17 March - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

English 11

Today was a really fun start to the week in English 11. You all gave me a lot of energy to recover from almost no sleep last night. Now I can go home and crash out on the couch. The class for today was all about poetry, poetic devices, and the way in which authors use them to shape messages. We did some learning around new literary devices (use the slides and recording to review) and we practiced by looking at some songs. I looked over your work and updated scores - if you didn't have the chance to finish during class, please get your chart and/or discussion board post in as soon as possible.

All of this practice and collaboration will take us forward into Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday we're going to do a replacement of the quiz we took last week. A few of you who missed it will get the chance to replace the missing score, others will raise their scores, and some others will confirm mastery before the test on Friday. Friday's test is almost all multiple choice. It's meant to be very similar to the SOL. In order to prepare, study your devices and practice with theme statements.

We ended the day with vocabulary and choice working time. Remember that presentations and book projects are due by the 25th. Make your appointments, submit your tasks, and let's get everything settled with style. We'll take a bit more of class on Wednesday to work on these major grades. The vocabulary words are all posted in the slide, sorry for missing them with the recording. We won't take the quiz on List Six unitl April.

As always, reach out with questions. I'm here to help!

4 February - Tuesday is for Writing

English 11

Pretty easy day for us on a Tuesday in English 11. We started the day with some time to read and then meet with our groups to discuss our novels. We updated our slides and discussed our research topics. Remember that right now the goal is for you to continue reading and to be ready to finish these book projects after we take our state writing test.

After that, we did some practice for that writing test with a mini-letter today. If you were absent, I'll want you to make up this assignment. You do not need to come to Lion Time, but you can if you'd like to. To end our day, we completed a reading and study of a poem - remember that you'll see poetry on your reading test, so we'll keep preparing for this eventuality.

For tonight, keep reading! We'll be working a lot with our books next class. We'll also take a look at another few poems to discuss the differences, challenges, and the beauty that poetry can provide. Please be in touch with any needs you may have. Your next Lion Time is Thursday, and I'm available to work with you.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 10 October

AP Research

The main goal is to work through your Annotated Bibliography entries and submit them to Google Classroom by Sunday. I'm going to have a lot of reading ahead of me, so submitting soon will expedite my process. Please use the templates you have as well as the rubric to guide your work.

I've also updated the reflection document with number six. Complete that over the weekend if you can - but the priority is the Annotated Bibliography.

Russian I

Next class we'll have a quiz on possessive pronouns before moving on to finishing our movie on Russia's culture. Be sure that you're ready by knowing the three genders in Russian, the vocabulary related to ownership, and some of our new vocabulary words.

Advanced Russian

Next class will be our final practice before the One Stem Verb Examination. Be sure that you're using our tasks today in class to guide your study since you'll be working with authentic texts. Can you see verbs? Can you work with them back to their infinitive? Do you see the cases working with these verbs? All of these questions will show just how well you can use this system for what it can do.

Homework for the Weekend - 9 November - B Day

AP Seminar

Today we began the serious work of developing our questions and arguments with source material. As you are researching, it's important to keep coming back to your question. How does the source help you to further refine the question? Is this a useful source? What other perspectives should you consider?

For your assignment due on Friday I am expecting a revised question, your argument/position on the question, and then your five additional sources. Remember that you also need to include your anchor source, so I suppose I'm really looking for six clear sources. This work will be due at the end of our library session on Friday. We'll have the whole class on Wednesday in the library to continue working.

Advanced Russian

This weekend we have exercises to focus on our new skills (Russian III) or old skills (Russian II). Russian III students should complete Exercise 8.8 and 8.9 in order to practice with dates, months, and years. Be aware of how much of the date you are using - this determines what grammar you'll need to use.

Russian II students should use Exercise 5.9 as a final practice with aspect. Look at the clues in the sentence in order to determine if you need a perfective or imperfective verb. This is a good way to develop your vocabulary knowledge as well as work on your own ability to conjugate verbs. Don't forget to also spend time on the verb list on pages 202-203 - this information is key since you have some new vocabulary and conjugation patterns to learn now.

