17 January - End of the Week

English 11:

We had a really great day today in English 11 to finish out the week. It was a filled day where we worked on a few different skills. We also took some time for reading and group meetings. Some of you were absent today, and you were missed! Your groups will be waiting to submit the group contract until next class when you're with us.

We started the day with a bit of grammar and talked about combining sentences. We reviewed the ways in which we can combine sentences and the sticky bits about some pieces of punctuation and their usage: Remember that colons are only used when the second sentence directly adds on to the first. Try applying some of these strategies as you're writing. We'll keep working more on this soon. From there we did some review of narrative elements and then began to apply them to our books. These are the terms that you'll be asked about on your Virginia Reading SOL, so it's important that we learn them now!

I'm really enjoying watching you all collaborate and read in your groups. It warms my heart! Next class you'll have a quiz on your books, so the best thing to do is to read in order to prepare. Weekends, especially long ones like this, are great for us to read. At the very end of class, we finished our last five vocabulary words. We'll practice and review next class.

Remember that the end of the grading period is right around the corner. If you're missing your letter or reading test from Unit 2, please make a Lion Time pass to settle that up. You can submit your vocabulary project whenever you'd like. All grades will be finalized on January 29, so don't wait! 

8 February - Wednesday

AP Language

Great day in AP Language land today. We took time to read our books to prepare for our third group meetings, and then we launched into those meetings and conversations. The meetings today focused on discussing research topics, passage two, and then other key elements that your groups are seeing in the novels. I hope that you're finding the discussion questions useful and helpful. Keep developing your ideas in your Google Docs and on Schoology in the Discussion Board.

The second part of class focused on reading skills - especially CER and ROR. We looked at a text connected to the ideas presented in Into the Wild. Consider how authors create patterns in their text to relate their key claims. How does an author show how multiple pieces of evidence relate to the same overall claim? If you need additional help, remember that you have a myriad of daily videos on AP Classroom via the Exam 2 MCQ feedback. Access that. Come in at Lion Time. I'm always here to help.

At home, you have plenty of choices. Read your books. Build your sourcepacks. Complete your AB entries. Next class we'll be focused on non-print sources and have time to work on ABs and sourcepacks. Be ready and prepared. Don't waste time!

AP Research

Solid day in AP Research as we got back to Manzanar and understood the final section of the paper - Data Analysis and Data Collection. I hope that Manzanar showed you that the massive amount of work that you're in the process of doing will be reduced to something very simplistic. I'm sorry if it took the wind out of your sails. I think that the paper makes clear the way that choices can be justified and active language can be used to make everything clear and connected.

Now we move into the process of data collection. The next few classes are all for you. If you need to make phone calls, do it. If you need to meet with people, do it. This is the time to do what you need to do to get the data you need. Don't waste this time and allow yourselves to scramble. Keep up with your weekly assignments and reflections! Turn in your plan for the unit if you haven't done so yet.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 31 August

English IV

For the weekend make sure that you've considered your brainstorming and the questions related to your introduction for your personal essay. We'll be spending a lot of time in class on Friday to draft these personal essays.

If you haven't turned in your student/parent contact form, please do that on Tuesday.

AP English III

Over the weekend you should be focused on Sections One and Two of In Cold Blood. Review both sections with an eye toward vocabulary and record on your bookmarks anywhere from five to ten good words that you would like to further study.

Take the questions I gave you today in class and prepare your question for Section One. We'll use these questions to take us through Section One - make sure that you've identified at least two significant passages that you could use to answer the question.

Look over and review Section Two. Hopefully we'll have time to work through that as well.

Homework for B-Day Students: 18 May 2015

AP English III

First groups today did a great job of presenting and teaching their tales.  Good work!  Next class we'll run through the next set as well as the synthesizing conversation.  Be ready for your presentations.

English II

Today you got progress reports and a reminder of the extra credit project.  Do what you need to raise your grade.  Remember that essays are due on Friday!

Homework for B-Day Students: 14 May 2015

AP English III

We have next week pretty well planned out.  On Monday and Wednesday we'll have our discussion groups.  Three of you are presenting on Monday and three on Wednesday.  Remember to prepare a PowerPoint with your essential questions and your multiple choice questions and send it to me so that we can use them in your presentations.

