Spring Break

AP English III- Your only homework over break is to read to ch 19 in Invisible Man, but I strongly encourage you to finish reading the novel.

English II- Your homework is to finish reading Purple Hibiscus. Remember, if you read ~15-20 pages per day, it won't feel like as much. Or you could settle down in a cozy armchair and get it done with in one sitting. Your choice. You do not need to work on the quote sheet for Kambili and Jaja. We will pick up with that when you come back.

Russian I and II - Practice your Russian daily. Suggestions on how to do so: Call each other up and chat in Russian. Teach your dog commands in Russian. Watch Youtube videos in Russian. (Winnie Pooh, anyone?)

Homework for A-Day Students: 3/25/2015

Today's my last day with you.  I bought my plane tickets before our snow days and now I've got to leave a bit early.  Here's what you have to accomplish for tonight.

Russian I and II

You all should be taking this time before we begin a new unit to work on your foundational skills.  After today's class we've reviewed our case declensions as well as our verb conjugations for first and second conjugation.  Use all of this to help you work on those necessary skills.  Every day you should be working for thirty minutes on new vocabulary, writing, and reading.  Work hard and practice - that's how you'll get better in Russian.  Continue this work next class with your videos and over break.

English II

For our next class on Friday you should read to page 162.  Make sure to keep up with your timeline, family tree, and quotes sheet as you'll need all of these things moving forward.

Homework for B-Day Students - 3/24/2015

AP English III

Tonight for homework you have two priorities and maybe a few others depending on you.

1. Research papers!  You need to submit your research portfolios with all of the required pieces that you have developed into your research paper.  These are your question sheet, your outline, your rough draft with notes from conference, and your final draft.  Remember that the final draft must have the cover sheet and rubric attached.  You will submit everything in your portfolio to Ms. Alley on Thursday.
2. Reading in Invisible Man for Thursday is to the end of chapter sixteen.  Remember to pay attention to the Brotherhood and the new characters you are meeting associated with this organization.  There are also a lot of parallels happening at this point in the text.  Notice them and consider why.
3. If you are resubmitting one of your shorter papers you must do this by Thursday.  Any missing work (timed writings) need to be made up by this date.

English II

Continue reading in Purple Hibiscus to page 140 for Thursday's class.  Pay attention to the differences that are starting to develop between Kambili and Jaja at this point in their lives.  Why are they becoming different?  How are they becoming different?

Homework for A-Day Students - March 23, 2015

It was so good to see all of you today!  Let's go over what we need to do for tonight to get ready for Wednesday.

Russian II

Tonight you should make sure to finish your journals if you haven't yet.  I need them submitted before school tomorrow so that you can avoid a late grade.  If you turn it in past 7:30 tomorrow morning, it will be late and I will take points.  Make sure that you've got four entries with each entry using one of the phrases.  In addition, you need to make sure that your viewing guide for Служили два товарища has all questions answered so that we can do our writing workshop next class.

Russian I

I did not collect your journals today since I have the Russian II journals to grade.  Make sure that you have your journals for me on Wednesday as I'll collect them then for full credit.  You also have the task of completing your viewing guides on the film tonight and answering all questions so that we can have our workshop next class with new vocabulary and writing.

English II

You all have your next chunk of reading for tonight.  Continue working through Purple Hibiscus.  Read to page 140 in your books and make sure to reflect on what is happening to Kambili as she is spending time with her Aunty and cousins.  You may also want to think about how Ifeoma's family is different from Eugene's.

Homework for A Day Students: 3/19/15

Russian I and II - Continue to practice your spoken Russian outside of class. Remember that your journals are due Monday, and bring them to class with you. Also, bring back the vocal sheet and viewing guide you worked on today -- You'll be finishing the film with Mr. Miller when he returns.

Also, remember the Russian olympiada at Duke this Saturday!!

English II - You caught a break today since we read a short story from our textbooks, but you absolutely need to be on p. 111 by Monday. We will have a quiz, so make sure you read carefully and take notes on what you read!

