AP Language Class Notes
Objective: APELCers presented worldview papers.
Today Aislinn caused us to learn about fatalism and determinism, Simone helped us perceive idealism, Laura demanded we attend her presentation on fascism, and Logus sold us on communism.
You final worldview draft is due Monday, May 12. I urge you again to attend the MLA formatting and style requirements of your paper. Remember that your optional pre-exam self-evaluation is also due Monday. Then, your reflection letter and extra-credit rhetorical analysis are due Monday, May 19. Please check your class page for information on these various pieces.
The three seniors who’ll not be completing the APELC exam, your final is to answer the Hazlitt prompt from the first day of class. This’ll be an extended, typed response, between two and half to three pages long. MLA style applies, as always, and your work is due no later than Monday, May 19.
Finally, those of you who conducted interviews for your worldview papers, please be sure you send a “Thank you” to your interlocutors. I prefer you send a nice, brief note by regular mail; if you have no physical address, an e-mail message is fine, but no silly e-cards.
Have a great weekend.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen 1) analyzed literary concepts in semi-biography, and 2) began drafting an expository paragraph over the same.
Periods 1 and 3, you began really writing your second body paragraph (about what Atticus does) today, after we looked at what mistakes students committed on their first body paragraph (about who Atticus is). You turned it in at the end of the period.
The only task for the weekend is to revise your first body paragraph (or compose one if you didn’t turn one in Monday) and begin to think about how you intro and outro this essay.
Peace.
AP Language Class Notes
Period 2, you completed the multiple-choice practice today as did your peers yesterday
I hope you give yourselves time to relax a little this weekend. A good way to do so, as I mentioned in class, is by taking in the outer-space awesomeness of Flash Gordon, one of the greatest movies ever!
“Go Flash, go!”
English 9 Class Notes
Period 4 Englishers, sedate today but same material and coverage as Tuesday. Check your peers notes for objectives and details.
MLA Style
APELCers, as I continue to read over your worldview papers, I’m confused, nay, stunned, and even after much haranguing, at the lack of embedded citations and Works Cited pages I’m encountering (or not encountering, rather) on these third drafts.
I’ll state again that citation of sources within your paper and a proper Works Cited page are vital to the success of this extended work. Please do not jeopardize your grades and your hard work by giving less attention to the accounting for your source material.
I direct you again to the third chapter of your Bedford text for some basic information on MLA style and citing sources. You’ll find no finer online resource, though, with more examples than the MLA Formatting and Style Guide at Purdue’s Online Writing Lab.
Please use these resources. Please attend these style and citing details rigorously.
AP Language Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers 1) completed a practice multiple-choice exam, and 2) evaluated their per-exam performance.
While many of you were taking the AP Stats and Spanish tests, students present in class practiced an entire section of multiple-choice questions. Afterward, I gave the scoring formula to calculate your whole performance over the three timed-writing essays and the multiple-choice section.
Remember that your even though you have a weekend extension to complete the final drafts of your worldview papers, presentations still begin Thursday. You must comlpete the worldview presentation summary posted on your class page under the “Materials” section, and make enough copies for me and your peers. (We have twenty-three students in second period and twenty-four in fifth period.)
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen 1) analyzed literary concepts in semi-biography, and 2) began drafting an expository paragraph over the same.
First and third freshmen, today you analyzed how Atticus affected those around him, different from your last task which was merely describing the character of the man. We discussed your findings and you began crafting your second body paragraph.
Although you have no official homework for Thursday, you’d be wise to continue drafting your paragaph using the template, which you’ll need next class. The quicker you get started on it, at home or in tutoring I recommend, the less you’ll have to be anxious about in class.
“A More Perfect Union”
After being pestered about an extra-credit opportunity I considered a while back, I’ve posted something for you juniors and seniors on your class page.
AP Language Class Notes
Objective: APELCers completed a practice timed-writing.
You completed your third practice free response essay today, juniors and seniors. Tomorrow and Wednesday you’ll complete the multiple-choice section of the practice exam. I’ve posted details for the optional pre-exam self-evaluation; you must have completed all three practice timed-writings and the multiple-choice practice to get credit for the self-evaluation. The details for the reflection letter have also been posted. Please attend them.
