Homework for A Day Students - 30 November 2015

Welcome back everyone!  I hope that your Thanksgiving break was restful and that you were able to spend some time on yourself.  Here are your reminders as you move forward to Wednesday.

Russian II/III

For homework you should finish the viewing guide for Служебный Роман - remember that one question needs to be answered in complete sentences in Russian.  The other questions can be answered in English.  Make sure that this is complete as it will be entered in to reassess on your previous viewing guide for the film.

Outside of this you should review the grammar and new verbs in your units.  Make sure that you are preparing yourself in advance of your assessments before Winter Break.

Russian I

For homework tonight you should add in a sentence about your family members which uses the accusative case.  For this, I would recommend going back to the hobby sentence.  Tell me what the person reads, or what the person watches, or what the person cooks.  Remember to add in an appropriate direct object after the verb.  Remember the requirements:

• sentence which introduces the person, states the relationship to you
• sentence which states where the person lives, uses the verb "to live" and the prepositional case
• sentence which states a hobby the person has/what the person does
• a sentence which uses the accusative case

You'll end up with anywhere from five to six sentences for each family member.

English II

For homework tonight you should make sure that you are studying your grammar notes and your vocabulary from Persepolis.  You'll have a quiz before winter break on both of these things.  Additionally, if you are missing your graphic novel/memoir project you will want to get that turned in either Tuesday or Wednesday to get credit before the progress reports come out.  There are also some of you who are missing the paragraph on comparing Marji's life to your own life - make sure that all missing work is settled!

Russian Language Resources

Привет русские друзья!

Я хочу вам показать много хороших сайтов, на которых можно найти очень полезную информацию о русской грамматике.  Читайте и учите!

I want to y'all to show a lot good sites, on which possible to find very helpful information about Russian grammar.  Read and study!

http://masterrussian.com/

There's a lot on this site and it's organized pretty well for you on the left hand side of the page.  There are large categories there, and a lot of those pages have subpages.

All Russian Cases

This is a subpage from above with information on all six cases and declensions.  If you look carefully you can find subpages on each and every specific case.

Common Russian Verbs with Conjugations

This is a treasure trove of information.  It gives you related words, conjugations, everything really - aspectual pairs, imperatives!  Whoa!  Russian I Students, there's more here than what we've learned; don't be surprised if you think a verb is first conjugation but it isn't - we'll get to those things later...

One Stem Verb System Information

This is only for II and III students - it doesn't use structural transcription and goes into more detail about some topics, but there's a lot here on OSVS which may be helpful to you.

Homework for Thanksgiving Break - A Day Students

Russian Students - You should be practicing and working on Russian content everyday over the break!  Don't slack.

Russian I:  By this point in the course you should know the following concepts -

• nominative and prepositional cases
• possessive pronouns
• gender
• subject pronouns 
• verb conjugation
• basic sentence structure "This is..."
• vocabulary in Chapter One

Make sure that you have studied and reviewed these concepts so that you are solid and sure coming back from the break.  If you haven't done your family writing, you should take care of that.  When we come back from break we will move through the other cases - know the prepositional so that you are able to learn the others quickly.

Also, practice your singing.

Russian II/III:  I identified skills or objectives for each of you to practice/study over the break.  Make sure that you are using these cards to follow through on your studying and practice over the long break.  Verbs and cases are good to review for all of you since those foundational skills are so important.  Make sure that you have notes on the first questions which we watched today in our film - we'll finish the rest of the film at the end of Thanksgiving break.

English II:  If you did not turn in your project today make sure that it gets in to me tomorrow.  If you need to email it, please send it to daniel (dot) miller (at) dpsnc (dot) net.  I'll confirm that I got your project.  Make sure that you don't miss the chance to turn in this project since it's a major grade for the quarter.

Outside of this, you will want to make sure to finish any make up work that you may have.  Many of you are missing the paragraph where you should be comparing your childhood to Marji's childhood.  If you don't have that, get it to us after the break or email it in.  Lastly there is the extra credit which is also due after Thanksgiving - make sure to complete that if you want those points!

