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Bear with me...
Hey Everyone!
This is the first time I've actually committed to doing this whole blog-thing, so bear with me. :-) I've created this site for us to use as a place of discussion for the texts we will read for the rest of the school year. Since this class is supposed to ready you for college, and much of education is now online, you need to be exposed to online discussions of texts, (if you haven't been already). What's great about this is it can help spark class discussions over what we are reading and just keep communication open about different texts. College professors won't just assign you reading, they will also assume you can have an intelligent conversation about what you've read. So dive in and give this a shot!!! :-)
This is the first time I've actually committed to doing this whole blog-thing, so bear with me. :-) I've created this site for us to use as a place of discussion for the texts we will read for the rest of the school year. Since this class is supposed to ready you for college, and much of education is now online, you need to be exposed to online discussions of texts, (if you haven't been already). What's great about this is it can help spark class discussions over what we are reading and just keep communication open about different texts. College professors won't just assign you reading, they will also assume you can have an intelligent conversation about what you've read. So dive in and give this a shot!!! :-)
Expectations
Choose a quote you have encountered during your reading and respond to it in at least one decent sized paragraph. You should also be continuously reading in your choice non-fiction book. In addition to the reading responses, I would also like you to comment once a week on someone else's post. Whether you agree or disagree, it doesn't matter. You also do not have to be reading the same nonfiction choice as that other person. Maybe you have a question about the novel, or maybe you have read it before and have a comment about their response. All totaled, I would like you to complete three posts a week. Two of those can be your own posts about the text you are reading, but at least one of the three posts needs to be in response to someone else's post.
This is a major part of your grade and will effect not only participation, but will go in the grade book as separate reading response grades. Feel free to email me with any questions you might have regarding this. My email is: mtinkham@msad9.org
This is a major part of your grade and will effect not only participation, but will go in the grade book as separate reading response grades. Feel free to email me with any questions you might have regarding this. My email is: mtinkham@msad9.org
"I think my father is like the holy trinity with three people in him, the one in morning with the paper, the one at night with the stories and the prayers, and the one that does the bad thing and comes home with the smell of whiskey and wants us to die for Ireland." pg. 210
ReplyDeleteI love this quote because it reflects Frank's love for his father. Even though his father is a very lousy father because he spends all his time and money in the pubs drinking while his family goes hungry, Frank realizes he loves his father anyway because he has moments when he is sober that make up for it (according to Frank's 11 year old mind).
This is one of my personal favorites. I am putting this on here because it is the poem that Frank recites and learns when he is in the hospital recovering from typhoid fever. The girl in the bed next to him who had dyptheria taught him the poem but unfortunately she died. Frank spent 2 and a half months recovering from typhoid fever. Because his family was so poor, he came down with it and almost died. I will put a quote from it in my next blog.
ReplyDeleteAlfred Noyes (1880-1958)
The Highwayman
PART ONE
I
THE wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
II
He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.
III
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
IV
And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—
V
"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."
VI
He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonliglt, and galloped away to the West.
PART TWO
I
He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;
And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
A red-coat troop came marching—
Marching—marching—
King George's men came matching, up to the old inn-door.
II
They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!
There was death at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.
III
They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
"Now, keep good watch!" and they kissed her.
She heard the dead man say—
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!
IV
She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!
V
The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain .
VI
Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear;
Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still!
VII
Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.
VIII
He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.
IX
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.
* * * * * *
X
And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A highwayman comes riding—
Riding—riding—
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.
XI
Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard;
He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
"The day passes and I'm in and out of sleep. Malachy and Michael come into the bed at night and I can hear Malachy say, Frankie is very hot. He's bleeding on my leg. Mam puts the wet rag on my nose and a key on my neck but it won't stop the bleeding. On Sunday morning there's blood on my chest and all around me. Mam tells dad I'm bleeding through my bottom and he says I might have a case of the runs, which is common with the growing pains." pg. 191
ReplyDeleteHow stupid can the father be!?! Obviously he is bleeding to death. Sorry this is such a disgusting quote but it shows how ignorant his family is. They don't know when something is seriously wrong.
I wanted to give a little bit of a background on the McCourts:
ReplyDelete-They had Frankie and Malachy (named after the father) in America
where the parents met.
-Then they moved back to Ireland by means of transportation to Dublin.
- Then moved to Limerick next to the Shannon river (which their father says causes all the sickness and dampness).
-Most of the time the family is on the dole which is a relief system set up by the Irish government because their father doesn't keep a job for more than a week or so. He also has a hard time finding a job because he has a North Ireland accent (hello discrimination)
-they live in a two room apartment which becomes one room during the winter when the bottom floor (the kitchen) floods. The kids never have shoes without holes, the beds have fleas, and the only out house for the street is in the entry way of the kitchen so they have flies and a massive stench during the summer.
-they are Catholic and are always told to pray for the lost souls of the Presbytarians (sorry that is probably spelled wrong).
He also gets conjunctivitis. However this is the kind of pink eye where he looses his eye lashes and there are sores all the way around his eye. To treat it the doctors used brown liquid which Frank thinks is iodine...... Gross, apparently the doctors know about as much as the parents do when it comes to medical issues.
ReplyDeleteThere is one thing I have learned a lot so far from this book and that is that the Irish sing to help cope with life. Mostly though in Frank's life he sees his father sing only when he is drunk. However, his mother sings when his father keeps a job and gives her money for food. I also found myself hungry after reading for an extended period because Frank is so poor that he is constantly looking for food. I normally hate potatoes but when he talks about salted margarine potatoes my mouth waters.
ReplyDeleteI just found out this book is a movie, and I am highly curious so I think I might rent it. It's good to always read a book before a movie though because the book is usually better and has more detail. I have a feeling that I won't feel the same after the movie. With the book, I feel like I am greatful for my lifestyle. I appreciate a warm shower and food every night. However with the movie I might just watch it feel moved and forget the next day.
ReplyDeleteThis book ended strongly even though it was a cliff hanger. I would recommend this book to any high schooler or adult because it makes you appreciate a good meal. I feel lucky for my life afterwards, Frank didn't even have a shower. And the only toilet for their lane is in their house which entails a lot of chamber pots....that is nasty. I am grateful to have read Frank McCourt's story.
ReplyDelete