Homework for A-Day Students: 30 April 2018

English IV

Today was the beginning of our third week of our independent novel projects. Remember that since we are coming so close to the end of our year together, I have cut the fourth project from the list. For this reason, project three will count double.

Please check PowerSchool as it relates to any missing work. By this point you should have everything in for week one; most of you got started submitting work for week two today. By Friday, you should hopefully have most all of week two complete as well as some of week three.

For the week three project we are submitting a close reading of important passages from the book. Remember that you need to copy the passage (less than a page) and perform a close reading where you find: literary devices, main ideas/themes, information on characters, and vocabulary. Then, you'll write a summary of the passage as well as a description of the author's style based on the passages. All of this type of work and thinking will prepare you well for the NCFE since we have many questions related to author's style.

Continue reading and thinking! I'll see you all on Wednesday.

Advanced Russian

We are moving on to exercises as we begin to finish our last units of the year. Russian II - Focus on the exercises 7.8Б, 7.9, and 7.10. Your goal is to review the use of genitive case, the use of count versus non-count nouns, and new vocabulary that triggers the genitive case. This information will be on your reassessment on Friday - so practice and prepare. Russian III - Focus on the imperative mood in Russian through exercise 9.9. Remember the process that we worked through today as we formed imperatives.

Be sure as well that you spend time reviewing your quizzes and the notes that we took around double negation. This was a big weak point for many of you that I hope became clearer today. You'll reassess on this topic on Friday! Be ready!!!!

Russian I

Today I gave you all the study guide for your unit examination. Be prepared by studying and reviewing your work and your quizzes. Remember too that you can resubmit your quiz by Friday to earn back points on anything that you missed. For next class you should focus on completing your reading homework from last week as well as learning your irregular plurals. The information on plurals is key to the test next week! Review and be ready!!

Homework for B-Day Students: 27 April 2018

AP English III

I was really satisfied with the conversations that we had today around Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find". I especially liked our discussions focused on the grotesque and O'Connor's larger points about the society in which she lives. Continue to show this same level of thoroughness as we continue to work through this unit.

For the weekend we will be reading and considering Alice Walker's "Everyday Use". In this story, pay close attention to the idea of family and relationships. You may also find it useful to look at the main symbol of the story. These first two stories are meant to focus on The South as an idea as well as Family as an idea. We'll spend some time at the end of class on Tuesday comparing and contrasting the two authors, so be sure that you are prepared for that.

English IV

Some of you were able to get a lot of things done today in class including revising your essays, author projects, and test corrections. Good work there! Some of you still have missing work that needs to be turned in. Please spend time this weekend to check in with PowerSchool - if you see that an assignment is marked with a zero or with no grade, it needs to be turned in ASAP. We are coming close to our final few classes and things need to be done quickly so that you can get your credit.

Homework for A-Day Students - Weekend Edition - 26 April 2018

Russian I

I hope that all of you felt prepared for your quiz. I'll be grading them over the weekend and getting them back to you next week. Now we have to move on to learning our irregular plurals before we end Unit Three.

For this weekend you're doing a bit of reading and vocabulary analysis in order to brush up on your skills. Read the car advertisements from Russia's CraigsList - motolok.ru and answer the questions at the top of the page in English. Use evidence from the advertisements. At the bottom of the page there are questions on vocabulary use in the advertisements. Answer these questions in English or in Russian based on what the question asks for.

Advanced Russian

Today we also had a quiz; some of you did not finish in the allotted time, so it is important that you return tomorrow to finish your quiz. For the weekend, I would like for you to spend time with the new grammar concepts that we have to finish our units.

Russian III is focused on imperative formation from verbs - to practice, use exercises 9.9 and 9.12 to review the concept. Russian II is looking at the use of adverbs of quantity and the genitive case - for practice you have exercises 7.8Б and 7.9.

I expect that on Monday I will be able to check and see that you've made an effort to complete half of the exercises. This will help us to review the new concepts.

English IV

We did not have class today because of the senior meeting. This means that when you come to class on Monday I will need to see work for Week Two of our Independent Novel Project. Be sure that you have a reading log from the weekend, a vocabulary card, and your character chart complete. We'll take some time on Monday to review the different literary devices at play too!

We are quickly approaching the end of the year! You will only have NINE classes left when we return next week! Make it count!

Homework for B-Day Students: 25 April 2018

English IV

Today there were many of you who were absent and missed a day to get some of your novel work done in class. As a reminder, our novel projects are the majority of what we have to do from here to the end of the year. It would be a bad decision to not get this work done and then leave yourself with the last few classes to get caught up.

