10/31 Justin Rhodes

Hello class, today we learned about mood and tone, and how it applies to text, as well as films or plays. Through watching these films and reading these texts we would analyze the mood of each, as well as listing contributing factors to the mood. We read "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe, as well as watching 2 films to see mood. After watching the films, we then analyzed them with the people in our group.

October 27

Hello Class!
For the last couple of weeks in English, we have been learning the importance of being able to recognize the different elements there are to American Romanticism. By looking at different texts, the class has learned to distinguish the differences between a Realist's point of view versus a Romantic's. Today in class, we were given more practice by continuing to pull apart Diedrich Knickerbocker's "Rip Van Wrinkle", a story of a man who ponders on what life is like outdoors, away from the negativity of his life. With a partner, students examined the text in depth and found one example in the story that corresponded with each of one of the elements of Romanticism. Still unsure on what exactly those elements are? I will be attaching a link to a website that goes over most of the ones we use in class. There are a few extra on the list that we don't use specifically in class, but they are just a few more examples of what a Romantic appreciates in literature.
Until next time,
Torey Prol
http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-least-6-main-characteristics-romantic-229437

10/27/16 Tony Xhudo Blog

Todays class was another day as usual where we discussed the parts of American literature. In specific we discussed more about Romanticism and how the transition from rationalism occurred. The class received more time to review the "Rip Van Winkle" document and find more characteristics of romanticism. As well as look at some of the very same nature that inspired these Romantics through a website called the Hidden World of the Natural Parks. Both the website and the Van Winkle document are posted on google classroom.

10-26-16 Connor Gormley

Hello classmates. Today in class we looked at how art played a role in romanticism instead of just poetry. We viewed the painting "The Valley of Yosemite" by Albert Bierstadt. The painting is shown below. The artist shows the beauty of nature by showing a calmness. As a class we dissected this painting and found some of the reasons why this would be considered a romantic piece. Some reasons are that the water is smooth and calm, it is unspoiled nature without human interaction, and the animals in this are all peaceful animals instead of predators. The other picture shown below is an actual picture of Yosemite valley. One of the most notable things that is different is the lack of water. Bierstadt most likely made this change was to give a more calming painting. We then looked at a picture from Mr. Rivers' vacation of Yosemite and analyzed various parts of that, including his brother who was still salty for forgetting his camera. We were then told to get into groups of no more than 2. We were told to analyze a book called "RIP Van Winkle" by Diedrich Knickerbocker. We have to find all 10 examples of romanticism in the story. The origin of this story is quite interesting. The writer's real name is Washington Irving and he was an aspiring author who wasn't selling stories so he made up a story about a tenant who wasn't paying his rent in his hotel and he was going to release the manuscripts if he didn't pay up. This made Irving's books fly of the shelf.

Julia Orlando 10/26

Welcome back class! Of course we began class by grabbing our laptops and getting in our seats - the usual deal. Mr. Rivers pulled up a painting by Albert Bierstadt of Yosemite park in California. He talked about how this painted after a trip to America and how Bierstadt brought this back to Germany to show the beauty of the park. After that we talked in our groups briefly about romanticism in the picture before opening it up to the class. We talked about how the colors could be alluding to future inspiration - dark to light or light to dark- and how that represents romanticism. The water can represent calmness/ enlightenment in the picture and how things are not so obnoxious and clunky in the picture. The colors are relatively in the same color grid so it makes everything look particularly nice. Since most of us do not what Yosemite actually looks like, he showed us the real one and we - as a class- momentarily talked about the differences between the painting that shows romanticism and the photography that does but not as much. The actual photograph provokes new romantic feelings that one can interpret as their own.

Mr. Rivers then posted an assignment that asks us to analyze the 10 elements of romanticism in Rip Van Winkle by  Diedrich Knickerbocker ( Actually Washington Irving). Also to write an alternate ending and what this shows about America. You and a partner ( or on your own) have time to do this in class but it’s not due today. Hopefully you got some progress done today!

