ANNOUNCEMENTS: Tonight at Boone we are having a guest speaker in the auditorium at 7 p.m.--Dr. Something will be talking about a year he spent "as a teenager." Might be interesting, and it's free. Also tonight at BHS in my classroom, at 6:30, is the travel meeting for the spring break trip to Germany. This is probably my last year traveling abroad with students (I've been at it since 2002!) but I'd like to go out with a bang, so to speak. Come if you are interested.
(There are other travel opportunities this year that might interest you, too--the band is apparently doing a spring break trip, and one of the foreign language teachers might be organizing a trip to Italy at some point. I'll post more specifics if I find out for sure.)
SOPHYS (Periods 1 and 2): Today is the day for Edusoft Benchmark Testing. Some of you will finish quickly; others will require the whole period. Bring something to read. Would you like a suggestion? How about. . .oh, I don't know. . .The Count of Monte Cristo? Sounds good to me! Bring a pencil for your testing--I have some but they are of shockingly low quality.
Sadly--no Author of the Day today.
APees: Now that you have done your Guidance thing, I want to clarify what's due for the next focus paper. Here is the contract I'm willing to offer:
IF you turn in your paper on time, both in person and on www.turnitin.com;
IF it is double-spaced and has a cool title; and
IF you made a good-faith effort to address either prompt, then. . .
You get a 100 on this paper.
(I believe in a concept called "The One A Paper." Some of you write one each week, because you are always going to hit the 8 or 9 level on the College Board scale; some of you are so, so talented in other academic areas, but not language arts, and an A is as foreign to you as AP Calculus Success would be to me. So. . .you get a 100, and I mark the HECK out of it. Brutal. Slashy. How the AP readers would grade it. But you can take a risk, jump out on a limb, make outrageous claims, and experiment with your writing without the worry that your grade will die just in time for progress reports. Honestly, who doesn't like a 100?)
Focus paper due Friday--by 4:30 p.m. in my hand, and by midnight that night on www.turnitin.com.
Today in class--Oedipus Rex and oracles! We start with the four questions on the oracle sheet, and work our way into Higher Levels of Meaning.
Word of the Day: mendicancy (noun): the practice of begging for alms or food; related to extreme poverty. (This word occasionally appears in 19th century texts--Dickens, etc.)
Monday, September 08, 2008
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
ALL SENIORS: Meet in Guidance; this is your one-on-one opportunity with your counselor to go over your SAIR (student academic involvement report) and plan for college. I'll have a sign on the door in case you forget. If we finish early, back to 313 for more revelry and goodness.
Sophys: Tomorrow is Edusoft Benchmark Testing. Please bring a pencil OR a black-ink pen. It's a reading diagnostic, and I'll give you points for taking it. It will probably take all period and prevent us from Author of the Day. My apologies.
Today, though, is Monday!!! Our Author of the Day is Vladimir Nabakov, who I intended to share with you earlier but then Fay got in the way. He is awesome and he was an amateur lepidopterist. Do you know what that means? It's a person who collects butterflies! Afterwards, finish up Tim O'Brien and prepare for our next Unit: Genre Study. Wheeeeee.
Sophys: Tomorrow is Edusoft Benchmark Testing. Please bring a pencil OR a black-ink pen. It's a reading diagnostic, and I'll give you points for taking it. It will probably take all period and prevent us from Author of the Day. My apologies.
Today, though, is Monday!!! Our Author of the Day is Vladimir Nabakov, who I intended to share with you earlier but then Fay got in the way. He is awesome and he was an amateur lepidopterist. Do you know what that means? It's a person who collects butterflies! Afterwards, finish up Tim O'Brien and prepare for our next Unit: Genre Study. Wheeeeee.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
FRIDAY!!! Glorious, glorious Friday. Please wear ORANGE AND WHITE today to celebrate Boone's awesomeness. We really are pretty awesome, aren't we? And if you wear the aforementioned colors, you get to go to lunch one minute early! ONE WHOLE MINUTE! That's like sixty seconds of tater-tot goodness!
Gifted English II: Vocabulary Quiz #3, which is in a slightly different format than before. We're wrapping up our miniature unit on irony today, too. Author of the Day is Yukio Mishima. Your Art Opportunity today, to celebrate your Giftedness (aka: weirdness) is to draw something that symbolically relates to any of the words on your vocab list this week. Perhaps Odysseus flailing around on his boat? Or Johnny Appleseed chasing a tortoise? Or a better version of my Titanic sketch, complete with a confused Celine Dion on the deck of the doomed ship?
