Monday, October 29, 2012

October 29-November 2, 2012

Hello Students!
Hope you all had a relaxing weekend and are ready for the new week. We have lots to do, so with the formalities aside and greetings made, I will post the week's activities below:

Pre-APEnglish 10

Finally all that testing is behind us! I am wishing you all well in that arena. This week we will continue with our study of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. We also will share our narrative essays. The assignment is posted both on Edmodo and Write to Learn. Use the Write to Learn program to get feedback before uploading your final narrative to Edmodo. I will be grading them from Edomodo, so any not uploaded there will NOT be counted as turned in.

Don't forget that we have vocabulary on Friday. The words are the same as last week, since we missed that quiz while I was at the Poetry Out Loud workshop.

English 12

You will have a vocabulary quiz on Friday based on the words from last week's lesson. We will also begin our study of the Medieval period. You will see the transition from Old to Middle English with our study of The Canterbury Tales. I have assigned you reading and activities on your successnet related to the prologue, "The Pardoner's Tale," and the "Wife of Bath's Tale." Expect a presentation project in the next week on one of the Canterbury Tales NOT studied in class.

While we read the prologue, pay close attention to the characterization. What is Chaucer satirizing? How does he use characters to satirize?

Also, don't forget your EPIC BOASTS are due before Wednesday! We will share some of them in class.

APEnglish Literature and Composition 12

You will have a vocabulary quiz on Friday based on the words from last week's lesson.
This week we will continue with our writing of PFS's. On Monday, we will look at another poem from Poetry 180, "The Blue Bowl." From that poem, you will write a PFS containing the five critical attributes of a PFS:

(1)        includes the title of the poem and the name of the poet
(2)        is written in “literary present tense” (The poet/speaker conveys rather than conveyed.)
(3)        specifies the narrative situation of the poem (who, what, where, when, why)
(4)        includes a thoughtful, but concise indication of theme
(5)        identifies the tone(s) of the poem (These may be differing, but complementary.  Shifts in tone may be identified as well.)


Tuesday we will begin our study of Shakespeare's Othello. As we read this play, consider thematic connections with the novel Atonement, which you should be reading at home. Do NOT forget that we will have a scored discussion on the novel part one on November 8. Your questions for the discussion should be uploaded to Edmodo PRIOR to class on that day. Scored discussions will count as test grades. Remember that the highest you can earn without participating in the discussion is an 80, and that will require a thorough response to the required questions uploaded prior to class. You may, of course, refer to your questions and answers during the discussion.

In order to take advantage of the mood created for story telling in my tenth grade classes, Wednesday, our class will be reading and discussing selected poems by Robert Browning. I will expect you to analyze the narrators in these dramatic monologues.

Thursday and Friday will be dedicated to reading Othello, analyzing its structure, and analyzing characters in the play. Expect at least one scored discussion after act three of the play. I will provide you with some guided questions next week. 

See you in class!

 
 

Monday, October 22, 2012

October 22-26, 2012

Greetings Students: APE's, Other Seniors, and APE's in Training!

I hope you all had a restful weekend and are ready to plunge into new literary depths. I have spent two days at an awesome teacher training session, and I have some great ideas to make our classes even better! I'm excited to move forward with learning!

Below you will find this week's particular plans for your classes:

Pre-APEnglish 10

Study your new vocabulary for your weekly quiz on Friday.


This Tuesday is the Plan Test. I know you've all been working hard preparing for it. Remember, this test is key in determining  your placement in AP classes, so do your best. On Monday we will have one final grammar review. Then you homework from me is to get a good night's sleep and wake up in time to eat a good breakfast, preferably high in protein. Drink plenty of water to hydrate your brain.

Beginning on Tuesday of this week we will continue our study of Julius CaesarThe e-text provides a side-by-side translation from Early Modern to Modern English. Use the e-text at home to help in your understanding. We will read the original in class together. I hope to complete Act I and progress well into Act II.

Expect short tests or alternative checks after each act.

Our goal this week is to explain the actions of various characters and to infer the reasons behind those actions. While reading, you should identify and also compare and contrast dramatic foils.
We will also discuss characterization and use textual evidence to support our claims about characters.
And finally, we will examine the grammatical structure of certain passages. 

See you in class!

English 12

Study your new vocabulary for your weekly quiz on Friday.

This week we will read the remaining passages from Beowulf in your online text. We will also use the questions in your text to facilitate a class discussion. You will take the reading check text from your online text, and complete the grammar activities associated with the text. Also, we will read commentary from the authors of two translators of Beowulf and discuss their differing approaches.

Be sure to check Edmodo daily for updates. I will alert you to any reading or outside assignments.

See you in class!

APEnglish Literature and Composition

We have much to do this week! As I mentioned earlier, I attended a great teacher conference and got some great ideas for this class. I hope to start using some of them right away. With that end in mind, and with my awareness that poetry is a challenge for many students, I want to begin by directing you to a really cool website called Poetry 180. As you can probably surmise from the title, it's a site with 180 poems--one for each school day. Now I'm not going to use all 180 in this class, but I do want to choose a few to get us started in our poetry studies. We will use some of these very accessible poems to take baby steps towards poetry analysis.

We will also incorporate regular poetry reading days into class. That's right. YOU will be selecting poems (with some guiding criteria) to introduce and read in class. I'm hoping to have three coffee house days this year.

So, your first poetry assignment for the remainder of the year is to visit Poetry 180 and find FIVE poems that you want to share in class. I will model for you how to write a FOCUS STATEMENT for each of your five poems. You will turn in all of your statements, but you will choose one of your poems for class discussion.

I may also, on occasion, (maybe once a week) use a short poem for a bell ringer. You will write responses to the poem and create focus statements to share. These focus statements, I hope, will prepare you to write those poetry analysis essays on the exam. Those of you who are in tech will need to write your poem exercises outside of class.

While we are discussing poetry in class, I need you to do some outside reading. I have some hard copies of Atonement, but not enough for everyone. I did, however, find a digital copy of the novel. If you need a hard copy, you may check one out, but you must pay for it if it is lost.

I would like you to begin reading part one. We will schedule a class discussion for the end of next week.

Don't forget your vocabulary quiz on Friday.

See you in class!











Friday, October 12, 2012

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

Monday, October 8, 2012

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!