Happy Victory Day! 8 May 2018

Happy Victory Day! May the freedom we have from fascism never fade! I'm very proud of the work that you all did today to celebrate our Russian holiday. Hopefully you enjoyed the пельмени and квас today in class. Here are your reminders about what you accomplish.

Russian I

Remember that next class you're going to have your Unit Three examination. You have a study guide for this exam. Remember that the main skills in Unit Three was creating and using adverbs as well as creating plurals in the nominative case. You will also see questions related to cases, verb conjugation, and some other fundamental skills.

Don't forget to study your culture notes related to the Former Soviet Republics. There will be several questions related to that on the exam too!

Advanced Russian

On Thursday we're going to start finishing the final elements of our grammar units before we start preparing for our final speaking activity. The final speaking activity will fall on Wednesday the 23rd which is our last A-Day of the year. Be sure that you've watched the film and that you've considered which of the characters you feel like being for the final speaking.

I would also spend some time reviewing your new grammar topics and vocabulary. Many of you did much better on your double negation work, but there is still some work to do related to the cases.

English IV

I'm very proud of the fact that almost all of you are ready to go with Week Two. Many people got everything checked off today. If you are still lingering with your novel project I would ask that you start to spend time at home to make up for lost time. Remember that for each week you only have to show me one reading log (except week three), one vocabulary card, and then the one required project.

Next class we will have time for our Practice NCFE. For this you'll get an accuracy score as well as an effort score. Be ready for this practice for our final examination. We will also spend time in the library to work on our novel projects and complete our close reading tasks.

Homework for Monday - B Day - 7 May 2018

With the conclusion of today's class you only have FIVE remaining classes with me. Just a reminder that every minute counts!

AP English III

Today's class focused on "The Shot" by Alexander Pushkin as a look at how war can change the way that people view themselves and others. It is clear that Silvio has a very different outlook on life in the end of his life versus the beginning. I would contend that his experiences in war and as a veteran contribute to this change. Tonight, we'll be looking at another person who undergoes a significant change due to his experience with "war".

For Wednesday, read and annotate "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell. This text is located within 50 Essays or it is available at this link. As you read and annotate, consider the following ideas and questions:

1. What does the elephant symbolize? How is it both itself as well as something greater?
2. Who has the power in Orwell's life? Why is this important considering the larger point that he is making about power?
3. How does this text relate to our larger ideas around war and its effects on people?

For Friday we'll be looking at "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong". It's a longer story, so I'm posting it here in case you want to get a head start on your assignment. 

English IV

Today we started to look at some choice literary devices which you may see on your NCFE before getting back to Young Frankenstein and our novel projects. During this week we should all be finishing the required task for Week Two and getting started on the close reading and author style analysis for Week Three. At the beginning of next week I'll be collecting your paragraphs on Author's Style as well as your annotated passages. Be sure that you are actively working on this!

On Friday we'll have our practice NCFE. Be sure that you are preparing by using your study guide and your review sheet. Hopefully after we take our practice test on Friday you will see how prepared you are!

Homework for the Weekend - 4 May 2018

English IV

Looks like a lot of you came down with something today. Something I think we call SeniorSkippitis in the teaching/medical field. Of course you all have the power to make your own decisions, but I would like to remind you all that missing a class means that you've missed a chance to work on your novel projects.

Today we focused on our literary terms review as well as the film Young Frankenstein before going to the library and working on our novel projects.

By the end of next week I'll be collecting your work on the two important passages. And we will then start the final project. Remember that everything will be collected and graded by the 21st as this will be the last day to submit work for Quarter 4.

Advanced Russian

We've got Victory Day celebrations coming next week! Make sure that if you need to go back and watch any of The Cranes Are Flying - do so before we see each other again on Tuesday. I would like to collect your viewing guides then. Also, if you didn't have exercises to show me today, I'll check those on Tuesday as well.

Don't forget that we'll be doing our final speaking assignment centered on this film. Think about who you'd like to be (top three) and start planning around that character.

Russian I

Next week we'll have our Unit Three examination. Be sure that you're using your study guide to prepare for what is coming. We also have Victory Day coming up on Tuesday. Over the weekend, spend time studying and reviewing for the exam! We won't be really reviewing on Tuesday because of our holiday celebrations, but I will have some time built in for questions.

Homework for B-Day Students: Weekend Edition - 3 May 2018

AP English III

Lots of big things going on in AP English Land my lovelies. Let's go over them one at a time.

1. You have been given your AP Practice exams as well as strategies and suggestions for each of the sections of the test. We are not going to talk about the AP Exam in class from this point forward.
2. Resources - As I said today in class there are several great online resources for you to use as you are preparing for the exam. First, there's appass.com - this gives you a score calculator as well as areas for studying. I would use the calculator to see where you stand right now and to see what you need to get the score you want. There is also this resource which goes over the fifty-five most common rhetorical devices on the AP Exam. You know most of these already!
3. Your test will be held on May 23rd in the morning session. This is a make-up day since school will be closed on May 16th.

If you have individual questions about your essays and your performance, I am more than happy to speak with you outside of class.

Now, on to the actual class information. We did not have a chance to take a look at our source pack today in class around war. If you haven't yet had the chance to look at that, please do so before the weekend. I also have reading for you this weekend - Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin's "The Shot". Read the story with the following questions in mind.

• What is the relationship between the various characters? How do these different characters react to war?
• How does the age of the character affect their psyche and attitude?
• What is interesting about the way in which the story is told, especially in terms of its organization.

English IV

At this point, most of you have worked through week two of our novel projects and you are going on to week three - focused on significant passages which really represent the book as a whole. Over the weekend you should continue reading your novels and decide on your two important passages. Remember that you want to use the resources I gave you today in class in order to determine the author's style and find significant literary devices or main ideas in the passages you have. This is a project focused on close reading - doing this well will make the final project very simple!

Homework for A Day Students - 2 May 2018

Russian I

Today we had some fun in class singing a great folk song to get into the spirit of the Spring Holiday in Russia! Hopefully the song got stuck in your head and you're singing it through the day. After that we spent our time reviewing our adjective and noun declensions to go into plurals from singulars.

For tonight, stay focused on the study guide as we are preparing for the unit examination on Thursday of next week. Make sure that you can do all of the tasks on the study guide, and make sure that you can do them well.

Furthermore, today if you saw missing work on your progress report make sure that this is done this week! You will not have a chance to make up assignments after the unit examination.

Russian II/III

We also spent time getting in the holiday spirit today! Good job my русский хор! Tonight, focus on finishing your exercises. We were able to work through a good review of prepositions as well as a good review of using genitive case in the singular versus in the plural.

For tonight make sure that you are ready for Friday! We will reassess on the double negative in Russian and we will be checking exercises. Be sure that this most recent set is complete before we take our reassessment on Friday!

English IV

Many of you are moving through week two and three now! Good! I think that everyone is really done with Week One. There are a few exceptions, however. Right now you should all be focused on reading your books in order to discover your important passages as well as information about the characters.

I gave you several great resources today to help you work through project three - the style guide as well as the literary devices list. Be sure that you are using this to review for the NCFE and prepare your project work.

Lastly, remember that we will take a practice NCFE next week on Thursday.

Homework for B Day Students - 1 May 2018

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

English IV

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

AP English III

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

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

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

Homework for A-Day Students: 30 April 2018

English IV

Today was the beginning of our third week of our independent novel projects. Remember that since we are coming so close to the end of our year together, I have cut the fourth project from the list. For this reason, project three will count double.

Please check PowerSchool as it relates to any missing work. By this point you should have everything in for week one; most of you got started submitting work for week two today. By Friday, you should hopefully have most all of week two complete as well as some of week three.

For the week three project we are submitting a close reading of important passages from the book. Remember that you need to copy the passage (less than a page) and perform a close reading where you find: literary devices, main ideas/themes, information on characters, and vocabulary. Then, you'll write a summary of the passage as well as a description of the author's style based on the passages. All of this type of work and thinking will prepare you well for the NCFE since we have many questions related to author's style.

Continue reading and thinking! I'll see you all on Wednesday.

Advanced Russian

We are moving on to exercises as we begin to finish our last units of the year. Russian II - Focus on the exercises 7.8Б, 7.9, and 7.10. Your goal is to review the use of genitive case, the use of count versus non-count nouns, and new vocabulary that triggers the genitive case. This information will be on your reassessment on Friday - so practice and prepare. Russian III - Focus on the imperative mood in Russian through exercise 9.9. Remember the process that we worked through today as we formed imperatives.

