5 March - Happy Spring!

English 11

Happy Wednesday Everyone! It was great to be back with you all today. Today was a bit of an everything class, but we were focused on assessment of learning and improving our skills for the future. We started things off by completing our vocabulary review and studying before our quiz. I've updated the grades in the gradebook based on your most recent demonstration of your skill. Remember, if you didn't complete the review activity then the quiz will count for both. If you missed today's quiz or you'd like a retake, just make an appointment for Friday, and we'll settle it up.

After the quiz we rolled into some feedback and review on our upcoming presentations. We did a great lesson on the different types of argument because I see a lot of you needing to extend your skill to meet a new need. Think about the flavor of argument that you're presenting and be sure to include key language related to that. We also focused on the idea of defining key words and phrases with specificity and the important distinction between EFFECT and AFFECT. 

At the end of class, we took time as we needed for questions and concerns and to develop the ideas of our project. I'll begin presentations starting March 17. You can come during lunch, Lion Time, or we can do it during class. When you're ready, we'll complete the task. Remember you're getting writing grades and oral communication. Next week we'll be focused on our creative book projects - this is your reading score. If you're missing your quiz, please get that turned in by Friday to avoid a zero. The last major grade we have for this quarter is our Poetry Test. This will happen in the last weeks of the quarter. We'll do a bit more study and review before.

Let's keep crushing our goals as we move to the end of the quarter. Come visit at Lion Time for the extras you may need.

Homework for B-Day Students: 20 September 2018

See you all next week! Remember that there are major assessments coming for all of you next week - be ready by following the guidelines below.

AP Seminar

We will have our first Unit Examination on Monday. Remember that this will cover Freakonomics through fifty multiple choice questions and the EOC Task A. You'll have all 90 minutes to complete the assessment. Remember that you will be timed.

In order to prepare I would do the following:

• review your annotations and summer questions on Freakonomics (remember that if you added the class late/didn't turn in your summer assignment on day one then it is due on Monday)
• review our key terms for class, especially - Line of Reasoning, Claim, Evidence, Argument
• review our notes from Unit 1
• go over the sample responses from today's class and the prompt for EOC Task A

I think that many of you will do very well on this assessment. If you need help, please ask!

Advanced Russian

You all also have an assessment on Monday - it will cover the One Stem Verb System in Russian for some of the most productive stems. I've uploaded the review sheet into your classroom on Google Classroom. You should be prepared to:

• show a knowledge of how stems indicate important information about verbs
• show how to read a conjugated verb in order to determine its stem
• apply knowledge of stems to give a most likely conjugation of new verbs
• show an understanding of Structural Transcription as it applies to stems

I would highly recommend working through the rest of your verb cards if you already have not, and you should complete Exercise 8Г on your own or with a colleague in order to review all of these skills together.

Russian I

We will take our first quiz on the alphabet on Wednesday. I would like to spend more time on Monday with another activity as well as with some cultural work which will help you to finish learning your sounds and shapes. Over the weekend, take time to finish your handwriting packets. This is the most important task. The handwriting packet is worth 100 points - so it is a large amount of work to complete. Be sure that you have finished learning your sounds and shapes - like I said in class, there are tons of online resources to help you with this.

Lastly, if you see anything missing in your gradebook - be sure to have it ready for me by the end of next week. Some of you need to turn in a paragraph on the film we watched. Take care of that this weekend, and then turn it in to me

Homework for 7 February 2018 - A Day

Russian I

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

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

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

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

Advanced Russian

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

English IV

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

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

English II

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

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

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

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

Ask for help if you need it.

Russian I

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

Russian II

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

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

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

Homework for A-Day Students: 5/7/2014

AP English III

In effect, we're done.  You've got your exam next class and that is your chance to show everything that you've learned this year.  Make me proud.  Remember to have sharpened number two pencils, a few pens, and a watch for the exam so that you can time yourselves on the essays.  I would also suggest a good breakfast on Friday morning.

Please come to my room at 7:30 so we can do our chant before you all march over to the exam.  Remember that this is an English exam; don't stay up cramming the night before - a good night's sleep will do you much better.

Russian I

Tonight for homework you need to complete exercise six which is the fill in the blanks activity.  Use a dictionary to find the word needed and then use clues to put the words in the proper tense or case.  Most of these words are verbs, so this is an excellent final review on conjugation and verb completion.  Make sure that this is complete for Friday when I will collect it and your most recent warm-up sheet for an accuracy check.

Also, you should try to begin preparing yourselves for your final writing assignment which will fall on the 21st and 22nd of this month.  You received the prompt today, take this time to prepare, write drafts, and ask for my help.

Your exam on verb conjugation will fall on the 15th and 16th which is next week.  We've been reviewing a lot so I expect good things from all of you.

Homework for B-Day Students: 2/19/2014

Honors English II

Back into the swing of things today.  I hope that today's reading of Oedipus was fun for all of you in seeing how close they are to realizing everything.  For tonight, you've got a few things to work on to prepare for our next classes.

1. Read the next section of Oedipus - use the online text to read the next conversation between the strophe and the antistrophe after everyone goes inside.  Stop at the end of that conversation and then complete your notes.  Attempt to the the WHY/HOW notes and we will review them next class.
2. Your vocabulary cards for three words in the next section will be due on 2/25.  Prepare for those.
3. You will have your AP-Pre Test next class.  There's nothing you can really do to prepare for this as it's a raw test of your skills, but you should know that it is coming and your essay will count as a grade.

