Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Homework/Reminders - 28 February 2017 - B Day

Today was a bit of the day that wasn't. I hope that all of you who tested today felt prepared, especially for the English, reading, and writing sections.

AP English III:

Since we didn't have class you know that your reading is due for Thursday. Don't forget as well that we will hold another review session for the Quest on Thursday morning. The Quest will cover Prologue through Chapter Seven. It would be a good idea to come and review.

Also, when you complete your outline revision/resubmission, please email me to let me know that it is ready to be graded. It would also be helpful for you to tell me what changes you have made. That will speed my process along.

English II:

Good work today with Oedipus the King. I enjoyed seeing you act, draw, and then find language related to our major devices and themes. We'll keep this going next class. The most important thing is to make sure that you have completed your research/creative writing project on Google Classroom. Ms. Barber and I will start grading these soon!

Monday, February 27, 2017

Invisible Man Quest Review Session

AP Students!

Ms. Barber and I will be holding a review session for the Prologue to Chapter Seven Quest tomorrow and on Thursday morning. Tomorrow morning it will begin at 8:15 am. It'd be a good warm-up for the ACT, get your brain thinking.

We'll go over important passages, the format of the quest, and the important elements to have annotated.

AP English III - Outlines (Revisions/Resubmissions)

AP English III Students:

As you are working through your outlines to revise and resubmit them please make sure that you clearly indicate to me which changes you have made to your outline. You can highlight them in the document or send me a separate email where you list the changes.

This will help to make sure that you get any points that you need/want to earn.

Also, there are still a few of you who have not yet shared a document. This needs to be fixed ASAP.

We will not have class tomorrow because of the ACT. Make sure that you take the time you need to take in order to be prepared with your outline as well as your assessment on Thursday (Prologue to Chapter Seven) and the reading/blogging (Chapters Seven, Eight, and Nine).

Homework for A-Day Students: 27 February 2017

Advanced Russian:

Russian II - Next class you'll have your reassessment on verbs of motion. Make sure that you have studied your conjugation patterns for these verbs as well as the way in which they work with the various cases (accusative/dative) to create meaning. Reviewing and studying your previous quiz would be very helpful.

Russian III & IV - Next class we'll have time to work together and review the various things floating over us right now. You'll have an exam coming up next week. Be sure that you've read Dostoevsky up to the beginning of Nastya's Story (section seventeen). For Russian III, be sure you've completed your translations and worked through the airline article as much as you can.

Russian I:

It looks like almost all of you completed the various holiday information slideshows. Good work. Now you'll need to spend some time getting ready for your reassessment on cases. The reassessment is going to focus on nominative, accusative, and prepositional cases.

English II:

Hopefully by this pint you have finished up your projects. Ms. Barber and I will work through the week to get them graded and updated. Make sure that you understand what is happening in Oedipus the King up to the end of the first chorus. Study and review your notes so that you are able to explain what is happening in the play.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 24 Februrary

AP English III:

Make sure that your priority this weekend is revising/resubmitting your outlines for your research paper! I will regrade them on Monday. PowerSchool is down this weekend.

Remember that we will not see you on Tuesday - you have the ACT. So for Thursday, make sure you've read Chapters Seven, Eight and Nine. Also, be ready for a quest on Prologue through Chapter Seven. Your blogs should also be updated to the end of Chapter Nine.

English II:

If you did not finish the project today in class, make sure that you finish it over the weekend if you can. If you cannot, then you will need to get a library pass and finish it during one of your lunch periods.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 23 February 2017

Russian Classes:  I hope you all enjoyed celebrating a bit of Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland! 

Advanced Russian:

Russian IV - Continue to read "White Nights" through to the end of section sixteen. As you read, look at Nastya's reactions and her observations while the narrator tells his story. Use these reactions to understand her character. Interpret them.  Also continue to look for useful vocabulary and interesting sentence/language constructions for us to discuss.

Russian III - Please complete the translation exercise A in Chapter Ten. Do the translations in your journals. Remember to review any necessary vocabulary from the textbook first, and then from a dictionary or translator.

Russian II - Continue to work on building your sentences around your different modes of transportation. Remember that one sentence with each means of transit should use a transitive verb and one should use an intransitive verb. Also, remember, only humans can "carry" items.

Russian I:

You should continue studying your new grammar and your old grammar to review all six cases. You have exercises around case identification and writing with the different cases that you should use to practice and review your grammar skills.

We'll continue to work on our projects on Monday.

