English 11 Essays and Assignments Here's the first assignment: Poem Summary and Character Declaration As you know, good readers make textual connections. These textual connections are text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world. Well be reviewing each of these textual connections throughout the course. For this assignment, youll be making a text-to-text connection. Text-to-text connections are more than superficially comparing characters from one book to another. I often hear students try to pawn off a text-to-text connection such as, A character in Book A answered the telephone, and so did the character in Book B. Thats a connection. Well . . . not quite. Lets try to go a little deeper. One way to make text-to-text connections is when you have a primary text like The Crucible, then after reading another text, you evaluate the primary text in a different way. For this assignment, you will be given a poem and then asked to apply and compare the primary text, which, in your case, is The Crucible. But first, read and understand the poem below. Disillusionment of Ten Oclock1 The houses are haunted by white night-gowns none are green, or purple with green rings, or yellow with blue rings. None of them are strange, with socks of lace and beaded ceintures. People are not going to dream of baboons and periwinkles. Only, here and there, an old sailor, drunk and asleep in his boots, catches Tigers, in red weather. Wallace Stevens Right away, one of the first questions students ask me when reading this poem is, Whats a ceinture? A ceinture is a beaded belt. When reading poems, imagine the action. We have two areas of action in this poem: the houses haunted by people in their nightgowns getting ready for bed and the drunken sailor probably down at the docks. Once you have the center of action, you can begin to visualize the meaning of the poem. First, lets discuss the nightgown people. What are these people like? First of all, theyre going to bed at ten oclock in plain, white night gowns. What image strikes you with the verb haunted? Are these people drifting through their own homes? Are they full of life? Why so much description of what their nightgowns are not? Second, the sailor who falls asleep in his boots, what is he like? Is he full of life, or is he drifting through his life in plain night clothes? Third, why is the bedtime, ten oclock, such a disillusionment? The speaker of the poem (not the same as the poet) is making an observation about how to live life. What do you think it is? Part 1: Poem Summary On your own piece of paper, summarize what you think the meaning of this poem is. Also, I want you to include who you think the speaker might be, what the speakers tone or general attitude is, and what you think the speakers observation about life is. This is the first part of this assignment. This summary needs to be approximately a half-page in length. Part 2: Character Declaration Depending on how you complete the first part of this assignment, you are going to create a character declaration using this poem. Choose a character from The Crucible and, using lines from the poem, write a speech that is three-fourths to one-page in length as if you are the character speaking to a group of people of your choice. You can use the lines in consecutive order, split them up, or use a few here or there, but all the lines must be used. Both the poem summary and speech will be turned in with portfolio 1. Example Character Declaration An example of a character declaration may help you get the texttotext connections flowing. I have written a character declaration using the same poem, Disillusionment of Ten Oclock and the character Boo Radley from the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. This is just an example to help you create your character declaration using a character from The Crucible. Boo Radley Speaks to Maycomb I am your phantom who watches your streets, a figment of your own creation. But really its not me who does the spooking, the houses of Maycomb are haunted by white night-gowns. You have made me disappear into a world of your own creation. A world of sameness or a world of malevolence. And maybe it is better that way. Here I sit at the window, in my home, watching Maycombs world go by. Each day is much like the next. There is no difference; I can never remember if it is Monday or Thursday. There is only one difference to Maycombs ways, in the shape of a boy and girl, who create worlds of their own worlds of excitement and pretend. These worldsnone of them are strange, just full of imagination. I can picture them with socks of lace and beaded ceintures, playing in one of their games. These kids, this boy and this girl, they have the spirit of difference. They embrace it and they have the courage to walk out their door each morning and challenge the world. You see, none of you people are green, or purple with green rings, or yellow with blue rings. And it is sad, your insistence on conforming, on staying the same. Why do I stay inside my house? Why do I never go outside? Why should I? The world out there is either black or white or Black and White, and the people are not going to dream of wild things, exciting things, things like baboons and periwinkles. Inside my house, I can be anyone except me. Only, here and there, I am reminded Im called Boo Radley. I am Maycombs ghost. But who do I want to be? An old sailor, drunk and asleep in his boots, who catches Tigers, in red weather. And maybe I can be, in my Maycomb dreams. This kind of text-to-text application will help you bridge literature together in a way that all readers should. Textual connections are more than shallow observations; they are tools to create an avenue for characters and literature to come alive. It is the first step to making text-to-self connections, which we will cover in another lesson. Now that you have an understanding of both the Salem witch trials and of McCarthyism, its time to exercise that understanding. You will be writing a compare/contrast essay on both of these topics. More often than not, students will do a great job listing all the things the two topics have in common and all the things two topics do not have in common, thinking that they are writing great compare/contrast essays. However, that is simply not the case. There needs to be a point to all the comparing and contrasting. For this purpose, we are using a five-paragraph essay structure to help you focus on your thesis. Part 1: Create a Graphic Organizer This is a basic Venn diagram. You have probably seen these before, and they are very helpful in helping students organize information. In the left circle, begin brainstorming all the information about the Salem witch trials that you have learned in the course so far. In the right circle, brainstorm all the information about McCarthyism. In the area where the two circles overlap, brainstorm the information that the witch trials and McCarthyism have in common. You can find a larger version of the diagram in Appendix E, or you can click here to download one. A graphic illustrating the relationship between the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism Lesson 2 Fig. 5.2. Graphic Organizer BYU Independent Study Download the Venn diagram to complete Part 1 of this assignment. Once you have filled in your graphic organizer, I want you to find three topics in each area and highlight them. You will have three topics in the Salem Witch Trial circle, three in the McCarthyism circle, and three in the overlapped area. These topics will make up topics of your body paragraphs. Part 2: The Construction of Your Five-paragraph Compare/Contrast Essay Your compare/contrast essay should have a point to it; it shouldnt just list topics. This point is essentially your thesis statement, which should be included in your introduction paragraph and then restated in your conclusion. For example, lets look at this thesis statement: The Salem witch trials and McCarthyism have many historical similarities and differences that reveal much about human nature. The first half of the thesis statement is to alert the reader that the type of essay (or mode) is a compare/contrast essay. The second half of the thesis statement explains to the reader what I call the point of the telling. The point of this telling is to express to the reader that by comparing and contrasting these two time periodsthe witch hunts and McCarthyismthe writer is going to discuss human nature. Of course, this puts a lot more responsibility on the writer. The writer (thats you) needs to be sure that every paragraph relates back to the point of the telling. Thats why were starting with just a five-paragraph essay. The essay will need to be typed, double-spaced, written in 12-point Times New Roman font, and will be 1 to 1 pages in length. Here is how your five-paragraph essay should be constructed: Paragraph 1: An introduction paragraph including a thesis statement Paragraph 2: A paragraph about the Salem witch trials, including three topics from the Venn diagram Paragraph 3: A paragraph about McCarthyism, including three topics from the Venn diagram Paragraph 4: A comparison of the time periods, including three topics from the Venn diagram Paragraph 5: A concluding paragraph, including a restated thesis statement This assignment will be submitted in portfolio 1. Be sure to save your assignment as a .doc or .PDF file. You will also need to submit your Venn diagram with it. There are 22 assignments to be done.

