Homework for B-Day Students - 10/14/2014

AP English III

Over tonight and the next you will need to accomplish two reading goals.  First read The Ways We Lie by Stephanie Ericsson which is in 50 Essays or at the link.  Annotate the essay heavily.  Connect it to The Great Gatsby - How do you see these lies within the text?  How does this text change the way in which you approach or consider the idea of lying?

In addition, read and annotate to the end of chapter three.  Continue your cover annotations as you go through the text, you should be collecting and adding consistently as you read.

English II

No homework for tonight - good luck on the PLAN test tomorrow!

Homework for 10/13/2014 - A Day Students

English II

No homework for tonight.  We'll be presenting our posters next class.  Make sure that you have also taken note of where you will be on Wednesday for the PLAN test.

Russian I

Tonight complete the worksheet on Russian nouns.  Remember to tell me all about the noun in the second column - the gender, the declension, the pronoun, and if it is a who or a what.  I'll be collecting this sheet next class with your Начало sheets.

Russian II

Tonight you need to read the letter and analyze the verbs in the letter.  You should find all of the verbs and analyze what ASPECT and what TENSE is being used with the verb.  Try to understand why these particular tenses and aspects are used to better understand the concept.  We'll review this next class before we begin our speaking!

Homework for A-Day Students: 10/9/2014

Russian II

Your homework this weekend is to complete exercise three, parts A and B.  For part A you need to read the sentence and create an answer that uses the CB of the verb to emphasize that the action has been completed.  To find your aspectual pair, either use a dictionary or the online WIKTIONARY - remember to write out your sentences as this will help.  Check your conjugations as you are writing.  For part B, you need to read the sentence and move from the CB to the HCB - for this you will take off the prefix on the verb to move from CB to HCB.

Be sure that you are also studying your vocabulary!

Russian I

Over the weekend create your vocabulary study aid and have this ready for inspection on Monday.  As a baseline, include the word in Russian, the word in English, mark the stress, and note the gender of the word.  We'll keep working with gender on Monday!

English II

No homework for the weekend, be sure that if you have any missing assignments that you turn them in tomorrow as no missing work will be accepted past Friday!

Homework for B-Day Students: 10/8/2014

AP English III

Tonight for homework your main goal is to prepare for next class's assessment on Transcendental philosophy.  You all did a wonderful job of teasing out the topics for the questions you will be asked.  Focus on those topics now as you review your notes and annotations from the class discussions on these pieces.  Remember to always focus on clarifying the ideas presented to you using more concrete examples, especially when working with philosophy.

In addition, remember to read to the end of chapter two in The Great Gatsby for Tuesday's class.  As you read, continue to annotate and add to your covers.  Collect vocabulary.  Consider the ideas on the ROARING TWENTIES discussed today in class.  How do you see Fitzgerald building upon these ideas within his text?

English II

Your homework is to complete any missing assignments and submit them by Friday.  The gradebook will be closed for this first portion of the quarter then, so any changes need to be settled.

Homework for A-Day Students: 10/7/2014

Russian II

Tonight I would like for all of you to spend time with your new vocabulary and create your study aid for your new words.  Have this to show me next class.  Remember to mark stress and any important notes about the words (like conjugations, cases, etc.).

Russian I

No homework tonight after your retest - continue to practice and study!

English II

You only have homework tonight if you need to make up a missing assignment.  Get these things settled by the end of the week this week so that your grade can be finalized for this week.

Homework for B Day Students - 10/6/2014

AP English III

Remember to bring your work with you on preparing for the exam to class on Wednesday. We brought out a lot of great points on argumentative writing which will be helpful for you on Friday for our examination day. 

For next class, bring a copy of The Great Gatsby as we'll start studying it then. Continue to study and review for the exam. 

English II

Complete your frame depiciting you as a revolutionary. Show what you've learned about reading graphic novels and think about facial expressions, speech bubbles and colors. Ms. Gerdes and I are looking forward to seeing what you come up with. 

Homework for the Weekend - A Day Students - 10/3/2014

Russian II 

From the dialogues today I see a few places for us to keep working but overall I saw some good use of cases and verbs. Over the weekend I want you to continue working with Russian as you write a one paragraph response about the film "Бриллиантовая рука." Express your opinion on the film and then give an example to support your opinion as well as explanation of the detail. I look forward to reading these. Remember to make it your own work. Outside assistance is only okay for looking up individual words. 

Russian I 

Your retest is happening on Tuesday. Prepare yourself accordingly. Learn your vocabulary and alphabet. 

English II 

Complete your comic homework this weekend. Show yourself standing up for something important to you. Feel free to use narration or speech bubbles to make this drawing in the style of a comic book frame from Persepolis. 

Homework for A-Day Students - 10/1/2014

Happy October everyone!  Here are your reminders to prepare for Friday!

Russian II

Your goal for tonight is to finish your dialogue scrips and be ready for our work on Friday where you all will present your dialogues.  Remember to focus on clear pronunciation and try to mirror your intonations to the IK-1 and IK-2.  Come in tomorrow or later today if you need more help.

Russian I

Tonight continue the work we've done in class preparing for our retesting of the alphabet unit.  I expect to see serious improvement for the next attempt at this important assessment.  Tonight, take one of the four texts on the back of your sheet and prepare it for reading to me on Friday.  Write it out in your best handwriting and practice, practice, practice!  Also make sure that you have thought about what you need to do to prepare for your retest on Tuesday!

English II

For tonight you need to use your excerpts from Persepolis as well as your knowledge from our study of the Koran to answer the following question:

According to the Koran, would you say that Marji has a good relationship with G-d or not?  Explain your answer.

Remember as you do this to construct a solid paragraph with a topic sentence, a clear detail sentence and explanation of that detail!  Show us what you're learning about paragraph writing.

Homework for B-Day Students - 9/30/2014

AP English III

There's a few things coming down the pike that I want to make sure you're all aware of.  Here's a bit of information on these tasks coming up:

1. For tonight read E.B. White's "Once More to the Lake"; it is in 50 Essays or at this link.  Remember to read and annotate - look for Transcendentalism in there!
2. Your vocabulary cards are due on Monday.  Remember that you need to have five cards from your bookmarks.
3. We will likely have an exam on Wednesday of next week on these non-fiction and philosophical pieces.  Prepare for that by reviewing your notes - I'll give a more guided review on Monday.
4. Our first novel of the year is The Great Gatsby - we will likely begin this next Friday.  I would recommend purchasing your own copy of all of our novels as they will be heavily annotated by you!

English II

Your homework is to read the excerpts from Persepolis and answer the questions on each excerpt.  Remember to have a record of what you have read by doing notes or writing down observations in the margins of the text.

Homework and Announcements - 9/29/2014

Russian II 

Tonight we returned to the land of verbs. It looked to me that things were clicking again in class as we did those drills. Please continue your practice tonight. The Schaum's Outline is ver useful here because it organizes the exercises by stem. The book will call the stems by their Russian names. The exercises for you on the stems we know are on pages 215-218, 221, and 226-228. 

Try a sampling of these and see how you feel. Ask for help if you need it!

Russian I

From grading your tests today I can see some clear places for improvement. We will do some review work and probably look at scheduling a retest date for next week for those of you who would like that option. 

English II 

Tonight you have two excerpts which Ms. Gerdes gave you from the first chapter of Persepolis. Read the excerpts carefully and complete the tasks given to you at the top of the sheet. These excerpts are yours so please annotate or take notes on them to help you complete your task. Remember to have some evidence to show that you have done your reading for class. 

Homework for B-Day Students: 9/26/2014

AP English III

Over the weekend I have two or three things for you to take care of to prepare for next week.  First, begin on your vocabulary study.  Be aware that this is a standing assignment throughout the year.  Whenever I ask to see your bookmarks you should have these and be able to show me that you have actively been working on these pieces.  Remember that you will have to select five words for your cards and you will turn in five cards by the 6th of October.

