1. Upping Our Game

2. Reading Time Budget your pages: do the math.
You have 20 days to finish your book.
How many pages is your book?
How many pages would you have to read everyday to keep on track?

3. Making the Entries High School Standard
IRP Entries have you explore various topics and devices. Some of which you are already familiar with and your job is to ensure that you can tell me about your novel through literary language.
Making Connections: Ups and Downs…
Generally good quotation selection
Specifics and Details- Going outside the text
Investigation and Turning the novel inside out.

4. Inferring or Metaphor
All the entries (with a couple exceptions) will follow the exact same format:
Quote/ passage from your novel
Explanation of passage (refer to topic of entry)
How does it help to deepen your understanding? Why did the author make use of this technique?

5. Inferring or Metaphor
On Monday you will be submitting your first IRP entry for your April book.
You can choose between an Inferring Entry or a Metaphor Entry
In total you will be submitting 2-3 entries for this book.
I will be marking the entries and after we are done with the April book you will be able to propose to me which entries I should discard- the final decision is mine based on your progress with your entries.

6. Metaphor A comparison between two unlike things.
“Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness”- Susannah Calhalan
“As I later learned, this seizure was merely the most dramatic and recognizable of a series of seizures I’d been experiencing for days already. Everything that had been happening to me in recent weeks was part of a larger, fiercer battle taking place at the most basic level inside my brain.
The healthy brain is a symphony of 100 billion neurons, the actions of each individual brain cell harmonizing into a whole that enable thoughts, movements, memories, or even just a sneeze. But it takes one dissonant instrument to mar the cohesion of a symphony. When neurons begin to play nonstop, out of tune, and all at once because of disease, trauma, tumor, lack of sleep, or even alcohol withdrawal, the cacophonous result can be a seizure. “ (41)

7. 1st Paragraph= Context
Brain on Fire is the story of a twenty four year old woman who suddenly and inexplicably experiences symptoms of psychosis and seizures. Her sudden symptoms eventually become so extreme that she is hospitalized and loses a month of her life. She experiences extreme paranoia, hallucinations and loss of communication skills- she is unrecognizable to herself and her loved ones. At this point in the story she has had her first seizure, which prompts her boyfriend to bring her to the hospital. This is early on in her experience and no one has any answers for her yet.

8. 2nd Paragraph- What is the metaphor?
Calhalan makes use of a variety of metaphors throughout this novel, but in the above passage she introduces two metaphors that she will repeat later in the book. The first is the comparison she made between her inexplicable brain activity and a battle. All of the strange symptoms she’s been experiencing were like small battles her brain was undertaking to accomplish something. The only problem is that she doesn’t know what her brain is battling for. Is it trying to protect her? Is it attacking itself? Is it already losing a battle? This metaphor indicates her awareness that something violent and extreme is occurring within her own mind and that it will not be short lived; this battle could turn into a war.

9. 3rd Paragraph- Consequences/Analysis
I think Cahalan made use of both of these metaphors to highlight exactly how traumatic and unknown this experience was to her. The metaphors helped her, as well as the reader, to understand what was happening. It came out of the blue, was harsh, almost literally loud, and she had no defence for it. It brings home how delicate the mind and brain really are and how debilitating it can be to have your brain work against you. Knowing that this was only the beginning of the battle reinforced how hopeless and scared she was at this point. These metaphors helped me understand the novel a lot better because she herself is so confused by her experience that the comparisons help me to latch on to familiar concepts and gain some perspective on what she is feeling and what her body may be doing. The placement of this metaphor was additionally helpful because it comes at a pivotal and frightening point in the novel. She has had her first major seizure and it is the first physical sign of something wrong. You can feel the fear of her boyfriend and the severity of the situation is clear. It’s sad that at this point in the novel medical staff are still hesitant to have anything to do with her so she has to make sense of it on her own. It is one of the most reflective moments thus far in the novel.