29 November - Ending Unit 3

AP Language

We crushed it today. My goodness. We had a fantastic seminar on Sullivan's "What Are Homosexuals For?" and considered key connections back to our larger unit on The Great Gatsby. I was glad to hear connections to the idea of fantasy versus reality, truth, identity, and the power of the past and society to dictate a person's actions. Sullivan's piece is one to keep hold of as we move on into our next novel unit. There will continue to be productive connections and conversations to be had.

We ended our day by looking at our last writing assignment and feedback. It is important that you dive in deeper to your analysis of language in your selected passages. Explain small details, show what they mean, and explicitly connect them to other pieces to show how everything builds on the argument. Revising your writing assignment from Chapter 8 is a great way to prepare for Friday's timed writing! Use the sentence frames provided in the slide deck for today's class.

For Friday, have your passage ready. You'll have to copy and paste the passage into your essay document on Schoology. You will have access to the passage as you write your essay. The passage can be one that we looked at before in class - this may be a great support for you! Consider the work we've done with our precis, formative writing assignment, and discussion board as support. Remember that your visual and artistic questions will be due next week on Tuesday.

Tuesday the 4th! G'mar tov!

AP Research

One of the best days in the world was our day today - it was a writing day. Today we took time to work through the creation of our Annotated Bibliography. As you write your entries, consider the source and what it gave you in your QUEST. Be sure to consider the feasibility and reflect on the usefulness of your source in writing your paper and conducting your eventual study. 

This assignment will serve as your reassessment for your source list, remember to find and correct any errors with citation style and formatting. Next class we're going to do a bit of a guided reading assignment with a source - bring your best source to class - we're going to be analyzing!

AP Language

Wild day in AP Language with a team timed write and our Unit 1 Seminar. I loved hearing your ideas and the connections that you were building across the unit and our authors. We talked about so many of our texts and so many ideas crucial to our final project. Use the recording, I think it's pretty golden.

If you are missing any work from the unit, that work is due. Vocabulary is now due for the unit. Be sure to turn in your complete set of vocabulary cards. Submit any missing What's the Situation projects. If you want to make revisions, please do so. I'm available for help - just let me know!

30 September - Happy Friday!

AP Language

Easy peasy, pumpkin squeezy as we round out September and kick off October! Today was our end of Unit 2 working day. There's a few goals that we have as we close out, so let's review:

1. Do you have a missing project? I'm working through grading and should have them finished by the middle of next week. Be sure to submit if missing. I'll give back rubrics with feedback to guide revisions if needed/wanted.

2. Vocabulary is open to be collected. Remember that words should come from class readings or resources (like the tone word sheet). If you don't know why you lost points on earlier vocabulary cards, be sure to reach out and ask. 

3. Our seminar is next class. Be sure that you have finished your choice reading and annotated it for the author's message and elements of the rhetorical situation. How does the author convey an argument? What stands out to you? What connections can you make?

4. Your final project for this unit has been assigned and reviewed. I'll be giving you some more time over the next classes to work on this further. For now, start by considering your examples and your thesis. What is America to you? How can you prove that? What's the counter argument?

Reach out if you need me!

AP Research

Lovely Friday! We took our time today to read a Level 4 paper and understand some of our key elements that are at play in the paper. From there, it was off to the mines as we are writing, finishing work from Unit 1, or completing reflections on our work so far.

Next week will be a lot of time for you to write your Annotated Bibliography. Don't be afraid of being repetitive. Use the templates and support that you have to complete this work. It may seem daunting to write twenty five entries, but the supports are there to help you do it.

Enjoy the weekend. Your Annotated Bibliography is due Week 8 - that would be October 14.

19 and 20 April

AP Language

Sad face for our last seminar today. Simply because it was our last one of the year - and that makes me sad. I was glad to see your thoughts related to Emerson, King, and a way to solve some of our social ills - transcendentalism. I hope that you enjoyed your discussions, connections, and time to engage with each other.

Your first round of reflections are due. Remember that the grade will not be entered until the end of the unit. Submit what you have now and be ready for the next check at the end of the month. Meet your goals. Keep your schedule.