Friday is a bit of a bonus day for us because of the senior meeting tomorrow. It is important that by Friday you have submitted all of your work for week one and moved through most if not all of the work for week two. Your week three and four projects are a bit more time consuming - and all of this leads to the final presentation.

Be sure that you are crossing the finish line with power and authority, not just hobbling over the line.

AP English III

Today we finished our practice exam. I will have all of the essays graded and returned to you next week. All of you know what I'll be doing this weekend! Be sure that you have read and annotated Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" in advance of our class on Friday. The .pdf file of the story is linked in the previous post. Annotate the story or take notes as you read. It is important that you consider the details around O'Connor's use of language (especially her word choice) as you read.

We'll be spending a lot of time with the story on Friday and we're going back to coin tosses! It's important that you are prepared for Friday's class!

Also, don't forget that Friday is the last day to submit any missing work for this most recent unit. You should also speak to me about making up time for your practice examination if you missed one of the days.

Homework for A-Day Students: 24 April 2018

Russian I

Today we also spent time learning about World War 2 - but we kept our focus strictly on St. Petersburg and the siege. Hopefully you were interested by some of the cultural information we learned today. Next class you will also have a quiz - to prepare, be sure that you can do the following:

• identify the part of speech of a word
• know the seven letter spelling rule
• identify if an ending is hard or soft
• change a word from singular to plural in the nominative case for all genders

Today's warm-up was a good idea of what you need to be able to do on the quiz on Thursday. Make sure that you also have your homework to be checked!

Advanced Russian 

Today we spent some more time in World War 2 along with Veronika before going to some culture related to the war. Next class, after our quiz, we'll have more time to speak about culture.

As a reminder, you will have a quiz and homework check on Thursday. For Thursday be sure that you can:

• identify the needed case for given situations
• identify the part of speech of a word
• activate case declensions for nouns, adjectives, and possessive pronouns in all cases
• know several common irregular genitive plurals
• navigate the idea of double negation in Russian

All of you will take the same quiz on Thursday. Make sure that you also have your homework to be checked! This will then move us on to our last final grammar topics of the year before we start our final review for the exam at the end of the year.

English IV

As I said today in class we will not really be meeting on Thursday due to a senior meeting. So, work for our projects will be collected next week. However, it would still be a good idea to have work ready for me on Thursday. If you are missing anything from week one, that work has now become a zero. You can remove the zero by turning in the assignment.

Be sure that you read and complete your vocabulary card before we start class on Thursday. Show it to me and get it cleared before we leave for the class meeting. You can also begin on your essay revisions or finish any test corrections you may still have. The last day to turn in anything related to the Frankenstein unit will be on May 2nd.

Absent from AP Practice Exam?

AP English III Students:

If you were absent today for the practice exam you will need to make up the time on your own. I will be doing multiple choice make-up administration on Tuesday - 4/24 - in the morning. I will be doing the synthesis essay on Wednesday afternoon. For the multiple choice you will need THIRTY minutes. For the synthesis you will need FIFTY-FIVE minutes.

Have everything completed by the weekend so that I can return your work on time.

Also, if you did not have annotations for me of the book today or your vocabulary cards these are due the next time that I see you. If you forgot it today, make sure that I have it on Wednesday for credit.

Homework for Monday - B Day - 23 April 2018

AP English III

Today you all received back a lot of graded work - basically everything in PowerSchool up to this point. If you were absent, then vocabulary cards and annotation checks of the whole book are due on your next day in class. If work is not received by the end of the week, it will be put in as zeroes.

Next class we will complete the Practice AP Examination by completing essays two and three - the rhetorical analysis and then the argumentative essay. I will have everything graded and back to you at the start of next week.

For Friday, make sure that you have read and annotated Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find". As you are reading, pay particular attention to the way in which O'Connor uses imagery, diction, and irony. Also notice the way in which she works through the idea of family. There are a lot of interesting elements related to the setting too; though this may be considered under your analysis of imagery.

English IV

Many of you were able to get a lot of great work done today and I applaud you. If you did not become a "Pretty Princess" for the week, make sure that whatever is missing is turned in to me by next class. Please check PowerSchool for any missing grades or assignments.

Next class I'll be giving you all back your essays and building in some time in class for us to revise them toward a new grade. You'll also have time to spend more time with your books. We'll check in on the character project next class and make sure that you are moving toward completing that by the end of the week.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 20 April

English IV

Many of you were able to accomplish everything for week one of our independent novel projects - congratulations to you! If you did not complete something, please make sure that it is ready for me on Tuesday of next week. By that point I should have your essays graded and returned to you.

