Homework for A-Day: Monday, 13 March 2017

English II:

If any of you have any missing assignments from Google Classroom (mainly research projects), then it is important that you turn in those assignments as soon as possible. This is especially important if you've missed a lot of class recently.

Russian I:

Next class we will have our exam on Units 1 and 2 - This will cover the Introduction, Chapter One, and Chapter Two. Remember to use your study guides as well as your review packets to prepare for the exam. The review packet is a great way to earn credit on previous assignments as well (as many as FIVE previous assignments). Don't miss this opportunity.

Advanced Russian:

We took tests today. Yay for that.

Russian II - Focus on studying your new vocabulary as well as finishing your projects. Don't forget to submit those assignments online as soon as you have them done.

Russian III - You also have new vocabulary and the world map in Russian. For each of the selected countries be able to state the name of the country in Russian as well as the adjective which relates to the country (language/culture). You should also read over the information on short-form adjectives. We'll focus on studying this content as the first part of Chapter 11.

Russian IV - You have your project due on Friday. Be sure that you are using language of comparisons to talk about the similarities you see (or the differences) between the life of Dostoevsky as well as that of the narrator.

Homework for B-Day Students - Weekend Edition - 10 March

AP English III:

This weekend you have a few things to take care of - I'll list them below in order of "relative" importance.

1. Your rough drafts of your research paper are due on Tuesday. We will begin conferencing on Tuesday. Many of you have already signed up for a writing conference. For your draft, I am expecting a full introduction paragraph with argument as well as a complete topic written out. Have a hard copy of your draft in my hands on Tuesday.
2. You have reading in Invisible Man for Chapters 13 through 15. This is an important section which starts to bring the Invisible Man into a new organization and into some important conflicts. Pay close attention to new characters but the way in which these new characters are like old characters too. Keep up with your motif charts and your annotations. Continue to draw connections!
3. You have your first synthesis post for your motif blogs due. Your synthesis post should look at Prologue through Chapter Twelve (the posts you've completed so far) and look at synthesizing all of the information you've discovered so far to highlight what you think Ellison's purpose or meaning is behind the motif. Remember to draw ideas together and make a clear point. This may change later in your reading, but as a group you want to think about what you have noticed so far. Make sure that your synthesis and preliminary posts are up by next class so that your blogs can be graded up to this point.

Lastly, remember that I will begin to grade/re-grade synthesis sourcepacks and outlines tomorrow. Make sure that they are accessible to me.

English II:

There is no required homework this weekend. However, it would be a good idea to log in to PowerSchool and check your grades. If you have anything missing, this would be a good chance to complete that work and turn it in for credit. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns!

Homework for A Day Students - 9 March

Advanced Russian:

We will have exams on Monday covering verbs of motion (with prefixes for Russian III and without for Russian II) and covering the first half of White Nights for Russian IV. Be sure to study and prepare for this exam by:

• reviewing your previous assessments and reassessments
• reviewing the examples and explanation in your textbooks
• focusing on case rules and conjugation patterns
• studying vocabulary

Your final projects are due on Wednesday - don't forget to submit them electronically.

Russian I:

Your final exam on Chapter Two will fall on Wednesday. Make sure that you use your study guide this weekend to prioritize your time over the weekend and into Wednesday. It is very important that you spend time with your charts to recognize the ways in which endings change to reveal cases and why these cases are used at certain points in different sentences.

Be sure to review your vocabulary in Chapter One and Chapter Two.

If you have any last assignments which you would like to resubmit, make sure that these are completed ASAP.

English II:

See the previous post for reminders about homework. Remember that the most important thing is to make sure that your Google Classroom projects are submitted and finished!

Homework for B-Day Students: 8 March

AP English III:

Though I wasn't here to hear everything I was very impressed with the way in which you all worked through the ideas of necropolitics and biopolitics in order to delve into the interesting and important ideas around Tyra, her life, and the lives of transgender people, in general. As you read these pieces, it is important to make connections back to Invisible Man and the ways in which race and sexuality can lead to invisibility.

For tonight, make sure that you finish the questions related to the documentary you watched in class. As you answer the questions, write paragraphs that draw on source material in order to make the point. Explain clearly and effectively. In terms of Invisible Man you have your reading of Chapters 11 and 12 for Friday. Make sure that your blog is also updated.

Lastly, there is your synthesis source pack for Friday as well. Use the template documents available in Google Classroom for this assignment. Remember that your outlines can also be resubmitted at any time. Accompany the resubmission with an explanation of what you have done to improve the piece.

English II:

Wonderful work today with Oedipus the King as well as with the characterization activity to design masks. Remember that if you have work to complete on Google Classroom that you need to log-in and submit those assignments ASAP as they are in the process of being graded.

If you have missed any reading of Oedipus the King - it may be a good idea to catch up on that reading. You can check out a textbook, or you can read the play online at this link. In this online version we have read to line 923/[770]. I don't know why there are two line numbers given.

Homework for A-Day Students: 7 March

Advanced Russian:

For Thursday you should be ready to present one of the stages of your Russian Amazing Race to class. If you are not ready to submit the final project, that's okay - you have until the 15th of March to finish the project. Please share it electronically or turn it in on Google Classroom.

Russian II and III Students - You have your exam on Verbs of Motion coming next Monday. We'll finish our review on Thursday. Consider your conjugations, your prepositions paired with each verb, and the different cases used for coming and going to different types of places.

Russian IV - Continue reading through sections sixteen and seventeen and developing your knowledge of Nastya's character. Remember to do the same type of analysis work where you consider her language and her reactions as insights to her character.

Russian I:

We will finish the presentations on Thursday. If you presented today, your grades have been loaded into PowerSchool. I appreciated all of the ways that the presentations were made interactive. I also liked seeing everyone try to make origami.

For tonight, continue working on the five sentences we have left on our grammar review. Remember to study and review your vocabulary and your grammar notes. You should be actively reviewing all of the information in the book through Chapters One and Two (focus on your declension charts). Your exam will fall on Wednesday of next week. These last few days should be filled with questions and review!

English II:

If any of you can work on Google Classroom to improve or finish any assignments, that is what I would recommend you do!

Homework for B-Day Students: 6 March 2017

English II:

If you still have work to do on Google Classroom it is important that you get that worked settled and submitted ASAP. There are two assignments there, which you may need to work on. One is the Latin American literature project where you are either doing creative writing or doing research on one of the various countries of Latin America. The second assignment is the more recent one on the Greek gods/goddesses/creatures. All of the instructions and assignments are in Google Classroom.

AP English III

For our next class - Wednesday - you only have to read and annotate the article which was given to you today on transgender people and queer politics. Read carefully. Remember that this was assigned to graduate students at Duke University - things will go over your head and the language will be dense - do what you can. Use the ideas of necropolitics to get you started as you deal with the text. It's also important to consider the way in which racial politics of the 1950's are similar to gender politics of today.

Additionally, for Friday, we have the reading of Chapters Eleven and Twelve as well as the submission of your source packs. The source pack instructions and template documents are on Google Classroom for you to use. Remember that this is a relatively easy assignment - you simply need to consolidate your sources and write your question. Follow the instructions. Ask for help if you need it. We will quickly move forward into rough drafts and writing conferences. It would be a good idea to start drafting your paper now. Rough drafts will likely be collected at the end of next week!

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 3 March 2017

English II:

If you have not yet finished your Latin America Research project it is important that you finish that ASAP. They will be graded this weekend. I loved the fact that so many of you were so into the create your own god/creature project. I also loved that so many of you were able to draw on your knowledge of the Greek gods as you did that.

We'll continue reading Oedipus the King next week.

Russian I:  

You all did a great job with your translations as well as with your grocery store advertisements. This weekend, I want you working more with your grocery store ads. Answer the question that relates to meal planning. You have 1000 rubles to do your shopping - what will you eat for breakfast (на завтрак), for lunch (на обед), and for dinner (на ужин). You should try to write complete sentences using the vocabulary we've been studying.

Also, don't forget, we'll have presentations next week on the holidays. If your holiday is in the first half of the year (January to May) then you should be ready to present on Tuesday.

Advanced Russian:

On Tuesday we'll have time to go back to the computer lab and finish typing our projects. I was happy that during the workshop many of you did research, worked on your maps, and wrote your different sentences related to traveling through Russia. Keep in mind that the final due date for these projects is the 15th of March.

Russian III Students - You'll have your Chapter Ten examination on Thursday the 9th.  Russian II Students - You'll have your Chapter Six examination on Monday the 13th.  Russian II Students, you should be able to finish the rest of the exercise we began today in class.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students - 2 March 2017

English II:

If you have not yet finished your research/creative writing project on Latin America, then it is really important that you finish that work ASAP. These projects will start to get graded this weekend, and we will see any work that you've completed. Your grade will be given based on what we see in the Google Classroom folder. Make sure that it shows a complete and thorough project.