Russian I

Today was a day focused on pulling together everything we've done before now in order to move on. Based on our work, I think that we're pretty solid with possessive and subject pronouns - this is great. Now we've got to focus on learning our verb conjugations. Over the weekend I would take a look at the notes from the last few classes related to verb conjugation. You've got to memorize these endings so that you know what goes with what. Be sure to also review how to make the changes that you need to make in order to take a verb through conjugation.

There are good videos online to help with this - search for Russian verb conjugation on YouTube.

Complete your pronoun sheet for your homework. Go through the document and say who has what. Then, when you're finished, pick three verbs and conjugate them. What will you do in Russia?

Homework for B Day Students - 18 September

Due to the two-hour delay today we did not get through everything in our classes. Be aware of this if you look at the slides from class in Google Classroom. Here are your reminders of what to do before our next class.

AP Seminar

At the end of class today we divided up Freakonomics in order to prepare for next class. Next class we'll start working through some parts of our final assessment - the End of Course examination from College Board. To prepare for our first task, Task A, I want you to go through your chapter of Freakonomics and look for the:

• claims that the chapter is making
• evidence being used to support the claim
• overall argument of the chapter

You will also want to consider the "line of reasoning" - we'll be discussing this more on Thursday.

Don't forget that you have your first major assessment coming on Monday. You'll be answering questions on Freakonomics and you'll be completing EOC Task A. Remember that if you are submitting the summer work late (questions and annotations) you need to have that in to me by Monday.

Russian II/III

Today we reviewed the formation of the future tense as well as the declensions for accusative and prepositional case. Next class we'll apply many of these notes to our writing and speaking activity. Tonight, you should spend your time preparing for your assessment on Monday. Take a look at Exercise 8Г at the end of Chapter Four. This exercise identifies verbs and stems. Work with these - understand what the stem is telling you and the process of conjugation. That will be your major task on Monday. Make sure that you have your cards complete.

Russian I

We finished learning the alphabet today! Hooray! Now you can complete your handwriting packet as we get ready for our first quiz on the alphabet. You need to be sure that you know all 33 letters and the sounds that they make. We'll continue to play and practice with words and sounds as we review and prepare for the quiz. I would like to collect your handwriting packets from you on Thursday, but if you need to finish over the weekend, that's fine too. If you're having trouble with the alphabet, I would suggest that you listen to the alphabet song several times or find another good video to review. So much of this is auditory, so just looking at the letters won't help too much.


As always, come and see me if you need any help or assistance! See you Thursday!

Russian Students - DUOLINGO

Now is a great time to hone your Russian skills using Duolingo. Remember that by completing assignments you can earn extra credit. The first assignment is complete, but you can start working on assignment two. The instructions for joining your class are below.

First for Russian I Students. Your assignment is to complete the Alphabet section in the classroom!

And for Russian II/III Students. Your assignment is to get a certain number of XP.

Homework for Monday - B Day - 7 May 2018

With the conclusion of today's class you only have FIVE remaining classes with me. Just a reminder that every minute counts!

AP English III

Today's class focused on "The Shot" by Alexander Pushkin as a look at how war can change the way that people view themselves and others. It is clear that Silvio has a very different outlook on life in the end of his life versus the beginning. I would contend that his experiences in war and as a veteran contribute to this change. Tonight, we'll be looking at another person who undergoes a significant change due to his experience with "war".

For Wednesday, read and annotate "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell. This text is located within 50 Essays or it is available at this link. As you read and annotate, consider the following ideas and questions:

1. What does the elephant symbolize? How is it both itself as well as something greater?
2. Who has the power in Orwell's life? Why is this important considering the larger point that he is making about power?
3. How does this text relate to our larger ideas around war and its effects on people?