English II:

I like that fact that a few of you were able to finish your projects today in class. If you didn't finish them today then you will need to take time outside of class to finish as I am not sure we will be able to find more time in class for them.

Homework for B-Day Students: 22 February

AP English III:

Apologies for not getting this posted sooner. I left early yesterday, Ms. Barber has class, and I didn't remember until this morning.  You've got a few deadlines coming up on Friday.

  1. Make sure that you have read and annotated up to the end of Chapter Six in Invisible Man. Pay close attention to the long oratory in Chapter Five given by Homer Barbee about The Founder. There's a lot of rich symbolism there. In Chapter Six we have a lot to deal with concerning Dr. Bledsoe.  You also have to email Ms. Barber with your discussion topics from these chapters. Email her directly at (mary dot barber @ duke dot edu) - Make sure that she has your email before 6:00 TODAY in order to receive credit.
  2. You also have your blogging posts due for these chapters.
  3. You have your formal outlines due to me on Google Docs. I will be reading, scoring, and providing feedback this weekend to all of you. Make sure that you have shared with me (daniel _ miller (at) dpsnc (dot) net ), that you have used the rubric to craft your outline and that you have at least four clear topics for consideration.
English II:

I hope that you all were productive and enjoyed the reading and the beginning of the film. We'll follow up with everything on Friday! Friday will also be our day to finish our research/creative writing projects!

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Homework for A-Day Students: 21 February

Russian I:

Kids - do your homework. Practice daily with the language. If you're not, then you won't be learning as much as you should.  

Now we're operating in all six cases with nouns and adjectives. Soon we'll have another quiz going over endings and changes, FYI. Tonight, make sure that you finish the interpretive reading questions about the story I gave you last class. Additionally, complete exercise seven where you identify the case of the boldface word and tell why the word is in that case.

Also, we'll be doing some research on Russian holidays soon. You may find it useful to do a bit of pre-research so you know which holiday you would want to study for your project.

Advanced Russian:

All of you should continue working on your projects that you started today. Remember that if you want me to spend time giving you notes and corrections, please let me know. Russian IV - Continue reading Dostoevsky and developing a full picture of Nastya and her character. Work on the graphic organizer I gave you today in class.  Russian III - Complete the work on hypothetical statements I gave you today. Remember how you use verb tenses when creating hypothetical situations. Russian II - You will find it very helpful to study and correct your quiz today. Understand why your answer was wrong and what the right answer is. This will also be very helpful when dealing with your projects!

English II:

A lot of you got great work done on your projects today. Keep that going tonight and continue building your presentations/documents if you can. We'll only have one more class in the computer lab to finish these.


AND YOU ALL GOT PROGRESS REPORTS TODAY!

Monday, February 20, 2017

Homework for B-Day Students: 20 February

AP English III:

All of the work that you have to do is due on Friday. Make sure that you have thoroughly read and annotated Chapters Five and Six in Invisible Man. Chapter Five involves a long speech (a sermon) by a blind minister named Homer Barbee. There are a lot of allusions in this speech. Pay attention carefully and think about other blind guys named Homer.  Chapter Six is dealing with the ramifications of the Invisible Man's actions in Chapters Two and Three. The discussion about Dr. Bledsoe will be really important to consider.

Since you have reading due, don't forget to do your blog posts as well. Blogs will rarely be checked coming in to class, but they will be assessed after since we often discuss the different motifs.

Also, in terms of our research papers, we have two major steps coming soon. The outlines are due on Friday. Many of you have already started them in Google Documents with me. Keep that work going. Consider what I reviewed with you today and the notes from your synthesis. Put this into your work and pay it forward.  You also have the instructions for the next major milestone - the synthesis pack.

English II

Today was a lot of fun, starting the acting and dramatizing of Oedipus the King. We'll be reading and studying the play every day in class so know that if you miss a day, you're missing the study of the play and you'll want to make-up what you miss.  We'll finish our projects this week if you are not already done.  If you can spend some time working on them outside of class, great. If not, we'll deal with that on Wednesday.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

A-Day Homework - 19 February 2017

Many apologies for posting this so late. I got struck down with a nasty bug and found myself sleeping most of Friday afternoon and Saturday. Much better today.

Advanced Russian:

All of you should be focused on developing your projects for Tuesday's class. I'm going to try to get us time in the library on Tuesday to do research and to go over your writing with all of you. Take the feedback I've given you so far and apply it moving forward.

