Homework for the Weekend - 29 September 2017

AP English III

We have a few things to take care of or to start taking care of this weekend. I'll go over the short term things first and then move on to the longer term items.

1. Complete your next set of Vocabulary Cards (6-10). You should pick words from "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry G-d", The Crucible, and your tone word sheet. Account for all parts of the card. Use appropriate resources and turn them in electronically via Google Slides or on paper.
2. Read and annotate Mary Rowlandson's "Narrative of the Captivity" - for this piece, pay attention to the depiction and view of non-Puritans, the role of women in Puritan society, as well as any biases or elements of sensationalism in the text.
3. For Thursday we'll be working through Act II of The Crucible. You may want to start the process of reading and annotating this now.
4. Next week is our conference week. Mr. Bernhard and I are available during lunch, before and after school. Please make an appointment with us to review any drafts or outlines so that you can move to the final draft and know that you have a solid piece of writing.

All of the resubmissions turned in today should be entered in the gradebook no later than Sunday.

English IV

Many of you chose to take with you some of the graphic organizers so that you can continue to work on your characters project related to The Canterbury Tales. Here's a link to an online version of The Canterbury Tales. Make sure that if you have to spend time working on this that you complete this work over the weekend. On Tuesday we'll return to the lab in order to finish our research and we'll complete the reading of "The Wife of Bath's Tale".

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 28 September

Russian I

If you have a zero on your progress report this indicates that you are missing an assignment. Please get the assignment in to me ASAP so that I can update your grades. Remember that in about a week we'll be having our alphabet test which will cover the alphabet, our cognates, greetings and farewells, formality, and gender.

To practice with gender, complete the worksheet I gave you today in class. Look carefully at the final letter of the word and determine its gender.

Also, continue to work through your exercises in which you are practicing your greetings and farewells.

Advanced Russian

Over the weekend I want you to take the work we were doing to discuss Battleship Potemkin and spend some time writing. Write a brief paragraph about some aspect of the film. Try to use vocabulary that you can control. Don't worry about speaking in a complex way - focus on communicating your thoughts and ideas.

Also, continue to work with the article in Chapter Four. Complete the chart work we started in class by finding verbs, analyzing them as much as you can, and determining the subject, stem, and infinitive of the verb.

English IV

Very good work today in class everyone. Make sure that if you have a lot of work remaining on our Canterbury Tales character projects that you spend some time on that this weekend so that you can finish everything next week. We'll soon be moving on to a new unit.

Homework for B Day Students - 27 September 2017

AP English III

Lots of good work today on our editing skills as well as our discussion of Edwards and "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry G-d" - I think that you have a pretty solid understanding of who the Puritans were as a people and how they conceptualized the divine. Pay this forward into your reading of The Crucible.

For Friday our main task is to read and annotate Act I of The Crucible so that we can have a productive seminar on Friday and work through acting and viewing some of these scenes. As you read, pay attention for vocabulary. This weekend you'll have another set of cards to make.

Your final drafts of your essays on In Cold Blood and the nature/nurture debate will be collected on October 9. Please come and conference with us later this week or next week to review your draft before the final drafts are collected. Also, make sure that you are using the rubric to guide your revisions as well.

Lastly, if you have any work left to submit, that is due on Friday. We are closing this first unit and moving on, it's important that everything be settled.

English IV

Also a lot of good work today around understanding different types of characterization and in finishing up some of your character project work. Next class we'll start reading one of Chaucer's tales in order to see how he puts these characterization skills to work.

Continue to work on any missing work that you may have, including the essay. That is the most important thing right now.

Homework for A Day Students - 26 September

Russian I

Today we spent time reviewing the ideas of formality and informality in speaking and reviewed some of our greetings, introductions, and farewells related to this concept. For homework tonight you should complete exercises in the packet related to these greetings, introductions, and farewells. Complete exercises 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Practice your vocabulary and writing as you do this.

If you have any missing work - it needs to be turned in ASAP.

Advanced Russian

I've included a link to Battleship Potemkin here. Please use it to complete your viewing packets on the film if you have not already done so.

The main homework that you have for tonight is the reading at the end of Chapter Four. You have an article to read from a Russian newspaper. Don't focus on trying to understand everything, focus on getting main ideas and discovering verbs in context.

As you read, identify the verbs and the subjects for these verbs. After you read, answer the questions at the end in English - identify where in the article the answer can be found.