I hope that you all had fun today working on the Greek gods, goddesses, and creatures. There's a lot of interesting information we can infer about Greek culture from knowing about their beliefs and their fears.

AP English III:

This weekend you'll be reading a very fantastic chapter in Invisible Man - I call it The Paint Factory. In this chapter you'll have a lot of productive annotating if you follow the color symbolism of white and black in the chapter. You'll want to read the paint as a metaphor for many things. Ellison uses this chapter to make a lot of points about the way in which American society is structured - see these ideas within the language of the text.

Read and annotate heavily. We'll work through Chapters Nine and Ten on Monday. This means that you should also complete the blogging for these chapters.

Furthermore, you should actively be completing your synthesis pack assignment as part of your larger research paper. In this assignment, you should be creating a sourcepack and question page, much like you receive for the synthesis question for the AP Exam. You can create this in Google Drive, or you can turn in a hard copy. I would suggest using Google Drive to make things easier for you.  As a starting point - create your question page and then find the most important parts of your source material. Remember that you will have to excerpt your source material, just like you get in a synthesis pack.

Homework for A Day Students - 1 March 2017

Advanced Russian:

Next class we'll have the time to sit and look at your written work for your projects. All of you should have some sort of writing to share with me next class, in Russian, to show how you are preparing for your project presentations. We'll have a day in the computer lab next week (Tuesday) to finish things up. Friday is more of a check-in day.

Russian III Students - Be reminded that you will have your Chapter Ten exam soon, likely at the end of next week.

Russian I:

We are quickly coming to the end of our unit. Today, by learning the pronouns in all of the cases, we have really finished much of the work in Chapter Two. Next you'll have a unit exam. We'll start to review for this next class.

Tonight, your priority should be to finish and prepare for your presentations next week on Russian holidays. I like that so many of you are going to be creative with your presentations; remember that if you need to get any supplies, you'll have the weekend to pull those things together.

English II:

Good work today determining elements of dramatic irony in Oedipus the King as well as working through Scene 1. Now that we've worked through the introductory pieces, the rest of the play will move pretty fast.

Make sure that if you have not completed your research/creative writing project on Google Classroom that you submit that ASAP. We will soon begin to grade these things.

Homework/Reminders - 28 February 2017 - B Day

Today was a bit of the day that wasn't. I hope that all of you who tested today felt prepared, especially for the English, reading, and writing sections.

AP English III:

Since we didn't have class you know that your reading is due for Thursday. Don't forget as well that we will hold another review session for the Quest on Thursday morning. The Quest will cover Prologue through Chapter Seven. It would be a good idea to come and review.

Also, when you complete your outline revision/resubmission, please email me to let me know that it is ready to be graded. It would also be helpful for you to tell me what changes you have made. That will speed my process along.

English II:

Good work today with Oedipus the King. I enjoyed seeing you act, draw, and then find language related to our major devices and themes. We'll keep this going next class. The most important thing is to make sure that you have completed your research/creative writing project on Google Classroom. Ms. Barber and I will start grading these soon!

Invisible Man Quest Review Session

AP Students!

Ms. Barber and I will be holding a review session for the Prologue to Chapter Seven Quest tomorrow and on Thursday morning. Tomorrow morning it will begin at 8:15 am. It'd be a good warm-up for the ACT, get your brain thinking.

We'll go over important passages, the format of the quest, and the important elements to have annotated.

AP English III - Outlines (Revisions/Resubmissions)

AP English III Students:

As you are working through your outlines to revise and resubmit them please make sure that you clearly indicate to me which changes you have made to your outline. You can highlight them in the document or send me a separate email where you list the changes.

This will help to make sure that you get any points that you need/want to earn.

Also, there are still a few of you who have not yet shared a document. This needs to be fixed ASAP.

We will not have class tomorrow because of the ACT. Make sure that you take the time you need to take in order to be prepared with your outline as well as your assessment on Thursday (Prologue to Chapter Seven) and the reading/blogging (Chapters Seven, Eight, and Nine).

Homework for A-Day Students: 27 February 2017

Advanced Russian:

Russian II - Next class you'll have your reassessment on verbs of motion. Make sure that you have studied your conjugation patterns for these verbs as well as the way in which they work with the various cases (accusative/dative) to create meaning. Reviewing and studying your previous quiz would be very helpful.

Russian III & IV - Next class we'll have time to work together and review the various things floating over us right now. You'll have an exam coming up next week. Be sure that you've read Dostoevsky up to the beginning of Nastya's Story (section seventeen). For Russian III, be sure you've completed your translations and worked through the airline article as much as you can.

Russian I:

It looks like almost all of you completed the various holiday information slideshows. Good work. Now you'll need to spend some time getting ready for your reassessment on cases. The reassessment is going to focus on nominative, accusative, and prepositional cases.

English II:

Hopefully by this pint you have finished up your projects. Ms. Barber and I will work through the week to get them graded and updated. Make sure that you understand what is happening in Oedipus the King up to the end of the first chorus. Study and review your notes so that you are able to explain what is happening in the play.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 24 Februrary

AP English III:

Make sure that your priority this weekend is revising/resubmitting your outlines for your research paper! I will regrade them on Monday. PowerSchool is down this weekend.

Remember that we will not see you on Tuesday - you have the ACT. So for Thursday, make sure you've read Chapters Seven, Eight and Nine. Also, be ready for a quest on Prologue through Chapter Seven. Your blogs should also be updated to the end of Chapter Nine.

English II:

If you did not finish the project today in class, make sure that you finish it over the weekend if you can. If you cannot, then you will need to get a library pass and finish it during one of your lunch periods.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 23 February 2017

Russian Classes:  I hope you all enjoyed celebrating a bit of Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland! 

Advanced Russian:

Russian IV - Continue to read "White Nights" through to the end of section sixteen. As you read, look at Nastya's reactions and her observations while the narrator tells his story. Use these reactions to understand her character. Interpret them.  Also continue to look for useful vocabulary and interesting sentence/language constructions for us to discuss.

Russian III - Please complete the translation exercise A in Chapter Ten. Do the translations in your journals. Remember to review any necessary vocabulary from the textbook first, and then from a dictionary or translator.

Russian II - Continue to work on building your sentences around your different modes of transportation. Remember that one sentence with each means of transit should use a transitive verb and one should use an intransitive verb. Also, remember, only humans can "carry" items.

Russian I:

You should continue studying your new grammar and your old grammar to review all six cases. You have exercises around case identification and writing with the different cases that you should use to practice and review your grammar skills.

We'll continue to work on our projects on Monday.

English II:

I like that fact that a few of you were able to finish your projects today in class. If you didn't finish them today then you will need to take time outside of class to finish as I am not sure we will be able to find more time in class for them.

Homework for B-Day Students: 22 February

AP English III:

Apologies for not getting this posted sooner. I left early yesterday, Ms. Barber has class, and I didn't remember until this morning.  You've got a few deadlines coming up on Friday.

1. Make sure that you have read and annotated up to the end of Chapter Six in Invisible Man. Pay close attention to the long oratory in Chapter Five given by Homer Barbee about The Founder. There's a lot of rich symbolism there. In Chapter Six we have a lot to deal with concerning Dr. Bledsoe.  You also have to email Ms. Barber with your discussion topics from these chapters. Email her directly at (mary dot barber @ duke dot edu) - Make sure that she has your email before 6:00 TODAY in order to receive credit.
2. You also have your blogging posts due for these chapters.
3. You have your formal outlines due to me on Google Docs. I will be reading, scoring, and providing feedback this weekend to all of you. Make sure that you have shared with me (daniel _ miller (at) dpsnc (dot) net ), that you have used the rubric to craft your outline and that you have at least four clear topics for consideration.

English II:

I hope that you all were productive and enjoyed the reading and the beginning of the film. We'll follow up with everything on Friday! Friday will also be our day to finish our research/creative writing projects!

Homework for A-Day Students: 21 February

Russian I:

Kids - do your homework. Practice daily with the language. If you're not, then you won't be learning as much as you should.  

Now we're operating in all six cases with nouns and adjectives. Soon we'll have another quiz going over endings and changes, FYI. Tonight, make sure that you finish the interpretive reading questions about the story I gave you last class. Additionally, complete exercise seven where you identify the case of the boldface word and tell why the word is in that case.

Also, we'll be doing some research on Russian holidays soon. You may find it useful to do a bit of pre-research so you know which holiday you would want to study for your project.

