A Day Homework - April 15, 2015

Sorry for getting this out later than usual; having three meetings threw a bit of a wrench in my plans.  Here's what you have to do tonight.

Russian I and II

We either discussed or began a project today to which we will be devoting time on Friday.  For Friday, come prepared to work on the dialogue or culture project.  Russian I, there will also be a dialogue component of your project to be discussed later.  Both classes will have library time on Friday to help work on this.

In terms of grammar and vocabulary, this is a great night to study in context.  Here is an episode of a Russian television show called Live Healthy!  Жить здорово!  It's about ninety minutes long, so maybe just watch a thirty minute clip.  Listen for words you can recognize.  Train your ears.  Listen for the grammar we've been studying recently.  Try to understand how it's being used in context.  Make a list of five to ten new words you hear being used often.  Look them up in a dictionary and check your spelling.  Try to work with these words in cases and conjugations you know.


You will have a quiz soon - use this time to study and prepare for that.  Russian II will focus on new grammar in Unit 8, Russian I will focus on adverbs and other covered topics from Unit 3.

English II

Tonight you have the writing of two Holocaust survivors who relocated to North Carolina after World War II.  They both experienced life in the ghetto:  the ghetto presents a very different experience from Anne's life in the Annex.  Read the two readings on the handout and as you read underline examples of the living conditions in the ghetto.  Compare this to what we know of Anne's life so far.  We'll be looking at more of Anne's transition into life in the Annex next class to further this conversation.

Homework for B-Day Students: April 14, 2015

AP English III

Big discussion today from which I hope you learned a lot.  For tonight, make sure that you have finished your consideration of chapter twenty three since we've not yet talked about it and make sure that you have thorough annotations and reading done for chapter twenty four.  You'll have to finish the book over the weekend, so you may find it helpful to just go ahead and get it done now.

Don't forget as well that the window is open for resubmission of papers.  If you have a required resubmission you are required to meet with me to discuss your paper and develop a revision plan.  If you don't have a requirement to resubmit I would still recommend meeting with me to discuss the work you need to do.

We'll be getting to The Things They Carried likely at the end of next week.  You may want to get your copy today or tomorrow - if you order from Barnes and Noble you can help send students to Russia if you use my code.  See the poster outside my room.

English II

You have no work to turn in for me next class, but it would be a good idea to write about or just think about the similarities between Hotel Rwanda and what we've learned so far about HaShoah and The Diary of Anne Frank.  Additionally, make sure that you study your vocabulary.  It'll help you to really learn the vocabulary if you focus on it every day.

Happy Monday - Homework for 13 April 2015

Russian II

Tonight for homework I would like for you to write five sentences using your vocabulary words for chapter eight and to include a possessive pronoun (my, your, his, her, etc.).  Then, write a new version of the sentence changing the possessive pronoun to свой as we learned today in class.  When you change the pronoun, explain how the sentence is now different in its meaning.

By doing this you'll be working with the new vocabulary and the new grammar.  Don't forget to work nightly.

Russian I

Tonight for homework I want you to finish the work we did today with conjunctions.  Work through the activity at the end of what we were doing in class.  Read the sentences and combine them together so that you have cut down on the repeated information and used the proper conjunction.  Remember to write out your sentences, don't just make changes to the printout.

English II

Final call for projects is Tuesday.  Ms. Alley's last day on campus is this day.  In addition, keep working on your new vocabulary which you're learning every day.  Just like in Russian - spend a bit of time every day working on learning your vocabulary!

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students: 10 April 2015

AP English III

Remember ladies and gentlemen that you must always annotate what you read for my class.  Especially when I go through the trouble of writing you a blog post like the last one which is meant to help you make sense of things.  That being said, our discussion was really great.  Here's how to follow up:

1. You may want to reread "The Allegory of the Cave" now that we've worked through it.  Maybe some of those questions will start to resolve themselves now.
2. Read chapters twenty-two and twenty-three for our next class (Tuesday).  Keep in mind that the Invisible Man has now seen the sun, he's still got some growing to do before he's fully in the light; notice how he's changed.

English II

You all don't have any homework tonight but if you need to finish your project then make sure that's done by Tuesday so that you can turn it in to Ms. Alley.  Remember that your writing needs to have two paragraphs - one about the character and one about your visual.  If you left off the second paragraph then get it turned in Tuesday for no penalty.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day Students - 9 April 2015

Russian II

For the weekend you have your vocabulary studying to do; remember, thirty minutes a day to work on vocabulary to conjugate verbs and build sentences and to decline your nouns and adjectives into cases.  That's especially important as we're starting a new unit and we have a lot of new vocabulary to learn.

For homework, make sure that you complete exercise ten on the new phrase "each other" - focus on your forms.  There's a lot of advanced vocabulary in the sentences, just focus on your blanks!

Russian I

For the weekend you should also be looking at your new vocabulary.  Practice what we do every night so that it stays fresh in your brain.  This weekend you have three exercises to complete.  One will have you working by changing words into adverbs, one will ask you to fill in the blanks with new vocabulary, and the last asks you to combine sentences with the new conjunctions.  Be sure that with your conjunction exercise that you combine sentences and also translate the new sentences.

English II

You all have no homework this weekend but if you need to finish the project for Ms. Alley, make sure that you do that.  Remember the second paragraph of your writing; you need to make sure that you explain how your drawing shows the change in your character which you have seen.  In the first paragraph you explain how Kambili or Jaja changes in the text.  In the second paragraph you need to explain how your visual shows this change.

AP Exam Review Sessions

AP English III Students:

Here is the link to register for the AP English Language review session this Saturday and on the 25th.

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

Remember they'll provide lunch, you have to provide transportation.  Register quickly and see if there are other sessions you'd like to attend as well.

Homework for B-Day Students: 4/8/2015

AP English III

As promised here are the materials that will help you to make sense of the piece by Plato, "The Allegory of the Cave."  First, make sure you're reading the proper excerpt from 50 Essays or from this link.  Make sure that you read the introductory material on Plato as it will help you to make sense of his argument.

Before You Read:

1. Think about the idea of vision in Invisible Man - In what ways does he see?  How is he blinded?  What does this idea of blinding and seeing mean when it comes to reality and truth?
2. Understand the structure - this is a dialogue between a student (Glaucon) and a teacher.  Understand the meaning of the student's name.  Understand the role of the teacher in this.

As You Read:

1. Annotate heavily.  Look for key ideas.  Mark questions.  Read the whole thing without stopping.
2. Make connections - How does this parallel the journey of the Invisible Man.  What is the meaning of the sun?  How does this piece relate back to "The Over-Soul" and the ideas of Transcendentalism?

After You Read:

1. Watch this video from youtube.com.  Go back through the piece as you watch the video and answer your questions.  Develop more.
2. Consider Plato's argument and its relationship to Invisible Man.
3. Do you see?  Or are you blind?

I'm looking forward to a productive discussion on Friday to start our conclusion of Invisible Man.

English II

You have your final project on Purple Hibiscus due on Friday.  Remember that there are four key components to this project that you must turn in for full credit.  Here they are:

1. Your timeline sheet - this was completed in class today.
2. Your quotes sheet - this was begun in class and completed by you at home if you didn't finish it during the workshop time.
3. Your written work for the project.  Ms. Alley gave you a plan for this today and reviewed it with you in class.  Make sure that you finish the planning and then either write or type your work on a different piece of paper that you will turn in.  Follow all of the guidelines on the assignment.
4. Your visual of how the character has changed.  Use your writing to help you figure this out.  Show us Kambili or Jaja at the beginning and show us without words how the character has changed in the text.  You can draw, use a photo, a collage, painting, etc.  There are lots of options for this.

Homework for A-Day Students: 7 April 2015 - Welcome Back to You!

Russian II

Tonight for homework you have to finish exercise six which will require you to use the forms of весь that we studied today in class.  You're going to find using your 6x4 declension chart really helpful for this.  Remember how we worked through number one and two - look at the word associated with the blank - identify the case and gender of this word - your form of весь will need to agree as весь is like an adjective.

Make sure that you write out all of the sentences - don't just fill in the blanks.  Writing the sentences out will help you to notice the grammar patterns like conjugation and declension that you need to keep working on.

If you would like some extension work, feel free to look at exercise three or two - these aren't required tonight, but we'll likely look at them soon.  Also, have your Винни Пух work done so that we can have some fun with him on Thursday too!

