2017-18 Week 27 — February 26-March 2

Hello, all! I hope that you had a good weekend!

I’ve got some reminders for you first.

• REHUGO Benchmark 2 is due on Monday, 2/26. Anything that is not submitted by the end of the school day on Monday will receive a late penalty.
• Late Benchmark 1 components must be submitted by the end of the school day on Monday, 2/26. Any component submitted after that deadline will receive a highest possible grade of 50.
• Late Benchmark 2 components must be submitted by Friday, 3/2, for a highest possible grade of 80. Any components submitted after that date will receive a highest possible grade of 50. Please make sure that you are staying on task and getting your work done!
• All English 11 students should have purchased A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway when you purchased your textbooks in the Fall. If you didn’t, you need to get a copy of that book. You must bring your copy of the book to class with you on March 9 for a grade. You should be 1/3 through with the book (about 117 pages) by March 16.
• All AP Language students should have purchased Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton when you purchased your textbooks in the Fall If you didn’t, you need to get a copy of the book. You must bring your copy of the book to class with you on March 9 for a grade. You should be finished with it by March 16. (It’s only about 120 pages.)

Now let’s take a look at what’s going on in Eng 11 or AP Lang this week. 🙂

• English 11 — Week of 2/26-3/2
  • Monday, 2/26
    • complete Researched Argument Essay in class
    • REHUGO Benchmark 2 components due
    • late REHUGO Benchmark 1 components due (max possible grade=80)
  • Tuesday, 2/27
    • Read and discuss “Lucinda Matlock”
  • Wednesday, 2/28
    • Begin discussing modernist poets
    • Discuss Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago”
  • Thursday, 3/1
    • Continue to discuss Sandburg
    • Read and discuss Sandburg’s “Grass”
  • Friday, 3/2
    • REHUGO work day. Benchmark 3 due March 26
    • AotW 18 due
• AP Lang — Week of 2/26-3/2
  • Monday, 2/26
    • Finish work on Argument packet Argument essay
  • Tuesday, 2/27
    • AP Multiple Choice practice
  • Wednesday, 2/28
    • AP Multiple Choice practice
  • Thursday, 3/1
    • Read and discuss samples for Arg packet essays
  • Friday, 3/2
    • REHUGO work day. Benchmark 3 due March 26

I also want to encourage you all to keep reading your independent reading books. If something that you read has an impact on you, let’s talk about how you can reach out to the author. Just this weekend I shared a tweet with an author (Andrew Smith, author of Winger) on behalf of a student, and he responded with encouragement and a virtual high five! Young Adult novelists, especially, are well known for interacting with their fans on Twitter, so think about it! 🙂

Have a great week!

2016-17 Week 15 — November 28

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all had a safe and restful Thanksgiving Break. Now it’s time to get our heads back in the game and finish out this semester strong. I know that some of you have been submitting late or missing work. I’ll get those updated in PowerSchool as soon as possible. I was traveling over the break, too, and I haven’t been able to grade any of those things yet. They’ll get updated this week.

This week, we’ll be finishing up the End of Semester Self-Reflection Forms and Videos (both are due on Tuesday, 11/29, in class, but we’ll have time to record videos on Monday in class. Your videos should be 5-10 min long.). Your one-on-one conferences with me start on Wednesday. If you haven’t signed up for a time slot yet, be sure to do that on Monday. The lists are posted on the wall just inside my classroom door. Remember that these conferences will be student-directed. You should come prepared with things to discuss. We can start by discussing some of the things on your Self-Evaluation form or in your video, but we can move on to overall goals for the class and any specific needs or requests. Your grade will be determined by how prepared and engaged you are in this process, so use this time wisely.

As I am doing individual conferences, you will be working on revising the essay of your choice. Your revisions must take place in class only, and they will involve some peer feedback, too. I’ll talk to you more about this process on Tuesday in class (which is also when you’ll choose which essay you’re revising). If you do not use your time in class wisely (i.e., working on the Self-Evaluation project or on your essay revision), I will be assigning you work to keep you busy and engaged.

Our Junior Class Retreat is next weekend (Dec 4-5). If you have not turned in your permission form, please be sure to do that on Monday!