For Friday we'll be looking at "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong". It's a longer story, so I'm posting it here in case you want to get a head start on your assignment. 

English IV

Today we started to look at some choice literary devices which you may see on your NCFE before getting back to Young Frankenstein and our novel projects. During this week we should all be finishing the required task for Week Two and getting started on the close reading and author style analysis for Week Three. At the beginning of next week I'll be collecting your paragraphs on Author's Style as well as your annotated passages. Be sure that you are actively working on this!

On Friday we'll have our practice NCFE. Be sure that you are preparing by using your study guide and your review sheet. Hopefully after we take our practice test on Friday you will see how prepared you are!

Absent from AP Practice Exam?

AP English III Students:

If you were absent today for the practice exam you will need to make up the time on your own. I will be doing multiple choice make-up administration on Tuesday - 4/24 - in the morning. I will be doing the synthesis essay on Wednesday afternoon. For the multiple choice you will need THIRTY minutes. For the synthesis you will need FIFTY-FIVE minutes.

Have everything completed by the weekend so that I can return your work on time.

Also, if you did not have annotations for me of the book today or your vocabulary cards these are due the next time that I see you. If you forgot it today, make sure that I have it on Wednesday for credit.

Homework for Monday - B Day - 23 April 2018

AP English III

Today you all received back a lot of graded work - basically everything in PowerSchool up to this point. If you were absent, then vocabulary cards and annotation checks of the whole book are due on your next day in class. If work is not received by the end of the week, it will be put in as zeroes.

Next class we will complete the Practice AP Examination by completing essays two and three - the rhetorical analysis and then the argumentative essay. I will have everything graded and back to you at the start of next week.

For Friday, make sure that you have read and annotated Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find". As you are reading, pay particular attention to the way in which O'Connor uses imagery, diction, and irony. Also notice the way in which she works through the idea of family. There are a lot of interesting elements related to the setting too; though this may be considered under your analysis of imagery.

English IV

Many of you were able to get a lot of great work done today and I applaud you. If you did not become a "Pretty Princess" for the week, make sure that whatever is missing is turned in to me by next class. Please check PowerSchool for any missing grades or assignments.

Next class I'll be giving you all back your essays and building in some time in class for us to revise them toward a new grade. You'll also have time to spend more time with your books. We'll check in on the character project next class and make sure that you are moving toward completing that by the end of the week.

Homework for the Weekend - 13 April 2018 - B Day

English IV

This weekend your assignment is much the same as your A day colleagues. Make sure that you are spending time this weekend reading your novels, adding to your reading logs, and working through one of your projects. As a reminder, the first project and work check-in will be due at the end of class on Tuesday.

Furthermore, you'll also have Tuesday to finish working on your essays. It would be important that you spend time this weekend using the rubric to make edits and to ensure that you are earning as many of the possible points in each section of the essay.

AP English III

We did it! We finished Invisible Man. Now it's time for us to move on to our assessment work. Here's an outline of what will be going on for the next few classes. On TUESDAY we will have our mural construction and presentation day. This will be the day that I check your blogs and take a look at the murals that you present to me and your classmates. You received the rubric today. Use this to guide your work. Also, RESEARCH PAPER RESUBMISSIONS will be collected on Tuesday. I will not accept these late. You must turn in your resubmission on time.

On THURSDAY we will begin our final unit of the year on short stories. We'll review the authors and the different stories that we will be studying in the unit. I think that this will be a fun way to end the year and to expose you all to some authors that we haven't had time to see yet this year.

MONDAY and WEDNESDAY of the following week (23rd and 25th of April) we will have our AP Practice Exam. I'll also collect final vocabulary cards and check annotations for Invisible Man. Make sure that you take this time to prepare for these final assessments.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 1 March 2018

Russian I

Very good work today in class today. I saw that a lot of you did well on our quick quiz and then everyone was able to complete their family trees. We also have finished reviewing our final set of declensions before our exam next week on Friday. Let's discuss what you should be doing this weekend to prepare.