Russian I

Tonight for homework I want you to spend more time with your vocabulary - especially the adjectives.  Select five adjectives and turn them into adverbs following the two systems.  Use your notes for this.  Remember - change the endings!  When you've written out your two words - one from vocabulary and one from your creation then look at what you've done and explain the difference.  You may want to use a sentence with each word to help explain.  Here's an example of what I would like:

скучный - boring, adjective
Это мой скучный класс.  This describes the class saying it is boring.

скучно - boringly, adverb
Он скучно говорит.  This describes the way he talks - boringly.

By doing this you'll be working with ten words.  The idea here is to learn the system and the differences between parts of speech.

English II

Tonight you need to make sure that you have your project on Purple Hibiscus finished for Thursday's class.  Make sure that you have both the visual and the written portion complete.  This is your first major grade of the nine weeks; work hard and get yourself off to a good start to finish the year!

Homework for B-Day Students: 6 April 2015 - Welcome Back!

AP English III

We went over a lot today to get us ready for the next few weeks.  Here are some of your reminders to get you going for tonight and on into Wednesday.

1. Read/Review chapters twenty and twenty-one of Invisible Man.  You've got the climax of the novel in these two chapters so pay close attention.  Be sure to pay attention to how the invisible man reacts and is changed by this climactic event.
2. Write and submit questions for the Socratic Seminar we will be having on Wednesday.  Your questions should focus on these chapters.  Check out Ms. Alley's twitter stream for what she wants from your questions.
3. Begin to complete your third short paper on other invisible minorities.  Ms. Alley reviewed the instructions for this with you today.  If you have questions, be sure to ask sooner rather than later.  This paper is due for you next Tuesday.
4. If you would like to purchase our last book of the year - The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien then please do that soon.  If you wait until Saturday and buy it at Barnes and Noble at Southpoint then your purchase will help the Russian students traveling to Moscow and St. Petersburg this summer.

English II

If you did not finish reading Purple Hibiscus over break then you should try to do that today.  We'll be spending time on Tuesday/Wednesday working on our projects to finish Purple Hibiscus.  Try to work hard on these as this is your first major test grade of the quarter.  Also remember the ideas I shared with you today about the end of the year.  This is the time to make our final push.

Spring Break

AP English III- Your only homework over break is to read to ch 19 in Invisible Man, but I strongly encourage you to finish reading the novel.

English II- Your homework is to finish reading Purple Hibiscus. Remember, if you read ~15-20 pages per day, it won't feel like as much. Or you could settle down in a cozy armchair and get it done with in one sitting. Your choice. You do not need to work on the quote sheet for Kambili and Jaja. We will pick up with that when you come back.

Russian I and II - Practice your Russian daily. Suggestions on how to do so: Call each other up and chat in Russian. Teach your dog commands in Russian. Watch Youtube videos in Russian. (Winnie Pooh, anyone?)

Homework for A-Day Students: 3/25/2015

Today's my last day with you.  I bought my plane tickets before our snow days and now I've got to leave a bit early.  Here's what you have to accomplish for tonight.

Russian I and II

You all should be taking this time before we begin a new unit to work on your foundational skills.  After today's class we've reviewed our case declensions as well as our verb conjugations for first and second conjugation.  Use all of this to help you work on those necessary skills.  Every day you should be working for thirty minutes on new vocabulary, writing, and reading.  Work hard and practice - that's how you'll get better in Russian.  Continue this work next class with your videos and over break.

English II

For our next class on Friday you should read to page 162.  Make sure to keep up with your timeline, family tree, and quotes sheet as you'll need all of these things moving forward.

Homework for B-Day Students - 3/24/2015

AP English III

Tonight for homework you have two priorities and maybe a few others depending on you.

1. Research papers!  You need to submit your research portfolios with all of the required pieces that you have developed into your research paper.  These are your question sheet, your outline, your rough draft with notes from conference, and your final draft.  Remember that the final draft must have the cover sheet and rubric attached.  You will submit everything in your portfolio to Ms. Alley on Thursday.
2. Reading in Invisible Man for Thursday is to the end of chapter sixteen.  Remember to pay attention to the Brotherhood and the new characters you are meeting associated with this organization.  There are also a lot of parallels happening at this point in the text.  Notice them and consider why.
3. If you are resubmitting one of your shorter papers you must do this by Thursday.  Any missing work (timed writings) need to be made up by this date.

English II

Continue reading in Purple Hibiscus to page 140 for Thursday's class.  Pay attention to the differences that are starting to develop between Kambili and Jaja at this point in their lives.  Why are they becoming different?  How are they becoming different?

Homework for A-Day Students - March 23, 2015

It was so good to see all of you today!  Let's go over what we need to do for tonight to get ready for Wednesday.

Russian II

Tonight you should make sure to finish your journals if you haven't yet.  I need them submitted before school tomorrow so that you can avoid a late grade.  If you turn it in past 7:30 tomorrow morning, it will be late and I will take points.  Make sure that you've got four entries with each entry using one of the phrases.  In addition, you need to make sure that your viewing guide for Служили два товарища has all questions answered so that we can do our writing workshop next class.

Russian I

I did not collect your journals today since I have the Russian II journals to grade.  Make sure that you have your journals for me on Wednesday as I'll collect them then for full credit.  You also have the task of completing your viewing guides on the film tonight and answering all questions so that we can have our workshop next class with new vocabulary and writing.

English II

You all have your next chunk of reading for tonight.  Continue working through Purple Hibiscus.  Read to page 140 in your books and make sure to reflect on what is happening to Kambili as she is spending time with her Aunty and cousins.  You may also want to think about how Ifeoma's family is different from Eugene's.

Homework for A Day Students: 3/19/15

Russian I and II - Continue to practice your spoken Russian outside of class. Remember that your journals are due Monday, and bring them to class with you. Also, bring back the vocal sheet and viewing guide you worked on today -- You'll be finishing the film with Mr. Miller when he returns.

Also, remember the Russian olympiada at Duke this Saturday!!

English II - You caught a break today since we read a short story from our textbooks, but you absolutely need to be on p. 111 by Monday. We will have a quiz, so make sure you read carefully and take notes on what you read!

Homework for B Day Students : 3/18/15

AP  III - I started grading tests this evening, and they look really good so far. Told y'all it wasn't hard. For Friday, make sure you have read ch 11-12 in Invisible Man, and be prepared to turn in your papers on Langston Hughes. Also be reminded that your final drafts of research papers are due March 26. If you have not yet had a conference with me or Mr. Miller, please find a time to do so tomorrow or Friday - the sign up sheet is on the door.

English II - Read to p. 111 for our next class. There will be a reading quiz! Please bring your close reading passages to class as well. Since we did not finish these in class today, we will begin with them the following class period. Continue to think about Kambili and Jaja's personalities, and pay attention to the way they change.

Олимпиада!

Russian Students!

Don't forget about the Olympiada of Spoken Russian this weekend at Duke.  The competition will begin at 9:30 and end anywhere from 12:00 to 12:30.  The competition will be held in the Languages Building on Duke's West Campus.  You should park at the visitor lot for the Bryan Center and then walk around Duke Chapel and Perkins Library to the Languages Building.

There will be light refreshments for you.  I hope that you enjoy your competition this weekend!

Homework for A-Day Students: 3/17/2015

Русский 1 и Русский 2 - С днем святого Патрика!

Russian students - over the next few days while I am gone you should all be practicing nightly with your vocabulary and grammar.   If there's a case that you haven't finished mastering - spend that time now to memorize and work.  If there is a verb you can't conjugate then memorize those forms now.

You have a lot of writing to do for me in Russian.  Make sure that for next MONDAY (3/22) you have your journals for the quarter due for me.  Your previous three sayings are in the previous blog post.  Make sure that you write the new journal entry focusing on the phrase "Нет худа без добра!"  Your journals will be collected on Monday and will be graded.

Here's the song we listened to in class, with the lyrics.

Русский 1

Make sure that if you have your family writing to turn in or your work on the animal writing - or any other missing work that you get that in to me on Monday as well so I can get it graded by the end of the quarter.

English II

For Thursday's class I want to make sure that you keep reading.  You need to be to page 111 in Purple Hibiscus.  Make sure that you are reading carefully and keeping track of the trends

Homework for B-Day Students: 3/16/2015 - Happy Monday!

AP English III

For homework tonight you have a few important things to take care of to keep you moving and ready for the week ahead.  Here are your reminders and tasks for tonight.

