Homework for B-Day Students: 30 April 2015

AP English III

For the weekend you have a few things to take care of to prepare for our next class.  Remember that with the AP Exams coming up next week we will only be holding class on Wednesday as most of you will be out for testing on Monday and Wednesday.  For Wednesday's class please make sure that you and your group have created a Google document which is shared with me (mrmillerjhs @ gmail [dot] com) in order to receive your first check-in grade as a group.  Remember the workflow, begin by reading the story, then determine your essential questions, and from there, plan your discussion.

In addition, please read and annotate George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" which is available in 50 Essays or at this link.  You will want to build connections between this text and "The Man I Killed" as we'll be discussing both stories on Wednesday.

English II

Your homework for Monday's class is to finish your outline of all three topics.  Remember that you can use what we studied today in class (Night and Escape from Sobibor) as topics in your paper.  Please follow the instructions in the previous post and maintain your formatting of the topics in the outline.  For each topic you must:

• identify the topic
• write a topic sentence
• give your example from the topic
• explain how this example proves your point about remembering tragedy

Remember what we said at the beginning of this process - everything proves the argument!

Homework for A-Day Students: 29 April 2015

Russian II

If you did not present your dialogue today then you will be presenting on Friday.  For the dialogue make sure that you have a copy of the script for me to review as I will be marking on it my notes for your grade.

Today in class we continued to review the distinctions between the different prepositions related to time.  Continue to study these tonight.  For homework, complete the exercise at the bottom of the practice sheet - exercise eight.  In this homework assignment I want you to write out the sentences and follow the instructions.  Look carefully, I did the homework during lunch and didn't see anything that will throw you for a loop.

Russian I

If you didn't present your country presentation today then you will be doing that on Friday too.  For homework, continue practicing with plurals as we did today in class.  Look through your vocabulary and make plurals.  We'll deal with exceptions soon enough.

English II

For homework tonight you should be working on your outlines.  If you would like/need you may use the film we watched today Escape from Sobibor or the text Night as one of the topics for your essay if you can use it.  Remember that I'll be looking for a full outline of your essay on Friday.  Make sure that it is complete.

Also remember that if you didn't turn in your work from today's timed writing and reflection activity that this is due from you on Friday as well.

Homework for B-Day Students: 28 April 2015

AP English III

For homework tonight I would like for you to read and annotate the story called "The Man I Killed" - This story isn't necessarily immediately after the one we studied today but you'll be able to find a lot of connections.  Stay focused on where we centered our conversation today as you read and annotate.

Additionally you'll have a full length Multiple Choice for practice next class.  This will provide you an opportunity to see the types of questions you'll be asked as well as the amount of energy it will take you to get through these readings and questions.  Prepare by studying your rhetorical terms and devices as this is really the only way you can possibly study.

English II

As we went over in class your homework is to work on your outline and complete the outlining of all three topics you will be using with your essay.  Be sure to follow the instructions in the previous post.  Remember that you'll use the same frame as topic one with topics two and three.  Follow the format in the document below and make sure to be specific with how you explain and prove your point.

Homework for A-Day Students: 27 April 2015

Russian I and II:

You all have presentations due on Wednesday so make sure that you are prepared for these.

For Russian II, make sure that I get my own copy of the script to follow along with your presentation.  If you type the script then make sure that you have proofed it for spelling and grammar mistakes as these will count against you.

For Russian I, make sure that you have shared your presentation with me so that I already have it in Google Drive for Wednesday.  Use Russian words where you can, especially in places where you have ownership of the words.

English II:

Tonight, and for the rest of this week, you should be actively working on your outlines.  Remember that your Topic 2 and Topic 3 will need to be other texts or examples that you can use to prove your point about remembering tragedy.  Remember that you can't use a topic more than once, so if you've already written about Hotel Rwanda you'll need another movie for the other topics.  Your instructions for the topics and your key questions are in this document.  Please see me outside of class if you have questions as this is a very individual process and sometimes spending that five minutes with me at lunch is the best way to settle any questions you may have.

A-Day Students - Your outlines of all three topics are due on Friday.  Be sure to see me before Friday if you have questions!

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students - 4/24/2015

AP English III

Over the weekend you have two important things to take care of to prepare for next week's class on Tuesday.  First, make sure that you complete your motif project for Invisible Man.  This has a few pieces:  your writing on the quotation, your illustration of the quotation, and then your motif chart for the whole text.  I'll collect these on Tuesday.

Second, complete the reading and annotating of the first story "The Things They Carried".  Pay special attention to the characters that are part of the platoon.  In addition, consider our ideas of truth and honesty as they relate to art.  We did a lot of foundation laying today in our approach to this text.