I’m still going over the third drafts of your worldview papers, so I’ve changed the due date for your final drafts to Monday, May 12 ; presentations will still begin on Thursday, though. A summary form for your presentations are posted on your class page; you must use these for your presentation, and you must provide a copy for me and your fellow students. (I’ll change the font size tonight so that you can fit it all on one page.)
I’ll close with some observations about your latest paper drafts. I’ve noticed, despite my repeated warnings and instructions, some troubling trends:
- Many of you haven’t included citations within the body of their paper and many of your papers lack a proper Works Cited page;
- Many of you have included random, rather than purposeful, images with no explanations, and many of you have only used internet sources;
- Many of you have written mere summaries or, even worse, appreciations of their topic worldviews—this is not the task.
Several of you are still having trouble with the idea of critically evaluating others’ beliefs and ideas. Understand that once individuals or groups publicly submit their ideas to the agora , they must be willing to answer questions and defend criticisms of their claims. This is what keeps many of us believing we have no right to judge―not that it’s not correct or fair to criticize others, but rather it’s because once we begin to evaluate others’ claims we then have to be willing to defend our own ideas against questioners. The possibility of that kind of scrutiny is frightening, especially when realize we may not really know the bases upon which our personal worldviews are founded and how to answer challenges.
It’s vital that you be comfortable discussing and evaluating others’ and your own ideas, intelligently, as inoffensively as possible, without rancor. If you can’t, then you must submit to the notion that all ideas are above reporach, all ideas are equal, and all ideas are true, and if those things are are true learning comes to a stop because no one idea is better than another. Even Siddhartha Gautama judged Hinduism unable to resolve man’s existential predicaments and went on to develop his own (very systematic and rigorous) philosophy. Further, America’s founding fathers judged republican democracy better than monarchy, and the people of the Eastern Bloc nations judged liberal capitalism better than totalitarian communism.
Please attend the observations I’ve listed above to ensure you earn the best grade possible. And I’ll offer one more reminder about spelling and conventions: any more than three obvious errors of formal, academic English in your final draft will result in a drop of one in your final grade.
English 9 Class Notes
Objective: Freshmen analyzed literary concepts in a semi-biographical text.
Freshmen, you listened to and read chapters 29 and 30 today in our text. Please attend the homework posted on your class page.
AP Language Class Notes
Period 2, we met in the liberry where you had time to research and write. Congratulations to Michael who successfully raised his Wicca level to 1!
When we returned to class, we discussed the imminent Pride Time, scheduled to begin next year. I tried to maintain a balanced discussion as many of you reviewed the ideas the Pride Time committee has put forth. Most of you acknoweldged the pros and cons of the program, and I encouraged you to take steps to have your voices heard whether you found yourself for or against the idea. Shawn suggested that those of you that are concerned about Pride Time organize yoursevles and approach CDO’s site council.
I said I’d post a link to The Wave, a movie based on The Third Wave experiment that Shawn and Wes mentioned, and that many of you’ve seen. Have a look.
See you Monday.
English 9 Class Notes
Fourth freshmen, we went over construction of the body paragraph about Atticus’s roles in the novel in the same way your peers did yesterday. Please check their notes for objectives and information, and be sure to check your class page for homework details.
See you Monday.
AP Language Class Notes
Period 5, in a twist of timing and planning, you actually did the same as your second period peers did yesterday, instead of the other way around. Please check their class notes for objectives and details.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen 1) analyzed literary concepts in semi-biography, and 2) began drafting an expository paragraph over the same.
Periods 1 and 3, we discussed the character of Atticus today, who he is as a father, a neighbor, a lawyer, and you used the answers to the questions you were given on Monday to flesh out your inferences. Armed with these ideas, you began to draft a paragraph, a character study of Atticus.
Please check your class page for homework details.
“KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY”: Daniela asked about the Ewells’ incestuous relationship in class, and I mentioned briefly that the history of that taboo stretches back into history into royalty and even into biblical literature (the question of Cain’s marriage in Genesis has puzzled many). But it’s still shocking, and yet it’s not unheard of today as revealed recently in the vile case of Australian father and daughter John and Jenny Deaves and the evil case of Austrian Josef Fritzl.