Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Gifted English II: Further satire exploration with a Monty Python essay assignment (haHA!) and pre-teaching for Candide. HAVE YOUR SATIRE PACKET so we can discuss both last night's HW (selecting three or four episodes of MP for analysis) and go over the character list for Candide.

AP Lit and Comp: Finish going over Act II questions before I collect them, followed by a quiz that will take some of you the remainder of the period and will work quickly for others.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

If you are going with me to Paris this Thanksgiving break, please pop by after school for five minutes to compare notes on iPod chargers and other travel accessories. Oh, and to convince me that I do NOT need a Louis Vuitton Speedy 30 cm bag. Like I have 700 dollars hanging around. And if I did, I could get a lot of copies of Jane Eyre for that amount of money, and y'all know how much I like the Bronte thing.

Gifted English II: Satire, satire, satire, and prep for a vocabulary quiz. Good times! How's Candide coming along? Let's talk! I am going to give you the next essay assignment today, too. Just when you thought you couldn't have any more fun. . .

APeeps: Hamlet, Act V. I have the skull prop ready to go. First, though, we need to see Ophelia's mad sequence (which I am posting here momentarily) and take the second quiz on Act IV. Yesterday was more of a reaction prompt; today is specific. SPECIFIC. And focus papers are due on www.turnitin.com by midnight tonight (or e-mailed to me in the event of technical difficulty) and the hard copy is due today, although I will accept them through tomorrow afternoon. I am grading them in Paris.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Gifted English II: Today, we will review the Candide content vocabulary (see list below) and then finish "Python."

APeeps: Act IV Quiz for Hamlet, part I--(Part II is tomorrow, and is more objective) and help with the focus paper. We need to go over the rest of Act IV and then go headlong into Act V. Selected quotes from the play will be on the board; our next critical essay is T.S. Eliot's assessment of Hamlet. Hint: He doesn't like it.

Candide Content Vocabulary List

1. harrowed
2. pensive
3. insolence
4. disconcerted
5. consternation
6. rapacity
7. exquisite
8. prodigious
9. sage
10. laudable

Monday, November 16, 2009

One more week until Thanksgiving break! Good times. We are starting Project X-Mas full-on after the weeklong break, but we are collecting this week, as well. See me if you are interested in helping out.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BOONE BRAVES FOR WINNING OUR BARREL BACK FROM EDGEWATER! 21-14, booyah. Very proud of our team and our kids for having insane team spirit. Wish I could have been there to see the revelries, but I was with you via texting--people kept giving me score updates each quarter. Awesome.

Gifted English II: I do wish to speak to you about the three satirical pieces you've read recently, most notably "Top of the Food Chain" by TC Boyle. Also, we need to review the Candide content vocabulary and establish a firm due date for this short novel. I do have a reading day planned, probably Wednesday. Come in ready to go--we have a LOT to do this week, most of which is super-cool.

APeeps: Cultural Connections to Hamlet. You have a focus paper due THURSDAY, but if you submit it earlier so much the better. Today in class, we are going to review key concepts from Act III and watch a key sequence from a film directly related to Hamlet ideologically. You'll laugh, you'll cry. . .

Friday, November 13, 2009

Dear Students,

Now, I'm really not here. By the time school starts on Friday morning I will be airborne, with any luck, over the metropolitan Orlando area, alighting for a journey to Las Vegas for a wedding. I'm not a fan of Las Vegas in principle, but I'm going in good spirits to support my friend on her wedding day, and I will have my laptop with me for weekend tutoring. I lead a wild, wild life; I am going to Vegas, and I am most excited about the handbag shopping and the wireless internet access.

Be good! Be good! And Varsity football players--destroy the Edgewater team!

Gifted English II: In the satire packet, read the brilliant and hilarious "Top of the Food Chain" by T.C. Boyle, and answer the related questions. You haven't lived until you've envisioned cats in parachutes, "twirling down from the sky like giant oversized snowflakes." We will be doing a media literacy mini-unit Monday morning partially contingent on your understanding of these three pieces--Swift, Twain, and Boyle. Read, grow, understand. Content vocabulary for the novel Candide will be on the board for a quiz next week, as well.

APeeps: Multiple Choice practice session #4. Scantrons are on the front table; do as much as you can. This time, I am logging the scores, and if it seems you Christmas-treed your responses, it will not go well for you. Full credit for honest attempts. Remember that you are shooting for fifty percent for a 3, sixty-five percent for a 4. . .and so on. SHOOT HIGH.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

I will not be on campus today, but I will be back by the end of seventh for my club meeting. Please come if you would like to A) help out with Project X-Mas next week, and/or B) join the newly reformulated Information Society. We need to design a t-shirt, select officer titles, and fill out membership forms. Short meeting, but deeply insightful.