1.  You need to be studying.  You have your exam next class on the first half of Invisible Man.

2.  You have your motif chart check next class during your exam.  Be sure that these are complete for the prologue all the way to the end of chapter eleven.  Remember that if you can't find it, then it may not be there.  Your task is still to look for this work.

3.  You have your short paper due for Ms. Alley on Friday.  Make sure that you are working on this regularly so that you are able to accomplish the goals of the assignment thoroughly.

4.  Lastly, you have your writing conferences this week.  Make sure that you meet your deadline for the conference as well as coming in for any additional help as you are writing this incredibly important assignment.

5.  Keep reading Invisible Man - get yourselves ahead so you'll have less to do over break.

English II

You have another reading check for Wednesday's class.  Make sure that you are to the end of page seventy in Purple Hibiscus and that as you are reading that you continue to look at important ideas and major quotes which relate to both of the main characters - Kambili and Jaja.  This will be helpful as you complete your final assignment on Purple Hibiscus.

Homework for the Weekend - 3/13/2015 - A Day Students

Russian I and II

You have your journals due on Tuesday for the quarter.  This quarter you should have three entries.

1. С кем не бывает?
2. Маслом масленное
3. Убить двух зайцев

Remember to use the phrase in the body of your writing.  Write one full page in your journal, double spaced.  Feel free to write about anything you would like but don't use translators.  Just write what you know and use your vocabulary.

If you didn't finish your test today, make sure that you finish it on Monday.

Russian I

Don't forget your family assignments are also due to me on Tuesday with your journals.

English II

Meet your next reading goal - you need to be to the end of page seventy in Purple Hibiscus by Tuesday.  You will be doing a lot of reading over Spring Break - read ahead now to be ahead for break.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students - 3/12/2015

Does anyone else feel like March is just flying by?  I guess this is what happens when we have two weeks that drag past with snow days.  Here are your reminders and updates for tonight and the rest of the weekend.

English II

If you have not yet presented you will need to settle this next class so that you have your grades settled moving into the last two weeks of the quarter.  For the weekend work on meeting your next reading goal of being to page SEVENTY (70) in Purple Hibiscus and remember to have your books and your timeline sheets next class as we will be working through those as we go over what we've read so far.

AP English III

Your first task is to read through to the end of chapter eleven of Invisible Man by Monday.  These chapters are very significant and I gave you several things to think about as you read in the post below.  In addition, take the work from today's class on Langston Hughes's poetry, especially the idea of identity creation and passivity versus agency, as you look at chapters ten and eleven.  Keep in mind that your rough drafts of your research papers are also due on Monday and we will begin writing conferences that day.

For Wednesday you'll have your first examination on Invisible Man - it will cover the Prologue through to chapter eleven as well as the external texts from Hughes, Baldwin, and Hurston.  You would do well to begin preparing for this over the weekend.  Come to class on Monday with questions for me or Ms. Alley about the test.

Lastly, your poetry analysis and comparison is due to Ms. Alley on Friday of next week.  Follow the instructions that she gave you on the assignment as you complete this.  Remember that the same rubric you used for the symbolism assignment.  Discuss any questions you have with Ms. Alley - remember that you can tweet to her if you would like to do that.

There's a lot for you all to do next week - now it's time to make up for that time we lost due to snow.  Make sure to ask for help if you need it; we know there's a lot to do, but we also know that you can do it.

Homework for A-Day Students: 3/11/2015

Russian I and II

You all will have a test next class on cases and you should be preparing yourself tonight.  Here are some notes for you to prepare yourselves.

• Know your case endings for nouns, adjectives, and any other type modifiers (demonstrative pronouns, etc.)
• Russian I - you only need to know your singular endings
• Russian II - you need to know your plural endings
• Russian I and II - make sure that you know how to work with verbs.  Russian I - look at your verbs from chapter one and chapter two.  Russian II - you're going to want to look at your verbs of motion as you'll need to work with these on the exam.
• You'll all have dehydrated sentences to construct on your tests.
• Make sure that you know about the different cases - there will be a matching section related to the different cases and the job that the case has.  This will be a big section of both exams.

Russian II - We will be finish weather report presentations next class.  Make sure that you're ready for for that.

Russian I - I will be looking over the rough drafts of your family writing next class.  Make sure that you have all your paragraphs drafted so that I can give you feedback next class.

English II

You have your next reading goal for Tuesday.  Make sure that you are reading nightly (about ten pages) so that you are caught up for next week.  If you still need to present, we can do this on Friday.

Homework for B-Day Classes - 3/10/2015

English II

We will have our final day for presentations on Thursday.  Please be prepared to present your work and to explain what your item is and why your item is important to Nigeria.  Thursday will be the last day to present, so make sure that you have your work ready.

In addition you have your next reading goal to complete which is to be to page thirty-six in Purple Hibiscus.  Please make sure to bring your book with you next class as I would like to have a book check to make sure that everyone has what they need.  After this you'll need to make it to page seventy by Monday, so I would keep reading ahead to meet that goal.

A note on reading ahead:  Remember that you will have quizzes on this book.  If you read ahead you'll want to take notes so that you know what happened, who was involved, and many of those other pieces of information which you pick up as you read through a text.

AP English III

You received your outlines today.  Remember as I said in class that a good outline will save you a lot of time as you write a paper.  Make sure that you work on the areas we discussed today in class.  I would still suggest that many of you see me or Ms. Alley to discuss your outlines before you begin to draft.  Your rough drafts and writing conferences begin on the 16th.  Make sure to sign up on my door for your appointment.

For reading, you need to be to the end of chapters ten and eleven by Monday's class.  Your exam on the first half of the book will fall on Wednesday.  Chapter ten is difficult because of all the things going on in it - here are some ideas to get you started:

• notice all the play on politics and power in this chapter - especially the use of the term liberty
• pay attention to the job of the invisible man in the paint factory - how is this job symbolic
• note the character of Mr. Brockway - why is he important?  how is he treated by others?  by the invisible man?
• there is a union meeting happening when the invisible man goes to get his lunch - what is the issue that the union is debating
• what happens at the end of the chapter - how is this an echo of the battle royal?
• the hospital scene in chapter eleven is another scene of rebirth and transformation
• pay attention to the allusions to the Odyssey here
• who are the enemies in the hospital
• what is going on with power and control

These two chapters are very rich.  Make good annotations and make sure that your motif charts are complete up to this point.

All classes received progress reports today.

Homework for A-Day Students - 3/9/2015

Russian II

Tonight for homework you have a bit more writing to do with the genitive singular and plural.  Work on exercises four and five from the handout.  In exercise four, make a list of what the students have already bought.  You may be using a dictionary for some of the words.  You have more of a glossary at the bottom of the page.  Then, for exercise five, write five more sentences saying what else these students would need to buy for the rest of the week.  You'll turn all this in next class.

Make sure that if you are presenting your weather report on Wednesday that you are ready for that and that you have shared your presentation with me.

Russian I

Tonight for homework you need to continue the work from our writing workshop and complete the writing assignment on your family.  For Wednesday's class you should have a complete rough draft on all four of your family members.  Part of this assignment is repetitive so that you will be forced to remember verb conjugation forms.  Follow the outline and complete the assignment.

If you're looking for a Russian keyboard to type your final work you can use http://russian.typeit.org - this will present you an online keyboard from which you can copy and paste into a document.

Russian I and II - You'll be having a test on Friday related to cases.  Be ready!

English II

Your goal for tonight is to meet your next reading goal in Purple Hibiscus by Wednesday's class.  Also be ready to present for Wednesday if you did not present today.

All classes received progress reports today!

Homework for B-Day Students - 3/6/2015 - The Weekend Edition

AP English III

For homework this weekend continue with your reading and annotating of Invisible Man.  You will be held responsible for chapters seven through nine for Tuesday's class.  Keep up with your motif charts as these are going to be very useful for you.  Notice that the Invisible Man is going through a big transition and he's moving to a new place.  Note his first impressions of the place.

For your research papers I'll be returning your outlines to you on Tuesday.  You will then have until the 16th of March to complete your rough draft.  Remember that you must submit fifty percent of your draft.  My recommendation is that you submit your introduction paragraph and at least two body paragraphs.  Make your point and explain!  Your final draft is going to be collected on March 26th.  Ms. Alley will collect that since I'll be on an airplane at that time.

