for me was logos. After you completed the first speech you then had to make a new slide and change your speech so it would fit into the ethos or pathos category and in this case is used pathos. My speeches are very short but they get the job done. Here are my speeches,
Logos: Hey there Clowns, there are some people out there who are very scared of you because of your strange looks and strange voices, so please try to stop acting like this you scare to many people.
Pathos: Hello Clowns, going around to birthday parties to entertain is fine but chasing people around with objects that can hurt/kill people for example knifes, bats and hammers and other threatening objects is obscene and not okay. Children and some adults are afraid to leave their own homes especially at night because they don't feel safe. All I'm asking you to do is please stop!
           
This photo helps explain what ethos, pathos and logos are.

Dalton Schroepfer 10/13/16

Today in class we started off by talking about the rhetorical summative we will be taking next Tuesday. Then, we went over historical lens, which is basically looking into the time period a text was written to fully understand the thoughts and feelings of the author writing it. Next, we went into our groups and talked about "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine and "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards. We talked about the differences the authors use to accomplish a similar task, which is to be persuasive. Then, as a class we compared the two and talked about the differences. These are the differences we came up with:
           "Sinners" :
-uses pathos
-uses an angry, harsh tone
-written in second person- addressing YOU
-repeats old ideas
-OWNS the ethos (implied power)
-performed as a speech - emphasis for pathos and emotion could be seen

"Common Sense"
-uses logos - kingship is arbitrary
-plain arguments - counterclaims, questioning the status quo
- ethos = community/patriotism
-uses first person - shows more unity
-was a pamphlet - it was read instead of seen with emotions as "sinners" was
    After we were done comparing the two, we went over rationalism, and the advantages of rationalism, some of which are that it uses objective and scientific views of the universe
    After discussing the advantages of rationalism, Mr Rivers asked the question: "Are there any dangers of rationalism?" The answer to this question was that yes, because we lose humanity with rationalism.




 

10.11.16 Anna Valentine

       Anna Valentine- October 11, 2016

    Today we had two IBWATs, to apply a historical lens to identify literary and historical trends, and to evaluate how changes in writing affect changes in history, philosophy, and culture. Now although these two topics may seem pretty complicated at first, they can be pretty easily explained when broken down. So first things first, what even is a lens? Alike to glasses (or contacts), lens affect how something is viewed, making certain details vivid, and other details dull, making it easier to focus on certain literary elements and not others. For example, Montclair State University lists ethnicity/race/culture, gender, history, psychology, and social class all as different lens. In our class's case, we will be apply the historical lens, and use it to evaluate how a text affects history, philosophy, and culture. History, being recorded events in the past, has a unique reciprocal (given or done in return) relationship with text. The more we know about a text in a given time period, the more we know about the history that time period, and vice versa. This unique characteristic gives readers the ability to connect history and text all the time! In class we used the two texts, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" published by Jonathon Edwards in 1741 and "Common Sense" published by Thomas Paine in 1775, to examine their differences, acknowledging their historical time periods. The next time we meet in class, these differences will be discussed and further examined.

    The last conversation of Tuesday's class was the question: When did American history start? Students threw out years like 1492 (Colombus), 1602, 1776, and beyond, but did not meet consensus. The point being, that the start of American history is debatable! There is no official start time of American history, and perhaps there never will be, not to mention that even history books have differing opinions. One text on American history may argue it started with Columbus, while another may argue it started with the colonization of America. So as we start our class in American literature this year, we don't have a specific start point, but a broad history we must take into account.

    -Anna Valentine
MSU Literary Lens Explained: https://www.montclair.edu/media/montclairedu/chss/departments/english/enwr106/WS_Lenses_for_Reading_Literature_106_(Maloy).pdf

10/8 weekend

TOday in class we discussed the overview of the week. We talked about finding Pathos, ethos, and logos with jonathan edwards speech. A sinners from an angry god. We discussed in groups about the rhetoric analysis slide show we have been working on. We start by reading text; while recognizing rhetorical appeals. Then we need to construct a thesis statement including two questions; What does this text do and How. Then we must integrate evidence with specificity. This is used for topic sentences and analysis.  We then watched an episode of the office. We needed to pick a side of the argument. THis episode was a dispute between The characters, oscar and Pam. We need to find evidence for this.
Oscar wants a new copier
He stresses how bad it is
Uses pathos to “Suck up” to the boss
Pam wants new chairs
“These chairs are terrible, we needed them since last year”
Sergei o'Sullivan

Hannah Newbold Blog Post - 10.6.16

In today's class there was no objective on the board although the objective asssignment was that in class we split into the few groups we were put into and worked on developing an "AWESOME topic sentence" and "an AWESOME thesis statement" 

The goal was to post our previous (original) topic sentence about the article "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" and revise it into the AWESOME topic sentence with details of;

- who 

- what 

- where 

- when 

- why 

- how

Doing the same procedure with developing a thesis statement and then working within our groups in constructing the AWESOME thesis. ( Within your thesis we should have answered the questions What did this text do and how did this text do it)

Post completing both tasks in our groups we put both together and piece by piece composed one body  paragraph that was to be posted in the correct google classroom slide with the background color theme changed ( the groups were given specific colors)

Overall to recap; 

1. We built AWESOME/REVISED thesis statements and topic sentences about the article answering the key questions (listed above)

