Tony Xhudo 1/27/16

Todays class was very similar to yesterday's. We got to continue watching the movie "Bowling for Columbine" while addressing some of the claims and how each of the claims are supported. One example of a claim might include weapons and violence aren't the last resort? One way Michael Moore supported this was by showing us when talking to a the head of a weapons manufacturing company their was a constant noise in the background, this noise represented the nonsense he spoke when discussing weapons are a last resort. Moore also showed the hypocritical side of things by having the camera aways visible to some kind of weapon during these scenes proving if weapons are a last resort why do we need so many. Later we also discussed how in our up coming report we would need to find a topic and a proper documentary related to said topic this is due by Monday.

Tony Xhudo, make up blog 1/26/17

In todays class we discussed some more about our upcoming report based on a documentary. Shortly after the class was back to watching "Bowling for Columbine" and we would take pauses every few minutes to discuss and analyze the directors point of view and how he supports it. Some examples of this would include when we were showed the "happiness is a warm gun" montage. It expressed his claim that Gun owners are irresponsible by showing how many people not only kill themselves with these weapons but how many people will get themselves killed by acting up around these weapons. Overall the director Michael Moore seems avid to keep gun rights more strict. This documentary gives us a clear claim and many ways to analyze how that claim is supported being a great example for when we do this on our own.

Patricia Aldrich 1.26.17

Today in class we watched Bowling for Columbine again. The author's argument still applied to gun safety and control but today he focused more on how gun owners are too irresponsible for guns. One of the claims made was that "Gun owners are not responsible enough to have such lose gun control laws". The author helped to prove his argument by using a particular shot of a mother with her child. In the shot the mother was outside clearly with other hunters and bundled up because it was presumably cold outside. The baby was crawling around outside in the tent naked. Because the mom had a naked baby it made her argument for loose gun control laws less credible. Another shot the author chose to use was militia men talking about how responsible you need to be to own a gun and then on the screen was a shot of a poster of women half naked lying on american flags. This shot showed that you can not take anything that these militia men were saying seriously which also made their argument less credible. The whole class we watched the documentary and we had to write one claim we saw and also 2-3 sentences describing how the author proves his claim.

1/26/17 Providing claims in documentaries Jake Vreeland

Today, January 25th, 2017 as a classed we continued watching and explaining the documentary Bowling for Columbine.  We are using this film as an example to pick out the claims of a documentary and explaining it.  In about a month the longest essay I have ever written will be due and it will explain the claim my documentary states.  Today the film showed a bunch of short interviews of some people.  So far none of them have to do with the incident in Columbine.  He uses the interviews to exploit the not so smart people.  He uses them with talking about guns and violence and how its not safe.  He even shows a bunch of adults bundled up with warm clothes and guns to their sides, while a baby is basically naked walking around.  He also shows the kind crazy people who operate guns and bombs.  This one man held up a loaded gun to his head like it was nothing.  For the rest of week we will watch this somewhat comedic film and analyze it more to help write our own paper.

Connor Gormley Make Up Blog

1-25-17

Today in class we started our work for our research paper. We started watching the documentary "Bowling for Columbine", which is a documentary about the school shooting that happened in Columbine, Colorado. In the beginning, we analyzed the title of the documentary. We knew what the words "bowling" and the word 'for" meant, but we discussed in our seats what Columbine meant and what its significance is. We came to the conclusion that it was the school shooting the happened in the small suburban town of Columbine, Colorado. The title is an allusion is a reference to the fact that the two school shooters went bowling before shooting up the school. Then we dove into the movie. In the beginning the director Michael Moore goes into a bank and gets a gun with a very limited background check. His argument is shown here, which is "guns are too easy to obtain in the United States." The shots that he uses in this also illustrate his point of view by showing guns on the shelf in the back to show how easily obtained. He also shows a poster of the ad to get the free gun, which shows that these guns are available to everyone. He then shows an interview with a Michigan police officer which intends to lessen the other opinion's credibility. This officer doesn't seem very smart and takes the incident too seriously. This incident where somebody was shot with his own gun after using very little caution show that gun owners are very laid-back with their gun use. At the end he adds a clip of Chris Rock to give comic relief that also aims to entertain the audience and take a break from the seriousness of the topic.