English II

Over the weekend your priority is to finish your research projects on Nigeria.  Make sure that your citations are complete in MLA format and that you have uploaded your project to Google Drive and shared it with Ms. Alley - kta5duke (at) gmail (dot) com.

In addition, you have your reading for Thursday which is to be to the end of page thirty-six in Purple Hibiscus.  Make sure that you're keeping up so that you don't fall behind!

Homework for A-Day Students: 5 March 2015 - Homework for the Weekend

Russian II

Over the weekend you have two things to accomplish.  First you have your weather reports to finish.  Here are the requirements for your weather report:

State the date in Russian form.

1. Describe the weather in Durham, North Carolina for your date: temperature and conditions.
2. Explain using the dative case what someone would need to take with him/her for this weather.
3. Describe the weather in your Russian city for your date:   temperature and conditions
4.  Explain using the dative case what someone would need to take with him/her for this weather or an activity that would be good for this type of weather.
5. Using the future tense, explain what the weather will be tomorrow in your cities.
6. Create a visual for Durham and your Russian city with weather information in Russian.  Use PowerPoint for this and send me your slides.
7. Remember that you will be submitting this to me online - send it to my gmail account mrmillerjhs @ gmail (dot) com.  If you're using a prezi share the link to me.  If you're using powerpoint put it in Google Drive and then send it on to me.

The other work that you have to do is your analysis of my shopping receipt.  Answer all of the questions and make sure that you are writing out all of the prices in Russian.  Make sure that you're checking your work and your use of the genitive case either singular (non-count) or plural (count).

Russian I

Over the weekend you need to complete any missing assignments as well as two paragraphs of your family assignment.  Follow the outline that I gave you on the assignment sheet to complete this.  Do not use translators for this.  All of the vocabulary that you need is in your textbooks.  Follow the ideas in the sentences and think through your cases. 

You're getting progress reports on Monday.  Make sure that everything is settled.

English II

Your projects are due on Monday and Wednesday of next week.  Make sure that you have completed the whole Presentation and that your citations are in the right format.  Make sure as well that you have shared your presentation to Ms. Alley because that is how you will turn it in.

Don't forget as well that you have another reading goal for next Wednesday in Purple Hibiscus

Homework for B-Day Students - 4 March 2015

AP English III

Welcome back.  Today we had a bit of a reality check which I hope will serve as a wake-up call for those of you who didn't capitalize on the time that you had off over the snow vacation.  Here are your tasks to prepare for Friday.

1. Submit your outline and your original research proposal in your research portfolio.  I want to see your original with your outline so I can see how things have developed from the original approach to this.  Remember that you should be building more specificity in your paper.  What's the key point you are trying to make here?
2. Read Invisible Man.  You need to be to the end of Chapter Six (150).  As you read, continue to develop your motif charts and vocabulary.  Make sure to complete your preparation work for the Socratic Seminar based on Ms. Alley's instructions.

English II

Be sure that you continue to read Purple Hibiscus nightly.  You have your next reading goal (pages 19 to 36) to get you to next Thursday's class.  In addition, remember that next class will be your last chance in class to work on your research projects.  These will be presented next week as a major grade.

Everyone remember that progress reports go out next week.  If you have missing quizzes or assignments make sure that you have made these up by Friday.

Homework for A-Day Students - 3/3/2015

All Juniors - Even though you weren't in class today we still did a lot of work.  Please see me outside of class (I'd recommend tomorrow morning) so that we can go over what you missed.

Russian II

Today in class we worked through the rules and procedures for using fill vowels in the genitive plural.  Please focus on learning these rules and these patterns.  For tonight, I would like for you to do some work with the genitive case - either singular or plural depending on the situation.  For homework tonight, think of your favorite dish (mine would be macaroni and cheese with bacon and kale).  Go through your house and think of what you have a lot of (много) and what you have too little of (мало).  Write sentences expressing what you have.

Use the genitive plural if it is a count noun (something like apple where you can count the individual apples).  Use the genitive singular if it is a non-count noun (something like flour where you can't count the individual grains, you just look at is as a whole thing.)  We'll use this to do our work on Thursday.

Russian I

For homework tonight I want you to continue working with the three verbs we studied more today - нравиться, хотеть, любить - as well as working with your vocabulary and with cases.  Using your chapter two vocabulary, complete the ten questions by filling in the blank.  Then, using your knowledge of cases, take the supplied answer in the nominative case in parenthesis and give the answer.  Here is number one:

С кем ты любишь разговаривать?  Я люблю разговаривать с бабушкой и дедушкой.

Here - I've filled in the verb missing from the question, and then answered the question using the words in the parenthesis.  Complete these ten and ask for help if you need it.

Russian I and II

If you are interested in participating in the Olympiada of Spoken Russian at Duke on March 21, please let me know by Monday and bring me the six dollar registration fee.  Information about the Olympiada can be found at this link.  For those of you interested, I will have a training session next week to talk about how to prepare for this.  If you are a senior and would like to take the AP Examination for Russian, please let me know and I'll get you that information.

English II

You have your next reading goal for next Wednesday.  Be sure that you are reading nightly to accomplish your reading goals.  In addition, continue focusing on the characters and the vocabulary you are learning as you read the text.

 

 

Homework for B-Day Students: Welcome Back! 2 March 2015

AP English III

We didn't see each other today due to ACT pre-administration.  Do well on your ACT tomorrow, remember that it counts as a college entrance exam and can save you a lot of time and energy moving forward.

Keep up with your reading of Invisible Man and your researching.  Your outlines will be collected on Friday, so make sure that you're ready to meet this deadline.

English II

Hopefully you've gone past the first reading deadline of page sixteen in Purple Hibiscus.  Please continue reading.  Continue researching your topics for your Nigeria projects.  If everything goes according to plan we will be presenting these projects next week, so be ready for that.  You will have a quiz next class on your reading, so if it's been some time since you've read these pages you may want to go back and review.

The end of another week of snow days...

It's still pretty gross outside and I went the full day yesterday without power.  If you need something to do it's in the last post.  As I said before, I hope that all of you have kept up with reading and research and the like as we are going to have a very accelerated schedule to get through everything by Spring Break.

Snow Day Number 6

It's one of these winters again, and they say that we're going to get more snow tonight.  Goodness.

Russian I and II

Make sure that your journals are complete.  Make sure that you are studying nightly to practice your grammar and vocabulary.  A great thing to do is to listen to Russian music and follow along with the lyrics - think about the grammar being used, use the Yandex translator to define words and build your vocabulary.  Keep using and studying Russian during this time.  There's a YouTube channel called ELLO which is all Russian music videos.

AP English III

I hope that all of you are using this time to get ahead on Invisible Man as well as your research.  When we return there will be a new, accelerated reading schedule as well as a quick overview on the idea of research outlines before you need to turn them in.  Be productive on these days off, a bit of work now will save a lot of work later.

English II

Just like AP you all should be getting ahead with your reading.  Spend time daily with Purple Hibiscus so that when you return you can be ahead.  Pay attention to characters, work on your vocabulary, and enjoy the time to simply read and get to know these characters.  The more you read now, the less you'll have later.

Homework for A-Day Students: 2/23/2015

It was great seeing all of you again today.  Here are your reminders to get you to Wednesday's classes.

Russian II

For tonight you need to work in your journals to revise or rewrite your last entry.  You should have two entries in your journal by Wednesday - one for week one and one for week two.  Make sure that your week two entry includes the phrase about good on good (маслом масленное) as well as the verbs of studying used in the correct forms and with the correct cases.

Outside of this feel free to work on studying your genitive plural irregulars that you learned today.

Lastly, the weather reports have been moved to next week (Tuesday and Thursday) you'll also likely have a quiz on Genitive Plural next week - prepare yourselves accordingly.  Missing assignments and quizzes need to be made up by Friday of this week for progress reports next week.

Russian I

For tonight, if you did not finish the twelve sentences about your animals, please make sure to finish those tonight.  Make sure to have two answers for each of your questions - one for your masculine animal and one for your feminine animal.  Use adjectives as much as you can to practice with your case endings.

As stated above, make sure to have your journals ready to be checked/collected.  You just have two - make sure that the second entry uses your phrase from last week.  You can also continue writing about your animals if you would like.

Lastly, remember about making up missed assignments by Friday.  Many of you have at least one thing missing.

