Homework for B Day - 12/09 - Monday

AP Literature

We've finished with the Underground Man. We worked through the conversations between Liza and the Underground Man in order to understand the effect that he had on her and then the effect that she had on him. Understanding the changes between Parts 6 and 7 and then 9 and 10 is key to really understanding the novel.

Tonight you should prepare for your timed writing on Notes from Underground. Wednesday is a PLC day, so it gives us a good opportunity to complete a timed writing. Remember that the essay will be another Q3, so review your feedback on your first attempt and the feedback to the class before we begin.


Complete a plot card for Notes and the other major works you've read this year. It helps!

AP Research

I'm such a proud papa bear today! The major goal for the week is to apply your revisions and then keep moving forward. Some of you are ready to start collecting your participants. Some of you are really ready to get started. Some just need to do some more tweaking to move fully forward. If you were given revisions today, you can clear them with me - you do not have to resubmit to the full IRB.

Don't forget that we also have a new reflection question posted in our log. I'll be checking PREP folders over Winter Break - Do make sure that they are complete.

Lastly - here are the IRB review notes for the whole group:

1. Change definite number for surveys, etc. to “a convenient sample”
2. All parental consent forms should list the teacher (Daniel Miller) as the primary contact.
3. Student emails and contact information should not be shared. “AP Research Student”
4. How will you get your sample of students to test? How will you standardize the interview, etc. when there are multiple times?
5. Use clear operational definitions related to the study – operational words “Phone use”, “Christianity”,
6. Standardization of any study – can’t go off script when doing an interview
7. Someone should be able to come behind you and replicate your study; everything should be documented
8. Limitations – Consider these along the way to articulate at the end
9. Gender question: Male/Female/Nonbinary / Prefer not to respond
10. How are students coding research responses?
11. What is unique to your study? What data will you find that is not already published? How does your work contribute to the body of knowledge?
12. Incentives for the survey, focus groups, etc… - just to consider


Please reach out as you complete your revisions and move forward to beginning your research!

Homework for B-Day - 3 December 2019

AP Literature

Lots of good thinking in class today related to thinking. I loved the takeaways that we came to related to the relationship between consciousness and awareness and the way in which the Underground Man is forming his own ideas related to these concepts. All of this is important as we move forward into Part II since this is the beginning of the novel (ironic, I know).

Tonight you're reading Part II, Chapters 1-4. Chapter 1 gives us the UM's set-up of the story. In Chapters 2, 3 and 4 we start to meet the new characters and see how UM interacts with them. Be sure to annotate. Track the ideas from your topics and motifs list. Follow the characters and develop your character list.


There's a chance of a reading quiz on Thursday. Also be sure that everything that you need to submit is in by Wednesday so that your progress report is an accurate reflection of where you are in class.

AP Research

Great work today with our scientific sample paper. This is a writing week as we move toward approval. Be sure that your Proposal and Supporting Documentation is prepared and shared! From there, beginning to write would be a good use of your time. Take a look at your Method and Introduction Outlines. Start writing. Use your sample papers and rubrics as you write.


On Thursday, I'd like to see your method outline for a score. If you're working with an expert adviser, I need their contact information so that I can contact them. Thursday will be a workday since I'll be conducting your IRB review. Hopefully it's nothing but good news after that.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 22 November

Lots of absences today with good reason. Remember to check Google Classroom for the slides and handouts.

AP Literature

Howdy y'all! Здравствуйте всем! Today we learned a lot about St. Petersburg, Russian culture and history, as well as a good introduction to our narrator and also the author of our text (note - these are not the same person).

If you were absent you should review the slides and handout before you read Part One. You are not required to annotate this text - it's confusing and hard to follow; I've read it seven times and I still get lost - so your annotations are going to be a bit different. Remember that the first part of this text is a monologue. Read and write questions to this narrator. Tie the questions to page numbers or Chapters so that we can all get to the same place in the text.

Don't forget the form below, test corrections on The Stranger, Part 1, and to enjoy the reading this weekend. See you on Tuesday! Remember that the text is linked in previous posts.