For the weekend, continue reading your books and working on your character charts. I hope that you are all getting to the point where your novels are engaging and keeping you interested. Maybe you've also started to pick up on the larger message the author is giving you. Don't forget to do a reading log for each time you read!

Russian Language - I hope that you all felt prepared with your field test today. I'll let you know your results once I receive them!

Advanced Russian

Next week on Thursday we will have a quiz on plural declensions in all cases. On Tuesday we will do a bit of review and watch some more of The Cranes are Flying. Please make sure that you have completed your review exercises on the more recent topics so that you are prepared! Remember that you should have completed exercises on translations and with new vocabulary in Chapter Seven and Chapter Nine.

Russian I

You will have a quiz next week as well on plurals, but your plurals are only in the nominative case. The other classes are doing their quiz on all cases. We've now reviewed many exercises related to forming plurals. Be sure that you have completed these and that you can show them to me on Thursday of next week - the day we'll have our quiz. On Tuesday we'll be doing a lot of review around plurals in all of the different parts of speech.

Homework for B-Day Students: 19 April 2018

I hope that you've all had a good week for me. Here are your reminders to take you on into the weekend!

English IV

I hope that you all enjoyed the session today with our college admissions counselor. Hopefully what he said gave you some ideas to consider for what your plans will look like next year as well as beyond that. From there, we spent time working with our novels more before ending the day. Make sure that by this point you have submitted your novel work for Week One. This includes a reading log, a vocabulary card, and your author project. If any of this work is missing, zeroes will be entered after the weekend.

I should also have your essay at this point. If you have not turned in an essay, you will be missing the chance to get feedback on the first attempt and you will only have the second attempt for your score.

All project and essay grades will be in by the end of the weekend. Please check PowerSchool on Sunday for updates.

AP English III

Today was a great opportunity for us to spend some time in small groups learning about our future authors in our unit and important information related to them and their writing which will be important for us in our unit. If you were not in class today, you should get the notes from a classmate or request the slides from me via email. You will be excused from today's in-class work and grading.

Next week we have our AP Practice Exam on Monday and Wednesday. As a reminder, you also will be turning in your copy of Invisible Man on Monday to be checked by me for a final annotation check. This is worth ninety points. You will also submit a final set of vocabulary cards on Chapters 20 through the Epilogue.

By Friday, you should read and annotate our first story of the unit, Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard To Find". As you read, you should annotate for a look at how she builds characters in the story. You may also want to consider family as a larger motif in the story as well as setting. There is a pdf of the story here which you can read and annotate.

Homework for A-Day Students: 18 April 2018

Russian Students

Next class we will meet in the library for our Russian language field test. The test will cover listening and reading skills. Remember that the test is not for a grade, it is merely a chance to see what your skills are like and what you can do with the language. I look forward to hearing your feedback on the test.

Russian I

For tonight and on to the weekend you should prepare for a quiz on forming plurals in the nominative case. We've gone through the regular system quite thoroughly by this point - I think that most of you have it down. Continue to focus on learning your vocabulary! This will really help when it comes to forming plurals as well.

Your quiz will fall on Tuesday next week. Remember that I'll also be checking for your homework on that day.

Russian II/III

You will also have a quiz on plurals next week, but it will cover plurals in all cases - including the genitive plural. After our days of review, I think that you all also have a good understanding of how to complete these declensions. For tonight, you should continue to focus on your exercises that I mentioned in the last post. We will have time to review these on Tuesday and keep learning about our new grammar. I'll spend more time with Russian III on Tuesday, so that we can start to get an idea of how to form imperatives a bit more clearly.

English IV

Today we had a visit from a college counselor to go over an option that some of you may not have considered before. I hope that it was helpful for you. Make sure that you have completed your first week worth of work for your novels. I should have an author project, vocabulary card, and reading log from you. These grades have been entered on PowerSchool if you have completed them. Once that is done, you can start working on your character chart, which I outlined today in class.

Homework for B-Day Students: 17 April 2018

English IV

Today in class we hopefully had time to complete and submit essays. If you did not print and submit an essay today, it would be important for you to turn in your printed essay and rubric to me next class. I'll be grading them this weekend and returning them to you so that you have the chance to resubmit your work! As I said today in class, don't stress making your essay perfect, it's really just a rough draft.

