22 August - Finishing Week 1

English 11

Great first week together, everyone! I was glad to see so many of you commit to our classroom rules, keep your electronics away, and stay focused for all of the great work that we'll be doing together. Today we had an community builder where we shared some boring facts, then we talked about America and some American problems, before we started our first reading.

We read "The Declaration of Independence" by Thomas Jefferson and discussed his rhetorical situation. Next class, we'll spend a bit more time looking at this text and understanding how Jefferson makes choices and arguments for each of his audiences. We'll also look at some other important documents like the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. 

Over the weekend, complete your DRC Form - I linked it below. Also be sure to review your slides, recordings, and other resources. I'll see you on Monday!

11 January - Looking at Langston Hughes

AP Language

We had a really lovely day today in AP Language with another fantastic Harlem Renaissance voice - Langston Hughes. Today we got to hear his voice both as a poet and as a social critic; it's interesting to notice how he's saying the same thing (his argument) in various styles. Today's class was a reading, writing, and thinking day -- our essential skills in AP Language! We'll continue to reflect on this essay next class. Be sure that you've completed your discussion board post and submitted your annotations document. Note that the annotations document won't be graded, just the discussion board.

Next class we'll be focused on some writing skills and argumentative writing. There's no reading for next class. Use the time to get into Invisible Man. You'll want to be ahead in the reading so that we can really focus on comprehending and interpreting skills in class.

21 September - Going into Yom Kippur Weekend

AP Language

A pretty solid day today as we engaged with a difficult text written a bit above the high school level. Remember that this is going to be a regular occurrence. We are a college level class, so we'll read college level texts. You made the choice to accept this challenge when you signed up for this class. We discussed several strategies to deal with difficult texts - I'm a big fan of using the structures the texts provides, especially sections, to navigate difficult waters.

Our conversation and work on Anzaldua was especially rich. I enjoyed seeing your focus on language, identity, legitimacy, and the power of politics to determine worth. You may find it helpful to review the recording as we had a very deep conversation. Fantastic work!

Our next class is going to be our gallery walk for our projects. I've been focusing a lot of people to use evidence in their slides to support their claims. Also remember the way in which audience determines purpose and message -- determine your two audiences for the text and focus the analysis on them. If you'd like to get ahead on reading then you'll want Cuomo. The link to his speech is posted in Materials; we'll have a handout for you next week. Remember that it's a speech, so you may want to watch the video from 1984 before reading. 

I hope to see you next week - I've been called for jury duty, so I hope to get excused so that I can be with you.

11 September

AP Language

Fantastic day in AP Language land today as we kick off a three day week. Today we looked at two genres - speeches and letters - from three historic Americans: John and Abigail Adams and Abraham Lincoln. Today's class focused on understanding and applying elements of PEWCAM/Rhetorical Situation and the ways in which tone is created and shifts within a text. I was so happy to see all of the engagement today and the collaboration with each other. 

Apologies for not having your essays scored yet; time gets away from me sometimes - there are also a few make-up assessments out there. I promise that you'll be receiving feedback this week. If you are interested in reassessing for your earlier scores on the tone analysis quiz, let me know. 

At this point you should have decided on a text for your project called What's the Situation? Consider if you need additional resources to study the text and understand its Rhetorical Situation/PEWCAM. You'll want to create a Google Slide presentation with one slide for each element (you may need a few slides for a few - hint, hint) and a space for Works Cited. We'll work through this project this week in class.