During the day, I will be collaborating with Mrs. Covert on AP curriculum for College Board. We are required to do this once per year; I will, however, miss you. So be good for your substitute! I will check e-mail at least twice during the day, so those of you with pending recommendations on Common App websites can reach me if need be. (If you don't know what that message means, it doesn't apply to you, so please don't e-mail me any more knock-knock jokes just to be cute unless you want to end up on the List of Woe.)

Gifted English II: Continuing the satire unit today with the awesome Mark Twain. In the green textbook, please read "The Lowest Animal" and select ANY five questions at the conclusion to address. This essay, while humorous, deftly pokes fun of human foibles and cruelties, and is typically sardonic and representative of Twain's voice. Enjoy!

APeeps: After you take the Hamlet Act III quiz, work on your focus paper with the peer-edit handout the substitute will give you. Consider this a writing center consultation, even if you haven't settled on a topic yet--almost like a pre-edit. This paper is due next Thursday.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Welcome to Eagle Week--the week of the annual Edgewater High School game. Festive decorations will festively festoon many a doorway (I forgot to do it) and on Friday the ceremonial Boone drum will resonate throughout the entire school as seniors hit it all.day.long. And then we play Edgewater High, the perennial rival of the Boone Braves. Last year's game was punctuated by a shuttle launch and one of the hottest days of autumn; let's hope for better weather and a great home game victory for our team. And, goodness sake, make good choices. This is a legendary week for rivalry-related pranks, and trust me, pranks can come back to haunt you.

Gifted English II: Return CMC focus papers; you have a week to resubmit if you earned below a B or had an "NS" (no score) on your paper. Please, please do not resubmit an A- "just to see if it will come up." I have almost sixty of you and another focus paper is just around the corner. After we go over the Common Errors List related to this first focus paper, I'll distribute this week's vocabulary list and the Satire Unit Packet.

The Satire Unit is one of my favorite parts of the school year; as you will see in the packet we will be studying Candide by Voltaire, "A Modest Proposal" by Swift, three or four other short pieces, the Python movie, satirical analyses in modern writing, and critical thinking skills as modeled in media literacy modes. Satire is one of the most controversial of genres, since many people fail to understand its symbolism.

I am distributing the packet today for your own convenience; don't lose it!

Today, though, we are going to finish analyzing the Poe story and take a look at the ambiguous ending and its syntax. If we have time today, we'll start the syntactical analysis of a passage from the tale, too. So many great things going on in Giftedland!

APeeps: More Hamlet action, including the critical essay piece "Why Hamlet Delays His Revenge." I have some content vocabulary for you, too, and will be distributing the next focus paper assignment today. Yup! Good times abound.

Friday, November 6, 2009

A myriad of fun activities awaiting us today!

Gifted English II: Focus papers are due today by 3:30; of course, I prefer if you submit them in class during first and second period so we can have a Title Parade. After I collect focus papers from (some of) you, I'll give you a few minutes to review your Poe vocabulary words, and then we are taking the awesome and mighty Poe Vocab Quiz, complete with rat-related clip art and a bonus question. Then, and only then, will we watch the opening scene of The Count of Monte Cristo while we generate a list of How This is Not From the Novel in Any Way, Shape, or Form.

(Note: I don't like showing movies in class; in fact, we only have two other films scheduled for this year--Julius Caesar and Monty Python's Holy Grail. Both of those are worthwhile and related to my curriculum, but a movie day is a day we don't interact and I fail to see the point of that. You may as well have a robot for a teacher.) This may be the only day we watch CMC since I'd really, really like to start the satire unit on Monday. If you want to see more, you might have to come by at lunch or after school on Wednesday. Or go home and add it to your NetFlix queue. You are the digital generation.)

APeeps: After I return the Act II quizzes from yesterday, some of which contained inadvertently hilarious answers, we will take a long look at the soliloquy from Act III, scene i--the famous one you may remember from Billy Madison. Hamlet has now spun from grief to anger and back to grief again, but this one really resonates as he questions the entire scope of the human experience. After we deconstruct this brilliant speech, I have an additional resource for you--a recently published article related how Hamlet is still relevant to 2009. Fantastic stuff, or so sayeth I.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Sophys: You have an essay due today, by the end of the day--4:30 hard copy, and midnight on www.turnitin.com. Many thanks to those of you who have already submitted. Today, in class, we are reviewing the poem we read two days ago: "The Unknown Citizen" by WH Auden, and analyzing what he satirizes in the poem, and then transitioning to another poem that features irony in a very intentional, socially-conscious way: "Ozymandias" by Shelley. TP-CASTT and other hijinks will ensue.

