APELC Class Notes
Juniors and seniors, you completed your first synthesis essay today with a timed-writing from the 2006 APELC exam. (Consider that, including the two introductory timed-writings and the three practice free responses, you’ve completed eleven such essays since August). We finished the day processing the second half of The Merchants of Cool.
There’s little inspiring I need or want to write to you at semester’s close, except that I’ve been impressed by the ability and fortitude all of you have demonstrated these past nineteen weeks. I know that most of you learn in at least one or more other AP classes in addition to APELC and participate in one or more athletic or extra-curricular (or both) activities and attend plenty of other family, religious, and job-related responsibilities outside of CDO―keep at it. You’re the examples of determination and achievement I offer to each of my freshmen.
Have a restful and productive break, and I bid you enjoy your respective holidays.
See you in 18 days.
English 9 Class Notes
First, second, and sixth freshmen, you completed the semester final this week and I need to say, after reading your papers, I was really pleased with the way most of them turned out. Some of you were very creative in your character comparisons, others of you were insightful in your expositions on various themes, and a few of you were clever in your analysis of plot, setting, and mood. I’m glad to see the hard work many of you put in over the semester, whether you started out strong and maintained your pace or if you had to pick yourself up because of some initial bad decisions, helped you realize success.
As I mentioned in class, I’m pleased to have worked with each of you these long nineteen weeks, and I look forward to completing the second half of the year with you come January. I hope that you’ve learned and internalized all of the literary material and cultural ideas we’ve covered since August; some of these we’ve only begun to touch upon, but we’ll go for depth in the spring rather than breadth.
Have a restful break, and enjoy your respective holidays. Be ready when we return in 2009.
See you then, kids.
APELC Class Notes
Juniors and seniors, I handed-out and briefly commented on free-response question 2 from the 2005 APELC exam. Included were student samples with table-reader annotations, which helped reveal and demystify the the scoring process somewhat, I hope. Mostly, I wanted to show you an example of a really well-written student response to, for most APELCers, a challenging text and analysis.
We finished the hour watching Frontline’s presentation of The Merchants of Cool which was produced by culture critic Douglas Rushkoff. “The Cool Hunt”, by Malcolm Gladwell was an inspirational piece that’s well worth reading.
See you on Wednesday, when you’ll complete timed-writing 6 (with which we’ll commence the next semester) and we’ll finish the documentary.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmen, I went over the details of the final with you today and you had time begin to work out your plans of attack with a partner.
Sorry for the short and sometimes-not-so-timely posts lately; just a lot to grade, a lot to write, and a lot of other stuff to attend. I will post some final thoughts for the semester at week’s end.
Prepare wisely.
APELC Class Notes
Fourth juniors and seniors, you did the same as your third period peers yesterday. Check their notes for objectives and notes.
See you Monday.
English 9 Class Notes
Freshmen 2 and 6, again you completed the same as your peers yesterday. As with them, I’ll share the complete final details with you on Monday.
Until then.
APELC Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers 1) completed a critical reading assessment, and 2) assessed their thinking, reading, and writing skills.
Third juniors and seniors, you completed the multiple-choice section of the 2001 released APELC exam, and then you calculated your potential overall score using your graded timed-writings and today’s results.
Please attend your self-assessment and your revisions, the former due Monday and the latter, Wednesday. And please remember your permission slips for our The Merchants of Cool.
English 9 Class Notes
Objective: Students will write an expository paragraph about theme in a short story.
First freshmen, today you completed the objective by writing about a common theme (one suggested by the book or one of your own devising) shared by our two most recent short stories. You completed a comprehension quiz over the same.
Remember that I’ll be sharing final details with you on Monday. There is no homework.
Have a good weekend.
APELC Class Notes
Period 4, you did the same as your peers in third yesterday. Please score your papers and bring them with you on Friday, and return your Merchants of Cool permissions then, too.