Next class will be our second full AP MCQ, review your first one, your strategies, your feedback. I'm willing to meet in advance if you need to. You'll have time with your novels as well!

English 10

So much energy in the room today as we reviewed for our exam next week. I've posted your completed study guide and recording from today's class to help you study and prepare. Your exam is at the beginning of next week - it's open note and open Schoology, so use your resources and be ready!

From there we took time to work on our projects a bit and review for our next in-class essay. The essay is going to be next class. You'll have the whole period to write your essay. You can use any of our notes from today. This is your last required in-class essay of the year, so I'm hoping to see the most improvement so far. See our recording if you were absent! I'll see you next time.

14 and 15 February

Happy Valentine's Day! Remember everyone, "If you can't love yourself, then how in the heck are you going to love somebody else?" Be sure to always take time to love yourself and your amazingness! I love all of you and am so happy to be your teacher. Now, on to the business.

AP Language

Today's class was a bit of a set-up and then delivery as we discussed some of the requirements and suggestions around building your eventual paper. The important thing is to realize that this paper is very different from what you've done in the past, even though it looks similar. Beware the temptation to turn this into a body of quotes and paraphrases with a bit of context - this isn't a report, it's an argument. The evidence is here for YOU to present and prove YOUR argument as valid.

We discussed ways to revise the argument, the goal of using evidence in the body, and some other suggestions - put these forward as you work through your outline. The next step of the process is also part of today's lesson. This is a very simple assignment - basically just a copy and paste job. See the template and the samples posted.

As always - let me know if you need me. Lion Time can be very useful right now!

English 10

Today we had a solid day where we took a bit of a thematic diversion away from Russia and Eastern Europe to investigate Burma. The line to connect the two areas is unfortunately not a very good one - the connection betwen authoritarianism and the limiting of personal freedom and expression. Our author Aung San Suu Kyi is a victim of these same policies today - an important reminder that the ideas we explore in class are more than ideas for some people in this world.

Class focused on our law and justice seminar and then we read and analyzed her speech "Misrule of Law" - see the recording if you were absent. Next class we'll make some more connections back to our unit and take time for test corrections. If you haven't yet finished your test, come and see me tomorrow during LT to finish that.

10 and 11 November

AP Language

I'm back! Not at 100%, but good enough to be with you all today, and I am very happy to be with you instead of where I was. Today was a pretty simple day, and I appreciate you all being nice to me. We took time to talk, work through some big ideas related to our unit, and then we finished our day as we needed.

As a reminder final tasks from Unit 2 are due or now past-due. If you are missing something, be sure to complete it as soon as possible so that I can finish my grading quickly. Your websites are due by the end of the weekend. Be sure that someone from the group submits the link. On Friday/Monday we'll be starting our unit on The Great Gatsby. I'm excited to share this text with you - it's one of my favorites.

English 10

Today was a very easy day for us since I'm still riding the struggle bus and recovering from my procedure on Monday. I appreciate all of you being kind and following instructions today. We completed a grammar assignment before we took some time with our books. As we are reading, it's important to note that there are only FOUR classes left until our projects are due. 

After reading time, we met in small groups to collect information related to our characters and how they are changing. I think that this is very helpful as you are working to complete your soundtrack projects. Remember that if you have anything missing (like vocabulary) that you submit that as soon as possible. I'll be finishing your grades for this unit over Thanksgiving.

22 and 23 September

AP Language

Lovely work today everyone! We had a very productive first seminar for the end of Unit 1. I'm very happy that you all conducted yourselves civilly and drew some amazing connections between the various texts we studied within the unit. As we worked and discussed and listened, we were really getting some great work done related to our "This is (my) America" Project. Use the ideas we unearthed to begin in earnest if you haven't yet.

Next class will be our Progress Checks on APClassroom. Be sure that you have your username/password as well as your charged laptop. Time remaining will be spent on our project workshop or on vocabulary submissions. Our next unit will focus on Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Feel free to get your own copy if you so choose. I can also issue you one from school.