Weekend assignments for B-Day Students

AP English III

Your only assignment is to complete your outline for your literary analysis paper. As I said in class, the parameters are:

• 2 pages max (front and back of one sheet of paper)
• Typed
• State your guiding question. This may be revised.
• State your working thesis
• Organize the body of your essay--showing the main evidence you will use. Include direct quotes if they are short. For long passages, you can just say "the passage where Huck and Jim get lost in the fog from Chapter blah blah." Give a brief explanation of how you will use each quote
• No need for introduction or conclusion.

I will grade these for effort and mainly aim to give you feedback that you can use as you move forward. 

One of your classmates asked for a sample paper, so here is a link to a paper I wrote this fall for an undergraduate class I'm taking at Duke. It's not the best paper I've ever written, but it demonstrates the basic idea of what you'll be doing. Click here to view the paper. That link should take you to a PDF hosted on my Google Drive account. If it does not work, please let me know!

Also remember that you should finish the novel over Thanksgiving Break.

English II

Your graphic personal narrative projects are due Tuesday. We will be doing in-class presentations.

The optional extra credit assignments will be due after Thanksgiving Break, but you may turn them in earlier if you wish.

Homework for A Day Students - Weekend Edition - 19 November

Happy Thursday everyone!  Here are your reminders for the weekend -

Russian I, II, and III

We will be reassessing on standards from the previous quiz on Monday.  Make sure that you are reviewing and preparing to earn back points and show mastery of concepts. Russian I Students - Focus on your cases, possessive pronouns, and your vocabulary in chapter one, especially the nouns.  Russian II Students - Focus on your counting rules and the spelling of your numbers.  Russian III Students - Focus on your use of modals as well as vocabulary in chapter nine.

Russian II/III

Other than preparing for your reassessment on Monday I would like for you to complete your journal writing this weekend.  The phrase for the week is "кому/чему не удалось" meaning "it didn't work out for whom/what".  Remember that this phrase uses the dative case for the person/thing it didn't work out for.  Think about this as you use this phrase.

Russian I

You have your reassessment to prepare for this weekend.  Additionally, you can spend some time working on your family writing.  Next class we'll likely get started on our next case - the accusative case, so be ready for that excitement!

English II

You all have your extra credit assignment to work on over the weekend and on through Thanksgiving break.  Remember that the assignment can be turned in early or not at all since it's for extra credit.

Your required work for the weekend is to finish your project - the personal narratives focusing on a moment in your life.  On Monday we'll have our presentations of the projects, finish discussing "The Passport" chapter and then likely work on the film.

Homework for B-Day Students - 11/18/2015 - PLC Day

Happy Half Day!  Here are your reminders for tonight.

AP English III

Your resubmissions of quarter one's argumentative essay are due on Friday to me.  I will then process grade corrections for the first quarter and you will see these reflected on your next report card.  Do not miss this deadline as you will not have the chance to turn it in again.  Outside of this, make sure that you have been working on your outline for Ms. Ginocchio as that assignment is due from you all on Tuesday, before Thanksgiving Break.  Lastly, make sure that you have yourself in a good place to be able to finish The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn over Thanksgiving Break.  We'll be finishing the book quickly after that.

English II

Your Persepolis personal narrative projects are due on Tuesday, the class before we have Thanksgiving Break.  Many of you were able to use the workshop to get a lot done on your projects; try to finish them tonight so that you are ready going into the weekend.  Remember that one of the largest parts of this grade is your presentation - think about this clearly.  Be sure to explain how your use of graphic elements helps you to enhance the story you are telling.

Homework for A-Day Students: 17 November 2015

English II

Your homework for tonight is the same that it will be for Thursday.  You have your graphic novel projects due on Monday which means that you need to finish them tonight and tomorrow night.  Many of you got some good work done today in class on these projects - keep that momentum going and finish it when you get home.  Remember that you can turn in your work early if you finish it early and it's complete.

Please pay attention to the rubric as you are finishing this project.  Your explanation of your art and how you used graphic details to add to the meaning of the work is important - make sure that you can answer this question clearly.

Russian I

For homework tonight you have reading to do in Russian.  I want you to be able to identify all of the verbs in this text - you have twenty since I gave you the first one.  You also want to be able to identify any cognates (words that are the same in English and in Russian) - try to be able to translate these words.

