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Hello, Guest. Welcome to my homepage!
Name:
K. Matlack
E-mail address: kmatlack@hackettstown.org Phone number: (908) 852-8150
Availability: During lunch Tuesday through Friday and after school in A26-- other times by appointment
Grading Policy: All assignments are given a point value from 5-200. At the end of the semester, your grade is determined by adding your total points earned and dividing the sum by the total points available.
Expectations: Each day, you are expected to be prepared, attentive, and respectful.
English III
Essential Questions- Renaissance Unit:
- What are the philosophical, political, religious, and social influences of this eras?
- How does our contemporary society reflect the Renaissance Era's "Carpe Diem" philosophy?
- How does the universal appeal of fairy tales reflect Renaissance attitudes?
- How were the women's rights movement of the Renaissance and the 1960's similar?
- How is the Humanism movement of the Renaissance reflected in our culture today?
- What are the responsibilities of a leader?
Enduring Understandings:
- The desire to "live for today" because of our fear of tomorrow is common throughout history, as reflected in literature.
- The literature of all cultures/traditions have magical stories which symbolize the quest for existence without restraint.
- Women have made slow but steady progress in their demand for human rights.
- The question of what it means to be human and the quest to find intrinsic value in life is universal and insatiable.
- Leaders, regardless of how they came to be in power, have an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to those in their care.
Works under consideration: Renaissance poetry (including the works of Marlowe, Raleigh, Shakespeare, Donne, Jonson, and Milton), essays of Bacon and Queen Elizabeth I, and Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth
Parallel Texts: Because it shares the common theme of the responsibilities of a leader (and those of followers, as well), and raises common questions about our human nature, we will be reading Lord of the Flies. Further, we will view contemporary re-tellings of Macbeth -- PBS's Macbeth with Patrick Stewart, and BBC's Shakespeare Retold.
Creative Writing Creative writing involves the production of texts which have an aesthetic rather than a purely informative or pragmatic purpose. These texts may take the form of poems, stories, journal entries, blogs, or essays and rely on intuition, close observation, imagination, and personal memories.
Essential questions for Creative Writing:
- Who am I as a writer?
- How can I use what I’ve learned in all my years of English class to become a better creative writer?
- How can becoming a better writer help me become a better reader? How can becoming a better reader help me become a better writer?
- How does being a constructive critic help me become a better writer? How do my critiques help create a community of writers and readers?
- How does creative writing matter to my life? To the world?
Enduring Understandings for Creative Writing:
- Writing expands understanding of the world, its people, and oneself.
- Writing is a reflective process.
- Writing is a multi-stage process.
- Writing benefits from collaboration and feedback.
- Language is a means of self-expression.
- Writers communicate insight into the human condition.
- Writers compose original works with different purposes in mind.
- Writers explore the depth of human conflicts, motivations, and behaviors.
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Written language conventions ( structure, mechanics, spelling, and punctuation) are necessary elements of effective communication |
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