APees: Begin the comprehensive review of Hamlet and look at the criticism of the play from Eliot, Poe, and others. Also, we are going to review some grammatical constructs to help us in our quest for academic perfection.

Two days until Thanksgiving Break begins!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Sophys: Review format for Monty Python essays, and go over Candide characterization. Possible post-it note quiz. Friendly reminder: Tomorrow is the Guidance visit.

APees: Act V, scene ii. And that's all he wrote.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Can you believe that we only have one week left until Thanksgiving break? I will be unable to post or reply to e-mails during that week, as I will be in Prague and Vienna in bitter, bitter cold. Like I'm complaining--the Viennese claim to have really invented the cappuccino, so it's almost like the mother ship is calling me home: mmmmmmmmm.


Before school today, we're having a brief meeting with Mary Claire to deliver new Project X-Mas containers and get an update on our progress. Collection this week will be THURSDAY, not Friday.

Sophys: Author of the Day, followed by the completion of "My Melancholy Face" by Heinrich Boll. Oh, and see the next post for something cool and linguistic.

APees: Your homework questions are due for Act V, scene i; today in class, we are doing scene ii. If we have time, T.S. Eliot's viewpoint on Hamlet and his delays. Eliot is the one who claims that Hamlet is an artistic failure. T.S. is brilliant, and one of my very, very favorite poets in spite of that stupid cat thing (sorry--you remember how I feel about musicals) but I have to disagree with him somewhat vehemently here. Oh, and I have to break some bad news to ya'll who haven't read ahead: Hamlet is going to die. Yup. Sorry to have to break it to you; he is, after all, the title character in a Shakespearean tragedy, and as such, is doomed.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

There might be a fire drill at the start of fifth period.

Sophys: MP essay assignment; pass back graded work; Author of the Day.

APees: Hamlet quizlet, Act IV; "Gertrude Talks Back" by Margaret Atwood; notes on the board for the rest of Act IV.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Sophys: Finish MPatQHG after two Author of the Day presentations.

APees: Hamlet, Act IV, scene v, and notes on the board/diction.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

There was a delay in posting created by two factors: A) my blog has now been blocked again, thus necessitating my updating only from home, again, and B) the fact that I haven’t been home much lately due to family issues. A thousand apologies.

Sophys: Viewing Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail, preparatory to an essay assignment about the satirical elements of said film. Bring a beverage or snack if desired. HW: Please keep reading Candide; we will be discussing in class over the next few days, as well. Author of the Day presentations will continue as normal.

APees: Quotations from Hamlet, Acts I-III, and discussion of the multiple choice selections from this practice session. See notes below. HW: Read Act IV, scenes i-iii.

NOTES ON THE MULTIPLE CHOICE PRACTICE SESSION, 6th Edition Text

Passage One: from “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, American writer from the late 1800’s. This passage highlights the sensory details and horror of a man who is being hanged from a bridge during the Civil War, and in the descriptions of his subsequent escape and flight into freedom, many metaphors, vivid details, and high-diction terms are utilized. Prose passage with 12 multiple choice questions; remember, you’re shooting for at least fifty percent. If you missed the answer discussion see me and I’ll give you my key.

Passage Two: “The Fire Fetched Down,” a post-modern poem about Prometheus and the pain knowledge can bring. The people (“They” in the opening line) are at first askance about the acquisition of fire, and are suspicious. Of course, knowledge of the Promethean myth is critical to understanding the poet’s intentions in this piece, and most of the questions are dependent on relating the poem’s content to the myth. However, even if one didn’t parse out the true meaning of the poem, several questions could be answered successfully about particulars in figurative language.

Passage Three: An excerpt from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson. This passage, from an expository section of the Gothic novel, relates Jekyll’s scientific process (while refusing to disclose too many details of the actual chemical combination he uncovers) and reveals the exhilaration of embracing one’s inner evil. Many of the questions focus on characterization for this passage, and the high diction Stevenson uses make deciphering his narrator’s intentions a bit of a challenge.

