English 8 students moved from “From the Book” to “From my Head” (the second “H” in the “bHh” of the title). We’re looking at three questions to pull information from kids’ heads:

• What surprised me?
• What did the author think I already knew?
• What changed, challenged, or confirmed your thinking?

We applied this to chapter 3 of Nightjohn.

English I Honors students began the third and final paragraph in the short story unit, working on Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” or O’Henry’s “Gift of the Magi.” We began by going over the story from yesterday, planning a paragraph together, which turned out to be fairly similar to the model paragraph I’d created earlier:

The ironic ending of “Peter and Rosa” in which an experienced sea captain wrecks his ship in broad daylight is created through the way in which the symbols of the eyes and figurehead in the story actually affect the things symbolized. For example, the captain declares that not only is his ship’s figurehead like his wife but because “[the ship] is you yourself.” From the very beginning, the author is blurring the lines between symbol and symbolized. Having the captain declare that the figurehead is not just like the wife but is the wife obliterates the difference between the symbol and the symbolized. This happens immediately in the opening, throwing the reader off-balance. Additionally, this lack of balance is heightened when the captain declares that the figurehead’s blue gems are his wife’s eyes, insisting that she “would not ask [him] to [give her the gems] if [she] understood.” Clearly, the sea captain understands that the symbols and the things symbolized have merged. He likely would have never set sail had he known that his wife had switched the gems for glass. It is because he does not know about the switch that he ultimately wrecks his ship. Thus, the irony of wrecking the ship in broad daylight comes from the merging of the symbol and the thing symbolized.

Afterward, the kids paired up based on whether they wanted to analyze “The Necklace” or “Gift of the Magi.”

Homework

• English 8 Studies: none.
• English I Honors: 
  • complete your TS for this final paragraph;
  • determine some quotes you can use for your CDs;
  • work on Quizlet and IXL as necessary.