AP Research

I really enjoyed our conferences today and the clarification that you were able to bring to our conversations. If we didn't conference today, then we will on Tuesday. A lot of you were absent today, so we'll talk Tuesday. Over the weekend, it's important that you work to complete any of these questions to add specificity to your method and research proposal.

Over the weekend, complete the Method Outline form. Be sure that you're working through all the parts of this element of your paper. Having this done will lead you to a much easier time when writing the paper. Additionally, complete as much as you can of the DPS proposal. Be sure that all of your supporting documents and tools are with it so that you can pass IRB.

See you next week for our super short week!

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 21 April 2017

English II

The homework for the weekend is to study and prepare for your vocabulary quiz on Tuesday. You should know not only the meaning of the words and their part of speech but also the important information about how the words are put together (word parts, prefixes, suffixes). I'll be giving you some words on this test which are not from this unit, but you should be able to navigate them with your skills.

I'll also have a new DVD player next week so that we can watch our film after the quiz.

Russian I

You also have a quiz on Tuesday that you need to prepare for. The quiz will cover singular/plural declensions for all genders with nouns, adjectives, and possessive pronouns. Make sure that you have studied in order to review. There will also be a reassessment section on identifying and translating adverbs in Russian (you have your previous quiz back, so you know what to study there).

Advanced Russian

Students in Russian II will want to work this weekend to complete weather reports on Google Classroom. Given the struggles we had today with technology we will go back one more time (Tuesday) to work on these. You should have a fair amount of the work done so that I can give you feedback on Tuesday before our presentations on Thursday.

Students in Russian III will want to complete exercises 11.13 and 11.14 which focus on using and translating phrases with gerunds. We'll review this as the way that we will cover this information.

Russian IV will want to continue working through the essay on White Nights with the expectation of having one additional session to complete it.

Keep in mind that we will have a quiz on new grammar on Monday, May 1st.

Homework for A-Day Students: 19 April 2017

Advanced Russian:

Tonight you should all continue to work on the assignments which have been created for you in Google Classroom. On Friday we will return to the library in order to finish these.

Keep in mind that you also have quizzes coming up soon. For Russian IV the quiz will focus on White Nights, for Russian III the quiz will focus on который phrases and participles, for Russian II the quiz will focus on weather vocabulary and the use of the double negative.

If you have exercises related to these topics (III and II) I would recommend trying to complete those as a way to review before our class.

Russian I:

Very good presentations today everyone. For those of you who didn't present today, you will need to be ready for presenting on Friday. You have your quizzes back to you as well as your writing assignments. Remember that you can correct and resubmit your writing assignment. It is a good idea to study and review your quiz so that you are ready for the reassessment/quiz next week.

English II:

Now that you have your vocabulary study aides it's important to practice and study with your dominoes daily. We'll have a vocabulary test next week!

Homework for the Weekend - A Day Edition: 31 March

Advanced Russian:

Russian II and III - I gave you exercises to review the new grammar that you're learning, which was not assessed on today's quiz. Please complete the exercises as well as you can. We will review them on Tuesday in order to review the content. For Russian III - these exercises/concepts are particularly important as they'll help a lot with the next grammar point - participles.

Russian IV - Please try to finish reading White Nights this weekend. Keep looking for new and useful vocabulary as well as interesting sentences, especially those that challenge you and show where you need to spend time preparing for the AP Examination.

Russian I:

Please spend the weekend studying your vocabulary for Chapter Three - this will be useful if you want to reassess on the vocabulary section of today's quiz. We will review verb conjugation next class as well before we dip our feet into the new grammar content - forming plurals in Russian.

English II:

Use the study guides that you completed today in order to prepare for your test on Tuesday. Remember that you'll have an essay question on this test as well as sentence answers. There will be questions about: characters, plot events, literary terms (irony, climax, conflict, etc.), Greek culture, and themes.

Homework for A-Day Students: 21 March 2016

Advanced Russian:

Russian II: Tonight I want you to do some reading in your textbooks for the next grammar point we're going to study - the double negative. In your textbook, read pages 282-285. Be able to answer the following questions:

1. When do you use a double negative in Russian? When a single negative?
2. How is genitive case used with negation?
3. How are the words nobody and nothing declined in all cases.