Don't forget as well that your textbook is a wealth of examples and explanations.  We'll quickly move through completing this project.

Russian I:

For those of you who have submitted projects, those grades are posted in PowerSchool. I liked what I saw, there were a few small spelling and grammar errors, but for the most part your writing was clear and accomplished its goals. Please start focusing on learning your new endings for the other three cases (GEN/DAT/INST). To help you with this you have your grammar analysis and interpretive reading homework.

Read the story about the narrator. Give the main idea and three details. Then color code the assignment by cases. Focus on endings and functions!

English II:

I was happy to hear from Ms. Barber that the day was productive for most of you. Good! If you can, keep working on your research and projects. We'll be finishing these up pretty fast this week!

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 16 February 2017

AP English III:

Over the weekend we have some reading to do, some blogging to do, and some outlining to do. Make sure that you have read and annotated Chapters Three and Four in Invisible Man as well as settle your blog posts for those chapters.

Additionally, you will want to make sure that you have shared a Google Document with me that has the beginnings of your outline. You should include an argument statement and the beginning of one complete topic. We'll go over more of the requirements next week with the outline. I want everyone to show me where they are right now so that I know how best to structure our time to work next week.

English II:

There is no homework for you all tonight. If you need to finish your project and you can do that at home - great. If not, we will have some time next class to work on finishing those up.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Homework for A-Day Students: 15 February 2017

English II:

Good day today guys getting into Oedipus the King and the elements of irony we'll see in that play. Someone took a box from the room by mistake - if you took it, please return it ASAP.

Remember that on Friday we will be focused on finishing our projects in the computer lab all class. You should be prepared to be focused and work hard on this assignment on Friday.

Russian I:

I was happy about the fact that many of you have made some good understandings around case declensions and meanings. Keep this work going as you keep learning and making connections. Tonight, you should work on finishing your house projects. Remember we need a floor plan of the house as well as paragraphs describing what is in each room and what happens in the room.

You'll have a reassessment next week on these three cases to go back over the work on the quiz.

Advanced Russian:

Russian II: I think that a lot of you understand what to do with your non-prefixed verbs of motion in past, present, and future. I think you also have a fair understanding of what to do with the verbs as we add the prefix по- and step into aspect issues. Put all of this together and be ready for your quiz next class.

Russian III: Next class we'll finish our review of the paragraph on American tourists traveling in Moscow. Then, we'll review the idea of the hypothetical and conditional. Make sure that you've read over the information in your textbook to help us do this work.

Russian IV: Keep reading White Nights and as you do, focus on the character of Nastenka. What do we learn about her? How? Also, be sure to finish the vocabulary analysis work I gave you today so that you can present on these ideas to the group on Friday.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Homework for B Day Students - 14 February 2017

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!!!!  Make me your valentine by doing your homework tonight.

AP English III:

There are many things for you all to be working on/complete over the next few days. I'll outline the specific instructions for each task below.

  1. Invisible Man reading. Your task is to read and annotate to the end of Chapter Two, the Trueblood chapter. It's a challenging piece of writing in terms of the language, the ideas, and the disgust you'll be feeling. Stay focused on the motifs to help you get through. The idea of double consciousness can also be productive. We expect you'll be coming in with a lot of questions.
  2. Invisible Man blogging. Your task is to set up and post your introduction post as well as your posts on the Prologue, Chapter One, and Chapter Two. All of the posts should be up no later than 6:00 PM on Thursday the 16th. The posts are meant to be a more thorough version of your motif charts. You should identify how the motif is seen in the chapter as well as its importance within the chapter. There is a great version of the blog project here from last year. Keep in mind that in the example students tracked two motifs and did vocabulary as well, this is not part of your task this year.
  3. Outlining for Research Papers. Your task is to create a Google Document and share with me (daniel_miller (at) dpsnc (dot) net). In the GD you should include your argument statement and outline one of your topics. You should share this no later than Sunday so that you can get feedback before the full outline is due on 24 February.
There's a lot going on in AP English III right now. Stay ahead and use your time wisely. See your teachers if you start to fall behind and need help!

English II:

Today we spent all of class working on our projects to finish our unit on Latin American Literature. If you are able, continue to work on your project at home or on your device. Remember that final projects will be graded next week!

Monday, February 13, 2017

Homework for A-Day Students: 13 February 2017

Advanced Russian:

Next class we will have one of our final classes focused on verbs of motion (II/III).  Please make sure that you have completed the verbs of motion exercises in your chapters. For Russian II this is exercise four in Chapter Six. For Russian III you'll be focusing on the exercises eight and nine in Chapter Ten.

