Click here to access the study guide for A Separate Peace.

Click here to play to Lord of the Flies review game.

Click here for health survey!

American Literature Students: Click here for the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism Webquest - Answer carefully and fully and in complete sentences. (This assignment is for Friday. On Thursday, do the Criteron assignment below.)

Criterion Assignment - November 13, 2008.

1. Go to http://criterion28.ets.org/cwe/.
2. Click on "Go to the Criterion Student Website."
3. Click on "Log In."
4. Enter your username and password. For most, the username will be first name, a period, then last name, all lowercase (ex: chloe.smith) and the password will be your student ID number. If this is not the case, and you cannot remember your username and password, see the sub, for he/she has a list.
(Some already have accounts from another class; this is fine, so log in that way. If you cannot log in, type in Open Office and then save to your Ifolders.)
5. Click "Continue."
6. Click on the essay that corresponds to your class: 4th Hour Honors = "Inspiring Teacher," 10th grade = "Leadership," and American Literature = "Fictional Character."
8. Get typing! You should type at least five paragraphs, and have the whole of the hour with which to work. Proofread and edit carefully!

Hawthorne Quiz - 60 points

Answer the following questions carefully, using complete sentences and well-structured paragraphing. Be sure to answer all parts of each question!

1. Why do you think Dr. Heidegger conducted his experiment? What do you think he learned from it? What about his guests – what did they learn? Cite at least three specific examples from the text to support your answers.

2. Were the events of “Young Goodman Brown” a dream or reality? Using specific and relevant examples from your reading, explain your answer in a well-written paragraph.

3. How does Reverend Hooper’s black veil function as a symbol in the story? Trace Hooper’s use of the veil and its effects on him and the people of his community. What does the black veil symbolize?

[Extra Credit] After reading these three stories, you should have a good idea about Hawthorne’s thoughts on human nature. How does he see society? What are his views on human nature? Choose at least one character from each story to illustrate your answer.

Hello everybody. As you can see, I am not here today. You've worn me to the nub, and I need a day to recuperate. (I actually need a year or so, but this is beside the point.)

Anyway, your assignments.

1st and 6th Hours: Get the two Lord of the Flies vocabulary sheets from the sub, and use the one (the definitions) to do the other (the two-sided fill in the blank page). Also, be sure that you have read pp. 1-28 in the novel. There will be a quiz Monday.

3rd Hour: Get the "Minister's Black Veil" grammar sheet from the sub, and do it. The sub will collect it at the end of the hour. Also, finish reading "The Minister's Black Veil."

4th Hour: If you've not already done so, get the new Things Fall Apart vocabulary activity. (Those who didn't attend the field trip have already done it.) Also, be sure you've read ch. 14-19 by Monday.

5th and 7th Hour: Click here to read "Young Goodman Brown." There will be a quiz Monday.

Enjoy my absence and behave. I'll see you Monday (hopefully).

Best,
Signor Brugioni

In some states, legislators have debated whether teenagers should be required to maintain a “C” grade average in school before receiving a driver’s license. Some people think this would be a good policy because having passing grades shows that students are responsible enough to be good drivers. Other people think such a policy would not be appropriate because they see no relationship between grades in school and driving skills. In your opinion, should teenagers be required to maintain a “C” average in school before receiving a driver’s license? In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write about either one of the two points of view given, or you may present a different point of view on this question. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.
Assignment Name:
Gr 10 Good Grades

To create a Criterion account...

1. Go to http://criterion28.ets.org/cwe/.
2. Click on "Go to the Criterion Student Website."
3. Click on "Register."
4. Type the Access ID and the Password - I will write them on the board.
5. Fill in your information.
a. Your username is your first name, a period, and your last name: daniel.brugioni
b. Your password is your four digit student ID number.
c. If you have an e-mail address, please enter it!
6. Click on the essay that corresponds to your class: 10th grade = "Good Grades," and 11th grade = "Community Service."
7. Get typing!

If you already have a Criterion account.

1. Go to http://criterion28.ets.org/cwe/.
2. Click on "Go to the Criterion Student Website."
3. Click on "Add Class."
4. Enter your username and password (I will give it to you.)
5. Click "Continue."
6. Type the Access ID and the Password - I will write them on the board. Click continue.
7. Click on the essay that corresponds to your class: 10th grade = "Good Grades," and 11th grade = "Community Service."
8. Get typing!

