5/29 taking advantage while the net is up

Doing this quickly while I can, since I do not know if the net will go out again in fifteen seconds or not.

Juniors: Here is the link to your final exam questions. I have instructed the proctors to allow the Barth story and your WW pieces as well as handwritten notes, books, and graded essays.

Sophomores: Here is the link to your final exam questions.


Good luck!

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5/28 Weekend Update #3

Important message for Juniors:

As of 4:50, only 2/3 of the class has responded to the exam survey. While the majority does favor getting the prompt this afternoon, I cannot in good conscience provide an advantage that enormous when a third of the class will not receive it. (Sorry!)

It's OK. You will have tomorrow evening to prep the exam. And I will tell you this much: the "Lost in the Funhouse" question will be the subject of group discussion for the entire period tomorrow. If you spend time this evening exploring the layers of meaning within that story, you will bring more to your group and help yourself to answer the essay question far more substantially.

Note: I am aware that there are online sources to help with this story. Anyone whose essay sounds like these sources will lose a significant percentage of its grade.

See you tomorrow!

Don't forget the Course Evaluation!

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5/27 weekend update #2

For the link to the course evaluation and the extra credit, check yesterday's blog post.

Today we will discuss your final exams.

Sophomores:


The exam will consist of two or three essay questions that will ask you to discuss issues and concepts related to the literature we have read this year from the novels to the poetry in Sound and Sense to the short stories in Short Fiction.

We brainstormed a list of stories on Friday and I am sorry to say that I did not copy it down. If someone did, please email it to me and I will put the full list on here. But some titles I recall are:

• "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
• The Kate Chopin Stories
• "Girl"
• "Barbie-Q"
• "Car Crash While Hitchhiking"
• "Hills Like White Elephants"
• "The Cask of Amontillado"
• "The Fall of the House of Usher"
• "The Yellow Wallpaper"
• "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"

You do not need to be thoroughly familiar with everything we have read. No essay will ask you to discuss any story specifically. You will be given questions such as:

Select any two pieces of literature we have read this year and discuss the author's choice of narrator. What does this choice do to add to the objective of the story?

As you can see, this kind of question can be answered with almost any two books or stories and in many different ways. So in order to study for this exam what you should do is this:

• Review all of what you have read, especially the books.
• Decide on a few of the stories and a few of the poems to focus on, and review these more carefully and in more detail. Review the books too, but obviously this is more a matter of reminding yourself what they were about and what the writing style and characters were.
• Use a highlighter to find and prepare interesting quotes in these pieces that you might fine useful, depending on the question you are asked.
• Don't try to do everything; it will drive you crazy. Just do a few things really well.

I have not yet written the actual questions. If you check tomorrow for Update #3, I will have done so and can be more specific.

Juniors:


Your final exam will consist of two questions. You will receive both questions in advance and be able to prep your answers fully. I have not decided whether to give them to you on Tuesday or perhaps to give them to you tomorrow. Tomorrow gives you more time but it ruins your Memorial Day. Please take a second to let me know your preference by going to Edline and voting.

There will be an update tomorrow either way.

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