Homework for B Day Students : 3/18/15

AP  III - I started grading tests this evening, and they look really good so far. Told y'all it wasn't hard. For Friday, make sure you have read ch 11-12 in Invisible Man, and be prepared to turn in your papers on Langston Hughes. Also be reminded that your final drafts of research papers are due March 26. If you have not yet had a conference with me or Mr. Miller, please find a time to do so tomorrow or Friday - the sign up sheet is on the door.

English II - Read to p. 111 for our next class. There will be a reading quiz! Please bring your close reading passages to class as well. Since we did not finish these in class today, we will begin with them the following class period. Continue to think about Kambili and Jaja's personalities, and pay attention to the way they change.

Олимпиада!

Russian Students!

Don't forget about the Olympiada of Spoken Russian this weekend at Duke.  The competition will begin at 9:30 and end anywhere from 12:00 to 12:30.  The competition will be held in the Languages Building on Duke's West Campus.  You should park at the visitor lot for the Bryan Center and then walk around Duke Chapel and Perkins Library to the Languages Building.

There will be light refreshments for you.  I hope that you enjoy your competition this weekend!

Homework for A-Day Students: 3/17/2015

Русский 1 и Русский 2 - С днем святого Патрика!

Russian students - over the next few days while I am gone you should all be practicing nightly with your vocabulary and grammar.   If there's a case that you haven't finished mastering - spend that time now to memorize and work.  If there is a verb you can't conjugate then memorize those forms now.

You have a lot of writing to do for me in Russian.  Make sure that for next MONDAY (3/22) you have your journals for the quarter due for me.  Your previous three sayings are in the previous blog post.  Make sure that you write the new journal entry focusing on the phrase "Нет худа без добра!"  Your journals will be collected on Monday and will be graded.

Here's the song we listened to in class, with the lyrics.

Русский 1

Make sure that if you have your family writing to turn in or your work on the animal writing - or any other missing work that you get that in to me on Monday as well so I can get it graded by the end of the quarter.

English II

For Thursday's class I want to make sure that you keep reading.  You need to be to page 111 in Purple Hibiscus.  Make sure that you are reading carefully and keeping track of the trends

Homework for B-Day Students: 3/16/2015 - Happy Monday!

AP English III

For homework tonight you have a few important things to take care of to keep you moving and ready for the week ahead.  Here are your reminders and tasks for tonight.

1.  You need to be studying.  You have your exam next class on the first half of Invisible Man.

2.  You have your motif chart check next class during your exam.  Be sure that these are complete for the prologue all the way to the end of chapter eleven.  Remember that if you can't find it, then it may not be there.  Your task is still to look for this work.

3.  You have your short paper due for Ms. Alley on Friday.  Make sure that you are working on this regularly so that you are able to accomplish the goals of the assignment thoroughly.

4.  Lastly, you have your writing conferences this week.  Make sure that you meet your deadline for the conference as well as coming in for any additional help as you are writing this incredibly important assignment.

5.  Keep reading Invisible Man - get yourselves ahead so you'll have less to do over break.

English II

You have another reading check for Wednesday's class.  Make sure that you are to the end of page seventy in Purple Hibiscus and that as you are reading that you continue to look at important ideas and major quotes which relate to both of the main characters - Kambili and Jaja.  This will be helpful as you complete your final assignment on Purple Hibiscus.

Homework for the Weekend - 3/13/2015 - A Day Students

Russian I and II

You have your journals due on Tuesday for the quarter.  This quarter you should have three entries.

1. С кем не бывает?
2. Маслом масленное
3. Убить двух зайцев

Remember to use the phrase in the body of your writing.  Write one full page in your journal, double spaced.  Feel free to write about anything you would like but don't use translators.  Just write what you know and use your vocabulary.

If you didn't finish your test today, make sure that you finish it on Monday.

Russian I

Don't forget your family assignments are also due to me on Tuesday with your journals.

English II

Meet your next reading goal - you need to be to the end of page seventy in Purple Hibiscus by Tuesday.  You will be doing a lot of reading over Spring Break - read ahead now to be ahead for break.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students - 3/12/2015

Does anyone else feel like March is just flying by?  I guess this is what happens when we have two weeks that drag past with snow days.  Here are your reminders and updates for tonight and the rest of the weekend.

