Interpreting Literature Session IV Class Summary 4/15/15

with Angela Harris

Intro: To Kill a Mockingbird

After a journal/free-write on courage, we learned about our next author, Harper Lee, and how her famous manuscript almost became one with the slush-ridden New York City streets (it's true!).

As always, we spent time understanding the cultural and historical context of our next novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. We reviewed some basic facts about the Great Depression, viewed an important (read: will be on the final quiz) timeline of events from the 1930's to the 1960's, and took a few minutes to understand the Jim Crow laws of the post-Civil War South.

---

MLA Format

This biggest take-away from this week's class, other than understanding the context of our novel, is implementing Modern Language Association Format with regard to Works Cited (bibliography) at the end of all four of our essays this session.

Two handouts were posted to the Community Page (one example of a Works Cited page and one handout with reminders/bullet points). Everything you need to complete a successful Works Cited is on these handouts. Please let me know if there is any confusion; I am always happy to clarify/answer additional questions.

Remember to check the syllabus for all homework (reading, vocab, short answer) and of course, the essay prompt. This week's prompt should not cause you much trouble. Remember to pick a character you admire. Identify three ethical qualities you admire about that character (we're still working in threes here to easily construct a five-paragraph essay) and support with quotes from the book. Don't forget everything you learned last session about citing sources within your essay. Now, you're going to add a Works Cited at the end. The only works cited for this paper will be quotes from the text; our next and last paper will require outside research, therefore, your first paper will only have one Works Cited entry--easy, right?

See you next week. We will be doing either one or two more meetings via Google Hangout, and then by May 6th we will switch to the new online classroom by WizIQ. Crossing fingers that it's a great experience! :)