English 11 Essays and Assignments


Here's the first assignment:

Poem Summary and Character Declaration
As you know, good readers make textual connections. These textual connections are text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world. Well be reviewing each of these textual connections throughout the course. For this assignment, youll be making a text-to-text connection.

Text-to-text connections are more than superficially comparing characters from one book to another. I often hear students try to pawn off a text-to-text connection such as, A character in Book A answered the telephone, and so did the character in Book B. Thats a connection. Well . . . not quite. Lets try to go a little deeper.

One way to make text-to-text connections is when you have a primary text like The Crucible, then after reading another text, you evaluate the primary text in a different way. For this assignment, you will be given a poem and then asked to apply and compare the primary text, which, in your case, is The Crucible. But first, read and understand the poem below.

Disillusionment of Ten Oclock1
The houses are haunted
by white night-gowns
none are green,
or purple with green rings,
or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
with socks of lace
and beaded ceintures.
People are not going
to dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
drunk and asleep in his boots,
catches Tigers,
in red weather.
Wallace Stevens
Right away, one of the first questions students ask me when reading this poem is, Whats a ceinture? A ceinture is a beaded belt. When reading poems, imagine the action. We have two areas of action in this poem: the houses haunted by people in their nightgowns getting ready for bed and the drunken sailor probably down at the docks. Once you have the center of action, you can begin to visualize the meaning of the poem.

First, lets discuss the nightgown people. What are these people like? First of all, theyre going to bed at ten oclock in plain, white night gowns. What image strikes you with the verb haunted? Are these people drifting through their own homes? Are they full of life? Why so much description of what their nightgowns are not?

Second, the sailor who falls asleep in his boots, what is he like? Is he full of life, or is he drifting through his life in plain night clothes?

Third, why is the bedtime, ten oclock, such a disillusionment? The speaker of the poem (not the same as the poet) is making an observation about how to live life. What do you think it is?

Part 1: Poem Summary
On your own piece of paper, summarize what you think the meaning of this poem is. Also, I want you to include who you think the speaker might be, what the speakers tone or general attitude is, and what you think the speakers observation about life is. This is the first part of this assignment. This summary needs to be approximately a half-page in length.

Part 2: Character Declaration
Depending on how you complete the first part of this assignment, you are going to create a character declaration using this poem. Choose a character from The Crucible and, using lines from the poem, write a speech that is three-fourths to one-page in length as if you are the character speaking to a group of people of your choice. You can use the lines in consecutive order, split them up, or use a few here or there, but all the lines must be used. Both the poem summary and speech will be turned in with portfolio 1.