Secondly, be sure that you have your five journals from being a Transcendentalist for the week.  With the journals you'll complete a one page, typed, MLA format reflection.  In the reflection, here are some questions to consider:

• What did you learn from this experience about yourself?  Others?  Society?  How did you learn these things?
• What were some of your successes?  Your failures?  Why?
• How do you better understand this philosophy?  Is it applicable in our world today?

The reflections are a space for you to write and process the experience.  Show me that you are thinking and being considerate.

The third thing would be to go back through your work on King and review now that we've read the clergymen's letter.  How can you better understand this piece given this context?

English II

No homework for the weekend!  Enjoy your time!  Be ready to start reading comic books next week!

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 A-Day Students - 9/23/2014

Russian II

You all should be reviewing your cases and your work on grammar nightly.  You have no homework tonight to turn in, but there is a lot of stuff to review and study!

Russian I

Your homework is to prepare for your test!  Your test will be on Monday and will cover all of the subjects I went over with you in class.  You will want to come in on Friday afternoon for extra help if you need it.

English II

Your homework due on Thursday is to complete your six word memoir.  Remember that you will want to use either your computer or the paper we gave you in class to put your memoir together.  Focus on filling the page with the six words.  Make sure to think about your font or design of the letters, the colors, and any images that help the sentence.

Homework for B-Day Students - 9/22/2014

AP English III

Be reminded that you are always supposed to have a record of your notes from any reading assignment.  This is how you show me that you've done your homework.

For your work tonight you need to complete your first journal on your "Transcendentalist for a Week" assignment.  The prompt for tonight is:  What have you chosen to give up and why?  Remember that you can only write one page in your bluebooks.  Keep it brief, but answer the questions well.

Outside of living like a Transcendentalist you also have to begin preparing Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior's "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail."  This piece is available in 50 Essays or at this link.  Remember that you are always to have notes on reading.  Always.  The discussion of this piece will be on Friday, prepare yourselves accordingly.

English II

No homework for tonight.  Consider the ideas we began discussing today about telling our own stories versus someone telling those stories for us.  What's the difference?

Homework for the Weekend - A Day Students - 9/19/2014

Russian II

This weekend you are finishing your work reviewing all six cases.  This weekend, spend some time with the instrumental case.  Using your Schaum's Outline of Russian Grammar complete the following exercises.  The numbers after the exercise tell you which questions in the exercise you can complete.

• Exercise 31, page 63:  1, 3-8
• Exercise 32, page 63: 1-4, 6-10
• Exercise 33, page 63:  1-7
• Exercise 36, page 64:  1-15
• Exercise 37. page 64:  1-5
• Exercise 38, page 65:  1-9

At the end of this you have worked in all of your cases.  Continue practicing and reviewing and studying nightly.  Drill and practice.  Drill and practice!

Russian I

Your homework this weekend consists of the worksheet I gave you today.  Complete the exercise in which you take each word and turn it into a sentence paired with a translation.  All of your sentences should start with the Russian equivalent of "This is...".  Have this done on a piece of paper to turn in.  Also, read the names of the colleges and universities.  We will practice with some of this on Tuesday.  Don't forget.  You have your first test on Thursday on the alphabet and culture.  We'll prepare for this a bit on Tuesday.

English II

No homework for the weekend.  Enjoy your time off.  Consider our ideas about memoir and perspective from today's 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 A Day Students - 9/17/2014

Russian II

Tonight you need to work through the dehydrated sentences.  Remember to be reviewing your cases and your grammar as you work.  Fill in the blanks with the required items and then consider the cases that you need for these items.

For numbers seven and eight you need to write two sentences of your own choosing.

Russian I

Tonight you all need to spend your time reading and working on your vocabulary lists.  Continue to practice with your reading and handwriting of these vocabulary words.  As a reminder you should be working with your vocabulary each night for about thirty to forty minutes.

Read aloud!  Practice!  The reading should be getting easier day after day.  Please ask for my assistance if you need it.

Here's a video on greetings to help you with your vocabulary.  Listen to the intonation patterns!

English II

Today we took our quiz and didn't really have time to get in to the film on Iran.  Next class we will begin on this topic and move forward into our study of memoirs.

B-Day Student Homework - 9/16/2014

AP English III

Tonight for homework you should spend time reviewing and rereading "The Over Soul" so that you are prepared for our discussion of this piece on Thursday.  Also, make sure that you are filling up your vocabulary bookmark with new words and definitions.  We will soon move on to the second portion of this assignment which is the word study.

English II

Tonight you need to prepare yourselves for your quiz.  Study and review what we've been going over in class as these questions and texts will be part of your quiz on Wednesday/Thursday.

Homework for A-Day Students - 9/15/2014

Russian II

Tonight for homework you have three exercises from Schaum's Outlines of Russian Grammar related to the Dative Case.  You will need to complete exercise 26 (1-8), exercise 28 (1-7) and exercise 29 (2, 3, and 5).  For exercise 29 you will need to use the expression надо which we learned today in class.

Russian I

Tonight I want you to practice with your vocabulary related to greetings and introductions.  Read over pages fifty and fifty-one which you were given today in class.  Then, complete exercise ten.  First, you need to fill in any missing parts of the dialogue using context clues.  Look at the answer, and then work backwards to fill in the missing question.  Once you have this done, on the back, you will need to write two brief dialogues.  Practice your vocabulary.  Write and speak.  Practice your intonation patterns!

English II

Next class you will have a quiz on the following texts:

• The Anecdotes and Sayings of Saadi
• "The Train from Rhodesia" by N. Gordimer
• "In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself" by W. Szymborska

• You will have thirty multiple choice questions related to these stories/texts.
• You will have grammar related to our warm-up tasks.
• You will have to write a paragraph which follows the proper structure.  The point is to show us what you have learned.  

Please feel free to ask questions.  Use your notes to study.  Prepare yourselves.

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 the Weekend - 9/11/2014 - A Day Students

Russian II

This weekend you need to finish watching our episode of "Орел и Решка" and answer the questions on the sheet I gave you.  Please make sure to bring your questions with you to class on Tuesday so that we can review some of these structures in writing.  If I see a good attempt you will get full completion credit.

Here's the video in case you can't find the link.

Russian I

This weekend you need to study your vocabulary lists and complete your handwriting of the new vocabulary words.  Please bring your flashcards or study aid with you to class on Tuesday so that I can check your handwriting.  We will begin working more with these words and phonetics on Tuesday.

English II

This weekend Ms. Gerdes and I would like to see you apply our poetry reading strategy to a favorite song of yours.  Please select a song and then evaluate the song based on the VLSITFT model in class.  You will need to do this on a separate sheet of paper to turn in.  Next class we will review a bit before our quiz which is happening on Wednesday and Thursday.

Homework for 9/10/2014

AP English III

Tonight for homework you will need to read the next chunk of chapters from Grapes which are chapters five through eight.  As you are rereading and annotating the text, be sure to look for the following ideas/topics/characters:

• motifs:  person to animal, American dream
• characters:  Ma Joad, Jim Casy
• devices:  personification, irony

As you read and notice things, go back to our conversation today and think about significance.  What is the importance of these specific elements of language?  What do these specific details add to Steinbeck's argument?

Furthermore, remember that you will have a quiz on the elements of rhetoric and argumentation next class.  Be sure to review your notes and know the new terminology well.  In addition, you may want to look over and complete your vocabulary that you've collected so that you are more familiar with these terms.

English II

Tonight you have no official homework but you should review your notes and your vocabulary collected from "The Train from Rhodesia".  You will be having a quiz on "The Sayings of Saadi", "The Train from Rhodesia", and the next text we will be reading "In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself" on Thursday the 18th of September.

Homework and Reminders - A Day Students - 9/9/2014

Russian II

Next class you have your first quiz on the nominative, accusative, prepositional, and genitive cases.  Prepare yourselves.  You will have a dialogue to listen to and answer questions, a paragraph to read and answer questions and finally a small writing and speaking assignment.  Feel free to come ask for help today or tomorrow.  And also, keep practicing your phonetics!