James Lynch Make Up Blog

James Lynch

Mr. Rivers

American Lit

1/25/17

Make-Up Blog

Today in class, we started off with handing in our Great Gatsby books. We were all so sorrow to be doing such a thing, but all good things must have to come to an end. Then in groups, we talked about what we need to do for our up-coming documentary research essay. We talked about the requirements for the research paper (it is in fact a lot of work, so don’t sleep on it). After this short discussion, we started to watch the documentary Bowling for Columbine. While we were watching the film, we had to determine what the argument was, and how the speaker developed and supported the argument. In the first couple of minutes, the man got a free gun just for signing up for a bank account. The argument the he may be trying to make is that it is too easy to get a gun. He supports his argument by going to the bank a getting a gun. Just as he walked out, he asked “don’t you think it is a little dangerous to be handing out guns like this” which shows his argument. Also, to support his argument, he includes a picture of the ad, in which he had the idea to get the gun, showing that anyone, and everyone can get a gun as easy as that. After this short segment of the documentary, we paused and went over the arguments that other groups came up with. We wrapped up class by going through due dates of the project. Thanks for tuning into the Lynch Blog. See you next time.

Ryan Ryersen 1-23-17

Today in class we wrapped up The Great Gatsby and started looking at our next unit which is a research paper that is based on a documentary.  Over the weekend we had to finish the narrative assignment where we had to choose a scene from The Great Gatsby and rewrite that scene from another character’s perspective. All of these narratives were combined into one collective document titled “Mega Gatsby”.  Then, we had to add at least three comments onto some of the narratives. The comments could be about three things, they could be about how this narrator's perspective makes the story different than when Nick is the narrator, they could be about how a literary device develops the scene or it could be about how a certain perspective shapes character. The class made their comments and then we began discussing the cover of the book. The cover of the book has been the original cover ever since the book’s debut in the 1920’s. The cover shows a picture of a bright city the city is purposely mushed together and hard to define. The city is blurred which represents movement either towards the city or away from it. Watching over it are 2 eyes and lips. Many students guessed that they were the eyes of Myrtle or Dr. T. J. Eckleburg. While there is no definite answer it certainly ties into the modern feel of the novel. After that discussion, Mr. Rivers introduced us into our next unit which is writing a research paper. Over the next month we will be practicing and modeling our paper’s with the documentary Bowling for Columbine. This is all in preparation for our research paper that will be due on March 2nd.

Samantha Russo- 1/20

Hello to everyone! Today in class we continued working on our summative essay on if The Great Gatsby is romantic or modern. Today at the end of class was when the essay was originally due, but Mr. Rivers decided to extend the deadline to Sunday night. Also our narrative writing is due sunday night also. Remember that it needs to be at least 500 words if you are working alone and if you dedide to work in a group every person is worth an additional 250 words. That is just about everything we did in class today, I hope everyone enjoys thier weekend!

Chloe Rippey 1/19/17

Hello all!

Tonight is a weird blog, in class today we had a sub while Mr. Rivers was in a meeting. In case you were all wondering today we worked on our summative essay whether or not The Great Gatsby is Romantic or Modern. Everyone came into class prepared with quotes and material to write about. You could either start your pre-writing today or get right to the point of writing your essay. Most people began writing their essays. Tomorrow we will continue to work on this summative. Do not forget that your Narrative writing will be due Sunday night, so be sure to get that finished! If you did it alone its 500 word minimum, and every other person you add to your group will be an additional 250+ words. I wish everyone the best of luck writing your essay tomorrow!