After you have read the text remember to do your Interpretive Reading work - What is the main idea of this text?  What are three supporting details?  Remember to do this work in English.

Russian II/III

II's - You need to complete exercise 5.2 and 5.3A - Remember to spend time using your verb list in chapter five to help you learn the different imperfective and perfective verbs.  That list will be invaluable to you.  I would also recommend continuing to study the examples in the textbook with the translations.  The only way to understand aspect is to experience it and to work through it; try to get as much exposure as you can.

III's - You need to complete exercise 9.9, write out all of the sentences and form imperatives in the perfective of the imperfective verb in the beginning of the sentence.  Focus on forming your imperatives and selecting the proper pair for the imperfective verb.

II's and III's - Make sure that you complete your cheat sheet (шпаргалка) focusing on the different grammar we've learned today.  These will be very helpful as we learn and review these concepts.

Homework for B Day Students - 11/17/2015

Sorry for the delay everyone!  Here are your reminders for Wednesday's classes.

English II

You have some reading to do tonight - please read the next chapter of Persepolis called "The Cigarette" - as you read, consider the importance of the cigarette in this chapter as a symbol.  What does the cigarette mean?  How does it relate to a larger idea?  Why is this larger idea important to the story and to Marji?  Consider these ideas as you are reading.

Next class we'll spend time working on symbolism and our projects - so be prepared for that.

AP English III

Next class you have your rhetorical analysis timed writing - review the idea of a rhetorical analysis as well as the process of completing this type of assignment.  Remember that in this type of writing you are proving someone else's argument and how they are supporting that argument.

Additionally, you have some pieces to be working on for your papers.  You have your outlines for your essays due on 11/24/2015 - please follow Ms. Ginocchio's instructions for completing the outline - remember that it isn't as detailed as the first outline you completed, but the more work you do in the outline, the easier the paper will be to complete.  Lastly, you'll be finishing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn over Thanksgiving Break, so you may want to move toward that goal sooner, rather than later.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day Students - 13 November

Russian II/III

Today in class you had your assessment on the first goals of your new units.  If there were areas that confused or stumped you, please focus on those areas this weekend so that you are prepared next week for a reassessment on these particular skills and grammar points.  Remember that with our new grading system you will not simply retake the last quiz, but instead you'll be asked questions that assess you on the same skills and standards.

In addition, if you have a journal to submit to me on Tuesday or any other missing work, please get that in.  Some of you are missing a viewing guide for Служебный Роман on the first part.

Russian I

Today in class we also had an assessment, so the same rules for the Russian II/III students works for you - prepare yourself for reassessment if you need that.  Your main task for this weekend is to review and revise your writing on your family members.  I should see rewritten paragraphs on your family members which have perfect grammar and spelling.

English II

For homework this weekend you will need to read "The Cigarette" - you have photocopies of the chapter to read.  As always, look for new vocabulary.  The major thing to think about is what the cigarette symbolizes for Marji.  She's making some big strides in her life, try to take account of them.

B Day Students - Homework - 12 November

And just like that it's Friday.  Here is what you need to accomplish for tonight as we move forward to next week.

English II

If you didn't have your planning work from our workshop to show me in class today then please have that to show me next class.  For the planning you need to take your event that is the focus of your narrative and break that into (at least) five specific points or smaller moments (what happened first, second, third, and so on).  Then, account for all of your characters and their emotions through your story.  Select a graphic element you will use in the creation of your narrative, and lastly draw your first frame.

We'll be spending some more time next class working through these assignments more.  Remember that they will be due on the 23rd and 24th of this month.

AP English III

Over the weekend you have your next major chunk of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to read, Chapters Thirty to Thirty-Eight.  Continue to think about your essay topic and plan - now that you've determined your topic and general idea, you should read the rest of the text with this idea in mind.

Don't forget that on Wednesday you will have your first timed writing of a rhetorical analysis.  Remember that we are basically doing this all of the time, you're now being asked to formalize it on paper for us.

Lastly, if you have any missing work in PowerSchool (namely vocabulary cards) get those turned in ASAP!  And 3B students, don't forget your permission slips.

A-Day Homework - 10 November 2015

Remember that tomorrow we have a day off for Veterans' Day.  Thank a veteran for his/her service to our country; if you don't know a veteran, then find one and say thank you.  Here are your reminders to take you to Friday.

