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. 

21 February - Happy Friday!

English 11

A good day to end the week today in English 11. I'm really excited to see what you all did today for your reading quizzes, and I was so happy to see the great thinking related to Gloria Steinem's article. Here's our review of class.

We started the day by reflecting on our central question for the year - What are some American problems? Why are they important? Whom do they effect? We had some very vibrant conversation and drew a lot of connections between problems, their impacts, and the various texts we've read this year. From there, we looked at "Women Are Never Frontrunners" by Gloria Steinem. In the article she discusses sexism, misogyny, and the impact that this has on women no matter who they are in America. Steinem takes a political approach, but we can see the reality of her words in every day life. 

To end class, we completed our quiz on our books. If you didn't have time to finish, please be sure that it is turned in by Monday morning so that I can score it. In the quiz, we focused on a key passage and demonstrated our ability to understand and interpret the passage. The quiz was open book. If you were not in class, you can feel free to complete the quiz on your own, or we can meet at Lion Time.

Be in touch with any questions or concerns that you may have. We're going to be pivoting to focus on our projects here at the end of the unit, so be ready for that! Keep reading and making progress through your books. That's the best way to prepare for what we have ahead.

Have a great weekend!

18 October - Happy Friday

English 11

Solid day today, everyone! I hope that you enjoyed your reading and study of Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me." I really like this piece a lot. I like the way that it deals with identity and personal stories. I also appreciate the way that Hurston is able to write her story in a way that she connects to others. I was impressed with how well you were figuring out her tones, focusing on her language, and looking at her messages around identity and pride. The connections that we were able to build back to Nina Simone were really wonderful.

Remember that your Unit 1 Project is due. I appreciate that a lot of people came to Lion Time to work today. I'll be grading projects on Monday and giving you feedback. On Tuesday we'll take our final vocabulary quiz for this quarter. Be sure to study List 2 over the weekend. I gave you exercises to help you study and review. If you go Current Lessons, you can see the space to access the online resources.

As always, reach out with any questions or concerns. I'm always here to help! I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday.

Homework for Tuesday Night - 13 February 2018 - A Day

Russian I

Tonight you should actively finish most of the work on your projects related to your house. Remember that you are required to show four rooms and two pieces of furniture in each room. Your floor plan should be written entirely in Russian with the furniture colored and marked in the main rooms. Then you need to make sure that you write a sentence that explains something that happens in that room.

The project is due on Monday, at the latest. If the project is ready on Thursday you can turn it in then.


Advanced Russian

You all also have a project due for me. Tonight you should work hard to make sure that your slides are complete. I've put together a bit of a check-list for you with what you should cover in your slides and in your presentation, overall.

• past tense (where they've come from)
• present tense (stage instructions)
• future tense (next step/city)

Don't forget that you also need to make sure that you have included:

• one focus city - two important sites in that city.
• pictures on each slide
• at least ONE transitive verb of motion

Next class we will do presentations on one of the cities/stages before going on to wrapping up this unit.

English IV

Tonight you are reading Chapters One through Three of Frankenstein. This is the part of the novel when we start to hear the story of Victor Frankenstein and his life. This story will lead us to discovering the monster and all of those other horrible and creepy things. As you are reading Chapters One through Three, use the comprehension questions to help you keep track of what you are reading. As you read each chapter, make sure that you can answer the questions.