October 15-19, 2012

Hello Students!
I hope you all had a restful weekend and are ready for a busy week. Several of us AP teachers will be out Friday for a training session, so I will not be giving new vocabulary this week, as I will not be here to administer the weekly online quiz on Friday.

Those of you who are seniors, however, do have a vocabulary quiz on Monday to replace the one postponed from Friday, when so many of you were out on a field trip.

With the preliminaries out of the way and the perfunctory, nonetheless sincere, greetings given, I shall proceed to the week's agenda below:

Pre-APENGLISH 10

As I said earlier, you will not have a quiz on vocabulary this week. You will, however, take the STAR READING test and part 1 of the PLAN test, and many will take the PSAT.  Since we are testing and preparing for said tests, I will continue with our grammar and reading reviews for most of the week. I am, for your convenience and edification, including several links in this week's blog for practice and review.

http://sat.collegeboard.org/SAT/public/pdf/getting-ready-for-the-sat-subj-tests.pdf

http://www.act.org/plan/pdf/sample.pdf

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/02/

http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/sat/ (This is a vocabulary study guide)

http://www.studyguidezone.com/psat_writing.htm

http://www.studyguidezone.com/psat_criticalreading.htm

http://www.studyguidezone.com/identifying-sentence-errors.htm

See you in class!

English 12

This week you will take your vocabulary quiz on Monday.  You will also take your STAR READING test on Monday. Please do your very best. Showing an improvement is important.


We will continue with our study of Beowulf. Be sure that you have turned in all late assignments.

Should you miss class, you will need to read the Beowulf selection from your virtual text. You can access it at  https://www.pearsonsuccessnet.com/snpapp/login/login.jsp

Also, in your to do you should read Contemporary Commentary: Seamus Heaney. After you read, answer the critical thinking questions. This is an assignment and must be completed on your computer. You can type your answers directly into the boxes.

See you in class!

APEnglish Literature and Composition 12

This will be a full week. On Monday your short story essays are due. I have posted a link for turning them in on Edmodo. Please do not turn them in later than midnight on the due date. There is a link to the topics on Edmodo, as well.

Monday we will finish our discussion of "I Stand Here Ironing." I want you to consider the use of metaphor in the text and how that metaphor contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. We will look closely at the beginning and end of the story and deconstruct a writing prompt, and write thematic and thesis statements based on those two sections of the story.

On Tuesday, you will take your STAR Reading Test. Please take this test seriously. You, your teachers, and your school are evaluated based upon these test results. Your goal is to maintain or improve your previous score. Anyone scoring below level should strive to increase his or her score.

Since the test does not take all period, we will also begin a unit on poetry. I will review with your the TPCASTT system of poetry analysis. I will assign poems for you to read by next week. I expect you to come to class having done ALL of the assigned reading. I will initially walk you through poetry, but will eventually assign poems to you to teach to the class.

Of course, many of your AP teachers have a training conference Friday, so I will not give a vocabulary quiz this Friday. I do, however, expect you to come prepared on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss in depth Life of Pi.  I found this: Etext of Life of Pi.  Please read it if you have not. I am linking to some ancillary texts that should help in your understanding of the novel. Please peruse them and be prepared to discuss them as well.

 "Adventure Afloat" Book review by Roberta Rubenstein

"Faith, Fiction and Flotsam" Book review by Randy Boyagada

 "Believing in Tigers:Anthropomorphism and Incredulity in Yann Martel’s Life of Pi" by Stewart Cole

You will have an in-class timed essay on this novel on FRIDAY. Be sure to bring blue or black pens. I will provide paper.

See you in class!

Mrs. SO