Advanced Russian:

All of you should continue working on your projects that you started today. Remember that if you want me to spend time giving you notes and corrections, please let me know. Russian IV - Continue reading Dostoevsky and developing a full picture of Nastya and her character. Work on the graphic organizer I gave you today in class.  Russian III - Complete the work on hypothetical statements I gave you today. Remember how you use verb tenses when creating hypothetical situations. Russian II - You will find it very helpful to study and correct your quiz today. Understand why your answer was wrong and what the right answer is. This will also be very helpful when dealing with your projects!

English II:

A lot of you got great work done on your projects today. Keep that going tonight and continue building your presentations/documents if you can. We'll only have one more class in the computer lab to finish these.

AND YOU ALL GOT PROGRESS REPORTS TODAY!

Homework for B-Day Students: 20 February

AP English III:

All of the work that you have to do is due on Friday. Make sure that you have thoroughly read and annotated Chapters Five and Six in Invisible Man. Chapter Five involves a long speech (a sermon) by a blind minister named Homer Barbee. There are a lot of allusions in this speech. Pay attention carefully and think about other blind guys named Homer.  Chapter Six is dealing with the ramifications of the Invisible Man's actions in Chapters Two and Three. The discussion about Dr. Bledsoe will be really important to consider.

Since you have reading due, don't forget to do your blog posts as well. Blogs will rarely be checked coming in to class, but they will be assessed after since we often discuss the different motifs.

Also, in terms of our research papers, we have two major steps coming soon. The outlines are due on Friday. Many of you have already started them in Google Documents with me. Keep that work going. Consider what I reviewed with you today and the notes from your synthesis. Put this into your work and pay it forward.  You also have the instructions for the next major milestone - the synthesis pack.

English II

Today was a lot of fun, starting the acting and dramatizing of Oedipus the King. We'll be reading and studying the play every day in class so know that if you miss a day, you're missing the study of the play and you'll want to make-up what you miss.  We'll finish our projects this week if you are not already done.  If you can spend some time working on them outside of class, great. If not, we'll deal with that on Wednesday.

A-Day Homework - 19 February 2017

Many apologies for posting this so late. I got struck down with a nasty bug and found myself sleeping most of Friday afternoon and Saturday. Much better today.

Advanced Russian:

All of you should be focused on developing your projects for Tuesday's class. I'm going to try to get us time in the library on Tuesday to do research and to go over your writing with all of you. Take the feedback I've given you so far and apply it moving forward.

Don't forget as well that your textbook is a wealth of examples and explanations.  We'll quickly move through completing this project.

Russian I:

For those of you who have submitted projects, those grades are posted in PowerSchool. I liked what I saw, there were a few small spelling and grammar errors, but for the most part your writing was clear and accomplished its goals. Please start focusing on learning your new endings for the other three cases (GEN/DAT/INST). To help you with this you have your grammar analysis and interpretive reading homework.

Read the story about the narrator. Give the main idea and three details. Then color code the assignment by cases. Focus on endings and functions!

English II:

I was happy to hear from Ms. Barber that the day was productive for most of you. Good! If you can, keep working on your research and projects. We'll be finishing these up pretty fast this week!

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 16 February 2017

AP English III:

Over the weekend we have some reading to do, some blogging to do, and some outlining to do. Make sure that you have read and annotated Chapters Three and Four in Invisible Man as well as settle your blog posts for those chapters.

Additionally, you will want to make sure that you have shared a Google Document with me that has the beginnings of your outline. You should include an argument statement and the beginning of one complete topic. We'll go over more of the requirements next week with the outline. I want everyone to show me where they are right now so that I know how best to structure our time to work next week.

English II:

There is no homework for you all tonight. If you need to finish your project and you can do that at home - great. If not, we will have some time next class to work on finishing those up.

Homework for A-Day Students: 15 February 2017

English II:

Good day today guys getting into Oedipus the King and the elements of irony we'll see in that play. Someone took a box from the room by mistake - if you took it, please return it ASAP.

Remember that on Friday we will be focused on finishing our projects in the computer lab all class. You should be prepared to be focused and work hard on this assignment on Friday.

Russian I:

I was happy about the fact that many of you have made some good understandings around case declensions and meanings. Keep this work going as you keep learning and making connections. Tonight, you should work on finishing your house projects. Remember we need a floor plan of the house as well as paragraphs describing what is in each room and what happens in the room.

You'll have a reassessment next week on these three cases to go back over the work on the quiz.

Advanced Russian:

Russian II: I think that a lot of you understand what to do with your non-prefixed verbs of motion in past, present, and future. I think you also have a fair understanding of what to do with the verbs as we add the prefix по- and step into aspect issues. Put all of this together and be ready for your quiz next class.

Russian III: Next class we'll finish our review of the paragraph on American tourists traveling in Moscow. Then, we'll review the idea of the hypothetical and conditional. Make sure that you've read over the information in your textbook to help us do this work.

Russian IV: Keep reading White Nights and as you do, focus on the character of Nastenka. What do we learn about her? How? Also, be sure to finish the vocabulary analysis work I gave you today so that you can present on these ideas to the group on Friday.

Homework for B Day Students - 14 February 2017

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!!!!  Make me your valentine by doing your homework tonight.

AP English III:

There are many things for you all to be working on/complete over the next few days. I'll outline the specific instructions for each task below.

1. Invisible Man reading. Your task is to read and annotate to the end of Chapter Two, the Trueblood chapter. It's a challenging piece of writing in terms of the language, the ideas, and the disgust you'll be feeling. Stay focused on the motifs to help you get through. The idea of double consciousness can also be productive. We expect you'll be coming in with a lot of questions.
2. Invisible Man blogging. Your task is to set up and post your introduction post as well as your posts on the Prologue, Chapter One, and Chapter Two. All of the posts should be up no later than 6:00 PM on Thursday the 16th. The posts are meant to be a more thorough version of your motif charts. You should identify how the motif is seen in the chapter as well as its importance within the chapter. There is a great version of the blog project here from last year. Keep in mind that in the example students tracked two motifs and did vocabulary as well, this is not part of your task this year.
3. Outlining for Research Papers. Your task is to create a Google Document and share with me (daniel_miller (at) dpsnc (dot) net). In the GD you should include your argument statement and outline one of your topics. You should share this no later than Sunday so that you can get feedback before the full outline is due on 24 February.

There's a lot going on in AP English III right now. Stay ahead and use your time wisely. See your teachers if you start to fall behind and need help!

English II:

Today we spent all of class working on our projects to finish our unit on Latin American Literature. If you are able, continue to work on your project at home or on your device. Remember that final projects will be graded next week!

Homework for A-Day Students: 13 February 2017

Advanced Russian:

Next class we will have one of our final classes focused on verbs of motion (II/III).  Please make sure that you have completed the verbs of motion exercises in your chapters. For Russian II this is exercise four in Chapter Six. For Russian III you'll be focusing on the exercises eight and nine in Chapter Ten.

Russian IV - Please focus on the passages that I showed you today in class. Look for important vocabulary and language structures in these passages. Also, pay close attention to the prefixing of verbs throughout those passages.

Russian I:

Next class I'll be working with each of you to review your projects. If your project is fully complete then you will turn it in. If your project needs revisions, then you will revise for homework on Wednesday and turn it in on Friday. Remember that for the project you should have a floor plan and paragraphs for five rooms in a house. The house does not need to be your actual house.

Homework for the Weekend B Day Classes 10 February

AP English III
Hey y'all! As we talked about in class, let's go ahead and wrap up our blog project contracts. Those should be filled out and signed by every person in your group by Tuesday. Also, make sure to AT LEAST do your "introduction" post (tell us who is in the group, and what motif you are tracking) so we can make sure our blogs are functioning properly. If you have problems, we'll talk Tuesday. If you do not have problems, remember your Prologue, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 blogs are due by Thursday of next week.

You have a timed write on Tuesday! Don't be nervous, you got this.

Finally, make sure to have an ARGUMENT STATEMENT for your research project in had by Tuesday. THIS WAS NOT MENTIONED IN CLASS, BUT PLEASE TAKE TIME THIS WEEKEND TO FINALIZE YOUR PLANNING. Enjoy your weekend!

English II
You will not have any "official" homework for the weekend. We are continuing our research projects, so please come prepared with your planning sheet on Tuesday! Remember, you get to choose between a creative writing assignment or a research project. Have a great weekend!

Homework for the Weekend - A Day Students - 9 February 2017

Happy Weekend A-Day. I'm off to DC tomorrow for an AP Russian conference, I can't wait to share everything that I learn with you all.

Advanced Russian:

Russian IV - Read the beginning of "Night Two" in White Nights. Focus on the developing relationship between the girl and the narrator. What type of character does she have? How do you know? Keep track of vocabulary and language use which marks both characters as unique.

Russian III - To sum up verbs of motion with prefixes, please complete the exercises in Chapter Ten, specifically number eight and nine. With these, read the sentences and fill in the blank. As you work through number nine, you'll want to consider the point of view of the speaker as he/she is talking.