10/25/16 Bayleigh Takacs

Tuesday, October 25th, 2016          

Today we continued our study of romanticism. Romanticism is characterized as being more involved with emotions, appreciates nature or natural beauty, and supports youthful innocence. We revisited the Walt Whitman poem, “When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer,” we started to analyze. Throughout the poem we were assigned to find how many characteristics of romanticism we have previously noted in our notes. We then moved on to work with our groups; we discussed what characteristics we were able to find within the poem. Groups shared their findings with appropriate reasoning and textual evidence. We closed class with viewing of a film, Dead Poets Society, and were assigned to find what characteristics of romanticism we could find.

Kurz

Today in class we investigated the poem, “when i heard the learn’d astronomer” by walt whitman. We spent time as groups figuring out how each of the tem characteristics of American Romanticism were incorporated into the poem. After analyzing the poem, we also compared it to how the romanticism can be found even in paintings. We looked at a painting that had a blotchy colored background with a rigid,dull, gray suit in the center, representing rationalism, contrasting  the organic, colored background representing romanticism. Towards the end of class and watched a clip from “Dead Poets Society” and discovered how the American Romanticism Characteristics could be found in films.

Kurz

Today in class we investigated the poem, “when i heard the learn’d astronomer” by walt whitman. We spent time as groups figuring out how each of the tem characteristics of American Romanticism were incorporated into the poem. After analyzing the poem, we also compared it to how the romanticism can be found even in paintings. We looked at a painting that had a blotchy colored background with a rigid,dull, gray suit in the center, representing rationalism, contrasting  the organic, colored background representing romanticism. Towards the end of class and watched a clip from “Dead Poets Society” and discovered how the American Romanticism Characteristics could be found in films.

October 24th, 2016

Howdy! I hope you'll be back tomorrow and ready to learn because we sure did miss you today. We started class today by reviewing the sub work from Friday. Remember? It was the romantic and rationalist paragraphs on a topic. I shared my paragraphs on cars. After that we reviewed the characteristics of romantic writing. We learned a couple more characteristics. The notes are on the classroom in a PowerPoint. After that we analyzed Walt Whitman writing. He's Mr Rivers's favorite writer and I could see why. We read a poem about a Learnd Astronomer. We then decided which characteristics the poem embodied. The poem had a lot of characteristics and that's where we ended for the day.  We will continue tomorrow right where we left off.
P.S. Who's your favorite Supreme Court justice?

Ryan Ryersen 10-21-16

Today in class, since Mr. Rivers was absent, we did an assignment comparing the views of people from the Romantic Period(approximately 1800-1860) and Rationalist thinkers who were more prominent in the period leading up to the romantic period(approximately 1750-1800). The rationalists focused the majority of their rhetoric was based on logic this evident in texts such as Common Sense by Thomas Paine. As the “pendulum” swung back to predominantly focusing on emotion as the main form of rhetoric. This pendulum swing was not just in America it was also taking place in Europe this is shown in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein which is based on emotion more than logic. These time periods coincide with historical events during this time period. During this 50 year span arguably the most prominent revolutions in history, the American Revolution and the French Revolution, both using logos in order to realise that the current institution was unfair. Conversely, in the romantic period, in American history, it is considered “The era of Good Feelings” because of the influx of new American artwork, writing and music, all of which are characteristic of the romantic period. So, in class we had to use the perspectives of these two contrasting ideologies and apply them to them to something. I chose school, I wrote about how a rationalist would be more in favor than a romantic. With that being said, a rationalist would still critique school, such as insisting that lunches are shorter and that classes such as music and art be omitted. I said a romantic would find school to be institutionalized they encourage things such as a less rigid schedule and less standardized testing. Other people in the class wrote about modern things such as apps and sports. Even though, these time periods were very long ago, they can still be applied to modern day topics. The picture below shows the struggle between romanticism and rationalism.