English IV

Many of you have finished a lot of your character work for our Canterbury Tales projects. If you still have parts to finish or if you need to finish your "Me You Don't See" essay - make sure that this work is complete soon.

Homework for B Day Students - 25 September 2017

English IV

If you did not submit your essay to Mr. Bernhard today then that is your first priority tonight. These assignments will be going on your progress reports, so it is important that you get them turned in so that we can grade them and get you feedback. Also, keep in mind that you will be able to continue working on these by resubmitting them after they are graded.

AP English III

Today we spent time rotating between talking about the 1950's and the 1670's in America. Funny how similar these two time periods were. As you are working tonight, here are your priorities.

1. Complete your rough draft for your In Cold Blood essays. You should complete your introduction (appeal to ethos, define terms, state argument) and one complete topic. As you work through your topic, make sure that you are using convincing evidence and explaining it in a way to prove your argument. Bring a copy of your draft to class on Wednesday for our writing workshop.
2. Get a copy of The Crucible and read Act One for Friday's class. As you read, pay attention to characters and motifs. There's an online version of the play available at this link.
3. Read "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry G-d" by J. Edwards. Remember that this is a Puritan preacher giving this sermon to an actual congregation. As you read, annotate with these ideas in mind: What does this text help you to understand about Puritans? How does Edwards convince his audience of his argument? You can also collect a lot of vocabulary from this piece. There's a ton of great words.

Lastly - remember that after this week you will only be able to continue resubmitting your essay outlines. If there is any other assignment that you need to submit, or resubmit, that needs to be settled this week.

Homework for A Day Students - 22 September

English IV

Great class today! I was very happy with all of your progress on your essays, as well as your engagement during our discussion of Muhammad Ali, Beowulf, and professional writing. Over the weekend, continue thinking about your Canterbury Tales character project and make some progress on the RESEARCH part of the assignment. Have a wonderful weekend, and see you on Tuesday!

Advanced Russian

Today, we watched the entirety of Battleship Potemkin. Over the weekend, complete as much work as you can on the accompanying packet. If you cannot finish it, there will be time built into Tuesday's class to complete everything. Have a wonderful weekend!

Russian I

Today, we spent the entirety of class watching the video about Russian geography and modern culture. Over the weekend, prepare to continue practicing your vocabulary and handwriting with Mr. Miller. Thanks for being on-task and engaged for your substitute, and come ready to learn next week! Have a wonderful weekend!

Homework for B Day Students - 21 September

English IV

Remember that on Monday, we will go to the computer lab to finish our "Me You Don't See" essays and turn them in to be graded. If you haven't already checked on your draft in Google Classroom, make sure you do before Monday to see and respond to Mr. Bernhard's comments. Try to respond to these as soon as you can, so on Monday we are able to finish the drafts quickly.

Although we got some good work done, today's class meeting could have been more productive; we can always improve at staying on task and following directions. Before next class, mentally prepare to finish the Creative Writing part of the Canterbury Tales character project and get a good start on the Professional Writing portion. Have a great weekend, and arrive on Monday ready to work!

AP English III

Great job today grinding away at the timed writing prompt. Writing good essays in such a small amount of time is challenging, but you will be very well prepared come AP Exam season in May. Before next class, keep working on summer assignment and essay outline resubmissions, as well as resubmissions of vocabulary cards. We are getting close to time to begin writing our In Cold Blood essays. Have a great weekend, and don't forget that everything we do is getting you ready for success later on this year!

Homework for A Day Students - 20 September

English IV

Remember that on Friday you will be finishing and submitting your drafts to be scored. Take some time before Friday, if you haven't already done so, and log in to your draft on Google Classroom in order to see the comments you've been given by Mr. Bernhard. Try to address these comments before Friday so that you can do some final checking on Friday and then print your draft.

Advanced Russian

You have been given the new vocabulary for Chapter Four - focus on the nouns and adjectives. As you study and review these vocabulary words, try to work with them in different cases. If you need a refresher on your case declensions for nouns and adjectives, check out this really great online resource. You can follow each link for work on each case.

Russian I

Today you were given some new vocabulary words as well related to greetings, introductions, and farewells. Start to study and learn this vocabulary. Also, if you haven't turned in the handwriting packet or the name project, you have these things to complete too.

Russian Students - Keep in mind that if you would like to redo the quiz you took today that you can. You should study and prepare so that you do better next time!