Click here for the Afrika Webquest. You may e-mail me the answers - brugiond@yahoo.com - or save them to your Ifolders. Answers are due Wednesday.

Click here to play the Lord of the Flies Game.

Richard Connell Web Quest

Where was Richard born?

What are the titles of five Richard Connell novels?

Name three of his short stories.

How much would a copy of The Mad Lover cost online?

How many of his stories remain in print today?

To create a blogspot webpage...

Go to www.blogger.com.
Click on “Create Your Blog Now” – an orange arrow.
Fill in your personal information.
Password should be one you will remember. It can be the same one you use for Myspace or Facebook.
Your display name is your full name.

Be sure to click the “I Accept the Terms of Service” box, and then click “Continue.”
Your blog title is whatever you want it to be. Example: Mr. B’s Blog.
Your URL is your web address. It cannot have spaces. An example: http://www.snakeday.blogspot.com. This is what people will type into their web browsers to access your page. If the URL is already taken, choose another.
Click the “Continue” arrow again.
Choose a template, click on it, then click “Continue.”
Click on “Start Blogging.”

To publish:

Type directly into the text box…or paste from the word processor, and then click “Publish Post.” You may add a title (“Reflection” or “Persuasive Essay” if you want.)
Click “View Blog” to see your post.

If you already have a blog, but have forgotten the password:

Go to www.blogger.com and type your e-mail address into the login box.
Click the small question mark next to the word password above the password login box.
If you know your blog’s URL (the website address - www.snakeday.blogspot.com -) enter it. If you don’t, just reenter your e-mail address.
Type in the word they have given you.
Log in to your e-mail account, open the message from blogger, and follow the directions to retrieve your password information.

"One by one, the guests arrive - the guests are coming through." - Leonard Cohen

Welcome back to school! Though it is summer still, I will endeavor to make your first days back bright, fun, comfortable, and productive.

Check back here often for make-up work, quizzes, tests, pictures of Mr. Brugioni when he was in his awkward adolescent stage, links to stories, etc...

Click here for the best dunk ever.

"Granny Weatherall" Quiz - 50 points

1. Who takes care of Granny?
2. What is the main event of the story?
3. What event does the title of the story refer to?
4. Describe Hapsy - be specific!
5. Who did Ellen marry? Describe her relationship with this man.

Odyssey Quiz

1. Why is Odysseus able to withstand Circe's charms?
2. Whom does Odysseus visit in the land of the dead?
3. What prediction does Circe make to Odysseus about his journey home?
4. What two monsters does Odysseus pass after facing the sirens?
5. What do the men do on Thrinakia that gets them into trouble?

Act 5, Scene 1 Quiz



1. What bad omens does Cassius report to Messala?

2. What do Brutus and Cassius say to each other just before heading into battle?

3. Who leads the forces opposing Brutus and Cassius?

4. What does Anthony call Octavius?

5. The battle takes place on Cassius' ___________ on the plains of ___________.

1. What does Harry dream about at the end of "The Snows of Kilimanjaro"?


2. What is the meaning of "Ngàje Ngài"?
a. Beware the Leopard
b. House of the Holy
c. House of the Leopard
d. House of God

3. What secret does Harry never confess to Helen?
a. He was unfaithful to her.
b. He never loved her.
c. He gave his last morphine pills to Williamson.
d. He lived in a poor neighborhood of Paris when he was a boy.

4. What is Harry referring to when he says, "Never believe any of that about a scythe and a skull"?
a. The use of mysticism to cheat death
b. The traditional, African symbols of death
c. The traditional, Western symbols of death
d. The legend of what lay at the summit of Kilimanjaro

5. Respond to the story. How would you feel if you were in Harry's position? How would your reaction compare/ contrast with his? If you were in that situation, what memories would you ponder? What do you want to write about before you die? Use specfic and concrete examples from the story to elucidate your points.

