24 January - The Return of Mr. Miller

English 11

It was so absolutely wonderful to be with you all today and finish this week. Given how I spent last class trapped in a metal tube on the Atlanta airport runway, this was a marked improvement. We did a few different activities today - note that these are grades for Quarter 2, so if you were absent, you need to complete them.

First we had our vocabulary practice. See the slides and the assignment posted in Unit 3. I want you to work on a few words to review their meaning to prepare for next week's quiz. The quiz will be on Friday. Focus on learning meaning of the words and using them. The practice assignment was aligned to this. After vocabulary, we went into book work. The quiz is a bit of a different beast - see the discussion board and reply to your group's thread if you were absent. Remember that this is just temporary for now - you can change your topic/idea down the road. The main thing is to keep reading! Get your content down and behind you. We'll keep working with these books more and more over the next days.

Next class will be our registration meetings with counselors. If you're interested in moving to the Honors English option for second semester, you'll have that conversation with them on Tuesday. If you have any missing major assignments, these are due by Tuesday. We're moving to third quarter, so we need to finish up our residuals. Please make your appointment for Lion Time on Tuesday! I really appreciate those of you who came in today and so far.

22 January - Registration Day

AP Language and Composition

Today was registration day for senior year. I hope that you had productive meetings with your counselors to make your plan for next year. Of course, it's not really about next year this year, it's about the year after and after. When you're making your choices for senior year, consider your plans for after graduation. What's going to set you up for the best success? How are you going to achieve some balance for yourself to give yourself the time you need for everything? 

Next class we should meet and have a normal day. Be ready for Chapter 1. We've got the video guide, the motif tracking document, and the annotation anchor document. Use your resources to tackle this difficult text. We'll also start jumping into the research project next class. Chapter 1 is rough for a lot of reasons, but it's also super important because of the cycles that it sets up. Read carefully!

I'm looking forward to a normal class with y'all next time. All the best!

9 and 10 February - End of the Week

English 10 - 9 February

Today was our Course Selection Day - so a bit of a nothing day for us. Next class we'll have our last day to study and review letters and a writing workshop. Wednesday is going to be our catch-up date and on Friday we'll write our letters. If you were absent today, be sure that you meet with your counselor during Lion Time in order to get your registration complete.

AP Language

We took a trip to look at some art today in AP Language in order to understand the means by which we extract evidence from non-print sources. We learned two methods today - Deep Looking and the OPTIC method. We looked at two paintings and applied the methods to each in order to determine claims, evidence, and possible uses for our research. We also took a look at two sample Annotated Bibliography entries to show you the means by which to construct them. Follow the models and remeber to be a STAR.

You should have two AB entries written by the end of today's class/this weekend/this evening. You should have an idea for a potential non-print source. You should be actively constructing your sourcepack. These items can run in conjunction or isolation, but you need to be completing tasks. Remember, each class you should have a record of your work to take you to the next day. Next class you'll have ample time to write and work with your sources.

Any questions or concerns? Please see me at Lion Time or after-school next week. Annotated Bibliographies are due on March 8/9.

AP Research

I'd say it's an easy day in AP Research, but that's not really true. Now is when we hit the major work of this course, which is the data collection. Without the data, you can't answer the question, and collecting the data can be an arduous process. It is important that you set daily goals and meet them. Have alternative plans. You may even need an alternative method, just in case. Track your progress. Track your changes. Consider your hypothesis and what's borne out from the actual data.

Your next major assignment is your BoK Analysis. Complete this and submit it by February 27. Next week you'll have both classes for working time. You should be writing, collecting data, and considering the fact that everything is due by May 1 at 11:59 PM. That gives us TEN weeks to complete this process. I hope you can see the urgency of each class.

7 February - Research Writing Process

English 10

Solid day in English 10 today. It was our only real class of the week because next class we have registration meetings. Today we reviewed the Research Write-Up assignment and the essential feedback for the group. We then took time to either revise and resubmit, complete the assignment, or move to the next step - our letter planning.

Next week we'll be focused on planning our letter before we write. You'll be writing in a timed environment, so proper preparation is important. You'll have access to your notes and preparation documents - but you'll be writing under a timer, so you'll need to be ready.