English II

Make sure that you have met your reading goal for Purple Hibiscus on Wednesday.  Some of your classmates have gone as far as to already finish the whole book!  Be like them.  Read!

Snow Day #3 - 2/18/2015

Here we go again.  Keep working on the ideas in the last post - I hope that you've been researching and reading!

SNOW DAY #2 - 2/17/2015

Who knows when we'll be back to school - maybe tomorrow, maybe Thursday.  If you're looking for something to do today, here are my suggestions.

Russian I and II

Make sure that your journals are ready to be collected since I will be seeing you our next day in school.  Continue practicing with your new vocabulary and grammar.  Make flashcards of the different endings and be able to identify which case is signified by which endings.  Spending a few hours with this throughout the day (twenty minutes here, thirty minutes there) just drilling these cards can help you to memorize and get this information down pat.

Russian II

Your weather reports will likely be due next week with the snow.  We'll talk about this more next class.  Try to get some writing done for this assignment and I'll answer questions for you next day in class.

English II

You should be reading Purple Hibiscus.  Continue working on your vocabulary development as well as noticing the characters in the text.  We'll continue working on research projects in class, but if you have reliable internet connections at home I would recommend that you work on some of this research at home.

AP English III

Make sure that you're prepared for next class.  Some of you did not submit your writing assignment on symbolism in Invisible Man, so make sure that you communicate with Ms. Alley about this.  I would suggest that you continue to read Invisible Man and use this day to get ahead on your reading.  In addition, continue working on your research assignments - find your data and create your note cards.

With that, I'm going to bundle up and take the dog for a walk!  Enjoy the day everyone!  See you soon!

Homework for B-Day Students: 2/16/2015

And that was a very fast day!  Here are your reminders to get you to our next class, whenever that happens to be.

AP English III

Make sure that you are caught up on your reading of Baldwin and on the reading of Invisible Man, chapters two through three.  Bring any lingering questions you have from the first four chapters (prologue to chapter three) as we will be spending a good chunk of time working through the first section of the text and having some time to talk through this opening.

If you did not submit your writing on the symbolism of the Battle Royal - make sure to get that in.  If you are going to submit an electronic copy, send that directly to Ms. Alley at kta5duke (at) gmail (dot) com.

Lastly, continue researching.  You should be working nightly to find sources, analyze them, and refine your argument.  Outlines will be due soon so you must continue pushing forward to make these deadlines.

English II

Not next class but the one after you need to be to the end of the first section in Purple Hibiscus, page sixteen.  Make sure that as you read, you continue to take note of the characters and any new vocabulary for this first section of the novel.  In addition, you can continue working on your research projects.  Remember that copying and pasting directly from a source is not acceptable - this is plagiarism and you will not earn credit if you plagiarize.

Homework for A Day Students - The Weekend!

Russian I

This weekend since you have Russian on a Friday you have an entry in your journals due for me on Tuesday.  Try to continue the same type of work that we were doing in class about our animals.  Write a variety of sentences using adjectives and nouns in as many cases as you can.  The more that you use the language the quicker you will acquire it.

Russian II

You also have your journals to write this weekend.  Make sure that you attempt to use the verbs of studying as you write this weekend - remember the case connections that you need in order to work with each of the verbs.  In addition, we will be working on our weather reports more in class on Tuesday.  Presentations will happen starting on Thursday.  This is an extension for your projects.

English II

For your first reading goal you will have until Thursday to read to the end of the first group of pages (to page sixteen).  As you read, try to focus on the characters - what are your first impressions of them?  Also, make sure that you are collecting vocabulary as you read to make sure that you are engaged and understanding what you read.  We will have more time to work on our projects next week - feel free to continue on those if you would like, but you should really prioritize your reading.

Homework for B-Day Students - 2/12/2015

AP English III

Your homework this weekend is a bit extensive so here is a brief review of your tasks:

1. Read James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son" - be sure to annotate heavily and to draw connections between this piece and Invisible Man.  If you don't have a copy of 50 Essays you can find the piece at this link.
2. Your writing on the symbolism within the Battle Royal scene is due on Monday.  Make sure to follow all of Ms. Alley's guidelines in completing this assignment.
3. Work on your research task.  This next week you should focus on researching your topic and refining both your topic and your argument.  Remember that specificity is the name of the game with this assignment to be able to do it well.  Use the resources from the Durham County Library available at this page.  To login and use SIRS you will need a Durham County Library card - if you don't have one, get one so that you can use this source.  Make sure that as you are doing your work you are taking notes for your research - feel free to use the notecard structure I gave you in class if you like that idea.

English II

Over the weekend do some pre-research on Igbo/Ibo culture, the politics of Nigeria or elements related to Catholicism.  Try to determine which topic you would like to research for your research project.  We'll begin these projects next class!

Homework for A-Day Students: 2/11/2014 - PLC DAY!

Russian I

You all have no homework tonight since you had a quiz today in class.  For tonight, I would recommend continuing to work and practice with vocabulary and grammar to reinforce the concepts from the quiz today.  Make sentences talking about yourself.  Write and think in Russian as much as you can.  The more exposure you get, the better your language will become.

Next class we'll move on into the other portions of the second chapter.

Russian II

You also don't have any homework tonight since you had a quiz today in class.  For tonight, you should keep working on your weather reports.  Try to practice your speaking and your writing.  Work on your visuals.  Practice using your vocabulary!

English II

Next class we will begin our work on research related to our novel this quarter, Purple Hibiscus.  For next class, develop your idea for what you want to research.  You have three general topics to consider.  Come up with some ideas so that next class we can begin in earnest with the work of research!

Homework for B-Day Students - 2/10/2014

AP English III

You all have a few things to accomplish for tonight and leading into next class:

1. Make sure that you have completed the reading of chapters two and three.  Chapter two is long and complicated and also quite disturbing - get through it.  Use your motif chart to guide you through the reading - all of the motifs show up in chapter two.  Pay attention to new characters like Trueblood and Norton.  Consider any patterns you're seeing in the Invisible Man's behavior.  Annotate!  Draw connections.  In chapter three there's a bit of a break because it's kinda short - note the motifs - you have all but one represented.
2. Begin work on your first mini-essay on the symbolism of the Battle Royal scene.  Make sure that you follow the instructions given by Ms. Alley.  Remember that your draft is due on the 16th.

English II

Any extra credit or missing assignments that you did not submit today in class will be due from you by your next class.  Any assignments still missing will be converted into actual zeroes.

Homework for All Classes - A Day - 9 February 2015

English II

No homework tonight since we had a quiz today in class.  If you need to take tonight to finish any of your missing assignments or your extra credit, please do so.  Be aware that any missing assignments or extra credit will not be accepted past Wednesday.

Russian I and II

You both have quizzes next unit.  Be sure that you have studied and prepared yourself so that you are ready to perform on your assessments.  If you need help, please ask!

Homework for B-Day Students: 2/6/2015 - Happy Weekend

AP English III

Finish your reading of Prologue and Chapter One from Invisible Man.  As you read, make sure that you complete your motif chart for both portions.  You will have all of the motifs in both of these chapters so make sure that your chart is thoroughly done.  Remember that you have a reading guide to use as you are working through the chapter.  Use this to either answer the questions explicitly or to guide your understanding as you annotate.

Also, you need to do a bit of pre-research on SIRS or other acceptable sources and complete your Research Question sheet.  Try as much as you can to answer the questions thoroughly so that you have a good start moving into your later portions of your research.  Remember that you need to evaluate two actual sources.

English II

You have your quiz on Tuesday.  Study and prepare for this quiz!  See the notes for A-day as your quiz will be much the same.

Homework for A-Day Students - 2/5/2015

English II

For the weekend you need to focus on studying and preparing for your quiz on Monday.  Your quiz will focus on the Russian literature that we have studied in this unit.  Make sure that you are familiar with:

• A Young Doctor's Notebook - Based on stories by Mikhail Afansevich Bulgakov
• "Before spring there are days like these..." and "Everything is plundered..." by Anna Andreevna Akhmatova
•  "A Problem" by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
• "I have visited again..." by Alexsandr Sergeevich Pushkin

If you don't have notes you can request a .pdf of the them from me via email.  Also many of these texts are available online.  A Young Doctor's Notebook is on Netflix.  You can also check out a book for the weekend.

Your quiz will have multiple choice, vocabulary, and a short answer.  You'll get a progress report and have an extra credit opportunity.

Ask for help if you need it.

