2 October - Happy Fall!

AP Language

Great work today in class everyone, we are engaging in some great skill building and review to prepare for our timed writing on Friday. Today's class looked at a few important concepts. First, we discussed grading on timed writings - we looked at the scoring guidelines, sample essays, and a prompt to understand not only the task but how we'll be assessed on it. After understanding the task and the requirements, we went back to the precis. The precis is the key to writing that introduction/thesis to FRQ 2 and starting off well. Keep practicing with the precis to prepare for Friday's timed writing. 

I would recommend that you continue to write precis and review our readings through this unit as a means to practice, study, and prepare for Friday. All of the readings are posted in Schoology as well as all of our slides. Don't forget the recordings too. Looking forward to Wednesday and the last class of Unit 2.

Hey September - Blue Day - 1 September

Happy Labor Day Weekend!! Remember there's no school on Friday and Monday. See you Tuesday and Wednesday!

AP English Language

Today was our day to discuss grading. I hope that you understand that this year you'll be graded in a different way than you have before. Grades reflect learning, and learning changes, so grades will change. Be sure to review the syllabus and the recording below as you work with your parents to complete the syllabus signature form (linked in the PDF). 

Our work in class looked at the FRQ rubrics and sample responses. I hope you found it helpful to understand the final goal of the course in terms of writing. Over the weekend, complete your vocabulary cards. Remember that you can use the texts posted in the Unit 2 folder to find vocabulary words if you haven't found any from the sample exam.

AP Research

Lots of great thinking and working today in AP Research as we understood the importance of the recursive process and revision. Keep using the qualities of a "good" research question as you continue to think and revise. Remember the process with the Disney research question. Keep asking yourself questions like, "Who cares?"; "What do you want to know?"; "How will you measure this?"; "Can you math?"

Over the weekend spend your time with the databases. Keep searching and hunting your rabbits. Remember to track your progress on the Reading Log. Keep revising your research question as you find papers that align with your interests. Keep reading and logging this weekend - next week I'll ask to see a reading log with fifteen sources logged. You also need to complete your second reflection question. See the document in Materials for this and the others as they populate.

8 and 12 October

 October 11 is Indigenous People's Day and a student holiday. Take  few moments to learn about the people whose land we now occupy. Learn some words in an indigenous language. Read a text by an indigenous author.

AP Language

Today was a day for our second timed writing. We're still focused on argumentative timed writes as we build our skills toward our first rhetorical analysis. I'll review your work and have scores back to you by the time we see each other again.

Over this long block of time until we see each other again you have a few things to settle. First, there's our project. If you're the website technician you should go to sites.google.com and start your site. That's all. We'll set up the template next week. Everyone in the group should select a text from the genres - read it - and begin to annotate and plan. Use yesterday's lesson on rhetorical analysis to begin your outline.

We also will have reading for next class. Select one of the two Zinn excerpts to read for Friday the 15th. Pay attention to the way in which Zinn appeals to logos, pathos, and ethos. What does this help us to further learn about the Puritans as a people? About the colonial era?

Remember that any resubmissions of Unit 1 Projects are due by 10/22 for all classes.

English 10

Today was a day to talk about grammar (run-on sentences) and essay rubrics. Remember that our essay rubric is going to be the same rubric that will be used all year with all of our essays. We did a great self-reflection on our writing skills and then we summarized the rubric to understand what's required of us.

If you didn't finish arts and crafts in class, please try to do so before the next time I see you. I will try to give you a bit of time on Friday to complete your work. Now is a good time to read, since I won't see you for a while. Remember to reach your reading checkpoint before the 18th.

Friday the 12th of March

AP Research

Today in class we really did a deep dive on the Academic Paper rubric. We noticed that many rows of the rubric (1-3 and 6) are identical in their score description for a high pass - level 4/5. This means that it is Rows 4 and 5 where we must focus as writers and researchers to earn our distinction. As we discussed in class, the best style for this type of paper is one that is clear and direct, so that you are able to clearly guide your assessor through the choices you made and why they were the best choice for you. Sources from your body of knowledge can be really helpful in adding to your justification.