Russian II - We've started working in earnest now on verbs of motion with prefix as well as within the past and future tenses. Keep practicing with this. Complete the exercises I gave you on paper. Fill in the blanks with past tense forms and consider which is the best choice for each situation.

We will work on our verbs of motion/Dostoevsky projects in class on Tuesday. This will count as the first full workshop day.

Russian I:

You all had a quiz today, so there is no official homework this weekend. However, you will find it useful to work on your projects this weekend so that I can review your writing and give you corrections on Monday about your work.

English II:

No homework this weekend - I hope that all of you have now either gotten caught up with your previous work and that you are all now working on the project for our Latin America unit.

Homework for B-Day Classes - 8 February 2017

AP English III

Tonight you should continue reading in Invisible Man to get through Chapter One. This chapter is often called "The Battle Royale" and was actually published as a stand-alone short story before the novel was published. As you read, make sure to find all of your motifs. Continue to find key ideas that relate to some of the authors we've studied previously (DuBois is really useful).

Use the link below to access Invisible Man on a .pdf if you don't have the book.

In terms of working on your research papers you should be focused on collecting sources and making your argument/topics more specific. Remember that you only have five to seven pages. You need to focus on local issues rather than international ones. Focus on one thing instead of all of the things. See what your sources give you. Your next major due date is the 22nd when your full outlines are due. We'll be doing arguments next week (Tuesday) and the outline of one topic (Thursday) to prepare for the full outline.

English II

There's no official homework tonight. Now we have read Marquez - so if you are interested in following his story for your creative writing project, you can get started with that planning. The major goal that you should be working on right now are your Latin American Literature projects - either researching or writing.

Invisible Man Online

Go here to find the book!

Homework for A-Day Students: 7 February 2017

Advanced Russian

Russian III and IV students should be prepared for a formal assessment next class. For Russian IV it will cover the first chapter of White Nights and for Russian III we will focus on prefixed verbs of motion in both aspects.

Russian II will have a quiz next week. To prepare for next class, spend time reviewing and taking notes on pages 237-239 in your textbooks. This should go right along with the information we reviewed in class about adding prefixes on to verbs of motion.

Russian I

Hopefully after today's phonetics lesson you have a better understanding of hard and soft letters and how these are connected to the grammar we're studying. Use this information to help you prepare for your quiz next class. This quiz will focus on case endings in nominative, accusative, and prepositional cases for nouns, adjectives, and possessive pronouns.

Your projects will be collected next week - on Wednesday the 15th.

English II

Today in class we finished our Benchmark exams and began working in earnest on our projects. Next class we'll start on Marquez's short story called "Tuesday Siesta".

Homework for B-Day Students - 6 February 2017

English II:

Today we made more progress on our Benchmark exams and then began the process of researching or working on our Latin American Literature projects. Next class we'll begin our study of Gabriel Garcia Marquez; one of my personal favorite authors.

AP English III:

We went over a cavalcade of information today on how to and where to do your research for your synthesis assignments. I'll read through your topics this week and aim to get them back to you by Friday. For next class, make sure that you have a copy of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. If you don't have your own copy then we will have copies for you to check out. We'll start reading the book together in class on Wednesday.

Additionally, now that you've made some progress with your research topics, keep moving forward. You should find two or three additional sources tonight and start moving forward on developing your topics as well as your argument. The more you can do now, the better!

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 3 February 2016

Advanced Russian:

We didn't really have class today because of the AP practice exam as well as the field trip for Physics - so your quiz on verbs of motion and Dostoevsky (Russian IV) will be postponed to Thursday. To prepare, please make sure that you are studying your conjugations and reviewing the basic rules for when to use either multidirectional or unidirectional verbs as well as aspectual choices (Russian III).

Russian I:

We did have class today, so your quiz will be happening on Tuesday. For the quiz, make sure that you are prepared with firm knowledge of masculine, feminine, and neuter case endings in nominative, accusative, and prepositional cases. On the quiz you will have fill in the blanks, translation, listening, reading, and multiple choice.

You should also continue working on your house writing projects. I'll review drafts of paragraphs next week before our final due date.

English II:

I was very proud of the fact that so many of you focused on your Benchmark exam today. We will finish the exam on Tuesday and then move on to working on our Latin American Literature projects.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students - 2 February

AP English III:

Over the weekend you have two key things to take care of to prepare for next week.  First, there's the writing assignment based on "Just Walk On By" by Brent Staples.  For the assignment, draw on the text, and write a paragraph challenging Staples for making stereotypical assumptions about women's reactions similar to those assumptions he accuses women of making about his intentions.  Engage him in a dialogue here and use his writing as his speech.

Additionally, we have our work on our research papers to prepare for Monday. Remember that the full topic sheet won't be due until the end of class on Monday since we will have to do some research to finish it up. But, work on the first half. Determine your topic and sub-topics. Generate an idea as to what you want to learn and why it's interesting to you. Monday will invoice doing some of the refining work we need to do to finalize these.

You will need to have your copy of Invisible Man for class on Wednesday.

English II:

Today was a rough day with the Benchmark - I'm glad that so many of you shouldered that responsibility well. We'll finish it on Monday and get started working on our projects then.

Homework for A-Day Students: 1 February 2017

English II:

Today we had our quiz on Latin American Literature and doppelgangers. Next class we'll be working on course registration with Student Services as well as beginning on our Benchmark exam.

Russian I:

Tonight for homework you should focus on practicing with your vocabulary and grammar by working on your house projects. Remember that you have a sample about my office at home. Write five paragraphs - one about each room. Follow the outline given. Practice with your case and gender endings.  You'll have a quiz on nominative, prepositional, and accusative case endings with nouns and adjectives on Tuesday of next week!

Advanced Russian:

Russian II:  Please take the time tonight to finish working on the present tense exercises through to number thirty-eight. Remember to practice conjugating the verb for the needed present tense form as well as translating what you can.

Russian III:  Keep working through your packet on prefixes and study the next prefixes meaning to arrive and to leave. Try to keep these clear from the earlier ones that had similar meanings.

Russian IV:  Continue reading Dostoevsky to the end of the seventh section.  Continue to build your paragraph about the narrator's tone and its importance in the story.

If you are taking the AP Russian exam your practice exam session is on Friday at 3:00 in the school's media center. There is no other date for the practice examination.  Don't forget that all of you will have an assessment next week on Thursday on either verbs of motion (II/III) or Dostoevsky (IV).

Homework for B-Day Students: 31 January 2017

AP English III:

There are a few things that you need to take care of tonight for next class. First, we have the post below which is the three essays to analyze and score. Remember to read each essay, give a score from one to nine (highest) and justify the score. You can do this in your synthesis pack for this question or in your notebooks.

Second, we have vocabulary work. Select two words from three authors we have studied and do a vocabulary study for each word. In the study be sure to include the word, part of speech, source quotation, citation, definition, word parts and meaning, and synonyms with details as to how the meaning is different.  We'll share some of our words on Thursday.

Lastly, we have the reading of Brent Staples's "Just Walk On By" - the article is here or in 50 Essays. Take a look at the piece and consider especially the idea of the veil/double consciousness. It's highly productive here.

You should also keep moving forward on refining your research topics - more on that next class and next week!

English II:  Next class you have a Benchmark Exam! Prepare yourself!

AP English III - Synthesis Essay Samples

AP English III Students - 

Due to our copier issue your sample essays are located online. Remember that part of your homework for next class is to read and score each essay. You should develop justification for the score based on the essay itself. The essays are located at this link.

There are three essays to read and score A, B, and C. You don't have to print the essays, but you should have notes on them if you do not print them.

Homework for A Day Students - 30 January 2017

English II

Next class we have our quiz on doppelgangers in Latin American Literature and the class after will be our District Benchmark test. Be ready to be tested and to show your knowledge over the next two classes.

Russian I

Tonight you have culture homework as well as grammar homework. First, culture - take your poet and do some research tonight. Find three facts about the poet that interest you. You should have information to share for next class. Additionally, start to work on reading and practicing with your fluency. If there's not an audio recording then you will find the poem on youtube and follow along as it is read aloud.

For grammar you need to go through the exercises we started today and finish the rest. Remember to focus on making your changes for case and to double check your agreement for gender.

Advanced Russian

Tonight for homework there are a few things to take care of which mainly have you finishing up what we were working on in class. For Russian IV - go on and read the fifth section of the First Night. Answer the question that follows. Keep track of new and useful vocabulary. Find another fact about the narrator and add to your list. For Russian III - finish the translation of the first set of exercises and complete the second and third on the new prefixes. For Russian II - work through to number twenty five in our current set of exercises. Make sure that you can translate the earlier ones (1-20).

