English 10 2025
February 5th, 2025
So we will finish the Aladdin movie today and I’d like for you to actively take notes on the movie for discussion after – (Probably Tomorrow). Here is the document again in case you have lost it:
Aladdin Film Analysis Worksheet
February 4th, 2025
New Term Long Unit! (Only on Mondays… or Tuesdays)
When you analyze a piece for perceptive reasons, then the basic questions asked are the ones that seem simple, but provide evidence for good discussion.
Narrative in Song. Musical Mondays #1
Every song has a story to tell. Yet some stories are better than others. The artist actually has a narrative in mind when they write the thing, so what we have as listeners is a fully fleshed out story, characters, rising action, climax, the lot. The following four songs have stories to tell. It’s your job to understand what the plot is. Then at the end of the analysis, you are to write your own lyric based on the prompt given.
Choose 1 of these, or choose your own.
Space oddity – David Bowie
Stan – Eminem (Clean Version)
This is America – Childish Gambino
Eleanor Rigby – Beatles
- Choose a song as a story. What is the story about? Give a summary of the story as you understand it.
- What is the effect of this story as a song? How do the words and music combine to make a different experience?
- Now that you know a little bit about stories in general, how is a short story different from a lyrical story? What are the pros and cons of both?
- Write a story as a song. (Free verse poem with a point) Basically, you will write 10-20 short lines as poetry but tell a simple story. This is an example:
LYRIC EXAMPLE:
Refrigerator, 1957
Thomas Lux
More like a vault: you pull the handle out
and on the shelves not a lot,
and what there is (a boiled potato
in a bag, a chicken carcass
under foil) looking dispirited,
drained, mugged. This is not
a place to go in hope or hunger.
But, just to the right of the middle
of the middle door shelf, on fire, a lit-from-within red,
heart-red, sexual-red, wet neon-red,
shining red in their liquid, exotic,
aloof, slumming
in such company: a jar
of maraschino cherries. Three-quarters
full, fiery globes, like strippers
at a church social. Maraschino cherries, “maraschino”
the only foreign word I knew. Not once
did I see these cherries employed: not
in a drink, nor on top
of a glob of ice cream,
or just pop one in your mouth. Not once.
The same jar there through an entire
childhood of dull dinners—bald meat,
pocked peas, and, see above,
boiled potatoes. Maybe
they came over from the old country,
family heirlooms, or were status symbols
bought with a piece of the first paycheck
from a sweatshop,
which beat the pig farm in Bohemia,
handed down from my grandparents
to my parents
to be someday mine,
then my child’s?
They were beautiful
and if I never ate one
it was because I knew it might be missed
or because I knew it would not be replaced
and because you do not eat
that which rips your heart with joy.
January 31st, 2025
I will give you some time to finish and submit these paragraphs to me.
If you are not working well, or if everyone is finished, we will work on the final section of this unit:
We will start Aladdin today and talk about the lenses. You will have time to formulate an outline today and tomorrow. Keep it as you will be handing it in with the final.
Introduction-to-Literary-Theory-Grid-Grade-10.11Download
Focus on those three questions again (from the Simpsons episode) to help you:
- What lens best represents the movie and why?
- What two pieces of evidence can you find (in the transcript or your notes) that backs up this lens?
- What does this mean as a ‘bigger picture’? For example – what can we take away and learn from this episode?
Structure for essay:
Literary-3-Paragraph-Specific-Outline_RU
This will help you if you need help. We’ll go over it after the movie is over:
Marxist:
- Why is the poorest character—Aladdin—the only one who’s able to enter the Cave of Wonders?
- How are Jasmine’s choices limited because of her status as a woman?
- Why do you think Aladdin sees wealth, riches, and increased social status as a way of winning Jasmine’s heart? What does he learn about her as he tries to woo her this way?
Psychoanalytical:
- Toward the beginning of the movie, Jasmine releases her birds from their cage. Can you think of any other symbols of freedom or confinement in Aladdin?
- What do you imagine the Genie’s life has been like? What’s his backstory? What will he do after being freed?
- Do you think the comparison between Aladdin and Jasmine is fair? Are both of them equally trapped by their circumstances? Does one of them have it worse? Why or why not?
Postcolonial:
- Why do you think Jafar really wants to be sultan?
- How does Aladdin react to finally having some power when he finds the Genie? How is his reaction different from Jafar’s?