6. Summarize the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in your own words.

Ambrose Bierce
The Boarded Window
In 1830, only a few miles away from what is now the great city of Cincinnati, lay an immense and almost unbroken forest. The whole region was sparsely settled by people of the frontier - restless souls who no sooner had hewn fairly habitable homes out of the wilderness and attained to that degree of prosperity which today we should call indigence, than, impelled by some mysterious impulse of their nature, they abandoned all and pushed farther westward, to encounter new perils and privations in the effort to regain the meagre comforts which they had voluntarily renounced. Many of them had already forsaken that region for the remoter settlements, but among those remaining was one who had been of those first arriving. He lived alone in a house of logs surrounded on all sides by the great forest, of whose gloom and silence he seemed a part, for no one had ever known him to smile nor speak a needless word. His simple wants were supplied by the sale or barter of skins of wild animals in the river town, for not a thing did he grow upon the land which, if needful, he might have claimed by right of undisturbed possession. There were evidences of "improvement" - a few acres of ground immediately about the house had once been cleared of its trees, the decayed stumps of which were half concealed by the new growth that had been suffered to repair the ravage wrought by the axe. Apparently the man's zeal for agriculture had burned with a failing flame, expiring in penitential ashes.

The little log house, with its chimney of sticks, its roof of warping clapboards weighted with traversing poles and its "chinking" of clay, had a single door and, directly opposite, a window. The latter, however, was boarded up - nobody could remember a time when it was not. And none knew why it was so closed; certainly not because of the occupant's dislike of light and air, for on those rare occasions when a hunter had passed that lonely spot the recluse had commonly been seen sunning himself on his doorstep if heaven had provided sunshine for his need. I fancy there are few persons living today who ever knew the secret of that window, but I am one, as you shall see.

The man's name was said to be Murlock. He was apparently seventy years old, actually about fifty. Something besides years had had a hand in his ageing. His hair and long, full beard were white, his grey, lustreless eyes sunken, his face singularly seamed with wrinkles which appeared to belong to two intersecting systems. In figure he was tall and spare, with a stoop of the shoulders - a burden bearer. I never saw him; these particulars I learned from my grandfather, from whom also I got the man's story when I was a lad. He had known him when living near by in that early day.