Samantha Russo- 10/20

Hello class,
So today was back to the regular class ritual where many notes were taken. Today in class we analyzed changes in literary and historical trends, we also talked a little bout how romanticism and rationalism contrast. First, Mr. Rivers gave us the question "What would a rationalist say about your morning yesterday?" The class had mostly agreed that a rationalist would like the idea of the test scores and the data the scores reflect, the fact that there were four sections for everyone, it will familiarize students with the format of the test, and because of all these factors it is most definitely not a waste of time. Some other opinions had shared that rationalists would not accept the logic behind the test. The next question that Mr. Rivers asked was "What would a rationalist say about your afternoon yesterday?", Some people said that a rationalist would have thought it was a good logical idea after four hours of testing, others claimed that a rationalist would have thought oh my goodness all they did was look at trees what a pointless waste of time. The second part of the class started out with the products of rationalism for example the Industrial Revolution and milestones that lead to romanticism like the Louisiana Purchase. Then, mr. rivers went on to explain the characteristics of romanticism which are the following: Values feeling and intuition over reason, places faith in inner experiences and the power of the imagination, shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature, prefers youthful innocence to educate sophistication. There are a few more, and I found this to be a very interesting topic, but that is all we got to in class today!
Samantha Russo

Gillian Kee 10/20/16

Today in class we discussed literacy and romanticism:

• First: started with talking about rationalism: 
• What would a rationalist think about the PSATs?
• They would think they are important
• Love the idea of scores 
• may reject the logic of the test itself
• What would a rationalist think about our class yesterday(going outside)? 
• a WASTE of time 
• mindless 
• pointless 
• a logical necessity for a student to have to go outside after 4 hours of testing. 
• Second: American Romanticism
• Characteristics: 
• values, feelings, intuition over reason (trust your emotions over logic) 
• places faith in inner experience 
• shuns (to reject) the artificially of civilization and seek unspoiled nature 
• prefer youthful innocence of educated adults. 
• Products of rationalism:
• political and social milestones:
• Louisianan Purchase
• gold rush 
• education reform 
• Industrial Revolution 
• writers contemplate the positives and negatives of industrializing 

These are my notes from our class period on 10/20/16, we just discussed the differences between a rationalist and romanticism. At the end of class we discussed how a romanticist would feel about religion (we did not take notes on this yet), they would feel having faith is good, but god itself is a lie. Hope this sums up and helps with what you may have missed.

Chloe Rippey-10/19/16

Hey class!

Today was a different day then we would normally see. Taking the PSAT from seven till eleven, we had a very draining morning. The test had consisted of two english sections and two math sections. The english had been broken down into a reading section and the writing and grammar section. The concept of the PSAT is to help prepare ourselves for taking the SAT this year. The SAT is a standardized test unlike any other test you have taken before and depending on your scores it may help you get into a great college. Having a short lunch immediately after the test our next class was english! Mr. Rivers being the amazing teacher that he is brought us outside on a fun little field trip. We read a poem written by Walt Whitman in 1855 called “Leaves of Grass.” While reading this poem, taking in the sweet smell of autumn, our class wrote down any feelings we were feeling in that moment. Today, an extremely warm day, I was feeling warm and relaxed taking in the beautiful colors of the leaves on the trees. We had the opportunity to walk around and to take in the environment and our surroundings or to sit and enjoy the peace. After this fun activity we handed in our paper once we got back inside in the classroom and that was our english class for the day.

Chloe :)

Justin Rhodes - October 18th, 2016

Hello classmates,
Today, the class started out with a summative assessment. In this assessment, we were tested on three main points. Our ability to analyze the rhetoric of the text (what it does, and how it does it). We also had to identify how rhetorical devices contribute to the overall appeal of a text. And the last thing we were assessed on was our ability to make changes to a text to indicate a different kind of rhetoric. The summative was worth a total of 60 points, and took the whole class period. In order to test us on all these skills, we were given a slideshow of excerpts of different texts, as well as classmate pieces and we were tested on each of the following main points listed above. With the slide show we had to pull out certain pieces and analyze them, identify the contribution of rhetorical devices to the overall appeal, as well as analyzing what the text does, and how it did it.

Sean Patrick Scully III (In Relief of Robert Gennat) - 17 October 2016

Hello fellow classmates,
In relief of Robert Gennat, who was absent today, I will inform you of today's class, and the occurrences within our classroom. Our wonderful teacher, Mr.Rivers, began the class by reiterating what we must know to effectively succeed in tomorrow's in-class exam. This included; What is the text's purpose? and how does he accomplish it?; Identify the rhetoric and how it changes the text's appeal;Identify how the change in rhetoric changes the tone of the reading. To further prepare us for the summative tomorrow, we were given practice that involved selecting a situation of our own, to prepare a persuasive speech for, using different rhetoric appeals. We all began using a logos, or logical appeal within our speech, and after using two pieces of evidence in that, we adapted that speech to either pathos or ethos, whichever one we chose. Mr.Rivers walked around the classroom to ensure our success in this preparation activity, and now each student within the classroom is effectively prepared to succeed in the following day's exam.