APees: Oedipus Rex!!! Hello, King! I know you know the story, but the play itself is quite readable and very easy to follow. Sophocles was a genius. Today, we will discuss aspects of the tragedy and how the Greek model sets the stage for, well, everything else. You need to READ. Really READ. Another focus paper is imminently approaching. . .
Gifted English II: Vocabulary Quiz #3, which is in a slightly different format than before. We're wrapping up our miniature unit on irony today, too. Author of the Day is Yukio Mishima. Your Art Opportunity today, to celebrate your Giftedness (aka: weirdness) is to draw something that symbolically relates to any of the words on your vocab list this week. Perhaps Odysseus flailing around on his boat? Or Johnny Appleseed chasing a tortoise? Or a better version of my Titanic sketch, complete with a confused Celine Dion on the deck of the doomed ship?
APees: Oedipus Rex!!! Hello, King! I know you know the story, but the play itself is quite readable and very easy to follow. Sophocles was a genius. Today, we will discuss aspects of the tragedy and how the Greek model sets the stage for, well, everything else. You need to READ. Really READ. Another focus paper is imminently approaching. . .
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Announcement: If you are interested in going to Germany this spring break, the informational meeting will be next Tuesday night at 6:30 in my classroom. I have some forms if you would like to share information with your parents and not hit them with sticker-shock at the meeting. Travel, I'm afraid, is not cheap. The only thing I can say with certainty (and a lot of modesty) is that I am fun to travel with. You won't get away with a lot of bad behavior, but we will have fun and there will be much rejoicing!
SENIORS: You will meet with your Guidance Counselor on Monday, September 8. Come to my class first so I can take roll and ascertain your presence on our lovely campus before we sojourn together to the Student Services Centre*.
Gifted English II: Finish O. Henry's tale in second; evaluate it in first. Author of the Day is John Keats, after which we will review the common errors from the first paper and go over Guidelines for Solid Writing. It has clip art! And then, time permitting, we'll look at yet another short piece of ironic fiction--this one set in a war.
APees: Common error review, which won't take long, and then we'll begin introducing the transitional materials to Greek tragedy, a.k.a. Oedipus Rex. You don't need your anthology today, but you will on Friday. Handouts: FRQs and Sophocles Biography (read for homework.)
Word of the Day: mendacious (adjective): dishonest, full of trickery or chicanery
Have you noticed how I try to define words with other SAT words? How mendacious of me, if I didn't just admit that.
*Apropos of nothing: I hate, hate, hate it when American locations appropriate "Britishisms" to class up the diction. For example: Pointe Orlando, which I call "pointy." I know this is just one of my myriad of character flaws, but "centre," "towne," and "colour" drive me "batty" when utilized by Americans. We don't speak English, people! We speak SAE: Standard American English! We don't use "lifts", or live in "flats", or "snog" the "bobby" after he gives us a "brolly" (kiss the cop after he gives us an umbrella, -ella, -ella.) I love England, really really, but dang. The most egregious offender is Seminole Towne Centre Shoppes. I will never patronize such an establishment. Not that you care. I need to drink less coffee.
SENIORS: You will meet with your Guidance Counselor on Monday, September 8. Come to my class first so I can take roll and ascertain your presence on our lovely campus before we sojourn together to the Student Services Centre*.
Gifted English II: Finish O. Henry's tale in second; evaluate it in first. Author of the Day is John Keats, after which we will review the common errors from the first paper and go over Guidelines for Solid Writing. It has clip art! And then, time permitting, we'll look at yet another short piece of ironic fiction--this one set in a war.
APees: Common error review, which won't take long, and then we'll begin introducing the transitional materials to Greek tragedy, a.k.a. Oedipus Rex. You don't need your anthology today, but you will on Friday. Handouts: FRQs and Sophocles Biography (read for homework.)
Word of the Day: mendacious (adjective): dishonest, full of trickery or chicanery
Have you noticed how I try to define words with other SAT words? How mendacious of me, if I didn't just admit that.
*Apropos of nothing: I hate, hate, hate it when American locations appropriate "Britishisms" to class up the diction. For example: Pointe Orlando, which I call "pointy." I know this is just one of my myriad of character flaws, but "centre," "towne," and "colour" drive me "batty" when utilized by Americans. We don't speak English, people! We speak SAE: Standard American English! We don't use "lifts", or live in "flats", or "snog" the "bobby" after he gives us a "brolly" (kiss the cop after he gives us an umbrella, -ella, -ella.) I love England, really really, but dang. The most egregious offender is Seminole Towne Centre Shoppes. I will never patronize such an establishment. Not that you care. I need to drink less coffee.