< 2 > One day Murlock was found in his cabin, dead. It was not a time and place for coroners and newspapers, and I suppose it was agreed that he had died from natural causes or I should have been told, and should remember. I know only that with what was probably a sense of the fitness of things the body was buried near the cabin, alongside the grave of his wife, who had preceded him by so many years that local tradition had retained hardly a hint of her existence. That closes the final chapter of this true story - excepting, indeed, the circumstance that many years afterward, in company with an equally intrepid spirit, I penetrated to the place and ventured near enough to the ruined cabin to throw a stone against it, and ran away to avoid the ghost which every well-informed boy thereabout knew haunted the spot. But there is an earlier chapter - that supplied by my grandfather. When Murlock built his cabin and began laying sturdily about with his axe to hew out a farm - the rifle, meanwhile, his means of support - he was young, strong and full of hope. In that eastern country whence he came he had married, as was the fashion, a young woman in all ways worthy of his honest devotion, who shared the dangers and privations of his lot with a willing spirit and light heart. There is no known record of her name; of her charms of mind and person tradition is silent and the doubter is at liberty to entertain his doubt; but God forbid that I should share it! Of their affection and happiness there is abundant assurance in every added day of the man's widowed life; for what but the magnetism of a blessed memory could have chained that venturesome spirit to a lot like that? One day Murlock returned from gunning in a distant part of the forest to find his wife prostrate with fever, and delirious. There was no physician within miles, no neighbour; nor was she in a condition to be left, to summon help. So he set about the task of nursing her back to health, but at the end of the third day she fell into unconsciousness arid so passed away, apparently, with never a gleam of returning reason. From what we know of a nature like his we may venture to sketch in some of the details of the outline picture drawn by my grandfather. When convinced that she was dead, Murlock had sense enough to remember that the dead must be prepared for burial. In performance of this sacred duty he blundered now and again, did certain things incorrectly, and others which he did correctly were done over and over. His occasional failures to accomplish some simple and ordinary act filled him with astonishment, like that of a drunken man who wonders at the suspension of familiar natural laws. He was surprised, too, that he did not weep - surprised and a little ashamed; surely it is unkind not to weep for the dead. "Tomorrow," he said aloud, "I shall have to make the coffin arid dig the grave; and then I shall miss her, when she is no longer in sight; but now - she is dead, of course, but it is all right - it must be all right, somehow. Things cannot be so bad as they seem."
< 3 > He stood over the body in the fading light, adjusting the hair and putting the finishing touches to the simple toilet, doing all mechanically, with soulless care. And still through his consciousness ran an undersense of conviction that all was right - that he should have her again as before, and everything explained. He had had no experience in grief; his capacity had not been enlarged by use. His heart could not contain it all, nor his imagination rightly conceive it. He did not know he was so hard struck; that knowledge would come later, and never go. Grief is an artist of powers as various as the instruments upon which he plays his dirges for the dead, evoking from some the sharpest, shrillest notes, from others the low, grave chords that throb recurrent like the slow beating of a distant drum. Some natures it startles; some it stupefies. To one it comes like the stroke of an arrow, stinging all the sensibilities to a keener life; to another as the blow of a bludgeon, which in crushing benumbs. We may conceive Murlock to have been that way affected, for (and here we are upon surer ground than that of conjecture) no sooner had he finished his pious work than, sinking into a chair by the side of the table upon which the body lay, and noting how white the profile showed in the deepening gloom, he laid his arms upon the table's edge, and dropped his face into them, tearless yet and unutterably weary. At that moment came in through the open window a long, wailing sound like the cry of a lost child in the far deeps of the darkening woods! But the man did not move. Again, and nearer than before, sounded that unearthly cry upon his failing sense. Perhaps it was a wild beast; perhaps it was a dream. For Murlock was asleep. Some hours later, as it afterward appeared, this unfaithful watcher awoke and lifting his head from his arms intently listened - he knew not why. There in the black darkness by the side of the dead, recalling all without a shock, he strained his eyes to see - he knew not what. His senses were all alert, his breath was suspended, his blood had stilled its tides as if to assist the silence. Who - what had waked him, and where was it?
< 4 > Suddenly the table shook beneath his arms, and at the same moment he heard, or fancied that he heard, a light, soft step - another - sounds as of bare feet upon the floor! He was terrified beyond the power to cry out or move. Perforce he waited - waited there in the darkness through seeming centuries of such dread as one may know, yet live to tell. He tried vainly to speak the dead woman's name, vainly to stretch forth his hand across the table to learn if she were there. His throat was powerless, his arms and hands were like lead. Then occurred something most frightful. Some heavy body seemed hurled against the table with an impetus that pushed it against his breast so sharply as nearly to overthrow him, and at the same instant he heard and felt the fall of something upon the floor with so violent a thump that the whole house was shaken by the impact. A scuffling ensued, and a confusion of sounds impossible to describe. Murlock had risen to his feet. Fear had by excess forfeited control of his faculties. He flung his hands upon the table. Nothing was there! There is a point at which terror may turn to madness; and madness incites to action. With no definite intent, from no motive but the wayward impulse of a madman, Murlock sprang to the wall, with a little groping seized his loaded rifle, and without aim discharged it. By the flash which lit up the room with a vivid illumination, he saw an enormous panther dragging the dead woman toward the window, its teeth fixed in her throat! Then there were darkness blacker than before, and silence; and when he returned to consciousness the sun was high and the wood vocal with songs of birds. The body lay near the window, where the beast had left it when frightened away by the flash and report of the rifle. The clothing was deranged, the long hair in disorder, the limbs lay anyhow. From the throat, dreadfully lacerated, had issued a pool of blood not yet entirely coagulated. The ribbon with which he had bound the wrists was broken; the hands were tightly clenched. Between the teeth was a fragment of the animal's ear. top

Write a poem, of at least ten lines, relating in some way to either winter or spring. You will present your poem (out loud) on Wednesday, February 4, 2009. Be sure use plenty of sensory details, and to describe things in fresh, new ways.

Use the following links to help your writing.

Alliteration: http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/alliteration.html
Assonance: http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/assonance.html
Slant Rhyming: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_rhyme
Internal Rhyming: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_rhyme
Extended Metaphor: http://www.changingminds.org/techniques/language/metaphor/extended_metaphor.htm
Onomatopoeia: http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/onomatopoeia.html

The House With a Clock in Its Walls Webquest.

Answer the following questions (with the word processor) and e-mail your answers (either as an attachment or inline text) to brugiond@yahoo.com - or print them.

1. In what city is the novel set? Describe it.
2. What is Lewis's dad's name?
3. Name three other novels featuring Lewis.
4. Describe Lewis in a few well-written sentences. Then draw a picture of him.
5. Where did the "Black Hope Horror" haunting supposedly take place? Describe it.
6. Do you believe in ghosts? In a well-written paragraph, tell why you do or don't, and try to convince others to see your side.
7. Respond to this picture in any way you see fit.