1. Complete your rough draft of your family member paragraphs. As a reminder you are using the outline provided on your assignment sheet to write about one male and one female family member. Use your notes and vocabulary to accomplish this. Do not use translators. Practice and make mistakes - remember it's just a rough draft. This is due on Monday.
2. Complete your extra credit assignment on the back of today's in class work. Use your declension charts and your vocabulary lists in order to see which cases you need.
3. Complete any resubmissions of projects this weekend. Review your work on previous quizzes to redo them. I've put zeroes in for the house plan project if it hasn't been turned in.
4. Use the UCLA Beginner's Russian textbook for extra help. The link is available here. You will want to bounce around the chapters to review the important content. Use your study guides for this.

I'll see you on Monday as we keep pushing toward our unit exam. The test will happen on Friday.

Advanced Russian

We also have a big exam to prepare for - the Verbs of Motion examination. I gave all of you a study guide to use as you are preparing yourselves. You can also resubmit projects this weekend and prepare for any quiz resubmissions. If you are using the UCLA Beginner's Russian textbook for extra practice this weekend - you will want to direct your attention to Chapter 10 and beyond. Remember, you 'll have to bounce around to cover all of the content.

English IV

Next class we will have a chance to watch the film Frankenstein and finish with our dramatic retellings of Justine's trial. As you are working over the weekend, be sure that you're focused on any low grades that you would like to improve as we are closing out the quarter. Remember that there are only three weeks left in this quarter. Then it's off to Q4, Spring Break, and the end of this wonderful year!

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 9 February 2018

Russian I

Over the weekend you should spend time finishing the work on your home plan and writing projects. Be sure that you have created rough drafts of each of your paragraphs for me. I will collect these on Tuesday and then return them to you with feedback. Remember that you are writing three sentence paragraphs about each room.

1. Describe the room.
2. Describe the items in the room.
3. Tell what happens in the room. Use a verb and be sure to use prepositional case.

Advanced Russian

On Tuesday we will have our second quiz on verbs of motion. Be sure that you can navigate the use of perfective and imperfective verbs of motion as well as the various cases and prepositions connected to these verbs. Hopefully after our speaking simulation at the Belorussian Train Station you have a better understanding of how to use and conjugate verbs of motion.

Continue working on your projects as well. This will give you a lot of chances to keep studying and developing your skill with verbs of motion.

English IV

Today in class we began reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. It's a bit of a slow start, but once Robert Walton meets Dr. Victor Frankenstein, things will pick up quickly. Continue your reading this weekend with Letters Two and Three. As you are reading, focus on learning more about Robert Walton as a person. As you read his letters, be sure that you are underlining or highlighting important information about him. Then, in the margins, write a word or two which summarizes or simplifies this fact about him.

We'll keep talking about his character before we move on to more of Frankenstein.

Homework for Russian Students - 2 January - Welcome Back!

С новым сладким годом! To a sweet new year! So happy to see all of you today - here's a quick recap of what we did in Russian as well as what you should do tonight to keep the learning going!

Russian I

Today we learned the five main jobs of the genitive case as well as how to change the endings of nouns so that they show that they are in the genitive case. Then we did some example sentences around the idea of ownership (I have a Honda. У меня есть Хонда.), lack of ownership (I don't have a Mercedes. У меня нет Мерседеса.), and stating where a person is from (I am from Durham. Я из Дарема.).

For your friend project you should write three new sentences using the genitive case. You should state something that each person has, doesn't have, and where each person is from. Remember you are only working on the slides about yourself, your male friend, and your female friend. You should already have sentences describing what they do and where they do it to accomplish your accusative case and prepositional case work.

You should also take a look at Exercise 8 in the end of Chapter One. This exercise is broken down for each case. You should take time to work on the genitive case so that you can learn your declensions better.

Here is a good video on all of the Russian cases - use it for review!