English II

If you have not yet presented you will need to settle this next class so that you have your grades settled moving into the last two weeks of the quarter.  For the weekend work on meeting your next reading goal of being to page SEVENTY (70) in Purple Hibiscus and remember to have your books and your timeline sheets next class as we will be working through those as we go over what we've read so far.

AP English III

Your first task is to read through to the end of chapter eleven of Invisible Man by Monday.  These chapters are very significant and I gave you several things to think about as you read in the post below.  In addition, take the work from today's class on Langston Hughes's poetry, especially the idea of identity creation and passivity versus agency, as you look at chapters ten and eleven.  Keep in mind that your rough drafts of your research papers are also due on Monday and we will begin writing conferences that day.

For Wednesday you'll have your first examination on Invisible Man - it will cover the Prologue through to chapter eleven as well as the external texts from Hughes, Baldwin, and Hurston.  You would do well to begin preparing for this over the weekend.  Come to class on Monday with questions for me or Ms. Alley about the test.

Lastly, your poetry analysis and comparison is due to Ms. Alley on Friday of next week.  Follow the instructions that she gave you on the assignment as you complete this.  Remember that the same rubric you used for the symbolism assignment.  Discuss any questions you have with Ms. Alley - remember that you can tweet to her if you would like to do that.

There's a lot for you all to do next week - now it's time to make up for that time we lost due to snow.  Make sure to ask for help if you need it; we know there's a lot to do, but we also know that you can do it.

Homework for A-Day Students: 3/11/2015

Russian I and II

You all will have a test next class on cases and you should be preparing yourself tonight.  Here are some notes for you to prepare yourselves.

• Know your case endings for nouns, adjectives, and any other type modifiers (demonstrative pronouns, etc.)
• Russian I - you only need to know your singular endings
• Russian II - you need to know your plural endings
• Russian I and II - make sure that you know how to work with verbs.  Russian I - look at your verbs from chapter one and chapter two.  Russian II - you're going to want to look at your verbs of motion as you'll need to work with these on the exam.
• You'll all have dehydrated sentences to construct on your tests.
• Make sure that you know about the different cases - there will be a matching section related to the different cases and the job that the case has.  This will be a big section of both exams.

Russian II - We will be finish weather report presentations next class.  Make sure that you're ready for for that.

Russian I - I will be looking over the rough drafts of your family writing next class.  Make sure that you have all your paragraphs drafted so that I can give you feedback next class.

English II

You have your next reading goal for Tuesday.  Make sure that you are reading nightly (about ten pages) so that you are caught up for next week.  If you still need to present, we can do this on Friday.

Homework for B-Day Classes - 3/10/2015

English II

We will have our final day for presentations on Thursday.  Please be prepared to present your work and to explain what your item is and why your item is important to Nigeria.  Thursday will be the last day to present, so make sure that you have your work ready.

In addition you have your next reading goal to complete which is to be to page thirty-six in Purple Hibiscus.  Please make sure to bring your book with you next class as I would like to have a book check to make sure that everyone has what they need.  After this you'll need to make it to page seventy by Monday, so I would keep reading ahead to meet that goal.

A note on reading ahead:  Remember that you will have quizzes on this book.  If you read ahead you'll want to take notes so that you know what happened, who was involved, and many of those other pieces of information which you pick up as you read through a text.

AP English III

You received your outlines today.  Remember as I said in class that a good outline will save you a lot of time as you write a paper.  Make sure that you work on the areas we discussed today in class.  I would still suggest that many of you see me or Ms. Alley to discuss your outlines before you begin to draft.  Your rough drafts and writing conferences begin on the 16th.  Make sure to sign up on my door for your appointment.

For reading, you need to be to the end of chapters ten and eleven by Monday's class.  Your exam on the first half of the book will fall on Wednesday.  Chapter ten is difficult because of all the things going on in it - here are some ideas to get you started:

• notice all the play on politics and power in this chapter - especially the use of the term liberty
• pay attention to the job of the invisible man in the paint factory - how is this job symbolic
• note the character of Mr. Brockway - why is he important?  how is he treated by others?  by the invisible man?
• there is a union meeting happening when the invisible man goes to get his lunch - what is the issue that the union is debating
• what happens at the end of the chapter - how is this an echo of the battle royal?
• the hospital scene in chapter eleven is another scene of rebirth and transformation
• pay attention to the allusions to the Odyssey here
• who are the enemies in the hospital
• what is going on with power and control

These two chapters are very rich.  Make good annotations and make sure that your motif charts are complete up to this point.

