Getting into September - Mid Week Check-ins

English 11

Thank you all for being so good while we had technology problems in class today. Unfortunately, this means that we won't have a recording for today posted over on Schoology. Oh well. 

Today's class started with a quotation response in our notebooks followed by our first graded class discussion. Y'all did a fantastic job reviewing the four authors that we've read so far and discussing some of their major conflicts, resolutions, and perspectives in their texts. We made some great connections between the various authors as well. Some of these connections were a bit ironic, but that makes them even more powerful. As we keep going through this unit and year, consider how more texts combine together to create richer meanings and ideas.

We started reading one of the longest pieces of this unit called "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" by Tim O'Brien. This is a war story that blends a bit of fact and fiction. We'll finish the story next week. To end our day, we looked at vocabulary. Remember that you have a quiz next week (Thursday). Be sure to complete your review assignment before Thursday. Don't forget that you also have your discussion board due this week.

On Monday we had a good day as we read and studied "The Gettysburg Address" by Abraham Lincoln to review the ideas of the rhetorical situation as well as the ways in which emotions are created in a text by an author for a purpose. We also closed out our first vocabulary list. We'll have time next class and Friday to prepare for next week's first quiz. Remember to focus on learning the words and their meaning. This will take you into most of the quiz. 

Next class is Picture Day! We'll take pictures at the beginning of class. After that, we'll take lunch and finish our day with writing. I hope you enjoyed today. See you on Friday!

Homework for the Weekend - 11 May 2018 - B Day

English IV

Over the weekend you should all stay focused on your novel projects as we will be submitting work at the end of class on Tuesday. I will be collecting your close reading passages as well as your style analysis paragraphs. Remember that for this work you are writing a paragraph which examines and explains how the author writes. Your close reading of your two passages will give you the details that you need in order to complete this work. Please use the style analysis outline sheet to complete your paragraph or to make sure that you have all of the required elements.

On Tuesday I'll go over the elements of the final project and then we will work to complete that next week. As a reminder, your final day of class for a grade will be on Tuesday the 22nd. On this day we will complete all of our novel work and present our final projects for extra credit.

AP English III

Many of you must have come down with something today since our class was a bit light in the attendance factor. Be aware that our story today will be part of the final unit test which will fall on the last day of class - 5/24. You're going to have about fifty multiple choice questions covering all of the stories in our unit, so be sure to get the notes from a classmate today if you missed class.

For next class we will have our final reading assignment of the year - it's Graham Greene's "The Destructors". This story can be found at this link. For this story, it'll be very productive to consider the reasons why these boys are acting the way that they are. You may want to go back and look at the photos of London after the Blitz in order to understand the environment in which these boys live. Consider the ideas we discussed today around change because of war, and consider the idea that you can be a victim, even if you're still alive.

On Friday of next week we'll have our end of the year party. Please start to consider whom you will be for this party (maybe your top three) so that we can determine our characters on Tuesday's class.

Homework for B Day Students - 1 May 2018

Happy Holiday Students! Today is the 1st of May - The Holiday of Spring and Labor in Russia. Make sure that you celebrate this holiday by spending some time outside. Tomorrow I'll be dressed as a Russian peasant to celebrate. Here are your notes and reminders for tonight.

English IV

Keep working on your novel projects kids! Remember that we're cutting project four so that we can focus on project three, which is the most important project to prepare for the final one. Check on PowerSchool for any missing scores or zeroes. I think that after today most everyone is good to go on Week One work, now be sure that we keep our focus on Weeks Two and Three. Keep reading. Keep thinking. Keep working!

AP English III

We've had two really great classes focused around stories that look at family in a very different way. I especially enjoyed the ideas that we saw today that looked at the connection between characters and tone. Remember that tone is a great device to focus on as we prepare for the AP Examination.

For tonight there's no reading for class discussion, but there is reading of documents to prepare for the next part of the unit. Consider this as both a chance to brush up on our synthesizing skills as well as our abilities to "read" various types of texts. Be sure that you watch the video as well which is given on your assignment sheet and at this link. Complete the questions on the cover sheet as sentences or as bullet points.

Also, be sure that you're finishing the AP Practice Exam. I want to have everything back to you on Thursday.