Advanced Russian

Today we began the journey of learning about verbs of motion in Russian. Primarily today we learned about going by one's own power or going by the power of another. We also discussed what it means for an action to be multidirectional or unidirectional. 

Tonight for homework you should play with your new verbs (the four we conjugated today in class). You should be able to create a variety of present tense sentences which use these verbs to talk about going different places. Write at least eight sentences in Russian, two for each verb, and pair the sentence with an English translation.

Next class we will review this work and these verbs before moving on to the others. Be sure that you have written work to show next class.

Lastly, keep in mind that you have one week to reassess or complete any missing work. The quarter for this class will end on Wednesday the 10th.

Homework for A Day Students - 26 September

Russian I

Today we spent time reviewing the ideas of formality and informality in speaking and reviewed some of our greetings, introductions, and farewells related to this concept. For homework tonight you should complete exercises in the packet related to these greetings, introductions, and farewells. Complete exercises 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Practice your vocabulary and writing as you do this.

If you have any missing work - it needs to be turned in ASAP.

Advanced Russian

I've included a link to Battleship Potemkin here. Please use it to complete your viewing packets on the film if you have not already done so.

The main homework that you have for tonight is the reading at the end of Chapter Four. You have an article to read from a Russian newspaper. Don't focus on trying to understand everything, focus on getting main ideas and discovering verbs in context.

As you read, identify the verbs and the subjects for these verbs. After you read, answer the questions at the end in English - identify where in the article the answer can be found.

English IV

Many of you have finished a lot of your character work for our Canterbury Tales projects. If you still have parts to finish or if you need to finish your "Me You Don't See" essay - make sure that this work is complete soon.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 27 April

Advanced Russian

For those of you who left for the senior meeting - please pay close attention to the paper I gave you before you left. That states your homework for the weekend. For Russian IV we are working on vocabulary and our synopsis of the story. Russian III is finishing the work on participles and verbal adverbs from the mystery texts. Russian II students are completing the translation exercise (number nine) focused on adverbs of quantity.

Remember that you will have your final quizzes next Friday and then our final unit examinations.

Russian I

Over the weekend you should use the example paragraphs that we reviewed today in class to complete at least three family member paragraphs as rough drafts. Hopefully most of them will be very grammatically correct since we were able to develop them today in class. On Monday we will be in the computer lab to type and upload our work into Google Classroom.

Please do not use translators to do this work for whole sentences. I understand looking up a word or two, but do not use a translator. The translator will show itself because you will be using words or language that I have not yet taught you. Do your own work. Part of the struggle is the process of learning.

You also have your study guides for your Unit Three exam which will happen on Friday the 5th.

English II

I have now handed back all of your work this quarter as well as progress reports. If there is anything that you need to redo or resubmit then you should prepare for that this weekend and be ready to do your reassessment next week.

Homework for Thanksgiving Break - A Day Students

Russian Students - You should be practicing and working on Russian content everyday over the break!  Don't slack.

Russian I:  By this point in the course you should know the following concepts -

• nominative and prepositional cases
• possessive pronouns
• gender
• subject pronouns 
• verb conjugation
• basic sentence structure "This is..."
• vocabulary in Chapter One

Make sure that you have studied and reviewed these concepts so that you are solid and sure coming back from the break.  If you haven't done your family writing, you should take care of that.  When we come back from break we will move through the other cases - know the prepositional so that you are able to learn the others quickly.

Also, practice your singing.

Russian II/III:  I identified skills or objectives for each of you to practice/study over the break.  Make sure that you are using these cards to follow through on your studying and practice over the long break.  Verbs and cases are good to review for all of you since those foundational skills are so important.  Make sure that you have notes on the first questions which we watched today in our film - we'll finish the rest of the film at the end of Thanksgiving break.

English II:  If you did not turn in your project today make sure that it gets in to me tomorrow.  If you need to email it, please send it to daniel (dot) miller (at) dpsnc (dot) net.  I'll confirm that I got your project.  Make sure that you don't miss the chance to turn in this project since it's a major grade for the quarter.