10-17-16 Torey Prol
Hey Everyone!
Today Mr. Rivers opened class with the content that will be on tomorrow's quiz, which is on literary devices, defining rhetoric, analyzing text, and how to alter a given text to change its rhetoric. The class seemed pretty overwhelmed when the slide popped up from the overhead and the teacher was beginning to get bombarded with questions. Someone even raised their hand and asked the million dollar question, "Well, how are we supposed to analyze text and change it to get a different meaning?" and luckily, Mr. Rivers had the answer.
He set us up with classwork that had included us writing a mini speech, but before we wrote it, Mr. Rivers had us pick a person from a specific point of view, whether that've been age, job, or social status and give a speech as if we were that person. Next he had us choose our target audience, that had the same types of people as the ones we chose from before.  After we had our two types of people picked, we had to select a verb explaining what our own text would do to the audience affected. The first time we wrote our speech, the class was told to appeal to the Logos (facts, statistics) point of our individual arguments. We then learned how to change our speeches to cater towards the Pathos or Ethos of our argument to find different viewpoints of our writing.
I think Mr. Rivers's exercise really helped the class understand how to analyze text, especially since it was our own writing that we were changing.
See you all tomorrow!
Torey

Julia Orlando - 10/14/16

Hello class! Welcome bag to the blog website for tonight. At the beginning of class we talked about the essay that will occur on Tuesday and what we will have to do. Basically, we get a few passages and have to give a rhetorical analysis, analyze rhetorical devices, or both of those combined. We then completed an individual assignment where we had to pick a political campaign ad - a video specifically - and analyze it. A political one does not necessarily mean presidential but it can be local too! On the slide you have to pick blue if your campaign uses logos or red if your campaign uses pathos. The next thing you have to do is find a link and claim your slide before you write your rhetorical paragraph. In your rhetorical paragraph you should describe what it does using quotes/ or evidence from the video and explain how that refers to logos or pathos. Looking through the class presentations - I see that pathos is more a popular appeal especially since well most of us do have feelings. For my campaign I checked out a campaign ad called Mirrors which is trying to provoke a pathos feeling of sadness to see a certain political candidate bash women for their bodies. Link will be below. Another thing is in case you missed it, we were allowed to work with partners or individually so if you weren’t here no need to feel like you missed anything! You can do this right at home. Thanks for tuning into todays blog post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHGPbl-werw

Nick Elnasser 10/13/16

The class is now able to use and apply a historical lens to writing to evaluate the writer's thoughts based on the time they wrote it. For example, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" was written in 1741 which is right before the Great Awakening. Sinners uses pathos to strike fear and guilt into the audience rather than use logos to explain why the author is saying what he is. In "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine which is written in 1776, after the Great Awakening and during the American Revolution. Paine uses logos much more than Sinners did to explain the reasoning behind what he is saying. He started Common Sense out by saying, "In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense." Paine was actually using his brain to figure things out instead of scaring people into doing things with emotion. After we were done discussing Sinners and Common Sense we went into advantages and dangers of rationalism.  Some of the advantages of rationalism are that now there was an objective and scientific view of the universe, logic and reason would help establish infrastructure, numbers and statistics justify decision making meaning there was a singular best choice backed by numbers, and the idea that education is important. However, there is a few dangers of rationalism such as there being no room for religion and during the time period slavery was justified based on previous numbers and statistics. This led us to the end of class.