Russian IV - Please focus on the passages that I showed you today in class. Look for important vocabulary and language structures in these passages. Also, pay close attention to the prefixing of verbs throughout those passages.

Russian I:

Next class I'll be working with each of you to review your projects. If your project is fully complete then you will turn it in. If your project needs revisions, then you will revise for homework on Wednesday and turn it in on Friday. Remember that for the project you should have a floor plan and paragraphs for five rooms in a house. The house does not need to be your actual house.

Friday, February 10, 2017

Homework for the Weekend B Day Classes 10 February

AP English III
Hey y'all! As we talked about in class, let's go ahead and wrap up our blog project contracts. Those should be filled out and signed by every person in your group by Tuesday. Also, make sure to AT LEAST do your "introduction" post (tell us who is in the group, and what motif you are tracking) so we can make sure our blogs are functioning properly. If you have problems, we'll talk Tuesday. If you do not have problems, remember your Prologue, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 blogs are due by Thursday of next week.

You have a timed write on Tuesday! Don't be nervous, you got this.

Finally, make sure to have an ARGUMENT STATEMENT for your research project in had by Tuesday. THIS WAS NOT MENTIONED IN CLASS, BUT PLEASE TAKE TIME THIS WEEKEND TO FINALIZE YOUR PLANNING. Enjoy your weekend!

English II
You will not have any "official" homework for the weekend. We are continuing our research projects, so please come prepared with your planning sheet on Tuesday! Remember, you get to choose between a creative writing assignment or a research project. Have a great weekend!

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Homework for the Weekend - A Day Students - 9 February 2017

Happy Weekend A-Day. I'm off to DC tomorrow for an AP Russian conference, I can't wait to share everything that I learn with you all.

Advanced Russian:

Russian IV - Read the beginning of "Night Two" in White Nights. Focus on the developing relationship between the girl and the narrator. What type of character does she have? How do you know? Keep track of vocabulary and language use which marks both characters as unique.

Russian III - To sum up verbs of motion with prefixes, please complete the exercises in Chapter Ten, specifically number eight and nine. With these, read the sentences and fill in the blank. As you work through number nine, you'll want to consider the point of view of the speaker as he/she is talking.

Russian II - We've started working in earnest now on verbs of motion with prefix as well as within the past and future tenses. Keep practicing with this. Complete the exercises I gave you on paper. Fill in the blanks with past tense forms and consider which is the best choice for each situation.

We will work on our verbs of motion/Dostoevsky projects in class on Tuesday. This will count as the first full workshop day.

Russian I:

You all had a quiz today, so there is no official homework this weekend. However, you will find it useful to work on your projects this weekend so that I can review your writing and give you corrections on Monday about your work.

English II:

No homework this weekend - I hope that all of you have now either gotten caught up with your previous work and that you are all now working on the project for our Latin America unit.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Homework for B-Day Classes - 8 February 2017

AP English III

Tonight you should continue reading in Invisible Man to get through Chapter One. This chapter is often called "The Battle Royale" and was actually published as a stand-alone short story before the novel was published. As you read, make sure to find all of your motifs. Continue to find key ideas that relate to some of the authors we've studied previously (DuBois is really useful).

Use the link below to access Invisible Man on a .pdf if you don't have the book.

In terms of working on your research papers you should be focused on collecting sources and making your argument/topics more specific. Remember that you only have five to seven pages. You need to focus on local issues rather than international ones. Focus on one thing instead of all of the things. See what your sources give you. Your next major due date is the 22nd when your full outlines are due. We'll be doing arguments next week (Tuesday) and the outline of one topic (Thursday) to prepare for the full outline.

English II

There's no official homework tonight. Now we have read Marquez - so if you are interested in following his story for your creative writing project, you can get started with that planning. The major goal that you should be working on right now are your Latin American Literature projects - either researching or writing.

Invisible Man Online

Go here to find the book!

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Homework for A-Day Students: 7 February 2017

Advanced Russian

Russian III and IV students should be prepared for a formal assessment next class. For Russian IV it will cover the first chapter of White Nights and for Russian III we will focus on prefixed verbs of motion in both aspects.

Russian II will have a quiz next week. To prepare for next class, spend time reviewing and taking notes on pages 237-239 in your textbooks. This should go right along with the information we reviewed in class about adding prefixes on to verbs of motion.

