Lots of Lincoln in class today.  Hopefully it was helpful to you in terms of rhetorically analyzing.  If you are interested, HERE is a college level RA of the speech that is kind of interesting to read!

What we didn’t get to in class was your analysis of your 3 pages from your novel.  The plan was for you to work with the other people reading your book to talk about the development so far, and begin looking rhetorically at how your author is building his or her story and then do this in the group.  Since you weren’t able to do that, you need to do the following tonight:

1. Annotate the 3 pages you’ve printed out, identifying the following (all 5 should be annotated):
   1. Syntax –  What does a typical sentence look like? Find 2-3 good examples spread across the pages of what you would consider “typical” syntax for your author, and highlight them in color 1.
   2. Diction — Underline in red 5-10 words that stand out to you as examples of intentional diction (words your author chose specifically)
   3. Imagery — Bracket in black 1-2 images described by your author in the 3 pages you chose.  These should be good examples of your author intentionally using imagery for a specific purpose.
   4. Character Development — in color 2, highlight 3 places where a character is being developed for a specific reason.  This should not be just a general description alone, but place(s) where you are coming to know more about the character that helps you understand that character’s purpose in the story.
   5. Use of Literary Devices — In color 3, highlight 3 uses of literary devices (metaphors, similes, onomatopoeia, etc.  Imagery will NOT count here as a device, however devices might contribute to an overall example of imagery used in #3)
2. Response – Choose three of the following, and develop a strong, collegiate paragraph response to EACH of the three you choose.
   1. Syntax –  How does your author’s syntax impact the overall flow and message of the book? Specifically reference the examples you highlighted and explain how they support your argument.
   2. Diction — How does your author’s diction impact the overall flow and message of the book? Specifically identify words you underline, and explain how they support your argument.  Consider alternate words, and why your author made the choice he/she did.
   3. Imagery — How does your author’s use of imagery impact the overall flow and message of the book? Specifically reference the imagesy you identified in your annotation, and how the method of description as well as the images described support your argument.
   4. Character Development –How does your author’s rhetoric contribute to the development of characters in the novel? Use specific references to the examples you identified to support your argument. (note – this should not be the character’s impact ON the narrative, or his/her actions, but how the specific language used to develop the character contributes.)
   5. Use of Literary Devices — How does your author’s use of literary devices impact the overall flow and message of the book? Use specific references to the examples you highlighted to support your argument.  Note: Imagery will NOT count here as a device, however devices might contribute to an overall example of imagery used in #3

PRINT out your paragraph responses (yes, they should be typed, always in MLA format) and staple them to your annotated novel pages. If you are unable to type for some reason, you responses should be NEATLY hand written on lined paper in blue or black ink pen, with no scribbles or scratchouts, and no writing on the back of the paper, headed appropriately, and stapled to the annotated pages.  Everything must be turned in as you walk in the door of the class, before the bell rings (CTE students as you enter at arrival).  No one will be allowed to print during/at the beginning of class.

This is a test of your professionalism and ability to follow directions as much as it is a test of your rhetorical/literary skills.  There will be no redos on this assignment. (This IS a redo.)

Ciao..

H&T

Thank you all for your flexibility today! Hopefully the work time helped you out a little bit too.  A couple of reminders for you:

1. Bring your novel and PRINTED OUT HARD COPIES of 3 pages from your novel for analysis activities tomorrow.  We will be looking at them more rhetorically.  Bring your book with you!
2. Your essays are due tomorrow.
   

   Remember you chose one RA and one LEQ.  Each one needs to be typed into a google doc.  As you type, you may edit and make improvements or adaptations, but it should be clearly recognizable as the same essay.  Share the google doc with editing right with both shivelytayk@friscoisd.org and holtropb@friscoisd.org.  PRINT out a hard copy of each finished, edited essay and STAPLE it to the top of the original handwritten version. You will turn in the hard copy in class tomorrow.

3.  We will also look at key battles from the Civil War.

Reminder on Membean to clarify what we discussed in class today:  We are treating Thanksgiving Break as one long weekend, so you only need 30 minutes to cover this week AND all of the break.  IF you choose to do an additional 30 minutes (for a total of 60 for the week of Dec 2), we will give you bonus points.

4.  We’re working to finish the projects, but want to really reflect on them.  Hopefully grades will be in within the next day or so.

Have a good night!

Ciao…H&T

 

 

Hooray! Happy Weekend!

AND it’s supposed to be pretty outside! You’ve got several things coming up, so make sure you’re keeping a “to do” list and checking things off in between taking breaks to release your inner Transcendentalist and enjoy the beautiful outdoors!