Some links to help your search:

Lewis Barnavelt, New Zebedee, John Bellairs

Green Flash

She said meet me on the shoal
Where the red moonlight lingers
Where hot wind whispers on the boles
Bright waters glowing with green flash
She led me down to the banks of Mbini
She said my friend you’re so cold and dead
She wrapped me in her silence and then began to sing
While the shadows fell on my riverbed

We’ll lean on the soft machines
And make up rhymes to the sun
And drink tea over maps of islands
And drop foreign coins in fountains

The dust of spirits
Hums low malaguenas
Of painted landscape
Of broken circle
I’ve many questions
For the boatmen
Who haunt the shoreline
Of el Rio Bonito
I woke at dawn to the rattle of rain
When the mist draped over the thick yellow river
She caressed my skin with the music of whispers
We descended to the banks and knelt in the eddies

I said I can’t open my eyes
I said I’m hot and river blind
I’ve lain through this echoing evening
In dim purgatorial musings

Onchocerciasis
A swarm of insects
A backlit canvas
Of dancing shadow
I feel the light falling on swollen arms
The purging of springtime’s network of rivers
I feel the soft gasp of memory’s fading
Licking my wounds with her sweet muddy tongue

The locusts buzz and hum
I murmur that all is darkness
I’ve lost the streets and the cities
The bending hills of forgotten islands
I dream of Coriolanus
The doomed march of rotten heroes
I dream of airports and slums
The slow lap of waves on a rowboat

Click here for Shakespeare's Online Text.

Background on the Salem Witch Trials - Use these links to answer the questions below. http://www.salemwitchmuseum.com/

1. Approximately when did the Salem witch trials take place?

2. What are some possible causes for the hysteria in Salem?

3. Who was Samuel Parrish?

4. Who was Tituba?

5. What event concerning the Parrish children ignited the hysteria?

6. Who was Cotton Mather?

7. What types of punishment were used for those accused of witchcraft?

8. What happened to those who did not confess to witchcraft?

9. How many lives did the Salem trials ultimately claim?


Background on McCarthyism - More links, more questions. http://encarta.msn.com/

1. What did Senator Joseph McCarthy have to do with the Red Scare of the 1950’s?

2. What political situation prompted the hysteria during the Red Scare?

3. What is the HUAC and what did it set out to do in the 1940’s and 1950’s?

4. What were blacklists and who was most likely to be named to these lists?

5. What happened to those accused by Joseph McCarthy and the HUAC?

6. What kinds of trials or hearings were held? Were they fair or not?

7. What questions were accused people asked?

8. How many were found guilty? Any famous people?

9. What ultimately happened to his investigation?

Barfs: Click here to read the article. Then go to your blogger page and respond to the following prompt.

What did you think of the article? How do you think Paul Baumer would react to it? How might one use this article to reinforce an arguement that war is futile and unnecessary?

Here is the address for Ifolders:http://moodle.lakeridge.k12.in.us/ifolder/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fifolder%2fiFolders.aspx!
Type or copy it into the URL bar if the link to the right doesn't work. You can also click here.

Freshmen: Click here to read the modern-text translation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

World War One Webquest

1. Research the following new weapons that were developed for use in the Great War and explain how they changed the face of war. Weapons to explore: flamethrower, tank, machine gun, submarine, airplane, and 3" mortar.

2. Explain what "no man's land" was and draw an illustration of it.

3. How was gas used as a biological weapon in the Great War? What types of gas were used, and what were their effects?

4. What was life like in the trenches for the typical German soldier?

5. We've discussed (briefly) the concept of an unreliable narrator. (Think of the multi-named protagonist from "Reconnaissance.") What are the characteristics of an unreliable narrator? How does this effect/ affect the plot of a story?

6. True or false: You should get a copy of All Quiet on the Western Front by Friday. Answer in 5 pages or less, demonstrating grade-level appropriate control of diction and tone.

7. How did Americans view the war before American involvement? Did this opinion change once the United States was involved? If so, how?

8. What happened at Verdun that made it so notorious?

Click here to start your search. You may also use such search engine sites as Google or Yahoo, or browse Wikipedia. Remember, plagarism is strictly prohibited! Use vivid sensory details in your answers, and don't be afraid to be unusual. Your anwsers are due Wednesday, so get crackin' weiners.

Daniel: Draw the following: snake, bear, square, dog.