If you have time/energy, you may want to look at some of the shorter stories which will be taught by you all in small groups.  These stories are:  "Love", "Spin", "The Dentist", "Stockings", "Good Form", and "Night Life".  These are relatively short - you may want to see if you have any preferences as to these stories before we pick/assign them next week for discussion circles.

English II

Today we started the process of working on our essay outlines with the computers and resources in the lab.  You should continue this work this weekend.  First, outline your first topic that you'll use in your essay.  For most of you, this is an example of what you think the best way is to remember a tragedy.  Remember that you need to describe this "text" and explain how it proves your point about remembering tragedy.  Follow the formatting in the instructions document shared below.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day Students - 23 April 2015

Russian I and II

Next week all of you have project presentations on Wednesday.  For the weekend, you should be focused on your projects as I'll only be able to give you a bit of time on Monday to finish them in class.

I will have graded work returned to you next week.

Russian I students - I forgot to collect missing journals today.  Make sure that you have them for me on Monday.

English II

This weekend you all should be spending time working on your outlines for your essays.  If you have access to your Google Drive document which you started today, then you should continue to work on this document.  If you do not have access then you should work on paper so that you continue to move forward.  Remember the process here.  Find a fact or example.  Create a topic sentence for your paragraph which links the example to your idea about remembering a tragedy.  Then, make sure that you explain HOW your example helps you prove your point about remembering a tragedy.

Writing an essay is about following the same format in each of the body paragraphs.  Be sure that you are doing this.

English II - Writing Workshop 2 - Outlines

English II Students:

Use this post today in the computer lab as you are writing your outlines.  You'll want to access this document for instructions on how to complete your outline.

B Day Homework and Reminders: 22 April 2015

AP English III

Today we had an abbreviated ending to Invisible Man, but it's all that we had time for unfortunately.  For tonight, you should be working in earnest on your motif projects as well as reading the first text of our next unit related to truth and reality in art.  The piece you're reading tonight is by Joan Didion and it's called "On Keeping a Notebook."  It's available in 50 Essays, first edition, or at this link.  Read the piece carefully and annotate.  Keep an eye on the idea of truth as Didion expresses it.

In addition, remember that if you have a missing assignment from Ms. Alley then you must get in touch with her about submitting that assignment.  Her email address is kta5duke (at) gmail (dot) com.

Your motif projects will be collected on Tuesday.  I hope that I'll have your timed writings done by then as well.

English II

Your homework is in the post below.  You should focus on either revising your argument statement so that it can earn a perfect score, or you should be working on finding evidence for your argument.  Remember to think of examples or moments that prove your idea to be true.  Could you use Anne's diary?  Hotel Rwanda?  A monument or day of remembrance that we've discussed in class?  We'll be in the computer lab next class to do some research and planning.

Homework for A-Day Students: 21 April 2015

Russian I and II

Both classes have quizzes next class on the first half of the current units.  Here are your focuses for study as you are preparing.

Russian I:  adjectives into adverbs, nouns into adverbs, the different types of adverbs (qualities and cultures), knowing your conjunctions and how they're used in sentences, the differences between the conjunctions, your chapter three vocabulary

Russian II:  the grammar points around "all", each other, one's own, and the reflexive pronoun "myself", you will need to know the main vocabulary from chapter eight, you will also need to know the cultural information about post offices and sending mail in Russia, studying the exercises in your textbook/notes from these grammar topics will be helpful.

Your projects will be presented next week - any of the time you have after the quiz on Thursday will be spent preparing your projects.

English II

Today in class we were able to complete the writing of our argument statements in class - the heart to any good essay.  Tonight you should make corrections to your argument statement if you didn't receive a check or you should be thinking of evidence to use to prove your argument is true.

To revise, make sure that you have the COUNTERARGUMENT plus the four answers to the questions.  This makes up your argument.

For evidence, think of texts, movies, or other ways of remembering you could use to prove your idea is true.  Are you going to use Anne Frank's diary or Hotel Rwanda as part of your essay?  How?  In what way do these texts help you to prove your idea about remembering tragedy?

Homework for B-Day Students: 4/20/2015

AP English III

The final due date for motif projects is now Tuesday, April 28th.  Please make sure to check-in and ask if you have any questions related to this project.  For tonight you have a few things to take care of in order to prepare for Wednesday:

1. Look over your notes in preparing for the synthesis essay.  Remember that you've done this before, it's all about the argument.  They've done the research, they need you to prove the point.
2. Read the Epilogue for Invisible Man - We'll take a look at that as a class on Wednesday.
3. Friday will be our beginning for The Things They Carried.  I'll have copies that you can check out on Wednesday if you don't buy your own.