Remember Russian II/III students, the only way to get the hang of verbs of motion in Russian is to use them!

I forgot the reading!!!

Agh! I remembered though! Here's the link to Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son".

Remember - just read Part One. In the .pdf file this takes you to page nine of nineteen. We may eventually read the whole thing as we go into Invisible Man. For right now, just focus on thoroughly completing Part One.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 27 January 2017

AP English III

This weekend there are three key things that you should work on. First, you have your reflection on being a Transcendentalist this week; I hope that through this experiment you learned something about yourself as well as the larger society of which you are a member. Reflect and think about this experience and express what you learned about yourself or society through this process. There are many routes that you can go with this reflection, but you should focus on showing what you learned and how you learned it.

Second, there's the beginning of the preparation for our research papers. Start by brainstorming three topics - these can be as general or as specific as you want. Remember that eventually these will be argumentative research papers, so it's important now to think about what interests you about this topic and what you want to learn more about the topic. Part of the process of developing this paper involves research, which we will begin next week.

Lastly, there's an article to read for Tuesday's class. The article is by James Baldwin and it's called "Notes of a Native Son" - it's a long piece, so only read Part One for Tuesday. Annotate heavily and consider how Baldwin uses personal examples to make a larger point about race and racism in society.

English II

Though we were cut short by the fire drill we were still able to watch our episode of The Twilight Zone, "Mirror Image". This will be the last thing that is on your quiz. For Tuesday's quiz we will have questions on "The Night Face Up" and on "Borges and I" as well as a paragraph response about the concept of doppelgangers. Make sure to study your notes and review the stories. Prepare for your quiz!

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 26 January

Advanced Russian:  All of you are working in your journals this weekend.

Russian II/III - You are working with the verbs ходить/идти and the verbs носить/нести. If you are in Russian III then you want to work with the в/во- prefix on those verbs. Write a brief story using these verbs. Write about 10 sentences. Practice on writing in the different tenses and focusing on cases. We'll go over these Monday.

Russian IV - Read the fourth section of White Nights and translate the passage in your journal. You should also answer question one. This gives you a chance to add more to your graphic organizer about the main character, do that.

Russian I:  We have now reviewed how to work with adjectives and possessive pronouns in the nominative, accusative, and prepositional cases. This weekend, complete the three exercises as practice. Remember to answer the questions. Change your endings to show the proper cases. Attempt all of the questions in the exercises.

Also, don't forget to keep studying your vocabulary and grammar notes!

English II:  If you did not finish the one-paragraph response today in class then that is due next class. We have read Cortazar and Borges. Next we'll watch a film and then prepare for our quiz on these stories.

Homework for B Day Students - 25 January 2016

AP English III

With today being a PLC Day we didn't have the chance to delve into DuBois the way that I wanted to. That's okay though because he lines up really well with Hurston (the reading for tonight). Take time to read Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels To Be Colored Me" - it's in 50 Essays or at this link.

As you read, try to find elements of Transcendentalism. Do you see how she is working through the idea of double consciousness? Try to relate her to DuBois and the others.

Also, I will collect your final reflection on Transcendentalism next week. Continue the experiment to Friday and take the weekend to reflect and write about the process of simplifying.

English II

No required homework for tonight. Enjoy the end of the semester!

Homework for A-Day Classes - 24 January

Advanced Russian:

Russian IV - Continue reading White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky. As you read, track new vocabulary and use any resources (in the book/dictionary) to find useful roots and translations of words.  You should finish reading to the end of section three. Answer questions and take note of sentences that you don't understand, so we can investigate them together.

Russian III - Focus on analyzing your prefixes for their preposition and case pairings. Go through all the pages. Then, focus on the first prefix (to go into) and complete the exercise. Select the appropriate verb.

Russian II - Focus on the next ten in the present tense section. Select the proper verb - multidirectional or unidirectional based on the context. Try to conjugate the verb to the proper form.

Also - please have your poems (in Russian) with you next class.

Russian I

Spend time with your vocabulary - especially with the adjectives. Study and practice turning the adjectives into their different forms for gender and for cases. Remember to make a list of items in your house as well as their location in your house.  This will be the beginning of our floor plan activity which is coming soon. Don't translate the items - bring a list in English and we will translate together.

English II

Some of you from your progress reports see that you need to finish your final project - the comic book. If you have anything else missing I hope to see you tomorrow to get that settled.

Homework for Monday - 23 January 2016

AP English III

This week you all will be completing one of my favorite projects of the year - the Transcendentalist for a week project. Remember that there are two portions - you should keep daily reflections about your process and these daily reflections will be the source for your week-long reflection which is going to be collected on Friday.  Read the assignment sheet carefully and think about yourself this week. Track your growth, and your mistakes, and think about why all of this matters.

Secondly, make sure that you read W.E.B DuBois' first two chapters from The Souls of Black Folk. As you read and annotate, stay focused on "the veil" and the idea of "double consciousness". This lines up well with the same ideas Thoreau showed us with the two eyes.  Hopefully on Wednesday we'll start to see how all of this comes together.

English II

You don't have any homework to complete tonight; however, if you saw missing assignments on your progress report you will need to finish and turn those in Wednesday since Wednesday is the last day of the quarter. Be sure that you've taken your test on Persepolis and turned in your comic book project.

Homework for the Weekend - 19 January 2017

Everybody's readin' for the weekend...


English II:

Over the weekend I want you to read part two of "The Night Face Up" - I gave you a handout that has the story on it. As you read, take notes around the plot and the character. What is happening to the character as the story develops? What is happening in the story? Keep track of his dreams versus his waking life.

AP English III:

Over the weekend you'll be finishing up the reading of Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior's "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail" - keep following up on the annotating and discussion we did today as you are reading through the second half. Hopefully, having the context from the Alabama clergymen helps you to make more sense of the points King is making and why he is making them.

Following that, you're going to take a look at Henry David Thoreau's "Where I Lived and What I Lived For" - the essay is available in 50 Essays and it's also at this link. As you read Thoreau, connect back to Transcendentalism as he is a clear disciple of Emerson. But also consider the way in which the ideas that King presents are similar to those of Thoreau.  Read and annotate closely. How is Thoreau making his point to you?  What is his point?

When you finish - make a list. What are the things in your life that are complicating your life? What would you want to do in order to "simplify, simplify, simplify" as Thoreau says? We'll have this discussion on Monday.

Lastly, don't forget that Monday is your last day of the quarter/semester. If you have any outstanding work, tests, missing grades in PowerSchool, then they need to be settled on MONDAY at the very latest!

Homework for A Day Students - 18 January 2017

Almost the end of another week. Amazing how fast time is flying by right now...

English II:

I'm very proud of the work that so many of you did today during our class workshop. Many of you left with a clear idea of what you need to do to finish your projects up. No matter what that is, make sure that your projects are complete next class. We'll collect them then. Remember that these projects count the same weight as your test.

Russian I, II, III, IV

Next class we have our semester exam! Be ready! Be studied. Be prepared! You should have a full idea of what will be on the test. See the post below for your reminders.

Homework for B-Day Students - 17 January 2017

AP English III

If you have anything left for the monologues or Drama Project - that needs to get turned in ASAP. If you didn't do your monologue (2B) because of the time constraints, please make sure that's settled today or tomorrow.

Tonight we need to keep reading. Take the learning we've done around transcendentalism and apply it to Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail." You can find it in 50 Essays or at this link. As you read, look for the five tenets of the philosophy. Look for how Dr. King is appealing to his audience. Rip this piece apart - it's really productive.  It's pretty long too - make sure you've read through to around paragraph twenty for next class.

We also have our previous readings (Truth and poems). We'll touch on those as we discuss Dr. King.

English II

Hopefully with today's workshop you're feeling finished or near finished with your graphic novel projects. We're going to collect those next class, so make sure that if you didn't get it done today that you have it ready for us next class.

Also, since we started a new unit it's important that you study your vocabulary and notes every day!

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 13 January

It's great to get back to our regular lives. Here's the work to do over the weekend.

Advanced Russian:

We're pushing hard to prepare for our semester exam which is going to fall on Friday the 20th. I'll put the topics for the exam below. Make sure that you are studying actively and reviewing everything to be prepared. To facilitate this make sure that you have finished the translations for your chapter (Russian III/IV) or the aspect exercises (Russian II).

• Russian II-IV:  Verb stems will be on the exam for all of you. Be able to work with all stems for your level and know conjugation patterns in past and non-past tenses.
• Russian II:  Know how to navigate numbers, counting, and time expressions as well as the basics of aspect.
• Russian III:  Be able to navigate modals, imperatives, vague language and aspect as well. Don't forget about sentence combining either.
• Russian IV:  You've got your comparisons, your mutations in them, and your use of them. There's also going to be writing using verbs of placement and position and your interrogative word. Don't forget about all the verb knowledge you know too!