As we keep writing and developing, keep working with your peers to share drafts and get constructive feedback. Be sure that you're always using the rubric to guide your feedback and conversations.

Next week we'll move on to Unit 5. These final units of the year involve mostly finishing our writing and our POD as most of our data has been collected by this point. We'll meet as a group on Wednesday next week to kick off the unit. Be sure to submit any assignments from Unit 4 before the end of the day on Monday.

AP Language and English 10

Be sure to complete any of your tasks from Unit 3 as we're now fully moved in to Unit 4. If you need any assistance with anything, please let me know. I'm happy to meet you Monday. Research papers should all be returned by the end of next week. I appreciate your patience as I read and review your work. Remember that you will have the chance to resubmit your essays before the end of the quarter.

Homework for B Day Students - 14 January

AP Research

Great work today researchers! We had a solid lesson in which we reviewed the instructions to the academic paper and the rubric - a good task for us to complete as we are working to construct our own drafts. For tonight you should continue writing your introduction/lit review in advance of our writing workshop. To help you with this I have attached two additional sample papers. These papers are examples of the middle/lower side of the rubric. Take a look and assess them in the same way we did in class. Consider what changes could be made to further solidify their work.

AP Literature

Great work today everyone! Thank you for sharing your poems with us, they were amazing!
Make sure to:
1. Turn in your Poet Projects to the assignment tab on Google Classroom.
2. Recite your poems to me, if you have not already, some morning this week!
3. Turn in any missing assignments this Thursday!
4. Bring falcon feathers and rubles to class on Thursday and make sure you know which assignments you want them added to!
See everyone on Thursday!

Homework for A-Day - 16 December

It's the last week of school this decade! Be sure that you're completing your major milestones so that your break can be restful and relaxing!

AP Research

Today in class we had our first POD viewing session - Big Hero 6 and Cultural Hybridization. I think that watching the POD helps to really demystify the experience and the task that we have ahead of us. With the fire drill, we didn't have enough time for individual work, but that will find us on Wednesday.

On Google Classroom I posted the slides for today's class. The most important slide is probably the final slide where I outline what I'll be looking for in your PREP folders. Be sure that if you have any edits for your project that you have made them. Wednesday will be a day for working. Be prepared!

Russian I

Today in class we did a lot of case review today in order to understand how the cases are used and how to change words to show the cases.


Be sure that this week you are working to complete your work related to learning the cases. You'll have a small quiz on these on Friday. There's also always vocabulary to study and review. There are also exercises to help you with your studying. Remember that you can't do all of the second exercise - avoid talking about playing!

Advanced Russian

Today was a class for reviewing key grammar and vocabulary skills related to our most recent quiz. I hope that the review of the topics was helpful, the notes are posted. Remember that if you need additional support you can make quiz corrections and also check the exercises that you were given today.

Tonight focus on completing your projects and having them submitted before Wednesday's presentations. Russian III and IV only have FIVE MINUTES to present. You have your rubric, be sure to be prepared.


Friday is our New Year celebration! Be ready to have some fun and bring snacks if you'd like.

Homework for B-Day Students: 19 April 2016

English II

We did a lot of work in class today to build a solid third body paragraph and complete our essays.  Make sure that you do the following with your final essay so that you are prepared for Wednesday's submission date.

1. Edit your introduction and conclusion to account for Hotel Rwanda as well as The Stranger and your personal experiences.
2. Revise your first and second body paragraphs based on the work we did today especially around explaining your examples.
3. Make sure that you either type or wrote your full essay to account for all changes and revisions.  Use your rubric to help you out with this.

AP English III

Today we had a fair amount of business to settle - thanks for working hard to get it all done.  If you were absent today you missed the completion of your AP Exam answer sheet - this is a must do ASAP.  Make sure to report to Guidance to get this done.

As for your work tonight, make sure that you have concluded the reading of Acts I and II in The Crucible.  With your reading, pay close attention to key motifs and characters - the character charts are especially helpful in locating who knows whom and who knows what.  

Lastly, be aware that I need to finish the grading for your major assessments - if you haven't yet taken the timed writing for Invisible Man, then I need you to settle this by Friday of this week.