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!

The Beginning of the End - 18 May

AP Language

Today in class we got in a time machine to return to ancient Athens and learn from Plato about reality, truth, and the process to find it. As we read the "Allegory of the Cave" we see many of the same steps in TIM's journey to knowledge and truth - it's important that we reflect on the process we see and the mirror for ourselves which may be held up here. Plato and Ellison ask us to always consider what we know and where we got that knowledge from. 

Next class we'll finish with Invisible Man and have time to begin our work with our final assessment on the novel. I'm excited to see everyone's creativity and thought when it comes to this novel and the ideas that it leaves you with. If you have anything missing for class - be sure that it is complete as soon as you can.

English 10

Today in class was our time to complete our final assessment for One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. If you completed the test or project today, great! If not, be sure that you're finished and submitted by Friday so that I can do final grading. If you had any extra time in class, that would have been used for final notes/vocabulary and any missing assignments from this unit.

Next class we'll begin our final portfolio for English 10 - the instructions are already uploaded for you to review. The final classes of the year will be spent devoted to our final portfolios, so everyone will have the chance to complete everything during class.

Homework for 13 February - A Day - PLC Day

Happy Early Release Day! Here are your reminders for Friday.

AP English III

You have now received your information on registration for next year. Remember that you have due dates and expectations. Please see me outside of class for recommendations on what to take next year based on my opinion - and I'll remind you that it's just that, my opinion.

For tonight you should complete the reading of Emerson's "The Over Soul" as well as complete your research topic planning document in full. I'll be collecting your research topics on Friday. We'll be doing a lot of discussion and work with Emerson on Friday as we understand what exactly the "Over Soul" is and what Emerson wants us to know about it. We'll also be getting more into the weeds on the philosophy of Transcendentalism. Your notes from Monday would be key in working through Emerson's writing. Our brief discussion and notes on rhetorical modes are also helpful and important. I posted an electronic version of the text in Google Classroom if you need it.

If there is anything that has not been graded or submitted for the Beloved unit then your time is quickly escaping. Books should be turned in tomorrow before school if they were missed today. Please see PowerSchool for the most updated information including those of you who are still missing an element of your final projects.

English IV

Today in class we started to end our unit on studying and reading poetry by completing our final TP-CASTT study of a poem as a group. Then, we transitioned into working independently on our own poetry study. Remember that this poetry study is going to end in a formal writing assignment. An essay in which you explain what the poem that you have chosen means to you and how the poet has developed that meaning to you.

If you did not finish your individual TP-CASTT sheet in class, it is important that you finish that for homework. I'll return the ones that I have on Friday and then we'll get started with writing and planning our essay responses.

Homework for A-Day Students - 13 November

AP English III

I think that today's class led to some big breakthroughs about writing and completing projects. It's important not to wait until the last minute and to ask questions along the way. If the answer you get doesn't satisfy you, then you need to ask again until you understand what's expected. Additionally, it's important to consider the specific task that is being asked of you - if you don't accomplish the task, you'll get no points. I know that based on today's class that many of you will be able to accomplish a rhetorical analysis next class - showing improvement will result in a change of your scores on your website projects.

Outside of developing your skills with rhetorical analysis we have some poems. I want you to look at three or four of the poems that you have in your packet. All are from African American authors through different historical periods. Can you see similar ideas between Dubois and these authors? How? Where are they developing his idea related to the veil and double consciousness? Where do we see issues of racism and prejudice and the effects these have on people?

Next class we'll have our timed writing as well as a bit of a discussion related to the veil and double consciousness which will be helpful before reading James Baldwin.

English IV

Today we got through a lot of review of A Doll's House as well as the beginning of Act III. We also reviewed our vocabulary skills as well as some significant literary devices that we've encountered so far in the play. At the end of class we spent time reviewing our final project on the play. Next class we'll use the film to understand the interaction between Kristine and Nils as well as jump into the project more thoroughly. Be ready for our eventual test (Acts I-III) and for days to focus on our projects in class.

9 January - B Day - And a good day was had by all...

AP English III

Way to go on completing your midterm examination today. I will have scores for the multiple choice put in likely today or tomorrow and the essay scores will go in as soon as they are all prepared. You will receive a grade for completing both portions of the midterm, separately.

For tonight, you have some reading and writing to attend to. In terms of your reading, spend your time with Emerson's "The Over Soul". As you read you will want to find different elements depending on your class period.

3B Students should focus on finding elements of Transcendental philosophy in the text as well as deriving questions for our large class seminar. 4B Students have not yet had the lesson on Transcendental philosophy, so you should be looking at areas of the text related to truth and reality as Emerson defines them. Remember that you should thoroughly read and annotate about half of the piece (to approximately paragraph twenty).

For your writing, there's your group synthesis assignment on The Great Gatsby. For this assignment you are working collaboratively in Google Classroom with your peers to present a theme shared across several excerpts of text. Be sure to review the instructions on Google Classroom for these details.

English IV

If you did not submit your humor essay today, then it will need to be done by Thursday. If not, we will grade what you have. This is a good time for you to start looking over your notes on Twelfth Night since we will quickly finish the play and move on to our final test on the play soon.