Russian I:

Today we did a lot of work to prepare for the exam especially around cases, translating and building sentences in Russian. This is really good stuff. For tonight, keep going. You need to finish the translation exercise we started in class.  Also, you need to take a look at exercise eighteen and make a list of words in English you would need to talk about yourself. Lastly, do exercise six - identify the case and translate the sentence. Exercise 2B is a declension exercise. Work fast and use your charts.

All Russian Classes:

We started getting into Russian poets and poetry today. Super fun times. Here is a link to an online Russian poetry website with information about authors, selected poems, and some even have the authors reading the poems in Russian.  Go to this website to find a list of poets.  Remember you need to select a poem and a poet over the weekend.

English II

Today you had your unit test on Persepolis. I hope that you all felt confident and prepared for the test.  Next class we'll be focusing on our graphic novels and finishing those up next week. Make sure that if you need to spend time working on those at home to get caught up that you do so!

Homework for B-Day Students - 12 January 2017

AP English III

Your next class will be on Tuesday the 17th, following Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior Day. For our next class, make sure that you are prepared with the final draft of your rhetorical analysis of your monologue as well as your memorized monologue. You also need a copy of the monologue (annotated) to pair with your analysis.

In terms of our new unit on African American thought in the Harlem Renaissance, please read the article called "Ain't I A Woman" by Sojourner Truth available in 50 Essays or at this link. As you read, think about language and identity. How does language create power? You may find it helpful to look at Frances Harper's poem since she and Sojourner Truth share a lot of commonalities.

Additionally, read over the poems I gave you today so that we can work with those.

English II

You took a test today on Persepolis so there is no real homework to finish. Next class we will be working on our graphic novel projects and moving on to our next unit!

Back to reality!

Tomorrow we're back to school! Be ready.  It'll be a B Day!

Third one's a charm...I hope.

Here we are with another cancelled day of school - and I have to agree. The trip to the grocery store had a few dodgy moments, but the drive from Raleigh was pretty clear. I think tomorrow it'll all be cleared up, and we're back on Thursday for a full day.

AP English III:  If I'm right then Thursday will be your day for allegory presentations and the following Tuesday will be the day for monologues and rhetorical analyses. We'll also be starting to get into our new unit on the Harlem Renaissance and introduction to Invisible Man.

English II:  Your next class is the Persepolis unit exam (Thursday/Friday). If you are going to turn in the extra credit project it will need to be in by the end of next week. We'll be starting our next unit as we wrap up our graphic novel projects (please work on those at home since you have time - especially those of you who really want to work on the art).

Russian I:  Your exam will likely be on the 20th instead of the 17th. This gives us more time to review and practice. Make sure that you are working through the exercises in your textbook and reviewing Chapter One and the Introduction. Don't worry about the information around my/your - that'll be covered as part of Chapter Two.

Russian II/III/IV: Same as above on the exam and preparation. If you are working on missing work/reassessment items, be ready to do that on Friday. Remember to check PowerSchool as everything's been updated in there.

We will have final ruble/bathroom pass cash-in on Thursday and Friday next week. 

Another one...another one...SNOW DAY NUMBER TWO

DJ Khaled and Rick Ross are remixing this week. Yet another snow day.  I'm still stranded in Raleigh, and I say the roads are about fifty percent. Hopefully we can get back to real life on Wednesday.

Keep getting ahead and working on your projects and end of semester assessments which are upcoming.

Russian students, all of these snow days mean that we are eating into review and practice time for our exam. I hope that you're building that in for yourselves right now. Make use of the online resources that I posted a bit ago.

AP students, we may have to collect your rhetorical analyses before your monologue presentations. If you are ready to submit that, please have it ready for our next classes. Ms. McCormick and I are available over email to take questions and review drafts - but not the night before/day of. We will try to give you a separate class to prepare to give your monologues; however, if we continue to be out this week you may be forced to give your monologue the day we return. You should be prepared for this eventuality (if say our only day this week is Friday).

English II students, we have our test on Persepolis - if you were absent please email for the study guide and review game. It is helpful for the test.

Please communicate if you need to. I'm available. I've been reading, getting in political arguments on Facebook, and playing PlayStation. A pretty fun snow break, I think.

Snow Day Number One

So - we're out tomorrow. I'm stranded in Raleigh until the roads clear up, and I can get out of a parking lot which is currently a skating rink.

Next class day is a B Day. We'll be doing our allegory play presentations (be ready, AP students) and having our Persepolis Unit Examination (study your guides from the review game, English II).  After that we have Russian - do your exercises and study. We will have our exam before the end of the quarter.

My guess is we won't be back to school until Wednesday at the earliest. We'll see...

Russian Update - Grades/Powerschool

All Russian Students!

I've updated PowerSchool with zeroes or exemptions for assignments. If you have questions about an assignment marked with a zero, please email me daniel . miller @ dpsnc . net  -  or leave a comment. If you leave a comment, please leave contact information and name. Please include the name of the assignment.

Homework for A-Day: 6 January 2017

Let's go ahead and say that all of this refers to what's happening next class, whenever that so happens to be.

Advanced Russian:

You should continue to prepare for your upcoming exam on the 17th of January. For that you've got some things that you can be working on:

Russian II Students - Please work on the exercises in Chapter Five related to aspect. Especially numbers 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Russian III/IV Students - Please work on your translation exercises. Use this time to review grammar and vocabulary from the most recent unit.  Additionally, Russian IV, you can start with reading Dostoevsky.

Russian I:

You also have an exam coming up soon! Do exercises 2B, 6, 18, 19 in Chapter One to review. Do as much of these as you can and ask questions when we're together again about what you can't do.

English II:

You have your test next class - make sure that you are studying and preparing using your study guide we did today. If you were absent from today's class, see us soon and review what you've missed before the test.

B Day Homework and Reminders - 5 January

With who knows what going to happen over the next few days I'm going to describe things in terms of how many classes from today things will be happening. Adjust and prepare accordingly.

AP English III

I hope that you felt prepared and successful on the test on The Crucible today. You have some online and group collaborating to do over the weekend to prepare for next class's priority - the group allegory presentation. Remember, make a point through the art of allegory. The thing you have to remember is that you have to be specific; a point to point comparison is needed so that the audience can make sense of how they line up and what the point is. You should prepare a script, I'd share a Google Doc, and prepare for about 3-5 minutes of length. One scene or two short scenes.

In two classes we're going to have our monologue presentations and collection of rhetorical analyses on the monologues. You have the rubric, and if you don't come get it tomorrow while we're at school or email. Remember that in the rhetorical analysis you're focusing on explaining how the author is conveying an argument through this monologue. That argument should be one of the main ones of the whole play too. Look at language - get your hands dirty - and remember that these are plays. They've been spoken and presented. YouTube it. Tone is a key element of how authors make arguments. You have a day before we collect, so come in for a conference!

English II

Lots of fun today for the review game - there was only one question that couldn't be answered! Tehran! Remember to use your study guides and prepare for what we have next class. The Persepolis unit exam is going to have everything that we did today - characters, plot, culture, vocabulary, and writing.

Please do keep looking at your personal narratives and working on them (especially if we have some time to do it). We'll build in a bit of class time to do that too, and soon!

A Day Homework - 4 January

С новым годом!!!  Happy New Year to the A-Day crew.  Here are your reminders for tonight to bring you to Friday.

Russian Students - We will be celebrating Russian Christmas on Friday! Be ready for some culture fun!  Don't forget that you all have a midterm exam on the 17th of January!

Russian II - Tonight I want you focusing on your aspect knowledge in the past and future cases. Spend time with the examples in Chapter Five as well as with the commentary on those examples. Then, study the verb pairs on pages 202 and 203.  In your journals, I want you to write at least ten sentences using at least two pairs. Write a lot of sentences in past and future with the different aspects. Explain the difference in meaning. This is also a great chance to review conjugations

Russian III - Complete the translation exercise, number 21, in your journals. Be sure to review grammar in the chapter and vocabulary as you do the translations.

Russian IV - Complete the translation exercise, number 17, in your journal.  Review the grammar and vocabulary for Chapter Twelve as you do this.

Russian I - We've made a very important study guide today for cases. Next class we'll take a few more rides on the metro before we do some writing practice and cultural work. For homework tonight you need to focus on studying. Study your declension chart and study your vocabulary. Apply the one with the other and change the words. Know what those changes mean!

English II - Your reminders are below. We will have our exam on Persepolis in two classes. Next class will be our review day in which we will finish the movie and play our review game. Make sure that if you've missed any chapters that you get those read.

Also, we have the graphic novels coming due soon. If you need to get caught up on those, spend some time working at home if needed.