After that, you will want to be focused on your book projects. If you did not turn in your reading log, vocabulary card, and author project today, then make sure it is in to me next class.

AP English III

I hope that all of you enjoyed your mural projects today. I was happy to hear from you as you presented your work to your classmates. Make sure that you are using this time to go back to your book and check in on your annotations now that you know more as to what these motifs are doing in the text.

I will begin checking your blogs next class. Be sure that they are complete and shared to me via email.

On Monday, I'll be checking vocabulary cards and final annotations of Invisible Man. Be sure that you are ready for this date! Next class we'll be starting on our short story unit.

Homework for A-Day: 16 April 2018

English IV

Today in class we spent most of our time finishing our essay assignments and completing work for the first novel check-in. There were many of you who did not complete the novel work, so that should be your priority for tonight. Remember that you need to show me one vocabulary card for your reading this week, a reading log of your reading for the week, project one - which is really your choice. I suggest that you complete the author study to begin.

Secondly, if you did not turn in your essay today, make sure that it is complete and a hard copy handed in by next class. I will begin grading these soon with the goal of getting them back to you so that you can resubmit them to me. Don't miss this opportunity to work on building your grade.

Next class we will spend time with our novels and have a college counselor coming to visit with some options to consider for next year.

Advanced Russian

Presentations of your projects are happening next class. Be prepared. Remember that you have an option that you can submit your presentation via recording (just have your recording ready to be played for me) or you can do it live. No matter which you do, be sure that your project work is complete for this checkpoint.

Additionally, you have some exercises to take you through the new concepts we began to learn today. Russian II is focused on words related to quantities. Work through exercises 7.9 and 7.10 - remember the rule about using genitive plural versus genitive singular. Russian III is focused on commands/imperatives. Work through exercise 9.12 for time to review the process of forming commands. Be sure that you use your textbooks as you work for reference!

Russian I

Now that we've had the chance to review the regular plural system, the main thing left for us is to take a look at the irregulars. We'll get started on that next week. For tonight, I want you focused on finishing your learning of the regular plural system. So, complete exercises four, all the way through. In this you will want to check the gender, then make the change to plural.

We'll review this next class for completion and do more with our packets to review! If you are interested in making corrections to your quiz, those are due by Friday of this week.

Homework for the Weekend - 13 April 2018 - B Day

English IV

This weekend your assignment is much the same as your A day colleagues. Make sure that you are spending time this weekend reading your novels, adding to your reading logs, and working through one of your projects. As a reminder, the first project and work check-in will be due at the end of class on Tuesday.

Furthermore, you'll also have Tuesday to finish working on your essays. It would be important that you spend time this weekend using the rubric to make edits and to ensure that you are earning as many of the possible points in each section of the essay.

AP English III

We did it! We finished Invisible Man. Now it's time for us to move on to our assessment work. Here's an outline of what will be going on for the next few classes. On TUESDAY we will have our mural construction and presentation day. This will be the day that I check your blogs and take a look at the murals that you present to me and your classmates. You received the rubric today. Use this to guide your work. Also, RESEARCH PAPER RESUBMISSIONS will be collected on Tuesday. I will not accept these late. You must turn in your resubmission on time.

On THURSDAY we will begin our final unit of the year on short stories. We'll review the authors and the different stories that we will be studying in the unit. I think that this will be a fun way to end the year and to expose you all to some authors that we haven't had time to see yet this year.

MONDAY and WEDNESDAY of the following week (23rd and 25th of April) we will have our AP Practice Exam. I'll also collect final vocabulary cards and check annotations for Invisible Man. Make sure that you take this time to prepare for these final assessments.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 12 April 2018

English IV

Over the weekend it would be most important for you to focus on reading in your novels as well as work on your essays to complete them. Many of you were absent today from class due to a field trip; in this case you should spend time this weekend making up for time lost in class.

As a reminder at the end of class on Monday you will have due the following: your reading log for your book, one vocabulary card, your first project on your book, and your essay.

Make sure that you are working hard to complete everything in a timely fashion and so that everything is done well! If you need help, see me ASAP.

Advanced Russian

Today in class we dove into the use and formation of the genitive plural and spent time in the lab working on our projects. As a reminder, your projects are due on Wednesday. You can present live to me, or you can present a recording of your work if you would rather.

For tonight, in terms of practicing what we have been learning, you will need to complete exercise 7.1. Do it exactly as we did today in class - figure out the case that is needed, then put the word in the singular and plural version of that case. Make sure that you are using your resources (your textbook and notes) to work through your declensions.