   

James Lynch 10/13/16

James Lynch

Mr. Rivers

CP English 10

10/13/16

Today In class we talked about how history is just trends that occur over time (and space). Also, how different people view history, or any subject, differently. People look at those things through a “historic lens” which is how someone views history. It can make some details vivid and other details dull. As a whole class, we talked about how Thomas Paine’s book, Common Sense, talks to a more educated audience, and uses logos, throughout the writing. In the writing, The Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, makes the reader feel guilt, shame, and fear throughout the writing, and also uses pathos throughout the writing to provoke emotion from the reader. He also makes the reader feel accused, and talks to the audience, whereas in Thomas Paine’s writing he sparks patriotism by using words like “we” and “us”. After we talked in groups, we talked about how each writing had different moods. Sinners mood was more dark, and angry/fearful, and Common sense was more casual. Later during the class, we talked about the rise of rationalism (18th-mid 19th century). Advantages of rationalism are having logic and reason to help establish organization, and it makes us as students realize that education is important. Afterwards, we talked about dangers of rationalism, how there is no room for religion, and who are the ones who control education. Rationalism is a part of the growth of America. That is all we talked about in class today, thanks for tuning in to the Rivers blog.

Alexis Reeder 10/11/16

The class is now able to apply a historical lens to identify literary and rhetoric trends and evaluate how changes in writing reflect changes in history, philosophy, and culture. A lens affects how something is viewed and also makes certain details vivid and others dull. Trends are patterns all around us which makes culture much easier to follow. Culture is the different types of societies all around us. History is recorded information/events of the past (written word). It's also trends that happened over time (and space). Historical lens develops reciprocal relationships. Philosophy is the study of knowledge, reality, and existence of oneself. The text reinforces history and the history reinforces the text.

In class, we discussed, What does

“Sinners” teach us about the Great Awakening (1730-1745)?  We all agreed that the text was religion is not always uplifting and people without an education, have No say in an argument or agreement. In history, society is run by religion and education is always reliable.

Nick Colaco 10/11/16

Today's class objectives were to be able to look at literary and rhetorical devices in writing by using a historical lens and to identify how changes in writing represent changes that occur in history ( events which occurred in the past), philosophy (  study of beliefs and ideas), and culture ( the way that groups of people act, traditions). We began by understanding what using a lens to look at writing does. A lens is something that changes the way we look at or perceive what something is.  We then defined history as trends over time ( and space) and discussed that using a historical lens when looking at literature develops a reciprocal relationship ( back and forth),  meaning that the more we understand the history of the time a piece was written, the better we could understand the written piece itself. An example of this is that American literature is related to American history and the literature began at the time that our history began. Another example is that "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" shows us that at the time it was written (1741) the colonies were undergoing a religious awakening which is reflected in the writing. We then divided into groups of 2 and discussed how "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine differed rhetorically from "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

Coralyn Kurz-October 11th, 2016

Today's objectives in class were to be able to apply a historical lens to identify literary and rhetorical trends, as well as being able to evaluate how changes in writing reflects changes in history (past events documented), philosophy (the way people think), and culture (the way groups of people act or dress). First we defined what a lens was and what it did. A lens is how something is viewed, it makes somethings vivid and others dull. We also determined that history can be defined as trends over time (and space). A historical lens develops a reciprocal relationship. In class we analyzed what "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" taught us about the great awakening's time period. The text was a religious speech using pathos to say the country needs to change to find faith, through this we were able to determine it was a religious time period when they thought people were in need of faith, people liked to argue in front of an audience, they used less logic and more emotion. Through different texts and speeches we are able to determine what different time periods in our history are like.

10/7/16 -Ben Dottinger

Friday’s class was a continuation of the rhetorical analysis we have been conducting and practicing over the past week on 18th century preacher Jonathan Edwards’s speech “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. Over the past couple days, groups have been constructing thesis statements and revising them to answer two questions: what is the purpose of Jonathan Edwards’s speech, and how he accomplishes his purpose. Following the thesis statements, the group reconvened and drafted topic sentences that could fit into an essay discussing Edwards’s style and his rhetoric.
However, Friday did not just focus on Jonathan Edwards. Friday focused on practicing what we have been learning in the field of rhetorical analysis to analyze arguments being made in an episode of “The Office”. We watched an episode where the company was trying to decide what to do with a $4300 surplus. Pam Beasley believed it would be in the company’s best interest to invest in new chairs, while Oscar believed a new copier was of higher priority. As both sides gathered support, different methods were used to attempt to persuade Michael Scott (the manager) to join their side. Pam employed ethos by explaining that everyone sits, including her, and she continues this statement with logos by saying that everyone would benefit from new chairs then. She also utilized pathos by flirting with Michael. Oscar, on the other hand, used logos by explaining that although not everybody makes copies daily, the copier is very outdated, and since they’re a paper company, it would be in their best interest to ensure maximum efficiency when making copies. Michael decides to buy a fur coat instead, disappointing everyone in the office equally. In the picture below, we see a picture of Michael's new coat that he destroys literally seconds after walking out of the store.