Russian I

If you need the weekend to complete your project take it, but make sure that you finish.  On Monday you'll also be assessed on the use of adjectives, possessive pronouns, and demonstrative pronouns in all cases.  There will be multiple choice, matching, fill in the blank, and also a dialogue with listening and questions.  Remember that all of the information is in your textbooks and the dialogue is also printed in your textbook at the beginning of chapter two.  The audio of the file is located here and starts at about 15:00.  The exercises at the end of the chapter can also be helpful.  I'm available tomorrow for questions.

Russian II

A lot of you were excited about your projects today, and that excites me.  For the weekend, make sure that you complete exercise I and also work with exercise III, the second one is only for extra practice if you want/need it.  We will have some time to work on the visuals on Monday in class, but if you have a plan or a rough draft going into that, all the better - hopefully our Russian weathergirls helped to inspire those.  

Make sure to those of you who picked obscure cities that you use the general area to cite the weather, look up the region and climate data.

On Monday we'll refine this project a bit more and put in some leg work.  Here's another weathergirl for you, она быстро говорит по-русски.

Homework for B-Day Students - 4 February 2015

AP English III

For homework tonight you need to read Ellison's introduction to Invisible Man.  Ms. Alley was not able to find an online copy of the introduction so if your copy of the novel doesn't contain the introduction please stop by to get yourselves a copy of the reading.  As you read the introduction, consider what Ellison says his purpose is in writing the text.  In addition, consider the major themes or ideas that you see in the introduction as they will be significant as we begin in the prologue next class.

Lastly, remember that with this book you're expected to basically read ten pages a night for nine weeks.  You can do this - don't get behind and then don't blame us when you fail your reading quizzes.

English II

For homework tonight you should finish jotting down your observations from the watching of A Young Doctor's Notebook.  We will finish reviewing this next class as we review for our quiz next week.  The quiz will focus on Pushkin, Chekhov, Akhmatova, and Bulgakov.  Make sure that you have notes on these authors and if you don't ask me for .pdf files of the notes.

Homework for A-Day Students: 2/3/2015

Russian II

Tonight for your homework you all have the task of working more with your vocabulary for this unit.  Especially practice with your verb "to take" and your words describing the weather as your vocabulary project will be a weather report.  You'll also be using a lot of dative and prepositional case in your weather reports - so look over those notes as well.

Russian I

Your projects on your house are due next class.  Remember that you need to mark out five rooms of your house and identify three pieces of furniture in each room.  To pair with your diagram of your house's floor plan make sure that you have three sentences about what is in these rooms or what happens in the rooms.  Remember to use the examples we looked at last class as well as the ones we worked through on the board.  Do not use translators - feel free to be simple in your sentences.  Remember that the goal is to communicate and own what you say.

English II

For homework tonight you should focus on doing as much of the viewing guide as possible from what we watched today in class.  We will review this viewing guide next class as well as review for our quiz which will be happening next week.

Apologies to A-Day Students and Homework for All

A-Day Students:  Apologies for not getting your homework up until now.  Here's what it is:

Russian I and II

Both of you have the same assignment - write one page double spaced in your journal about anything that you would like.  For this assignment you can feel free to use any of your grammar goals that you've learned and really you should as you want to be practicing with these ideas.  Try to include one of the sayings of the week in your writing so that you can work in some conversational phrases as well.

You don't need to write any more than one page.  Focus on accuracy!

English II

There's no homework for all of you leading into our next class.  Make sure you're spending a bit of time studying and reviewing since we'll have a test next week.

AP English III

For next class you have your reading of Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me".  This piece is available in 50 Essays or at this link.  As you read, make links to the introductory information about the Harlem Renaissance.  Make sure, especially, that you focus on the vocabulary in this piece, the importance of jazz/blues music in the piece, and especially the idea of identity.

Read carefully and consider.  Annotate heavily.

Homework for B-Day Students: 29 January 2015

This is really your homework for the weekend since I won't be seeing you all again until Monday.

AP English III

This is a very rare day where you don't have any homework, really, over the weekend.  For the weekend make sure that you have a copy of Ellison's Invisible Man for class on Monday.  We will likely begin the text with a bit of context before we actually jump into the reading of the text.

I want to take a moment to remind you all that this is a very complex and strenuous text.  You would all do well to start your reading and annotating of the text this weekend so that you are ahead when Ms. Alley gives you the reading schedule for the whole text.

English II

If you did not finish your one paragraph response on the ending of "A Problem" and Sasha's realization at the end of the story then this is due for all of you on Monday.  Make sure to follow good writing rules and formatting as stated in the outline.  Remember to clearly explain everything and use details from the text to help clarify your ideas.

Homework for A-Day Students - PLC Day - 1/28/2015

English II

Tonight your homework is to finish your paragraph response of the question on Sasha's character.  Remember as you write you need to first have a clear topic sentence which answers the question and gives a reason behind your answer.  You need two clear details in your writing with explanation which help prove your point.

Show what you've learned about good composition and writing and put this in to this assignment.  Don't also forget that the last day to turn in the tone assignment is next class.

Russian II

We didn't get as far as I would have liked today, but we had a good class nonetheless.  For tonight, work on your exercise focusing on using the word интерес.  Write a brief story using this word in a variety of contexts.  Make up a situation.  Project to your future.  Whatever you'd like, but use the word and use it correctly.  Remember the examples you have and the analysis we did in class.  Come and see me if you need help.

Also remember that if you haven't submitted your translation sentences these are due on Friday for final call.

Russian I

Tonight you should complete exercise nine on the use of the accusative and prepositional/locative case in Russian.  After our review of exercise eight, all of you should be able to complete this exercise.  Remember to follow the patterns.  Don't make things more complicated than they need to be.

Lastly, remember that we have the vocabulary project which is due next week.  Get ahead on this now and start to create your sentences.
 

Homework for B-Day Students: 1/27/2015

AP English III

For tonight make sure that you are reviewing your notes on The Crucible as well as your annotations in preparation for our quiz next class.  Next class you will have multiple choice questions, quote identifications, and short answer questions on the play.  In addition, you will have a timed writing which will be a rhetorical analysis.  These two assessments will count as two grades.  Make sure that you have your copy of The Crucible with you next class as Ms. Alley and I will be looking at your annotations of the text.

English II

There's no homework tonight except to finish the tone/image assignment from "I Have Visited Again" by A.S. Pushkin.  Make sure that if this is reading as a zero on your PowerSchool that you have settled this by next class or those zeroes will become permanent.

Homework for A Day Students - 1/26/2015

Next class we'll be having a PLC day, so make sure that you plan accordingly.

Russian II

For homework tonight you have to complete the translation activity from last class.  Remember that if you didn't have this ready for today that's not necessarily a bad thing, but you do need to make sure to use me as a resource if you need me.

In addition to finishing the translation work, please do the analysis on интерес versus интересы.  Read exercises 162 and 165 to understand the difference between the singular and the plural.  Take notes.  Be able to explain the difference between the singular and plural usage in your own words on Wednesday.

Russian I

For homework tonight I would like for you all to finish what we did not finish in exercises eight and nine at home.  Remember that in exercise nine you are only do to the sentences on the Locative/Prepositional case and the Accusative case.  Focus on making sure that all of your words are in the correct form.  Use your notes to check yourself!

English II

There is no homework for tonight except to finish your tone assignment if needed and to work on your new vocabulary.  Next class we will finish our study of "A Problem" and do some work with the main characters!

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Classes - 1/23/2015

English II

If you didn't finish your tone illustration from Pushkin's "I Have Visited Again" then you will need to finish that over the weekend.  In addition, don't miss assignments in the second semester.  If you didn't get your vocabulary work done, you'll need to make sure that you consistently do the rest of your assignments for the quarter!  Don't make the same mistakes you made last year.

AP English III

For homework this weekend you have two things to do.  First, finish reading The Crucible.  As you finish reading, finish your annotations.  Pay attention to the ideas you see in the text and the ideas you've seen throughout the whole text.  Make sure that your covers show your reading from the text.

When you've finished the text, then move on to your writing assignment.  Your writing is a simple three paragraph essay which answers the prompt:  What would Arthur Miller think of Mean Girls?  As you write follow this structure:

Paragraph One:  DADS Argument based on the prompt.
Paragraph Two:  Body Paragraph.  Use an example from The Crucible as well as one from Mean Girls to support and prove your argument.
Paragraph Three:  Brief conclusion.  Reconnect to the argument.