Also, don't forget about your character cafe next Friday.  You know who you are going to be so now you can start to prep your costumes.  If you're going in a pair, try to coordinate with your partner, right A. Bird?  We'll sign up for refreshments on Monday.

English II

A lot of you got a lot of work done today on your essays.  Congratulations.  Continue working.  Remember that you need to follow the guidelines from our last two days of writing bootcamp.  Take your outlines and remove the labels, put your sentences in the right order, and then add on.  Develop your examples and especially your explanation given what we've been discussing lately.  If you need me to continue working with you on this assignment then please make an appointment to work with me outside of class.  There will be a conference sheet on the door Friday for you to sign up.

Homework for B Day Students - 6 May 2015

AP English III

For our next class, which is really going to be on Tuesday you've got two things to take care of.

1. Read and annotate "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" - This is a great story and I think you're all going to love it.
2. Do work in your discussion groups - You'll all get some time to work together face-to-face in class on Tuesday.

Lastly, look over your multiple choice.  Study and review.  Understand why you got the question wrong the first time and why the right answer is the right one.  Remember that part of the reason why we do these practices now is so that you can take your knocks before the actual exam.

English II

For homework tonight you have two major things to complete as we prepare to move to the end of the week.  First, make sure that you have completed your three topics for your outline.  Remember to follow the listing format that we discussed in class.  The only sentences that you need to write are your argument and three topic sentences.

Second, make sure that you're ready for your quiz on Friday.  Study Night, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Hotel Rwanda.  Study and review, be prepared!

Homework for B-Day Students: 30 April 2015

AP English III

For the weekend you have a few things to take care of to prepare for our next class.  Remember that with the AP Exams coming up next week we will only be holding class on Wednesday as most of you will be out for testing on Monday and Wednesday.  For Wednesday's class please make sure that you and your group have created a Google document which is shared with me (mrmillerjhs @ gmail [dot] com) in order to receive your first check-in grade as a group.  Remember the workflow, begin by reading the story, then determine your essential questions, and from there, plan your discussion.

In addition, please read and annotate George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" which is available in 50 Essays or at this link.  You will want to build connections between this text and "The Man I Killed" as we'll be discussing both stories on Wednesday.

English II

Your homework for Monday's class is to finish your outline of all three topics.  Remember that you can use what we studied today in class (Night and Escape from Sobibor) as topics in your paper.  Please follow the instructions in the previous post and maintain your formatting of the topics in the outline.  For each topic you must:

• identify the topic
• write a topic sentence
• give your example from the topic
• explain how this example proves your point about remembering tragedy

Remember what we said at the beginning of this process - everything proves the argument!

AP English Homework - 5/8 and 5/9

AP English III:

For right now B-day students are actually ahead of A-day students.  Today and Wednesday (A-day) will be normal classes in which we continue to work and prepare for our exam next week through our study of The Things They Carried.  Friday's class will be a bit strange due to the AP US History exam, so that will throw the A-day students off a bit.  Here are your notes and reminders to preapre for our next class.

First, please read "The Lives of the Dead" and have it heavily annotated for a class discussion on the final story in the collection.  B-day students will work through this story on 5/10 and A-day students will work through it on 5/15.  I would recommend that you have thorough cover annotations when you walk into class this day, too. 

Secondly, we will be having a discussion group workday next class (5/10 and 5/15).  In order to prepare for this I want for someone in your group to e-mail me your discussion outline as it stands now no later than the beginning of class for Thursday/Friday.  This will give me a chance to give feedback to each group when you meet and speak to each other.  Don't forget that you're leading a fifteen minute discussion.  You don't need to go through the whole story (heck, we can't even get through a whole story in an hour) but I do want to be sure that whatever you have is thorough and well-considered.  Discussion groups 1-4 will lead class on 5/14 (B-day) and 5/17 (A-day).  Discussion groups 5-8 will lead class on 5/18 (B-day) and 5/21 (A-day). 

Please come see me if you need help with your group preparations, or anything else.