Be sure as well that you spend time reviewing your quizzes and the notes that we took around double negation. This was a big weak point for many of you that I hope became clearer today. You'll reassess on this topic on Friday! Be ready!!!!

Russian I

Today I gave you all the study guide for your unit examination. Be prepared by studying and reviewing your work and your quizzes. Remember too that you can resubmit your quiz by Friday to earn back points on anything that you missed. For next class you should focus on completing your reading homework from last week as well as learning your irregular plurals. The information on plurals is key to the test next week! Review and be ready!!

Homework for B-Day Students: 27 April 2018

AP English III

I was really satisfied with the conversations that we had today around Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find". I especially liked our discussions focused on the grotesque and O'Connor's larger points about the society in which she lives. Continue to show this same level of thoroughness as we continue to work through this unit.

For the weekend we will be reading and considering Alice Walker's "Everyday Use". In this story, pay close attention to the idea of family and relationships. You may also find it useful to look at the main symbol of the story. These first two stories are meant to focus on The South as an idea as well as Family as an idea. We'll spend some time at the end of class on Tuesday comparing and contrasting the two authors, so be sure that you are prepared for that.

English IV

Some of you were able to get a lot of things done today in class including revising your essays, author projects, and test corrections. Good work there! Some of you still have missing work that needs to be turned in. Please spend time this weekend to check in with PowerSchool - if you see that an assignment is marked with a zero or with no grade, it needs to be turned in ASAP. We are coming close to our final few classes and things need to be done quickly so that you can get your credit.

Homework for A-Day Students - Weekend Edition - 26 April 2018

Russian I

I hope that all of you felt prepared for your quiz. I'll be grading them over the weekend and getting them back to you next week. Now we have to move on to learning our irregular plurals before we end Unit Three.

For this weekend you're doing a bit of reading and vocabulary analysis in order to brush up on your skills. Read the car advertisements from Russia's CraigsList - motolok.ru and answer the questions at the top of the page in English. Use evidence from the advertisements. At the bottom of the page there are questions on vocabulary use in the advertisements. Answer these questions in English or in Russian based on what the question asks for.

Advanced Russian

Today we also had a quiz; some of you did not finish in the allotted time, so it is important that you return tomorrow to finish your quiz. For the weekend, I would like for you to spend time with the new grammar concepts that we have to finish our units.

Russian III is focused on imperative formation from verbs - to practice, use exercises 9.9 and 9.12 to review the concept. Russian II is looking at the use of adverbs of quantity and the genitive case - for practice you have exercises 7.8Б and 7.9.

I expect that on Monday I will be able to check and see that you've made an effort to complete half of the exercises. This will help us to review the new concepts.

English IV

We did not have class today because of the senior meeting. This means that when you come to class on Monday I will need to see work for Week Two of our Independent Novel Project. Be sure that you have a reading log from the weekend, a vocabulary card, and your character chart complete. We'll take some time on Monday to review the different literary devices at play too!

We are quickly approaching the end of the year! You will only have NINE classes left when we return next week! Make it count!

Homework for B-Day Students: 25 April 2018

English IV

Today there were many of you who were absent and missed a day to get some of your novel work done in class. As a reminder, our novel projects are the majority of what we have to do from here to the end of the year. It would be a bad decision to not get this work done and then leave yourself with the last few classes to get caught up.

Friday is a bit of a bonus day for us because of the senior meeting tomorrow. It is important that by Friday you have submitted all of your work for week one and moved through most if not all of the work for week two. Your week three and four projects are a bit more time consuming - and all of this leads to the final presentation.

Be sure that you are crossing the finish line with power and authority, not just hobbling over the line.

AP English III

Today we finished our practice exam. I will have all of the essays graded and returned to you next week. All of you know what I'll be doing this weekend! Be sure that you have read and annotated Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" in advance of our class on Friday. The .pdf file of the story is linked in the previous post. Annotate the story or take notes as you read. It is important that you consider the details around O'Connor's use of language (especially her word choice) as you read.

We'll be spending a lot of time with the story on Friday and we're going back to coin tosses! It's important that you are prepared for Friday's class!

Also, don't forget that Friday is the last day to submit any missing work for this most recent unit. You should also speak to me about making up time for your practice examination if you missed one of the days.

Homework for A-Day Students: 24 April 2018

Russian I

Today we also spent time learning about World War 2 - but we kept our focus strictly on St. Petersburg and the siege. Hopefully you were interested by some of the cultural information we learned today. Next class you will also have a quiz - to prepare, be sure that you can do the following:

• identify the part of speech of a word
• know the seven letter spelling rule
• identify if an ending is hard or soft
• change a word from singular to plural in the nominative case for all genders

Today's warm-up was a good idea of what you need to be able to do on the quiz on Thursday. Make sure that you also have your homework to be checked!

Advanced Russian 

Today we spent some more time in World War 2 along with Veronika before going to some culture related to the war. Next class, after our quiz, we'll have more time to speak about culture.

As a reminder, you will have a quiz and homework check on Thursday. For Thursday be sure that you can:

• identify the needed case for given situations
• identify the part of speech of a word
• activate case declensions for nouns, adjectives, and possessive pronouns in all cases
• know several common irregular genitive plurals
• navigate the idea of double negation in Russian

All of you will take the same quiz on Thursday. Make sure that you also have your homework to be checked! This will then move us on to our last final grammar topics of the year before we start our final review for the exam at the end of the year.

English IV

As I said today in class we will not really be meeting on Thursday due to a senior meeting. So, work for our projects will be collected next week. However, it would still be a good idea to have work ready for me on Thursday. If you are missing anything from week one, that work has now become a zero. You can remove the zero by turning in the assignment.

Be sure that you read and complete your vocabulary card before we start class on Thursday. Show it to me and get it cleared before we leave for the class meeting. You can also begin on your essay revisions or finish any test corrections you may still have. The last day to turn in anything related to the Frankenstein unit will be on May 2nd.

Absent from AP Practice Exam?

AP English III Students:

If you were absent today for the practice exam you will need to make up the time on your own. I will be doing multiple choice make-up administration on Tuesday - 4/24 - in the morning. I will be doing the synthesis essay on Wednesday afternoon. For the multiple choice you will need THIRTY minutes. For the synthesis you will need FIFTY-FIVE minutes.

Have everything completed by the weekend so that I can return your work on time.

Also, if you did not have annotations for me of the book today or your vocabulary cards these are due the next time that I see you. If you forgot it today, make sure that I have it on Wednesday for credit.

Homework for Monday - B Day - 23 April 2018

AP English III

Today you all received back a lot of graded work - basically everything in PowerSchool up to this point. If you were absent, then vocabulary cards and annotation checks of the whole book are due on your next day in class. If work is not received by the end of the week, it will be put in as zeroes.

Next class we will complete the Practice AP Examination by completing essays two and three - the rhetorical analysis and then the argumentative essay. I will have everything graded and back to you at the start of next week.

For Friday, make sure that you have read and annotated Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find". As you are reading, pay particular attention to the way in which O'Connor uses imagery, diction, and irony. Also notice the way in which she works through the idea of family. There are a lot of interesting elements related to the setting too; though this may be considered under your analysis of imagery.

English IV

Many of you were able to get a lot of great work done today and I applaud you. If you did not become a "Pretty Princess" for the week, make sure that whatever is missing is turned in to me by next class. Please check PowerSchool for any missing grades or assignments.

Next class I'll be giving you all back your essays and building in some time in class for us to revise them toward a new grade. You'll also have time to spend more time with your books. We'll check in on the character project next class and make sure that you are moving toward completing that by the end of the week.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 20 April

English IV

Many of you were able to accomplish everything for week one of our independent novel projects - congratulations to you! If you did not complete something, please make sure that it is ready for me on Tuesday of next week. By that point I should have your essays graded and returned to you.

For the weekend, continue reading your books and working on your character charts. I hope that you are all getting to the point where your novels are engaging and keeping you interested. Maybe you've also started to pick up on the larger message the author is giving you. Don't forget to do a reading log for each time you read!

Russian Language - I hope that you all felt prepared with your field test today. I'll let you know your results once I receive them!

Advanced Russian

Next week on Thursday we will have a quiz on plural declensions in all cases. On Tuesday we will do a bit of review and watch some more of The Cranes are Flying. Please make sure that you have completed your review exercises on the more recent topics so that you are prepared! Remember that you should have completed exercises on translations and with new vocabulary in Chapter Seven and Chapter Nine.

