Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 22 February 2018

AP English III

I think that you are all doing a pretty wonderful job of working through Invisible Man and understanding some of the very large and real questions that Ellison is exploring through the text. Over the weekend you have a few important things to work on and complete.

Make sure that you have read and annotated Chapters 5 and 6 in Invisible Man. As you do this, consider your motif charts and your vocabulary requirement. In Chapter 5 you will have the story of the Founder - it's a story within a story - the reverend will tell the story while TIM is listening. Stay focused on the character of the Founder and some of the fallacies that are in his story. Chapter 6 will show you a new side of Bledsoe. Pat attention to him closely - what accounts for his change?

You also have your instructions on how to complete your outline for your research paper. Be sure that you are formatting your outline using the rubric as well as your sourcepack. See me if you have any questions.

English IV

On Monday we will have our vocabulary quiz on roots one through ten. Make sure that you can identify the parts in words as well as knowing your parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb). Hopefully you are using your study guide to review words and the ways in which meaning is built when word parts combine with each other.

Homework for A-Day Students: 21 February

Our next classes fall on Friday! I'm excited to show you all my new Friday t-shirt...

English IV

On Friday we will have our vocabulary quiz on the first ten word parts in our lesson. Make sure that you have learned the meaning of the word parts, the alternate spellings (if any), and the ways that the words come together with different parts to form meanings.

I've given each of you a study guide with sample words for this quiz that you should use to prepare.

Advanced Russian

On Friday we will finish our film and begin with our summaries of The Irony of Fate using verbs of motion. Tonight you may want to think about the action that we have seen so far. What verbs of motion can we use to describe actions in the film? Where did they go? From where?

Tonight you should finish your translation work (Russian II) or your dialogue work (Russian III). Be sure that you are using this as an opportunity to review concepts and important vocabulary before we have our unit examination on these ideas. That exam will be coming after next week!

Russian I

Today we focused on family member vocabulary as well as some culture related to Russian names. All of this is to help us complete our next vocabulary project - a family tree. For this you are focused on four generations of your family - remember that you can use your actual family or you can make up members of your family too. All of the people need to be named in Russian (first, middle, and last). You'll write paragraphs about two of the people in your family.

We'll only work on this for a bit before I collect it! Also, some of you are still missing your floor plan projects. Make sure that those are turned in ASAP.

Be sure that you are studying and working on your project. You will have a spelling quiz on Friday!

Homework for B-Day Classes - 20 February 2018

AP English III

Very good work today going through what is a difficult chapter in Invisible Man. I was happy to see the way that you all were engaging thoughtfully with the text and considering the larger connections between the events of Chapter Two and the other events in the text. I thought that you all did a wonderful job of picking apart the symbols through the chapter to understand some of the larger ideas that Ellison is presenting.

For homework tonight you have Chapters Three and Four. Chapter Three takes place at The Golden Day (a bar and brothel) - pay close attention to the Vet and what he has to say to TIM. Also in Chapter Four we have more time with Dr. Bledsoe and around the campus. Pay attention to your motifs, your vocabulary cards, and your blogs. Remember that if the motif is not seen in the blog, then you will want to still account for that by saying so.

Down the road we have our Research Paper Outlines due on the 2nd of March. Work through your sourcepacks and begin to create your outline. I'll review formatting and requirements for the outline in class on Thursday. We've already written them before, so this should be an easier task than it was before.

English IV

Your homework is the same as your classmates in 2A. Begin studying for your vocabulary quiz. Make sure that you have learned our ten word parts thoroughly and that you can analyze words for their important parts. This is an important skill that will pay off so much for you in so many areas.

Also, if you have any missing assignments - be sure that you have started to get them made up.

Homework for A-Day Classes: 19 February 2018

English IV

Today in class we finished our first set of vocabulary roots and began working on our first set of words before going on to the film version of Frankenstein. Next class we will finish watching this first section of the film before taking a deeper look at the creation of the creature.

For tonight you should all be focused on studying your word parts. Remember that you should focus on roots and suffixes. The suffixes help you to identify the part of speech, the roots help you to know the meaning of the word. Be sure that you are using your notes as well as your word lists to help you prepare for Friday's quiz.

Advanced Russian

We are wrapping up the unit so it's time to finish some of our conclusion exercises. Russian II students will be looking at Exercise 6.13 on page 254-255. You'll be translating numbers one, three, and five. That's all. Be sure to consider your verbs and cases.

Russian III students will be looking at the directed dialogue on page 435 and 436. Kendall is working on the A group and Marec is working on the B group. You should be looking at the questions and the pictures. Write answers that accompany the questions and pictures.

Russian I

Tonight you should continue to study your vocabulary in Chapter Two - especially the nouns and adjectives. Hopefully by this point you know your colors pretty well. Start becoming comfortable with using the vocabulary related to members of your family. Next class we will finish our movie and begin working on the vocabulary to start finishing our unit on grammar and cases.

If you did not have a project to turn in today, please make sure that it is turned in to me ASAP. I can collect it from you tomorrow or Wednesday.

Grading Update - AP English III

At this point I have gone through the work on Google Classroom and the few that were shared to me via Google Drive. PowerSchool is down this weekend, so I've filled in rubrics; I can't fill in grades at this time. There were several students missing work on Google Classroom - please go back and submit your work so that I can access it. You can also share it to me.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 16 February

English IV

Today you all received your progress reports and for some of you I also handed you an assignment that is missing and needs to be made up. If you have zeroes on your progress report, please make sure that you are taking the weekend to get caught up. We will continue working through Frankenstein next week - including the beginning of our film study as well as our independent projects.

AP English III

Very good work today getting into the beginnings of Invisible Man. There's so much to talk about with this book that we're only really hitting the major points. Make sure that after every class you are going back and checking on any questions that you may have had from your reading and thinking on your own.

For the weekend you have Chapter Two to read and annotate. Remember that we have a few standing assignments as we are going through the book as well. You and your groupmates should make sure to complete the post on Chapter Two for your blog as well. Then there's also the vocabulary card for Chapter Two.

This chapter is strange and disturbing because of the story that Jim Trueblood tells. Be sure to pay attention to it and analyze it on a symbolic level. There's a lot going on and we will delve into it on Tuesday in class. Be sure to generate questions for me to enrich our conversation.

Lastly, make sure that you have submitted/shared your sourcepacks by the end of the day today.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 15 February

English IV

There is no real homework for you all to complete for me this weekend. If you have missed class and see missing scores in PowerSchool or your progress reports then be sure that you have finished up on that work and gotten it in to me.

Advanced Russian

Very good work today with your presentations on The Amazing Race - Russia. I think that all of you did a good job of clearly expressing yourselves as you spoke about your cities. Make sure that you've done any finishing touches to your project and submitted it via Google Classroom by the end of the day today or tomorrow. I'll grade them and return them this weekend.

You should all continue working on the exercises we began in class. Russian II students should consider verbs of motion and related words and cases - remember that everything depends on the point of view of the speaker. Russian III students should focus on the idea of hypothetical and conditional mood - be sure that you can identify and translate.

Russian I

After yesterday's difficult class I was happy to see you all come in and get to work today. I think that we had a few good breakthroughs related to class and what we can do to improve. For the weekend, be sure that you've finished your projects. Use your notes and charts to help you check your writing and make sure that you are using the appropriate noun and adjective endings for what you want to say.

You should also spend time this weekend working on the Chapter Two vocabulary. Here is a link to an audio file that has the words said by a Russian. Use that to help you with your pronunciation! We'll have a spelling quiz on Friday!

Homework for B-Day - Wednesday the 14th

Happy Valentine's Day to my lovely students! I hope that you all know that I'm so happy to spend so much of my time with you all. Hopefully we make a bit of Valentine's Day everyday in Room 301!

AP English III

Tonight you have two major goals to accomplish. First, there's the synthesis sourcepack related to your research question. This work should be submitted to me online. Hard copies of work will not be accepted. In the assignment you are creating the prompt page for your research topic. The opening and instructions are the same for everyone - take this directly from your prompt. The context paragraph, prompt, and citations will be different.

Don't forget to include five to seven sources. One of them should be a non-print source. One of them should also take a side opposite to yours - this would provide a future refutation source. I'll grade these over the weekend and return them to you via Google Classroom on Monday.

You also have reading and annotating of Invisible Man - you're reading Chapter One. This chapter is very strange and involves a lot of symbolism especially related to the boxing match. Pay attention to the veil and use your motifs to navigate the chapter. All of the motifs are seen in Chapter One. You should also make sure that you are completing your vocabulary per chapter as you read.

Don't forget that registration paperwork is due by February 27th!

English IV

Your homework is the same as your A-Day classmates. You are reading Chapters One through Three of Frankenstein and using the comprehension questions to make sure that you have understood the reading. You do not have to write answers to the questions, but you should be able to find the answers in the story. Make sure that you are actively reading - underlining and making notes as you read. This will improve your reading skills and better prepare you for future reading tasks.