Homework for Monday - 23 January 2016

AP English III

This week you all will be completing one of my favorite projects of the year - the Transcendentalist for a week project. Remember that there are two portions - you should keep daily reflections about your process and these daily reflections will be the source for your week-long reflection which is going to be collected on Friday.  Read the assignment sheet carefully and think about yourself this week. Track your growth, and your mistakes, and think about why all of this matters.

Secondly, make sure that you read W.E.B DuBois' first two chapters from The Souls of Black Folk. As you read and annotate, stay focused on "the veil" and the idea of "double consciousness". This lines up well with the same ideas Thoreau showed us with the two eyes.  Hopefully on Wednesday we'll start to see how all of this comes together.

English II

You don't have any homework to complete tonight; however, if you saw missing assignments on your progress report you will need to finish and turn those in Wednesday since Wednesday is the last day of the quarter. Be sure that you've taken your test on Persepolis and turned in your comic book project.

B Day Student Homework - 3/22/2016

AP English III

For our next class you should read and annotate your copies of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave".  If you were not in class today you can find it at this link.  Remember that since it's an allegory everything is symbolic - consider especially the sun, the fire, the darkness, the cave, and the idea of blinding.  This lines up explicitly with what we discussed today in class related to Invisible Man so hopefully you're able to make sense of both as you read.

After you finish the reading, consider this video about Plato and his allegory.  You may want to watch this as you complete your confusion card.

Lastly, we have our reading for Spring Break and our papers to settle.  Remember that you are expected to read Chapter 23-25 over Break.  You will not read the Epilogue.  You should complete your blogs the week we return with your final analysis post (23-25) and synthesis post (end section of the novel).  We will finish our mural project during the week of the 11th.

English II

By this point we are basically done for the quarter.  Make sure that if there's anything missing for the quarter that you have it turned in by Thursday at 3:00 so that I can grade it for this quarter.

You should be focused on revising your essays and continuing to build them as we move forward into the 4th nine weeks.  We'll be going to the library next class to select book for our extra credit project.

Homework for Monday - B Day Students - 9/21/2015

English II

Tonight you'll be writing your Personal Reflection #2 - this will be on the story "The Overcoat".  Here is your prompt, make sure that you answer the question clearly using a solid paragraph.  You may want to write more than one paragraph.

Have you ever had an object that you wanted the way that Akaky wants his overcoat?  What was the object?  What did it symbolize for you?  What happened to you once you got the object?  Did you change like Akaky is changing in the story?

AP English III

Today we started to crack the surface on Emerson and "The Over Soul".  The next few classes are going to be key in helping you really make sense of what he is saying and what he means.  For tonight, start your project on being a Transcendentalist for a week.  Remember the idea is to transcend your everyday experience, so think about something you can give up to accomplish this goal.  Have fun with this assignment and discover something about yourself.  Remember that you will write one page a day about your experience for five days and then complete a final reflection on the week, due on the 29th of September.

For tonight as well, read Thoreau's "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" - while you work on Wednesday there will be a reading guide which will help you to get through the main ideas of this piece.  Continue to draw connections to Emerson - it'll make things a lot clearer.  Here's the link to Thoreau's piece if you don't have 50 Essays.

Homework for B-Day Students: 4/8/2015

AP English III

As promised here are the materials that will help you to make sense of the piece by Plato, "The Allegory of the Cave."  First, make sure you're reading the proper excerpt from 50 Essays or from this link.  Make sure that you read the introductory material on Plato as it will help you to make sense of his argument.

Before You Read:

1. Think about the idea of vision in Invisible Man - In what ways does he see?  How is he blinded?  What does this idea of blinding and seeing mean when it comes to reality and truth?
2. Understand the structure - this is a dialogue between a student (Glaucon) and a teacher.  Understand the meaning of the student's name.  Understand the role of the teacher in this.

As You Read:

1. Annotate heavily.  Look for key ideas.  Mark questions.  Read the whole thing without stopping.
2. Make connections - How does this parallel the journey of the Invisible Man.  What is the meaning of the sun?  How does this piece relate back to "The Over-Soul" and the ideas of Transcendentalism?

After You Read:

1. Watch this video from youtube.com.  Go back through the piece as you watch the video and answer your questions.  Develop more.
2. Consider Plato's argument and its relationship to Invisible Man.
3. Do you see?  Or are you blind?

I'm looking forward to a productive discussion on Friday to start our conclusion of Invisible Man.

English II

You have your final project on Purple Hibiscus due on Friday.  Remember that there are four key components to this project that you must turn in for full credit.  Here they are:

1. Your timeline sheet - this was completed in class today.
2. Your quotes sheet - this was begun in class and completed by you at home if you didn't finish it during the workshop time.
3. Your written work for the project.  Ms. Alley gave you a plan for this today and reviewed it with you in class.  Make sure that you finish the planning and then either write or type your work on a different piece of paper that you will turn in.  Follow all of the guidelines on the assignment.
4. Your visual of how the character has changed.  Use your writing to help you figure this out.  Show us Kambili or Jaja at the beginning and show us without words how the character has changed in the text.  You can draw, use a photo, a collage, painting, etc.  There are lots of options for this.