Homework for B-Day Students: 19 September 2017

English IV

Keep in mind that on Google Classroom you now have drafts of your essays as well as feedback from Mr. Bernhard as to how to develop your ideas in to full drafts. Before Monday of next week make sure that you address these comments so that you can quickly revise and print your draft to turn it in to us.

AP English III

On Thursday we will have our first timed writing opportunity and it will be an argumentative prompt. To prepare for this complete the assignment on Google Classroom. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Go to http://classroom.google.com. Login using your DPSNC credentials which are first-last@dpsnc.net and the password is your computer network password.
2. Enroll in our class. 3B is 0xpab07. 4B is 69gnon6.
3. Once you enroll you'll see the Quick Argumentative Outline Assignment. Create a Google Doc, give your argument on the prompt, at least one topic with evidence and explanation, and a clear refutation with evidence and explanation.
4. Turn in the assignment when you're done.

Additionally, bring your copies of In Cold Blood on Thursday if you would like a new grade for annotations on the text. If you have any resubmissions to turn in, those should come in too.

Remember that you will have a rough draft workshop on Wednesday, not Monday. This is a change.

Homework for A-Day Students - 18 September 2017

English IV

Good work today on your characters everyone. Next class we should have a chance to finish up the first portion of the Character Project and continue reading more of The Canterbury Tales. For tonight, it would be most important for you to revise and check-in on your essays. Mr. Bernhard went through your work on Google Classroom and left comments for you all. Go in and revise your essays to address those comments. We will print and submit drafts on Friday - so it's important that you finish these revisions before that.

Advanced Russian

Next class you will have a quiz on the One Stem Verb System. You will be expected to know:

• how certain stems operate.
• how to tell stems from each other.
• how truncation and addition function in past and non-past forms.
• how mutations are triggered.
• how to transcribe infinitives, non-past, and past tense forms.

Hopefully our workshop in class today was helpful in addressing these areas. You should work with the verb handout I gave you as well as the textbook in order to discover more about stems.

Additionally, continue to review our work on cases as they are paired with verbs. Complete exercise 7A, numbers 1-10. Read and analyze the sentence, then change the verb and case in order to make a synonymous sentence. We'll review this work on Wednesday, after the quiz.

Russian I

You also have a quiz next week that will focus on your knowledge of the Russian alphabet and handwriting. You should know:

• the sounds that each letter makes.
• the shape of the letter in print and in handwriting.
• the cognate vocabulary from English.

On the quiz you will be asked to listen to Russian and write what you hear, to write words given to you in print, and to explain what cognates mean. Study and be ready!

Also, keep in mind that handwriting packets and name projects must be turned in on Wednesday or they will become zeroes.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 15 September 2017

AP English III

Today was such a productive day! We've got some of the big conceptual understandings now about how to approach argumentative writing. Remember that over the weekend you have a major task - the revision of your outlines. All revised outlines should be turned in no later than Thursday the 21st. This is so that we can give you feedback to develop rough drafts. As you revise follow the steps:

1. Edit your argument so that it passes the DADS test. It's gotta be Debatable, Analytical, Defensible, and Specific!
2. Reorganize your textual support around clear and specific topics. Generate topic sentences that explain the connection to your argument.
3. Develop a refutation from the evidence in the text.
4. Explain all of your evidence in the context of your argument. Show how this relates and why it is important.

You have everything you need to improve your standing (aka revising outlines and questions) in this class and in your approach to writing. It's time to get it done.

Also, read Eudora Welty's "Listening" for class on Tuesday. There's a link to the article here. As you read, annotate the piece to discover what Welty's argument is.

English IV

If you have not completed your draft of "The Me You Don't See" spend time this weekend developing that so that you will be ready to submit your draft on Thursday next week. On Thursday we'll go back to the lab to do final checks before submitting.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 14 September 2017

Russian I

Over the weekend you should be focused on finishing your handwriting packets for the alphabet if you haven't already turned that in and received a grade. If you have a grade then you can work on revising your work for a new grade if you would like.

Advanced Russian 

Over the weekend you should be focused on the reading passage at the beginning of Chapter Four; it's found on page 143. As you read determine the main idea of each paragraph. Find all of the verbs that you can. If the verb is not already in its infinitive form, then derive the infinitive based on your knowledge of stems and conjugations.

Russian Students - Don't forget that you will have your first quiz of the year on the 20th.

English IV

If you have not completed your first draft of your "The Me You Don't See" essays then spend time this weekend to have those completed. You'll be getting feedback this weekend as we begin to turn these into final drafts across the next week. Remember to access these drafts you need to go into Google Classroom using your DPSNC accounts.

