Monday, October 31, 2011

ENGLISH 12: October 30-November 4

Greetings Seniors!

I hope you had a great weekend. I know some of you were very busy!

First of all, I hope you've all completed your personal/college entrance essays and uploaded them to Moodle.

This is and A week, so we meet three times. On Monday, we will finish reading and discussing the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Don't forget your group projects are coming up. They will be due next Monday. I will give you some time in class on Wednesday to work in your groups. Here is a Medieval job description handout that may help you.

On Wednesday we will review for this week's vocabulary quiz, work on a graphic organizer classifying several of the pilgrims from Canterbury Tales by vocation and tone of the author, after which you will evaluate their character. You will also, as I have already stated, have some time to work in your groups.

Thursday we will have a vocabulary quiz on lesson 10. We will look at the ballad as a poetic form and read and discuss all the ballads in your text books. If time permits, we will create a flow chart of the family tree of King Arthur.

Lots to do!

See you in class!

Mrs. SO

Monday, October 24, 2011

APEnglish 12: October 24-28

Greetings APEs!

Welcome to another week. I hope you are well rested and ready to work. I know most of you retook or took the ACT last Saturday, and wish you the best. Now that you have completed that task, we must needs move on to others. This week you will not only need to upload your Mrs. Dalloway MWDS and your short story analyses to Moodle, but you must complete a rough draft of your personal (college entrance) essay. I would like you to finish a rough draft of this essay and bring it to class next Tuesday for peer evaluation. Remember that peer evaluations require three copies so that your group members can follow along and mark your paper while you read.

This week, your focus will be on poetry for at least part of each day. You will need to write an essay comparing and contrasting two poems for me to take to my workshop on Nov. 4. I will have you write those on Friday while I am at the Poetry Out Loud workshop for school competition winners. So to prepare for that in class essay, we will look at a set of paired poems and rangefinders for the essays written on them on both Tuesday and Wednesday this week. On Tuesday, we will examine two poems both titled "Chimney Sweeper" and on Wednesday we will compare "Five AM" and "Five Flights Up." After our poetry analysis and allusion each day, we will read and discuss as much of Othello as possible. Expect to see some MC questions from act 1.

No vocabulary quiz this week.

See you in class!

Mrs. SO

ENGLISH 10: October 24-28

Hello Sophomores!

I hope you had a restful weekend. This is a B week, so your class will meet three times, which is a good thing, since we have lots to do!

On Tuesday, we will discuss the reading you had for homework, The Narrative of the Captivity of Mary Rowlandson. We will discuss the characteristics that classify it as Plain Style writing, the events that led up to the captivity, and the author's tone and purpose. We will also read the background information for another captivity narrative, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oluadah Equiano, the story of a boy captured in Africa and sold into slavery. Expect to compare and contrast these two narratives.We will also review your vocabulary, lesson 11, for a quiz on WEDNESDAY, which is not the typical quiz day. I will not be here on Friday, so I am bumping the quiz up a day. I will be accompanying our Poetry Out Loud winners to a workshop at UAH. In class Friday, you will watch the film Amistad, but only if I have permission from all your parents. I will send permission slips home on Tuesday which MUST be returned by Wednesday. As an alternative to the film assignment, I will have you answer the questions on pages 43 and 65 in your text books, and some practice exercises on classifying sentences by structure and purpose and identifying fragments and run ons.

Speaking of narratives, don't forget to complete your narrative essays and upload them to Moodle no later than Friday. We will be sharing some of them in class on Tuesday, Nov. 1.

Pre-APEnglish 10: October 24-28

Greetings Jr. APEs!

I hope you had a restful weekend. We have lots to do this week, and unfortunately, I will not be here on Friday to guide you who are in my B class. I will not leave you taskless, however.

This week I hope to accomplish all (or at least most) of the following:
You will have a quiz on your lesson 7 vocabulary. I will give you the words to study on a handout. Your quiz will be either Wednesday (since I won't be here Friday) or Thursday depending on when we meet.