Homework for Tuesday Night - 13 February 2018 - A Day

Russian I

Tonight you should actively finish most of the work on your projects related to your house. Remember that you are required to show four rooms and two pieces of furniture in each room. Your floor plan should be written entirely in Russian with the furniture colored and marked in the main rooms. Then you need to make sure that you write a sentence that explains something that happens in that room.

The project is due on Monday, at the latest. If the project is ready on Thursday you can turn it in then.


Advanced Russian

You all also have a project due for me. Tonight you should work hard to make sure that your slides are complete. I've put together a bit of a check-list for you with what you should cover in your slides and in your presentation, overall.

• past tense (where they've come from)
• present tense (stage instructions)
• future tense (next step/city)

Don't forget that you also need to make sure that you have included:

• one focus city - two important sites in that city.
• pictures on each slide
• at least ONE transitive verb of motion

Next class we will do presentations on one of the cities/stages before going on to wrapping up this unit.

English IV

Tonight you are reading Chapters One through Three of Frankenstein. This is the part of the novel when we start to hear the story of Victor Frankenstein and his life. This story will lead us to discovering the monster and all of those other horrible and creepy things. As you are reading Chapters One through Three, use the comprehension questions to help you keep track of what you are reading. As you read each chapter, make sure that you can answer the questions. 

Homework for B-Day Students: 12 February 2018

English IV

Your homework is the same as your classmates in 2A. Tonight I want you to read the next two letters from Frankenstein - Letter Two and Letter Three. As you are reading, look for details about Robert Walton as a person. Highlight or underline the details and then in the margins, write a word or phrase that states what this says about him. This is very similar to what we were doing in class today with our chart.

Next class we will review this before we start on the real story of Victor Frankenstein and his creation.

AP English III

I feel as though there was some very natural confusion as we started reading Invisible Man today in class. This is very natural. I keep finding things that make more sense every time I take a group of students through this opening chapter. Today in class, as we read, we completed our annotations via our motif charts, focused on understanding elements of post-modernism in the text, and got a full understanding of the narrator/main character.

Tonight you should begin reading Chapter One. All of the motifs are present in Chapter One. You will also want to complete a vocabulary card from Chapter One - just like we did with the Prologue. As you read Chapter One, pay attention to the symbolism of the boxing match. We'll try to tie things together and make understandings on Friday.

Remember that next class we will have our first synthesis timed writing and on Friday your synthesis sourcepack for your own research paper is due. The work due on Friday should be submitted electronically via Google Classroom.

I look forward to taking you all through this fun and complicated novel. Remember - just keep reading!

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 9 February 2018

Russian I

Over the weekend you should spend time finishing the work on your home plan and writing projects. Be sure that you have created rough drafts of each of your paragraphs for me. I will collect these on Tuesday and then return them to you with feedback. Remember that you are writing three sentence paragraphs about each room.

1. Describe the room.
2. Describe the items in the room.
3. Tell what happens in the room. Use a verb and be sure to use prepositional case.

Advanced Russian

On Tuesday we will have our second quiz on verbs of motion. Be sure that you can navigate the use of perfective and imperfective verbs of motion as well as the various cases and prepositions connected to these verbs. Hopefully after our speaking simulation at the Belorussian Train Station you have a better understanding of how to use and conjugate verbs of motion.

Continue working on your projects as well. This will give you a lot of chances to keep studying and developing your skill with verbs of motion.

English IV

Today in class we began reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. It's a bit of a slow start, but once Robert Walton meets Dr. Victor Frankenstein, things will pick up quickly. Continue your reading this weekend with Letters Two and Three. As you are reading, focus on learning more about Robert Walton as a person. As you read his letters, be sure that you are underlining or highlighting important information about him. Then, in the margins, write a word or two which summarizes or simplifies this fact about him.

We'll keep talking about his character before we move on to more of Frankenstein.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 8 February 2018

AP English III

Today we did a lot of really good thinking and reflecting related to the concepts of "the veil" and "double consciousness" - these understandings will lead to a lot of benefits as we move through Invisible Man for the rest of the unit. I look forward to looking at your takeaways and self-reflections.

For the weekend you should all be focused on your synthesis sourcepack assignment related to your research papers. If you go to Google Classroom you will find template documents which you can use and edit to create your own sourcepack. You should actively use SIRS or other online resources to help you compile and create your documents. It is completely possible that you can submit this early and have this part of the research paper finished.

Otherwise, make sure that you are ready for Monday with a copy of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (there will be some in class for you to check out if you need to). Wednesday we will do our first synthesis timed writing. Friday I'll be collecting your synthesis source packs. Be sure that you use this weekend to get prepared for the week ahead!

English IV

We will begin reading the actual text of Frankenstein next class after we finish our presentations. Make sure that you have communicated with your group to complete all of the questions, import images, and complete your citations for your information. If you need to finish your project at all, be sure that it is finished this weekend.

Homework for 7 February 2018 - A Day

Russian I

Today in class we started learning about how Russians live and the types of houses that they enjoy. I think that this is a very important thing for us to learn as we are working on our own house projects. For tonight, continue to work on your projects. Start writing your sentences about your rooms so that next class I can check them. Remember that for each room you want to:

1. describe the room
2. state what furniture is in the room (describe the furniture too)
3. state what action happens in the room

Make sure that you are using adjectives and cases (nominative, prepositional, and genitive) to accomplish this project.

Next class you will have a quiz on nouns, possessive pronouns, and adjectives in nominative, genitive, and prepositional cases.

Advanced Russian

Today we did a lot of good work related to our projects as well as understanding a bit more about when and how to use perfective verbs of motion. Tonight gives you a chance to continue working on your projects as well as practicing with your language before our quiz next week. Be sure that you have taken time tonight to fully understand your conjugations and cases connected to the verbs. Next class will be our last chance to work on the projects in class before they come due.

English IV

From looking at the work you all did today it seems as though you are ready to present your projects on Friday. Make sure that you have prepared for your presentation by having your information ready related to your answer and that you can explain one of the pictures related to your topic and answer as well.

Homework for B-Day Classes: Tuesday the 6th of February

English IV

Good work today analyzing Gothic elements and working through an episode of The Simpsons for a view of Gothic literature in a bit of a fun way. Next class we will start wrapping up this introduction unit before we go on to reading and studying Frankenstein. Also next class will be our last chance to go through our projects before we present them. Projects should be complete next class.

AP English III

There are a few things that you should be working on as we move through to next class - here are your specific reminders below.

• Research Papers - You have access to the Synthesis Sourcepack documents via Google Classroom. Alter the templates so that you are going through your question, your sources and documents, and your context for your issue. Use SIRS or other resources to collect and organize your documents. This is a useful assignment and should be an easy A for all of you.
• Reading - I feel as though our conversation on Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son" could have been richer had more of you thoroughly read it. We will continue to look at the piece next class as well as the poems. Be sure that you have thoroughly read and analyzed it using our discussion today as a jumping off point to the text and understanding Baldwin's larger points.
• Upcoming - Next week we will begin reading Invisible Man as well having our first Synthesis timed writing. Please have a copy of the text and be ready for your timed writing.

Homework for Monday - 5 Februrary - A Day

Just another Manic Monday as they say...

Russian I

Today I saw many of you do great work to fully learn your cases and endings as they related to adjectives, nouns, and possessive pronouns. Remember that every night you should spend time with this content so that you can navigate these changes with words as you use them. This is why we have our project around our houses. Be sure that as you plan your floor plan that you have picked four different rooms (at least) and have two pieces of furniture in each. You need to describe all of these rooms and items.

You should spend time tonight with the reading at the beginning of Chapter Two. It's a good way to practice and prepare with your quiz. As you read, be able to answer the following questions:

1. Who is the narrator? Where does he live? With whom?
2. What does the narrator do on a daily basis?
3. What type of things does the narrator have?
4. Is the narrator similar to you or different? How?

Don't forget that you will have a quiz on Friday related to cases - nominative, genitive, and prepositional. You'll need to know how to work with adjectives, nouns, and possessive pronouns.

Advanced Russian

We will continue to work on our projects daily in class before turning them in next week. As a reminder, you should be working with our key verbs of motion and the useful vocabulary around transit that we developed in class or from our textbooks. Do not use translators for this work at all. It is very easy to make mistakes with translators and then learn the wrong thing. Don't do this! Also, using a translator is considered to be cheating - don't do this either!

For tonight continue to work on exercises to practice your skills with verbs of motion. Focus on Exercise 12 in Chapter 6. Work through the five sentences and accomplish a-e with each sentence. If you are in Russian III, activate your prefixed verbs of motion as you do steps c, d, and e.

We will review this work next class as well as other exercises before continuing to work on our projects.