Russian I

You will have a quiz next week as well on plurals, but your plurals are only in the nominative case. The other classes are doing their quiz on all cases. We've now reviewed many exercises related to forming plurals. Be sure that you have completed these and that you can show them to me on Thursday of next week - the day we'll have our quiz. On Tuesday we'll be doing a lot of review around plurals in all of the different parts of speech.

Homework for B-Day Students: 19 April 2018

I hope that you've all had a good week for me. Here are your reminders to take you on into the weekend!

English IV

I hope that you all enjoyed the session today with our college admissions counselor. Hopefully what he said gave you some ideas to consider for what your plans will look like next year as well as beyond that. From there, we spent time working with our novels more before ending the day. Make sure that by this point you have submitted your novel work for Week One. This includes a reading log, a vocabulary card, and your author project. If any of this work is missing, zeroes will be entered after the weekend.

I should also have your essay at this point. If you have not turned in an essay, you will be missing the chance to get feedback on the first attempt and you will only have the second attempt for your score.

All project and essay grades will be in by the end of the weekend. Please check PowerSchool on Sunday for updates.

AP English III

Today was a great opportunity for us to spend some time in small groups learning about our future authors in our unit and important information related to them and their writing which will be important for us in our unit. If you were not in class today, you should get the notes from a classmate or request the slides from me via email. You will be excused from today's in-class work and grading.

Next week we have our AP Practice Exam on Monday and Wednesday. As a reminder, you also will be turning in your copy of Invisible Man on Monday to be checked by me for a final annotation check. This is worth ninety points. You will also submit a final set of vocabulary cards on Chapters 20 through the Epilogue.

By Friday, you should read and annotate our first story of the unit, Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard To Find". As you read, you should annotate for a look at how she builds characters in the story. You may also want to consider family as a larger motif in the story as well as setting. There is a pdf of the story here which you can read and annotate.

Homework for A-Day Students: 18 April 2018

Russian Students

Next class we will meet in the library for our Russian language field test. The test will cover listening and reading skills. Remember that the test is not for a grade, it is merely a chance to see what your skills are like and what you can do with the language. I look forward to hearing your feedback on the test.

Russian I

For tonight and on to the weekend you should prepare for a quiz on forming plurals in the nominative case. We've gone through the regular system quite thoroughly by this point - I think that most of you have it down. Continue to focus on learning your vocabulary! This will really help when it comes to forming plurals as well.

Your quiz will fall on Tuesday next week. Remember that I'll also be checking for your homework on that day.

Russian II/III

You will also have a quiz on plurals next week, but it will cover plurals in all cases - including the genitive plural. After our days of review, I think that you all also have a good understanding of how to complete these declensions. For tonight, you should continue to focus on your exercises that I mentioned in the last post. We will have time to review these on Tuesday and keep learning about our new grammar. I'll spend more time with Russian III on Tuesday, so that we can start to get an idea of how to form imperatives a bit more clearly.

English IV

Today we had a visit from a college counselor to go over an option that some of you may not have considered before. I hope that it was helpful for you. Make sure that you have completed your first week worth of work for your novels. I should have an author project, vocabulary card, and reading log from you. These grades have been entered on PowerSchool if you have completed them. Once that is done, you can start working on your character chart, which I outlined today in class.

Homework for B-Day Students: 17 April 2018

English IV

Today in class we hopefully had time to complete and submit essays. If you did not print and submit an essay today, it would be important for you to turn in your printed essay and rubric to me next class. I'll be grading them this weekend and returning them to you so that you have the chance to resubmit your work! As I said today in class, don't stress making your essay perfect, it's really just a rough draft.

After that, you will want to be focused on your book projects. If you did not turn in your reading log, vocabulary card, and author project today, then make sure it is in to me next class.

AP English III

I hope that all of you enjoyed your mural projects today. I was happy to hear from you as you presented your work to your classmates. Make sure that you are using this time to go back to your book and check in on your annotations now that you know more as to what these motifs are doing in the text.

I will begin checking your blogs next class. Be sure that they are complete and shared to me via email.

On Monday, I'll be checking vocabulary cards and final annotations of Invisible Man. Be sure that you are ready for this date! Next class we'll be starting on our short story unit.

Homework for A-Day: 16 April 2018

English IV

Today in class we spent most of our time finishing our essay assignments and completing work for the first novel check-in. There were many of you who did not complete the novel work, so that should be your priority for tonight. Remember that you need to show me one vocabulary card for your reading this week, a reading log of your reading for the week, project one - which is really your choice. I suggest that you complete the author study to begin.

Secondly, if you did not turn in your essay today, make sure that it is complete and a hard copy handed in by next class. I will begin grading these soon with the goal of getting them back to you so that you can resubmit them to me. Don't miss this opportunity to work on building your grade.

Next class we will spend time with our novels and have a college counselor coming to visit with some options to consider for next year.

Advanced Russian

Presentations of your projects are happening next class. Be prepared. Remember that you have an option that you can submit your presentation via recording (just have your recording ready to be played for me) or you can do it live. No matter which you do, be sure that your project work is complete for this checkpoint.

Additionally, you have some exercises to take you through the new concepts we began to learn today. Russian II is focused on words related to quantities. Work through exercises 7.9 and 7.10 - remember the rule about using genitive plural versus genitive singular. Russian III is focused on commands/imperatives. Work through exercise 9.12 for time to review the process of forming commands. Be sure that you use your textbooks as you work for reference!

Russian I

Now that we've had the chance to review the regular plural system, the main thing left for us is to take a look at the irregulars. We'll get started on that next week. For tonight, I want you focused on finishing your learning of the regular plural system. So, complete exercises four, all the way through. In this you will want to check the gender, then make the change to plural.

We'll review this next class for completion and do more with our packets to review! If you are interested in making corrections to your quiz, those are due by Friday of this week.

Homework for the Weekend - 13 April 2018 - B Day

English IV

This weekend your assignment is much the same as your A day colleagues. Make sure that you are spending time this weekend reading your novels, adding to your reading logs, and working through one of your projects. As a reminder, the first project and work check-in will be due at the end of class on Tuesday.

Furthermore, you'll also have Tuesday to finish working on your essays. It would be important that you spend time this weekend using the rubric to make edits and to ensure that you are earning as many of the possible points in each section of the essay.

AP English III

We did it! We finished Invisible Man. Now it's time for us to move on to our assessment work. Here's an outline of what will be going on for the next few classes. On TUESDAY we will have our mural construction and presentation day. This will be the day that I check your blogs and take a look at the murals that you present to me and your classmates. You received the rubric today. Use this to guide your work. Also, RESEARCH PAPER RESUBMISSIONS will be collected on Tuesday. I will not accept these late. You must turn in your resubmission on time.

On THURSDAY we will begin our final unit of the year on short stories. We'll review the authors and the different stories that we will be studying in the unit. I think that this will be a fun way to end the year and to expose you all to some authors that we haven't had time to see yet this year.

MONDAY and WEDNESDAY of the following week (23rd and 25th of April) we will have our AP Practice Exam. I'll also collect final vocabulary cards and check annotations for Invisible Man. Make sure that you take this time to prepare for these final assessments.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 12 April 2018

English IV

Over the weekend it would be most important for you to focus on reading in your novels as well as work on your essays to complete them. Many of you were absent today from class due to a field trip; in this case you should spend time this weekend making up for time lost in class.

As a reminder at the end of class on Monday you will have due the following: your reading log for your book, one vocabulary card, your first project on your book, and your essay.

Make sure that you are working hard to complete everything in a timely fashion and so that everything is done well! If you need help, see me ASAP.

Advanced Russian

Today in class we dove into the use and formation of the genitive plural and spent time in the lab working on our projects. As a reminder, your projects are due on Wednesday. You can present live to me, or you can present a recording of your work if you would rather.

For tonight, in terms of practicing what we have been learning, you will need to complete exercise 7.1. Do it exactly as we did today in class - figure out the case that is needed, then put the word in the singular and plural version of that case. Make sure that you are using your resources (your textbook and notes) to work through your declensions.

Russian I

We took a quiz which will be graded and returned to you after the weekend. Make sure that if you did not feel confident and prepared on that quiz that you continue to study and review so that you can reassess. We then moved on to learning about the system of creating plurals using the regular system for nouns, adjectives, and possessive pronouns. With this information you should be able to complete Exercise 3.1. For this, take the word, identify if it is hard, soft, or an example of a spelling rule. Then, make the word plural.

Some of these words are irregular. As we review this exercise on Monday we will also review some of the irregular plurals and how they operate.