Homework for B-Day Students - 9/24/2014

AP English III

For next class you will need to complete your reading and annotating of King's "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail."  As you read, try to make connections to the ideas of Emerson and Thoreau - I was glad to see some of that happening today in class (h/t Ellen).  Also, make sure that you complete your first bookmark.  You need to have twenty words with synonyms on your bookmark sheets.

Finally, let's clarify the Transcendentalist project.  You will write your fifth journal on Friday.  This is the end of the experiment.  Over the weekend, review your journals and write your reflection.  The reflection and journals are due on Tuesday.

English II

Your homework is the same as what was shared in the post below.  Complete your six word memoir and have it ready to be collected next class.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students - 9/18/14

AP English III

Over the weekend you have Henry David Thoreau's "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" which is available in 50 Essays or at this link.  If you are accessing the text from the link then you will not need to read all of it, begin the reading at the paragraph which starts "I went to the woods because...".

As you read, annotate.  Look for the elements of Transcendental philosophy within the text and also go back to "The Over Soul" - Thoreau is living Emerson's philosophy.  How do you see this?  What are the positives or negatives to this?  Is it still possible to live this way?

English II

No homework for the weekend - if you need to finish your quiz, please make sure to take care of that tomorrow or Monday at the latest.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students - 9/12/2014

AP English III

This weekend you have a very difficult piece to read and annotate, due to its difficulty we will not be working on this piece until Thursday the 18th.  I would like, however, for all of you to have given this piece one solid attempt before Tuesday's class because we will be touching on it and may have the chance to start asking questions.

Your task is to read Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The Over Soul" and annotate the text.  Your annotations will likely be focused around asking questions of the text because it is wordy and complex, especially in terms of the sentence length and complexity.  As you read, use the rhetorical modes to help you.  Remember that this piece is centered around Emerson clarifying a concept - look for definition and exemplification.  Try to come out of this piece understanding what the Over Soul is to Emerson.  It may be helpful to consider connections to The Grapes of Wrath as Steinbeck is thoroughly influenced by Emerson, think especially of Ma and Jim Casy.

English II

Your task for the weekend is the same as the A-day students.  Complete your poetry study of your favorite song or the other poem that was on the back of your copy of "In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself."  Remember to work through all parts of the VLSITFT model and apply these ideas to your favorite song.

Homework for Tuesday - 9/10/2013

What a lovely day with all of you.  I was impressed by the seriousness with which the Russian students completed their quizzes and the amount of discussion and thinking we had going on in AP English III as we worked through our key characters.  Here are your reminders for tonight!

AP English III

Tonight ladies and gentlemen you have one of the hardest pieces to read this year, Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The Oversoul".  Due to the fact that I was running around like mad this morning I didn't have a chance to make copies of the article.  There's a link here - or you can come and pick up a copy of the essay next tomorrow.  You do not have to have this read until you come in to class next week.  Next class we're going to be focusing on starting our Writing Bootcamp and you'll get back your first essays.  Remember, we're ripping off the band-aid; it's going to hurt.

As you read "The Oversoul" you should annotate heavily.  Keep taking yourselves back to our notes on Jim Casy's philosophy.  Find those elements in the text.  Those will be your anchors as we go through the text.  Remember to ask questions of the text, and keep up with your vocabulary logs!

Russian I

Today you completed your first quizzes on the alphabet.  If there was anything at all on the quiz or any letters that you don't feel sure about make sure that you go back and study tonight.  Also, look over and begin to learn that new vocabulary, we'll be studying and working through that next class as well as a few other small notes.  It's time to start writing dialogues!

Homework for the Weekend and Monday

A few notes and reminders for all of you as we move to the weekend.

Freshman Focus:

You all don't have any homework this weekend.  Please remember that if you haven't turned in your signed rules and policies sheet then you will need to get that to me Tuesday/Wednesday.

English IV:

We've been thrown off a bit what with being moved to a new class and then with the senior class meetings with guidance which have fallen during our class these last few days.  When we get together again on Tuesday/Wednesday I would like to make sure that all of you have read the first chapter of Orwell's 1984.  We will do work with this first chapter on Tuesday/Wednesday to understand what ideas Orwell is setting up for us at the beginning of this novel.

AP English III:

You all have Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The Over-Soul" to read and annotate.  As I said in class, this piece is difficult namely because it is a piece of philosophy and that it was written in the 1800's.  The sentence structure is hard to follow and some of the vocabulary may be over your head.  I want you to keep coming back to Jim Casy as you go through this piece and work for understanding.  Try to find the similarities between Emerson's philosophy, concept of the over-soul, and Jim Casy's guiding philosophy.  This piece is integral in understanding one of Steinbeck's main points in the text.

We will be having a seminar on Tuesday/Wednesday on this piece.  Come with thorough annotations as well as any questions that you would like to raise with the group.

Have a lovely weekend!