We will also finish reading the Native American myths in our text books and compare and contrast some of the with Judeo/Christian mythology. Remember, I am using the term myth in the literary sense, meaning stories that contain gods or super human characters that are passed through cultures and that may explain natural phenomena.

We will also read and discuss two accounts from different colonies, which we will likewise compare and contrast. You will read Of Plymouth Plantation and History of the Dividing Line, accounts of the Plymouth and Jamestown colonies respectively. Note that the former is written in Puritan Plain Style, and the latter is a work of satire. Be able to define both styles of writing and recognize them upon reading.

When we complete the two colonial accounts, we will delve into Captivity Narratives. I hope to complete the Narrative of the Captivity, by Mary Rowlandson this week, and read The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oluadah Equiano by next week. The former is the story of a Puritan woman who was captured for ransom during King Phillip's War, and the latter is the story of a young African captured, sold into slavery, and transported over the Middle Passage. If you get parental consent, I have a film that depicts this passage that I would like us to view.

On Friday, when I am away with the Poetry Out Loud winners, I will leave you some multiple choice questions, AP style, from excerpts from Julius Caesar. I want you to complete them and turn the answers and the packets in by the end of class. This will count as a daily grade, and we will review the answers next week.
You will also complete some practice exercises on the parts of a sentence (finding subjects and verbs, direct and indirect objects, and predicate adjectives and predicate nominatives. I will have given a brief review of these parts before Friday, but this is grammar that should be easy review, so you should not have too much difficulty.

Don't forget that your narrative essays are due soon. Please upload your completed narratives to Moodle before Friday.

See you in class!

Mrs. SO

ENGLISH 12: October 24-28

Hello Seniors!

Another week is upon us, and as usual, we have a lot to do. This is an B week, so we will only meet twice. As you know, we are beginning a unit on the Medieval period, which includes a study of Geoffrey Chaucer, the Ballad as a poetic form, and Arthurian legend.

On Monday, we will review this week's vocabulary, lesson 9. Our quiz will be on Thursday, as usual.
We will also look at the historical background for this time period. We will look at two charts of personality types based on the four bodily humors. I am linking to them here and here so you can review them as needed. And we will begin the Prologue of the Canterbury Tales.

As you know, you will be working on group projects for the Canterbury Tales. I will give you some time in class on Thursday to organize your projects, and we will complete our reading of the Prologue and discussion of the pilgrims. Use the study guide graphic organizer to chart the pilgrims and judge which are the best and worst based on those characterization and tone.

Like I said, we have much to do.

See you in class!

Mrs. SO

Monday, October 17, 2011

APEnglish 12: October 17-21

Greetings Senior APEs!

This is an A week, so we will meet twice. We have a good bit to cover in that time, so let's not waste any.
You will be getting your report cards. If you are disappointed in your grade, consider that you may have failed to turn in your summer reading or some other assignment, which did have an effect on several people's grades. It is too late to turn in work from the first nine weeks, so do not ask.

I expect every student to register for Moodle, since I will require you to turn in assignments on Moodle from time to time. If you do not have a computer or internet access at home, please see me about scheduling time to stay after school and use a school computer or make time to visit the public library.  If you have difficulty logging on, please submit your name and birthday to me so that I can have your password reset. I will email the person in charge of setting up Moodle with student names on Friday, so if you have not told me of your difficulty by then, I will presume you are registered or that you have chosen not to follow instructions. Assignments that are to be submitted to Moodle will NOT be accepted in any other format. Please submit all assignments as .rtf files.

This week you will be busy. On Tuesday, your rough drafts for your short story analysis essays are due. Bring THREE copies to class. You will also be writing a timed essay on Mrs. Dalloway on Tuesday. Since timed essays are only forty minutes, you should have time for both activities. Your revised final draft must be uploaded to Moodle by Oct. 21, and your Major Works Data Sheets for Mrs. Dalloway are to to be uploaded to Moodle by Friday, Oct. 21.

You will have a vocabulary quiz on your I words on Friday. On this day we will also begin reading Othello, which pairs thematically with the next novel I expect you to read, Atonement.