Russian I

Tonight I would like for you to spend time reading and writing in Russian.  First, practice your phonetics for approximately thirty minutes each night.  Then, write the poem about the little old man out in your best handwriting.  Practice your reading too.  We will have our first quiz on the alphabet coming soon - likely next week!

English II

You have no homework tonight but you should be working on your vocabulary and reviewing your notes.  If you have make-up work to complete, please get that settled.  You will have a quiz on 9/17 and 9/18 on the first few texts that we have read this year and on your writing skills.

9/8/2014 - B Day Homework and Announcements

AP English III

Tonight you have two things to settle.  The first is to reread and annotate (or reannotate if you have already) chapters one through four of The Grapes of Wrath.  As you are reading and annotating you should continue looking for vocabulary and, hopefully, notice elements related to rhetoric which may have been hidden in plain view before.

Be sure to have your book with you until I tell you that you no longer need it.

Additionally you will have your first quiz on Friday.  This quiz will focus on the elements of rhetoric and argumentation which we have begun to study in the opening of the year.  More details to come on Wednesday, but you may want to begin studying now by looking over your vocabulary from our class discussions.

English II

Your homework is the same as the post below.  Complete the reading of "The Train from Rhodesia" and then complete your detail hunt following the instructions on the assignment sheet.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day Students - 9/5/2014

First of all, thanks for being with me on my birthday!  You all got me off to a good start.  Here are your assignments for the weekend.

Russian II

This weekend you have several exercises on cases.  Remember to complete the even numbered questions in each exercise.  I will be checking this for completion.  Mark questions that you cannot or aren't sure how to do so that we can review these on Tuesday.  On Tuesday we will review in preparation for our quiz.

Also remember that if you did not submit your warm-up sheet with last night's homework you must get that in to me no later than Tuesday for credit.

Russian I

This weekend I would like for you to practice with your reading and writing.  Go to your phonetics sheets and practice reading the two poems several times.  Also, practice your handwriting and write these poems in your best Russian handwriting.  You will want to write them several times to practice.

Russian I and II

Don't forget to read and practice your phonetics sheets nightly.  You should read over these every day to practice your mouth positions and sounds.

English II

This weekend finish reading "The Train from Rhodesia" and complete your detail hunt about the character of the man and the woman.  Feel free to use the back of your handout to collect details and do your work.

Homework - B Day Students - 9/4/2014

AP English III

Over the weekend you have a few things to read and consider to prepare for Monday's class.

1. You'll need to read/annotate "On Compassion" by B. Ascher.  You can find this in 50 Essays or at this link.
2. You will also need to reread/annotate "Harvest of Shame" and "Work Works" from The Working Poor.  As you do this rereading, consider the argument we developed in class today.  How can you continue to refine it and clarify it using the data from these chapters?

English II

Your assignment is in the post below for A-day students.  Be sure that your paragraph is submitted no later than Monday if you did not submit it today.

Homework for A-Day Students - 9/3/2014

Russian II

For homework tonight you need to complete the assignment on dehydrated sentences.  Put the five sentences into grammatically correct Russian forms.  See me for help if you need it.

Russian I

Complete the handwriting homework and go back to complete any skipped exercises from the first set of homework.  You should complete the following exercises:  4, 7, 10, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, and 29.

Be sure to have your completed homework and your warm-up sheets next class as it will be collected for a grade.

English II

You have no official homework tonight if you were able to submit your final draft of your paragraph.  If you did not submit your draft then you must turn it in next class.  Feel free to complete the bonus assignment below for extra credit.  Next class we will continue reading "The Train from Rhodesia".

English II - Extra Credit Assignment - 9/3 and 9/4

If you finish typing your final draft and turn in your draft packet before the end of the period, then you may complete this extra credit assignment.  To complete the extra credit assignment, follow these instructions:

1.  Leave a comment to this blog post by clicking the link below.
2.  Do an Internet search for a current event related to South Africa - it may be related to culture, politics, arts, or anything that you'd like as long as it is centered on South Africa.
3.  Post the link to your article in your comment.
4.  Type a three to four sentence summary of your current event.
5.  Explain in three to four sentences how this current event is connected to Sarafina, "The Train from Rhodesia", or "Teaching Under Apartheid".  Be clear and specific when you explain this connection.
6.  Leave your name and class period in the comment to earn credit.

9/2/2014 - B Day Homework and Reminders

AP English III

Be reminded that your final drafts of your introduction piece is due to me on Thursday.  You will need to submit your rough draft as well as any additional drafts which you completed before the due date.  In addition, be sure that you have your copy of The Working Poor next class as we will be studying the introduction of this piece.

Lastly, complete the Ehrenreich questions based on "Serving in Florida" - we will review these questions on Thursday to start our day together.

English II

Next class we will be going to the computer lab to type up our final assignments.  Remember to have your rough draft and feedback chart as you may be able to turn everything in before you go for the weekend.  The final drafts are due no later than Friday (A-day) and Monday (B-day).  If you didn't have a draft for workshop, please come see me or Ms. Gerdes before the computer lab time with your draft to get back your points.

Also, if you are completing the bonus assignment make sure to have your reading done for our next class.

Homework for the Long Weekend - 8/29/2014

Russian II

This weekend you have several exercises to complete to review and refresh your knowledge of the Nominative, Accusative and Genitive Cases. In your Schaum's Outlines of Russian Grammar complete the following exercises:

• page 49-51:  exercises 17 (1-5, 7, 11-15), exercise 18 (all), exercise 19 (1,2), exercise 20 (1-3, 5), exercise 21 (1-4, 6), exercise 22 (1-7, 9), exercise 24 (1, 4, 5, 10)

Most of this work focuses on the genitive case.

Russian I

This weekend you need to complete the handwriting practice worksheets which I gave you in class today.  In addition, make sure that you continue to practice your reading and phonetics work.  

English II

Read the bonus assignment if you so choose - take notes as you read about segregation/apartheid as this will be very important for our story study next class.  Also, revise your paragraphs based on your feedback today in peer editing.  We will be typing the final drafts of these paragraphs on Wednesday/Thursday.  These paragraphs will be due on 9/5 for A day and 9/8 for B day.

8/28/2014 - B Day Homework

AP English III

For this weekend you have a few goals to accomplish - here they are in some sort of order:

1.  Review your annotations of "Serving in Florida" - apply the terms of logos, pathos, and ethos as well as looking at the rhetorical relationship which is established and manipulated throughout this text.

2.  Read and annotate "On Dumpster Diving" which is available at this link.  Be sure to look carefully at the terms that we discussed in class as well as other elements which you find to be significant to the text.

3.  Prepare your final draft of your "Introduction" piece.  Final drafts are due on Thursday - remember that I am available for conferencing on Tuesday afternoon.  Take the feedback you've received today and build from that.

English II

Just like the A-day students you are expected to have a draft of your paragraph to use for peer editing and review on Tuesday.  We'll work through this process and move toward our final drafts.

8/27/2014 - A Day - Homework

Russian II

Spend approximately fifteen to twenty minutes reading over the new phonetics sheet from today.  Focus on your mouth position for the vowels as well as clear sounds.  Spend an additional fifteen to twenty minutes reading over the exercises on sheet one.

I would additionally recommend reading over the information in your Schaum's Outline of Russian Grammar about the nominative and accusative cases.  Next class we will do some exercises before going on to the new focus cases.

Russian I

Read over your phonetics sheet to practice your pronunciation of the letters.  Make sure that you also practice your handwriting by writing the short poem on the back of the second page.  Try to read the poem as you write it to practice more of your pronunciation and vocabulary knowledge.

English II

Be sure that you have finished a draft of your paragraph for our peer editing session next class.  You must have a complete paragraph in order to receive credit.  It may be handwritten.