Homework for B-Day Students: 11 April 2018

AP English III

Today we had a really productive day working through some of the last chapters in Invisible Man and making some big understandings of how TIM is finally breaking through some of the cycles that have trapped him through his life. Good work on being engaged and thoughtful in the work that we were doing today in class. Tonight there are a few things that you can work on in preparation for Friday.

1. Continue to revise your essays. Final revisions MUST be submitted by Tuesday the 17th. If no paper is submitted, the grade will stand. I am available for conferencing before school and quickly after school for your essays.
2. Read and annotate the Epilogue. We'll read it aloud in class on Friday to finish our study of the novel, but reading it in advance will help you a lot on Friday.
3. Complete your last set of vocabulary cards (20-Epilogue) which will be collected on Thursday next week.
4. Finish annotating the book - Final annotations will be done on Thursday as well.
5. Plan for your mural and finish updating your blogs - Mural construction will occur on Tuesday. Be ready with any materials that you may need!

English IV

We also had a very good day today as we began our novel projects and continued drafting our essays. As a reminder, on Friday we will be finishing essays. You are expected to have a five paragraph essay which clearly states which way is the best way to show the particular character that you are studying. Make sure that you're clearly thinking about and discussing strong details to make your argument around showing either Victor or The Creature. Explain how ways that we have seen the character previously are either accurate or not. Keep your main idea at the heart of your essay.

Homework for A Day - 10 April 2018

English IV

I was happy that a lot of you got started in earnest on your novel projects today and then, when we were in the lab, you were staying focused on your writing and drafting. MANY of you were absent today. So many that I think that there was a field trip that I forgot about. Anyway, if you were absent you missed the beginning of our novel project as well as a good day for working on our essays. As a reminder, your essay on Frankenstein is due to me at the end of class on Thursday. Be ready for that! If you need to keep working tonight, do so!

Advanced Russian

Tonight you should focus yourselves on your projects, as well as your review of cases and plural declensions. For your projects, start putting together your writing. Next class we'll go to the lab for editing and to create visuals. For your grammar homework, I want you working on Exercise 1 in Chapter Seven. In this exercise determine WHICH case needs to be used. Then, use that case in both the singular AND the plural. If the case used is Genitive Plural, skip the plural formation. We'll focus on Genitive Plural in full next class.

Russian I

Next class we will have our quiz on forming and using adjectives in Russian. Use your dominoes as well as your notes sheets to prepare and practice your task. Additionally, we finished watching the first episode of our show today. Complete your paragraph tonight, or Thursday after your quiz, and get it in to me for your culture grade!

Back to It - 9 April - B Day

Welcome back everyone! We're pushing straight through the end of the year from here on out. Everything that we do is meant to prepare us for our final or AP examinations. Be sure that you are here to work hard and complete the year in style.

English IV

This week our goal is to finish our essays on Frankenstein and the depiction of either Victor or The Creature. I'll be going through your drafts today and giving feedback; then we'll be working on completing the full drafts for the rest of the week. This will be one of your last major grades for the year. Be sure that it shows the way in which you have grown this year as a writer.

AP English III

We didn't really have enough time to work through our chapter set today with the quiz, the returning of the research papers, and the discussion of the mural assignment. Be sure that you are ready to finish discussing this set on Wednesday. You should continue reading tonight and complete Chapter 25. We will read the Epilogue aloud in class on Friday, but you should read it on your own in advance.

For this evening the main priority is reading, annotating, and beginning on the resubmission of your research papers. For the most part they presented clear arguments, but in some cases I did not see enough explanation or organization of the paper to make it completely prove the case that you were trying to state.

Additionally, you should be completing your motif blogs. Your final "synthesis" post is sort of your thesis for your mural: What's Ellison's purpose behind this motif? What is its meaning? This is the central question that you will explain through your use of quotations and imagery. Remember that you'll only have 45 minutes to construct the mural and then about 3-4 to explain it to your classmates during our gallery walk.

Homework for Spring Break - A Day Students - 29 March 2018

And now we have all made it! My break won't start until I get through all of my grading, but that will be soon enough. Here are your reminders for what you should be doing to keep yourself busy over break.

English IV

I hope you all enjoyed the ending to Frankenstein today. Consider if what we watched can help you to better complete your essays. I'll start assessing your introduction and body paragraphs over the weekend, so check in with PowerSchool to see your scores and your document for comments.

Over break, you should all get started with your novels. If you read a bit and decide that you don't like it, you still will have time to switch when we begin. When we return we will finish our essays and then move on to our novel projects - remember that you'll have a weekly assignment with your book!

Advanced Russian

Over break you should all finish revising your rough drafts and probably get everything you have into a Google Document. That will make it easier for us to pull together our work and finish the project.

I would also like for all of you to prepare for the next part of the unit. It'll be a place for Russian III and II to be together for a bit - look at pages 271-282 which go over the plural declensions. Then, check in on exercises 6, 7, and 9 to review the usage and declensions for yourself. We'll go over this when we return!

Russian I

When we return, we'll finish working on Ночные Ласточки - Night Swallows - and complete the guides. I liked that many of you were very enthralled in the first episode. Over break, focus on studying for your quiz. I realize that I didn't hand back your work, so we'll push the quiz to Thursday instead of having it on the day that we return.

Remember that the quiz focuses on adverb formation and usages as well as sentence combining. Focus on your vocabulary and your exercises that we reviewed today in class.

Also, break provides you Russian students (I, II, III) a great chance to interact with some Russian. Maybe some reading? Maybe some TV watching? Maybe some movies? Maybe some new Russian music. As always, if you want suggestions, on Russian options, let me know. If you haven't signed up for Olympiada, take a look at the materials with your DPS login and think about joining our team!

AP Students - If you were planning on turning in a paper today after-school you noticed that I left immediately after school. One paper was given to me in the parking lot as I was getting in my car - no joke! - so now papers will be collected after Spring Break. Please have your paper for me on Monday morning when we return with its supporting documents. Your paper will be subject to a late penalty.

Homework for Spring Break - B Day Students - 28 March 2018

Happy Break B-Day Students! I look forward to seeing you all when we return. I hope that you have a bit of fun planned for yourselves as well as time with people who are important to you. I'll get to spend a few days with my very best friend in the world, and I'm really excited for that!

English IV

As a reminder, I'll be grading your introduction and body paragraphs this weekend in your Frankenstein adaptation essay. Make sure that as you are working that you first address the feedback that I gave you with your introduction. Then, once you've done that, move on to your first body paragraph.

I gave you those example paragraphs to use as a model for yourselves, but you also have the other planning sheets that you can use to help you move forward with your essays.

AP English III

Over the break you have two significant tasks. First, finish reading "The Allegory of the Cave" from 50 Essays or at this link. As you finish the dialogue, make sure that you consider the questions below.

1. Where do ideas come from? What makes some ideas better than others?
2. How is the creation and acquisition of knowledge connected to power?
3. How has Ellison been building connections back to Plato throughout his text?

Once you've finished with that, you have Chapters 20-24 to read over the break. As I said in class, the quiz that you have can reference everything back to Chapter 10. It would be a good idea to go through and check in on your annotations through those chapters to make sure that your book is an appropriate tool to help you be successful on the quiz when we return.

Lastly, if you did not turn in your paper or vocabulary cards today then you will want to get them turned in tomorrow!

Homework for A Day Students - 27 March 2018

It's the beginning of Quarter 4, and we are starting in earnest. Be aware that our final quarter is a quick one; we'll have fewer assignments this quarter, but that means that each one will be worth a lot more!

English IV

Today we spent time really focused on our essays, and then we went to the computer lab to focus on drafting. On your Google Drive document you should now be focused on developing a full introduction paragraph as well as a full first body paragraph. I'll check in on these at the end of the week and give you a grade on this work. I gave you a good version of the body paragraph, but an okay version of the introduction today as a model. Use these as you are working. Remember the topic of your essay. Use and explain your examples!

Advanced Russian

Next class we will be in the computer lab for half of our class focused on our vocabulary and grammar projects! Be sure that you apply the notes from our writing conference today today so that you can complete your drafts. We'll be constructing visuals and final drafts next class - so be ready for that with finished and corrected drafts.

We will also have a short vocabulary quiz next week. It will focus on nouns, adjectives, some verbs, and translations. I think that this quiz will be relatively easy for you - if you've been consistently working on your project, there should be no issues.

Russian I

Next class we'll be doing our weekly homework review. There are three exercises that you need to complete before our workshop next class. They are as follows:

• Page 123 - Exercise 3.6 - Change the word in parenthesis into an adverb, place it in the sentence, translate the sentence.
• Page 125 - Exercise 3.8 - Combine the sentences with the proper conjunction, translate the combined sentence.
• Page 130 - Exercise 3.17 - Answer the question When/Когда using adverbs of time. Answer in complete sentences. Translate. You only have to answer seven of the fifteen.