Let’s take a look at the plan for the week:

• English 11
  • Monday, Nov 28
    • Finalize End of Semester Reflection Forms
    • Record End of Semester Reflection videos (5-10 min long)
  • Tuesday, Nov 29
    • Turn in End of Semester Reflection Forms (to bins in my classroom)
    • Turn in End of Semester Reflection Videos (to post in Google Classroom)
    • Choose which essay you will be revising and begin Rough Draft Evaluation sheet (due Wed, 11/30)
  • Wednesday, Nov 30
    • Turn in Rough Draft Evaluation sheet
    • Begin working on 2nd draft revision of your essay. **Substantial changes must be made.
    • One-on-one conferences will begin
  • Thursday, Dec 1
    • Continue working on 2nd draft revision of your essay. You should have a good draft complete by the end of class. Peer revision process will be on Friday, 12/2
    • One-on-one conferences will continue
  • Friday, Dec 2
    • Peer Revision time
    • Informative Analysis Paper Response Sheet must be completed for the essay that you review for a classmate
    • One-on-one conferences will continue
• AP English Language & Composition
  • Monday, Nov 28
    • Finalize End of Semester Reflection Forms
    • Record End of Semester Reflection videos (5-10 min long)
    • Read Ch 3 of textbook p. 81-111 (What is an Argument, Staking a Claim, Presenting Evidence) for discussion on Thursday, 12/1
  • Tuesday, Nov 29
    • Turn in End of Semester Reflection Forms (to bins in my classroom)
    • Turn in End of Semester Reflection Videos (to post in Google Classroom)
    • Choose which essay you will be revising and begin Rough Draft Evaluation sheet (due Wed, 11/30)
  • Wednesday, Nov 30
    • Turn in Rough Draft Evaluation sheet
    • Begin working on 2nd draft revision of your essay. **Substantial changes must be made.
    • One-on-one conferences will begin
  • Thursday, Dec 1
    • Continue working on 2nd draft revision of your essay. You should have a good draft complete by the end of class. Peer revision process will be on Friday, 12/2
    • One-on-one conferences will continue
  • • Peer Revision time
    • Informative Analysis Paper Response Sheet must be completed for the essay that you review for a classmate
    • One-on-one conferences will continueFriday, Dec 2

Let’s have a great week!

2016-17 Week 14 — November 14

Hello, all! I hope that you’ve been enjoying the 3 day weekend! I have enjoyed some much-needed down time with my family (and some time to get caught up on some grading!).

All students–you will have a End of Semester project (details coming this week) that will involve you doing some self-reflection on your performance in class so far. You will each create a video reflection piece for this project and you’ll schedule a one-on one conference with me. We’re at mid-quarter this week, so it’s time to start thinking about how things are going this semester and what your role in that is and should be.

AP folks–there are many of you who are behind with the target deadlines for some of those ongoing assignments, despite me giving you time on Thursday and Friday to get caught up. I STRONGLY encourage you to keep up with those target deadlines. We’re at mid-quarter this week, and the semester will be over before you know it. I am caught up on everything that should have been turned in so far (except the IKoM essays, which I’m still working on), so if you missed a target deadline, you need to go to the Late Assignment post in Google Classroom and add a comment asking me to review your assignment once you have it edited. Another reminder is that you MUST edit the documents that I share with you through Google Drive. Do not create your own document and try to share it with me or email it with me (unless this was part of the directions). Failing to follow these directions will mean that you risk not having your assignment points counted. Everyone must follow directions–there are too many assignments and too many students for each person to do things his or her own way. I appreciate your help with this matter.

Let’s take a look at the week ahead:

• English 11
  • Upcoming deadlines
  • Monday, Nov 14
    • in-class essay: ACT-style prompt
  • Tuesday, Nov 15
    • Read Tim O’Brien’s “Ambush” and discuss questions
  • Wednesday, Nov 16
    • Discuss censorship and analyze examples of censorship in contemporary current events articles
  • Thursday, Nov 17
    • Discuss and analyze propaganda techniques used in print ads
  • Friday, Nov 18
    • Discuss and analyze propaganda techniques used in commercial ads
• AP English Lang & Comp
  • Upcoming deadlines
    • Rhetorical Device Weekly set #3 (due 11/18)–edit document shared with you through Google Drive
    • Past-due précis assignments–Some of you are missing ALL of these. There is a reading assignment and a writing assignment for EACH.
      • Cause-effect précis
      • Example précis
      • Classification précis
      • Definition précis
      • Process précis
  • Monday, Nov 14
    • Abe Lincoln prompt analysis project
  • Tuesday, Nov 15
    • Finish Abe Lincoln prompt analysis project
  • Wednesday, Nov 16
    • Read Firoozeh Dumas’ essay “The ‘F’ Word”
    • Discuss elements of descriptive writing and their impact on author’s purpose
  • Thursday, Nov 17
    • Read Langston Hughes’ essay “Salvation”
    • Discuss elements of narrative writing and their impact on author’s purpose
  • Friday, Nov 18
    • Using Dumas’ “The ‘F’ Word” or Hughes’ “Salvation” as a mentor text, write your own piece of description or narration

 

2016-17 Week 12 — November 1

Don’t forget–no school on Monday (today!)! Enjoy your day off! The other teachers and I will be at school working to give you our best every day. 🙂 We’ll be happy to have you back with us on Tuesday!