First Day of School - Version 2.0

AP English III

Students - great first day!  We're off to a really wonderful start.  Here are your reminders for tonight to prepare you for our next class together on Thursday.

1. Prepare your rough draft of the introduction assignment.  Make sure that you have at least two paragraphs to earn credit for editing.
2. Read and annotate "Serving in Florida" available at this link.  If you cannot print the article make sure that you at least have notes to show.
3. Begin rereading the selected chapters of The Working Poor:  "Introduction", "Harvest of Shame" and "Work Works".
4. Complete your Parent/Student Information Sheet either on paper or on the online form available a few posts down.

English II

Please see the A-day post for English II for your assignments.

Homework - First Day of School

Greetings Students!  It was great meeting you all today.  I'm looking forward to getting to know you more as we progress through the year together.  Here are your reminders for tonight to get you started:

Russian I/Russian II/English II

Make sure that you fill out your Student/Parent Information Sheet and turn that in to me.  You can also complete the online version and turn in no paperwork.

Russian I

Read and write exercise one.  Practice several times with the speaking of the words.  Listen to your recording.  Remember to reduce your aspiration of the letter T through proper tongue position!  Write the words several times to get the style of Russian handwriting.

Russian II

Read through all exercises and practice your speaking.  Pay close attention to the unstressed vowels and the change in their sounds.  For tonight, spend some time with the Schaums Outline book and review concepts as we begin our structured review over the next few classes.

Russian Online Resources

Russian I and Russian II

Students - The following resources will be very useful for you as we move through our study of Russian together.  Below are several links as well as information about what you will find at each of these links.  Please use them throughout the year as you find them to be needed.

Эхо Москвы
The only way to get better at a foreign language is by immersing yourself in it.  That's why I offer you this radio station.  A great practice is for you to listen to this about thirty minutes to an hour each day.  I say do it while you're working on Russian.  You won't understand much, but it'll help you with intonation, and just repetition.  You'll also find yourself understanding more as you learn more through the year.

UCLA Beginner's Russian
There are so many resources here I don't know where to start.  This is an online textbook with explanations of grammar concepts and exercises that you can use to help with your mastery of skills.  The chapters aren't the same as ours so feel free to explore through several different chapters to get what you will need.  Please ask for help using this resource if you need it.

Викисловарь
This is a great online dictionary especially for forms of words in cases.  The explanation of the words are in Russian as is most everything else on the page.  Put the word you're working with in the search box to find your declension charts or any other information you may need on a word.

Tons of Resources
This page has almost everything else from grammar to translators to games to exercises.  If you can't find it elsewhere, look here.

Yandex
This is the Russian equivalent of Google.  They have some really good tools to help out with Russian like their translator which is far better than Google's.

And just like that it's time to start up again!

Welcome back everyone!  I'll post more as the year actually gets started but for now I just want to post the link to the Parent/Student Information Form.  Please either complete the paper document or this online form after the first day of school to ensure easy communication through the year.

Link to Parent/Student Information Form.

And It's The End of Another Year

And now I'm officially done for the year.  It's been a serious pleasure this year working with all of you.  I look forward to seeing you next year and sharing a lot of stories about how crazy Moscow was this summer.

Grades Done!

All grades and exam scores are now in, including English II.

Grades Complete

I have now completed all grades except for B2 - Your EOC scores will hopefully be in tomorrow or Friday.  I'll let you know once they are.

Textbooks

AP English III 

I cannot account for five copies of the McGraw Hill Reader and six copies of 50 Essays.  If you have these texts please return them to me tomorrow morning.

Grades Complete

I have completed grades for A3 in addition to the previously listed classes.  No EOC scores yet; hopefully tomorrow.

Final Grades

Currently I have final grades ready for A2 and B1. I will continue to update as more exams are taken. Please see me before school, at lunch, or after school. 

Russian I - Helpful Resource

Russian I Students -

Here is a link to a very useful resource for explaining and practicing Russian grammar.  You'll have to look at all chapters to review what we've done in class.  If you see topics which were not covered in the course of the year, overlook them, the program at UCLA uses a different system.

I hope this is helpful as you prepare for your exam.

Exams Begin!

All Students -

Please make sure that you follow the exam schedule and attend all required review sessions.  My review sessions will be especially helpful in AP and Russian since I have written those exams.  For English II and III we will review all the needed skills and types of questions on the exams to prepare.

If you have missing work or things to be completed you must finish by Friday the 30th of May.  This is the day that I will finalize my 4th Quarter Grades.

The Last B Day of the Year - 5/22/2014

Honors English II

All grades have been posted for the quarter with the exception of a few websites which were given extensions.  Please make sure to finish your site by the approved time so that I can grade it and finish my work for the quarter.

Our review session for the EOC will fall on Thursday the 29th, beginning at 11:06.  If you are exempt from the morning exam (A2 class) you are expected to be in class for our review.  It's important to be at the review since we have not seriously done deep review for the EOC.  Our exam will be the next day, Friday morning.  Be to school on time.  If you miss the beginning of an EOC you may be asked to come back on a make-up day.

ESL English III

Our review period will fall on Monday the 2nd of June, beginning at 11:06.  With your exam happening the very next day, Tuesday the 3rd.  Again, be on time, have all of your materials, and be well rested!

If any of you have textbooks you must turn them in before the review period.  I will be issuing fines for any missing texts at the review session.

News

I didn't win for the district but I still feel accomplished! Thanks y'all! See you in the morning.  

A-Day Student Homework - 5/21/2014

This is it - our last class on Friday is really just an extra day for us to tie up some loose ends.

AP English III

Come prepared on Friday to have some fun, it's character cafe day!  Bring your supplies, feel free to drop off in the morning before school, and then we'll eat, drink, and be merry.  Some of us will end up dead on the ground by the end of the class, but that's okay - as long as the rest of us get out of the way of that speeding car, right Myrtle?

Exemptions have been announced - if you think you should be exempt and are not, please see me.

Return all books or materials which are mine - you know who you are.

Russian I

You should be studying nightly for your final.  See me if you have individual questions or concerns - I'll have your letter grades posted as soon as I can.

Homework for B-Day Students - 5/20/2014

Honors English II

Please begin turning in your books.  After our presentations on Thursday I want to run through and check to make sure that all textbooks have been accounted and collected.  If not, I will issue fines and letters stating how much you will owe if the book is not returned.  Feel free to turn in the books early if you need to.

Next class we will be presenting our websites - make sure that they are thoroughly completed as you will be assessed during your presentation.  Make sure that you use the rubric and identify your two focus questions so that I know where to weight your grades.  Ask for help if you need it, but be aware that we are on the last minute related to this project.

Remember to make sure that you've shared your website to mrmillerjhs@gmail.com -- to make sure you could also e-mail me a link, but I prefer you just share.

ESL English III

You will have your final quiz on Night next class.  Be prepared for that by studying through your notes - it will be a short answer quiz so that we can prepare for our NCFE which will have short answer questions.  Study and prepare!  It's our last grade of the year.

Homework for A-Day Classes - 5/19/2014

AP English III

Your homework for tonight is to spend time working on your Character Bone Structure sheets.  Know that these will be collected on Friday as your final grade and will be half of your participation in Friday's Character Cafe.  This is your main goal.  I'll give out exemptions to the exam as soon as I can.

Russian I

Today we reviewed the different topics which will be covered on the final exam.  I hope that this was useful for all of you.  In addition, we spent some time going over the different cases and their functions.  Next class you will have your final writing assignment.  Be sure to have your index card with necessary vocabulary on it to compose your letter.  This is your final grade of the year before the final exam.  Make it count.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students

Honors English II

This weekend you should all be preparing for your final major assessments in class. Your final quiz on Night will fall on Tuesday with the presentation and assessment of your websites on Thursday. I'm more than happy to help you with your websites. Send me emails or come meet with me to get on my calendar. 

In addition I would start to look over things in preparation for the EOC. We will discuss this more as it draws nearer. 