Lastly, Russian students, look over the description of the Olympiada to the right. If you would like to compete, please let me know in class on Thursday.

Homework for B-Day Students: 26 March 2018

English IV

Today we began our quarter with our unit test on Frankenstein. I'll have these graded and returned to you when we return from Spring Break. I hope that you all felt well prepared and successful. Tonight it would be a good idea to make sure that you have started on your adaptation essay. If you haven't yet shared a document with me that includes your introduction work, make sure that you do.

Next class we'll be looking at some sample work as well as working in the computer lab to continue our essay development.

AP English III

Lots of good work today around symbols and their meanings. I enjoyed hearing a lot of connections back to the ideas of necropolitics and control through the text. Make sure that the symbols we discussed find their way to your cover annotations.

For tonight you have your research papers as your main focus. We went over in class the various documents that will go with your envelope and how to account for any documents that are missing. Additionally, we reviewed formatting. See these documents (3B) and (4B) for examples of perfect MLA formatting. Everything for your papers is due to me on Wednesday. Any paper collected after 4:15 PM on Wednesday will be considered late.

Over Break you have the reading of Invisible Man - Chapters 20 through 24. Lots of major events happen in these chapters including a lot of big events to Tod Clifton. Notice them and how they affect  and finally change TIM. Expect a quiz and an annotation check when we return from break.

Finally, next class we'll be working through an essay by Plato - the Greek philosopher. We'll be reading it aloud in class, so, prepare by doing some light research about him. What did he study? What did he do? Why are we still reading and talking about him?

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 23 March

It's the end of the quarter! Hooray! I'll have your grades finalized around noon tomorrow. Make sure that you check by then for all of your extra credit and final assignments. Here are your reminders for the weekend.

English IV

Take it easy this weekend. We had our test today on Frankenstein and I'll have those back to you next week. If you were absent today, be sure to see me next week to make this up before Spring Break.

Advanced Russian

We have vocabulary and grammar projects happening right now. This weekend you need to construct your rough drafts so that we can conference on Tuesday. For Russian II this involves three paragraphs - weather yesterday in Russia and Durham, weather today, and weather tomorrow. For Russian III this involves your ingredients list, your amounts, and your steps in Russian.

Be ready to be productive on Tuesday as we'll very quickly move to the final draft and presentation of this product.

Russian I

Over the weekend you have two exercises to complete for our homework check and review on Tuesday. You will need to complete exercise 3.6 and exercise 3.8. The first focuses on changing words into adverbs and then inserting them into sentences. The second focuses on sentence combining with the proper conjunction.

In both of the exercises, be sure that you translate the sentence that you end up with as a marker of your vocabulary knowledge as well.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 22 March

That's it! We made it. We've reached the end of Quarter Three. Below are the reminders for the weekend to get you ready for the first week of Quarter Four and the beginnings of Spring Break!

English IV

Your homework for the weekend is to prepare for your examination on Monday. You have your study guide which reviews the characters, sections for the test, as well as the themes for the short answer questions. Be sure that you spend time filling in your study guide since you can use that on your test on Monday.

Also, if you see anything missing that you want to turn in, this is your last chance. I'll finalize my gradebook tomorrow afternoon when I finish writing conferences.

AP English III

Over the weekend we have a few things to take care of - some elements related to Invisible Man and then some elements related to your research papers.

First, conferences are ending tomorrow. According to my count there are twenty of you that need to see me tomorrow. Come to your conference, be productive, ask good questions. Once we conference, I'll figure your averages and your grade will be complete.

Second, we have reading to do. You've got Chapters 16-19 in Invisible Man. As you go through this section, connect to our discussion today from Anzaldua. How is controlling the language a person speaks a way to kill them? As we watch TIM progress - is he being himself? Why or why not? Is he falling into the cycles again? Don't forget that your second round of vocabulary cards are due on Monday as well - this set covers Chapters 10 - 19.

Lastly, your final drafts of your papers are due on Wednesday. Be sure that you are actively revising and putting to practice our conversation from the conference. I'll be available on Monday and Tuesday for quick questions and drop-in appointments.

AP Exam Review Sessions

AP Students

DPS offers AP Exam review sessions at two sessions in April. The sessions are free, and you can attend reviews for up to four exams. There is lunch included. If you are going to attend the sessions then you must register online. See this flyer for information and registration links.

Homework for A-Day: End of the Quarter - 21 March 2018

The snow keeps falling and yet we have no delay...hmm. There were a fair number of absences today, so make sure that you get caught up on what happened in class.

English IV

Today in class we spent time looking at our progress reports and cashing in rubles for some extra credit. Then we spent time reviewing the elements of a good body paragraph and planning for our body paragraphs. As we return to the computer lab next week we will have the goal of finishing our drafts and moving through the body paragraphs.

Next class you have your unit exam on Frankenstein. Be sure that you are spending time with your folders and your notes to complete your study guide. You can use your study guides on the test to help you do your best work. The test and the essay will be part of our Quarter 4 grades.

Advanced Russian

In class today we spent a lot of time working on our projects as well as developing our skills around using the double negative in Russian. This concept is a bit confusing since it is so different from how we navigate this same concept in English. Make sure that you continue to review our exercise today in class as well as the information in Chapter Seven around negation.

Tonight for homework we are focused on reading for Russian II (which will help with project work) as well as just finishing up the first part of the project for Russian III. Listening for Russian II is available at this link. You'll want to fast-forward to around 17:00 to start the recording of the two weather reports. Remember that by listening and practicing you'll be getting more comfortable with your speaking and with your fluency as you speak and read.

Russian III students should be able to finish their recipe card in Russian. What's the dish? What do you need? What are the steps?

Russian I

Today in class we began to work on the second concept in Chapter Three - the creation of adverbs in Russian from adjectives. Remember that, just like English, some words are already adverbs and we can't do anything to them except use them. Other adverbs are formed from adjectives - but not all adjectives can form adverbs!

Tonight to practice with the concept you'll complete Exercise 6 in Chapter Three. You'll see a word in parentheses off to the side. Take the word, make it an adverb, put it in the sentence, and then translate.

Homework for B-Day: 20 March - Almost the End of Quarter 3

Next class we'll be doing ruble cash-in for all of our classes. Be sure you have your cash!

English IV

Today we spent much of our class having a seminar around themes in Frankenstein - especially the idea of how society makes judgments on people and the danger of those judgments. We focused strongly on our study guides today - on the study guide you have a good outline of what you will see on the test. We'll have characters, plot, literary devices, and theme questions.

Go through your folders and work to fill in your study guides. Remember that you can use your study guide on the test. Your unit exam will fall on Monday and will be the first big grade of Quarter 4.

We'll also be working on our essays more in the coming days - if you haven't shared your introduction paragraph with me, be sure that you do so that I can get you a grade and feedback.

AP English III

We are continuing with our writing conferences that have been scheduled on my door. If you are not able to make your writing conference it is your responsibility to come at another time. I would recommend that you come after the scheduled conferences on Wednesday-Friday. I should have time to work you in. Remember that this is the last grade of the quarter.

For the week your main task is to get through Chapters 16-19 for Monday of next week. This is a major section of chapters that take TIM into The Brotherhood and has him start to make speeches. Pay attention to what his speeches say and how this is recreating some of the major cycles of the text.  You may find it helpful to also take a quick look at the Booker T. Washington speech since there are a lot of parallels between TIM and Booker T.

Lastly, we have reading for next class. You'll be looking at Gloria Anzaldua's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" - it's available in 50 Essays and at this link. As you read it - pay attention to the way in which she connects language to identity. Why is this an important idea for us to consider when reading Invisible Man? How does it help us to understand the conflict at the heart of TIM's quest?

Olympiada 2018

Russian Students - Levels 1-3

On Sunday, April 29th Duke University will be hosting the 4th Annual Carolinas Olympiada of Spoken Russian. I want to upload the instructions and preparation materials here so that you are able to start preparing. I would like to register our teams and begin practicing by this Friday. So please look over everything before this Friday. Use your DPS account to access these materials linked below.

Overall Competition/Study Guide - This document reviews the different levels of competition and what is expected for you to do. This document will guide you in how you use the following documents.

Speaking About Yourself - Устная часть - In this document you will see questions and topics for talking about yourself. These will be used in the competition.

Culture - There are many elements to the cultural knowledge competition. Here are some general guidelines.