Novena for the Election–

I should have shared this with you last week, but you can always jump in where we are. I’d like to invite you to pray a Novena for the Election between now and Election Day. This isn’t to pray for a certain candidate over another but rather to pray that God’s will is done and that our country makes the best decisions possible. If you’re interested, you can read more here.

Big Game This Week!

On Friday, we’ll go to our first Football Playoff game since 2008! Whether you’re going to the game or not, please keep our athletes, band, cheer, color guard members, students, faculty, and coaches in your prayers. For anyone traveling to the game, we ask for travel mercies and the safety of all involved. It’ll be an exciting week here at MCPS, so let’s do our best to cheer our team on to victory!

Looking ahead–

We do have exciting things going on this week, but we’ve also got lots of work to do! Let’s take a few moments to review what’s happening in AP Lang and English 11 this week. 🙂

• AP English Language and Composition
  • Monday, Oct 31–no school!
  • Tuesday, Nov 1
    • MASS DAY! All Saints’ Day
    • Work with your music video to analyze video and lyrics
    • Make sure to complete in AP Example precis (target deadline of 10/28)
    • Begin work on AP Classification & Definition precis (target deadline of 11/4)
  • Wednesday, Nov 2
    • MASS DAY for SGA members
    • Read and discuss Judy Brady’s “I Want a Wife”
  • Thursday, Nov 3
    • The Impossible Knife of Memory (remainder of book finished) Lit Circle video
    • Read and discuss Stephanie Ericsson’s “The Ways We Lie”
  • Friday, Nov 4
    • MASS DAY!
    • your Article of the Week due (edit document shared in Google Drive)
    • In-class writing
• English 11
  • Monday, Oct 31–no school!
  • Tuesday, Nov 1
    • MASS DAY–All Saints’ Day
    • Read Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path”
  • Wednesday, Nov 2
    • Discuss and practice 3 Levels of Reading with “A Worn Path”
  • Thursday, Nov 3
    • Lit Circle videos for parts 1 and 2 of Fahrenheit 451
    • Begin work on composing reviews (Favorable and Critical)
  • Friday, Nov 4
    • MASS DAY!
    • your Article of the Week due (edit document shared in Google Drive)
    • In-class writing

Let’s have a great week! Go Knights!

2016-17 Week 10 — October 17

Happy Sunday night, my friends! We’re gearing up for another week, so let’s make it a great one. There are some congratulations to go around–our football team won on Friday and made the playoffs for the first time since 2008, so way to go, Knights! Big cheers to the Band and Color Guard and Cheerleaders and all of you students who were there Friday night cheering them on. We’ve got another big game on Friday night against ACA–make sure you’re there to support our team! Another great congratulations to the Racing Knights Cross Country team! The Girls team finished 1st in 1A-4A and the Boys team finished 2nd. Way to go, Knights! The Racing Knights have only one more regular season race to go before Sectionals, so make sure you congratulate them on their great work this season! I’m so proud of all of our teams! Go Knights!

Let’s take a look at this week’s plans. English 11–you should start reading Fahrenheit 451 on your own. You should be at page 68 by 10/28 and page 154 by 11/4 (and complete by 11/14). AP Lang–you should be reading Impossible Knife of Memory and be 130 pages in by Tuesday (11/18), 230 pages in by 10/25, and finished by 11/1. We will do some companion work on these novels as you read, but you are responsible for setting your own reading schedule and completing the reading.