Once you've done the reading, try the translation assignment. We'll review that on Thursday.

Russian III:  To finish your study of long and short-form adjectives, complete exercise five. Fill in the blanks with a long or short form. Be able to translate the sentence.

Russian IV:  Complete the reading of "Night Two" in White Nights. Once you've finished, answer the following question in a mixture of Russian and English:  What do we as readers better understand about the narrator and Nastenka at the end of the second night? Give five facts about each character (in English) and the textual support for that fact (in Russian).

Russian I:

Tonight for homework you have two exercises on using adverbs. In the first exercise you are rewriting the question or sentence and adding in the adverb in a logical space (the word is given to you in the exercise in the adjective form). In the second, you are studying your vocabulary to fill in the blanks. Be able to translate the sentences that you fill in the blanks with.

English II:

Today we took our test on Oedipus the King and began our final research projects on Greek Culture. It is very important that you check PowerSchool and complete any missing work. 

If there is anything that you would like to turn in or resubmit it needs to be done by Thursday!

Homework for the Weekend - A Day Edition - 17 March

Today I remembered to do this before leaving work. Yay for me. Go Heels!

Advanced Russian:

We are quickly approaching the end of the quarter. If you have yet to submit your project or take/finish your Verbs of Motion exam, the time is drawing quickly to a close. Finish and settle these assignments ASAP. See me if you need help or assistance.

Russian II - Over the weekend, continue your work with new vocabulary as well as with the dative case. Complete the exercises using the dative case and weather vocabulary. This is also a good review of your counting rules as you talk about ages and temperatures. You only have to do the evens or the odds from each exercise; you do not have to do all.

Russian III - Today we started to learn about short-form adjectives which look a lot like nationalities, but are not. Practice by taking the list of adjectives I gave you and turn them into their short forms. Not all of them can create short forms, remember to draw on your notes. Once you've made your short forms, make some sentences using the adjectives in short and long form. Make sure that you can explain the difference in meaning.

Russian IV - This weekend keep reading "White Nights". Try to finish this section of the story to the conclusion of Night Two. Also, as you read, keep up with any new vocabulary you encounter - especially words that use your new word part.

Russian I:

Today in class we began to learn about adverbs and how they are formed from adjectives. Take the vocabulary sheet that I gave you and complete the front side. Then, on the back, practice writing. Take an adjective and write a sentence with the word in its adjective form and then in the adverb form. Explain the difference.

Don't forget as well, we will have a culture quiz next week on The Diamond Arm. Review your notes and feel free to rewatch the film - it's on YouTube.

English II:

Next class we will have our assessment on Oedipus the King. Make sure that you know your major characters, the plot, as well as about the different examples of irony we have seen in the story so far. You can access the play online to review portions and you can also see me on Monday for anything that you've missed.

Homework for A Day Students - 9 March

Advanced Russian:

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

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

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

Russian I:

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

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

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

English II:

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

Homework for A-Day Students: 7 March

Advanced Russian:

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

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

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

Russian I:

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

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

English II:

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

Homework for A-Day Students: 27 February 2017

Advanced Russian:

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

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

Russian I:

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

English II:

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

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 23 February 2017

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

Advanced Russian:

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

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

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

Russian I:

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

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

English II:

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

Homework for A-Day Students: 21 February

Russian I:

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

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

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

Advanced Russian:

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

English II:

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

AND YOU ALL GOT PROGRESS REPORTS TODAY!

Homework for A-Day Students: 15 February 2017

English II:

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

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

Russian I:

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

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

Advanced Russian:

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

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

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

Homework for A-Day Students: 13 February 2017

Advanced Russian:

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

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

Russian I:

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

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

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

Advanced Russian:

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

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

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

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

Russian I:

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

English II:

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

Homework for A-Day Students: 7 February 2017

Advanced Russian

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

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

Russian I

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

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

English II

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

Homework for A-Day Students: 1 February 2017

English II:

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

Russian I:

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

Advanced Russian:

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

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

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

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

Homework for A Day Students - 30 January 2017

English II

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

Russian I

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

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

Advanced Russian

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

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

Homework for A-Day Classes - 24 January

Advanced Russian:

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

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

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

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

Russian I

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

English II

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