English 9 Class Notes
Periods 2 and 6, tough classes today. We tried to talk about motif and theme in each period, but got derailed by a few who weren’t sure how to participate positively. Unfortunate.
APELC Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers wrote a rhetorical analysis and an argument.
Just as I’ve written in the objectives, kids. You began looking at anchor papers and discovered the problem with subjective, holistic grading. We’ll talk more next class after you complete the multiple-choice portion of the exam and you figure your overall scores.
Peace out.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen assessed and proposed themes for two short stories.
First freshmen, you began today by completing the vocabulary activity in your texts and then we moved to a discussion of theme. I reminded you what theme isn’t: a word or phrase, a proverb, moral, or lesson, et cetera. I gave you the definition of motif and we talked about examples in the room, and we talked over how motif can be used to discover and inform theme. Then you proposed your own themes for our most recent stories.
I also handed out grade reports at the end of class, which please plenty of you.
Remember to print and bring two templates to class next.
APELC Class Notes
Objective: APELCers wrote a rhetorical analysis.
Juniors and seniors, today you completed the first of three free-response essays for this week of practice testing. You’ll complete the other two tomorrow and then the multiple-choice section on Thursday and Friday.
I’ll hand you the scoring guidelines and sample papers that accompany the exam so you can score your own papers. You’ll use our rubric and the guidelines and samples to assess your papers.
See you soon.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen identified and explained character, setting, idiom , plot, imagery, irony, point of view, and symbol in two short stories.
An easy day, today, periods 1, 2, and 6. At least I thought so. You worked together to identify and explain each of the literary concepts listed in the objectives. You completed this in your composition books, and then you had a brief quiz.
Please check your class page for homework details.
APELC Class Notes
Thanks Mr. Clinton Rice for leading the discussion of the Staples and Arana texts today. And thanks period 4 for working with Mr. Rice. You all did a fine job today, and you were left with plenty of time to enjoy the benefits of full peer responses.
Have a good weekend, all. See you Monday.
English 9 Class Notes
Periods 2 and 6, once again you covered the same material as your period 1 peers. I appreciate that many of you, late in the semester as it is, are maybe, finally starting to come around and really digging into your work. Keep it up and your industry will pay dividends, if not now, certainly later.
Please attend your homework detailed on your class page and have a great weekend.
APELC Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers 1) processed texts from multiple genres, and 2) responded to their peers’ example drafts.
We had a great discussion today about the Staples text. As I stated in class, I appreciate the maturity and comfort with which you were able to engage the topic and each other. Race and stereotypes are certainly not easy to discuss, but you’ve made it easy for me to trust you.
Here again is the link to the Arana piece from the Washington Post and the link, as I promised, to the provocative article by Touré from The Daily Beast I shared in class. And here’s a bonus link to an Andrew should appreciate: “Save the date: Ala. county passes Obama holiday”.
Have a great weekend. kids.
English 9 Class Notes
Objectives: Freshmen 1) defined theme, and 2) identified and explained such in various media.
First freshmen, you turned in your completed paragraphs today and completed before reading notes for two new, brief stories. We talked about literary theme, and I helped rid you of some previous notions you had about the concept, namely that a theme is not a single word like “love” or “death” or “fear”. Theme is not a phrase like “good versus evil” or “love conquers all”. Theme does not refer to characters in a text or plot elements. Importantly, theme is not a proverb or a lesson or a moral. Rather, a theme is expressed as an independent clause that offers an important insight about human relationships and issues.
It’s a challenging concept and requires work, which you know you’re in for.
Attend the homework details on your class page, and we’ll see each other Monday.
APELC Class Notes
Period 4 juniors and seniors, we took on Hopper and Oates like your peers yesterday, and you had as good a time with it.
Your insights and observations were appreciated by all.
English 9 Class Notes
Periods 2 and 6, you did the same as your first period peers yesterday. Please check their notes for details and objectives. The same applies to you as them: If you didn’t finish the paragraph before the end of class must have the template completed when cross the threshold of T-12 Friday.
See you then.