The specific plans for the week:

• AP English Language & Composition — Week of 10/17
  • Monday, 10/17
    • Assign Cause/Effect reading and Rhetorical Précis Homework (due before school starts on Thursday, 10/20)
    • Practice AP m/c section
    • Discuss m/c answers
  • Tuesday, 10/18
    • Complete discussion of m/c answers
    • Lit Circle videos for 1st section of Impossible Knife of Memory
  • Wednesday, 10/19
    • National Testing Day–report to testing location as posted in school
  • Thursday, 10/20
    • Read “Kid Kustomers” by Eric Schlosser and annotate. Create a Rhetorical Précis (due Friday, 10/21)
  • Friday, 10/21
    • Quote sandwich discussion and practice incorporating quotes into writing
• English 11 — Week of 10/17
  • Monday, 10/17
    • Discussion to prepare to read Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt”
  • Tuesday, 10/18
    • Read and discuss “The Veldt”
  • Wednesday, 10/19
    • National Testing Day–report to testing location as posted in school
  • Thursday, 10/20
    • Discuss “The Veldt” response and discussion questions
  • Friday, 10/21
    • Plan for an essay on “The Veldt” (Essay will be in-class essay on Monday, 10/24)

It’ll be a great week!

 

2016-17 Week 9 — October 10

Wow, that was an amazing Homecoming Week! Thank you all for your school spirit and your fun and your energy. I think it all worked together to build our team up and support them as they worked for a victory on Friday night. What a great night!

It’s time to get back to work, though! This is the last week of 1st Quarter, so let’s make sure that you’ve got all of your ducks in a row and any missing work turned in. The last call for turning in late work is Thursday, 10/13, so make sure that you get those in. There’s a late assignment post in Google Classroom where you should submit those things. If you’re not sure, then come and see me in tutorials and I’ll make sure that you know what you need to make up. On Tuesday and Thursday, I’ve got to go to physical therapy, so I’ll be leaving fairly quickly after school. If you have questions for me on those days, you need to come as soon as school is ended.

Let’s take a look at what we’ve got coming up this week:

• English 11
  • Monday, Oct 10
    • Announce Fahrenheit 451 schedule (see previous post)
    • Process Writing exercise
  • Tuesday, Oct 11
    • College Choice paper due in Google Docs
    • Process Writing (cont)
  • Wednesday, Oct 12
    • Process Writing (cont)
  • Thursday, Oct 13
    • All late work must be submitted to Google Classroom
    • Process Writing (cont)
  • Friday, Oct 14
    • AotW due (already posted and shared in your Google Drive–edit it from there)
    • ReadTheory.org update
    • Complete Process Writing
• AP English Language & Composition
  • Monday, Oct 10
    • Announce Impossible Knife of Memory schedule (see previous email)
    • Finish annotating TEDTalk transcripts
  • Tuesday, Oct 11
    • In-class essay
  • Wednesday, Oct 12
    • Read “School” p. 204-214 in textbook (bring textbook to class!) and annotate
  • Thursday, Oct 13
    • All late work must be submitted to Google Classroom
    • AP-style in-class essay
  • Friday, Oct 14
    • AotW due (already posted and shared in your Google Drive–edit it from there)
    • ReadTheory.org update
    • Work on Rhetorical Device Weekly 2 (due Monday, 10/17)

Let’s have a great week!

Novel Reading Schedules for AP Lang and Eng 11

Hello all! I’m working on my lesson plans for this week, and I wanted to share some important dates and timelines for you so that you could plan accordingly for Quarter 2. I’ll have another post later today with more detailed information about this week’s schedule.

Don’t forget that 1st Quarter ends on Friday (10/14). If you have any outstanding late work up to this point, the absolute last day that I will accept it is Thursday, 10/13. You should be aware of anything that you may be missing, but if you’re not, come and see me in tutorials and I can give you a summary. Speaking of that, there is a current issue with PowerSchool, so your parents may not be able to access your grades right now. (I’m not sure if that affects your access or not.) We are working on a solution for this–it’s a PowerSchool problem and not just an MCPS problem, so please bear with us as we try to resolve this. If you’re concerned, please feel free to contact your teachers. 🙂

English 11

You should be finishing up your Lit Circle books. You will be recording a Lit Circle video on Thursday, 10/13, and you will have an essay “test” (similar to what we did for Impossible Knife of Memory) on your Lit Circle novel on Monday, 10/17. Then we will move on to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. You do not need to purchase this, as I have enough copies to check them out to you. If you do not return that one that I check out to you, however, you will be required to purchase a replacement copy. Here is our reading schedule for that novel:

• 10/28 complete part 1 (p. 68)
• 11/4 complete part 2 (p. 154)
• 11/11 complete part 3 and Afterword

AP Lang & Comp

We will begin reading Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson this week and then All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy in November. You should have purchased these when you bought your textbooks, but if you didn’t, you might ask a friend in my regular English classes, at least for Impossible Knife of Memory. Those classes have already completed that novel and may be able to loan you their copy. Here is the reading schedule for the next two AP novels:

Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

• Week 9 – 10/14 – page 130
• Week 10 – 10/21 – page 230
• Week 11 – 10/28 – complete novel and AP-style prompt

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

• Week 12 – 11/4 – page 100
• Week 13 – 11/11 – page 200
• Week 14 – 11/18 – novel complete
• Week 16 – 12/2 – AP-style prompt created

I know that many of you have other projects, etc., for different classes, so I wanted to be sure that you had a good idea of the out of class reading requirements for the rest of the semester. There may also be short readings or brief writing assignments between now and then, but the bulk of the work will be done in class.