Homework for B-Day Students: 13 September 2017

English IV

If you did not complete the draft of your introduction and body paragraph in class today then you should put in time this evening or tomorrow to complete this work. You can access Google Classroom from any computer, just remember to use your DPSNC account in order to login. Keep in mind that your introduction and body answer specific questions.

Introduction: What part of you do you keep hidden? Why?

Body: How did you discover this hidden part of yourself? Why is it important to you?

Next class we'll discuss conclusions, have a bit of time to finish our drafts, and then deal with some business related to being a senior.

AP English III

Very good discussion and conversation today everyone! There were a lot of great ideas shared, and the level of discourse in our class is definitely going up. For tonight remember a few things:

1. Next class we'll be focused on our outlines - learning how to develop a debatable thesis, how to structure an argument, and how to develop topics and examples and explanation. To this end, make sure to upload a copy of your outline to Google Drive. We'll have laptops in class on Friday to use as we go through our Writing Bootcamp. Feel free to bring your own device if you prefer.
2. Complete your resubmissions of your questions to In Cold Blood. You have everything that you need in terms of your Rules for Good Writing to make many of these changes. If you are unsure of what to do, come see me or Mr. Bernhard for help and guidance.

I would recommend submitting your questions sooner rather than later so that you can focus on resubmitting the outline next.

Homework for A Day Students - 12 September

Russian I

Now that we know all of the alphabet and a bit about stress it's time to practice with words. Take the cognates that I have given you and practice with your reading and pronunciation of these words. Play with the handwriting too. If you haven't turned in your handwriting packet, make sure it comes in on Thursday so that I can get it back to you before our first quiz.

We will have our first quiz on the alphabet and sounds on Wednesday, September 20. Be prepared. For this quiz you should be able to:

• tell the different sounds of each letter in the Russian alphabet
• recognize the print version of the letter
• write the proper handwriting version of the letter

Continue to practice and review your letters and alphabet.

Advanced Russian

For our next class I would like for you all to continue working with stems by applying knowledge to past tense. Look at exercise 2B on page 166-167. Complete the exercise by changing the sentence to past tense. Translate your sentences. Look for cases at work in the sentences, especially those triggered by the verbs.

We will review this work on Thursday as we continue to build on our work with stems. Keep in mind that you will also have a quiz on stems soon. Likely on Wednesday of next week.

English IV

If you have not yet completed your introduction and body paragraph for "The Me You Don't See" please make sure that you find time to go back to Google Classroom and complete that work. Next class we will hopefully finish our first drafts with a conclusion. Also, we will begin working in earnest on our Canterbury Tales project.

Homework for B-Day Students - 11 September

English IV

We have now begun the drafting of our essays in Google Classroom. Remember that you can always access these assignments via Google Classroom, you just have to remember to login with your DPSNC.NET account. If you need to continue working on your draft, please continue. Remember that you should be able to complete the introduction and the body paragraph for your essay. We'll return to the computer lab on Wednesday to continue working on this.

AP English III

You should continue to work on the revisions to your In Cold Blood question responses. Hopefully as we are going over writing and technique in class, you are seeing the ways that you can improve your work and the errors that you have made.

Additionally, next class we will have time to talk about Sections III and IV of In Cold Blood. As you continue to review the book, add to your annotations and rediscover things. We'll continue to discuss as we move forward.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 8 September 2017

Russian I

Over the weekend you should be able to complete all of your handwriting practice packet. You do not need to do any of the word searches or any of the exercises where it asks you to translate from English to Russian. Do write all of the words that you are given in Russian in your best handwriting.

I will collect these packets on Tuesday. Tuesday will be a day that we will continue to work on phonetics and our sounds in the Russian language.

Advanced Russian

We're starting the process of getting more familiar with stems, endings, and how to combine different stems with endings. Over the weekend I want you to continue to apply what we have been learning related to non-past conjugations, past tense conjugations, and the different actions related to stems.

From the Chapter One through Four vocabulary focus on one verb from each chapter. Try to pick different stems. Work with the verb to show how it combines with other endings at the stem. Show the different processes. Work with this information. It becomes easier the more you spend time with it.

Further - if during our writing conference I asked you to revise your assignment, take care of that this weekend and have it ready on Tuesday. If your writing was not ready, be ready to hand it in on Tuesday.