English IV

You all did a great job today looking at examples of the Gothic in our episode of The Simpsons. All of this work on Gothic and Romantic literature is going to be very helpful for us as we begin our study of Frankenstein at the end of this week (most likely). Next class will be our last full time to work on our projects before we move on to presenting them to our classmates. Be sure that you and your group are working hard to meet your goal.

Research Questions/Quizzes - AP English III

AP Students:

Many of you were absent on Friday/Wednesday likely with the flu or other illness that is going around really strongly right now. Please let me know when you plan to take the unit quiz. Also, I need your research questions as soon as possible. I plan to return the research questions and move us to the next phase of the research paper on Tuesday. Please submit your research question Monday or Tuesday morning so that I can return it to you in class.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 2 February

What a week! Lots of good learning and thinking going on in Room 301! Four months left of school and only eight weeks until we get to Spring Break! Let's do this thing!

AP English III

Thank you everyone for your hard work during our quiz today in class. I'll work to get your work back to you by the end of the week. A few important reminders before I talk about homework:

1. When sharing items to me my email address is daniel (underscore) miller (at) dpsnc (dot) net. Please check your sharing settings. Many of you told me that you had submitted work, but I didn't see it because it likely went to another person. Check yourself and make sure it's in. I'll update grades as soon as possible.
2. You may resubmit your week-long reflection from the Transcendentalism project. If you choose to do that, it would be due by the 9th of February. Please make sure to submit the original with the new so that I can process the resubmission.

And now for the homework for the weekend.

1. Take a look and read over some of the poems in the packet that I gave you today in class. I especially want you to take a look at Countee Cullen's "Incident". What do these poems help you to understand more about the Harlem Renaissance?
2. Please read and thoroughly annotate James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son" - You'll only need to read and annotate Part One. The text is available in 50 Essays and at this link. As you read and annotate, look for connections between Baldwin and DuBois - How is Baldwin struggling with the veil? How does he respond? How is this like what DuBois offers as ways to respond to the situation of being an African American?

We'll be discussing Baldwin on Tuesday as a means of also wrapping up our discussion on DuBois. Expect for us to begin reading Invisible Man next week - get yourselves a copy of this wonderful book!

English IV

Like your colleagues in 2A, there really isn't any work for you all to complete before our next class. Today you all got a good start on your projects and your research topics. Feel free to continue to work on these over the weekend if you would like. Make sure to review your notes from today's class before next week just in case we have another coin toss quiz!

Homework for the Weekend - 1 February - A Day

Russian I

Over the weekend you should complete the exercises that we spot checked in class related to adjectives in the Locative/Prepositional Case and Genitive Case. As you look at Exercise 2.9 on pages 88 and 89, look at the question and the following answer in parenthesis. To answer the question you will need to put the words in parenthesis into the necessary case.

Remember as well, you're working on adjectives and nouns - there's one chart for working with adjectives and another for working with nouns. Be sure that you're looking at the right chart as you are making changes.

We'll likely have a quiz on this information next week - be ready for that quiz to fall on Wednesday or on Friday.

Advanced Russian

Today in class we began working on our Verb of Motion Project. You all selected the cities that you're visiting as part of your project and have planned out your route. Now it's time to start putting that work into Russian. Work with your verbs, with your cases, and with your vocabulary. Remember that with each city you need to write in past, present, and future tenses. See the assignment on Google Classroom for more information.

Over the weekend you should do a bit more work on your project and continue to look at the work we did in class around the present and past tense exercises with using Verbs of Motion. Try to work through more of those so that we can keep reviewing on Tuesday.

English IV

Today you all did a wonderful job starting on your research projects and getting a fair amount of work done. We also did great reading Gothic poetry and analyzing imagery from Byron's "Darkness". Over the weekend there's not any homework that you need to worry about completing. We will finish our projects next week before we go on to begin our study of Frankenstein.

Homework for Wednesday - 31 January

With today we've reached the end of January! Just four more full months of school! See below for your reminders.

English IV

For tonight there's no real homework for you to complete. All of the grades are in PowerSchool up to this point, so please make sure that if you see zeroes for your work on the test on Twelfth Night then you need to make up that test as soon as possible.

Also, next class you'll be getting your research topics assigned to you! Be ready to work with your classmates and also to learn more about Lord Byron (the dirty boy...).

AP English III

For next class I am expecting that you will be able to thoroughly complete your research work in order to formalize your topic, question, and position that the paper will explore. Continue using SIRS or other resources as you continue to research and work on these topics. Also, keep in mind that you will continue to refine and specify your topic as we continue to do research.

Next class we will also have our quiz on Transcendentalism. You should review the four authors that we have studied in this unit to prepare (King, Hurston, Emerson, Thoreau). You'll see short answer questions on each of them. Review our texts and notes.

Lastly, read the excerpt from WEB DuBois tonight and annotate it. Look for what DuBois has to say about separation in America between African Americans and white people. Also, look at what DuBois has to say about the veil. What is it? What does it do? How is it a bit of a paradox?

Tuesday Reminders - A Day - 30 January

Russian I

Today we began to learn about adjectives in Russian. What they do, how they're used, and most importantly, how they are spelled. We focused our study on colors, and then moved on to some writing using those colors.

Tonight you should continue to study your vocabulary related to colors. Also, to help you learn your declension chart, work on Exercise 9 on pages 88 and 89. Only work on the sections on Locative and Genitive case. You'll be given a question, followed by an answer. You'll need to answer the question by putting the answer in the correct case.

Advanced Russian

If you did not turn in your same story three ways about going somewhere, make sure that it is turned in to me tomorrow so that I can return it with feedback next class. Today we spent time reviewing and moving forward on our quizzes related to verbs of motion. I was glad to see the improvement in the room.

For tonight, you have your project that you can start to do research for - Where will you go? Which cities? Which regions? Which city will be your focus for that phase of the journey?

You also can complete exercises. There are the printouts that go over non-prefixed verbs of motion in present and past tense for Russian II and III. Additionally, for Russian III, there is Exercise 10.8 which focuses on prefixed verbs of motion.

English IV

There is no homework for tonight. Next class we will begin working on our research projects in our small groups. I'll return your contracts and have your topics ready for you next class. We will also take a look at some of the poetry of Lord Byron - that dirty man.

Starting the Week Right - B Day Homework/Reminders - 29 January

What a rainy and cold Monday, ugh. Hopefully the weather turns around so we aren't so sleepy and worn down all week.

English IV:

Tonight you have the same homework as the group below, if you have a chance. We got caught by the bell at the end of class, so you may not have had a chance to take note of the different topics. If so, look below at the A day post and consider those six topics before next class.

AP English III:

Today we began the process of completing our research based argumentative essays, aka - our research papers. This will be a long process in which you will showing all that you've learned this year around writing and composing a full argument. You'll research, evaluate sources, and show the way in which you use sources to support your own ideas.

Tonight, begin by brainstorming and considering which topic you will consider for this assignment. Remember that you want to pick something that interests you. Use the topic sheet and complete the first five sections. Next class we will go to the Media Center to begin research - remember to bring your Durham County Library card if you have one.

Lastly, we will have our quiz on Transcendental philosophy on Friday. There will be a question related to each of our authors. Be sure that you are prepared for this quiz.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 26 January 2018

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend! I've got a lot to do this weekend, so it'll be more of a working weekend for me. Hopefully you all have a bit of fun on my behalf. Here are your reminders.

English IV

Over the weekend I'd like for you to get acquainted with the six topics that we'll be investigating in our research projects. This way if you find something that really interests you, you can move forward with that as your choice for topic. Remember that the options for the research project are:

1. Polar Expeditions
2. Galvanism
3. The Philosopher's Stone
4. Vivisection
5. Alchemy
6. Body Snatching

Just do a Google search around these terms. What was going on with this in the 1800's in England?

Advanced Russian

Today in class we started moving into learning about verbs of motion that use prefixes and thus become perfective. In order to have you practice and learn this information, I want you to do some writing this weekend. Write a basic story (4-5 sentences) about going somewhere. I want you to tell the story of going somewhere in all three tenses - future, present, past. Activate aspect and tenses as you work with this. You will also have to think about cases as well. Tell the same story but alter your language so that you cover the different tenses.

You will turn this in on Tuesday. Any evidence of translator use will cancel your grade. If you need help, see me on Monday.

Russian I

Today in class we finished watching The Irony of Fate - Part One and took our quiz on cases and nouns. Over the weekend, I want you focused on vocabulary. Go to Chapter Two in your textbooks and start to learn your colors in Russian. Notice that all of these words are adjectives. We'll start to learn about how to work with adjectives next week. Having some of the words in your head will make that run more smoothly. I would recommend making flash cards or some other sort of study aid to help you with this vocabulary.

Homework for the Weekend - 25 January 2016 - B Day

English IV

A few of you were absent today for the test that we took on Twelfth Night. Be sure that you see me as soon as possible to get this made-up. You especially want to do it now while the information about what we've studied is still fresh in your head.