B Day Homework for January 3rd

Welcome back from the break! I hope we all have a great start to 2017.

AP English III 

You have many assessments coming up in the next two weeks. Be sure to stay on top of them or your grade will start falling fast, and you don't want to do everything the night before it's due.

On Thursday, we have our exam on The Crucible.  Don't forget to bring your copy of the play for the annotation check. We're not taking late books this time. 

Part 1 will be character identifications (you choose four out of a list), where you say who the character is, their importance to the plot and to the allegory/Miller's argument. You need to cite specific scenes/moments in the play.

Part 2 will be the same as Part 1, except you'll be writing about the character you tracked.

Part 3 are short essays (one sentence argument followed by two or more well-developed body paragraphs and a short conclusion).  The essay questions will cover our discussion of The Crucible film, the character of John Proctor, and Mary Rowlandson.

We'll be working on our allegory plays in class after the test, and you'll be presenting them on Monday.

On Wednesday, your drama projects are due. This means delivering your monologue and turning in your rhetorical analysis and as well as your annotated monologue. We're giving you an whole extra week so you can have writing conferences with us--use it!

English II

Remember to review your notes and read parts of Persepolis you may have missed in class. The test is coming up in two class periods.  Don't forget you can do the extra credit project to help with your test grade.

Next class, we'll be doing a review game for the test and working on our narratives. If you are behind on the narratives, work on them at home.

Homework for the Break - A Day Students - 22 December

Happy Break!  I'm so excited to sleep in tomorrow and have a real breakfast!  That's how I know break has begun.  Here is what you need to accomplish over the time away from school.

Advanced Russian

Soon after we return we will have our semester exam.  The exam will cover everything that we've learned in the first semester including the one-stem verb system, review of case declensions, and vocabulary from Chapters One through Four for all students.  Beyond that, Russian 2 students will have information related to counting, numbers, and time expressions in Russian.  Russian 3 students will see elements related to modal expressions, imperatives, elements of vagueness and sentence combining.  Russian 4 will need to be skilled about the new information related to verbs of placement, the interrogative particle, and other information from Chapter Twelve.

Spend this time over the break preparing and studying daily.  I've been doing a lot in these last classes to point out a lot of the gaps you have in your knowledge.  Now that you have the time, it's important to focus on these gaps.

Also, if you are missing your writing project or any other grades (other than the viewing on Night Swallows) then make sure that's ready for me when we return.

Use these resources to help you study and prepare over break:

UCLA Online Russian Class with Exercises and Review

Overview of Russian Grammar - Lessons and Vocabulary

Russian I

Over the break you should focus on finalizing your learning of verb conjugations and case declensions.  This is so important to the rest of your learning in Russian.  Use the online resources above to help you study and review.  There's some great stuff up there to help you review.

You should be able to complete the declension chart I'd given you today in class as well as any of the exercises left.  We'll also have our exam on Unit Two after we return from break.

English II

Over the break if you would like to work on your hero narratives or on the extra credit project for Persepolis then please do.  We'll be finishing the hero narratives and the larger unit on Persepolis soon after we return from the break.

Homework for the Break - B Day Edition - 21 December 2016

Happy Solstice Everyone!  It's the longest night of the year tonight.  From here on out winter is only ending.  Here are your reminders as we are going into the break.

AP English III

Make sure that you have completed your reading and annotating of The Crucible by this point.  You should spend time over the break reviewing your notes and your reading to prepare for our final unit exam on this play.  That assessment will happen not too long after we return from break.

The major priority that you have over break is to work on your drama projects.  You should decide on your play (don't forget to make your post in the previous post to answer that question), read your play thoroughly, and select a monologue to study.  With your monologue, you will need to memorize, annotate, and analyze.  Put forward all of the skills you have learned with analysis as you do this work.

Ms. McCormick and I will be available when we return to review your work and give you feedback.

English II

Over the break if you would like to there is some extra credit that you can complete.  We have not read many chapters of Persepolis.  Over the break you can read these chapters and complete a writing assignment for extra credit.  For the extra credit you'll be either doing a pamphlet on Persepolis or writing a letter to the author, Marjane Satrapi.  Follow the instructions for this assignment and have it ready the day you return.

You can also spend time over break working on your hero narratives.  We'll finish these when we return from the holiday, but it may be a good idea to finish your rough draft of your comic now.

Homework for A Day Students - 20 December

Advanced Russian:

Tonight I want you to get ready for our final class of the year.  Prepare your exercises on new grammar for Thursday's class.  For Russian II, this is exercise five, filling in the blanks.  Think about the types of verbal action that you've learned today.  For Russian III and IV this is a translation activity.  Make sure that if you need to look up a word that you make a vocabulary card for those words.

On Thursday we'll finish collecting projects, watch some holiday movies, and work on our New Year tree!

Russian I:

Tonight you have case work to do which reviews all of the cases.  Work through the words and fill in the blanks for the proper cases.  Be able to translate the sentences that you create.  Hopefully on Thursday we'll finish Doctor Zhivago and make some ornaments for our tree.

English II:

A lot of you got some good work done in class.  Keep going.  If you want to, keep working on your narratives.  Plan and write!  These will be due after break!

Homework for B Day Students - 19 December

AP English III

Happy Monday!  Tonight you have two things to do, and one of them is right here.  First, read Act IV of The Crucible.  As you read, finish the tracking of your character and consider the end of the play. Is it satisfying?  How does it finish the allegory?  In what ways is symbolism used at the end?

Also, please post a comment to this post which states which play you've chosen for your project as well as a reason why.  Your comment may not show up immediately, but that's okay.  You should start reading for your Drama Project.

English II

For homework tonight you should do one of the following tasks.  First, you can choose to work on your hero narrative.  Keep putting together your rough draft and make sure that you've finished the planning sheet as well as the paragraph in your journals.  You should finish the rough draft so that we can start putting together the final draft soon.

The second thing that you can work on is your essay revisions.  You received back your final drafts with feedback.  If you would like to, you can work on these further in order to earn back points and make your writing even stronger.

Olympiada of Spoken Russian 2017

Russian Students:

In the spring Duke University will be hosting the Carolinas Olympiada of Spoken Russian.  There will be students from Enloe High School in Raleigh, Lexington High School in South Carolina, and Jordan.  There are four competitions:

1. Poetry recitation.  You memorize and present a poem to the judges.  Increasing levels of Russian must memorize poems of increasing length.
2. Speaking about yourself.  You prepare a short speech about yourself, your family, your interests, your hobbies.  Speech length and complexity increases with increasing levels of Russian.
3. Reading and answering questions.  You will read a text and then answer questions about it.
4. Cultural Competency.  You will be asked to discuss elements of Russian culture in Russian including but not limited to geography, politics, literature and music.

On the day of the competition there will be a Russian cooking demonstration as well as several different Russian language activities.  You'll also get the chance to meet professors and students from Duke and other Russian language students from around the region.

This is a great thing to work for and to begin preparing for over the winter break.  We'll talk more about it this week!

Homework for the Weekend - All Students - 16 December

With my early departure for last night's swim meet I forgot to make this post.  Sorry.  All classes can see their announcements and reminders for the weekend ahead.

B Day - AP English III

Over the weekend you should focus on reading and annotating Act III.  There is a lot that happens in this act to many of our characters.  I would think that your annotations on your character as well as within the text will be highly productive and thorough.  This is also a good chance to check in with your back cover annotations to collect ideas about themes, motifs, symbols, settings, and the allegory.

Additionally, if you didn't finish your Puritan tabloid assignment, have that ready for Monday.  If you missed class due to theater, your assignment for make-up credit is in Google Classroom.

B Day and A Day - English II

The next chapter of Persepolis that we are going to read is called "The Trip."  If you'd like to earn some extra rubles, read the chapters leading up to "The Trip".  We'll review these chapters on Monday and Tuesday before we begin on this chapter.

Also, make sure that you've completed your essay as well as your hero planning and paragraphs.

A Day - Advanced Russian

Over the weekend you have different things to do based on your different classes.  See the notes below:

• Russian II - You have the new work on aspect to do.  Study the list of imperfective and perfective verbs in Chapter Five.  Then complete exercise two where you analyze the verbs for their tense and aspect.  Also, you should study your quizzes and review your feedback for reassessment of the time quiz as well as for your writing projects.  Writing is due next week.
• Russian III - Writing is due next week.  We can do the performance of the dialogue before school.  You have exercises 15, 16, and 19 focusing on the new information/grammar.
• Russian IV - Please finish reading "Prisoner of the Caucuses" and studying for new vocabulary and roots.  Additionally, complete exercise 16 about using the particle ли in Russian.

I enjoyed our talk today about Russia and learning Russian.  Remember, it's a journey for a lifetime.