Zabrina Branning Blog 10/6/16

Today in class, 10/6/16, we went over how our writing should be Objective over Subjective. We spent the first ten minutes or so going over and defining these two words, learning how they should be applied to our writing.
Subjective: (Biased)
How the 'subject' views/analyzes the 'object'
Ex. Mr Rivers bikes into town.
       Subject     What the subject is doing.
Uses statements like: "I feel..." or "The audience feels..."
Uses words like 'I' or 'You', helps get a point across, or persuade
Objective:
-Represents anything







Ex. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (Though you cant physically hold the speech itself...just paper, but not the words...)
Look at it as an object  Push objectivity
Avoid words like 'I' or You', you don't want them in this kind of writing.

Focus on the object, a thing that stays the same.
After this lesson we worked on our original and interrogated thesis statements and topic sentences to create our own body paragraph in an essay. 
Interrogate: to ask questions
Who, what, where, when, why, how.

Gillian Kee 10/6/2016

Today we focused on topic sentences and thesis. We focused on when to use "You and I" in sentence, the difference between subjective and objective, and when making your writing stronger add more information.
We also started to write a body paragraph for "Sinners", I started my body paragraph today, but did not finish (you can use this as an example):
          In “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God”, Edwards provokes fear into his audience not to sin because if they do they will be punished. He explains that when you do sin god will punish you in terrible ways,  “O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell” (Edwards).  This quote is provoking fear because it is saying that one is held over hell and will be brought closer every time one sins.

Subjective:	Objective
Without bias	The object itself
Person (the one who does things)	“Sinners in the hands of an angry God”
In text- that which views/ analyzes the object	A thing we can break down and analyze
Each subject can see the object as something different

The subject analyzes the object

• You and I(when to use it):
• Don't use these in rhetorical analysis or writing, try to stay objective in your writing.
• DO NOT put your opinion in your Rhetorical writing  
• When making your writing stronger:
• Add more information:
• WHO
• WHAT
• WHERE
• WHEN
• WHY

10/5/16 - Colin Higdon

Today in class we continued working on thesis statements about the speech "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" written by Jonathan Edwards n 1741. The thesis statement was about what the speech did. My group's thesis statement was about how the speech persuades people by evoking a certain fear of going to hell due to the sins they have committed. After we were finished interrogating our thesis statements, to interrogate means to ask questions, we started to come up with topic sentences for our writing. Our topic sentences were based off of our thesis statement. One of my group's original topic sentences were "Sinners in the hands of an angry god" uses pathos to try and relate to the audience in Massachusetts. After "interrogating" the sentence we came up with "Edwards creates fear through the use of metaphors of not attending mass on a daily basis, claiming god will gain hatred towards those sinners. We continued practicing interrogating our sentences and we then put them on google classroom at the end of class.   

10/5/16 blog - Jimmy Bliss

Jimmy Bliss

On Wednesday, October 5th, Mr. Rivers instructed us to work with our groups that were assigned on Monday, some divided into groups as little as 4, and other groups were larger, consisting on 6 or 7 students. In these groups we were told to create a thesis statement about the speech "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by 18th century philosopher Jonathan Edwards. Our thesis statement was about how the speech persuaded the audience to perform certain actions, and how the action that has been performed will alter their life. For example, in the speech, Edwards uses imagery to persuade the reader to go to church, and in doing so, will allow the reader to live a happier and healthier life, and in doing so, will result in a spiritual connection with God. If one does not follow his directions, God will be angry and will punish that person. After we created our thesis statements, we were instructed to strengthen our thesis statements by making them more specific, and able to answer the question words who, what, where, when, why and how. After these strengthened thesis statements were constructed, we started working on topic sentences that would make our essays stronger. My group used pathos as an example, and explained that by not attending church, God will be angry and punish you. If one attended church regularly, god will not punish you, and will reward you. We, then, strengthened our topic sentences to break down the text even further. We spent the entire class period working on the instructions given above.    