For the weekend there's not any real homework. If you have a chance, talk to people about Frankenstein. See what they already know or think about it. We'll start studying this text on Monday!

AP English III

I am so proud of the amazing level of analysis that you all brought to the Alabama Clergy's letter. You all found the holes in the argument and were able to see how King was immediately responding to them. We then went to the computer lab to do work on allusions, which will help us next class.

For the weekend you have a few things to do:

1. Reread Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail" and annotate the heck out of it. Now you know what he's doing on a macro level, so start to find how it happens on the micro level.
2. I gave you two sample SYNTHESIS essays. These are our next type of timed writing. Read over the essays and try to determine the task. What's the question? What do you have to do?
3. If you are missing anything, you will see zeroes in PowerSchool. Take the time that you have this weekend to get those things turned in ASAP. Remember, you have to get away from bad habits if you're going to be successful this quarter!

Homework for A-Day Students - 24 January

English IV

Good work today on your final test on Twelfth Night. I'll have these tests graded and returned to you in the next few days. For tonight, feel free to relax a bit and unwind. Do look through your rooms and bookbags for any copies of Twelfth Night that you may have borrowed. I need those returned.

We will begin our Frankenstein unit next class by getting into the culture of the book a bit. We've got some interesting research coming up for us, be ready for that!

Advanced Russian

For tonight feel free to reflect on your performance on your quiz and plan any reassessment that you may think necessary. Spend time with your verbs and vocabulary - the more that you use and play with the language, the easier it will be to remember.

For our next class we will begin to look at prefixes added on to verbs of motion and what that does. You will find it helpful to review the pages in Chapters 6 and 10 that go over this information before we begin to cover it next class.

Also - if there are any last viewing guides on The Irony of Fate, those need to be turned in ASAP for any credit.

Russian I

Today we did a lot of work around formalizing our knowledge on cases. We have covered all six cases as they work with nouns. We have gone over the job of the case and how the case affects the spelling and sound at the end of the word.

For tonight, make sure that you are studying your case chart as well as your notes around the cases. Your quiz next class is going to focus on genitive, dative, and instrumental cases. We'll also finish the first part of the film next class, so have your part one viewing guides turned in for any credit.

AP Reading - Printable

AP English III Students -

The link in the previous post takes you to an article you cannot print. Here is a printable version. Remember that you can take notes as you read for your annotations and then use a textbook during class as we discuss and work. You do not have to print the article.

Homework for B-Day - 23 January 2018

English IV

Good work today in reviewing and considering the major characters and moments of Twelfth Night. Make sure that you put this forward into your studying tonight. Hopefully while we played you collected good notes and are using those notes to prepare for your exam on the play. Remember that you'll have a mix of multiple choice and short answer - a lot of chances to show what you know!

AP English III

I was very happy with the conversations that we had related to Thoreau today in class. I was especially happy to see the very critical approach that some of you took to Thoreau - especially around his selfishness and egocentrism. These are very valid critiques.

For tonight, I want you to read and annotate Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior's "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail". The piece is available in 50 Essays as well as at this link. You'll need to read and annotate on paper, most likely. Remember that we will be working on this piece for two classes to finish out this unit. For our first class, read through it generally and annotate with these two questions in mind.

1. How is the Civil Rights Movement a Transcendental movement?
2. In what ways does King respond to counterarguments in his letter?

Read, annotate, think, and consider. We'll have a lot of fun with Dr. King on Thursday.

Back to reality...A Day Homework/Reminders - 22 January

It was great to see all of you again today. We were reaching the point of being snowed in where I'd already read a book and was rearranging furniture for fun. Anyway, here are your reminders moving to tomorrow.

English IV

Next class we will have our unit examination on Twelfth Night. You did great today playing our review game and taking notes on your study guides. Make sure that you use the study guide as well as your folders to review all of the information we've learned in the unit. Your test will fall on Wednesday. Be ready!

Advanced Russian

Next class we will have our quiz on Verbs of Motion with no prefixes in present and past tense. For this you'll need to know how to conjugate your verbs, how they're paired with other verbs, their meaning, and how they're used. Today we had a lot of chance to practice and listen with these verbs. You also have exercises you can continue to use to check yourselves.

Be ready with our quiz next class. Also, if you need to complete the viewing guide, please watch the film on YouTube and complete the questions. You can turn that in next class for a new grade.

Russian I

Next class we will finish our Chapter One review before moving on to our quiz on Friday. For the quiz on Friday we're focused on Dative, Genitive, and Instrumental Cases. You'll also be asked about some of the verbs we've worked with today. For tonight, fill your evening with finishing the memorization of your verbs and some work with Exercise Nine. This exercise is broken down by cases so you can focus on one to remind yourself of how to make the changes and what these changes mean.

Snow Day #5 - 1/19/2018

I was hoping we'd be back today, but...I guess I'll finish my book and go on some more hunts.

See the previous posts for ideas of what to do. If you're in AP English III and you're looking for something to read, you'll want to take a look at Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. If you have a chance - maybe start reading now and annotating. We'll start it as a group as soon as we can (in about three-four classes). In English IV we'll be looking at Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in our next unit. If you have a Kindle app on your device you can download the book Frankenstein for free.

Hope to see you all on Monday for a regular week!

Snow Day #4 - 18 January 2018

I guess this is when we start just getting ahead on things, right. Continue to work and study as you see needed - I would say that this gives Advanced Russian and Russian I students a lot of time to learn conjugations, vocabulary, and declensions.

AP English III - Be sure that you've caught up and completed your readings! This gives you some good time to go back and review Emerson, Hurston, and move on to Thoreau. Be sure that your vocabulary cards, daily, and week-long reflections are ready for me to collect at our next class.

English IV - We've got our Shakespeare review and then unit test! Be prepared!

I hope to see you all soon, but I think it's probably not going to be until Monday...

Snow Day Number 3 - 17 January

I posted yesterday's post, and then DPS cancelled school about twelve minutes later. I think that's the fastest cancellation ever.

See the post below about what you need to do before our next classes. A special note to Russian I, II, and III. If you see a zero for the viewing guide assignment for The Irony of Fate it means that I do not have an assignment from you. When we return to school you will only have one day to turn in a resubmission. It may be a good day to watch the film and make up the time when you were doing something else in class. We will discuss expectations when you are with a substitute at our next class as well.

Homework/Reminders for All Classes - 16 January 2018

I'm going to do a post for all of the classes to review what needs to be done before next class - Wednesday for A day and Thursday for B day. If we don't have school because of the forecasted snow, then these reminders would be due for the next class.

AP English III

We had a really productive class today working through Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me." I think that working through this very accessible text helped you to understand more of what Emerson was doing with his piece "The Oversoul." Remember that as we keep reading we will continue to build an understanding of what Transcendentalism is.

For next class you have Henry David Thoreau's "Where I Lived and What I Lived For" - Be sure to read and annotate the piece clearly. Think about WHY Thoreau goes into the woods to live. Find out WHAT his points are about the life of others. His language and metaphors get a bit complicated, but if you keep Transcendentalism in mind, you'll be able to understand.

You have a few things to turn in to me next class. First, you have your small daily reflections on your Transcendentalism experiment. Remember that these should review how your process went for the day. You should also turn in your overall week-long reflection where you think about the week as a whole. This week-long reflection should be one-page, typed, double spaced. Lastly, you have two vocabulary cards due next class - one word from Emerson, one word from Hurston. Be sure to complete all parts of the card and share with me or turn them in.

English IV

We have finished Twelfth Night. You should be looking through all of the great work and notes that you have taken with this play to prepare for our unit exam. The exam will be in two classes from now. Next class we will play a review game, review our study guides as we play the game, and then get ready for our next unit of the year on Frankenstein.

Advanced Russian

You should be working on your exercises related to verbs of motion so that you are able to conjugate them appropriately in past and present tense, know the difference between unidirectional and multidirectional action, and be aware of the related cases and prepositions used with different verbs. Next class we will be doing a TPRS activity where we will be traveling through Russia. Make sure that you have your list of where you would go if you could go to Russia. Know where these places are and how you would get from place to place.

Russian I

Spend your time working on the exercises in the end of Chapter One related to the different cases and how to use them appropriately. You should be working hard to memorize your endings so that you can put words in any of the six cases and identify that case. You will also want to be able to know what each case does and why it is used in a sentence. Next class we will spend some time reviewing cases with Mad Libs in Russian!

Final Grades Submitted - English Students - Goodbye from Mr. Bernhard

It has been a total pleasure working with all of you this fall. I can't have asked for better groups of students to help me begin my journey as a teacher in Durham. If you ever need anything, have questions, or just want to say hello, reach out via email at sam.bernhard@gmail.com. Good luck this spring!