ESL English III

This weekend you should all continue reading Night. I would also study and review your multiple choice practice questions as we keep doing more. Consider the correct answer and try to understand what makes the answer correct over others. 

Homework for A-Day Students: Final Weekend: 5/15/2014

AP English III

For this weekend I want for all of you to begin preparing for your final exams by making a study list of texts we've read this year, authors, and significant characters in each.  Go all the way back to Steinbeck for this.  For those of you planning on taking the exam, this will be highly fruitful in organizing your study of these different pieces this year.

In addition, we'll be having a bit of a writing workshop on college admissions essays.  Try to look at the applications for schools which interest you and find essay prompts.  Bring those with you to class on Monday so that we can begin to talk about effective strategies for compiling and completing these essays.

In addition, here is the link for the AP Summer Scholars Camp hosted by DPS - A good opportunity for those of you in town this summer to develop your AP skills before next year.

http://cia.dpsnc.net/advanced-academics/advanced-placement

Russian I

No homework this weekend as you had a test today.  Make sure that if you have missing work that you get this turned in.  I'd also recommend studying a bit for your final - we'll start review on Monday with the introduction and chapter one.  Don't forget as well that we will have our writing assignment on Wednesday and Thursday in class.

B Day Homework - 5/14/2014

Honors English II

I hope that today's brief conversation helped you all to see the larger point that Wiesel is making about himself and a lot of survivors from the camps after World War II.  We'll continue to look at the text as a whole next class before we have our final quiz on Tuesday of next week.  For tonight, I would suggest continuing to review the text as well as work on your websites.  You have your rubric for completing the websites, so make sure that you are moving forward with that final project.  In addition, make sure that you email me or contact me in some way to ask for help with these sites.

ESL English II

We began reading chapter five today in class to see more of what life is like in the camps.  Next class I'll be giving back your project drafts so that we can revise those before our final few classes.  Continue reading forward in Night.  Watch how Elie's character is continuing to change and how his relationship with his father is shifting too.

Remember to get all missing or make-up assignments in to me by Friday.  If you can't get your work in by Friday, let me know so I can expect your work.

A Day Homework and Announcements - 5/13/2014

AP English III

I applaud all of you for your argumentative letters today.  If you need to finish a draft or make some tweaks, please do that tonight so that I can put our letters in the mail on Friday.  I've enjoyed seeing your approaches to this idea of banning books as well as the clear and thorough approach you're using in speaking to the school board members.  Continue this type of writing, working and thinking.

For tonight, make sure that you have read Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" - you have my annotations to help you though the text as well as good questions to consider to help you break down the text.  Read and analyze thoroughly so that we can have a productive conversation on Thursday.

Russian I

Next class we will be having our verb exam.  You'll need to be able to conjugate verbs in the present, past, and future tenses.  Make sure that you have studied the One-Stem Verb Resource Sheet which outlines particulars to each conjugation as well as the different stems and conjugation patterns controlled by those stems.

In addition, continue working on your drafts of your letters to your Moldovan host family.  We'll continue working on this in class in preparation for Wednesday/Thursday's completion of this writing task.

Finally remember that all make-up/revised work is due by Friday.  If you will not be able to make this deadline please see me in advance.  

B-Day Homework - Super Late - So Sorry - 5/12/2014

Honors English II

Incredibly sorry that I didn't get this posted.  I had a presentation which threw off my afternoon and this just flew out of my mind.  I'll also blame cutting the grass since I was too exhausted to do anything after that.

To those of you who submitted your papers yesterday, thank you.  The resubmission window is open and Friday is the last day to submit those items.  Friday is actually the last day for all items for everyone.  For tonight finish reading Night.  We'll be taking our final exam on Wiesel's narrative on Tuesday the 20th and then present our website projects on Thursday the 22nd.  The extension for the websites is due to the technical problems we were having in the labs.

With the website projects, remember to use e-mail to communicate with me on those.  If you've shared with me I can get in there and help you to format and incorporate things.  Also remember to use images and videos, but to cite all sourced information.

ESL English III

I was happy that many of you performed well on the practice multiple choice.  We'll be doing more of those in the days to come.  For tonight, continue to review those questions and strategies.  If you got a question wrong, look at the right answer and try to ask yourself why the answer you selected isn't as good as the one labeled correct.

Next class we will have our (hopefully) last day in the library and you'll be printing all of your items for submission.

Homework for A-Day Students and a Few Announcements

AP English III

You have something very rare this weekend - nothing to do for our next class.  Enjoy this weekend.  Enjoy the fact that you've taken your AP Exam.  I hope that you all felt confident and prepared!  Next class we'll start to have some fun with our final five classes together.

Russian I:

Your Verb Conjugation Unit Exam will fall on the 15th and 16th.  Next class we will continue to review and practice some of our new vocabulary on numbers (which will not be on this exam) as well as a few more conjugation drills (which will be on this exam).  In addition we will continue to work on our final letter drafts for the 21st and 22nd - the day we have our written examination.

For tonight/this weekend continue to study and prepare.  Complete the additional translation assignment if you would like to submit that for extra credit or make-up credit for a previously missed homework/classwork assignment this unit.  If you have no missing assignments I will apply extra credit to a previous assignment.

All Students:

Remember that all missing work needs to be completed and submitted ASAP.  Nothing will be accepted past next Friday the 16th for any classes.  If you don't know your status in regards to missing assignments, see me.

English II Honors:

I'm going to move your quiz on Night back to the 20th so that we're all done with AP Exams.  This will also allow us to finish the novel before the quiz.  Please make sure that your parallelism assignment is ready for me next class.  You should also be ready to begin constructing your websites!

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 5/8/2014

Honors English II

This weekend you all will be doing some textual analysis between chapters two and six focusing on the idea of parallelism.  Your goal within this activity is to investigate the similarities in order to see the underlying differences.  First, set up your paper:  Create four columns (item/chapter two/chapter six/analysis).  For the items, you must analyze Elie and the group/community, you may then choose two other items you see as parallel.  With each chapter, find a quotation which helps you to see the parallelism between the item in chapter two and in chapter six.  Lastly, analyze and explain the larger difference you've identified.

This is a high level activity in analysis and pattern recognition.  Great skills to develop before our EOC.  Also, remember that paper resubmissions are coming due.  If you would like to resubmit, get that settled.

ESL English III

Make sure that if you have a native language to English dictionary that you bring that with you to class so that we can work on strategies for using that tool effectively.

Homework for A-Day Students: 5/7/2014

AP English III

In effect, we're done.  You've got your exam next class and that is your chance to show everything that you've learned this year.  Make me proud.  Remember to have sharpened number two pencils, a few pens, and a watch for the exam so that you can time yourselves on the essays.  I would also suggest a good breakfast on Friday morning.

Please come to my room at 7:30 so we can do our chant before you all march over to the exam.  Remember that this is an English exam; don't stay up cramming the night before - a good night's sleep will do you much better.

Russian I

Tonight for homework you need to complete exercise six which is the fill in the blanks activity.  Use a dictionary to find the word needed and then use clues to put the words in the proper tense or case.  Most of these words are verbs, so this is an excellent final review on conjugation and verb completion.  Make sure that this is complete for Friday when I will collect it and your most recent warm-up sheet for an accuracy check.

Also, you should try to begin preparing yourselves for your final writing assignment which will fall on the 21st and 22nd of this month.  You received the prompt today, take this time to prepare, write drafts, and ask for my help.

Your exam on verb conjugation will fall on the 15th and 16th which is next week.  We've been reviewing a lot so I expect good things from all of you.

Homework for B-Day Students - 5/6/2014

Honors English II

Tonight for homework I would like for you to complete the reading of chapter six in Night.  This runs until page ninety-seven in the "blue" books.  Tonight as you read pay attention to the relationship between Elie and his father as it undergoes a significant crisis and change.  This chapter is pretty brutal, so pay attention to the use of language as well.