Moscow and St. Petersburg - Know your sites and places around the cities!

See other notes on the music, literature, politics, art, film, and geography. See the informational pack on music, literature, and film preparation materials.

Homework for Monday - 19 March - A Day

English IV

Today we had a great conversation around themes in Frankenstein and we explored some other media to help us build connections between our novel and our contemporary society. I'm happy with the work that you all put in today to talk, listen, and build on the ideas that others had.

Next class we will spend time watching Frankenstein to start finishing up the story and we will have time to work on our essays. I'll be putting in feedback on your introduction paragraphs today and tomorrow. Don't forget that you have your test on Frankenstein on Friday!

Advanced Russian

Russian II and III students have received their vocabulary and grammar project and should actively be working on this for tonight. This is all that Russian II students need to do - find your city, develop your information, remember that you're looking at the weather in Durham and in a Russian city for yesterday, today, and tomorrow. This will help you to speak in all three tenses. Russian III students should select a recipe and write out the steps and the recipe's shopping list. Use your vocabulary!

Russian III's have an additional exercise, at the end of Chapter Nine, please complete exercise number 9.6 and 9.7 focusing on modals and aspect.

Russian I

Lots of fun today playing LOTO! I'm glad you all enjoyed yourselves and had some time reviewing your new vocabulary. For tonight, you're going to do homework to turn in. Go to the sentences on page 126 and combine them using the appropriate conjunction. Write out the combined sentence and translate it. Be sure that you are doing what we did in class and thinking about your repetition and grammar.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 16 March 2018

English IV

Today in class we did two major things - we completed the drafting of our introduction paragraphs and then we discussed one of the major themes of Frankenstein through a look at an episode of The Twilight Zone called "Eye of the Beholder". The ideas of the episode, particularly around what society considers to be beautiful or ugly have clear connections to what Shelley is working through with The Creature.

We'll continue to have these conversations and do more of this important thinking on Tuesday and Thursday as we prepare for our Frankenstein exam which will occur on Monday the 26th.

AP English III

Today in class we spent our time working on literary criticism in our motif groups. The main thing that we were doing today was understanding the way in which literary criticism can be useful in understanding complex literature. Hopefully, as you worked through one critical article, you were able to see clear connections to the ideas of your motif. This should be the basis of your latest motif blog post. Some of you were able to complete this today in class - if not, be sure that you have dealt with this post before moving on to the others.

For the weekend we have the reading of Chapters 13-15 in Invisible Man. Pay attention to how TIM falls into the same traps as he has before. What's different now? What's the same? Why do we get it, but he doesn't? This will start to push us into the final section of this novel where TIM has some of his final struggles and his big breakthrough at the end. Don't forget to keep blogging and completing your vocabulary as you go.

Lastly, be making progress with your papers. We have conferences through next week. Everyone is required to attend one conference and then in the days before the paper is due you can come back for final drop-in conferences.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day Edition - 15 March 2018

Russian I

Today in class we finished the lesson that we started on Tuesday which was cut short by our late arrival to school. We have covered some review of the second conjugation pattern in Russian as well as the conjunctions "and", "but", and "and/but". Following that, we looked at some examples of these conjunctions in English and discussed their usage in Russian.

For the weekend focus on your vocabulary and your conjunctions by completing Exercise 3.8. As you work through the exercise you'll complete the sections A, Б, В. With each group, combine two sentences with the conjunction given to you for the set. Remember to reduce redundancy as you combine the sentences and to think about your verbs. Translate the sentences after you have combined them.

Advanced Russian

There are different assignments over the weekend for Russian II and III. All of us are focusing on using the dative case and new vocabulary around weather (Russian II) or foods (Russian III).

Russian III will focus on the use of the modal constructions (надо, нужен, можно, нельзя) and the way that Russian say should (должен). You'll be looking at exercise 9.5. Select one of the food items and then use your vocabulary and other grammar in the chapter to write yourself a list of things to do to make the selected food item. What are the things you need? What should you do? What shouldn't be done? What can't be done? You might find it helpful to look at Russian verbs around cooking which you can find here. There are some new stems when it comes to cooking verbs, so thankfully we use infinitives for all of these expressions we've learned (phew!).

Russian II will continue to focus on parts of speech and dative versus nominative case in making sentences describing the weather and feelings. You'll be writing sentences talking about how people feel during types of weather. How do you feel when it's cloudy? When the weather is rainy, how do you feel? What about when it's +37 outside? Use the grammar and vocabulary structures we learned today in class to write about yourself and others in various types of weather. Remember to use all numbers as words!

English IV

Next week we will have our test on Frankenstein and then move to finish the unit in the first week of Quarter 4. Today in class we did a lot of work around our essays - sharing the introduction paragraph to me - before going to class to discuss The Creature and his eventual change for the worse. We also brought in our discussion of nature and nurture to look at how these concepts interact with each other in this moment.

Over the weekend, be focused on preparing for your test. Study your plot events, look at the characters and know them well. Our test will be on Friday next week and will be the first grade of Quarter 4!

Also - next week on Monday we will cash in rubles for extra credit. After Monday I will no longer accept any missing work with the exception of quizzes and tests to make up from absence. Make sure that you have done what you need to do in order to be in a good place at the end of the quarter.

Homework for Wednesday - 14 March 2018

AP English III

Really great work together today to start deconstructing whiteness and white privilege in class. I'm very proud of the way that you all confronted the ideas and stayed respectful through our conversations. We'll continue to discuss elements of race and privilege as we keep working through the unit. Here are your reminders going to Friday's class.

1. Focus on your drafts. Today you submitted rough drafts and some of you have already completed your writing conference. This is a good thing. Keep writing. Keep connecting. And keep asking for help from your classmates as you need it. Final drafts are due on the 28th of March!

2. For Tuesday we have the reading of Chapters 13-15 in Invisible Man. I gave you Booker T. Washington's "Atlanta Compromise Speech" today in class. This reading is meant to fill in some background knowledge you will need to understand Chapters 13-15. Be on the lookout for references to Booker T. Washington as we go through this section of the text and remember - we already have seen one.

English IV

Next class we will begin drafting our Frankenstein adaptation essays. Today in class we worked through our introduction paragraphs as well as a full conception of either The Creature or Dr. Frankenstein. Then, we read through to see the turning point for The Creature. Now would be a good time for you to start reading over your notes and reviewing for our exam that we will have next week on Thursday.

Homework for A Day Students - 3/13/2018

English IV

Today we had a short day, so we spent it focused on our final Frankenstein projects - the adaptation and the essay. The main focus as we finish this project will be the essay in which we discuss what is the best way to depict either The Creature or Victor Frankenstein. To do this we finished our depictions and plans for the creature, and then we worked through our introduction paragraphs for our essay.

Over the next few classes we will be drafting and planning to construct this essay. The essay will be part of Quarter 4. We will also have a test on the first part of Frankenstein next week. We'll finish part one this week and review it before the exam.

Advanced Russian/Russian I

Today we started in on new units. This means that all of you should immediately begin to focus on learning new vocabulary related to the unit. Right now, stay focused on nouns and adjectives. These are a great place to start. We'll start taking a look at the verbs that we will be learning as we move through the unit.

Russian I Students - This is all you need to do for me. I have also returned your unit exams and explained how to resubmit the work. Make corrections on your test, but remember when you get your points then you will need to explain why you made the changes that you have made. Many of you have missing assignments - you need to get these things in.

Advanced Russian Students - We were able to get through our review of Dative Case usage, so please complete the Chapter Seven exercises to review what we covered. You'll want to complete exercise 7.4 and 7.5. These both have you focus on the dative case to express ages as well as feelings.

Homework for B-Day - 12 March - A Quick Monday

We got through most everything that we needed to today. That's good. Here are your reminders to take you into Wednesday.

English IV

The surprise early release bit us in the butt more than it did the other classes today. I'm glad that we had a good conversation around nature and nurture and their impact on people. I think that we all have a pretty good understanding of what Locke and Rousseau think about these ideas.

Tonight, you may find it most important to take a look at your adaptation projects. We'll have time to work on these next class, but we'll also be starting the essay. Make sure that you've completed the previous parts of this assignments - on Google Classroom - so that you can move forward.

AP English III

There are a lot of things going on in AP English III land in terms of our reading unit and our writing unit. I'll break down your tasks below.

Reading: Our next set of chapters in Invisible Man are Chapters 13-15. This is a big chunk of reading and won't be discussed until next week - Tuesday. Take your time to accomplish this. Also, be sure that you and your group have gone and accounted for your blog posts.