- If the Sultan had the power to change the laws in Agrabah this whole time, why didn’t he change them earlier when he saw Jasmine was so unhappy?
January 30th, 2025
Simpsons Finalized (1st academic Paragraph)
(Also on Teams)
Let’s think about these three questions:
- What lens best represents the episode and why?
- What two pieces of evidence can you find (in the transcript or your notes) that backs up this lens?
- What does this mean as a ‘bigger picture’? For example – what can we take away and learn from this episode?
First, you can have a discussion with partners, and then begin to make a good idea of this in your writing. Make sure to answer the questions based on the lens you have chosen. I will hand out a paper that is a matrix of lenses so that it can help you. This will also be used for the full length film.
.Introduction-to-Literary-Theory-Grid-Grade-10.11Download
Please complete a paragraph based on your answers. Use the transcript of the episode for guidance:
https://www.simpsonsarchive.com/episodes/3F05.html
Here is Sam’s Paragraph from last year:
I chose to look through the Marxist lens (rich vs. Poor/ruler vs. The people). Homer wants to take advantage of his workplace program for those with disabilities even though he is perfectly fine and not struggling. It’s brought up by Lisa that the program is for those who can’t come to work for actual reasons. Another way it fits into the Marxist ruler vs. the people or wealthy vs. poor. It is that Mr. Burns is forcing the employees to do 5 minutes of calisthenics that Homer doesn’t want to do but the company uses physical force to make him do it. Some evidence for this claim is in the beginning when 2 workers drag Homer to the workout session while he screams and begs for it not to happen. Another way this fits into the wealthy vs. Poor is how he causes a restaurant to go out of business and ruin a man’s ice cream truck which puts people out of jobs while he has enough money to buy loads and loads of food without a care in the world. He then has Mr. Burns pay for his weight loss surgery in the end after fixing the catastrophe that he started because he took advantage of the work-at-home privileges of his disability. He also buys out whole grocery stores and you know what that does? It makes those supplies more in demand which causes them to cost more for struggling people because Homer wanted to work from home. What we can take away from this episode is that we shouldn’t abuse the privileges we have, like homer abusing the work from home program. He used his wealth to buy out the food of Springfield causing business to go under only to abuse a system made for struggling people. He got to get off work because he was so greedy and got to reap the benefits of the chaos he caused.
January 29th, 2025
Remember the formatting:
- Summarize the fairytale
- tell the class what lens you are looking through and why
- explain why this lens is relevant to the story.
We will start in about 30 minutes from the bell. Please make sure to memorize as much as possible so we are not overwhelmed by people reading off a document. Make it interesting. Use eye contact.
THEN:
The Simpsons.
Here is the script of the show:
https://www.simpsonsarchive.com/episodes/3F05.html
And we will briefly look at a part of an undergraduate thesis from someone who studied in the University of Iceland. Luckily, it was on The Simpsons and lenses… but how they look a little later down the academic road. We’ll discuss it:
EXCERPT:
2.1 The Pleasure Principle in “King-Size Homer”
In the seventh episode of the seventh season of The Simpsons, Homer strives to obey the pleasure principle to new extremes. In a mandatory five minute session of calisthenics at the Nuclear Power Plant, Homer finds out that one of his co-workers got injured on the job and is now on disability with full pay. Upon hearing the news, Homer immediately decides to get himself injured enough to become disabled so he can work from home. Unable to harm himself, he realizes that hyper obesity can qualify him as disabled. He consults Doctor Nick Riviera, who recommends “a slow steady gorging process combined with assal horizontology” and that Homer focuses “on the neglected food groups such as the whipped group, the congealed group and the chocotastic.” With help from Bart, Homer begins his mission of overeating himself into obesity. This is obviously not a good idea; however, Homer is regulated by the pleasure principle, which entails that when confronted with pain he finds the easiest way to relieve himself of it (Freud, Beyond 1).
MARGE. Let‟s quietly and calmly discuss the pros and cons of your controversial
plan, shall we?
HOMER. I …
MARGE. Con! You‟re endangering your health.
HOMER. Pro. I‟m drought-and famine-resistant.
MARGE. Con! You‟re setting a bad example for the children.
HOMER. Pro. I, er, don‟t have to go to work.
MARGE. Con! You‟re running the air conditioner non-stop. It‟s freezing in here.
HOMER. Pro. Uh… uh… I love you?
MARGE. Con. I‟m finding myself less attracted to you physically.