English IV

Your final grades for Q2 and the first semester are officially submitted to PowerSchool. I am very proud of the work you collectively did in the time we worked together this year, and will miss you all while I'm student teaching at DSA in the spring. Make sure you continue to develop your skills throughout the spring with Mr. Miller; I can't wait to see how you all are doing later in the semester when I come back to visit. Have a great long weekend, and good luck!

AP English III

I have gone through and graded the Gatsby synthesis projects. As I have said to a few of you, I wish I had built in more time to go over instructions with you and developed a better way to keep everyone on track. I take full responsibility for any confusion/stress you may have had over the course of completing this assignment. With that said, I am very impressed at the quality of work most of you demonstrated in your shared documents. Over the last few months, you have collectively developed into a group of sophisticated and skilled readers and writers. I hope you're able to see that as clearly as I can see it in you.

Your final grades for Q2 and the first semester are officially submitted to PowerSchool. Keep grinding away through the fall, and you will continue to grow and succeed. I can't wait to check in with you again sometime this spring. Have a great long weekend, and good luck!

Homework for the Weekend - End of the Quarter - 11 January

English IV 

We are all done for the quarter. All that's left is to do Acts IV and V of Twelfth Night which is going to happen next class. It would be a great idea to spend some time going through your notes and organizing them so that you can easily study for our unit exam on Twelfth Night and Shakespearean Comedy. This exam is going to happen on 22 January for B day students. Be ready!

AP English III

Today was a bit of a whirlwind in order to get 4B caught up with the early release last week. After today's class we should have a better understanding of what Transcendentalism is, who Ralph Waldo Emerson is, and why "The Over Soul" is an important text. Remember that with a complex text like "The Over Soul" you will want to review it many times especially as we continue to learn more through the unit.

Tonight you are starting your reflections for your Transcendentalist for a Week project. Tonight's reflection is "What I gave up and why." Be sure to write a thoughtful paragraph that accomplishes this. The rest of the weekly reflections will track your progress and what you are learning from day to day. Lastly, next week, you'll look over the days and write a reflection on the week. I'll collect your larger reflection, as well as the minor ones, next week on the 18th of January.

Over the weekend you'll also want to read and annotate Zora Neale Hurston's "How It Feels to be Colored Me" - As you read this, pay attention to how Hurston herself is very much a Transcendentalist. Look at what she has to say about nature and music, about identity, and about how people can be different and yet the same. There's a great metaphor at the end of her article that is important to look at. Hurston should help you to make sense of Emerson - so go back to him, after you've visited with Ms. Zora.

Lastly, remember that your final work on your Gatsby synthesis assignment is due tonight by 11:59. Be sure that it shows good work so that Mr. Bernhard can finish your grades for the quarter.

Homework for 10 January - A Day

English IV

If you have anything missing for class including your humor essay or any other assignments related to Twelfth Night it is urgent that you get those turned in tomorrow or Friday, at the latest. Your grades will be finalized and we will quickly be moving on. Today you have completed your study of Act III, next class we will quickly move through Act IV and V so that we can finish our study of Shakespeare and move on to Frankenstein. It would be a good idea to start reviewing your notes now to prepare for your test on Twelfth Night which will happen in Quarter Three.

Advanced Russian

Today we got a lot of good work done related to understanding our verbs of motion. You will have your first quiz on verbs of motion on the 19th of January. Be studying your verbs daily and working with them so that you can fully learn how to use them for yourself.

Tonight for homework you should continue to work through the exercises that we started today in class. Keep working on recognizing how you know to use each verb. You should also get started with your Russian tour plan - this will be more toward next week - but you should find cities or places in Russia that you would like to visit (about six) and then plan out how you would get from one place to the next. Which verbs? Which means of transit?

Russian I

The priority for all of you is to continue working and editing your project on you and your friends. This will be your last major grade in the quarter. Remember that for this project you want to be able to use all of the cases in the Russian language to talk about you and your friends: what you do, what you have or don't have, where you're from, et cetera. I'll start grading these on Friday morning to finish your grades for the quarter.

Also, keep in mind that if there is anything that you want to reassess or keep working on that everything must be in by Friday morning.

9 January - B Day - And a good day was had by all...

AP English III

Way to go on completing your midterm examination today. I will have scores for the multiple choice put in likely today or tomorrow and the essay scores will go in as soon as they are all prepared. You will receive a grade for completing both portions of the midterm, separately.

For tonight, you have some reading and writing to attend to. In terms of your reading, spend your time with Emerson's "The Over Soul". As you read you will want to find different elements depending on your class period.

3B Students should focus on finding elements of Transcendental philosophy in the text as well as deriving questions for our large class seminar. 4B Students have not yet had the lesson on Transcendental philosophy, so you should be looking at areas of the text related to truth and reality as Emerson defines them. Remember that you should thoroughly read and annotate about half of the piece (to approximately paragraph twenty).

For your writing, there's your group synthesis assignment on The Great Gatsby. For this assignment you are working collaboratively in Google Classroom with your peers to present a theme shared across several excerpts of text. Be sure to review the instructions on Google Classroom for these details.

English IV

If you did not submit your humor essay today, then it will need to be done by Thursday. If not, we will grade what you have. This is a good time for you to start looking over your notes on Twelfth Night since we will quickly finish the play and move on to our final test on the play soon.

Homework for 8 January - A Day Students

It's good for things to be back to normal. I just wanted to take a moment to remind all of you - especially Russian students - that you need to make sure your grade and assignments are in good shape now. Don't wait until the weekend because our week and quarter will end quicker than you would probably like. If there's something you need to reassess on, make sure to do that now.

Russian I

Today in class we had ample time to work on our projects. By this point you should have sentences that talk about who the person is, what they do, where they do it, what they own, what they don't own, and where they are from. By writing these sentences you are activating many of the cases in the Russian language. I will go through your projects on Wednesday morning and update grades. Make sure that your work is "turned in" on Google Classroom or shared with me so that I can see the work.

Additionally, you should keep working on Exercise 8 at the end of Chapter 1. This exercises focuses on each of the different cases. For the cases accusative, genitive, prepositional, and dative you should be able to fill in the blank with the word in parenthesis placed into the proper case and you should be able to translate the sentence. Next class we will spend time working on this exercise to review.

Advanced Russian

Today in class we spent time learning more of our verbs of motion and fully understanding the idea of multidirectional versus unidirectional motion. We have also now begun to work with verbs of motion that are transitive (they need the accusative case after the verb). We began playing with our language a bit today to see how to add prepositions and cases in order to understand the motion in the sentence. Tonight, you should continue to review these skills with exercises in our textbook.

Russian II students will want to complete exercises 6.1 and 6.3 - complete the exercise and translate to the best of your ability. Russian III will want to complete exercise 10.6 and 10.8 - again, complete and translate. You are only required to work with questions that use verbs we have studied in class - if you see a verb that we haven't looked at, then don't worry about it.

Remember that you will have a quiz on these verbs in approximately one week (on Wednesday the 17th) - these exercises provide you a good chance to practice and learn from your mistakes.

English IV

It looks like many of you were able to get some good work done related to your humor essays and for that I applaud you. Make sure that if you didn't finish this assignment today in class that you get it turned in ASAP to Mr. Bernhard. We will be finishing Twelfth Night very quickly as we move forward this week. Be reviewing your notes to prepare for our final test on this play. Also, if you see anything missing in the gradebook, this is your last chance to make up the assignments.

Snow Day #2 - 5 January 2018

Everything from my last snow day post still applies, except now we are pushing things back one more day.

The midterm examination for AP English III will fall on Tuesday the 9th. Be prepared. You will need to have your group and individual work for Mr. Bernhard (Gatsby Synthesis Assignment) by Thursday - 11 January. Hopefully you are using this weekend to finish that work and assist your group mates as needed.

On Monday and Tuesday the English IV classes will be finishing their writing assignment about humor in She's the Man or Twelfth Night. If you have already started working on this assignment - great. If not, go to Google Docs and begin working on this. We will finish Twelfth Night at the end of this week/beginning of next week and move on to our final assessment on that.

Russian classes should all be reviewing and preparing for any resubmissions of old work as well as working through the current lessons on cases (Russian I) or verbs of motion (Russian II/III).

As always, please email me if you have any questions or concerns about anything. See you all on Monday!

PSA for English Students - Mr. Bernhard's Email

AP English III & English IV

Over the last couple weeks, there seems to have been something weird going on with sharing settings and email messages going through to my account. I think I have identified at least one solution for this. If you are sending me an email, please send it to this account: samuel_bernhard@my.dpsnc.net

I have gone through and updated the gradebook to account for all the work I have seen submitted to me; check your records to see if there's something I am missing. Please send me an email if there is a discrepancy between PowerSchool and what you believe you have submitted.

Have a great snow day, and keep warm!

Snow Day Number 1 - 4 January 2018

Here we go! Hopefully this year won't be as bad as the years past. While you are enjoying your snow day today, here are some reminders for you.