On Thursday we will return to the library to finish our research.  Make sure that you are prepared for that.  Also, next Wednesday we will have a quiz on chapters one through six of Night.  Study a bit now to be prepared in advance for that assessment.

ESL English III

Make sure that you've read the end of chapter four and that you can tell me about the people who were executed at the end of the chapter.  Pay attention to the differences between these executions and how they make Elie and the other prisoners feel.

Homework for A-Day Students: 5/5/2014

AP English III

Due to the fact that we had a lot of students affected by today's AP Examinations we did not hold class and used the time as a study hall.  I appreciate those of you who were in class today who spent the time focusing on your work and being productive.  For next class, please make sure that you have thoroughly read and annotated George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant".  This is our last text before the exam on Friday, so make sure that you approach it with the necessary time and effort.

Russian I

Today I conferenced with each of you on your answers to the questions in Exercise Nine.  Tonight I would ask that you revise these questions based on the notes I gave today in class.  For the most part here are the common errors I've seen:

• improper use of the instrumental case with the verbs "to be", "to become", and "to work"
• omission of prepositions
• confusion between the prepositional and accusative case for places
• errors in verb conjugation
• improper conjugation of the second verb in a chain
• improper use of possessive pronouns

Look over your errors and make corrections.  Also, be aware that our verb conjugation exam will likely be changed to the 15th and 16th as no students will be affected by AP testing on these days.  Prepare for that.  We will have plenty of days to review in preparation for this exam.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students: 5/2/2014

Honors English II

This weekend I want all of you to focus on your research projects since we will not have time to go back to the media center until Thursday the 8th to continue working on those.  This weekend you should aim to finish answering three of the five questions about your country.  Make sure that you have citations for all of your information.

With this project we will concentrate on having all of the notes and content collected first before we begin building our websites.  For now, concentrate on collecting information and images to help you make your websites complete.

Make sure as well that you have finished the reading of chapters one through five over the weekend.  We will move through the second half of the novel starting next week.

ESL English III

For the weekend I would like for all of you to finish reading chapter four.  Continue to build on what we were discussing today about life in the camp for Elie as well as how he is changing as a person.  We will continue working on our research projects in class, next week.

Homework for A-Day Students: 5/1/2014

AP English III

Well kiddos, it's about time to start your dancing season (AP Exams start next week!).  Looking at the list of who will be taking what it looks like most of you will be out on Monday and Friday for exams.  So, the work below will be due for Wednesday, 5/7/2014.  For Wednesday's class I would like for you to read George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant."  This text is available in 50 Essays or at this link.  Read this piece carefully as we will spend a fair amount of time analyzing it as our final preparation for the exam on Friday.  In addition we will do some work with Multiple Choice with this piece too.

For Friday, I would like to see all of you before the exam.  Please come in around 7:40 am so that we can do our "This is my pen..." chant one last time before you go in to the exam.

Outside of that we will be looking at some short stories to finish our year.  I'll post those next week so that you can start reading.  Please make sure that you use your progress reports to get caught up.  Some of you are missing assignments from absences and need to get these things settled by the middle of next week at the latest.

Russian I

To prepare for our final writing assignment I would like for you all to complete exercise nine tonight and write sixteen Russian sentences which answer the questions asked of you.  Be sure that you are using a dictionary only to look up individual words.  Use the structure of the question to help you to create your answer.  Practice with your verb usage and check yourself using your notes.  This will be collected on Monday for a grade - please complete it and see me in advance with questions.

Be sure that all of you also use your progress reports to make up any missed or missing assignments.  The due date for any late work is Monday the 5th as I have to begin to prepare for final exam.  Please meet this deadline.

AP Announcement - Motif Projects

I've had this question from a few of you so I want to put it here:

For the motif projects all you need is a parenthetical citation with the author's name and the page number. Be sure to use this citation throughout your written analysis as well. This will need to be used at all uses of a reference to Ellison, so make sure to cite your calligraphy too. 

Looking forward to your presentations tomorrow. 

B-Day Homework: 4/30/2014

Honors English II:

Tonight you need to complete reading of chapter five in Night.  This goes to page eighty-five in the "blue books".  As you read, you'll need to reflect on your notes related to Jewish holidays, Wiesel will talk about these a lot.  Also, continue to add to and consider our work on motifs/topics and conflicts:  How is he developing the conflicts and showing more motifs/topics?  Are there symbols coming in to the conversation as well?

Lastly, I want you all to do some pre-research on our upcoming research task:

1. Select five countries invaded by or under the control of a Nazi or Nazi style government.  
2. Were there concentration camps in the country?
3. Were there active resistance fighters in the country?
4. Were there groups other than Jews persecuted in this country?

For our research we will be looking at anti-Nazi movements in the occupied countries.  Be prepared to start that on Friday!

ESL English III

Tonight I would like for you to continue your reading of Night.  Pick up from where we left off in chapter four and continue reading to page thirty-eight.  This is halfway through the chapter.  Look at your questions and answer questions one through six.

A Day Homework - 4/29/2014

Russian I

Tonight for homework you will need to finish the verb stem and ending sheet which we began today in class.  Please be sure to complete all questions.  Write the stem and the ending, then show what type of joining process has happened.  We will review this next class before we work more with verb tenses.

AP English III

Now you've got all of your written work for the whole year.  Use this work to help you to prepare for the AP Exam next week.  Be sure that you review your writing of all types - argumentative, analytic, and synthesis - to prepare yourselves.  In addition, you also have the multiple choice to consider.  Here is a link to the 101 most commonly used terms on the AP Exam.  I would say that most of you will already know about eighty percent of these.  Study the rest.

For tonight, complete your reading of Buckley, Didion and X.  We'll be analyzing and working through these next class.  In addition remember that your motif projects are due next class.  You must have the calligraphy and the writing as well as your motif charts for the whole novel.  Don't forget anything.  Remember that in your writing on the back you have three key goals:  (1) explain the elements of good writing you find in the passage, (2) explain how the motif is developed and the meaning of the motif, and (3) to explain the significance of the passage to the whole novel -- you should integrate a discussion of the motif's importance to the novel as well.

This project will be your last major grade of the year.

Homework for B-Day Students - 4/28/2014

Honors English II

Tonight as I begin to read and edit your essays, I would like for you all to move ahead with your reading of Night and other important documents.  First, complete the reading of chapter four in Night (those of you in the blue books will go to page sixty six).  As you read, continue to pay attention to the crises that Wiesel faces, his use of irony in the text, and any other trends or patterns which you see as significant.  Further, you will also need to read Wiesel's acceptance speech for his Nobel Prize.  As you read this, annotate with an eye toward the questions at the top of the speech.

English III ESL

I would like for you all to finish the reading of chapter three.  We were able to accomplish part of it in class, now it's up to you to finish.

A Day Homework for the Weekend - 4/25/2014

Russian I:

Over the weekend you should spend time preparing for our work next week on the one-stem verb system.  Review all of your notes up to this point as we will continue moving forward on Tuesday/Wednesday.  Also, begin to consider what you will do for your final writing assignment in Russian.  You will be asked to write a letter about yourself to a Russian host family.  Consider your likes, dislikes, hobbies, and information about your house, family, and school life.  More details to come!

AP English III:

Your motif projects and the presentation of these projects is set for 5/1/2014.  Be prepared to submit your work and present it to the class on this day.  No late projects will be accepted.  Next class we will continue to work on multiple choice skills and strategies, so please bring back your Invisible Man questions which I checked today.

Over the weekend, complete your reading of Didion's "Keeping a Notebook", Elizabeth I's "Speech at Tilbury", Buckley's "Why Don't We Complain", and Malcolm X's "Learning to Read".  Annotate heavily with an eye on analysis and argumentation.  These will be some of our final review pieces before we take the AP Exam on 5/9/2014.

Homework for B-Day Students - This Weekend (4/24/2014)

Honors English II

Over the weekend you have two major tasks ahead of you.