~ Chloe

heres a link to when Myrtle got hit by the car :) such a Romantic Tragedy 

1/18 - Justin Rhodes

Hello class,
Today we started out by discussing what will be going on for Thursday with the summative coming up, which will be a summative based on whether The Great Gatsby was a Romantic , or modern novel. You could also argue that it has both qualities of these styles in your paper. You will be required to use quotes, as well as showing strong knowledge of having read the book, with good evidence for your argument. After discussing the summative, we began to work on the Formative that will be due on Sunday. In the formative, you had to pick a character from the Great Gatsby, then select a passage involving that character. You would then rewrite a new passage from that characters perspective, creating new dialogue, as well as revealing what the character may have thought when they had been put in that situation. If you are doing this by yourself, you only have to write 500 words. For each extra group member, you have to do an extra 250 words in the assignment. In the assignment, you should have smooth transitions, as well as a good amount of dialogue within your rewritten passage.

1/17/17 - Julia Orlando

Welcome back to the classroom! Today we just did the same thing as yesterday, which was to continue and draft out narrative for Gatsby. If you were not here yesterday or today then it is to rewrite a part of Gatsby under the idea of a new narrator. For example, I am doing running over Myrtle in Gatsby's perspective and I will include his chat with Nick. The next thing we have to include is 500+ word count and 250+ words for every other person you are working with - the limit is 4. It has to be double spaced as well. The final thing is it needs to have romantic, modern, or include both of those qualities. There is not really much to discuss since it has been mainly an individual assignment for me. Happy narrative writing! It is due Sunday night ( 11:59).

1.12.17 Sarah kokoszka

Yesterday I was absent in class therefore when I came into class today I saw that we were starting class where we left off yesterday. Our topic today as was yesterday's was tragedy. What we specifically discussed about was the tragedy of Gatsbys death and all the factors that enhanced Gatsbys murder. We did some close reading in the text starting off at the part where nick goes to visit Wolfsheim. When Nick goes to visit Wolfsheim things were very sketchy. No one was in sight besides Wolfsheim and his assistant; Nick told his assistant that he wanted to see Wolfsheim but his assistant lied and told nick he was not home---- he clearly was. Once Wolfsheim realized it was nick at the door he allowed nick to come in and have a discussion. Wolfsheim told nick about how he basically takes credit for making gatsby who he was and how he cared dearly for him, but oddly did not want to attend Gatsbys funeral. He continues on how Gatsby had nothing and by the help of Wolfsheim he now had everything. This specific part enhances the tragedy of Gatsbys death because it shows how Gatsby had nothing in his younger years, and now at his death he still has nothing/nobody. Continuing on with our close reading we discussed Mr. Gatz, Gatsbys father. Mr. Gatz comes into town and starts to make things personal. Throughout the whole book we do not have a single character related to Gatsby, we have no one to tell childhood stories but once his dad comes into town for his death even more ideas get revealed. For instance, the fact that his dad calls Gatsby "Jimmy" enhances tragedy because it shows that Mr. Gatz and Gatsby had a type of realationahip, it shows that this was a pure, personal, father son relationship. Lastly we ended our class discussion talking about the last scenes of Gatsbys house. This huge, beautiful, elegant million dollar house that once held extravagant parties was now vacant and cold. Vandalized and empty the house no longer  was the place people made party memories. This emphasizes Gatsbys death even more because it shows that no one really cared for Gatsby genuinely and now his house of extravagance is now dead along with him.



An iconic photo of Jay Gatsby in the motion picture film

Lauren Zanetakos

1/9/17

P. 8

Today we started off class with the question which part of the book did you focus on. East egg, To/ from NYC or NYC
Our task was to interpret our assigned sections  and fine a high and low points of certain characters. My group focused on what happened when in New York City  . The main character of this section are Gatsby, Daisy and Tom. in the heat of the chapter the reader finally get the Tom, Gatsby duel that was just bound to happen. The truth finally comes boiling to the top and  Gatsby & Tom engage in a screaming match covering everything from Gatsby’s secret  income flow to Daisy’s affection towards both men. In this chapter we find that Nick is playing more of a spectator rather than a vocal narrator. Another event that happen at the end of the chapter was the death of Myrtle. She was killed by a hit and run driver. Tom and learns that the car that killed Myrtle was in fact Gatsby’s yellow car. When Nick confront Gatsby about the car, Gatsby admits that Daisy was the one driving. Let the record show that all day the characters were drinking non stop throughout the day.

