Summer Session 2009: Friday, June 26

We got off to a rocking start on Thursday, and here we are on a glorious Friday!

Our lessons today, subject to minor tweaking.  (Hopefully, we won't have the endless fire alarms of yesterday afternoon's woe.)

Author of the Day:  Stephen King

Word of the Day:  calipygean

Spelling Quiz (yesterday's words--starting with "accelerate")

Art Opportunity

Brain Puzzle

Vocabulary Quiz (ten words we looked up yesterday)

New Vocabulary List

English Notes from Yesterday (typed up and enhanced)

Study Guide:  Anglo-Saxon Time Period (in groups)

Grammar:  Appositive Phrases

Writing Topic:  Heroism

Film:  A Knight's Tale

Summer Session 2009

I am teaching the second half of English III/IV in room 205 this summer.  I will be posting our lesson plans here each day in case you need to review what we're doing in class.

We generally do not assign homework in summer session, due to the intensity of daily instruction.  However, if you need additional time to finish an assignment (not a quiz) you may take it home and work on it. 

If you have any questions or concerns, you can reach me at jennifer.hilley@ocps.net or by clicking my name on the Boone website.  Two weeks=the second half of the credit you need, so let's do it!

June 25, 2009

Introductions and New Student Information

Author of the Day (notes on the board--there will be an open-note quiz later)

Spelling List

Vocabulary List

Grammar:  Adjectives v. Adverbs

Lecture:  How English is Formed (etymology)

Grammar:  Participial Adjectives

Literature:  Poe

Writing Sample:  Dinner Guest

Film related to the literature of America or Great Britain with study guide

Total points for today:  Up to 120

NOTE:  I will update grades every two days, so that you will know exactly how you are doing.  Best wishes for a great summer session!!!

Reading Lists for Next Year

This list is by no means definitive, and I haven't posted lately due to a death in the family, but now that I'm coming back up for air I thought I'd give a heads-up on titles for next year.  Bear in mind that no student will ever be REQUIRED to purchase a book, but it would be helpful to start building your own reading library and owning your own books enables you to annotate directly on each page.  If you are in a financial situation in which acquiring these titles is entirely too much to deal with, shoot me an e-mail at jennifer.hilley@ocps.net and give me a heads-up and I'll be sure to take care of you.

This is what I'm envisioning for Gifted English II next year, and pretty much in this order:

Summer Reading (The Stranger and Death of a Salesman)

Short Fiction (from the textbook and other in-class anthologies)

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas

Candide by Voltaire

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by Shakespeare

Othello by Shakespeare

1984 by Orwell

Things Fall Apart by Achebe

Either Wuthering Heights by Bronte or Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky for the final reading--student choice

Other titles I've been noodling about with are Notes from Underground and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, but that all depends on time.  The tenth grade course is time-limited by registration and FCAT demands, but I've also built a poetry unit, a unit that focuses on non-fiction and research strategies, and various assignments focusing on vocabulary acquisition and grammar.  

For Advanced Placement Literature and Comp, this is my vision thus far.  Mrs. Covert and I teach different texts, but this is representative of what my class might look like next year:

Summer Reading:  Madame Bovary, The Awakening, and Gatsby, with emphasis on How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Foster.  

Macbeth and Hamlet by Shakespeare, with related literary criticisms

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

A Streetcar Named Desire by Williams

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

Beloved by Toni Morrison

This list is not exhaustive, and also doesn't list the myriad of short pieces, sample passages, and other forms of writing in which we will be happily engaged.  

Au Revoir, 2009!

Ahhhh. . .the school year has come to its conclusion.

If you are checking this blog because you are an upcoming Gifted English II or AP Literature student, please note that I do plan to update it at least every few weeks over the summer. As a reminder, you can find both reading assignments (for AP, it's quite a packet) on the BHS website. I think you click "Academics" and the file is lurking under there.

If you have a specific question about an assignment, feel free to e-mail me. You may get the Out of Office Reply, but I do check messages at least once per week, and I will write back as soon as I can.

Have a great summer! Do your summer reading! And know that the expectation from the BHS administration is that you will also read Life As We Knew It by S.B. Pfeffer over the summer--you probably rec'd a letter in your English class this past week. You will be doing some activities in some of your classes related to this book during the beginning of the year, and a schoolwide test will be administered on it on the third day of school in, I think, fourth period.

the best-laid plans

The Scottish poet Robert Burns once wrote, "The best-laid plans of mice and men/(Often go awry)" (roughly translated from the Scottish brogue). Well, the end of this school year certainly proved his point.

I did not anticipate getting a Trifecta of Woe: strep, tonsillitis, and some mystery virus lurking under it all. I did not anticipate missing an entire week of school (!) nor graduation nor grad practice. And I did not anticipate how weak this experience would leave me, and how even half-days are utterly enervating.

Thus, I curved the final. Remarkably, no one failed, and one B. Dawkins set the curve. Several people made As and Bs, so something must have worked out okay in the universe.

I wish each of you a safe and happy summer; please do your summer work for your upcoming classes, and breathe a sigh of relief that a challenging year (YoS) is behind us. For the graduated seniors, if you still even read this: Much love and luck in college and beyond. For the soon-to-be-juniors: I hope to see you again in AP Lit, and you can always pop next door and visit next fall!

If you have any questions or need anything (service hours, life issues, whatevs) you can reach me over the summer at my usual e-mail address; I promise to check it at least every couple of days. The entire campus is locked down for mid-July, but as of now I anticipate being up here through June teaching English III/IV in summer session.

Be good, people. Read a lot. Take care of your family and friends. And realize that your journeys are just beginning. . .