1. There is a Canvas assignment online for you now — it shouldn’t take long, but it is part of your portfolio grade for this 9 weeks.  It’s a quick Novel Checkin response.  As part of that, you need to choose 3 pages from your novel to analyze and bring a hard copy of the pages to class next Wednesday.  You’ll analyze them in class, so just bring the blank photocopy to class.
2. Your Writing Portfolio is due next Wednesday — see yesterday’s post for the details, but remember you need to type your selected RA and LEQ on separate google docs and share them with Holtrop/Taylor.  Printed “hard copies” of both updated essays need to be stapled to the handwritten originals and turned in on Wednesday.
3. QF 12 is due on Monday.  That’s APUSH Framework Topics 5.4 – 5.7. You should be able to complete some of these notes from your previous reading and the video we watched in class today,  and we’ll be working on causes again on Monday.  We’ll cover the Civil War itself next week.
4. MEMBEAN — 30 more minutes are due on Monday morning! Remember – if you don’t have those 30 minutes, you will have to complete all of next week’s minutes PLUS the 30 overdue minutes by next Friday if you want to “remediate” them and get them back.
5. The current plan is for us to have a couple of special guests the week after Thanksgiving to work with you and give you feedback on your school design.  We have an architect and a school administrator, so make sure you’ve got those two areas developed enough that they are ready to be pitched and evaluated so that you have time to improve them before they are finalized.

Coach and I didn’t finish with projects today before he had to leave, so we won’t have project grades in until Tuesday of next week instead of Monday.  We’ll get them in absolutely as soon as we can! 🙂

Have a great weekend!

H&T

Hello All –

Remember, you need to be able to read your novel in class tomorrow.  I don’t want to know how you do that….(fingers in ears…ladidadida…) but you need to be able to read.

Also, for the Writing Portfolio, remember you need to type your selected essays and share the finished document with BOTH of us, as well as bringing a hard copy of each essay to class stapled to your handwritten original by November 20.  (Bonus points…the fake kind, not the real kind…to anyone who turns them in early so we can get started grading!) Here are the instructions again:

We will also be starting in on causes of the Civil War tomorrow in class. That should help you on your reading due Monday.  Speaking of Monday…Jiminy Crickets it’s been awhile since you’ve had an SAQ, hasn’t it??

See you tomorrow – with your novels!!

Ciao…

H&T

Quick reminder that your Romanticism project is due tomorrow.  Here is the rubric we’ll be using to evaluate you – it’s the general AMSTUD rubric from the beginning of the year tweaked to fit this project specifically.   You’ll do some peer and self evaluation – which is what will lead to the last score row.

If you haven’t gotten your book approved yet by submitting the book approval form, you are officially late! We need those TOMORROW.  If you submitted one and got turned back because you had selected a book by a white author, or a young adult book (there are several of you), make sure you complete the form tonight and get it back to us tomorrow.

We can’t wait to see your projects tomorrow!!

ciao..

H&T

Hello All —

For those of you dodging sleet pellets and checking the blog while praying for a snow day, here are a couple of updates:

Thank you for your participation in an animated discussion of the role of race in college admissions, as well as connections to the historical time period of “antebellum.”  Tomorrow we’ll touch back on the reading that was due today, and also continue to look at the role race and slavery have played in our American culture.  We’re at a point where a lot of the things we talk about are going to be sensitive, so we appreciate your maturity.

Quick reminders:

Wednesday will be a lighthearted reprieve from the conflict leading to Civil War, as we get a chance to bask in your amazingness while reviewing your Romanticism projects.  Remember, these should be professional quality, reflecting your understanding and complete mastery of the elements of Romanticism/Transcendentalism.

Your next QF is QF 12 next Monday.

You’ll have an LEQ/RA choice this week both tomorrow and on Friday.

If you didn’t turn in your novel choice form today, make sure you turn it in tomorrow. Some of you may want to reconsider and choose a different title if you are realizing you didn’t put enough thought into your choice.  Also, remember you must have your novel IN CLASS WITH YOU on Friday.

Finally —

Grades are updated as of 4:30pm.  Make sure you look back at your remediation grade to see the comments that were left for you.  From this point forward, you are expected to have MASTERED that information and to be able to pull it back up by memory whenever asked.

Membean reminder — 30 minutes/week, due by 9am on Monday mornings.  If you do not get 30 minutes in a week, you will have until 4:30 the Friday of that next week to make up the time (in addition to the current week’s minutes).  After that, the grade is final. (example — I only got 15 minutes this week by 9am 11/11.  I need to get 45 minutes (this week’s minutes PLUS my overdue 15) by 4:30pm Friday 11/15 or my 50 for last week is final. Yes, you have to get all of the current week’s grades BEFORE you can “make up” the week before.  We’re preventing you living life a week behind, and us having to chase you down.)