English II

For Friday's class make sure that you have a completed personal narrative plan where you have sketched out your plot into distinct moments, planned for your characters, thought about graphic elements in your art, and then drawn your first panel.  Many of you didn't have this and said it was at home - that's fine.  Make sure that I see it on Friday.

In addition, if you have missing work, now is a great time to take care of that.  You may be missing your writing on Marji's childhood in comparison to yours, the dramatic reading, or the test.  See us to check on this.

Russian I

For Friday you have your exam on vocabulary, prepositional case, and grammatical gender rules.  Make sure that you have studied and that you are ready.  Many of you still need to work more on verb conjugation and complete another retest - please see me to complete this sooner rather than later.

Russian II

For Friday you also have an exam that you'll be completing.  Make sure that you can discuss various time expressions and that you can explain at what time a particular event happens.  In addition, you should know your numbers from zero to sixty as well as the rules for counting items like seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, etc.

Russian III

For Friday you have your exam too - I try to give all the Russian tests on the same day.  Your exam will focus on the food vocabulary in chapter nine, the use of modals, and then aspect rules when working with можно/нельзя.  From what I saw in our review today many of you are confusing some of the modals with each other - try to understand what idea each of the modals controls and the particular case ideas that work with each modal.  That will help.

Homework for AP English III

1. Submit your paper topic via Google form by Wednesday at 11:59 pm. You should not need to log in or have a Google account to use the form. If you have trouble with the form, please email me. (Don't wait until class on Thursday to tell me it wasn't working.) The link is here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1lJUFYkYn6mBzOxgNxrx5R87cnj4h3JLNvEG4LqFv_i4/viewform?usp=send_form
2. Find 1 example of irony in Chapters 20-29 of Huck Finn. Mark it somehow that you can be ready to share it in class.
3. For the few of you who did not read for today, finish your reading!
4. Finish the Langston Hughes essay if you did not in class. We will do the AP multiple choice questions for it on Thursday.
5. For Monday, read chapters 30-38 of Huck Finn. When I wrote your reading schedules, I did not know that Wednesday is a holiday, so my A/B days got thrown off. You will finish the novel for the first class after Thanksgiving Break (Tuesday, December 1).

Please do not hesitate to contact me (Ms. Ginocchio) at jg239 [at] duke [dot] edu with any questions you have. 

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 6 November

English II

We had our exam on the first half of Persepolis today and began our in-depth study of the film.  I enjoyed the fact that so many of you noticed so many things about the adaptation of the book to the film.  Make sure that you've selected one element from question one and that you've written down one clear detail from our study of the film today as well as your opinion of the detail.

We'll work more on this as we continue to watch the film.  Make sure that you put in some work on the personal narrative project this weekend.  Many of you are off to a good start - it may be a good idea to see us with a draft of your project for some comments.

Russian III/II

You have your journals to complete this weekend as well as a second quiz on Thursday.  I would like for those of you who need to be reassessed from the first quiz to settle that before quiz number two - that makes everything easier for all of us.

With your journals - don't forget our phrase of the week:  не откладывай на завтра то, что можно сделать сегодня.  A good reminder for all of us, all the time.  II's - I want to see you using your time expressions as they work well with this idea.  Make sure to write out all of your numbers.  III's - use modal expressions and talk about what you need and/or need to do.  I'll be collecting all journals on Tuesday.  (G/SC/V/CU/C)

Russian I

There was a lot of good writing going on today in class and we didn't get to our game - things to get to on Tuesday.  For the weekend, focus on your writing and your notes from the writing workshop.  From what I saw there were two big areas:  verb conjugation and preposition usage (in Durham/in school/in Alaska/in Russia) that were throwing off a lot of you.  Remember to use the model expressions and my notes as you revise and rewrite.

Additionally you have your practice exercises.  These aren't for a grade, but they're good reinforcement and will help you learn your skills.  We'll likely look at a few of these on Tuesday as part of our review.

Homework for B-Day Students - 5 November 2015

English II

You have your exam on Monday which will cover the first half of Persepolis - chapters "The Veil" to "The Trip".  As you study and review make sure to focus on the characters we've studied, the plot of the text what are the major events) and finally the new vocabulary which we reviewed today in class.  Be ready and know your skills - the exam shouldn't surprise you at all.