ESL English III

Next class we will be in the computer lab typing up the final drafts of our memoirs.  Please have your edited version with you so that you can complete this work.

Homework for Tuesday - 9/17/2013

Honors English II

Your key homework assignment for tonight is to finish preparing for your skits and presentations which you will have on Thursday.  Remember that we are starting with the skits before we move on to finishing our work on "In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself".  Remember that each member needs a copy of the script, a role in the presentation, and any necessary props.  I look forward to seeing what you all have come up with.  If you have any powerpoints or images to load onto the Brightlinks screen, please email those files to me.

ESL English III

Tonight you should continue to review and revise your writing assignments as well as work on your vocabulary bookmarks.  I will be returning your first drafts back to you on Thursday so that we can continue working through and finishing these first assignments.

Homework for 1/15 and 1/16

Sorry for not getting this up earlier; it was just one of those things that I allowed to slip my mind in the mix of everything else.  Here are your reminders for our next class.  A-day students, I'll see you on Thursday.  B-day students, I won't be seeing you until after the four day weekend.

AP English IV

Tonight you have two goals to accomplish.  First you need to study for your Wordskills exam on unit two.  Ms. Rubenstein left me the test and stressed the importance of giving it to all of you for this quarter.  The test is scheduled to take the first thirty to forty minutes of our class.  Following your preparation for the test, secondly, you need to read Philip Larkin's "Church Going" and Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "Constantly Risking Absurdity".  I would also recommend that you review all of the poems that we have read so far as we will be having a Poetry Extravaganza on Thursday!

AP English III

Thank you all for your dedication to your website projects.  Grades for these as well as comments will be available for you on Jupiter Grades.  There are a few things that you all need to accomplish before our next class.  First, finish reading Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" for our next class.  I hope that all of you find the story interesting and intriguing.  It's one of my favorites.  I'm looking forward to our discussion to see what you all got from it.  Also, I would like to remind you that we'll be starting our study of The Crucible on Thursday/Tuesday so you will want your copy of that text if you intend to purchase.  I do have copies which you can borrow in the room.

Finally, this nine weeks you are going to write two papers for me.  I would like for you to get started on this first paper today.  You should begin brainstorming your argument and which texts (one major and one minor) you would like to use for this assignment.  I would start this process by considering which of the major texts we read has been your favorite and then go from there to your argument and other text.  I'll be giving out more particulars on this paper next class.

English IV

Those of you who got your papers in have no homework tonight.  If you did not submit your paper today then your last chance is Thursday.  I would like to remind you that you did have a lot of time to get this put together - and I made myself available outside of class for any assistance.  My grades are due on Friday - so I am under a time crunch and need these papers submitted.

Freshman Focus

If you and your partner did not present your lesson today you will be expected to present on Tuesday. I certainly hope that Tuesday goes better than today.  Expect to have new seats.  

Homework for 11/28 and 11/29

Apologies for not posting your assignments last night.  Here are your reminders to prepare for Friday/Monday.

Freshman Focus

Your presentations will be next class.  We will begin presentations right when class begins so if there is any preparation that needs to be done in advance it needs to happen over the weekend.  Remember that there will be two grades here, your shared group grade for the powerpoint and then your individual grade for the presentation.  Your individual grade will also include your question and answer session in which I test your knowledge of your content.  Make sure that you are fully prepared.

AP English III

There are a few things going on over the next few days, here we go.  First, you need to give me your gmail account using the form in the previous post if you haven't already done that.  I need this information soon because we will begin our website project and that project will require the use of a gmail account for ease of creation.  Second, we will have a timed writing on Tuesday/Wednesday.  The timed writing will be a rhetorical analysis.  We've spent several classes preparing for this new task; I look forward to seeing what you all produce for me.  Remember that timed writings do count as a test grade.

Third, you need to stay on your grind, and by grind I mean reading schedule.  Remember that your next checkin is to be to the end of chapter sixteen, there was a misprint (my mistake) on your bookmarks.  Fourth, I will be checking your vocabulary bookmarks for completion on Friday/Monday.  I expect to see words from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby on these bookmarks.  Fifth, and very lastly, make sure that you've reviewed the reading by Sojorner Truth for a brief discussion and review on Friday/Monday.  There are a few important ideas that I want to go over with you all related to how Truth uses rhetoric to persuade her audience.

English IV

Today in class we had a great conversation related to the next to last chapter as well as some of the big ideas in this text:  power, humanity, authority, and truth or reality.  These ideas are all some that you can incorporate into your papers if you wish.  Tonight, you need to begin your first portion of your paper - your thesis statement.  On Friday/Monday I will conference with each of you about your thesis statement and we will make sure that you're starting off on a good point - then we'll move to the next phase of the essay which is collecting evidence and organizing it.

Essays are challenging because of all of the pieces that must be done in order for the essay to be successful.  This will be a very major test grade for you this quarter, please make sure that you meet your goals and are working hard to accomplish this.

Homework for All - 9/30

Freshmen:

Tonight your goal is to complete the story "The Interlopers" by Saki, found on page 150 of your textbook. Be sure that you understand the story completely and that you remember the main events of the plot. We will work on the story tomorrow in class.

Seniors:

Tomorrow you will have a timed writing in class. Your preparation in class today should have gave you some ideas to ponder in preparing for tomorrow. Make sure that you're continuing to work on your final papers - drafts are due on Monday! And, you need to have a copy of Great Expectations on Monday. Please be sure that you have your copy of 1984 with you tomorrow.