Russian I

Over the weekend I want you to read in your textbooks about the new three cases - Genitive, Dative, and Instrumental.  Think about how these cases are different from the ones we've already learned.  We'll go over them on Tuesday.  Also, if you need to keep studying to reassess based on today's quiz, make sure that you do that.  You have to know how to count before you can add.  The same principle works in foreign language.

Homework for A Day Students - 14 December 2016

Advanced Russian

Your writing projects are due on Friday.  Make sure that you are prepared to meet this goal.  Additionally, we will work through a lot of the new grammar on Friday to clarify any confusions.  If you need to finish the exercises on the new grammar, make sure that those are done so that you can ask questions on Friday.

Russian I

I hope you enjoyed the watching of Zhivago today - we'll stay rolling through Siberia for a few more classes.  On Friday we will have our quiz on the nominative, accusative, and prepositional cases.  Make sure that you know your declensions and your grammar.  Also, verbs will be on the quiz since it's hard to do much without a verb.

English II

Great day today, guys.  Very productive.  If you need to finish your essay, be sure to get that work done for Friday.

Homework for B-Day Students - 13 December 2016

AP English III

For tonight you are reading one of my favorite pieces from the Colonial period - "A Brief Narrative on the Captivity of Mary Rowlandson."  Read the piece carefully and annotate.  It's a good one for shedding light on the ins and outs of Puritan culture and their views on morality.

For Monday we have Act III - continue following the trends that you've been discovering in the text and keep annotating and reading.  If you're in 3B then read extra carefully since your luck is really crappy.

English II

No real homework tonight.  If you've missed earlier chapters on Persepolis then make sure that you're all caught up.  If you haven't yet turned in your essay, it's due on Thursday.

Homework for A Day Students - 12 December 2016

I just realized that it's 12/12.  Is there a special thing for this?  I don't know.

Advanced Russian

I hope that all of you felt prepared for your quiz today.  I'll have the grades posted to PowerSchool as soon as I can.  If you want to reassess, we will settle that next week.  Also, if you want to do ruble exchange for extra credit, we can take care of that next class.

For homework tonight you should be reading from your textbook (or from your textbook as well as your short story [Russian IV]).  Take notes and generate questions as you go through the new content.  It's my hope that next class we will have a chance to finish our work on the recent episodes of Night Swallows as well as begin on the final portions of this unit.

Russian I

You all did very well today during our review work on grammar.  Tonight, make sure that you have finished your sentences about yourself and generated images that pair with those images.  Develop the sentences further if you want by adding more details (locations, et cetera).  You have a major quiz on Friday on the grammar we've been learning, prepare yourself accordingly.

English II

Your final drafts of your essays will be collected on Friday.  Make sure that you have a finished draft from today's class with some feedback so that you can meet your final deadline.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Edition - 9 December

AP English III

We had a lot of fun today acting out that final scene from Act One.  Special congratulations to the actors who earned one hundred rubles.  Next class we'll move on to looking at Act II - make sure that you have thoroughly read and annotated.  Also, check in with back covers and your character list.  You have your one character to cover thoroughly as well as general annotations on the rest.

Next class we'll also spend time in our portfolios reflecting on writing.

English II

Some of you were able to finish your final drafts of your essays today.  This is great.  If you were editing today then you'll be finishing next week.  There's no real homework for you this weekend, but next week we'll be starting on our next writing project.  Think about your heroes.  Brainstorm about them.  Also, be sure that you're getting caught up if you've missed class recently. 

Homework for the Weekend - A Day Edition - 8 December

Advanced Russian

We have a quiz on Monday which will focus on the new grammar and vocabulary in the unit.  Here are some reminders for what to study over the weekend:

Russian II - numbers (spelling and counting rules), time expressions and prepositions with time
Russian III - forming imperatives in Russian from verbs
Russian IV - forming superlatives and comparisons in Russian from adjectives

Additionally, you have your writing assignments.  I was happy to see so many of you working diligently in the lab today.  These projects will be collected on Friday.  We will have a bit of time in class on Monday and Wednesday to keep working.  We will also be going on to the next piece of these chapters on Monday.

Russian I

You will have a grammar quiz on Wednesday which will focus on the three cases (Nominative, Accusative and Prepositional) as well as verb conjugation.  Make sure that you use the exercises that we have now completed to prepare.  We will play a lot of review games on Monday to prepare us for the quiz.  We'll also get back to Zhivago.  Please be actively studying and reviewing this weekend.

English II

Over the weekend you have your writing to complete about your personal hero.  Make sure to write a one-paragraph response which uses a topic sentence, clear example, explanation of the example and a brief conclusion.  Your writing should reflect what you know now about effective writing.

Also, our essays will be due next week.  For those of you who finished today, we'll be looking at draft workshops next week for you.  For those of you who have yet to finish, please work with me outside of class to get this done.

Advanced Russian - Word Parts

Advanced Russian Students - 

Use this online resource for your Russian root work.

It doesn't have everything, but it is very extensive.

This list focuses solely on prefixes.

Homework for B Day Students - 7 December

AP English III

Congratulations on completing your third timed writing.  From here on out it's just forty minutes for the timed writing because that's what you'll have on the actual exam.

For tonight, delve in to The Crucible - make sure that you have read Act One and thoroughly annotated.  Don't forget to follow your character thoroughly as you read and annotate.

Also, keep an eye out for vocabulary.

English II

Tonight you have a one paragraph response which answers the question - Who is your hero and why?  The hero you have does not need to be a person that you have met, nor does it even need to be an actual person (Batman, perhaps?).  No matter whom you choose, make sure that you have a clear topic sentence, clear examples, explanation of those examples and a conclusion.

Homework for A-Day Students: 6 December

Advanced Russian

We will have our quiz on new grammar and vocabulary on MONDAY.  Not Thursday.  I want to make sure that all of you have some more time to work on your grammar and vocabulary writing projects first as these are supposed to help get you ready for the quiz.  For Thursday's class make sure that you have moved forward from your first rough draft.  You should have corrected any/all mistakes and expanded upon your writing.

We will also finish working on the newest episode of Night Swallows next class.  Do not do the writing/culture work for homework.

Russian I

You have grammar exercises due for me on Thursday.  You'll be working with accusative, prepositional, and nominative cases as well as reviewing verb conjugation.  Make sure that you've done all that you can with the exercises.

English II

No homework officially tonight, but some of you may want to take this time to get caught up on your essays - especially if you missed a previous class.  Next class we will be working on revising our essays to create our final drafts.

Homework for B-Day Students: 5 December

AP English III

Sorry to put the fear into you this morning, but it had a purpose.  Hopefully you'll be able to recognize this same type of fear as we get into the work on The Crucible.  There are a few other things for you to pay attention to as we start moving through the month.  Remember that you will have a timed writing next class - it's a rhetorical analysis.  In these last few classes we've done a lot of work on this writing goal.  Ms. McCormick and I want to see improvement from the last time.

Also, make sure that you are reading The Crucible.  You need to complete the reading of Act I this week.  Don't read the introduction, but do read everything at the beginning of Act I.

English II

No homework tonight.  If you need to work on your essays more thoroughly then do that so that you are ready for our draft workshop which is coming next class.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 12/2/2016

Advanced Russian

Over the weekend you should be working on the revisions/productions of your written work which focuses on the new grammar in this unit (time expressions/imperatives/comparisons).  As you write, you should use the vocabulary in your textbook or a dictionary to help develop words that you need.  Make sure that you are using all of your new grammar in this assignment as it is meant to be a way to prepare for your quiz on Thursday.

Russian I

You have exercises which focus on Accusative and Prepositional Cases as well as verb conjugation.  Make sure that all of these exercises are as complete as you can make them by Thursday.  We will go over them then.  On Tuesday, we will finish presentations and see what happens with that gun that Lara has.

English II

If you finished your rough draft today, congratulations for working so hard.  If not, do try to finish working on it over the weekend if you can.  I also can help you on Monday.  Additionally, if you have missed any of the chapters we've read in Persepolis ("The Veil", "Persepolis", and "The Letter") then make sure that you get caught up on that reading.

Homework for B Day Students - 1 December 2016

AP English III

Over the weekend you need to read and annotate Oluadah Equiano's narrative on his captivity and travel across the Atlantic on a slave ship.  As you read, annotate heavily.  You get a good sense of the language in this time period.  There are also several key appeals that Equiano makes to his audience.  Specifically, look at how he is able to craft an anti-slavery argument in his piece.

Also, make sure that you have your copy of The Crucible - we will begin our study of that piece this week coming up.

English II

Tonight in Persepolis you have the chapter called "The Heroes" to read.  As you read, keep working on vocabulary and inferences.  Find important panels and draw out their meaning from the details.