10-4-2016 Connor Gormley

Today our IWBAT were to evaluate how a text establishes purpose and interrogate my text to add specificity in my writing. We got into our groups from yesterday and created sentences that told of the purpose of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. After constructing these sentences we shared them on the board, my groups was, "Jonathan Edwards's speech beseeches the reader to attend mass  which results in a happy life" TO clean up your topic sentence you can take out "to be verbs" such as is, was, were, am, and are. After construction these we realized that these sentences could be  either claims, topic sentences, or thesis sentences. We learned how to construct more advanced thesis sentences. A basic sentence would be "TEXT TITLE' used pathos, logos, and ethos to PURPOSE." To make better sentences using INTERROGATIVE ADVERBS is a major key. These are who, what, when, where, when, why, and how. By doing this my group and I revised our sentence to "Jonathan Edwards's, and 1800's preacher, speech beseeches the reader to attend mass by using fear and imitation which results in a happy life and a spiritual connection with God.

Olivia Agius 9/30/16

Today in class Mr. Rivers was absent, so our work was on google classroom. We looked at a passage called "Sinners In The Hands of an Angry G/d" by Jonathan Edwards. This was about how G/d deals with sinners, and how wrong to sin is. Our job was to read it and as a group find sentences that had literary devices plugged into it. These literary devices came from the literary toolbox we created in class this past week. While reading and pulling out literary devices, my group discovered a lot. There was hyperboles, personification, and an overwhelming amount of imagery throughout the text, along with more devices. We were to post three examples of literary devices that we discovered as group on classroom. For example, "However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of G/d, it is nothing but his mere pleasure...." (Edwards). This is an example of a polysyndeton, which is a literary device that repeats conjunctions such as and or but. The entire class has posted them on Google Classroom.

Patricia Aldrich- 10.3.16

Today in class Mr. Rivers showed us a an SAT question and explained that even though some parts of the question will change depending on our SAT, the structure of the question will remain the same. It was basically asking to analyze the view of the author and argue how it argued the author's point. Since we were talking about persuading we then reflected on what we went over on Friday about rhetoric vs literary works of writing. Rhetoric is persuasive.=, and literary is explaining a story. After that we talked about the clown hoax for a little while. We used logos (stats), ethos (credibility), and pathos (emotion), while talking about them. Mr. Rivers was explaining how the clown hoax was playing with pathos by inflicting fear on us. From there we went on to how to properly structure an argument.... you would structure the argument by using pathos, ethos, and or logos. You have to be conscientious of your audience however when you use one because you need to make sure what you are using will help to strengthen your argument. After that we read sinners and highlighted either ethos pathos or logos. My group did ethos and it was hard because there wasn't really any credible sources that popped out at you, you had to kind of dig deep, so we highlighted anything that referenced God. Then we changed groups so we could see what other people had said and we went through and found a lot of pathos in Sinners but also not a lot of logos. There really were no stats, only 3 things were highlighted.

October 3rd, 2016. A Post by Robbie Gennat.

Today began like every other day of English with Mr. Rivers; he said "let's dive right in!" The first activity we did was look a writing prompt. The prompt was from the college board website and was very similar to the essay question that is on the SAT. We read the prompt and then decided what kind of analysis we were doing. The prompt was asking us to do a rhetorical analysis. Then, as a class we reviewed the difference between literary and rhetorical writing. In case you have forgot, literary tells a story and has a plot whereas rhetorical is argumentative and is meant to persuade. From there, we redefined the rhetorical devices of ethos, pathos, and logos. To close class, we split into six groups. Three groups had the first page of the sinners text we read yesterday, while the other three groups had the next page. The three groups then choose which rhetorical pyramid device they wanted to highlight and analysis in the text. After reading the text and highlighting, we all scattered to share with other groups what we found and why. Class today was fun not because the stuff we did, but how we did it. Rivers sprinkled in his comedic charm whenever it seemed fit and that made class today fly by. I hope you are caught up now and ready to continue learning tomorrow. If you have any questions on what we did today, feel free to ask me in school tomorrow.