That’s it…have a great night — stay warm and dry!

Ciao..

H&T

Hello All —

Quick reminders for you:

1. IPR grades cut off tomorrow and are final on Tuesday at 8am. Your Portfolio grade is currently a reflection of your Membean minutes.  You are required to have 30 minutes per week — many of you have ZERO minutes for the first 3 weeks.  If you want to rectify this situation (Membean word!) make sure you have 90 quality minutes by Monday at 4:30pm when I update grades.
2. Tomorrow is “Remediation” day — your options:
   • Personal remediation assignments based on the results of your AMSTUD Remediation quiz
   • Work on your Romanticism Project (see below)
   • Tutorials on LEQ or RA with Holtrop/Taylor
   • Discuss African American Voices novel options with H/T
   • If you’ve finished everything else – Membean…but this is NOT just “sit and do Membean” time.  If you missed any questions on the Remediation Assessment, you WILL have assignments.
3. Romanticism Project — MAJOR GRADE — is due November 13.  You should be working on this already.  Remember the purpose is to use one of the avenues we’ve explored to prove that YOU have mastered the elements of Transcendentalism.  Someone asked the other day — yes, your finished product needs to reflect Transcendentalism — you can’t do a modernist project over Transcendentalism (unless you can explain how that project shows you have mastered Transcendentalism, and I wouldn’t put anything past some of you!)  We’ll answer questions over this tomorrow, so come with them!
4. QF 11 is due on Monday!! Don’t put it off!
5. I’m working on a couple of sample LEQ/RAs to put up for you guys — that was one of the requests from your feedback.  Keep an eye out!

That’s plenty — see you manana!

Ciao…

HT

SOOO happy it’s the weekend! I swear, Halloween on a Thursday night should have meant today was cancelled!

Instead, you did a great job on an LEQ or an RA…and there’s another one in your very near future to balance the topics out!

On that note – remember, you can’t memorize and dump in this class…you have to keep reviewing and building on the content from the first half of the semester.  You’ll have another LEQ VERY VERY Soon, and it could be focused on any time period from Colonialism to Jackson…like maybe, oh, I don’t know…the Revolutionary War period? Hmmm…yeah, that would be a really good time to focus an LEQ on….what led to the war? How did different people deal with the war? What came from the war…all very valuable questions.  If *I* was in AMSTUD, I’d probably make sure I reviewed causes, process, and effects of the war this weekend….

Monday you’ll have 55 minutes of work time on your schools project…hmm…I wonder what we’ll do with the other 35 minutes?

Tuesday we’ll do some Melville and watch for a White Whale….and then we’ll be doing some assessing…your results on that process will help determine what we do moving forward, so again, this weekend might be a good time to do some reviewing.

Wednesday we’re going to take our first LANG PPC, and then use the rest of class as work time for your Romanticism Project – so hopefully you’re thinking through what you want to do with that? Make sure you check Canvas for expectations.

Thursday QF 10 is due and we’ll introduce your next novel assignment

Friday we’ll start heading toward the Civil War.

The next QF (QF 11) is due Monday 11/11, so that’s a quick turnaround! It’s not too long, so it might be good to glance over it early if you get a chance.

Have a great weekend!

Ciao…

T&H

 

You have to admit that was a fun trip through time to some completely unclear destination!

For those of you who “didn’t understand,” you’re exactly on the right track….we’ll try to unravel some of the greatness of Bartleby tomorrow in class.  For now, please complete the following:

1. Read the conclusion of Bartleby (the short story) that was handed out in class. (If you lost it, it’s HERE)
2. Read this article by A.O.Scott (Chief Film critic for the New York Times) that makes some rhetorical analysis-ish assertions about the movie adaptation of the story. Be prepared to talk about it tomorrow, thinking about which aspects of the analysis you agree with, and which you find less convincing.
3. On that note, think about Bartleby (as if you could not think about it!!)  What do YOU think it means? What is the purpose? Is it Transcendental? or Anti-Transcendental? Or insane? or what exactly??
4. Side note — Just for fun, if you’re interested, you can read the whole “short” story HERE
5. Also side note — if you haven’t gotten enough Bartleby — here’s a great 11 minute claymation version….
6. Also – reminder QF 9 is due on FRIDAY

Have a great rainy night…we’ll see you tomorrow!

Ciao…

H&T