Passage Four: A wonderful poem by Robert Frost, “A Roadside Stand” features two meanings in its title. Ostensibly about a fruit and vegetable stand on the side of a rural road, the poem is really more focused on the disparity between the needs of the urban population and the values of the countryside. Romantic in predisposition, this poem seems topical for its publication timeframe—the Eisenhower era of prosperity—and criticizes the hustle and bustle of materialistic city dwellers who only stop by the stand for directions or to form a U-turn. The questions related to this passage focus on both content and form, and ask several detailed queries about figurative language. This poem overall is much more readable and easy to analyze than the Promethean poem of the second passage.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Project X-Mas students:  We need to deliver more jars to new classrooms and offices this morning, so please try to be in my classroom a little before nine a.m. so we can accomplish this important work.

Also--today is the second Senior Blood Drive.  I think it is vitally important to donate blood, but please try to schedule your appointment to not conflict with your AP classes.  

Gifted English II:  After Author of the Day, we are going to finish "The Lowest Animal" by Mark Twain in the textbook, after which we are going to answer some questions related to the satire inherent to the essay and address A) characterization issues in Candide, and specific things to look for, B) introduction of themes in a satirical film that we are going to be evaluating (read:  written analysis!) and C) returning a pile of graded work, including the CMC essays that a handful of you may wish to re-submit.  I am almost completely out from under the pile of paperwork that landed on me when my family needed the majority of my attention, and I need to schedule some make-up work with some of you.

APees:  We are going to go over the four passages from last week's multiple choice test, and look at specific strategies for addressing some of these questions.  Afterwards, I'll return the Hamlet Act II and Act III quizzes and begin discussing elements of Act IV.  If you were absent on Friday you need to pick up the next focus paper assignment ASAP.  

Friday, November 7, 2008

Happy Friday! Tonight, we play Dr. Phillips, and I'm sure another astonishing victory is in store for the Boone Braves. Wear orange and white today and revel in your revelry.

Before first period, we will be collecting for Project X-Mas. I am asking second period to count the coins during BBC and then we will make our first deposit with the school bookkeeper during third. One week down; three to go! Awesome!

Gifted English II: Author of the Day, followed by a review of "Top of the Food Chain" and collection of your discussion questions on "Modest Proposal." Then. . .and I hope you brought your textbooks, because I had you write down to bring your textbooks. . .we'll be reading a satirical tale by Mark Twain called "The Lowest Animal."

HW: Read Candide.

APees: Hamlet Act III quiz, followed by a lively discussion of the Sample Test IV from the Sixth Edition AP Practice Book. The passages were fascinating, but we need to look at how you address questions in this format. I am also distributing the next focus paper assignment, which is due next Friday. You have three topics to select from.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Project X-Mas helpers: We will be collecting jars before school tomorrow. I have a parent conference at 9:00 this morning and won't be back in the classroom until probably right before first period starts. I have additional Ziploc bags for collection on my desk;' take what you need.

Today is saxophone Day and Marooned Without a Compass Day. If you could find an inventive way to combine both celebrations, that would be. . .interesting.

Gifted English II: Discuss elements of "A Modest Proposal" and segue into the related essay, "Top of the Food Chain" by T.C. Boyle. Satire afoot! NOTE: You need your literature book tomorrow. Not the yellow one we keep in the classroom, either--BRING YOUR BOOK TOMORROW.

APees: 25 minutes to finish the multiple choice, then we're going over Act III, scene iv. I will score the MC tests after school and we will go over the passages tomorrow in class. HW tonight: Act IV, scenes i-ii.

What are we going to do with all of the previous words of the day? I have a master list of the words we've already learned, and I will post them here in the next day or so. We will add ten more words and then either have a quiz on all of them or find a creative way to assess your understanding of the words. I think vocabulary is important, but diction enhancement cannot be our only focus at this stage of the game.

Monday, November 3, 2008

November is here! November is here!

Before school today is a brief meeting of the Project X-Mas crew, mainly to divide and distribute our collection jars for this worthy project. Meet in 313 at 9:00 a.m. if interested; if you don't come to this meeting we can always add you in later.

Gifted English II: A few students need to make up some work from last week, but as a class we are moving forward. Today is a critical thinking activity designed to help you look at things a little more discerningly; very important before we engage in our study of satire. I hope you will think it's informative and reasonably entertaining--it has to do with perspectives, ulterior motives, psychological manipulation of audiences, and uses of words, images, music, and emotions to convey meaning with various purposes. Besides, I think chimpanzees are always funny.

APees: I will be reviewing the first three acts of Hamlet with great scrutiny today. Six students still need to take the Act I quiz and four need to take the Act II quiz. I will be available during A lunch or immediately after seventh if you need to do this; the longer we wait, the more detailed information loss from your brains.