Change for AP Language students

Hi all! I wanted to take a moment and share with my AP Language students that there will be a change in the book list. Right now, I’ve got these listed as required texts:

• As I Lay Dying
• All the Pretty Horses
• Impossible Knife of Memory
• Flannery O’Connor’s Short Story Collection

We’re going to drop As I Lay Dying, not because I don’t love it or because I don’t think it’s a valuable book to read (because I do love it and I do think you’d benefit from reading it) but because I want to make room for more non-fiction pieces in our study. AP Language is really a study of rhetoric, or persuasive speaking, and I’m not convinced that Faulkner’s novel serves that purpose in a way that will be effective for you. I may add it to my Lit Circle list for next year because some of you may miss this note and may buy it, but it’s not going to be required of you. 😊

2015-16 Week 36 — May 9

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you! (Hopefully you’re all in bed now–I got caught up with my own Mother’s Day celebrations and forgot to come back here and share this week’s update with you.)

How was Friday’s Retreat? From my perspective, it was awesome. I’m really proud of all of you. I think that we had a great day, and I hope that you all benefitted from this.

We’ve only got 2 weeks of classes left before Finals. EEK! Let’s take a look at what’s coming up:

• Monday, May 9
  • HON ENG–Lit Circle 2 videos due
  • Read/watch Act 3, Scenes 2 and 3
  • HW:  Read Act 4
• Tuesday, May 10
  • Project Work Day
• Wednesday, May 11
  • Record Act 3 Julius Caesar videos
  • HW:  Read Act 5
• Thursday, May 12
  • Read/watch Acts 4 and 5
• Friday, May 13
  • Julius Caesar Matchbook Projects due
  • Act 5, Cutting a Scene activity

Other important dates:

• Monday, May 16
  • REG and HON ENG–Lit Letters due (see post in Google Classroom for assignment description again)
• Wednesday, May 18
  • Julius Caesar Quote Test

And here’s the Final Exam schedule:

• Tuesday, May 24
  • 7:30-9:30   2nd period
  • 10-12    B period
• Wednesday, May 25
  • 7:30-9:30   1st period
  • 10-12   A period
• Thursday, May 26
  • 7:30-9:30   C period
  • 10-12   D period
• Friday, May 27
  • 7:30-9:30   E period

Let’s have a great week!

2015-16 Week 35 — May 2

There are only 15 days left of classes (plus 5 days of finals)! Wow–we’ve got lots to do!

Congrats to the Track Team, who did well at Sectionals. Good luck at State this week!

Congrats to Varsity Boys Soccer, who will move on to the next round!

Congrats to Varsity Girls Soccer, whose game was called because of thunder and lightning. If you’d been able to play those last 11 minutes, you would have beaten them! Congrats on a great season, though!

Good luck to Varsity Softball as you guys move into the tournament Mon and Tues!

Let’s take a look at this week:

• Monday, May 2
  • REG ENG Lit Cir Session 2 due
    • Must be submitted before the end of school. Any videos submitted after 2:40 will be considered LATE.
  • Read and discuss Act 2, Scene 3
  • Work on Matchbook Projects if we have extra time
  • HW:  Read Act 2, Scene 4
• Tuesday, May 3
  • Read and discuss Act 2, Scene 4
  • Work on Matchbook Projects if we have extra time
  • HW:  Read Act 3, Scene 1
• Wednesday, May 4
  • Acts 1 and 2 Reflection Videos (recorded in class)
  • Matchbook Project Check–Project grade!
• Thursday, May 5
  • Read Act 3, Scene 1
  • Re-enact as a silent movie and record
  • HW:  Read Act 3, Scene 2
• Friday, May 6
  • AotW
  • Sophomore Retreat

Let’s finish strong! Have a great week, everyone! If you didn’t pick up a permission form for the Sophomore Retreat, make sure that you pick one up Monday and bring it back signed.