5 May - Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

English 11

A good start to the week for us today as we worked through WEB DuBois and the end of our preparation for the Reading SOL on Thursday morning. Remember that on the SOL you'll have a lot of passages to read and then to answer questions about. The questions will range in type from vocabulary to literary devices to theme and topic type questions. Over the last few lessons, I've been trying to show you different types of texts and ask you the sorts of questions that you'll see on Thursday. Hopefully, you're well prepared.

On Wednesday, you'll finish your review and submit your two review assignments - The Game Plan and the Review Bank. I've gotten a great guest teacher who will go over strategies and sample items to help prepare you. On Friday, we'll take some time to reflect and review before finishing up our Drama Project work. 

As always, reach out with any questions or concerns. Remember that at the end of the year it is important to not miss any assignments. Make them up as soon as you can! Also, continue to revise assignments as you want to so that you get to the achievement level that you want in this class. See you soon!

24 May - AP Final Examination Tasks

AP Language

Another wonderful day working on our ART (Active Reading Task). We started our class by defining our needs, and then we moved forward to meet those needs. We collaborated with peers to discuss texts and uncover more meaning. I liked that I saw a lot of active engagement and collaboration. This is the key to being successful in these tasks. 

By this point, you should have most of your two texts read/processed. Please use your work from your group discussions to help you do this. Next class we'll be focused on personal writing and personal brainstorming - thus the right side of the document. It's due at the end of next class.

If you need anything else at this time, please make an appointment at Lion Time or After School. The door is closing on the AP Language skills part of the gradebook as we are now working on our final examination tasks.

AP Research

Remember to submit your Final Examination artifacts as well as any last items from Quarter 4 by Friday. I will be finalizing Q4 grades on Friday at the end of the day. Next week I'll see you on the 31st for your Final Exam day. Bring snacks! Each of you will have about five minutes to present your item. Do your presentation as a pitch. Pitch your item for me to use next year. 

Please submit all items on Schoology. I need to be sure to have a record of all final examination artifacts.

16 and 17 March

AP Language

Great day today, everyone! We worked through WEB DuBois and did a wonderful job understanding some of his main ideas including education, power, stereotypes, double consciousness, and the veil. We're going to encounter these ideas throughout the novels we're reading in this unit, so this is a good formative piece for us to begin with. Continue to reflect on the text and his ideas, especially as they apply to you.

Tonight you should complete your personal reflection. If you know the book you want to read, then you can complete the form as well. Next class is our full MCQ to prepare for the AP Examination. Any time you have after the MCQ is for working on this unit's tasks which are due. Don't forget about your MCQ and FRQ on AP Classroom which will lock on Sunday night.

English 10

Today's class was our foray deeper into the concept of the doppelganger. We read a short story by Jorge Luis Borges called "Borges and I", and we applied the strategy of close reading to understand the complex text. At the end of class we took time to complete an extra credit opportunity or complete our projects and vocabulary from Unit 4. Keep in mind that projects and vocabulary are now late, but still will be accepted. Please turn in your work to earn your points. We only have a few classes left in this quarter, so it's important to turn in all of your assignments now.

As always, please ask for any help you may need. I'm here for you.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 15 November

AP English III

Today in class we had our timed writing/reassessment on rhetorical analysis. I think that this one was a relatively straight forward one to flex our muscles and show that we all understand how to complete an analysis. I'll have them scored and grades posted/updated by the end of the weekend.

After that, we worked through a quick discussion of a few of our poets as a way to reflect on our understanding of the ideas of double consciousness and the veil from Dubois's From the Souls of Black Folk. These concepts are highly important as we move into Beloved since we'll be seeing these ideas (as well as others) being used by Morrison to communicate her arguments about slavery and racism as it pertains to women.

For tonight, you have another fantastic author - James Baldwin - who will explore his own experiences with the veil and double consciousness through his piece "Notes of a Native Son." The article is in our Google Classroom page. You're reading only the first section. As you read and annotate consider where you see the veil, double consciousness, and family. Consider how family is part of Baldwin's overall argument related to racism/the veil/double consciousness. This is a very angry text - I hope that you'll be able to appreciate why Baldwin feels the way he does. Here's a clip from a documentary about James Baldwin called I Am Not Your Negro which gives a bit more insight into him.

Be sure to bring Beloved with you next class as we will begin our study of the novel.

English IV

Today in class we worked through a bit more of Act III, focused on vocabulary work, and then we began developing our projects in class. Hopefully you were able to finish our planning and make one of your project choices. Next class we'll be focusing in on this project more!

Additionally, some of you are missing a major assignment. It's important that this assignment is completed on Monday or Tuesday. Please come during lunch if you are missing the Act I Quiz.

We'll be done with A Doll's House in the next few classes. You should review your notes for our final test on the book and you should be working on the three elements of your project. Remember that your project and your test will have the same amount of points, so a good project score is a way to outweigh a bad test grade.