Our next class will be an A day. Hopefully it will be a regular day. We will continue moving forward with our lessons. This means that Russian students should complete their homework that was detailed in your last blog post.

Seniors - If you can continue working on your writing assignment about humor in She's the Man or Twelfth Night it would be a good idea to do that. You will only have one or two classes left this quarter to finish everything up.

AP English - Your midterm examination will now fall on Monday of next week. You will have to finish your work on the Gatsby synthesis assignment for review on Wednesday. Today gives you a great chance to get a lot of that work done. Some of you are still missing the final test on The Great Gatsby - you should contact us immediately to settle this.

The last day of the quarter will now be Thursday for A day and Friday for B day. There has been no word as of now as to which teacher workday will be taken to make-up for this day.

Homework for English Students - B Day - 3 January

With the one-hour early release the classes for AP are a bit off from each other. We'll be caught up by the end of next week again.

AP English III

Next class you will have your AP English Language and Composition Midterm Exam. You can't really study for it other than to review any devices that we've studied this year as well as to look at your notes around the different timed writings we have done. You will have twenty eight multiple choice questions and one essay.

The other assignment that is shared for both classes is the work on our Gatsby Synthesis assignment. In this assignment you should be working in the same document as the rest of your group. As a group you have determined a theme that is shared among all of the texts. This is stated in a shared introduction. Then, each person should import one of their texts from their annotated bibliography with annotations. This should be paired with explanation and analysis that shows how the text develops the shared theme. There should be transitions to the next person's text. At the end, there is a shared group conclusion. This assignment is due on Tuesday. You'll receive group and individual grades for this work.

3B - Since you all had a full class today you should begin to read and annotate "The Over Soul" by Ralph Waldo Emerson for homework. We'll begin to work through this piece on Tuesday of next week. Remember, he's defining a concept. Stay focused on seeing how he explains what exactly the OverSoul is.

4B - Since you all only spent thirty minutes with us we did not have time to begin the unit. I will give you Emerson to read after the midterm on Friday.

English IV

Today, we had a pretty productive class despite the excitement of the shortened day. We began our reading of Twelfth Night, Act III and then made some more progress on our short writing assignment comparing Twelfth Night to She's the Man. Before next class, spend some time planning out your essay so before the end of next period you have a workable draft to submit for feedback. This is the last significant assignment of this semester, so make sure you are doing well with it! Have a good day, and see you soon!

Homework for English Students - A Day - 2 January

English IV

Today, we had a pretty productive class despite the shortened period. We began our reading of Twelfth Night, Act III and then made some more progress on our short writing assignment comparing Twelfth Night to She's the Man. Before next class, spend some time planning out your essay so before the end of next period you have a workable draft to submit for feedback. This is the last significant assignment of this semester, so make sure you are doing well with it! Have a good day, and see you soon!

Homework for Russian Students - 2 January - Welcome Back!

С новым сладким годом! To a sweet new year! So happy to see all of you today - here's a quick recap of what we did in Russian as well as what you should do tonight to keep the learning going!

Russian I

Today we learned the five main jobs of the genitive case as well as how to change the endings of nouns so that they show that they are in the genitive case. Then we did some example sentences around the idea of ownership (I have a Honda. У меня есть Хонда.), lack of ownership (I don't have a Mercedes. У меня нет Мерседеса.), and stating where a person is from (I am from Durham. Я из Дарема.).

For your friend project you should write three new sentences using the genitive case. You should state something that each person has, doesn't have, and where each person is from. Remember you are only working on the slides about yourself, your male friend, and your female friend. You should already have sentences describing what they do and where they do it to accomplish your accusative case and prepositional case work.

You should also take a look at Exercise 8 in the end of Chapter One. This exercise is broken down for each case. You should take time to work on the genitive case so that you can learn your declensions better.

Here is a good video on all of the Russian cases - use it for review!

Advanced Russian

Today we began the journey of learning about verbs of motion in Russian. Primarily today we learned about going by one's own power or going by the power of another. We also discussed what it means for an action to be multidirectional or unidirectional. 

Tonight for homework you should play with your new verbs (the four we conjugated today in class). You should be able to create a variety of present tense sentences which use these verbs to talk about going different places. Write at least eight sentences in Russian, two for each verb, and pair the sentence with an English translation.

Next class we will review this work and these verbs before moving on to the others. Be sure that you have written work to show next class.

Lastly, keep in mind that you have one week to reassess or complete any missing work. The quarter for this class will end on Wednesday the 10th.

Winter Break Reminders!

English IV

Today, we did much of the same work as your counterparts in 2A. We finished watching She's the Man and completed our viewing guides that accompanied the film. After a discussion of the similarities between the film and Twelfth Night, we began working on a short writing assignment. When we return from break, this writing assignment will be our primary focus as we get back into Twelfth Night. Have a wonderful break, have fun, and make good decisions. We'll see you in 2018!

AP English III

Today, we had a couple of great classes engaging with William Buckley, Jr.'s essay, "Why Don't We Complain?." Overall, Mr. Miller and I were very impressed with how thoughtful each of you were in engaging with a complicated topic. We also went over some Rules For Good Writing and connected some overall threads from the entire semester. Over the break, you are tasked with completing the first part of the annotated bibliography assignment on Google Classroom. Start looking at that sometime this weekend, but don't worry about submitting anything until December 28th. Have a wonderful break, have fun, and make good decisions. We'll see you in 2018!

Homework for English Students - A Day - 20 December 2017

English IV

Today, we finished watching She's the Man and completed our accompanying viewing guides. After that, we discussed the film in comparison to Twelfth Night, drawing conclusions and making some connections between the two works. We closed class with some work on a short writing assignment. If you've missed class, get in touch with me or Mr. Miller for class notes and the assignment description. Have a wonderful Winter Break, looking forward to seeing you in 2018!

Homework for Russian Students - Winter Break Edition

With the completion of your exams today in class we can say that you have made it. Вы все дошли до конца! Here is what you need to make sure that you are doing over break to make sure that you're ready to come back and finish the quarter/semester strong.

Russian III - Over break you should read the excerpt from Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Don't spend your time looking up every single word, but focus on learning what seem to be the most important words in the sentences or paragraphs in order to understand the gist or general meaning of the sentence/paragraph. This is also a chance for you to see how much Russian you can understand and how much grammar you see that you know.

You also will need to complete your Chapter Preview of Chapter 10 - we're skipping 9 and will come back to it later. This chapter looks at verbs of motion with prefixes. You may find it helpful to review non-prefixed verbs of motion too (Chapter 6).

Russian II - You also have the Solzhenitsyn reading to complete. Your Chapter Preview will focus on Chapter 6 - verbs of motion without prefixes. Make sure that you go through the topics and do some preliminary studying so that you are ready for this unit.

You may also want to do some final studying to prepare for any reassessments you want to do to close out the quarter/semester.

Russian I - You will need to spend time looking at the second half of Chapter One where we will learn about the last three cases in Russian (genitive, dative, instrumental). This is pages thirty-three to forty-one. You may also want to review other parts of Chapter One including verb conjugation and the other cases too. You can also continue to work on your projects over Winter Break. I placed grades in PowerSchool today for your first check-in on that project and if you had work on Google Classroom - I left you comments where I could. Some of you will need to import work on Google Classroom and let me know to update your grades.

Lastly, you should continue to study and work with your vocabulary from Chapter One. We will finish this unit very soon and you will have the complete Chapter One exam quickly once the quarter ends.

You may also want to do some final studying to prepare for any reassessments you want to do to close out the quarter/semester.

Homework for English Students - B Day - 19 December 2017

English IV

Today, we took our Act Two quiz on Twelfth Night, which included details about the plot as well as analysis of themes and irony. After that, we nearly finished watching the modern adaptation of the play, She's The Man. Next class, we will conclude the film and our viewing guides that accompanied it before moving into one of the last big assignments of the unit: a short essay comparing Twelfth Night and She's The Man. Make sure you're prepared to work through ideas on both works, and have a great day!

AP English III

Today, you all took your unit test on The Great Gatsby and other assigned texts from the unit. This was a pretty challenging test in terms of staying engaged and focus throughout the entire period, so I'm very happy with how well you all did working on your stamina. If you missed this test, you need to get in touch with Mr. Miller/Mr. Bernhard as soon as possible to figure out a time to make it up. For next class, you will need to have read and annotated William Buckley's "Why Don't We Complain?." This essay will serve as a bridge from what we have discussed this quarter into the next unit, which is on an American school of philosophy and literature called Transcendentalism. Have a great day, and see you Thursday!

Homework for Russian Students - 18 December 2017

Both groups of Russian students have examinations on Wednesday. Please pay attention to the ideas below in order to prepare adequately. 