English 10

Today we put our skills to the test as we completed our first SOL essay. I was happy to see a lot of you using our resources from last class to complete your work. I will have these read and returned to you shortly. After the writing session, since we finished at different rates, we then worked independently for the rest of class.

If you're missing either of our earlier writing assignments, be sure to get those completed as soon as you can. The unit is almost over. Next class will be our final workshop for our final project, so be sure that you're moving toward completion. We will also have vocabulary due soon - you owe me ten words for Unit 1.

Beginning Week 5 - 20 and 21 September

AP Language

Happy Monday Everyone!

Today was a day to talk about structures and organization of arguments as well as the building blocks of our course - rhetoric. Remember that everything is an argument. Everything is rhetoric. Everything is based on convincing an audience of something. We applied that idea to our reading as we went to our choice readings and to our writing as we reviewed our first timed write of the year.

Tonight is a great night to prepare for your first Socratic Seminar. Prepare by reviewing your readings (Cuomo's Speech, The Letters between John and Abigail Adams, and your choice reading [Sedaris, Anzaldua, or Apess]). Make your annotations. Make connections between texts. And prepare questions! This is the most important thing. Since you're working through reading, you have a great opportunity to finish up your vocabulary as you prepare.

Next week you'll submit your final projects and vocabulary. We'll have additional time over the next few classes to work on these projects a bit in class, but you should be working outside of class a bit as well!

English 10

Today was not the most interesting day in English class, but it was a good day as we went through writing and the elements of a successful paragraph and of a successful essay. Remember that we always must begin our writing by completing the essential steps:

1. Find the Question.
2. Find evidence for each side. Pick the best side.
3. Determine the task (essay or paragraph).
4. Use the templates to complete the task.

After that, we took time to work through the final elements of our "My Personal Culture" project - the writing heavy slides. Remember that you are responding to a quotation on one (I recommend choosing a quotation from the Gaiman piece) and then constructing your paragraph at the end. 

Next class we'll be completing our writing diagnostic for the year. Your projects are due on Friday. We'll have our final quiz on this unit next week!

Homework for the First Day Back - 4/8 and 4/9

And with that, the first day is done.  I know that I'm definitely going to be getting in a nap this afternoon - I forgot what it was like to wake up so early.  Here are your reminders for tonight as you prepare for class on Wednesday/Thursday.

AP English IV

Today in class we went through much of Solzhenitsyn's biography which will be quite important in helping you to understand what he's doing within the pages of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.  You may want to be on the lookout for these biographical elements as you read his speech for homework tonight.  On Wednesday we'll be opening up with a seminar on Solzhenitsyn's Nobel Prize Speech from 1970.  Read the speech thoroughly and annotate it.  Remember to think of these three questions:

1.  What is the purpose of literature?
2.  What is the danger of unity?
3.  What is an author's duty?

Also, we will start reading our novel in class on Wednesday, so make sure that you have your copy or check one out from me.  Lastly, don't forget that your rough drafts are due on Friday.  If you need to see me to discss your papers, be sure to do that soon.

AP English III

For tonight you have three main goals to prepare you for the rest of the week.  First, you need to start moving toward your next reading goal which is to get to the end of chapter twenty-two by Friday/Monday.  Something major is about to happen related to Brother Tod.  Keep your eyes open!  Also, you will have the opportunity to sign up for your writing conferences this week.  I'll post the schedule on Wednesday and you can start signing up then.  There are a few rules to the conferences which I'll review with all of you on Wednesday/Thursday.  The major thing though is that your draft needs to be nearly complete and you have to come with questions.  Don't just think that you show up and I do all the work. 

Lastly, if you have your own copy of 50 Essays please bring that in for Wednesday/Thursday as we'll be taking a look at a piece out of there to help us understand more of what's happening in Invisible Man.

English IV

Today in class you began working on your final assessment for Twelfth Night.  Remember that your final presentations of these dialogues or speeches will be on Friday/Monday.  Continue to read and review your portion so that you are ready for this goal.  Remember that this is your final test on the book - show me that you've learned some skills in reading these difficult texts.