We'll take a bit of a detour the next two classes by looking at the concept of necropolitics - to begin the investigation I'm asking you to read two documents for class on Wednesday. First, read Peggy McIntosh's list of structures in our society. Think about each one and mark it if you think it is an example of necropolitics at play. Then, be sure to read Brent Staples's article called "Just Walk On By" - it's in 50 Essays or available here.

Read and annotate this article. Make connections to necropolitics as well as to Invisible Man or any of the other authors we have discussed in this unit.

Writing: It looks as though many of you signed up today for writing conferences. If not, be sure that you do ASAP. On Wednesday everyone will turn in rough drafts. Your rough draft should have a full introduction, two complete topics, and a conclusion. You should also have a bibliography. When you come to your conference you should come prepared with questions for me about your paper. We will also be able to fix previous grades based on what I see with the draft. DO NOT MISS YOUR CONFERENCE.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 9 March 2018

There are only 5 A-Days until the end of Quarter 3! Make sure you're getting things done and working to finish the quarter in a strong and solid position.

English IV

Today in class we got into some very complex pieces of philosophy by John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau - these texts helped us to discuss what it is that makes us who we are. Is it more that we are controlled by who we are or by what happens to us? Is it a question of nature or nurture?

We then discussed how The Creature is able to show this same debate. Class ended with some more reading of The Creature with the De Lacey family as well as his eventual expulsion from their house.

Over the weekend, get focused on your missing assignments or assignments that are scored low you will want to focus on that. We have very little time left to affect and change our grades for the better. The only real work to complete is our Frankenstein project. Be sure that you are engaged and moving toward completion.

Advanced Russian

Today in class we had our unit exams. I will work to get those graded and returned to you by Thursday so that you have time to reassess on any portions that you need to. Over the weekend, you will want to complete your Chapter Previews. Russian II will want to complete a Chapter Preview on Chapter 7 - This chapter focuses on forming plurals in all cases. Russian III will want to focus on Chapter 9 - This chapter focuses on supplemental vocabulary which helps to discuss needs and desires.

Be sure that if there is anything missing from our verbs of motion unit that you have settled that up this weekend. Begin to focus on your new vocabulary in your new chapters.

Russian I

We also took a unit examination today - but for us it was more of a cumulative test on the whole year - so it was much more of a Benchmark Examination than anything else. I will have these back to you next week for any reassessments that you may want to complete.

Over the weekend you have your Chapter Preview on Chapter 3. Focus on your new vocabulary here so that you are able to move forward into the chapter effectively. Additionally, MANY of you are missing project grades and these are really pulling you down. Work to get these grades submitted to me on Monday so that your grade accurately reflects your abilities in class.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 8 March 2018

AP English III

What a day of discovery! I think that all of you have a much better understanding of what is going on in Chapter Ten as well as what is going on in the book up to this point. Way to go on that. Over the weekend, you will want to continue reading Chapters 11 and 12. In Chapter 11 you're going to be challenged by the voice and point of view. Ride through it and make sure that you're understanding the idea of the hospital. Try to track what happens to TIM in this chapter.

In Chapter 12, he goes back out into the world after his experience in the hospital. There is a lot of language around birth and rebirth - so focus on how TIM is different than he was before.

You have all also received feedback on your synthesis timed writings as well as your outlines. Take this feedback and put it forward to your rough drafts. Rough drafts are due to me on Wednesday the 14th. When you submit your draft it is just a half of the final draft (2 to 3 pages). Be sure that you have a full introduction, two topics with sources, explanation, and transitions, a conclusion, and a works cited page. You will sign up for a writing conference and come to the conference to discuss your paper and resubmit previous work related to the paper.

As a reminder - this quarter will end on March 23rd. Be sure that you have completed all of the parts of the research paper as well as any missing assignments. The grade book has been updated to this point. Zeroes are showing missing assignments at this point.

English IV

We had a very good day today discussing The Creature and why the creature could be important as a symbol of many things. Then, we began working on the final part of our adaptation projects. In this portion of the assignment you are depicting The Creature or Dr. Frankenstein as you like and then considering how that lines up with other depictions of them. As you do this work, remember that you are focusing on explaining why you see Victor or The Creature as you do. Additionally, you want to explain why your conception of them is different than others.

Special Announcement - AP III

AP English III Students - 

Some of you have missed the recent assessment on Invisible Man or you may have missed the first synthesis timed writing. There are also some of you who may want to discuss outlines, research papers, or other assignments in preparation for our final push through drafting. I will be available tomorrow after school until approximately 5:40 PM. Please make plans to see me if you want/need to.

Homework for A-Day - 7 March 2018

English IV

Now that we know a lot about Victor Frankenstein and The Creature we can move on to our final portion of this Frankenstein adaptation project - your version of Victor or The Creature.

Be sure that you have completed the two Google Classroom assignments. If not, be sure that you have completed these and turned them in online to move on to this most recent part of the assignment. In this portion, you are showing either The Creature or Victor as they are on the inside and outside. Does your idea match with other ideas of The Creature or Victor? Why or why not?

Eventually we will have a piece of art paired with writing. We'll complete the art and then complete the writing. This will be one of our final major grades for the quarter.

Advanced Russian and Russian I

All of you have unit exams coming up on Friday. These exams have been what we have been preparing for over many days. I've given you all study guides and plenty of notes and opportunities to review the material - now you need to show me what you have learned.

Russian I - Your exam will cover Unit 1 and Unit 2. You should be able to work with verbs, nouns, adjectives, subject and possessive pronouns in all cases and genders. Be sure that you are focused on learning your charts and fully understanding what these charts mean.

Russian II/III - Your exam will be focused on verbs of motion. Russian II will see verbs of motion with no prefixes except one. Russian III will see many prefixes at play. Be sure that you understand how to navigate the related grammar with Verbs of Motion (cases, prepositions, conjugations, irregular forms).

Homework for B Day - 6 March 2018

English IV

Hopefully you enjoyed the watching of the story of The Creature today in class. It gets us to a good part of the book where we can really start to have some very important conversations about The Creature, its relationship with Victor, and what all of this means about parent/child relationships.

As I've been saying, please take a look at PowerSchool and see me about any assignments that are missing or that you would like to resubmit. We will review the work that we have done from today next class and move on to some of these really important conversations.

AP English III

I hope that all of you felt comfortable and prepared for the assessment today on Invisible Man. I look forward to reading your answers about these questions to see how you are understanding Ellison's book.

For tonight you have the reading of Chapter Ten, which I hope you have already started to read and consider. Most everything in the chapter has a symbolic meaning - keep that in mind as you are going through the chapter. Also, there are a lot of recurrences back to Chapter One and the Battle Royale. Consider why Ellison would put this chapter here. What is this showing to us and kinda to TIM about the reality of New York?

Be sure that you have submitted your blog address at the post below. I'll be checking blogs starting on Wednesday morning for completeness before assessing your participation in this part of the unit. Additionally, I'll be returning and discussing research outlines on Thursday - so it is imperative that everything is turned in so that you can continue your development process.

Homework for A-Day - 5 March 2018

English IV

Today in class we watched some of the adventures of The Creature on his own in the world. He's learned and seen a lot - especially from the Delacey family. Tonight you have no homework to complete. I would recommend, however, if you have missed class or if you are behind on anything that you take a look at PowerSchool.

There are assignments available on Google Classroom that you can complete related to our final Frankenstein project. You can also get caught up on your reading. The quarter ends in three weeks! So it is important to get everything settled ASAP.

Russian Language Students (I, II, III)

All of you have exams coming on Friday. I have scheduled them on Friday so that all of you have the chance to get caught up and prepared through the week. Today in class we focused on several review exercises to help prepare you for Friday's exam. Tonight, I would recommend that you complete any of the following to help you prepare.

1. Complete reassessments of previous projects for this class. When you do that, submit the project or the rubric (if the project is online) to me so that I know it's ready to be regraded.
2. Complete any additional exercises to help you review concepts either from our textbook or from the UCLA Beginners Russian textbook which is available online.
3. Complete the extra credit exercises - Russian I only.
4. Complete your script for your quick recording - Russian II/III only.

No matter what you are doing to prepare - be sure that you are preparing daily for your unit examinations. Russian I will cover the Introduction, Chapters One and Two. Russian II will cover Chapter 6. Russian III will cover Chapter 6 and Chapter 10.

Blog Address Collection

AP English III

Students - Please post a comment below with your Motif Blog URL's as well as your class period and the names of the people in your group!