In all your piece should be no longer than one page.  Focus on getting to the point quickly and clearly.  Answer the question and be insightful.

Homework for A-Day Students: 1/22/2015

English II

You all have no homework for the weekend except to finish your tone illustrations if you did not finish in class.  As we move forward, please make sure that you continue to meet expectations and complete all assignments.  Today a lot of you missed the chance to submit your vocabulary work which does not set a good trend for the rest of the quarter.

Russian I

For the weekend you have two tasks to complete.  First, dress up your basic sentences by adding adjectives.  Remember the rules of agreement for case and gender.  Use colors or any other adjectives from your vocabulary sheet as the goal with this is to create complete sentences using grammar and vocabulary concepts.

In addition, you have the reading for chapter two.  Here is a link to the Chapter Two audio.  First there is the vocabulary read aloud for you and then you have the reading.  With the reading, follow along and read it several times.  Then, do your analysis of the reading.  Find all pronouns, nouns, and adjectives and analyze the case in them.  I would recommend doing this with highlighters or markers and color coding the reading.

Russian II

For homework this weekend you have some more review work to do to keep practicing with important concepts.  Select ten sentences from exercises 6.13B and translate them from English into Russian.  Be sure to have the English translation with your Russian so that I can make sure your translation is accurate.

As you work through the translations I'd recommend the following questions:

• Which cases do you need for which words?
• What type of action is happening in this situation?
• Which group of verbs is needed?  
• What is being emphasized in this action?

Spend time with this - try each - and if you don't know, come and ask!

Homework for B-Day Students - 1/21/2015

English II

For tonight your assignment is the same as the one below for A-day.  Write your paragraph discussing your return to a place that you know well but haven't visited for some time.  Use your new vocabulary from the Russian notes or from the poem to write about this.  Make sure that you show the meaning of the words as you write - no lame sentences!  See me if you have questions on this.

AP English III

For next class we have our Illustration Project presentations.  Make sure to pay close attention to the assignment sheet and the rubric attached.  The questions I ask of you at the bottom are important in crafting your presentation.

Make sure that you have your original illustration with annotations as well as your updated version.  In addition, you can have a notecard to help with your presentation.  I would recommend bulletpointing your responses to the questions to make sure that you earn full credit on this part of the assignment.

In addition, stay on your reading of The Crucible.  By Tuesday you need to be to the end of Acts III and IV.  Lastly, take this time to get your copy of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.  Get either the red or green copy from Vintage Publishers as Ms. Alley and I will be working from this edition.

Homework for A-Day Students - New Quarter - 1/20/2015

Welcome back from the long weekend and welcome to the beginning of the third nine weeks and second semester.  Here we are at the halfway point on the way to summer vacation.

English II

Using your new vocabulary for the day create a paragraph which uses five of these words.  When you use the word in your paragraph, try to make sure it's clear you know the meaning of the word.  Don't just say something like, "I had a tsar."  Tell me something along the lines of. "The tsar hated everyone and nobody could do anything about it.  He was too powerful."  Show me what you learned.  You can use vocabulary from the lecture/game about Russian culture or from Pushkin's poem.

Your prompt for the paragraph is to write about going back to a place you know really well.  I might write about going back to my mom's house in Alaska.  If you need help, review the poem.  Think about how Pushkin felt about the going back home.  We'll work more with Pushkin and the poem on Thursday, but make sure that you do this vocabulary work tonight.

Russian I

For tonight, write sentences about your house and the things located within those spaces.  Remember our example from class:

В туалете находится ковёр.  In toilet room there is located rug.

You need to write about four more rooms and tell me about two things in each.  This leaves you nine sentences.  Use the example as a model, but vary your sentence structure if you feel like you want to.  You won't lose points for being adventurous.

A quick note about some rooms as you put them in prepositional case:  If the ending is ая in the nominative, like гостиная, then the ending becomes -ой in the prepositional, like в гостиной.

Russian II

We will finish presentations about Russian holidays on Thursday and then move on into the new unit on weather.  Also, I have a wonderful preview for you all - we're finally going to start learning plurals in all of the cases!  Get ready for a lot of work with your favorite Russian sound Х!

A few of you need to finish testing.  Get this settled ASAP.

Oh My! The Whole Last Few Days...

Everyone!  My sincerest apologies for leaving off the blog post for two days.  Here's what needs to be done over the long weekend as well as some reminders.

Russian I

We will begin a new unit on Tuesday which will look at adverbs, adjectives, and a few other types of pronouns.  To prepare for this, start looking at your chapter two vocabulary.  Much of this vocabulary focuses on the house and family, so I would recommend labeling things around your house to help you.  Make some flashcards and mark stress on them.  Just work on identifying and memorizing.

We're going to keep working on cases in this next unit and how these parts of speech (especially adjectives and pronouns) continue changing for case.  Practice with your case endings.  Memorize.  Drill and practice.  Ask for suggestions if you need them.

Russian II

Tuesday will officially be the end of the semester for you.  We will finish the exam and then finish project presentations on Russian Holidays.  I've received two new prezis but I don't know how the other groups are planning on presenting, make sure that you are prepared for Tuesday.

In addition, you've all seen the exam now so I expect that you'll be studying over the weekend and practicing with what you've seen.  Expect a few additional questions on the same concepts to test your knowledge.

English II

Some of you still need to tie up some loose ends from the end of the semester on Tuesday.  I know that a few of you have made arrangements to take the Heroes Unit Quiz with me after-school.  Thank you for that, make sure to meet your commitment.  In addition, there are also the speeches.  The scores will be entered on Monday and finalized on Tuesday - so if you have your speech and haven't yet submitted it (you'll see a score of 50%), then stop by and see me on Tuesday.

I also want to take a quick second to remind you all about second semester.  No more free passes.

AP English III

Over the weekend you need to begin with your study of The Crucible.  If you have yet to begin your reading of the play then you will now be paying the piper with some heavy reading for the weekend.  Your task is to read to the end of Act II.  As you read, you must also start your front cover annotations on characters.  Remember that since this is a play you will be given a character list in the play.  Use this.

The language of the play is simple and direct.  So look for the complex in the simple.  Read Miller's "Why I Wrote The Crucible" - annotate it heavily and understand his context and purpose for the play.  From here, you should be able to begin the annotation of your back covers and within the margins of the text.  Remember that this is an allegory - connect the dots.

Snow Day Number One - 1/14/2015

Having this day off today means that we lose that day off next week, oh well.  Keep in mind that this means when we return on Thursday that we will be having an A day.  Here is what all of you can do today to make sure you're ready for the end of the quarter.

English II:

All of you should take this time to prepare for your quiz on The Odyssey, Musashi Miyamoto, and Exodus.  Remember to review characters, the elements of being a hero, and the elements of the hero's cycle.  If you don't have notes - ask a friend or send an email to me.

In addition, be aware that you need to turn in your speech and do your presentation if you did not do this on Monday/Tuesday.  Thursday and Friday will be the only days left to do this, so get it taken care of.  A lot of B-day students were not in class because of the lockdown; make sure you submit this last major assignment.

The only minor assignment you can still submit is the bumper sticker assignment.  Do that if you do not have a grade.

Russian I and II:

You have your mid-term next class.  Please let me know if you need help as you are studying and preparing.  I had a bit of a mini-review session with some Russian II students yesterday which was really productive and went over some key parts of the exam.  Let me know what you need!

AP English III:

You have your presentation of your websites on Friday.  I'd also like for all of you to bring in your copies of The Crucible because we will be starting to work on that in class at the conclusion of your presentations.

For your presentations each group will need to present its synthesis - What is your argument?  How do each of you support the argument of the group?  In addition you'll need to each speak about your piece that you analyzed and give a brief explanation of the piece and the author's argument in the piece.

Homework for B-Day Students: 1/13/2015

AP English III

Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, you have your final night to prepare your websites to be evaluated next class.  Please make sure that you take care of your citations and that you have in-text citations as needed in your analysis and in your synthesis assignment.  Use the mock-up as needed to make sure that everything is where it needs to be.

In addition, remember that you have your illustration assignment due next week.  Follow the guidelines on the assignment sheet and complete all parts.  You should first complete the annotation of the original illustration before moving on to any other work with this assignment.

Lastly, remember our reading of The Crucible - for next week you will want to be to the end of Acts I and II.  We'll be taking a very express path through this play so make sure that you have the reading done so that we can take a close look at key passages within the play.