1. Complete your final drafts and assemble your draft portfolio.  In the portfolio you must submit the following documents - Final Draft with Rubric, Rough Draft with Comments, Outline.  Remember that you will get points for each item, so have them all there.
2. In Night you will need to read chapters two and three.  Continue to look for irony in several areas of the text as we started to discover those areas today in our discussion.  

ESL English III

This weekend you should complete the reading of chapters one and two in Night.  As you are doing your reading, answer question three, using notes to help you make sense of the scene on the train.  Then, look over the other questions for chapters one and two - you should be able to answer all of these.  If you cannot, go back and reexamine the text to find the answers.

Whoa! It's late! A-Day Homework - 4/23/2014

Good Evening All! Добрый вечер всем!

This has certainly been a good day! A long one too. Here are some quick notes as I finish up this Bob's Burgers and then head to bed. 

AP English III

Make sure that you are prepared for our final seminar on Invisible Man which is happening on Friday. I also expect that you have taken a chunk out of the motif projects. I'll have your Multiple Choice ready for you on Friday too, but the main thing that we'll do is Invisible Man. 

Russian I

Have all exercises answered on the review packet in your notebooks. Make sure that your answers are clear and organized. Also, the viewing guides should be near complete. I know that A day didn't finish the school film, so B day will finish that tomorrow too before we begin the review packet. 

English II Honors 

Make sure that you've read the first chapter of Night in preparation for our discussion and textual work next class. And we're talking about our papers tomorrow, focused on citations and parenthetical citation. 

English III ESL

Tomorrow we'll continue looking at the first chapter of Night and discuss the experience today and how it aids understanding the novel. 

Field Trippers/Путешествики 

Today has been a long day but a good one. I hope you all enjoyed the trip no matter the destination in DC. We will have a lot to say about our experiences today at the US Holocaust Memorial and Museum. I look forward to sharing mine with you. Continue reading our text and refer to your half journals which I loved seeing you use today. If you have space left, use it to reflect on what you ended up learning today. Was it what you expected? 

B-Day Homework/Reminders - 4/22/2014

Honors English II

Tonight for homework there are a few things for you to do concerning our new unit - Night by Elie Wiesel.  First, I would like for you to read chapter one of the text in preparation for next class.  Chapter one in the "blue books" will take you until approximately page fourteen.  Pay special attention to the creation of VOICE in the piece as well as TONE.  Tone will be especially important here because it is a memoir, thus the tone is actually what Wiesel is himself feeling.

In addition, I gave out the rubrics today for your final drafts.  We will go over formatting and citations in class on Thursday, so come prepared to ask questions.  I would recommend bringing your drafts too.  These papers will likely be collected from you on Monday to give me the time to finish reading my AP students' papers first.

Make sure as well that you complete the viewing guide for Die Welle and that your answers are thorough and complete.  I'll check these on Thursday for a grade.  I hope you all enjoyed the film.

ESL English III

I would recommend answering the questions based on what we were able to read today in class.  I also would suggest continuing to read Night at your own pace.

Field Trip Reminders:

• Be to school by 5:20 at the latest.  We will be departing at 5:30 on the dot.  If you are late you will be left.
• Wear comfortable walking shoes, jeans, a t-shirt and a light jacket.  I'd also recommend bringing a towel or a blanket to sit on if we have class outside.
• Bring about twenty dollars for food.  We will go to restaurants in DC for lunch and stop in Virginia on the way home for dinner.  There is a gift shop at the museum if you'd like souvenirs.
• Bring snacks for the bus, but remember that you will need to be neat and clean on the bus.
• You'll need your copy of Night as we will be doing some study of the book.  Bring something to write with as well.  I'll provide you a notebook to record your observations during the trip.

Welcome Back! Homework for A-Day Classes - 4/21/2014

Welcome back students!  It was wonderful to see you and to hear some of your stories from Spring Break.  A-day students, be reminded that I will not be with you on Wednesday due to the fact that I will be traveling to DC with my Honors and ESL English classes to visit the Holocaust Museum.  Please follow the instructions from the substitute.

AP English III

Tonight your goal is to prepare for your Multiple Choice day on Wednesday.  You will be taking a full length AP Multiple Choice test to approximate this experience for you which will happen on the 9th of May.  This will be graded on a scale score.  You don't need to get all of them write to get an A on this, but you will need to shoot for at least 85 percent accuracy in order to score that level.  Your preparation task is as follows:

1. Select four consecutive paragraphs from chapter twenty-five.  They can be any four paragraphs which you choose, but they must be consecutive and should be meaningful.
2. Using your question stems and instruction sheets you are to write one multiple choice question of each type.  The five types have been organized for you on your stem sheets.  
3. You must write five answer choices for each question.  Indicate the correct answer.

These will be collected on Friday, but it is important to do it tonight as writing these questions and thinking in this way will allow you to get into the brains of the test makes, thus leading to better performance on the practice test.

In addition, on Friday we will finish our discussion of Invisible Man.  Be prepared for that!

Russian I

Your quiz retake will be happening on Friday for A-day students and Monday for B-day students.  You must be prepared by knowing all vocabulary from chapters one through four.  I hope that you prepared over break!  

A-day Students:  I will be checking your viewing guides from our films on Friday.  Make sure that you've answered all questions thoroughly.

B-day Students:  I will be checking your viewing guides from the same films tomorrow.  Have these ready for me.

Spring Break Announcements!

My break started about twelve minutes ago!  Your breaks will start tomorrow!  Here are all of your tasks to take you through break for all classes.

Russian I

Over break you need to spend time reviewing and learning the vocabulary for chapters one through four.  We will retake the most recent quiz again after break, so thorough vocabulary study will work well for that.  I'm posting here the links to the audio files for the vocabulary.

Audio Files - Leaping into Russian

For the most part, the vocabulary is at the beginning of the chapter.  You will be held responsible for vocabulary in chapters one through four after the break.  Make sure to find ways to make this meaningful - label things in your house, use the vocabulary daily.  The more you interact with it, the more you'll actually learn.

AP English III

Over the break you will need to finish your reading and annotating of Invisible Man.  Also, I would suggest putting forth work on your motif projects which I gave to you today.  These projects aren't due until the 29th of April - so the week after we return.  I would like to see a lot of you the week after we return with drafts and ideas for this project so that we can review them together.

Furthermore, remember that when we return on 4/21 we will have a SYNTHESIS timed writing and I'll be checking your journals.

Honors English II

Over the break you should acquire yourselves a copy of Elie Wiesel's Night and work on the final drafts of your change essays.  Remember that these are due from you by the 24th, the day after our field trip.  I have given you this due date so that it is impossible to procrastinate (though I'm sure some of you still will).  I'll have the rubric for you on the 22nd so that you can use that to make some final tweaks.

ESL English III

You don't have any homework over the break to complete.  We will also be reading Night by Elie Wiesel, if you would like to get a copy and start reading before we return, that would be a good idea.

With that - I'm off to South America!  I won't be able to be reached past tomorrow morning so if you have an e-mail or a question, best to ask it sooner rather than later!

Homework for B-Day Students: 4/9/2014

B-Day Students - Today was your last day with me!  I hope that it was good for you because it was for me.  Here are your reminders for what you need to accomplish before Friday's class as well as a bit of information on Friday.

Honors English II:

Tonight I would like for you to read "War" by Luigi Pirandello which is in your Elements of Literature books.  The piece itself is very short, but be sure to read the biographical and textual information.  Once you have done that, please respond to the following question:

Both Pirandello and Levi focus on the impact that war has on a group of people - what do you see as the most important similarity and difference between these two pieces?  How do these similarities or differences help the authors to show a larger point about war's impact on humans?

This question should be answered as a comment to this post or via e-mail.  I will check them at 11:00 AM EST - any answers not posted by then will earn a zero.

