October 8-12, 2012

Greetings Students!
I cannot believe how rapidly this year is passing! By the end of this week, we will be nearly halfway through October, and a quarter of the way through the school year! So much remains to be done, and so little time remains to do it.
I hope we can all work together to learn as much as possible in the coming weeks. To that end, we will complete the following tasks this week:

Pre-APEnglish 10

This is October, as I have previously stated, and October is the month when I always ask sophomores to hone their narrative skills . In other words, we are writing short stories, some of which we will share in class. In the coming weeks we will review the structure of a short story and discuss those elements that contribute to vivid and interesting writing. Be thinking about a story idea. You can use these tips to help with organization. Keep in mind that the Huntsville Literary Association will be accepting fiction submissions for their new anthology this year. The competition also has cash prizes for top winners in both fiction and poetry.

Since the PSAT, the STAR Reading, and the PLAN tests are all coming up soon, this week we will focus on some of the skills you will need for those tests. We will, however, also complete the scene we didn't quite finish in Julius Caesar. And we will resume our study of that play after the testing spree. I do think that Julius Caesar is good reading comprehension practice, since it requires so much paraphrasing.

Don't forget our weekly VOCABULARY quiz on Friday.

Our goals for this week include the following:
Paraphrase difficult passages
Make inferences
Draw conclusions
Identify the main idea of a text
Use contextual clues to determine meaning
Determine an author's purpose
Understand grammar usage and conventions
Pronoun case and agreement
Parallel stucture
Concise structure

English 12

This week we will begin our study of the epic poem, Beowulf. In preparation, we already reviewed the history of Britain up to the transcription of Beowulf, and you must now complete your test on that information. I will send home a Scantron on Monday for your answers, and you must return it before the end of the week. Please answer your questions in PENCIL and do NOT bend or fold your answer form.

You will also have a VOCABULARY quiz on Friday, so be sure to review your words before then.

We will complete the activities in your online textbook before reading the selections from Beowulf, so check your successnet account for things "to do." Unless I tell you otherwise, activities will be completed in class.


APEnglish 12 Literature and Composition

In addition to your VOCABULARY quiz on Friday, you will continue with your analysis of fiction. On Monday, we will collectively use our group analysis of the elements of fiction from the story "Clothes" to create cogent and thoughtful THEMATIC statements. (This is the BIG question: What does the text signify?) Then we will use those thematic statements to create strong THESIS statements (see link to templates on the sidebar of my blog.)

Tuesday we will have a BRIEF discussion of "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "I Stand Here Ironing." Please come to class PREPARED. DO NOT expect me to dismiss your lack of participation of obvious lack of preparation.

Wednesday we will review and deconstruct a prompt on "I Stand Here Ironing." You will read several essays and determine which of them is an upper half scoring essay. You will also analyze the content and structure of the essays to determine WHY certain essays score well while others do not.

Thursday you will write a timed essay on a prose passage, keeping in mind the qualities of a well-constructed essay.

Friday, after your quiz, we will review your take home essay assignment on the short story unit.
Please review Life of Pi and the ancellory texts I assigned earlier this year. On Monday of next week, you should come prepared to discuss this novel in depth. 

See you in class!