The ego’s intervention is too feeble, too late. Utterly disconnected with reality, Homer exclaims that this is everything he ever wanted and now, he finally is a “big fat dynamo.” He now works from home and for Homer that is enough. Of course, his happiness based on a change of scenery lasts only a few hours and although he does not have to face the morning traffic, he does have to succumb to the boredom of sitting in front of a computer all day pressing Y for Yes, N for No and Tab for ordering the soft drink TAB. To be fair, his job as a Nuclear Safety Inspector never seemed to require as much attention while he worked at the plant itself. Now, he has to actively take decisions over and over again on serious matters like venting gas to prevent explosions. Even when confronted with this critical task, he fails to realize the impact of his deeds.
END OF EXCERPT
Let’s think about these three questions:
- What lens best represents the episode and why?
- What two pieces of evidence can you find (in the transcript or your notes) that backs up this lens?
- What does this mean as a ‘bigger picture’? For example – what can we take away and learn from this episode?
First, you can have a discussion with partners, and then begin to make a good idea of this in your writing. Make sure to answer the questions based on the lens you have chosen. I will hand out a paper that is a matrix of lenses so that it can help you. This will also be used for the full length film.
.Introduction-to-Literary-Theory-Grid-Grade-10.11Download
January 28th, 2025
LECTURE:
2_critical_lenses_of_literature
I’d like for you to take notes on this video to reflect on the content. I’ll hand out paper.
THE GIVING TREE:
1. Feminist Lens
- The tree is often interpreted as a female figure (nurturing, selfless, and sacrificial), while the boy represents a patriarchal figure taking without giving back.
- This lens highlights the imbalance of power and the societal expectation of women to give endlessly, even at the cost of their well-being.
- Does the tree’s self-sacrifice reflect unhealthy gender roles or reinforce the expectation that women should be selfless caregivers?
2. Marxist Lens
- The tree represents the working class or nature, exploited by the boy, who embodies capitalist greed and consumerism.
- This lens critiques the boy’s never-ending demands as reflective of humanity’s relationship with resources: exploiting nature until nothing is left.
- How does the story reflect the consequences of unchecked consumerism or greed?
3. Psychoanalytic Lens
- From this perspective, the tree symbolizes a maternal figure, providing unconditional love, while the boy represents a person navigating psychological stages of need and development.
- The boy’s evolving relationship with the tree could reflect human dependency and emotional development, showing the consequences of taking love and care for granted.
- Is the tree enabling unhealthy attachment, or does it reflect an idealized form of unconditional love?
4. Ecocritical Lens
- The tree can be seen as a symbol of the environment and the boy as humanity’s exploitative relationship with the natural world.
- The story critiques humanity’s failure to give back to nature, focusing instead on relentless extraction until the environment is depleted.
- How does the story reflect modern environmental issues like deforestation and climate change?
5. Postmodern Lens
- This lens questions the traditional narrative structure and moral message of The Giving Tree. Instead of viewing the tree’s giving as virtuous, a postmodern reading might highlight the ambiguity and contradictions of the relationship.
- Is the tree’s self-sacrifice truly altruistic, or does it reflect a toxic dynamic of dependency?
- How does the story subvert traditional notions of morality or the “happy ending”?
6. Existential Lens
- The story can be seen as a meditation on human existence, relationships, and the search for meaning.
- The boy’s relentless pursuit of satisfaction and the tree’s selfless love may reflect existential questions: What gives life meaning? Is fulfillment possible through giving or taking?
- Is the tree’s giving an act of freedom and choice, or is it trapped by its role in the boy’s life?
Look for fairy tales. Either by yourself or with a partner. Pick a lens in which to view your fairytale.
Look at this document. There are 8 lenses to choose from, but you only need to familiarize yourself with four.
Here’s some fables from Aesop etc. you can choose from:
Tomorrow, you’ll present your fairy tale for class. You will do these three things:
- Summarize the fairytale
- tell the class what lens you are looking through and why
- explain why this lens is relevant to the story.
January 27th, 2025
Here’s the introduction to the first unit – Let’s get started right away:
10 Essential Questions (out of 100)
https://www.signupgenius.com/groups/getting-to-know-you-questions.cfm
- Brainstorm with class on questions
- Find someone you don’t know
- Ask 10 of the questions from the board – answer them – Vice versa
- Get ready to present your partner to the class
Let’s get started.