All classes received progress reports today.

Homework for A-Day Students - 3/9/2015

Russian II

Tonight for homework you have a bit more writing to do with the genitive singular and plural.  Work on exercises four and five from the handout.  In exercise four, make a list of what the students have already bought.  You may be using a dictionary for some of the words.  You have more of a glossary at the bottom of the page.  Then, for exercise five, write five more sentences saying what else these students would need to buy for the rest of the week.  You'll turn all this in next class.

Make sure that if you are presenting your weather report on Wednesday that you are ready for that and that you have shared your presentation with me.

Russian I

Tonight for homework you need to continue the work from our writing workshop and complete the writing assignment on your family.  For Wednesday's class you should have a complete rough draft on all four of your family members.  Part of this assignment is repetitive so that you will be forced to remember verb conjugation forms.  Follow the outline and complete the assignment.

If you're looking for a Russian keyboard to type your final work you can use http://russian.typeit.org - this will present you an online keyboard from which you can copy and paste into a document.

Russian I and II - You'll be having a test on Friday related to cases.  Be ready!

English II

Your goal for tonight is to meet your next reading goal in Purple Hibiscus by Wednesday's class.  Also be ready to present for Wednesday if you did not present today.

All classes received progress reports today!

Homework for B-Day Students - 3/6/2015 - The Weekend Edition

AP English III

For homework this weekend continue with your reading and annotating of Invisible Man.  You will be held responsible for chapters seven through nine for Tuesday's class.  Keep up with your motif charts as these are going to be very useful for you.  Notice that the Invisible Man is going through a big transition and he's moving to a new place.  Note his first impressions of the place.

For your research papers I'll be returning your outlines to you on Tuesday.  You will then have until the 16th of March to complete your rough draft.  Remember that you must submit fifty percent of your draft.  My recommendation is that you submit your introduction paragraph and at least two body paragraphs.  Make your point and explain!  Your final draft is going to be collected on March 26th.  Ms. Alley will collect that since I'll be on an airplane at that time.

English II

Over the weekend your priority is to finish your research projects on Nigeria.  Make sure that your citations are complete in MLA format and that you have uploaded your project to Google Drive and shared it with Ms. Alley - kta5duke (at) gmail (dot) com.

In addition, you have your reading for Thursday which is to be to the end of page thirty-six in Purple Hibiscus.  Make sure that you're keeping up so that you don't fall behind!

Homework for A-Day Students: 5 March 2015 - Homework for the Weekend

Russian II

Over the weekend you have two things to accomplish.  First you have your weather reports to finish.  Here are the requirements for your weather report:

State the date in Russian form.

1. Describe the weather in Durham, North Carolina for your date: temperature and conditions.
2. Explain using the dative case what someone would need to take with him/her for this weather.
3. Describe the weather in your Russian city for your date:   temperature and conditions
4.  Explain using the dative case what someone would need to take with him/her for this weather or an activity that would be good for this type of weather.
5. Using the future tense, explain what the weather will be tomorrow in your cities.
6. Create a visual for Durham and your Russian city with weather information in Russian.  Use PowerPoint for this and send me your slides.
7. Remember that you will be submitting this to me online - send it to my gmail account mrmillerjhs @ gmail (dot) com.  If you're using a prezi share the link to me.  If you're using powerpoint put it in Google Drive and then send it on to me.

The other work that you have to do is your analysis of my shopping receipt.  Answer all of the questions and make sure that you are writing out all of the prices in Russian.  Make sure that you're checking your work and your use of the genitive case either singular (non-count) or plural (count).

Russian I

Over the weekend you need to complete any missing assignments as well as two paragraphs of your family assignment.  Follow the outline that I gave you on the assignment sheet to complete this.  Do not use translators for this.  All of the vocabulary that you need is in your textbooks.  Follow the ideas in the sentences and think through your cases. 