Next class you will watch a film called Die Welle (The Wave) - it's an interesting German film about a classroom experiment which goes horribly wrong.  The substitute will give you a viewing guide.  Please work on the guide in class and then keep it as we will need to finish the film before starting our study of Night after break.  If you are going to buy a copy, be sure to get one soon.

ESL English III

Tonight you have no homework since you finished your essays in class.  Next class you will finish watching The Kite Runner as well as work on some journal writing.  Enjoy the day!

Catching Up After The Substitute - 4/8/2014

I hope that things went smoothly today with the substitute.  Please make sure to pay attention to the following announcements.

AP English III

Your paper portfolios are due tomorrow.  Please make sure that you have all of the required documents assembled in the correct order.  I will not take any questions related to the papers from this point on.  You'll have to trust your own judgement or that of a friend.  Please make sure to use the Purdue OWL to check your citations as I find it to be the most helpful and thorough bibliography assistant.

I will be accepting papers from 7:00 to 3:30 PM.  If I am teaching or my door is shut, please place them in the box in front of my door.  Make sure that your name is on your envelope.

In terms of Invisible Man be sure to complete the reading of chapter twenty-four.  There's another sex scene here, but the Invisible Man's reaction to the events within the sex scene will show how much he has progressed.  As you look at the chapter, continue to use your motif charts.  We will begin our motif project next class.

Over break you will be assigned the end of the novel.  Feel free to finish it early if you would like.

Russian I

I hope that you all felt successful with your quiz today.  I will have them graded tomorrow and your scores on PowerSchool.  For tonight, continue to work on your vocabulary development.  I'll give you some goals next class for how to spend your Spring Break on your Russian skills, and we will continue our study of the one-stem verb system.

Lastly, I'll give all of you the joy of the Винни Пух marching song and some of his other songs, too.

See you all tomorrow!

Homework for B-Day Students: 4/7/2014

Honors English II

Tonight for homework I would like for you begin by reading Primo Levi's "A Good Day" from Survival in Auschwitz.  As you read this piece, pay particular attention to Levi's use of tone since it will be one of our focuses in our seminar on Wednesday.  Once you finish the piece, answer question seven on generalizations.  To complete this writing assignment, I would like for you to do a 1Q1P assignment.  In this, you will only use one quote (1Q) from the story to write one page (1P) answering the question thoroughly.  This requires that you find a deep and meaty quotation which you will analyze and explain thoroughly to answer the question on generalizations.  If you hand write your assignment will need to be double sided, if it is typed, please double space.  No more than one page will be collected from anyone.

Beyond that, make sure that you have your rough drafts for our workshop next class.  Final drafts will be collected after Spring Break.

ESL English III

Some of you forgot to turn in your movie posters today.  If you are in this category, you need to turn them in at the beginning of class on Wednesday.  Next class we will spend some more time working on our writing assignments before we go to the computer lab to type our three paragraph essays.  You can get ahead by finding your moments from the story and work on your explanation.  Think to yourself, "How does this moment show the theme that I have found?"

Homework for the Weekend - 4/4/2014 - A Day Students

AP English III

Remember to always keep your eyes tuned toward the sun!  I hope that you all enjoyed the seminar on Plato's "Allegory of the Cave."  This helps us to understand Ellison's points much more thoroughly and the deeper messages that he is sending us on knowledge, truth, and perception.  For the weekend I would like to make sure that you do the following:

1. Your final research papers will be collected on Wednesday.  I'll be out on Tuesday getting my teeth fixed, so that gives all of you an extra day.  Remember to have the following in your packet to ensure completion:
• your final draft, cover sheet attached to the front, works cited page attached to the back, rubric stapled behind everything.
• your draft from conferencing
• your outline
• your proposal

Place everything within your envelope and turn in your envelope to me between 7:00 and 3:30 PM on Wednesday.  Papers collected on Thursday for any reason will lose ten points due to lateness.

1. This is actually number two.  Read Invisible Man chapters twenty two and twenty three.  The substitute will give you an outline sheet to help you make sense of this on Tuesday.  You'll work on this outline in class to better understand the chapter.

Russian I

Over the weekend and Monday night you will need to prepare for your quiz on Tuesday/Wednesday.  This quiz will cover the use of the Prepositional and Accusative case as well as the differences in the prepositions B and HA.  There will be NO information on the one-stem verb system.  Study and focus on your endings.  The quiz will also have reading, so make sure to know your vocabulary thoroughly.  We will continue learning the one-stem system after Spring Break!

B-Day Homework Assignments

ESL English III

For the weekend your priorities are to finish your movie posters and have them turned in on Monday to receive credit for this assignment.  Also, you will need to finish reading The Kite Runner this weekend so that we can finish the film and the study of the book next week.

Honors English II

If any of you were absent last class you will need to see me with your outlines and your answers to the questions on Ovid to get credit.  I'm available to go over your outlines on Monday or Friday, for your answers I just need to see them.

Over the weekend you need to complete your PHASES assignment.  Be sure that you have a clear quote from the text to connect the character to the age and a clear symbol.  Avoid using images of people - focus more on the symbolic meaning.

Our draft workshop for rough drafts will fall on Wednesday.  Remember to have fifty percent of your draft complete to earn credit!

Lastly, you're going to want to buy a copy of our last novel of the year Night by Elie Wiesel.  My copy is the one pictured below, so buy that one as it's a) the best translation available and b) the same as mine.

Russian I - Announcements/Reminders

For tonight make sure that you have been studying your vocabulary in chapter four:  the nouns, adjectives, and adverbs are especially important and will be used a lot on your quiz.  Also, use the homework from last class as well as the previous assignments on accusative and prepositional case to continue studying.  Anyone who didn't have the homework when checked will need to have it completed for Friday/Monday.

On Friday/Monday we'll be playing two review games - one on grammar and one on vocabulary.  Prepare for those!  Lastly, here's a good link for all of you to use!

Radio Echo of Moscow / Радио Эхо Москве

Try to listen to Russian being spoken every day to train your ear.  Especially when working on Russian it's important to fully immerse yourself as much as possible.  Listen, watch, train your ear and learn those inflection patterns!

Homework for A-Day Students: 4/2/2014

AP English III

First your work for tonight.  Your first priority is to finish your reading of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" - you've got it in 50 Essays or at this link.  As you read Plato, continue to stay focused on the ideas of light and dark, reality and fantasy, vision, and truth.  This piece is crucial in helping you to understand and make sense of what Ellison is trying to show in his text.  Consider the Invisible Man and his ability to see things as you read this.

Once you finish Plato, you'll want to launch right in to chapters twenty and twenty-one of Invisible Man.  The reading here will immediately pick up and continue the work from Plato.  Annotate heavily in preparation for our seminar.


Lastly, remember that your final drafts are due on Tuesday.  However, you may also turn them in on Wednesday for no penalty.  No drafts will be accepted past Thursday.  Anything submitted on Thursday will earn a ten point penalty.

Russian I

Tonight I want for all of you to focus on learning your new vocabulary as well as continuing to review your rules for prepositional and accusative case.  Check back over your homework and complete it or revise it as needed.  We will have a quiz on this content on Tuesday/Wednesday so prepare yourselves accordingly.

Homework for B-Day Students: 4/1/2014

Honors English II

Some of you that were absent today missed the chance to review your outlines and get feedback.  You must see me to get this credit made up.  Today in looking around class I saw that most of us needed the most work with examples - make sure that they're specific and precise.  Quotations and paraphrases from the texts under study are best; then explain those quotations in such a way that you connect and show your argument through them.  Your rough drafts for this essay will be due in one week - 4/9/2014 will be the day we do this; you'll need to have at least fifty percent of your draft to get credit.

For tonight's homework, continue reading Ovid's "The Metamorphoses" - when you finish reading, answer the questions at the end.  If you are reading from the "beige" book then answer questions 2, 3, and 4.  If you read from the "green" book, then your job is to answer questions 5, 6, and 7.  Make sure that you have thorough answers to these questions for next class.