2. Put both together to create one body paragraph with two quotes of evidence from the article 

^ when complete posted in the google slide presentation (which would be found in google classroom)

Katie McGuckin-Blog Post-10/5/16

Katie McGuckin                                                          10/5/16

Blog Post

Objectives:

(no new ones today, so probably the same ones from yesterday)

• IWBAT evaluate how a text accomplishes its purpose
• IWBAT interrogate my text to add specificity in my writing

Today’s class started out with a continuation of our lesson yesterday, which was learning about how to identify the use of rhetorical devices (ethos, logos, pathos). Yesterday we looked in the speech, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, by John Edwards and tried to find examples of ethos, logos and pathos in and how they worked in the text. For instance, Edwards states, “The bow of God’s wrath is bent...justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow,” which uses pathos to encourage a sense of fear into the audience at how they will eventually be judged and sentenced by their Lord, persuading people to try to become more pure and avoid impending damnation. At the end of the previous class and today’s, we learned that the purpose of a thesis sentence is to describe what the text does and how it accomplishes it. In order to create a strong thesis statement, the sentence(s) need to include strong verbs and explain the body paragraphs in a “nutshell” (summary). Another activity that was started yesterday and carried over to today’s class, was the writing of a thesis statement for Edwards’ speech and then interrogating it to find the purpose and improve. For example, my group’s thesis was: John Edwards successfully instills fear into his audience by the use of his powerful and disturbing illustrations of hell, strong verbs, and a distressful message of God's wrath. Once everyone’s group made a thesis statement, we had to interrogate by asking ourselves: who, what, when, where, why, and how, which would add more details.This speech’s who was the author and who/what they were, the what was the writing’s intention, the when was during the 18th century, where was Massachusetts, why was to get people to become perfect puritans, and the how was through powerful visual descriptions, strong verbs, and a distressful message. My group’s interrogated thesis was: John Edwards, an 18th century minister of Massachusetts, successfully installed fear into his audience in attempt to maintain perfect puritanism, through use of powerful and disturbing illustrations of hell, strong verbs, and a distressful message of God's wrath. After both sentences were made, everyone had to write a quick/simple topic sentence and interrogate it to create an even better thesis statement, which was then submitted to google classroom, along with the thesis statement and it’s interrogated version.

Nicole McGahey- October 4, 2016

Today in class, we mainly focused on two things: evaluating how a text accomplishes its purpose, and adding specificity to our writing.

We got into our groups from yesterday, and continued to talk about the “Sinners of an Angry God” speech that we’ve been looking at since Friday.

First, we were given two questions to answer about the text:

1.What does this text do?

2. How does this text do it?

Basically, we had to explain what the purpose of the text is, and how the text accomplishes that purpose. This is called rhetorical analysis. So, for “Sinners of an Angry God,” the purpose of the speech was to urge people to obey God, or else he will punish them. The author persuades his audience by using a lot of pathos to frighten them, and very little logos.

After we discussed it, each group was given a dry-erase marker to construct a well-written thesis statement that answered the two questions above. These were the 3 thesis statements that our class wrote on the board:

1. John Edwards successfully instills fear into his audience by the use of his powerful and disturbing illustrations of hell, strong verbs, and a distressful message of God’s wrath.

2. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” strikes fear into the heart of the audience by the use of his threatening and ominous words.

3. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” drills fear into the audience by using pathos through intense imagery and metaphors.

As we read over the sentences that were written on the board, we underlined the verbs that were used in each one. Mr. Rivers emphasized the importance of using strong verbs in thesis statements. "Instills," "strikes," and "drills" are examples of strong verbs from the sentences above.

After that, we started to move on to our next objective, which was to modify our thesis statements and make them more specific by “interrogating” them. This means asking questions- who, what, when, where, why, and how- and adding in those details. In my group, we made our sentence more specific by changing it to this:

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” a sermon by the 18th century minister John Edwards, drills fear into the audience to stress the importance of obedience to God and prevent people from committing sin, by using pathos through intense imagery and metaphors.

As you can see, this thesis statement is more specific because it includes the details such as who wrote it, when and why he wrote it, and how he persuades his audience.

This quote demonstrates an example of imagery from the speech that provokes fear in the audience.

Jaxon Mase, October 3, 2016

Today in Mr. Rivers period 8 class, we discussed the difference in Rhetoric and Literature. we had also talked about it Friday and what the main difference that we found is that Rhetoric is Argumentative. Its used to persuay someone about a set topic like a commercial for a kids toy. Literature is more story telling rather than argumentative. An example of this is Romeo and Juliet. We then discussed Analyzing and how it must main Objective (unbiased). Our Goals set were "understand how to structure a rhetoric analysis. Evaluate how a test accomplishes its purpose." To achieve these IWBATs We looked at Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. Three different appeals used in Rhetoric writing. Ethos is an appeal to credibility, Logos is an appeal to logic, and Pathos is an appeal to emotions. Aristotle thought Pathos to be the most persuasive. To apply our knowledge of the three appeals we evaluated "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", Highlighting our designated appeal assigned by Mr. Rivers. My group had Logos and personally, it was very difficult to find any appeal to facts or logic. I did end up finding little glimpse of logic even though it felt as if the whole article is the rambling of an insane asylum occupant. The most prominate appeal in this article was Pathos. Jonathan Edwards used fear and pain to scare his audience into applying his teachings.

An Example of how Pathos can easily persuade us into doing or believing in something.