English II

Today we had some pretty great classes and I think that the reality of Anne's situation in the annex with her family sank in when we took the tour of the annex.  Remember this tour as we read her diary moving forward.  For tonight please make sure that you have answered all four parts of the essay prompt in our planning section.  Then, on the back, make sure to put your answers together into one sentence which answers the whole essay question.  Lastly, deal with the counterargument.  What is the opposite idea to your idea?  Is something else better?  Is forgetting the best?  We'll put this all together on Wednesday.

Homework for the Weekend - 17 April 2015

Russian I and Russian II

Both of you started a project today and both of you have started a journal entry today.  My recommendation would be that you work on your journals and your projects in order to prepare for your quiz next week.  Both of you have quizzes on Thursday.  The phrase of the week is:

Не имей сто рублей, а имей сто друзей!

Don't have 100 rubles, have instead 100 friends!

Remember to write a full page in your journal incorporating this phrase.  Make sure that you double space your entry.  If you need anything else to do this weekend then you can work through and review your dialogues we went over today in class.  That will be helpful too.

English II

For homework this weekend you have a bit of writing to do for me as we are beginning our major essay on remembrance and tragedy.  Work through to the top of side two on your question sheet.  Have your answer and the counterargument figured out.  We'll put it all together on Tuesday and start planning the essay.

Also, if you would like to explore more of the Anne Frank House, please visit this website:  http://www.annefrank.org.  You can learn a lot more about the annex and the families hiding there.

Homework for B Day Students: 16 April 2015

AP English III

Today is Ralph Ellison's death day.  He died on this day in 1994.  Remember that by reading him he continues to live.

For the weekend you should do some serious work on your motif projects.  Hopefully by this point you've been completing your motif chart, you've reexamined your chapter under consideration, and you've selected a quotation.  Now - plan your illustration of the quote.  Think about arrangement and design of the words.  Consider your work to pair it with illustrated meaning.  Plan your writing.  Three paragraphs for the three parts of the question.  Once you've selected your quote you are able to do this, so remember, pick your quote first.

Also you need to read chapter twenty-five to prepare for Monday's class.  We'll finish reading it in class on Monday.  This will bring us to start The Things They Carried next Friday.  There will be a timed writing to finish Invisible Man on Wednesday.  We'll be transitioning on Wednesday to Vietnam.

English II

Your post below will go over your homework for tonight.  Read the two journal excerpts from Holocaust survivors about their experiences living in the ghetto.  As you read, underline elements of the text which tell you about living conditions in the ghetto.  Compare and contrast these to the experiences that Anne has living in the Annex.  We'll be reading more of Anne next week, but it's important for us to look at the experiences of the other victims of the Shoah.

A Day Homework - April 15, 2015

Sorry for getting this out later than usual; having three meetings threw a bit of a wrench in my plans.  Here's what you have to do tonight.

Russian I and II

We either discussed or began a project today to which we will be devoting time on Friday.  For Friday, come prepared to work on the dialogue or culture project.  Russian I, there will also be a dialogue component of your project to be discussed later.  Both classes will have library time on Friday to help work on this.

In terms of grammar and vocabulary, this is a great night to study in context.  Here is an episode of a Russian television show called Live Healthy!  Жить здорово!  It's about ninety minutes long, so maybe just watch a thirty minute clip.  Listen for words you can recognize.  Train your ears.  Listen for the grammar we've been studying recently.  Try to understand how it's being used in context.  Make a list of five to ten new words you hear being used often.  Look them up in a dictionary and check your spelling.  Try to work with these words in cases and conjugations you know.


You will have a quiz soon - use this time to study and prepare for that.  Russian II will focus on new grammar in Unit 8, Russian I will focus on adverbs and other covered topics from Unit 3.

English II

Tonight you have the writing of two Holocaust survivors who relocated to North Carolina after World War II.  They both experienced life in the ghetto:  the ghetto presents a very different experience from Anne's life in the Annex.  Read the two readings on the handout and as you read underline examples of the living conditions in the ghetto.  Compare this to what we know of Anne's life so far.  We'll be looking at more of Anne's transition into life in the Annex next class to further this conversation.

Homework for B-Day Students: April 14, 2015

AP English III

Big discussion today from which I hope you learned a lot.  For tonight, make sure that you have finished your consideration of chapter twenty three since we've not yet talked about it and make sure that you have thorough annotations and reading done for chapter twenty four.  You'll have to finish the book over the weekend, so you may find it helpful to just go ahead and get it done now.