Outside of this, you will want to make sure to finish any make up work that you may have.  Many of you are missing the paragraph where you should be comparing your childhood to Marji's childhood.  If you don't have that, get it to us after the break or email it in.  Lastly there is the extra credit which is also due after Thanksgiving - make sure to complete that if you want those points!

Russian Nursery Rhymes

Russian I Students:

Here's the video I mentioned today in class about the rooster poem.  Try to practice your reading and follow along!

The character of the goat (коза) uses the beginning to sing the rooster's (петушок) praises and then lure him with a potato (картошка).  Try to see how much of the cartoon you understand.  You'll hear the rhyme a few times in it.

Russian II and III - Have some fun with this.  Listen for the case endings and verb endings - they're clearly in there!

Homework for A-Day Students: 8/26/2015

Russian II/III

Tonight, continue to work on your written paragraphs.  By the end of it, all of your paragraphs will contain all six cases - as you are writing, continue to develop your work so that all six cases are in the paragraph.  In addition, use this time to find translations of needed words.  Remember that if your paragraph involves motion/travel, you may want to talk to me about what verb to use.  Tonight you should be able to complete all the work in nominative and accusative case.

Russian I

Today we went over the second set of letters and I gave you a packet for practice which contains these letters and several others.  Please only do the letters and exercises which we have covered today.  You will finish the packet on Friday once we've finished all of the letters in the packet.  Remember to write the letters/words/sounds multiple times and to say the letter/sound/word each time you write it!

English II

For Friday I need the final draft of your travel paragraph.  Remember that when you turn in your final draft I will also need the draft you worked through today in class from peer editing.  If you would like for me or Ms. Ginocchio to look over your work, please see us outside of class before Friday.

Homework for B-Day Students: 28 April 2015

AP English III

For homework tonight I would like for you to read and annotate the story called "The Man I Killed" - This story isn't necessarily immediately after the one we studied today but you'll be able to find a lot of connections.  Stay focused on where we centered our conversation today as you read and annotate.

Additionally you'll have a full length Multiple Choice for practice next class.  This will provide you an opportunity to see the types of questions you'll be asked as well as the amount of energy it will take you to get through these readings and questions.  Prepare by studying your rhetorical terms and devices as this is really the only way you can possibly study.

English II

As we went over in class your homework is to work on your outline and complete the outlining of all three topics you will be using with your essay.  Be sure to follow the instructions in the previous post.  Remember that you'll use the same frame as topic one with topics two and three.  Follow the format in the document below and make sure to be specific with how you explain and prove your point.

Homework for A-Day Students: 2/12/2014 - Winter Storm Watch!

Here we go sensationalizing our blog posts just like the weather reports do...

AP English III

Who knows when the next time I will see you all, no matter the date, be sure that the following is ready for me.  First, you will have a timed analysis at our next class.  Remember to review all of your notes on presenting a proper analysis and your goal in doing this type of writing.  The key thing is to explain clearly what techniques the author uses and how these techniques help him/her to accomplish his/her argument.  Secondly, you will have your research proposals due next class.  Be sure that you have thoroughly answered all parts of the assignment, especially focusing on the questions about your position and why it is important.

Lastly, be aware that not next class, but the following you will be expected to have read all of chapter two.  This is a difficult part of the text which will spark a lot of conversation.  Read carefully and be prepared to ask questions!

Russian I

Due to the shortened class there is no official homework tonight, but you should always be practicing.  Today we reviewed verb conjugations for all verb types as well as the formation of adverbs.  I would suggest doing some writing in Russian to practice with these and other concepts.  Write about your house, your family, your dog, or something like that.  Use vocabulary you know and make sentences.

This provides you a chance to earn some extra credit.  Students who complete this practice writing and submit it for correction will be eligible to earn two bonus points on our most recent homework check.  This bonus is available to all students, even if you missed the chance to turn in the assignment.