Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Can you believe August is almost over? Horrors. 2010 is slipping away like sands through the hourglass.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THE GOOD OF THE ORDER

1. There might be an outdoor activity tomorrow during sixth period involving mass student departures of buildings and such for high-temperature safety reasons. Just saying.

2. If you are of a certain age and have parent permission, you may start signing up for the 9/13 blood drive on Wednesday with Mrs. Kittrell. Please do not sign up to donate during my class period; at least arrange ahead of time with me to attend a different section that day. Saving lives is terribly important, of course, but passing the AP exam is, too. For you.

3. Senior Panoramic Picture is Friday during 3rd period; order forms are on the front table in 313 if you wish to purchase one. Wear orange and white, seniors!

4. If you haven't yet had your senior portrait done, the deadline for appearing in the yearbook is 9/24, but dsp.com is booked here in Orlando and you may have to go to a neighboring town. Mrs. Burke is a terrific resource if you have questions.

SENIORS: Have you applied for college yet? Or asked three adults who love you to write you rec letters? (NOTE: I am 17 deep on rec letters right now; if you need one, no worries, but get me a list of your achievements grades 9-12 to simplify the process or a copy of your brag sheet.)

Gifted English II:

Learning Objective: to assess prior knowledge with grammar and language, to engage in lively discussion about significant writers, to be enthralled by all the linguistic world has to offer us

Benchmarks: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Word of the Day: mendacious

Author of the Day: Douglas Coupland

Lesson Plan: Grammar Diagnostic Test and (2nd period) resumption of peer edit activity.

HW: Revise Death of a Salesman/The Stranger essay and submit by midnight tonight on www.turnitin.com. Hard copy is due tomorrow; refer to the style sheet for specifics.

APees:

Learning Objective: to engage in high-level discussion of syntax, diction, and voice with reference to a variety of fictional constructs

Benchmarks: Only the benchiest.

Lesson Plan: After submitting the HW from last night (the Gatsby questions) I'd like to review some of the terms from 1-120 on the reference sheet provided last week (extras are in the box on the front desk AND on ProgressBook.) Afterwards, we will assess two passages from Tess with thought questions and look at the differences between Hardy and Fitzgerald's diction/syntax.

SUMMER READING

If you've bounced to this page, you may or may not have already seen the summer reading lists on the BHS website. If you have, great! You can skip this! If not, though:

RISING GIFTED ENGLISH II (NON-MAGNET) STUDENTS:

Please read The Stranger by Albert Camus and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. There will be a test on Tuesday, August 24 that separates the readers from the SparkNoters, so be prepared.

RISING APEES:

The summer reading packet is on the BHS website in its entirety, but the reading assignment is as follows:

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

and one of the following:

The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

You will need to submit a completed focus paper on Friday, August 27 by 3 p.m. that fuses a theme from the three works you study this summer. We discussed some of these possibilities in the spring meetings.

If any of you have any questions, you can reach me at hilleyj@gmail.com OR at jennifer.hilley@ocps.net.

You have a little over a month, so get crackin'! Love to all.

Adjusted Lesson Plans

Dear Students,

Due to the scheduling snafu of last week, some of you are still adding to the class, and some of you are still planning to leave. Thus, I'm retooling some of my original (patented, highly inventive, and totally awesome) lesson plans to ameliorate any concerns some of you might have.

SOPHYS: If you did not have Mrs. Padgett last year, then you may opt for the adjusted schedule for the summer reading assignment. The assignment was on the BHS website and was heavily advertised, but I'll err on the side of compassion and give you an additional couple of weeks to catch up. For everyone else: The rough draft of the paper evaluating Mersault and Willy Loman is due in class tomorrow for peer evaluation, while the newer students may read. The final copy will be due at the end of the week (September 4) instead of the original due date of Tuesday. We will discuss all of this in class tomorrow.

The check-reading test for most of you will be on Tuesday, September 1--bring a pencil. Again, new students may read during the administration of the test.

APees: Our schedule wasn't as altered, since most of the students moving from class to class were switching from Mrs. Covert to my class or vice-versa, and she and I are pretty much on the same page. However, we did have fire drills and such to contend with, so I am adjusting a little bit--the discussion questions for MB will be in class on Monday, instead of last week as I had originally planned.

Friday, August 29, 2008

ORANGE AND WHITE DAY!!!

Our first scrimmage is today--and due to flooding at Winter Springs, I think it's here at Boone. Wear orange and white today and go early to lunch, and some of your teachers will be thrilled to see your school spirit. Boone Braves! Whooooooo!!!

Gifted English II: Author of the Day is Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize-winning novelist. Afterwards, we are taking an incredible vocabulary quiz on words 21-40, complete with an Art Opportunity on the back. Afterwards afterwards, we will be making a transition into Genre Studies and begin a newish unit. Please give me the long weekend to assess your papers--I just came out from under the AP focus papers and need a little time to get my bearings.

APees: Madame Bovary quizlet; might take most of the period. If we have time I would like to go over the second focus paper assignment with you and review common errors from the first paper. You will always have a week to resubmit a paper for further consideration, and as your papers are going back today, you have until next Friday to resubmit to me. Resubmits do not go on the website this time; staple the new copy on top of the first copy, and hand it in by the deadline. (Fifth period, you might not take this test until Tuesday due to the fire drill. We have to see how long that actually takes this time.)

AP Word of the Day: ABSTRUSE (adjective): difficult to understand; recondite