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Record Your ResultsO Open your Multiple Choice chart in your Google AP Lit
folder and record your results:O Test name = 2009O 55 questions
O For the grade: 100% = 70% on the test (38 correct). 1 pt e/c 39 and above
O Copy of test for your reference.O Return ALL bubble sheets and tests to front table.O This year’s student average = 72%
O High score = 91% (Anyone who scored over 89% can opt out of the next practice test scheduled for 4-25. )
O Next, create a document in your AP Lit folder called “Babbitt.” Then close your lid and take out your annotated copy of Ch. 1 of Babbitt.
Seven Minute Passage strategy
O Let’s say you just run out of time. Many students struggle to work through all four or five passages. If you just have a few minutes left for a last passage, don’t give up. Do this:
O Don’t read the passage at all. Not one word. Go straight to the questions.
O Answer them in this order of priority:1. Answer any literary term or grammar question.2. Answer any question that asks for the meaning of a
single word or phrase.3. Go to any other question that gives you a line
reference.4. Go to any question on tone or attitude5. Bubble blanks before the time is up. No penalty for
guessing.
Excerpt from Babbitt
by Sinclair LewisWorking with satire, diction, setting,
and characterization
Sinclair LewisO 1885 - 1951O Best known as social critic with critical
views of American society and capitalism after WWI
O 1930 – wins Noble Prize for literature – first American to do so
O Babbitt – O best-selling novel published 1922O characteristic of his style that combines
wit, humor, and sympathy
Satire O A term used to describe any form of
literature that blends ironic humor and wit (sometimes sarcasm) with criticism for the purpose of ridiculing folly, vice, stupidity--the whole range of human foibles and frailties--in individuals and institutions.
O The end goal of satire is to bring about change. It blends a censorious attitude with humor and wit for improving human institutions or humanity - a moral purpose.
Two ingredients for successful satire
O 1) either wit, humor based on the ability to relate seemingly disparate things so as to illuminate or amuse, or humor based on a sense of the absurdO "Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply
calisthenics with words" (Dorothy Parker).O Sarcasm is a form of caustic wit intended to
wound or ridicule another.
O 2) a target
Other ingredientsO Almost always involves some use of irony
O a: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning
O b: a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony
O Hyperbole = exaggeration for effectO Incongruity – a kind of irony that brings together two ideas (or
events or people) that do not belong together). Incongruous = “not fitting together”
O Some satire employs fantasy – the creation of a world where common sense has collapsed (Alice in Wonderland, 1985)
Sometimes fantasy turns to the absurd or the grotesque, and we can get what is known as gallows humor. (Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal suggests cannibalism as a solution to an economic problem – it’s in the anthology if you want to read it.)
* www.merriam-webster.com
With your partnerO Make a list of what Lewis is satirizing
in this chapter.O Share ideas – write on the board.
Sample character analysis paragraph
O In the first paragraph, Dickens’s narrator reveals his central character directly by what he says. Gradgrind’s tone is confident, authoritative, perhaps obstinate and arrogant. He is clearly a man who “knows best”; in fact, he knows the “only” way to form young minds. Dickens provides direct description in paragraph two. The “square wall of a forehead” and “two dark caves” for his eyes both suggest a Neanderthal-like being. Moreover, the description of Gradgrind’s hair presents him as quite ridiculous looking, as an object of ridicule. Another method at work here is carefully chosen diction. “Monotonous,” “inflexible,” “dictatorial,” “obstinate,” “unaccommodating,” and “stubborn” all directly contribute to the characterization; they “all helped the emphasis,” in the words of the narrator, of Gradgrind as one whose supreme confidence may grind on the nerves of those he encouters .
Quick writeO Discuss with partner: How does
Lewis use language to characterize Babbitt?
O Write a thesis statement.
Assignment for tomorrowO Look over together.O https://
docs.google.com/a/k12.sd.us/document/d/1G2kBbdCs7xKty59etj8UG8j0vfJR610a4DwN1jtxZ8k/edit?usp=sharing
O No late work – we will be using in class.
Babbitt, day 2
AP Test Tip of the Day:So what?
O Conceptual sentences must be followed with evidence. And all evidence must be explained.
O Analyze the line/words from the text, and explain how the quotation works as evidence for your assertion. Answer the question, "So what?"
O How?O Why?O What is the effect?O So what?O So what?O So what?
Looking ahead: O A: For Tuesday:O 1. Read the poem "The Unknown Citizen" by W. H. Auden p. 489 in lit..
Answer, in writing, the following questions: O 1. Explain the allusion and the irony in the title. Why was the citizen
“unknown”? O 2. This obituary of an unknown state “hero” was apparently prepared by a
functionary of the state. Give an account of the citizen’s life and character from Auden’s own point of view.
O 3. What trends in modern life and social organization does the poem satirize?
O 2. Read the poem “Departmental” by Robert Frost p. 788 and answer, in writing, the For Analysis and the Writing Topic questions.
O 3. Compare and contrast “The Unknown Citizen” with “Departmental” in content and manner. You may write in paragraph form, or you may create a visual to show the comparisons and contrasts (Venn diagram, T-chart, etc.). Deep analysis either way!
O No late work. O Bring your anthologies to class Tuesday. You will be turning them
in.
Babbitt continuedO Share analysis paragraphs.
O First with your neighbor.O Now, random “magic card” with class.O See Brett’s sample, LHS Class of 2012
O Everyone: Write another analysis paragraph analyzing Lewis’s use of diction in the final section, connecting his use of language to his main ideas.