ENGLISH 12: October 17-21

This is an A week, so we will meet three times. We have a good bit to cover in that time, so let's not waste any.
You will be getting your report cards. If you are disappointed in your grade, consider that you may have failed to turn in an assignment, which did have an effect on several people's grades. It is too late to turn in work from the first nine weeks, so do not ask.

I expect every student to register for Moodle, since I will require you to turn in assignments on Moodle from time to time. If you do not have a computer or internet access at home, please see me about scheduling time to stay after school and use a school computer or make time to visit the public library.  If you have difficulty logging on, please submit your name and birthday to me so that I can have your password reset. I will email the person in charge of setting up Moodle with student names on Friday, so if you have not told me of your difficulty by then, I will presume you are registered or that you have chosen not to follow instructions. Assignments that are to be submitted to Moodle will NOT be accepted in any other format. Please submit all assignments as .rtf files. I will demonstrate this changing file format in class.

Don't forget, if you are supposed to compete, that the POL competition is Tuesday after school in the library.


We have our test on "the epic" on Wednesday, and will begin our study of the Medieval period after the test. I don't think the test will take the whole block, so we will review for your next vocabulary quiz before taking it, and we will resume out daily allusions.

Those of you who did not yet present your epic boasts will do so on Monday.

Don't forget we will be writing College Entrance Essays, or the Personal Essay. The rough draft will be due on October 27. You will need to bring three copies to class for peer review. See the link for samples.Your final draft is due October 31. Please upload the final draft to Moodle for me to grade.

Be prepared to work on a group presentation for the Canterbury Tales. We will read the prologue in class and study the time period, but your group will be in charge of presenting one of several tales.  You can find the tales at the this website.

See you in class!

Mrs. SO

PreAPENGLISH 10: October 17-21

Greetings Jr. APEs!

We have a good bit to cover this week, so let's not waste any time.
You will be getting your report cards. If you are disappointed in your grade, consider that you may have failed to turn in your summer reading or your Obama speech analysis, which did have an effect on several people's grades. It is too late to turn in work from the first nine weeks, so do not ask.

I expect every student to register for Moodle, since I will require you to turn in assignments on Moodle from time to time. If you do not have a computer or internet access at home, please see me about scheduling time to stay after school and use a school computer or make time to visit the public library.  If you have difficulty logging on, please submit your name and birthday to me so that I can have your password reset. I will email the person in charge of setting up Moodle with student names on Friday, so if you have not told me of your difficulty by then, I will presume you are registered or that you have chosen not to follow instructions. Assignments that are to be submitted to Moodle will NOT be accepted in any other format. Please submit all assignments as .rtf files. I will demonstrate this changing file format in class.

This is October, as you know, and I always choose October for writing narratives. This week, I will review the important parts of a narrative and give you instructions for writing your own narratives, which must be submitted to Moodle before October 27. We will share our narratives in class, so don't come unprepared.

I want your narratives to be interesting and fun to share, so I am challenging you to include lots of vivid description and exciting twists and turns. Or, you can use interesting symbolism or foreshadowing. Whatever you choose to write about, make sure you make your stories, since that is what narratives are, appropriate for school.

Here are a few links that might help you in creating your short story.

http://www.freelancewriting.com/articles/article-writing-a-good-narrative-essay.php 

This, while a bit too formulaic for my tastes, is a good starting point if you are having difficulty knowing how to format your narrative:
http://www.sbcc.edu/clrc/files/wl/downloads/StructureofaPersonalNarrativeEssay.pdf

Outline graphic organizer
http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/documents/874_01.pdf



So, I want you to think about your narratives, but I also want you to remember that we still have other tasks to do in class. You will have the test we reviewed for on We will be reading several Native American myths and the comparative accounts of Plymouth and Jamestown by Bradford and Byrd respectively, so bring your books to class. We will also review different sentence structures and have a vocabulary quiz, I will post the words or give you a list for lesson six.

Poetry Out Loud school competition is Tuesday, October 18 after school. Don't forget to practice your poems!