Don't forget as well that the window is open for resubmission of papers.  If you have a required resubmission you are required to meet with me to discuss your paper and develop a revision plan.  If you don't have a requirement to resubmit I would still recommend meeting with me to discuss the work you need to do.

We'll be getting to The Things They Carried likely at the end of next week.  You may want to get your copy today or tomorrow - if you order from Barnes and Noble you can help send students to Russia if you use my code.  See the poster outside my room.

English II

You have no work to turn in for me next class, but it would be a good idea to write about or just think about the similarities between Hotel Rwanda and what we've learned so far about HaShoah and The Diary of Anne Frank.  Additionally, make sure that you study your vocabulary.  It'll help you to really learn the vocabulary if you focus on it every day.

Happy Monday - Homework for 13 April 2015

Russian II

Tonight for homework I would like for you to write five sentences using your vocabulary words for chapter eight and to include a possessive pronoun (my, your, his, her, etc.).  Then, write a new version of the sentence changing the possessive pronoun to свой as we learned today in class.  When you change the pronoun, explain how the sentence is now different in its meaning.

By doing this you'll be working with the new vocabulary and the new grammar.  Don't forget to work nightly.

Russian I

Tonight for homework I want you to finish the work we did today with conjunctions.  Work through the activity at the end of what we were doing in class.  Read the sentences and combine them together so that you have cut down on the repeated information and used the proper conjunction.  Remember to write out your sentences, don't just make changes to the printout.

English II

Final call for projects is Tuesday.  Ms. Alley's last day on campus is this day.  In addition, keep working on your new vocabulary which you're learning every day.  Just like in Russian - spend a bit of time every day working on learning your vocabulary!

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students: 10 April 2015

AP English III

Remember ladies and gentlemen that you must always annotate what you read for my class.  Especially when I go through the trouble of writing you a blog post like the last one which is meant to help you make sense of things.  That being said, our discussion was really great.  Here's how to follow up:

1. You may want to reread "The Allegory of the Cave" now that we've worked through it.  Maybe some of those questions will start to resolve themselves now.
2. Read chapters twenty-two and twenty-three for our next class (Tuesday).  Keep in mind that the Invisible Man has now seen the sun, he's still got some growing to do before he's fully in the light; notice how he's changed.

English II

You all don't have any homework tonight but if you need to finish your project then make sure that's done by Tuesday so that you can turn it in to Ms. Alley.  Remember that your writing needs to have two paragraphs - one about the character and one about your visual.  If you left off the second paragraph then get it turned in Tuesday for no penalty.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day Students - 9 April 2015

Russian II

For the weekend you have your vocabulary studying to do; remember, thirty minutes a day to work on vocabulary to conjugate verbs and build sentences and to decline your nouns and adjectives into cases.  That's especially important as we're starting a new unit and we have a lot of new vocabulary to learn.

For homework, make sure that you complete exercise ten on the new phrase "each other" - focus on your forms.  There's a lot of advanced vocabulary in the sentences, just focus on your blanks!

Russian I

For the weekend you should also be looking at your new vocabulary.  Practice what we do every night so that it stays fresh in your brain.  This weekend you have three exercises to complete.  One will have you working by changing words into adverbs, one will ask you to fill in the blanks with new vocabulary, and the last asks you to combine sentences with the new conjunctions.  Be sure that with your conjunction exercise that you combine sentences and also translate the new sentences.

English II

You all have no homework this weekend but if you need to finish the project for Ms. Alley, make sure that you do that.  Remember the second paragraph of your writing; you need to make sure that you explain how your drawing shows the change in your character which you have seen.  In the first paragraph you explain how Kambili or Jaja changes in the text.  In the second paragraph you need to explain how your visual shows this change.

AP Exam Review Sessions

AP English III Students:

Here is the link to register for the AP English Language review session this Saturday and on the 25th.

http://cia.dpsnc.net/advanced-academics/advanced-placement

Remember they'll provide lunch, you have to provide transportation.  Register quickly and see if there are other sessions you'd like to attend as well.

Homework for B-Day Students: 4/8/2015

AP English III

As promised here are the materials that will help you to make sense of the piece by Plato, "The Allegory of the Cave."  First, make sure you're reading the proper excerpt from 50 Essays or from this link.  Make sure that you read the introductory material on Plato as it will help you to make sense of his argument.