Russian I

We took a quiz which will be graded and returned to you after the weekend. Make sure that if you did not feel confident and prepared on that quiz that you continue to study and review so that you can reassess. We then moved on to learning about the system of creating plurals using the regular system for nouns, adjectives, and possessive pronouns. With this information you should be able to complete Exercise 3.1. For this, take the word, identify if it is hard, soft, or an example of a spelling rule. Then, make the word plural.

Some of these words are irregular. As we review this exercise on Monday we will also review some of the irregular plurals and how they operate.

Homework for B-Day Students: 11 April 2018

AP English III

Today we had a really productive day working through some of the last chapters in Invisible Man and making some big understandings of how TIM is finally breaking through some of the cycles that have trapped him through his life. Good work on being engaged and thoughtful in the work that we were doing today in class. Tonight there are a few things that you can work on in preparation for Friday.

1. Continue to revise your essays. Final revisions MUST be submitted by Tuesday the 17th. If no paper is submitted, the grade will stand. I am available for conferencing before school and quickly after school for your essays.
2. Read and annotate the Epilogue. We'll read it aloud in class on Friday to finish our study of the novel, but reading it in advance will help you a lot on Friday.
3. Complete your last set of vocabulary cards (20-Epilogue) which will be collected on Thursday next week.
4. Finish annotating the book - Final annotations will be done on Thursday as well.
5. Plan for your mural and finish updating your blogs - Mural construction will occur on Tuesday. Be ready with any materials that you may need!

English IV

We also had a very good day today as we began our novel projects and continued drafting our essays. As a reminder, on Friday we will be finishing essays. You are expected to have a five paragraph essay which clearly states which way is the best way to show the particular character that you are studying. Make sure that you're clearly thinking about and discussing strong details to make your argument around showing either Victor or The Creature. Explain how ways that we have seen the character previously are either accurate or not. Keep your main idea at the heart of your essay.

Homework for A Day - 10 April 2018

English IV

I was happy that a lot of you got started in earnest on your novel projects today and then, when we were in the lab, you were staying focused on your writing and drafting. MANY of you were absent today. So many that I think that there was a field trip that I forgot about. Anyway, if you were absent you missed the beginning of our novel project as well as a good day for working on our essays. As a reminder, your essay on Frankenstein is due to me at the end of class on Thursday. Be ready for that! If you need to keep working tonight, do so!

Advanced Russian

Tonight you should focus yourselves on your projects, as well as your review of cases and plural declensions. For your projects, start putting together your writing. Next class we'll go to the lab for editing and to create visuals. For your grammar homework, I want you working on Exercise 1 in Chapter Seven. In this exercise determine WHICH case needs to be used. Then, use that case in both the singular AND the plural. If the case used is Genitive Plural, skip the plural formation. We'll focus on Genitive Plural in full next class.

Russian I

Next class we will have our quiz on forming and using adjectives in Russian. Use your dominoes as well as your notes sheets to prepare and practice your task. Additionally, we finished watching the first episode of our show today. Complete your paragraph tonight, or Thursday after your quiz, and get it in to me for your culture grade!

Back to It - 9 April - B Day

Welcome back everyone! We're pushing straight through the end of the year from here on out. Everything that we do is meant to prepare us for our final or AP examinations. Be sure that you are here to work hard and complete the year in style.

English IV

This week our goal is to finish our essays on Frankenstein and the depiction of either Victor or The Creature. I'll be going through your drafts today and giving feedback; then we'll be working on completing the full drafts for the rest of the week. This will be one of your last major grades for the year. Be sure that it shows the way in which you have grown this year as a writer.

AP English III

We didn't really have enough time to work through our chapter set today with the quiz, the returning of the research papers, and the discussion of the mural assignment. Be sure that you are ready to finish discussing this set on Wednesday. You should continue reading tonight and complete Chapter 25. We will read the Epilogue aloud in class on Friday, but you should read it on your own in advance.

For this evening the main priority is reading, annotating, and beginning on the resubmission of your research papers. For the most part they presented clear arguments, but in some cases I did not see enough explanation or organization of the paper to make it completely prove the case that you were trying to state.

Additionally, you should be completing your motif blogs. Your final "synthesis" post is sort of your thesis for your mural: What's Ellison's purpose behind this motif? What is its meaning? This is the central question that you will explain through your use of quotations and imagery. Remember that you'll only have 45 minutes to construct the mural and then about 3-4 to explain it to your classmates during our gallery walk.