You're getting progress reports on Monday.  Make sure that everything is settled.

English II

Your projects are due on Monday and Wednesday of next week.  Make sure that you have completed the whole Presentation and that your citations are in the right format.  Make sure as well that you have shared your presentation to Ms. Alley because that is how you will turn it in.

Don't forget as well that you have another reading goal for next Wednesday in Purple Hibiscus

Homework for B-Day Students - 4 March 2015

AP English III

Welcome back.  Today we had a bit of a reality check which I hope will serve as a wake-up call for those of you who didn't capitalize on the time that you had off over the snow vacation.  Here are your tasks to prepare for Friday.

1. Submit your outline and your original research proposal in your research portfolio.  I want to see your original with your outline so I can see how things have developed from the original approach to this.  Remember that you should be building more specificity in your paper.  What's the key point you are trying to make here?
2. Read Invisible Man.  You need to be to the end of Chapter Six (150).  As you read, continue to develop your motif charts and vocabulary.  Make sure to complete your preparation work for the Socratic Seminar based on Ms. Alley's instructions.

English II

Be sure that you continue to read Purple Hibiscus nightly.  You have your next reading goal (pages 19 to 36) to get you to next Thursday's class.  In addition, remember that next class will be your last chance in class to work on your research projects.  These will be presented next week as a major grade.

Everyone remember that progress reports go out next week.  If you have missing quizzes or assignments make sure that you have made these up by Friday.

Homework for A-Day Students - 3/3/2015

All Juniors - Even though you weren't in class today we still did a lot of work.  Please see me outside of class (I'd recommend tomorrow morning) so that we can go over what you missed.

Russian II

Today in class we worked through the rules and procedures for using fill vowels in the genitive plural.  Please focus on learning these rules and these patterns.  For tonight, I would like for you to do some work with the genitive case - either singular or plural depending on the situation.  For homework tonight, think of your favorite dish (mine would be macaroni and cheese with bacon and kale).  Go through your house and think of what you have a lot of (много) and what you have too little of (мало).  Write sentences expressing what you have.

Use the genitive plural if it is a count noun (something like apple where you can count the individual apples).  Use the genitive singular if it is a non-count noun (something like flour where you can't count the individual grains, you just look at is as a whole thing.)  We'll use this to do our work on Thursday.

Russian I

For homework tonight I want you to continue working with the three verbs we studied more today - нравиться, хотеть, любить - as well as working with your vocabulary and with cases.  Using your chapter two vocabulary, complete the ten questions by filling in the blank.  Then, using your knowledge of cases, take the supplied answer in the nominative case in parenthesis and give the answer.  Here is number one:

С кем ты любишь разговаривать?  Я люблю разговаривать с бабушкой и дедушкой.

Here - I've filled in the verb missing from the question, and then answered the question using the words in the parenthesis.  Complete these ten and ask for help if you need it.

Russian I and II

If you are interested in participating in the Olympiada of Spoken Russian at Duke on March 21, please let me know by Monday and bring me the six dollar registration fee.  Information about the Olympiada can be found at this link.  For those of you interested, I will have a training session next week to talk about how to prepare for this.  If you are a senior and would like to take the AP Examination for Russian, please let me know and I'll get you that information.

English II

You have your next reading goal for next Wednesday.  Be sure that you are reading nightly to accomplish your reading goals.  In addition, continue focusing on the characters and the vocabulary you are learning as you read the text.

 

 

Homework for B-Day Students: Welcome Back! 2 March 2015

AP English III

We didn't see each other today due to ACT pre-administration.  Do well on your ACT tomorrow, remember that it counts as a college entrance exam and can save you a lot of time and energy moving forward.

Keep up with your reading of Invisible Man and your researching.  Your outlines will be collected on Friday, so make sure that you're ready to meet this deadline.

English II

Hopefully you've gone past the first reading deadline of page sixteen in Purple Hibiscus.  Please continue reading.  Continue researching your topics for your Nigeria projects.  If everything goes according to plan we will be presenting these projects next week, so be ready for that.  You will have a quiz next class on your reading, so if it's been some time since you've read these pages you may want to go back and review.