Before You Read:

1. Think about the idea of vision in Invisible Man - In what ways does he see?  How is he blinded?  What does this idea of blinding and seeing mean when it comes to reality and truth?
2. Understand the structure - this is a dialogue between a student (Glaucon) and a teacher.  Understand the meaning of the student's name.  Understand the role of the teacher in this.

As You Read:

1. Annotate heavily.  Look for key ideas.  Mark questions.  Read the whole thing without stopping.
2. Make connections - How does this parallel the journey of the Invisible Man.  What is the meaning of the sun?  How does this piece relate back to "The Over-Soul" and the ideas of Transcendentalism?

After You Read:

1. Watch this video from youtube.com.  Go back through the piece as you watch the video and answer your questions.  Develop more.
2. Consider Plato's argument and its relationship to Invisible Man.
3. Do you see?  Or are you blind?

I'm looking forward to a productive discussion on Friday to start our conclusion of Invisible Man.

English II

You have your final project on Purple Hibiscus due on Friday.  Remember that there are four key components to this project that you must turn in for full credit.  Here they are:

1. Your timeline sheet - this was completed in class today.
2. Your quotes sheet - this was begun in class and completed by you at home if you didn't finish it during the workshop time.
3. Your written work for the project.  Ms. Alley gave you a plan for this today and reviewed it with you in class.  Make sure that you finish the planning and then either write or type your work on a different piece of paper that you will turn in.  Follow all of the guidelines on the assignment.
4. Your visual of how the character has changed.  Use your writing to help you figure this out.  Show us Kambili or Jaja at the beginning and show us without words how the character has changed in the text.  You can draw, use a photo, a collage, painting, etc.  There are lots of options for this.

Homework for A-Day Students: 7 April 2015 - Welcome Back to You!

Russian II

Tonight for homework you have to finish exercise six which will require you to use the forms of весь that we studied today in class.  You're going to find using your 6x4 declension chart really helpful for this.  Remember how we worked through number one and two - look at the word associated with the blank - identify the case and gender of this word - your form of весь will need to agree as весь is like an adjective.

Make sure that you write out all of the sentences - don't just fill in the blanks.  Writing the sentences out will help you to notice the grammar patterns like conjugation and declension that you need to keep working on.

If you would like some extension work, feel free to look at exercise three or two - these aren't required tonight, but we'll likely look at them soon.  Also, have your Винни Пух work done so that we can have some fun with him on Thursday too!

Russian I

Tonight for homework I want you to spend more time with your vocabulary - especially the adjectives.  Select five adjectives and turn them into adverbs following the two systems.  Use your notes for this.  Remember - change the endings!  When you've written out your two words - one from vocabulary and one from your creation then look at what you've done and explain the difference.  You may want to use a sentence with each word to help explain.  Here's an example of what I would like:

скучный - boring, adjective
Это мой скучный класс.  This describes the class saying it is boring.

скучно - boringly, adverb
Он скучно говорит.  This describes the way he talks - boringly.

By doing this you'll be working with ten words.  The idea here is to learn the system and the differences between parts of speech.

English II

Tonight you need to make sure that you have your project on Purple Hibiscus finished for Thursday's class.  Make sure that you have both the visual and the written portion complete.  This is your first major grade of the nine weeks; work hard and get yourself off to a good start to finish the year!

Homework for B-Day Students: 6 April 2015 - Welcome Back!

AP English III

We went over a lot today to get us ready for the next few weeks.  Here are some of your reminders to get you going for tonight and on into Wednesday.

1. Read/Review chapters twenty and twenty-one of Invisible Man.  You've got the climax of the novel in these two chapters so pay close attention.  Be sure to pay attention to how the invisible man reacts and is changed by this climactic event.
2. Write and submit questions for the Socratic Seminar we will be having on Wednesday.  Your questions should focus on these chapters.  Check out Ms. Alley's twitter stream for what she wants from your questions.
3. Begin to complete your third short paper on other invisible minorities.  Ms. Alley reviewed the instructions for this with you today.  If you have questions, be sure to ask sooner rather than later.  This paper is due for you next Tuesday.
4. If you would like to purchase our last book of the year - The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien then please do that soon.  If you wait until Saturday and buy it at Barnes and Noble at Southpoint then your purchase will help the Russian students traveling to Moscow and St. Petersburg this summer.

English II

If you did not finish reading Purple Hibiscus over break then you should try to do that today.  We'll be spending time on Tuesday/Wednesday working on our projects to finish Purple Hibiscus.  Try to work hard on these as this is your first major test grade of the quarter.  Also remember the ideas I shared with you today about the end of the year.  This is the time to make our final push.