Russian I

Hopefully after today's phonetics lesson you have a better understanding of hard and soft letters and how these are connected to the grammar we're studying. Use this information to help you prepare for your quiz next class. This quiz will focus on case endings in nominative, accusative, and prepositional cases for nouns, adjectives, and possessive pronouns.

Your projects will be collected next week - on Wednesday the 15th.

English II

Today in class we finished our Benchmark exams and began working in earnest on our projects. Next class we'll start on Marquez's short story called "Tuesday Siesta".

Monday, February 6, 2017

Homework for B-Day Students - 6 February 2017

English II:

Today we made more progress on our Benchmark exams and then began the process of researching or working on our Latin American Literature projects. Next class we'll begin our study of Gabriel Garcia Marquez; one of my personal favorite authors.

AP English III:

We went over a cavalcade of information today on how to and where to do your research for your synthesis assignments. I'll read through your topics this week and aim to get them back to you by Friday. For next class, make sure that you have a copy of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. If you don't have your own copy then we will have copies for you to check out. We'll start reading the book together in class on Wednesday.

Additionally, now that you've made some progress with your research topics, keep moving forward. You should find two or three additional sources tonight and start moving forward on developing your topics as well as your argument. The more you can do now, the better!

Friday, February 3, 2017

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 3 February 2016

Advanced Russian:

We didn't really have class today because of the AP practice exam as well as the field trip for Physics - so your quiz on verbs of motion and Dostoevsky (Russian IV) will be postponed to Thursday. To prepare, please make sure that you are studying your conjugations and reviewing the basic rules for when to use either multidirectional or unidirectional verbs as well as aspectual choices (Russian III).

Russian I:

We did have class today, so your quiz will be happening on Tuesday. For the quiz, make sure that you are prepared with firm knowledge of masculine, feminine, and neuter case endings in nominative, accusative, and prepositional cases. On the quiz you will have fill in the blanks, translation, listening, reading, and multiple choice.

You should also continue working on your house writing projects. I'll review drafts of paragraphs next week before our final due date.

English II:

I was very proud of the fact that so many of you focused on your Benchmark exam today. We will finish the exam on Tuesday and then move on to working on our Latin American Literature projects.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students - 2 February

AP English III:

Over the weekend you have two key things to take care of to prepare for next week.  First, there's the writing assignment based on "Just Walk On By" by Brent Staples.  For the assignment, draw on the text, and write a paragraph challenging Staples for making stereotypical assumptions about women's reactions similar to those assumptions he accuses women of making about his intentions.  Engage him in a dialogue here and use his writing as his speech.

Additionally, we have our work on our research papers to prepare for Monday. Remember that the full topic sheet won't be due until the end of class on Monday since we will have to do some research to finish it up. But, work on the first half. Determine your topic and sub-topics. Generate an idea as to what you want to learn and why it's interesting to you. Monday will invoice doing some of the refining work we need to do to finalize these.

You will need to have your copy of Invisible Man for class on Wednesday.

English II:

Today was a rough day with the Benchmark - I'm glad that so many of you shouldered that responsibility well. We'll finish it on Monday and get started working on our projects then.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Homework for A-Day Students: 1 February 2017

English II:

Today we had our quiz on Latin American Literature and doppelgangers. Next class we'll be working on course registration with Student Services as well as beginning on our Benchmark exam.

Russian I:

Tonight for homework you should focus on practicing with your vocabulary and grammar by working on your house projects. Remember that you have a sample about my office at home. Write five paragraphs - one about each room. Follow the outline given. Practice with your case and gender endings.  You'll have a quiz on nominative, prepositional, and accusative case endings with nouns and adjectives on Tuesday of next week!

Advanced Russian:

Russian II:  Please take the time tonight to finish working on the present tense exercises through to number thirty-eight. Remember to practice conjugating the verb for the needed present tense form as well as translating what you can.

Russian III:  Keep working through your packet on prefixes and study the next prefixes meaning to arrive and to leave. Try to keep these clear from the earlier ones that had similar meanings.

Russian IV:  Continue reading Dostoevsky to the end of the seventh section.  Continue to build your paragraph about the narrator's tone and its importance in the story.

If you are taking the AP Russian exam your practice exam session is on Friday at 3:00 in the school's media center. There is no other date for the practice examination.  Don't forget that all of you will have an assessment next week on Thursday on either verbs of motion (II/III) or Dostoevsky (IV).