Common Errors: Focus Paper #1 for APees
If you have read the previous blog entry, you may have noticed that I posted the sophomore errors, as well. These entries are certainly not intended to embarrass anyone, but I think it's good practice to look at trends and see where groups of students are erring. I plan to cover this material in class in an ongoing fashion, but for your reference (and in the event that you lost the half-sheet I gave you today after the Bovary quiz) here are the common errors for the Bovary/Awakening papers.
Common Errors/Focus Paper #1 2008-2009
1. Students tend to write “in the book” instead of in-universe
2. Syntax errors—fragments, run-ons, lengthy sentences with awkward comma splices
3. Their/there
4. You and I: Second and First-person narratives (I believe/I feel/In my summer reading project I had to read two novels/Summer reading is normally boring)
5. Command form: Take Edna, for example. (What if I don’t want to?)
6. Informality in diction: slutty, studly, OMG
7. Accept v. except
8. Transitions (awkward or non-existent)
9. Cannot v. can not
10. Quotes in Space: Many papers featured well-selected text evidence, randomly placed within the text, or not introduced at all. (Review appropriate quotation usage.)
11. It’s v. its
12. Errors in content (infrequent but memorable): Edna and Emma confusions; errors in plot or setting
13. Lack of conclusion or weird conclusion: “Well, they got what they deserved!”
14. TENSE: Stay in present tense when evaluating literature.
That said, the papers were fairly strong overall, and many of you who have already contacted me about revision have good ideas about developing your writing skills with each paper. Bravo to all of you!
Common Errors/Focus Paper #1 2008-2009
1. Students tend to write “in the book” instead of in-universe
2. Syntax errors—fragments, run-ons, lengthy sentences with awkward comma splices
3. Their/there
4. You and I: Second and First-person narratives (I believe/I feel/In my summer reading project I had to read two novels/Summer reading is normally boring)
5. Command form: Take Edna, for example. (What if I don’t want to?)
6. Informality in diction: slutty, studly, OMG
7. Accept v. except
8. Transitions (awkward or non-existent)
9. Cannot v. can not
10. Quotes in Space: Many papers featured well-selected text evidence, randomly placed within the text, or not introduced at all. (Review appropriate quotation usage.)
11. It’s v. its
12. Errors in content (infrequent but memorable): Edna and Emma confusions; errors in plot or setting
13. Lack of conclusion or weird conclusion: “Well, they got what they deserved!”
14. TENSE: Stay in present tense when evaluating literature.
That said, the papers were fairly strong overall, and many of you who have already contacted me about revision have good ideas about developing your writing skills with each paper. Bravo to all of you!
Sophys: Common Errors for Your First Paper
You will get a copy of this in class tomorrow, but in case you're bored or are perusing your paper at home tonight, here are some common errors that manifested themselves on the first paper assignment this year:
Common Errors The Stranger/Death Paper 08-09
1. Stay in present tense when evaluating literature
2. Double space final copies, please!
3. First and second person problems—particularly, opinion statements about the summer reading assignment or “I am going to tell you about this in this essay” issues
4. Play v. novel. They are not both novels.
5. Pronoun-antecedent/Subject-verb disagreements (particularly in who v. that and in number—Meursault and his friends goes to the beach.)
6. No thesis statement in a handful of papers
7. Irrelevant pop-cultural commentary in some papers—and not as analogies, either
8. Quotes in space
9. Avoid the verb “get”
10. Redundancies: Arab Man, suicide death, death of suicide, convicted guilty
11. Odd statements: “Willy is full of it.” “Meursault gets an offer to work in France but is decapitated before he can accept the offer.”
12. Odd words or phrases: womanist, orientated, narrarator, OMG
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Can you believe that we have TWO more storms in the ocean? Ike and Josephine. And we're only up to the letter J. Shades of 2004. . .let's hope these storms stay out at sea.
Sophys: Author of the Day is Angela Shelf Madearis; examples from literary vocabulary #3; finish "Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry.
APees: Madame Bovary test. If you didn't check out a literary anthology from the Media Center last week, you need to go before or after school by FRIDAY to get yours. We will be using the anthology in class for Oedipus Rex, our next text. Word of the Day is "prosaic" which is an adjective meaning mundane, ordinary, or normal.
Early Day!!! Thank goodness we kept that with the new schedule. Happy day, everyone!
Sophys: Author of the Day is Angela Shelf Madearis; examples from literary vocabulary #3; finish "Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry.
APees: Madame Bovary test. If you didn't check out a literary anthology from the Media Center last week, you need to go before or after school by FRIDAY to get yours. We will be using the anthology in class for Oedipus Rex, our next text. Word of the Day is "prosaic" which is an adjective meaning mundane, ordinary, or normal.
Early Day!!! Thank goodness we kept that with the new schedule. Happy day, everyone!
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