English IV

You all got some great work done today in class related to your essays. Remember that you can go back to your DPSNC Google Drive account and continue working on this over the weekend. The goal is to have a complete introduction and body paragraph. We'll spend more time next week continuing to revise and work on these assignments.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 7 September

English IV

Over this weekend you should take some time to reflect on your brainstorming and outline so that you are ready to write your personal essay in class on Monday.

AP English III

We've started the path to good writing. It's time for you to travel it by revising. Take a look at the feedback and comments that Mr. Bernhard and I have put on your assignments and address those as well as the rubric as you work on resubmitting the In Cold Blood questions. We will continue to work on other elements of improved composition throughout the year.

Other homework for the weekend is vocabulary. I would like for you to take five words from either your AP practice sets, the articles we've been reading, or In Cold Blood and complete vocabulary cards for these. If you need guidance on how to complete a vocabulary card - see this document for instructions. The link should open a Google Document with instructions and an example. Account for all parts of the card. Use appropriate online resources. You can submit your cards via Google Slides shared to me (daniel_miller (at) dpsnc (dot) net), on index cards, or on paper. Have them submitted at the beginning of class on Monday.

Finally, review Section III of In Cold Blood with an eye toward your back cover annotations. In class on Monday we'll be working through Sections II and III.

Homework for A-Day Students: 6 September 2017

Russian I

Now we know all of the letters except for the two silent ones! Hooray! I'll start to speak a lot more Russian with you now since we have a good base underneath us. For tonight as well as for the weekend you should be focused on continuing to learn the letters of the Russian alphabet. Eventually you will want to be able to read and write the letter without looking at your notes.

Be sure to practice with all of the letters and words in the packet. Give your best attempt at all of the writing in the packet!

Advanced Russian

We did not have a chance to get to our writing conferences today, and that's okay. Be sure to bring your writing with you on Friday so that I can review it then. For tonight you will want to work with the Russian II verbs on the sheet I gave you in class. You will find it helpful to use an online resource to help you with conjugations with these verbs. I stumbled across this site - http://cooljugator.com/ru - which does a lot of work for you. Remember with each verb to work through the tasks at the bottom. Russian II should do row one. Russian III should do all of the Russian II verbs.

English IV

Today in class we got a lot of good writing and planning done to set us up for Friday. On Friday, we'll be going into the computer lab in order to start writing our personal essays. Make sure that you have thoroughly thought about your brainstorming and that you have considered some moments from your life that you'll include in this essay as evidence.

Birthday Presents aka Homework for 5 September 2017 - B Day

AP English III

Your main task for homework tonight is to read and annotate Stephanie Ericsson's "The Ways We Lie" - this article is available in 50 Essays (first edition) and at this link. As you read, annotate. Keep track of vocabulary and major ideas and motifs in the text.

As you read "The Ways We Lie" take note of the different lies that Ericsson writes about. Do you see how Didion, Capote, Dick and Perry employ these different lies? To what larger effect?

Also, keep in mind that you will receive your responses to the In Cold Blood questions on Thursday and will be able to resubmit them for a new grade.

English IV

If you haven't yet considered the brainstorming questions for our personal essay, do that tonight so that you are ready to write and plan your essays next class. We'll be focused on drafting our personal essays before going to the computer lab to type them up.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 1 September

Happy Day of Knowledge! Happy First of September!

Russian I:

Homework for the weekend is to continue to focus on learning your letters in Russian. Remember that you should be learning the sounds and the shapes of the letters in Russian. Know the print version of the letter as well as the handwriting and start to get comfortable with reading and writing these sounds.

Also - we have some extra credit for this weekend! Do some research on Russian music and bring me a Russian musical artist that you would like to add to our class playlist. Bringing me a artist's name will earn you a bit of extra credit.

Advanced Russian:

This weekend I want you to focus on your use of verbs as you write a few sentences about your weekend. Use mostly past tense as you write and the verbs from Chapters One through Four. As you write, look at your vocabulary to remind you which cases are paired with which verbs. Use any charts or notes to help you with case declensions. Use language that you have ownership of - don't run to Yandex for all of your words.

Write 3-5 sentences (Russian II) / 5-7 sentences (Russian III). Next class I'll collect this as a bit of a diagnostic to see how our writing is going.

English IV:

There's no real homework for you all to complete this weekend. If you have missed a few classes because you've been added or had schedule issues, be sure to think about parts of yourself that are important to you, but kept hidden. Next class we'll be spending a lot of time toward writing our personal essays.