2 February - Rolling into Quarter 3

AP Language

Today was our Course Selection Day - so a bit of a nothing day for us. Next week we'll get back into the research process with our lesson on the annotated bibliography and our next group meeting. Remember that the group meetings have been rescheduled due to registration. Group Meeting 3 is now on Wednesday 2/8. If you were absent today, be sure that you meet with your counselor during Lion Time in order to get your registration complete.

AP Research

Another great day with presentations. Our final four will present on Monday. I'm looking forward to seeing what we have ahead. Remember to submit your slides and have them in your PREP folder if they exist elsewhere. After we finished up our presentations, we reviewed our major assignment for this unit - the BoK Analysis. This assignment is mostly completion, you'll be copying and pasting or paraphrasing from your best source paper. The reflection question at the bottom is worth half of your points on this assignment - be specific in your response to this question.

There is a new PREP Reflection question opened for your thoughts and writing. Start to collect your Quarter 3 Reflections. Submit your plan for Weeks 22-27 by the end of next week. Have a plan and be ready to work through this portion of the course!

1 February - Happy Black History Month!

English 10

Wonderful day in English 10 today as we read our first example of letter writing. We also took some time for direct instruction on the structure and elements of an effective letter. As we read Helen Keller's letter, we talked about imagery, imagination, and the challenges that disabled people face from non-disabled people. Keep in mind that you'll take a reading and writing SOL next year, so we're focused on developing our reading skills and our writing skills in this unit.

The end of class was a bit of time for researching and working on our write-up assignment. This is due at the end of next class. Remember that it's worth three points - one for each section. Since we had a lot of class to work on it, there will be a late penalty of 10% if it's turned in late. Be productive next class and meet your goals!

AP Language

Today was our Course Selection Day - so a bit of a nothing day for us. Next class we'll have our feedback from Exam 2 and time to look at the next step of the research process. If you were absent today, be sure that you meet with your counselor during Lion Time in order to get your registration complete.

Opening Up Quarter 3 - 25 and 26 January

AP Language

Today was a super simple day for us - registration day! We met, reviewed the requirements of our writing assignment due next class, and then we headed down to the Career Center. Remember that Mrs. Kim is here to help you as you make your plans for after high school. There are a lot of different pathways you can take to get to your goals. Make the best decisions for you!

Work through the completion of your 1Q1P (it's due next class) and be ready to get going with Unit 4. We'll have days in the library to start and lots of working days ahead of us - use your time wisely to accomplish your steps!

English 10

Today was a solid day! We started a new unit focused on Slavic Literature - the literature of Eastern Europe and Russia. We did a lot today to focus on the culture, some of the authors, and some of the major themes that we'll be looking at through the unit like power versus freedom, individual versus society, and the power of literature to speak truth. We played bingo to do our learning to make it a bit more fun.

After bingo we took time to set some intentions for ourselves. We didn't finish the entire activity, so give yourself some time to check out more of those videos later on. Next class we'll look at some fairy tales from Russia to get more of a handle on the culture and what these people believe.

10 and 11 January

AP Language

Welcome back! It was good to see so many of you today in class. We had a relatively easy day since we had to complete academic advising for English today. While I was doing that, there was time to work on AP Classroom Progress Checks, Vocabulary, or get ahead on your motif projects. We started off with our reflection from the unit mini-project on RA (find that link in the folders).

As a reminder, vocabulary is due. Please submit on Schoology. AP Classroom work will be unlocked during class or Lion Time, so plan accordingly to complete that work. Next class will be your full workshop for the motif project, you may want to complete part of that work tonight to be better prepared for your class time next class. I also need to check your novels, so don't forget your notes. 

If you have anything missing, now is the time to complete those tasks. Please reach out if you need me for anything.

English 10

Today's class was a day for us to get our heads back on our shoulders and pointed in the right direction as we return to school and to Unit 3 - Research. At this point in the project, most of you are either studying your text (in some way, shape, or form) or you're ready to research the author/historical context to support your claim.

We understood at the end of today's class what our thesis is for this final presentation and what type of research we need to support that claim. Your task is to find the biographical or historical information to help you complete this project. By the end of next class you should show me your research notecard which includes your citation and your three notes.

Next class we will review the structure of our final project and have time to work. Keep in mind that you have just two grades left this quarter - so be sure to stay focused on completing these tasks.