See you in class!

Mrs. SO

Friday, October 14, 2011

English 10: October 17-21

Greetings Sophomores!

This is an A week, so we will meet twice. We have a good bit to cover in that time, so let's not waste any.
You will be getting your report cards. If you are disappointed in your grade, consider that you may have failed to turn in your summer reading, which did have an effect on several people's grades. It is too late to turn in work from the first nine weeks, so do not ask.

I expect every student to register for Moodle, since I will require you to turn in assignments on Moodle from time to time. If you do not have a computer or internet access at home, please see me about scheduling time to stay after school and use a school computer or make time to visit the public library.  If you have difficulty logging on, please submit your name and birthday to me so that I can have your password reset. I will email the person in charge of setting up Moodle with student names on Friday, so if you have not told me of your difficulty by then, I will presume you are registered or that you have chosen not to follow instructions. Assignments that are to be submitted to Moodle will NOT be accepted in any other format. Please submit all assignments as .rtf files. I will demonstrate this changing file format in class.

This is October, as you know, and I always choose October for writing narratives. This week, I will review the important parts of a narrative and give you instructions for writing your own narratives, which must be submitted to Moodle before October 27. We will share our narratives in class, so don't come unprepared.

I want your narratives to be interesting and fun to share, so I am challenging you to include lots of vivid description and exciting twists and turns. Or, you can use interesting symbolism or foreshadowing. Whatever you choose to write about, make sure you make your stories, since that is what narratives are, appropriate for school.

Here are a few links that might help you in creating your short story.

http://www.freelancewriting.com/articles/article-writing-a-good-narrative-essay.php 

This, while a bit too formulaic for my tastes, is a good starting point if you are having difficulty knowing how to format your narrative:
http://www.sbcc.edu/clrc/files/wl/downloads/StructureofaPersonalNarrativeEssay.pdf

Outline graphic organizer
http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/documents/874_01.pdf



So, I want you to think about your narratives, but I also want you to remember that we still have other tasks to do in class. You will have the test we reviewed for on Native American myths and the comparative accounts of Plymouth and Jamestown by Bradford and Byrd respectively on Tuesday, so don't forget to study. On that day, you will also have a test on "the phrase" in which you will identify all the following types of phrases: Appositive, prepositional, gerund, participial, infinitive. Both tests are relatively short, so you should have little trouble completing them in one block.

You will also continue your study of American literature with a look at two Captivity Narratives. Please read the Narrative of the Captivity by Mary Rowlandson before we meet on Thursday. It can be found in your text book. We will also read the Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olauda Equiano in the near future. Both of these narratives are classified as "captivity narratives" because they both tell about a person who has been held captive. We will compare and contrast these two stories in class, and you will be expected to answer essay questions on them on a test, so pay close attention.

In grammar we will begin differentiating the different types of clauses. A clause is any group of words that contains both a subject and verb. But not all clauses are alike, as you will learn.

AND we have a quiz on lesson 10 vocabulary.

It looks to be a busy week!

See you in class!

Mrs. SO

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

APENGLISH 12: October 11-14

Greetings Senior APEs!

I hope you all had a restful and relaxing holiday. I'm looking forward to being back in class with you. We have a long short week, meaning we meet three days in spite of the day off, and we have lots to do to fill those days.

I have posted your short story writing assignment on my Moodle page as well as a place to upload your MWDS for Mrs. Dalloway. Both of these assignments are due next week. The MWDS is due the 21, and the paper is due the 20th; however, the rough draft, which I expect you to bring to class in triplicate, is due on Tuesday October 18.  You will be doing a peer review activity on the paper. Remember that MWDSheets are NOT group work. You must turn in your own work, not a shared paper.

Expect a class discussion of Mrs. Dalloway in the coming days, and be prepared to write and in-class timed essay on the novel, probably Friday of this week.

Next week, we will briefly delve back into poetry. You will write your first comparative poetry essay. 

Also, don't forget vocabulary study. You will have a quiz on the I words this week.