Homework for the Weekend - 2 March 2018 - B Day

AP English III

We have a few important things to take care of this weekend in advance of your assessment on Invisible Man on Tuesday in class. Here's what we should do in the order of importance.

1. Make sure that you have completed your vocabulary cards for Prologue through to Chapter Nine. This is ten cards total. You can complete them via online options or via actual cards. You will turn them in to me on Tuesday if you didn't turn them in today.
2. Complete your motif charts and motif blogs for Prologue through Chapter Nine. Remember that for your chapter posts you are simply identifying the quotation, the context of the quotation, and then how the quotation indicates the motif.
3. You will also need to complete your synthesis post for Prologue through Chapter Nine. In the synthesis post you are looking at how at least three significant examples are coming together to contribute a meaning to the motif. What is Ellison's purpose behind the motif? What does it mean? These are the questions to consider here.

If you did not submit your outline today then you can submit it via Google Drive. I'll begin grading these over the weekend so that I can return things to you on Tuesday.

We will have our assessment on Tuesday and then on Thursday we will work through Chapter Ten. 

English IV

Please take note of the post I gave yesterday for the A day class. Make sure that you have everything turned in and that if there is anything significant that you are missing that you have started working on that before the quarter ends.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 1 March 2018

Russian I

Very good work today in class today. I saw that a lot of you did well on our quick quiz and then everyone was able to complete their family trees. We also have finished reviewing our final set of declensions before our exam next week on Friday. Let's discuss what you should be doing this weekend to prepare.

1. Complete your rough draft of your family member paragraphs. As a reminder you are using the outline provided on your assignment sheet to write about one male and one female family member. Use your notes and vocabulary to accomplish this. Do not use translators. Practice and make mistakes - remember it's just a rough draft. This is due on Monday.
2. Complete your extra credit assignment on the back of today's in class work. Use your declension charts and your vocabulary lists in order to see which cases you need.
3. Complete any resubmissions of projects this weekend. Review your work on previous quizzes to redo them. I've put zeroes in for the house plan project if it hasn't been turned in.
4. Use the UCLA Beginner's Russian textbook for extra help. The link is available here. You will want to bounce around the chapters to review the important content. Use your study guides for this.

I'll see you on Monday as we keep pushing toward our unit exam. The test will happen on Friday.

Advanced Russian

We also have a big exam to prepare for - the Verbs of Motion examination. I gave all of you a study guide to use as you are preparing yourselves. You can also resubmit projects this weekend and prepare for any quiz resubmissions. If you are using the UCLA Beginner's Russian textbook for extra practice this weekend - you will want to direct your attention to Chapter 10 and beyond. Remember, you 'll have to bounce around to cover all of the content.

English IV

Next class we will have a chance to watch the film Frankenstein and finish with our dramatic retellings of Justine's trial. As you are working over the weekend, be sure that you're focused on any low grades that you would like to improve as we are closing out the quarter. Remember that there are only three weeks left in this quarter. Then it's off to Q4, Spring Break, and the end of this wonderful year!

Homework for Wednesday, February 28 - B Day - PLC Day

AP English III

There are a lot of things to take care of in advance of class on Friday. Here are your reminders in order of importance of what you need to do.

1. Your research paper outlines are due to me on Friday. You should submit a hard copy. If you submit the outline online, please remember to turn in your rubric. Friday is also the last day to resubmit research paper sourcepacks. Remember to submit your rubric to show that you are ready for the assignment to be reassessed.
2. You have reading due for Friday - Chapters 7 through 9 of Invisible Man. The priority as you read is to complete your vocabulary as you are reading. Annotate. Keep an eye on your motifs. This is a transition section for TIM as he travels to New York and gets acclimated to his new life. It's not all he expects it to be.

Next week we will have a quest on Invisible Man - Prologue through Chapter Nine. In class on Friday we will have time to work together and complete our blogs up to this point. Be sure that you are coming to class on Friday ready to work!

English IV

Many of you were able to take care of resubmitting and correcting your vocabulary quiz today in class. If there are other grades on your progress report that you would like to improve - be sure that you are settling all of that up ASAP. The quarter will be over sooner than you think.

For tonight, make sure that you are thinking about your missing work or any work that needs to be resubmitted. Next class we will see Justine's trial and continue to work on our projects about Frankenstein in popular culture.

Homework for A-Day Classes: 27 February 2018

Russian I

Make sure that you have completed the names and family member identities for your project. Many of you were able to do this today in class. Next class - Thursday - we will construct our family trees and work hard to complete our paragraphs.

Next class we will start to review in earnest for our Unit One and Two examination. The exam will happen next week on Friday. It will cover all of our major grammar points as well as vocabulary in Chapters One and Two. Pull together your notes and your folders. Start to study and prepare now!

Advanced Russian

Today in class we had an enrichment day because so many students were out for the ACT. Here are your reminders as we move forward.

Russian II - You all have translations due to me on Thursday - the rest of the A group that we didn't finish in class on the first day of translations. Be sure that you have worked through each one and thought about your grammar and word choice as you've gone through the exercise. Turn that in to me on Thursday for a grade.

Russian III - Be sure that you are ready for your dialogue. Be able to describe the picture, answer the question, and use your grammar clearly. This is a good chance to review your work and your prepositions.

Remember that all of you need to write sentences reviewing what Nadya does in the film The Irony of Fate. You should hopefully have about five sentences talking about what she does.

English IV

Today in class we got through the next major moment in Frankenstein - the murder of William Frankenstein and the case against Justine. Next class we'll take a look at the trial and how things work out for those concerned. After that we had time to resubmit assignments or to work on any missing work.

For tonight - stay focused on getting caught up. If you have any zeroes, it is important that those are settled and turned in to me ASAP. Also, if you have any grades that are low, make sure that you have seen me about resubmitting that work before the end of the quarter, which is coming verb soon.

Homework for Monday - 2/26/2018 - B Day

AP English III

I hope that you all enjoyed the timeline activity today. I think that we have a good understanding of how much TIM has changed and been affected by this eventful day at the college. Make sure that you continue to consider Dr. Bledsoe as well as TIM's Grandfather moving forward - both of these men are going to continue to have serious effects on him.

For the week we don't have anything due until Friday. On Friday you will be turning in your research outlines as well as completing the reading and annotating of Chapters Seven, Eight and Nine. These chapters take TIM to New York. Look at his first impressions in the city. Pay attention to how he's changing and yet not changing at the same time.

On Wednesday we will have our Timed Writing - it will be a synthesis prompt. We will also do some multiple choice practice to complete the day.

As a warning, next week we will have our first test on Invisible Man - Prologue through Chapter Nine. We will also have vocabulary cards coming due (ten total cards) as well as blog posts for the chapters we have covered.

English IV

Good work today with our reading strategies JAQ and BBB - make sure that you're using these in all of your classes to get through difficult texts with specific purposes. I think that you all did a great job getting through some really dense paragraphs with some complex ideas in them. Remember that you don't have any homework to complete tonight - if you have any missing work or assignments be sure that you are working to get those submitted ASAP.

Homework for the Weekend - 23 February 2018 - A Day

Russian I

Over the weekend you should spend time working on your family projects. You have two things to accomplish. First, locate your assignment on Google Classroom. There you'll find the online Russian keyboard as well as the instructions for the document.

Identify your family members. Write their names - first, middle, and last in the Russian way. Remember that you have to write about four generations.

After you've done this, take time to write a rough draft of one paragraph. Make sure that you use the outline provided.

Turn in this work on Google Classroom or share it with me daniel _ miller @ dpsnc . net (no spaces) so that I can mark this as complete and give you feedback.

Advanced Russian

I will not see many of you on Tuesday because of the ACT testing for Juniors. Because of this - the work discussed here will be reviewed on Thursday. Now that we have finished watching The Irony of Fate we can apply what we have learned about Verbs of Motion to the film. We did that today in class related to Ippolit and Zhenya - over the weekend, write about Nadya.

Use a variety of verbs of motion to write about Nadya. Be sure that you consider where she is when she ends the film and your point of view on the actions as you write.

Russian III students should use verbs of motion with prefixes as an extra practice - you may also want to activate your hypothetical and conditional mood for extra review of that too.

We will have our unit exam after next week. Please make sure that if you have any missing work or work to be resubmitted that you have handled this over the weekend.

English IV

You all did a great job today working through your vocabulary quizzes as well as our reading of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I know that the text is difficult, but that is why it is important to work with it. Make sure that you focus on what you understand and use that to make sense of the parts you don't quite understand.

Over the weekend you don't have any homework to complete for me. If you have missed something, it is important that you get that done over the weekend!