1/9/17 - Colin Higdon

Today in English class, we were missing a lot of students due to a deca trip. There was also an assembly on Friday so Mr. Rivers's other class missed out on what we did that day. So, Mr. Rivers was kind enough to let us watch a part of The Great Gatsby movie. We started it right before the start of chapter 7 and then watched all the way up through chapter 7. We then had to answer the following question on google classroom: "What would Fitzgerald think of this film? Be specific."

Ryan Ryersen 1-6-17

Today in class we continued our study on The Great Gatsby, specifically chapter 7. We looked at chapter  7 in a document that was shared with the class. We were split into three groups one group focused on the beginning and end of the chapter specifically when they are in West Egg, one group focused on the car ride into and out of NYC and the third group focused on the time spent in NYC. I was in the group that focused on the car ride into and out of NYC. Everybody was supposed to identify specific parts of the chapter that represented a character’s high point and low point. We were looking specifically for high and low points because going from high to low is what we deemed to be tragic. On Thursday our class defined a tragedy as a rapid downfall from good fortune to bad fortune in a very short amount of time. So, we tried to analyze each character’s fortune in the beginning of the chapter compared to the end ot the document. We tried to cover each of the seven characters. For example, I focused on Tom’s low I focused on a section where Tom was talking to the policeman and Tom, usually an arrogant macho man becomes nervous and timid as he tries to cover his story. While this is bad for Tom in the scheme of things this not as bad compared to some of the other characters due to Tom’s immense amount of good fortune. In class other people focused on more tragic characters such as Gatsby who has a tragic downfall as he is now taking the blame for murder.

Brianna L- 1/6/17

In class this week each podcast group had a choice of what order to do a number of assignments. These included submitting a revised version of our Feast Review, pre-production time, and our final podcast. Now that our class Feast review is all assembled everyone is responsible for going back and editing it to make it the best it could be. This includes adding a title, changing the sequence, deleting, and tweaking. Like before every podcast groups must complete the pre-production page and plan out what they are planning to do. This helps the podcast go more smoothly. Finally groups must record there final podcast which talks about the fourth movie and ending of the chosen book. No matter what days groups chose to do each of the assignments they are all expected to be done on time. The pre-production and podcast are due today, Friday and the Feast review is due Monday. The Feast review should be edited to flow better and make sense as well as add additional info. The pre-production page should have objective and questions. The final podcast should be the best yet with good discussion questions, quotes, and evidence.

Samantha Russo 1/5/17

Today in class we continued talking about tragedy and how it tied in with chapter seven of Great Gatsby. We also looked at where each character's status was, in terms of good fortune and bad fortune, in the beginning of the chapter and how by the end of the chapter some character's status satayed the same and some changed dractically according towhat the class thought/agreed on. At the end of  class we took a survey asking us to pick one of the three parts that we focused on revealing the most tension. Depening on what classmates pick/foccused on, will dtermine the group they will go into, and dicuss the evetns tomorrow.

Robbie Gennat 1/5

Today in class we began continuing the talk about tragedy. We discussed how tragic downfalls are rapid and caused by character’s flaws. We made the distinction between romantic and modern tragic events. Romantic tragic downfalls were caused by a character's flaw. The modern downfall is also caused by a character’s flaws however the flaws are caused by systems. The discussion progressed into Chapter 7 talks. Mr. Rivers put a classic good fortune/bad fortune graph on the board and asked us to rank every character at the beginning of the chapter. We talked within our groups and then all contributed to the class board. Gatsby had the highest status, followed by Tom, then Daisy. The only characters with bad fortune are George and Myrtle. After graphing their locations, we repeated for the same characters but this time at the end of the chapter. Nick and Jordan were unaffected throughout the chapter. The biggest falls of fortune were on George, who went insane, Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom. Once complete, the class separated into 3 groups. Each group was focused on a different setting of Chapter 7 and talked about the events that happened there. We will start class tomorrow in those groups to continue talking.