I am required to turn in an accurate count for those who plan to take the mock exam in January. This exam will take place the first Saturday after the winter break. I encourage you all to take the exam because the feedback will tell you your areas of weakness and give me a better idea of what I need of where I need to focus my teaching.

PreAPENGLISH 10: October 11-14

Greetings Sophomores,

I hope you are well rested after the fall break. We have lots planned for this week, which will wind up the first quarter. You have your Julius Caesar presentations, of course, and I am looking forward to your creative work. B day class will meet three times, and A only once, so if your class doesn't get to everything planned, be not dismayed, for your time will come next week.

I hope to review some of your Obama speech papers to highlight what some of you did very well and what needs more work. I saw some common problems, but overall I was very pleased with your revisions.

I will also be asking you to do some grammar exercises based on some of your writing errors. We will review sentence structure, including types of phrases, clauses, and sentence construction. In the coming weeks we will also review the rules for agreement.

And we will finally sink our teeth...erm...our eyes...we will read and discuss some of the earliest American literature. I will tell you when to bring your literature books.

Since A day won't have enough class time for a quiz, I will post vocabulary in the next blog, and everyone will have that quiz next week.

See you in class!

Mrs. SO

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Week NINE English 10: October 3-5

Greetings Sophomores!

I can hardly believe so much of the year has passed! We have lots to do in the one day we meet this week. I assigned reading of William Byrd's History of the Dividing Line for homework, and we will discuss that and create a graphic organizer to help you compare and contrast it will Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation. Of the topics we will compare are Native American/colonial religion, Indian relations, reasons for settlement, style and purpose of writing, and tone.

If time permits, we will also review infinitives and infinitive phrases. Expect to review these next week if we do not get to them before the break, and expect a test on "the phrase" which will include infinitive, gerund, participial, appositive, and prepositional phrases after the break.

Have a safe holiday!

See you in class,

Mrs. SO

Week NINE APEnglish 12: October 3-5

Greetings APEs!

The last week of the first quarter is upon us! We meet but once in this truncated week, but I still have grand plans...or perhaps grand illusions for what we can accomplish. I want to discuss as many of the shorts stories on your list as I can. I also know we need to take two quizzes: vocabulary f-h and allusions. As promised, your short story boot camp will culminate in a writing assignment. Look over the topics and choose one before the holiday ends. Note the last choice is a topic of your own device. Make sure you submit this topic to me for approval before writing your paper.

Over the holiday, I expect you to read Mrs. Dalloway. It is an experiment in converging multiple steams of consciousness and may be difficult to follow, but I have confidence that you can sort it out. We will discuss the novel upon your return and will write an in-class, timed essay on it.

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday!

See you in class,

Mrs. SO

Monday, October 3, 2011

Week NINE Pre-APEnglish 10: October 3-5

Greetings Sophomores!

It's almost the end of the first quarter! Fall break begins Thursday, so we will meet only once or twice this week depending on your schedule. I'll be announcing the dates for the school-wide Poetry Out Loud competition as soon as I coordinate with the judges.

Congratulations to all you who learned poems for the class level. Learning a poem that touches your heart is a gift you give yourself. You will have it forever.

This week we will finish our study of Julius Caesar and write an in-class, timed essay on the text. This will count as half your evaluation for the play. The other half, your newspaper project, is due following the break. Don't forget to do it!

See you in class!

Mrs. SO

Week NINE English 12: October 3-5

Greetings Seniors!

It's almost the end of the first quarter! Fall break begins Thursday, so we will meet twice this week. I'll be announcing the dates for the school-wide Poetry Out Loud competition as soon as I coordinate with the judges.

Congratulations to all you who learned poems for the class level. Learning a poem that touches your heart is a gift you give yourself. You will have it forever.

This week we will finish our study of the epic and have a test on Beowulf, Gilgamesh, the epic and the historic background information from your texts.

You will also have a quiz on your allusions and on vocab if you you didn't take it last week.

Don't forget that your EPIC BOAST assignment is due upon your return after the break.

See you in class!

Mrs. SO