Assignments for week of September 7, 2009

Dear class,
It was fabulous getting to know you better during the AP Summer Institute. I am very excited about this upcoming year. This year you will become even better readers, writers, and thinkers!

Below, please find the assignments and supplies needed for the first week of class.

• 500 word essay assignment and text of A streetcar Named Desire is due Wednesday.
• Vocabulary quiz Thursday.
• Review the Common Application and select a topic--begin brainstorming ideas. We will most likely address the elements of the college application essay on Friday. The link to othe application is: https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/CommonApp2010.pdf
  

Supplies:

1. 1 folder
2. 1 composition book
3. 1 notebook/binder with which to take notes
4. 1 binder for handouts (to stay in-class)
5. Several blue or black pens
   I also recommend you obtain a stack of index cards for future use with vocabulary

Please feel free to discuss with me if you are unable to obtain any of the above supplies due to financial hardship.

Mini Essay on A Streetcar Named Desire:

This mini essay will be an exercise in being concise. Please select one of the literary elements below and write a mini essay (around 500 words, which is one page single-spaced or two pages double-spaced) about that element in A Streetcar Named Desire and how Tennessee Williams uses that element to achieve some type of purpose or goal in his writing.
1. Names of people & places (include symbolism)
2. Theme: Past vs. Present (include ideas of the Old South)
3. Theme: Reality vs. Illusion (include bathing/ cleanliness and madness)
4. Motif: Light/ Darkness/ Shadows (include symbolism, use in stage directions)
5. Music & sounds (include symbolism, how music is used in stage directions, etc.)
6. Themes: Gender roles and class issues
7. Theme: Youth vs. Age (include Death as a theme)
8. Character development-- Blanche Du Bois
9. Character development-- Stella Kowalski
10. Character development-- Stanley Kowalski
11. Character development—Mitch
12. Eunice & Steve as foils for Stanley & Stella
13. Theme: Desire
14. Setting-- (interior/exterior, internal/ external, private/public)
15. Stella's conflict-- between Stanley & Blanche (Blanche vs. Stanley as foils)
16. Mitch vs. Stanley & other men

Remember that even though this is only 500 words, you still need the following:• A clear, non-obvious, insightful thesis—so it needs to be something along the lines of: literary element + how Williams uses it to achieve his purpose as a writer• Specific quotations and examples from the text• An organizational scheme/ development of your argument• You must have a conclusion, but the conclusion may be only a sentence or two—it doesn’t have to be a whole paragraph

Please bring in a rough draft on September 9 for a peer-editing exercise.

The final copy will be due on Friday, September 11. (Revised dates)