8 April - Terrific Tuesday

English 11

You all were crushing it today in English 11. We started off by discussing author's purpose and brainstorming some of the reasons why an author would choose to keep key details like characters and settings ambiguous instead of specific. This took us into our study of John Dos Passos's U.S.A. We studied the "Prelude" to his larger novel to understand the role of the main character as a symbol for the blue collar American worker. We also discussed the stylistics in the text like listing, lower case letters, and shifts that made meaning clear.

From there, we focused on our SOL Reading Bank and processed the text. Today's text, as an allegory or short story, provided us a lot of conflict, symbolism, and character. We also were able to identify irony and tragedy as this text dealt with the tragedy of American capitalism. As you keep reading your plays, I hope that you'll take some time to process them with this tool.

We ended the day with vocabulary. The assignments will stay open for the rest of the week. If you did not finish your vocabulary assessment in class, please make that a priority. Next class we're going to take the time to complete our FCPS Reading Test. This will help me to prepare us for the Reading SOL since it tests your reading ability. Be sure to have your FCPS laptop to take the test. If you finish the test before the end of class, then you'll have time to finish any other assignments. 

11 September

AP Language

Fantastic day in AP Language land today as we kick off a three day week. Today we looked at two genres - speeches and letters - from three historic Americans: John and Abigail Adams and Abraham Lincoln. Today's class focused on understanding and applying elements of PEWCAM/Rhetorical Situation and the ways in which tone is created and shifts within a text. I was so happy to see all of the engagement today and the collaboration with each other. 

Apologies for not having your essays scored yet; time gets away from me sometimes - there are also a few make-up assessments out there. I promise that you'll be receiving feedback this week. If you are interested in reassessing for your earlier scores on the tone analysis quiz, let me know. 

At this point you should have decided on a text for your project called What's the Situation? Consider if you need additional resources to study the text and understand its Rhetorical Situation/PEWCAM. You'll want to create a Google Slide presentation with one slide for each element (you may need a few slides for a few - hint, hint) and a space for Works Cited. We'll work through this project this week in class.

Day 1 - 2020 - Virtual Schooling

Good Evening Fairfax Families,

Today was a great day to kick off the 2020 school year. The virtual start provided some amusing missteps (like my forgetting to allow chat and audio/video permissions), but overall we had a great start. I've enjoyed watching your FlipGrid videos and seeing your interactive notebook covers. Here are a few notes from our first day of school.

All Classes (Especially Parents/Guardians)

The Blackboard space for class is pretty barren, because the course content is housed in Google Classroom. The main thing for you to draw your attention to is the syllabus and course policies document. This is available in FCPS 24-7 as well as in Google Classroom. I would highly recommend reviewing the document with your student and filling out the Google Form at the end of the document together.

If you did not share your Interactive Notebook or complete your FlipGrid video, be sure to do so. I've noticed that some people have submitted one or the other, in which case I've awarded partial credit. I'll check again tomorrow and correct any scores. Remember that homework should be complete by the end of Monday (in a perfect world), since Monday is your asynchronous/homework day.

AP Language (3rd and 5th)

Tonight you should get familiar with your online textbook for our class since we'll be using this in our next session. If you need the links for the FlipGrid or a reminder of the Interactive Notebook, check out our class slides which are in Google Classroom. As always, you can email me with questions/comments as well.

Further reflection on our key question of "What is America/an American?" is also warranted. We'll delve deeper next class and throughout the unit.

English 10 (7th)

I enjoyed our opening conversation on culture and our work with the poem "About School". We were hitting on some important themes related to culture clash and conformity today, and we'll carry those forward next time we meet. For tonight, I would reflect further on these ideas and how you've seen or experienced them in your life. Additionally, if you need to submit a video or share your Interactive Notebook, please do so. I'm looking forward to seeing your recordings and getting to know you better.

I hope that you had as good of a first day as I did. See you on Thursday!

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - November 3

English IV

Today, we had a very productive review session before our unit exam next Thursday. We also spent some time going over Shakespeare's life and style of insults. Over the weekend, it would be a productive use of your time to study your notes and visit the Jeopardy game I made at this link. Have a great weekend, I look forward to seeing you next week!

AP English III

Today, we completed the second timed writing of the year, which Mr. Miller and I will begin grading this weekend. We also finished monologue and scene presentations for the Crucible drama project. This weekend, you need to get yourself a copy of The Great Gatsby if you haven't already done so, as well as write a 500-word response to one of the following two questions:

1. What does it mean for literature to be "American?"
2. What does it mean to be an "American?"

Remember, don't be basic. Obviously, literature is American if an American writes it, but you can go deeper than that. What are characteristics that define America/American literature?

Have a wonderful weekend, I look forward to seeing you next week!