Example Character Declaration
An example of a character declaration may help you get the texttotext connections flowing. I have written a character declaration using the same poem, Disillusionment of Ten Oclock and the character Boo Radley from the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. This is just an example to help you create your character declaration using a character from The Crucible.

Boo Radley Speaks to Maycomb
I am your phantom who watches your streets, a figment of your own creation. But really its not me who does the spooking, the houses of Maycomb are haunted by white night-gowns. You have made me disappear into a world of your own creation. A world of sameness or a world of malevolence. And maybe it is better that way. Here I sit at the window, in my home, watching Maycombs world go by. Each day is much like the next. There is no difference; I can never remember if it is Monday or Thursday. There is only one difference to Maycombs ways, in the shape of a boy and girl, who create worlds of their own worlds of excitement and pretend. These worldsnone of them are strange, just full of imagination. I can picture them with socks of lace and beaded ceintures, playing in one of their games. These kids, this boy and this girl, they have the spirit of difference. They embrace it and they have the courage to walk out their door each morning and challenge the world.

You see, none of you people are green, or purple with green rings, or yellow with blue rings. And it is sad, your insistence on conforming, on staying the same. Why do I stay inside my house? Why do I never go outside? Why should I? The world out there is either black or white or Black and White, and the people are not going to dream of wild things, exciting things, things like baboons and periwinkles. Inside my house, I can be anyone except me. Only, here and there, I am reminded Im called Boo Radley. I am Maycombs ghost. But who do I want to be? An old sailor, drunk and asleep in his boots, who catches Tigers, in red weather. And maybe I can be, in my Maycomb dreams.

This kind of text-to-text application will help you bridge literature together in a way that all readers should. Textual connections are more than shallow observations; they are tools to create an avenue for characters and literature to come alive. It is the first step to making text-to-self connections, which we will cover in another lesson.

Now that you have an understanding of both the Salem witch trials and of McCarthyism, its time to exercise that understanding. You will be writing a compare/contrast essay on both of these topics.

More often than not, students will do a great job listing all the things the two topics have in common and all the things two topics do not have in common, thinking that they are writing great compare/contrast essays. However, that is simply not the case. There needs to be a point to all the comparing and contrasting. For this purpose, we are using a five-paragraph essay structure to help you focus on your thesis.

Part 1: Create a Graphic Organizer
This is a basic Venn diagram. You have probably seen these before, and they are very helpful in helping students organize information. In the left circle, begin brainstorming all the information about the Salem witch trials that you have learned in the course so far. In the right circle, brainstorm all the information about McCarthyism. In the area where the two circles overlap, brainstorm the information that the witch trials and McCarthyism have in common. You can find a larger version of the diagram in Appendix E, or you can click here to download one.

A graphic illustrating the relationship between the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism


Lesson 2
Fig. 5.2. Graphic Organizer
BYU Independent Study
Download the Venn diagram to complete Part 1 of this assignment. Once you have filled in your graphic organizer, I want you to find three topics in each area and highlight them. You will have three topics in the Salem Witch Trial circle, three in the McCarthyism circle, and three in the overlapped area. These topics will make up topics of your body paragraphs.

Part 2: The Construction of Your Five-paragraph Compare/Contrast Essay
Your compare/contrast essay should have a point to it; it shouldnt just list topics. This point is essentially your thesis statement, which should be included in your introduction paragraph and then restated in your conclusion. For example, lets look at this thesis statement:

The Salem witch trials and McCarthyism have many historical similarities and differences that reveal much about human nature.

The first half of the thesis statement is to alert the reader that the type of essay (or mode) is a compare/contrast essay. The second half of the thesis statement explains to the reader what I call the point of the telling. The point of this telling is to express to the reader that by comparing and contrasting these two time periodsthe witch hunts and McCarthyismthe writer is going to discuss human nature.

Of course, this puts a lot more responsibility on the writer. The writer (thats you) needs to be sure that every paragraph relates back to the point of the telling. Thats why were starting with just a five-paragraph essay.

The essay will need to be typed, double-spaced, written in 12-point Times New Roman font, and will be 1 to 1 pages in length.

Here is how your five-paragraph essay should be constructed:

Paragraph 1:
An introduction paragraph including a thesis statement
Paragraph 2:
A paragraph about the Salem witch trials, including three topics from the Venn diagram
Paragraph 3:
A paragraph about McCarthyism, including three topics from the Venn diagram
Paragraph 4:
A comparison of the time periods, including three topics from the Venn diagram
Paragraph 5:
A concluding paragraph, including a restated thesis statement
This assignment will be submitted in portfolio 1. Be sure to save your assignment as a .doc or .PDF file. You will also need to submit your Venn diagram with it.


There are 22 assignments to be done. Willing to pay $250 for someone to get this done, I can send you the rest of the assignments after I hire you.