Russian I

Your exam will cover what we have been learning recently in Chapter One related to verb conjugation and identification, case declensions, and case functions. You will also see a bit of vocabulary on this test. For the test you will have to make complete sentences in Russian as well as show what you know about how verbs and cases work. You may also want to take a look at your feedback from previous assessments.

Russian II

Your exam will cover the content and vocabulary in Chapter Five - specifically you will be asked a lot of questions about how aspect works as well as how to talk about time in Russian. You should review the content of Chapter Five, your notes, your exercises, and the examples that we have recently discussed related to time and prepositions. You may also want to take a look at your feedback from previous assessments.

Russian III

Your exam will cover the content and vocabulary in Chapter Eight - specifically you will be asked to show your knowledge of the words "all/every", "each other", "oneself", and the possessive reflexive pronoun. You will also see a lot of questions about time - both in standard format, conversational format, and with prepositions related to time. Be sure to look at your previous quizzes and exercises as many of the questions we have covered there will make themselves seen again.

I'll be available Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning for any last minute help you may need!

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students - 15 December 2017

English IV

Your homework for the weekend is the same as your counterparts from 2A. Make sure you're studying your notes on Act II, and are prepared to answer short and long questions about irony and other details from the play. We also began watching She's The Man, a modern adaptation of Twelfth Night. Next class, we will complete the film and the viewing guide, which will take us into Act III of the play before winter break. Have a good weekend, and see you on Tuesday!

AP English III

Today, we had a good class with a timed writing to kick everything off. Mr. Bernhard will be working on grading and giving feedback to those as soon as he can; he's aiming to have them returned to you on Thursday of next week. The second half of class today functioned as a quick review session before the test on Tuesday. We did careful analysis of each of the five major characters from The Great Gatsby: Nick, Gatsby, Tom, Daisy and Jordan.

In both classes, we didn't get through all of the supplemental essays, so make sure you are revisiting your notes and annotations on those pieces before Tuesday. These essays, in case you don't remember, are Thomas Jefferson's "Declaration of Independence," Langston Hughes's "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," Andrew Carnegie's "The Gospel of Wealth," Virginia Woolf's "The Death of the Moth," and Audre Lorde's "Poetry is Not a Luxury."

For each of these essays, think about the author's central argument/thesis, as well as possible connections between the pieces and the themes of the American Dream and the overall takeaways from Gatsby. Have a great weekend, and see you soon!

Homework for Russian Students - 14 December 2017

Time for the weekend! I'm so looking forward to Saturday :) Here are your reminders for what to accomplish over the weekend for Russian students.

Advanced Russian:

Next week you have two assessments - one is for practice (the NEWL Field Test) and the other is for a grade (the Unit Examination). One you can study for (the Unit Examination) one you can't (the NEWL Field Test). Here are a few reminders:

• On Monday you'll take A lunch and then report to the Dell Lab for the Field Test. Ms. Oertel will be your test proctor. You'll complete listening and reading comprehension in Russian. This is a great way to get ready for your future AP Russian exam as well as to just get a general feel for what your skills are in Russian.
• On Wednesday you'll have your unit examination. Both classes will need to be familiar with telling time, taking about time expressions with prepositions and working with numbers. Outside of that, the exams are different. Russian II will see a lot of questions around aspect and aspectual choice. Make sure that you know when you should use perfective versus imperfective. Russian III will see questions related to reflexive pronouns and other types of pronouns. The exam will cover Chapter Five (Russian II) and Chapter Eight (Russian III) be ready!

Russian I

If you did not have the chance to finish your sentences about yourself and your friend, then make sure that you get on Google Classroom tonight to finish that work. I will import grades tomorrow and give feedback before I return the assignment to you online. The assignment is a good practice for your mini-test next week. The mini-test will focus on verb conjugation and case declensions (nominative, accusative, and prepositional). During our review in class, many of you were able to generate the right answers - keep studying and practicing. Be sure to finish your exercises and to complete the extra exercises I gave you today in order to finish your learning!

Homework for English Students - A Day - 14 December 2017

English IV

Today, we learned a little bit about farces, a new kind of comedy we can apply directly to Twelfth Night. We also played a review game going over the events and irony present in Act II of the play, before moving into our guided viewing of She's The Man, a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's play. For next class, make sure you are carefully studying your notes from Act II and are very familiar with irony. Have a great day and weekend, look forward to seeing you on Monday!

Homework for B Day Students - 13 December 2017

English IV

All in all, we could have had a more productive day in class today. I think we started strong, and somewhere near the end of the lesson, we collectively weren't clicking like we normally do. Next class, arrive prepared to watch She's The Man, and take some time to reflect on how I can better structure class to cater to your needs and you can prepare to be engaged and respectful to your peers, your time, and your teachers.

Next week, we are going to have an assessment on Act II; make sure you are carefully studying your notes so you're able to succeed. This quiz will likely have a similar structure to the one you saw on Act I. Have a good day, and see you soon!

AP English III

Today, you worked independently through some work while I was at Duke and Mr. Miller was at Carolina. The good news? I finished and submitted my essay, so I am done with all of my Duke coursework for the semester! This means I can focus more of my attention on all of you! Also, you were able to get some good vocabulary practice in and work towards developing themes for your soon-to-be-announced final assessment for the unit.

Looking forward to seeing you on Friday (don't forget your timed writing and all unsubmitted/resubmitted work), have a great day!

Homework for A-Day Students - 12 December 2017

English IV

Today we had a great class watching The Globe Theatre's production of Twelfth Night for scenes four and five in Act II. With that, we finished our study of Act II. I was happy to see so many of you actively watching and engaging with the play today - it showed when you caught the jokes and laughed out loud. We did some great analysis today of the play as well.

Next class we will go over our takeaways from Act II and start watching She's the Man - the modern adaptation of Twelfth Night. Be sure that for now you are working to prepare to make corrections to old tests and that you have looked over PowerSchool for any missing work or assignments - those assignments need to be turned in by Friday.

Advanced Russian

Today was a very productive class in which we reviewed our use of time expressions and prepositions as well as preparing for presentations and writings soon. Be sure that you are ready for your timed writing on Thursday (Russian II) or for your in class Russian presentation (Russian III).

Russian III - Be sure that you have your permission slips and notes for tomorrow and that you meet in my room no later than 8:30. We will complete the visual before we head over to UNC Chapel Hill for the day. Have your vocabulary cards ready. We'll have a good chance to finish preparing tomorrow morning. I'll have extra copies of the essay for us.

Next week is an assessment week for all of you. On Monday we will have the field test, and on Wednesday you will have your unit exams. We will finish preparing for the unit examinations on Thursday.

Russian I

Lots of fun today hearing about my misadventures as a nineteen year old in St. Petersburg. Ugh, if you all could have seen me then. The main thing that we reviewed today is where and why to use our three cases in Russian - NOMINATIVE/ACCUSATIVE/PREPOSITIONAL. Remember that there are key words (in, at, on, about) and key locations (before or after the verb) that help us to make these choices. This is all important for you all as we complete our exercises and get ready for Thursday.

Make sure that you've finished exercises 1, 2, 7, and 8 in the packet as best you can. Be sure that you have worked on your sentences about yourself and your friends (one male, one female). On Thursday we will go to the computer lab and put together our sentences and paragraphs so far and you will earn a project grade for this work.

As always, if you need additional help outside of class be sure that you are using your resources wisely to accomplish your goals. I am always here and can give suggestions of what you can do to improve.

Homework for B Day - 11 December 2017

English IV

Today, we learned the terms "projection" and "elocution" as they relate to performance and acting in Shakespeare's plays. We also did some vocabulary practice before moving into group work and a class presentation of Twelfth Night, Act II Scene IV. In this scene, we saw a whole bunch of irony as Viola and Duke Orsino talk about love with each other. For next class, make sure you are prepared to finish up Act II and move onto the rest of the play. For most of today's lesson, we were on-task and focused; thank you. For some of it, however, we need to do a better job putting forth effort to stay engaged and productive. See you all soon!

AP English III

Today, we had a couple of very productive lessons related to Audre Lorde's "Poetry is Not a Luxury." We discussed the ideas of Black feminism and intersectionality, and applied our understandings of rhetorical strategies and devices to Lorde's work. We also laid out the next few weeks. There is a timed writing this Friday, and you will have a test on The Great Gatsby next Tuesday.

For next class, make sure the back covers of your copies of The Great Gatsby are entirely complete; you need to have at least three major themes/motifs identified. For each of these themes, come prepared with a few passages from the novel that support these themes. For example, if one of your themes is disillusionment, you should find passages that express a certain kind of disillusionment. Each of these passages should be longer than a sentence, but less than a page.

In addition, revisit the other readings we have completed this unit: Carnegie, Woolf, Lorde, Hughes, the Declaration of Independence. Check those readings for other passages that may relate to the same theme you are exploring from Gatsby. These will eventually pay off when you complete a lengthy writing/planning assignment to conclude the unit.

