9/22/2017 (AP)

We know that the poetry section is difficult for us. Last year, you guys did rhetoric. Historically, the poetry essay is the lowest scoring portion of the test. So let’s tackle this!

One strategy used to analyze poetry is TP-CASTT.

Today, we read sonnet 29 and filled out the TP-CASTT together as a class. What I’d like for you to do as homework is to use that information to write an analysis about the poem. We are going to practice a few times on this (three, to be exact). You will turn in all three and choose your BEST paragraph for me to grade.

Eventually, after we do this a few times to know what we are doing (and what I’m looking for), we will take a major grade over this.

9/21/2017 (AP)

We tried our first APSupport assignment today. Remember: your APSupport login information is not the same as your college board login information.

You should be able to see the Poetry Practice assignment. It’s 22 questions and you work through this with a buddy.

I will grade this using the AP curve.

9/20/2017 (AP)

Today, I am grading essays! I left an assignment for you: An Annotated Bibliography! Don’t let the title intimidate you – it’s easy! Just choose an article that piques your interest and read it. Using MLA format, write a one-paragraph summary and the next paragraph should be your reflections on the article. What did YOU think? What questions did it generate for you? What parts made you sad? Angry? Confused?

Turn this in!

9/19/17 (Level)

Today is one of my favorite days: teaching the three literary elements from Beowulf!

First, we talked about alliteration. The bards used alliteration when telling their stories to help with memory: it was a mnemonic device.

We started out by doing a word search – I put you in partners and gave you a picture from the book Animalia. If you had the letter A, you and your buddy wrote down as many A letters down inside the letter that you could.

As you can see from this examples, all of the drawings in this picture start with the letter A. Afterwards, we wrote a ten word alliterative sentence. If you had C, you wrote ONE sentence that MAKES SENSE that has AT LEAST TEN (school appropriate) C WORDS.

Think of it this way: start out with a base sentence, like:

Ellen Eves entered the east entrance.

That’s only five E words, so I need to add more.

Think of an adjective for Ellen, like this:

Energetic Ellen Eves entered the east entrance.

Look at your verb. Think of an adverb that can describe HOW your verb happened.

Energetic Ellen Eves eagerly entered the east entrance.

Still short? Try adding adjectives such as colors and numbers.

Energetic Ellen Eves eagerly entered the east entrance eight times.

Energetic Ellen Eves, when she was only eighteen, eagerly entered the east entrance eight times.

Nine Words! This is  where I suggest going to the dictionary to find an E word that you can incorporate and using PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES.

Energetic Ellen Eves, when she was only eighteen, eagerly entered the east entrance eight times with an entourage after the examination.

Then, we listened to The Breaks and watched me dance crazily around the room. You kinda missed the show here, but I was demonstrating caesuras.

What you need to do with the file in Schoology, write is use the following four words around the word CAESURAS in the four corners: pause, suspense, comma, break.

On the next slide, write a definition for caesuras using those four words. Ask a crew member for help if you need it. :)

Then, we worked on kennings. A kenning is pretty much just a compound nickname. The Anglo-Saxons used them, so to understand the bards, we need a little nickname practice. Go to Schoology > Beowulf > Before We Read and find the kenning assignment. If you look at Kennings slide show, you’ll see memes that other people did about animals and musical instruments. Note they focus on what the animal LOOKS like or DOES. The also don’t rename the name of the animal. For example, it’s not a TRASH RACCOON because it IS a raccoon!

trash panda

MAKE sure that you are using a COMPOUND NICKNAME. You have to replace “Look at that raccoon”with “Look at that TRASH PANDA“.

I will take the Memeing Kennings activity as a grade.

9/19/17 (AP)

Today we just took care of loose ends. We signed up for the AP Pilot program, talked about permission slips, dates, and prices.

I gave you time to fix any Schoology submission problems, to do the reflection over the 1994 AP test that we took, worked on the HTRLLAP discussion boards, and turn in the Ratiocination Revision Stations.

I will have a substitute teacher tomorrow, but I will be on campus grading your college/scholarship essays.

9/18/17 (Level)

Today was our last day revising and editing. We have now worked on this paper for six full class days! I am Applied Texas out!

Here is the basic rubric: from what I have seen, you will do great on Voice and Thesis. I think your Verbs and Mechanics will pull you down, so focus on those two stations. If you legitimately do the Verb Station, the lowest you can get on the rubric is a 3. 🙂 See! I embed safety nets!

I specifically talked about getting rid of Be Verbs and gave you a few strategies to revise them out.

Your final copy and your revision stations are due tonight at midnight. Remember, I have a grading day tomorrow and this is my priority. That means if you turned in a daily assignment late, I probably won’t get to it until this weekend.

9/18/17 (AP)

Today our first round of chapters were due for HTRLLAP. Instead of giving you busy work, I assigned five discussion boards.

I do not expect essay responses for each question. As long as you satisfactorily answer the questions, length will not be an issue.  These writings will be somewhat informal and you can use outside books and films for your examples.

NOTE: While you may substitute movies for literary works in this assignment, remember your choice of literary works and film are an indication of your reading background. Try to stick with academic references as much as possible. Multiple references to Disney and Harry Potter are not desired.

9/15/17 (Level)

Today I showed you guys what I want you to do when you edit/revise your paper. Your rubric is based on four things:

Thesis, Voice, Mechanics, and Word Choice: Verbs.

So, with that in mind, I came up with a few activities for you to workshop your rough draft. If you do these things, my goal is that you will all get credit on the rubric for these items.

Remember – the whisper phones seem kind of weird, but that is the intention. I want to disrupt your thinking so that your brain can form new synapses! You build your brain the same way you build your muscles – by s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g them. When you do something new and bizarre like this, your brain is stretching!

We will finish this on Monday – your final copy will be due Monday at midnight!