English II

Using your notes and memories from today's review game make sure that you have studied and are ready for your final quiz on the Heroes unit which will fall on Thursday.  Also, if you have to turn in your speech still you will need to take care of this on Thursday as this is really the last day of the quarter for you all.

Homework for A-Day Classes: 1/12/2015

Russian II

Very excellent job today on presentations.  I especially enjoyed eating pelmeni and getting flowers - you know how to make me feel special!  For tonight you need to review for your mid-term examination.  For the mid-term we'll be focusing on three big concepts:

• Aspect of verbs in Russian
• Numbers and counting in Russian - be sure to know your currencies and how to count them in Russian.
• Verbs of motion

A good activity is working through what we did today in class.  You can also use the online exercises available from the UCLA Beginner's Russian website.  Please let me know if you need any help studying and preparing!

Russian I

I enjoyed the activity today in our mad libs activity.  Tonight you need to finish your preparation for the mid-term examination.  Make sure that you can work within all six cases in Russian and that you can work with the verbs.  If you are able to do this with few to no errors then you're in good shape.  There are several online exercises on the UCLA Beginner's Russian website as well - you'll have to pick and choose to see what is most useful for you.

English II

Remember that if you did not present your speech today in class then you will need to present on Wednesday or outside of class.  Also, if you didn't have your speech ready to be turned in today, make sure that it is ready for us on Tuesday or Wednesday.  For tonight - focus on reviewing for your quiz next class.  Study your notes from class and from today's review game.

Also, as promised, here is the video on the Epic Hero Cycle which includes a lot of information to know for your exam.

All of you have assessments next class to finish the quarter - make sure that you do your best work on these to finish strong.

Homework for the Weekend: 9 January 2015

English II

This weekend your major goal is to finish the final draft of your This I Believe speech.  Remember that in this assignment you need to speak as someone else - don't use your voice, but that of another person.  Follow the guidelines on the assignment sheet.  Make sure you have a title for your speech.

You will need to read your speech aloud - if you don't want to read in front of the class then make sure that you plan to read privately to me and Ms. Gerdes.

This is your last major test grade of the quarter so make sure that it shows your best work!

AP English III

Make sure that you spend this weekend reviewing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and preparing for your exam on the text on Tuesday.  We went through all of the things that will be on the exam today in class so use that as your study guide.

Also remember that website presentations will be on Thursday.  Here are two useful resources for you to complete this work:

The Purdue OWL - A resource for formatting MLA citations.
Project Mock-Up - This is your "rubric" for the project.  Make sure that you look at this as you are crafting your websites so that everything looks how it needs to look.

Lastly, remember that you can continue to come to me and Ms. Gerdes for help reviewing your writing.

Homework for A-Day Students: 1/8/2015

Russian II

Tonight everyone you need to continue working on the verbs of motion assignment on the film Ирония судьбы.  Please make sure that you have at least two sentences written using two different verbs in each group - this is the next step of the assignment.  Make sure to really understand the difference between the sentences when you use the different verbs of motion.  Continuing to practice and work with these concepts is really the only way to improve on these.

Also, please do what you need to do in order to be successful.  Too many of you had blank homework sheets today in class - this is completely unacceptable.  You need to try and come to me with questions if you don't know what to do.  That's the acceptable way forward.

Russian I

Tonight I think it would be a good idea if you all went through the back side of the question sheet on the cartoon we watched last class and continued the work we started today in class.  Remember to start with the question as the beginning of your answer and then add in the needed information.

In addition, self assess and use your study guides to figure out where you need to spend time this weekend.  Use your textbooks or your Russian grammar reference books to find exercises and practice.  If there are concepts that you don't understand.  Please ask for help.

English II

You have your speeches due on Monday.  Make sure that when you complete your final draft that you can submit your planning, as well as a rough draft with your final draft so that we can see the development of this work.  The speech is a major test grade, so make sure that you are giving us your best work.

Homework for B-Day Students - Wednesday, 7 January

AP English III

Very excellent discussion today about a piece which was challenging to our approach to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  It's always good to challenge yourself with a different perspective so that you can fully understand what you think.

For tonight, read David Sedaris's "Me Talk Pretty One Day."  It's available at this link.  You can also read the copy from 50 Essays, First Edition.  The other editions have a different Sedaris piece.  Make sure that if you use the piece from the link that you only read pages one through five, the essay itself.

In addition, remember that you have your exam on TAoHF on Tuesday next week and your presentation of your website projects on Thursday.  We'll spend time on Friday preparing for both of these things.

Lastly, you now have The Crucible.  I'd recommend starting to read now and try to get through to the end of Act II by the beginning of the third quarter.  We'll be racing through this piece, but it's pretty short so that's good.

English II

Your reminders are in the A-day post below.  Just know that your speech final drafts are due for you on Tuesday, not Monday.

Homework for A Day Students - 1/6/2015

And now welcome back to all of you!  Here are your reminders for getting you to the next class.

English II

Your final drafts of your speeches are due on Monday.  You will need to make sure that you have a final draft, your draft packet, your outlining sheet, and your assignment sheet.  If you are missing any of these documents, make sure to get them so that you can receive full credit.

Next class we will continue watching the film and hopefully finish it.

Also - apologies for this but we will need to deal with the DPS English test next class.  Remember that this is a skills test for which you cannot study.  We'll go over it before we start on Thursday before we start the assessment.

Russian I

For tonight you should focus on writing the answers to the questions on the cartoon we watched in class.  Remember to use the question as a starter to your answer.  Use your grammar and attempt all of the portions so that we can have our workshop next class.  If you'd like I'm putting the cartoon below so that you can watch it again if you need to.

Russian II

For tonight finish your sentences using verbs of motion to describe actions in the film Ирония судьбы.  Remember to start with the English version of what you want to describe and then move on to the Russian.  Use the notes on the back for locations and character names.

In addition, spend some more time on your research.  We'll have only a bit left next class to work on these projects before we present next week.

ALL RUSSIAN STUDENTS - Don't forget you have a mid-term next week.  You should be studying nightly!

Welcome Back Everyone! Homework for 1/5/2015 - B Day Students

English II

For homework tonight you need to prepare for next class's drafting workshop on your Odysseus "This I believe..." speech.  Remember to take your work from your drafting packet and rewrite it as a whole speech either typed up or written out.  As you write the paragraphs, try to create transitions from one paragraph to the next so that your writing flows seamlessly from one idea to the next.

Make sure to have these speeches with you as these speeches will likely be your last major grade of the nine weeks.

AP English III

You've finished reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn so now we just need to finish the connected work.  You will finish up your seminar on the end and whole of the novel with Ms. Gerdes on Wednesday - make sure that your texts are fully annotated to reflect the thinking you've done as you've been studying this novel.

Tonight and for the rest of the week you should really begin pushing forward on your websites to get these things done.  Your presentation of the website will be on Thursday next week.  Remember that your first task is to finish your analysis; after you finish the creation of your analysis then you can move on to the drafting of the group synthesis.  This is when you really need to start working together as a group to make sure that everything gets done.

Your test on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will fall next Tuesday.  We'll spend time on Friday to prepare and outline this exam.  Your illustration project has been postponed to the week after MLK, Jr. Holiday.  Continue to work on these and ask questions as you are creating these projects.

All Classes - Remember about the new cell phone procedures.  These will begin on Friday.

And Winter Break is Done...

I had to go in today so my winter break is officially finished.  All of you have the weekend remaining, so enjoy it.

Russian II

I have your study guides ready for your midterm.  Be ready to receive these on Tuesday as well as finish our film and begin our holiday study.

AP English III

I went through all of the websites and unless I'm missing something a lot of you are procrastinating a bit too much.  By the end of this weekend you should have everything done except for your group synthesis.  If you're not going to be able to meet this goal then you have yourselves or your groupmates to blame.  You must have your work ready to move on to the next phase before Monday's class.

Don't forget as well that you need to finish reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Russian I

You have your study guide as well as your reference books.  I hope that many of you have been working hard over break to improve your skills.

English II

I went through and saw that a lot of you aren't doing too well because of missing assignments.  I've got something to take care of this, but I don't think a lot of you are going to like it.  I guess we'll have to see.

Remember everyone, at the end of the day you've got to do the work yourself because nobody else will.  If you don't do the work then the only person to blame is yourself.  Ask for help if you need it.