Have a wonderful couple of days, and see you soon!

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 8 December 2017

It snowed today! Yay! Hopefully it'll keep snowing more! Here are your reminders and tasks for the weekend.

Russian I

Some of you were able to get some good work done today in class and some of you were not. I remind you all that Russian is difficult; it's even more difficult when you don't try to learn it. This weekend you should be able to accomplish the following:

1. Work through your exercise pack which I gave you today. Complete page one to review verb conjugation. Complete the other pages to review the use of accusative and prepositional case.
2. Prepare for your reassessment on conjugation of Chapter One verbs (first and second conjugation). In order to study, see the above suggestion.
3. Continue to work on your project about you and your friends. We will have part of this due formally before Winter Break - you will be expected to write several sentences about your friends and start to construct your PowerPoint. This will help you prepare for your test on our first three cases (nominative, accusative, and prepositional).

I am available on Monday morning and during lunch on Monday if you need additional help.

Russian II/III

Over the weekend you should all be actively preparing for your unit exam as well as your performance task. Hopefully you are using your study guide to determine where you need to focus your efforts. I think that a good place to stay focused is on time expressions and numbers.

Russian II - You should continue to work through preparing for your timed writing. Remember that you cannot write the letter in advance and bring it, but you can bring vocabulary that you've developed to help you. Remember that in this task you are talking about your life in school and out of school - you can do this by talking about a day or by talking about a week or even a year - it's up to you.

Russian III - You should be completing your elements of your visuals so that you can construct your visual on Tuesday and finish preparing for your presentation on Wednesday at UNC. Please ask for my assistance if you need it as you work through the construction of the visual.

English IV

We had some fun today working through Act II, Scene 4 of Twelfth Night. If you have any missing assignments to complete (the Acting a Fool project or take-home test) be sure that you get that work in to us next week. Next class you should be ready to work through the remainder of Act II as well as engage your acting talents to read through the text even more.

Homework for B Day Students - 7 December 2017

English IV

Today, we worked through more of Twelfth Night, getting caught up with our counterparts in 2A. We read and discussed Act II, Scene II before moving into some close reading of Act II, Scene III with special focus on Malvolio as a character and a word. Oh, and how can I forget the beginning of class, where we worked on our Shakespearean insults by letting Mr. Miller have it, and then learning about practical joking and what it means for someone to be a "mark." Next class, you will work in small groups to prepare for reading the next scene, so arrive prepared to be productive! Today was a great class, let's keep the positive momentum moving forward!

AP English III

Today, we had a couple of fantastic classes. We began with group work reimagining Gatsby's death, which led to some great creativity in reading the novel. We also analyzed Baz Luhrmann's interpretation of Gatsby's death, thinking a little bit about the ways we can break down films much the same way we break down novels/poems/essays. For the last bit of class, we worked through many of Fitzgerald's most prominent symbols/motifs, including the green light, the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg, the valley of ashes, cars, and Gatsby's clothing.

At the end of class, I asked you to consider the following question: If the American Dream is a lie and with money comes unhappiness, what do we live for? As you continue thinking about Gatsby, I want you to work through this question. What do we work for everyday? Why do we wake up in the morning and go about our lives?

For next class, please read and heavily annotate Audre Lorde's "Poetry is Not a Luxury." If you have time, read this essay twice. When you're annotating, think about how Lorde is similar/different to Langston Hughes in "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." Also, I would like to come up with an answer to the question, what is Audre Lorde's "dream?" This will inform much of our discussion on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend, and see you soon!

Homework for English Students - PLC/A Day - 6 December 2017

English IV

Today, we distributed progress reports and continued our conversations about Twelfth Night with an introduction to practical joking and the Globe Theatre Production of the play. We took notes on the various elements of pranks, did some close reading of Act II, Scene 3, and left with thoughts on Malvolio. For next class, make sure you're prepared to participate and read, as everyone will be expected to take on a role in the scenes we read. If you have any questions about your progress reports or missing assignments, make sure to get in touch with me or Mr. Miller as soon as possible. Have a great day, and see you on Friday!

Homework for Russian Students - 6 December - PLC Day

Advanced Russian - 

Today was a very productive if not a fast class. We did a lot to review counting rules and how to talk about time in a lot of different contexts. I also handed out the study guides for your unit examinations. The unit exam will fall on 12/20. You'll also have your field test for Russian on 12/18 - so our last week is going to be one full of testing.

Tonight for practice and preparation be sure to review the dialogues at the beginning of the chapters. Here are links to the audio files for Chapter 5 and Chapter 8. As you read and listen to the dialogues you should identify key skills and vocabulary in them that align with your study guides.

Additionally - make sure you've completed your examples related to time expressions. We'll have time to review them next class.

Russian I - 

Many of you missed the chance to turn in sentences today. Be sure to have them in to me on Friday. You should complete exercise 8D at the end of Chapter One. Fill in the blanks with the word in prepositional case and then translate your sentences. We'll review this next class before we move on to learning about accusative case.

Also, be sure that you are studying your verb conjugation daily for our reassessment on Tuesday.

Homework for B Day Students - 5 December 2017

English IV

Today, we took a quiz on Act I of Twelfth Night before continuing to develop our skills with Shakespeare's vocabulary. We ended class with a writing exercise involving Shakespeare-style insults, which I hope you all have been able to put into use already! Next class, we're going to return to the insults before reading and watching more of Act II from the play. Have a great day, see you soon!

AP English III

Today, we spent a good deal of class analyzing Virginia Woolf's "The Death of the Moth" alongside passages from The Great Gatsby. If you missed class today, make sure you see me to get the classwork for the day, which involved planning an AP-style rhetorical analysis essay. Near the end of class, we thought about the way Woolf/Nick/Fitzgerald use various kinds of tone to accompany death sequences in their work. For next class, make sure you're looking at your annotations for the following five motifs/symbols:

1. The green light
2. The eyes of T.J. Eckleburg
3. The valley of ashes
4. Cars/driving
5. Gatsby's clothing

For class, please write one paragraph that describes how Fitzgerald uses this symbol/motif to further his argument about the American Dream. Have a great day, see you soon!

Homework for Russian Students - 4 December 2017

Russian I

For next class you should have TEN sentences which talk about yourself, your male and/or female friend, and yourselves as a group or them as a group. State what happens (verb conjugations) as well as where the events happen (prepositional case). I am going to assess these sentences for completion as well as for general accuracy.

If you were not satisfied with your work on the most recent quiz, study and prepare for a reassessment. I am available during lunch on Tuesday and Thursday for extra help if you need it. Hopefully with more time and practice the verb conjugation patterns will stick with you.

If you are in the independent study group, make sure that you have finished your second project by Friday - guidelines are on Google Classroom in this week's announcement.

Advanced Russian

Russian II - Hopefully with my notes and the time we spent in class you were able to finish your answers to the questions about time. I'll be checking your work on Wednesday morning to make sure that it is accurate, so make sure that any changes are uploaded by that time. You should also record yourself reading your answers to the questions in the personal information section. Practice and review your recording before sending it to me. You should email your recording to me at daniel (dot) miller (at) dpsnc (dot) net. I will confirm receipt. By the end of this you will have a Grammar, Vocabulary, Sentence Complexity, and Comprehensibility score.

You should also check in with exercises 15 and 16 in Chapter 5 on Time Expressions.

Russian III - You should be reviewing your paper nightly and preparing questions and answers for next week's presentations. Further, you are now actively working on the visual to aid you in the display of your paper's findings. Remember that the visual should be an outgrowth of your paper - your idea for a map is a good one. My classroom will be open to you during lunches to work on this project.

Additionally, check in with exercises 8, 12, and 14 in Chapter 8 on Time Expressions.

We will be finishing our review of this new information this week with a unit examination coming next week. Be ready!

Homework for the Weekend - B Day Students - 1 December 2017

Welcome to December! It was a wonderful day in Room 301 today.

English IV

Your homework is the same as your peers on A Day. Prepare for a quiz on Tuesday of next week, and continue to be prepared to work through more styles of comedy as we read Twelfth Night. Have a great weekend, and see you on Tuesday!

AP English III

We had a couple of fantastic classes today centering on Chapter 7 and close readings of Myrtle Wilson. We also had a great time complicating our understanding of The Great Gatsby, incorporating elements of queer theory into our reading of Nick Carraway as well as challenging the assumption that Gatsby himself is a white character. For next class, finish reading The Great Gatsby, as well as Virginia Woolf's essay, "Death of the Moth." As you read, consider the ways we can connect Woolf's piece to what we've seen with Gatsby. 

Also, as you finish reading Gatsby, consider the ways the film adaptation we watched today is both similar and different to the text. What details does Luhrmann decide to emphasize that were perhaps less notable when you read Fitzgerald's novel? What things does Luhrmann add you didn't see in the text? Why would he do this?

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your reading! Looking forward to seeing you all next week!