Dear Class,

There is no video unit or forum this week, because we will be meeting in person at the college on Saturday July 29. Finish reading Ceremony (use the readers' guides) and BRING the book to class that day. I'm afraid that, due to my travel schedule, I have to push back the start of class to 10:00. So please mark your calendar/schedule so you'll remember that we'll be meeting at TEN AM, not Nine.

We'll start off with our in-class quiz (so arrive on time at 10:00AM!), and here's what you need to know about that quiz: to prepare, know Ceremony inside and out. Finish reading it, of course, but also spend some time analyzing it: think about its major ideas, its recurring themes, patterns in the language, the ways narrative works, the overlapping time frames, the links between the poetry and the prose story, what various characters and objects represent, key words, and more. The quiz will offer you some lines from the novel and ask you to analyze the language carefully: your responses should demonstrate close-reading skills with the words on the page right in front of you, as well as your ideas about the novel as a whole as they relate to the language right there.

We'll then spend some time discussing the novel, but we will also spend some time going over the first paper assignment and how to do well on that first paper. We'll also look ahead to the rest of the semester. The assignment sheet, along with another PowerPoint about how to do well on the two papers, is now available under "Student Resources."

I look forward to seeing you! Bring your ideas and questions about Ceremony!