You should also keep moving forward on your personal narrative projects - a lot of you got some great work done today; keep going!

AP English III

First you have your next reading goal for Monday's class.  You're going to be reading the next section of the novel which focuses on the Duke and the Dauphin.  Continue to watch these men and pay attention to the constant structure of the novel.  Secondly, you need to solidify a paper topic and have that ready for Ms.Ginocchio for next week as well - she'll collect it on Thursday from you.

Lastly, review the rest of the rhetorical analysis prompt that we began with today - there will be your first of these timed writings coming soon.  It won't be this prompt (obviously) but it will be a rhetorical analysis.

Homework for A Day Students - 4 November 2015

English II

Your main work for tonight is to study for your examination on Friday.  It's going to cover the first ten chapters (half) of Persepolis.  You should focus on our main characters from the first part of the text and the main plot events.  Additionally, we have the vocabulary that we reviewed.  I was happy that so many of you knew so many of the words!  Good work!

Russian II/III

You should be working on your journals tonight.  Remember in the journals we have our main phrase for the week and then I want you to work on including your new grammar concepts that you've been learning this week.  For IIs - that means time expressions.  For IIIs - that means modal expressions.  Remember to use these grammar pieces to learn them better.

Additionally, you should have your exercises done.  Be prepared if I were to check them.

Russian I

Tonight you should take another look at your family member writing and you should revise and develop.  Add two pieces of information - tell me what the person's name is and what they like to do at home.  You should for the last sentence tell me "In the house, my mom reads" as an example.  Here is an example of your four sentences:

Это моя мама.  Ее зовут Патриция.  Она живет на Аляске.  В доме, она читает.

Homework for B-Day Students

AP English III-

Your assignment for Thursday is to read the handout "Writing About Fiction." This should clarify a lot of the questions many of you had about this type of paper. Bring questions with you if you have them, and keep this text handy as you are working through your paper in the next quarter. Be thinking about your paper topic, and be sure to gather evidence and examples as you read.

For Monday, read Chapters 20-29 of Huck Finn. Don't save this all for Sunday. 

If you did not read for today or struggled with the quiz, review Chapters 17-19 before Thursday.

English II

• Test Monday: Study the first half of Persepolis, your reading and viewing guides, your notes about our introductory material on Iran and the Middle East (the video and Koran readings). Study vocabulary--I highly, highly recommend flashcards. Make them tonight and study a little bit every day. You remember better if you study in smaller chunks more frequently.
• Be working on your projects.
• Have your parents sign the permission slip for Ms. Ginocchio's program at Duke. 

Homework for A Day Students - 2 November 2015

English II

As a reminder you have two major things to be working on.  First we have your test on Friday that will cover the first half of Persepolis from "The Veil" all the way to "The Trip."  Make sure that you have read thoroughly, that you have studied your vocabulary and any notes from the text.  The quiz will also focus on the information about Iran and Muslim culture we learned before starting the text, so make sure you're familiar with that information too.

Your other major task is to work on your personal narrative projects.  For next class you should know your event from your life that you'll be turning into a graphic novel and the main parts of that event.  Try to break it down to what happened first, second, third, etc.

Russian I

For homework tonight you're going to be writing about yourself and five family members.  On a separate sheet of paper you want to write a sentence introducing the person and stating their relationship to you (ex:  This is my dad.).  Then you want to use our new verb "to live" and the prepositional case to tell me where this person lives.  Remember to use the proper ending with the location so that you are showing the prepositional case.  You should have twelve sentences total.

Russian II

For homework tonight you should review the information on accusative case time expressions on page 205 to 209.  Once you've done this, you should be able to complete exercises fourteen and fifteen talking about time expressions and using them to answer questions.

Russian III

Tonight you should focus on your modals and complete exercises four, seven, and eight at the end of chapter nine.  Remember to stay focused on aspect as you look at these exercises.

ALL RUSSIAN STUDENTS:  Remember we'll have our guests here on Wednesday.  Bring in your food/beverage item before school, check in with your first period teacher, and then report here!