Elias Frieling 1/4/17

In class today we started off discussing which is the most tragic out of 4 events, an nfl player being paid $13 million dollars this year down from $15 million, a surgeon who was texting and driving crashing her car, breaking all the bones in her hands, and never being able to walk again, a 17 year old dog getting eaten by a bear, or a failing high school student failing even harder. We thought the high school student was the most tragic since it is obvious the teaching was not trying to help the student.
We then discussed romantic endings in texts such as Rip Van Winkle and the Tell Tale Heart which have absolute good endings and and absolute bad endings.In Rip Van Winkle his wife is gone and he just gets to chill out for the rest of his days in the brand new United States. In Tell Tale Heart, the narrator goes absolutely insane and admits to killing a man because he can hear his heartbeat in the floorboards. We then discussed possible romantic endings for The Great Gatsby, such as everything being happy ever after with everyone loving and being with who they want to be with, Wilson being happy, and everyone making even more money. Then we discussed the modernist side of things where everything is not absolute and there are different perspectives. What is good to one character may be bad for another such as if Gatsby and Daisy get married, that is not so good for Tom. We also talked about our homework that is due tomorrow, read Chapter 7 and analyze how Fitzgerald creates or gets rid of tension during 3 different parts of the chapter, the two ends, on the way to NYC and back home from NYC, and the middle.

Nick Elnasser 1/4/17

Hello Class,

Today we started off by reading 4 examples of tragic scenarios and discussing which was the most tragic. My group had agreed that a 30 year old doctor getting into a car crash and losing control of his extremities was the most tragic. The class then had a discussion about the scenarios and we discussed how if you add context to each example one can become more tragic than you had originally thought. Next we went over how looking through a romantic and modernist lens can change the way you view a story. We displayed this by going over the end of Rip Van Winkle and the Tell Tale Heart. A romantic lens will always have absolutes at the end of each story whereas a modernist story will have a confusing or a complicated ending. After we took notes on that we discussed possible perfect endings for Gatsby. There was a big list of things we came up with but that was through a romantic lens. When we went through the list with a modernist lens we had to eliminate most of the things we wrote down because there would be outcomes that are not positive. Due tomorrow is Chapter 7 and to analyze where Fitzgerald releases tension in the chapter.

Chloe Rippey 1/4/17

Hello all,

Today in class we began by discussing 4 different examples and we were meant to determine which example was the most "tragic." My group had agreed upon the example of a Dr in her thirties who had been in a severe car accident and could never have full function of her hands again was the most tragic, however with adding contextualization and background to the other examples there were arguments as to how they could be just as tragic. Throughout the rest of class we continued to go over the endings of stories and went through an overview of a romantic and modernist point of view for them. Romantics will always have an absolute to the story whether it be happily ever after or a tragic ending depends on the story. A modern view on stories would have a more complicated explanation as to why it would be ending like that, with no clear distinction if it was a happy or tragic ending. We briefly went through this until we ended upon going over some possible happy endings for Gatsby. The romantic and absolute endings consisted of: everyone finding a matched love, everyone being given more wealth, and The Valley of Ashes rising up out of poverty. However the modern side to these endings would be that their would be sadness, divorce, and complications with everyone finding love. The wealth does not buy the happiness, more money does not mean more happy. Tonight for homework we have to read chapter 7 of Gatsby and to analyze where the Fitzgerald mostly builds the tension through the chapter whether that be at Tom and Daisy's house, in the car to the city, or at the NYC hotel.
Here is an example of an old tragic play that was very popular... Romeo and Juliet

1/3 Blog - Justin Rhodes

Hello class, today at the beginning of class, Mr. Rivers had assigned us new seats for the new year. As people sat down, Mrs. Kopp came in to inform us about a new class that is to be offered next year, which will teach education, its purpose, as well as how to teach a classroom itself. Then after this, we took a practice test online for grammar known as NoRedInk. The website allowed you to sign up, and asked you questions about some of your favorite things such as celebrities, tv shows, movies, and more. The purpose of this pretest was to show you where you stand with your understanding of grammar, and if you need help with grammar you could use this website, or could potentially know to go in for extra help. The pretest was based on punctuation, capitalization, and sentence structure. After the pretest was finished, you could then read your copy of Gatsby for the last couple minutes of class when done. Chapter 7 of the Great Gatsby will be due on Thursday.