The Prompts Are Back

Whether you wanted it back or not, you received your Gladwell prompts today and had the chance to read your own personal feedback sheet, fill out the first row of your goal handout, and revise your sentences for active verbs. Class today centered around all those tips to help you write an incredible rhetorical essay. From organization to citations, you have clear steps to improving your writing. If you were absent today, I would suggest borrowing notes from a classmate or setting up a time to scroll through the presentation before or after school and take notes.

1: You completed your first vocabulary quiz. Absentees, you have 48 hours to either make up the quiz or schedule a time to make up the quiz. On Friday, we will start your paper meetings, so make sure you are ready to ask questions.

3: We are about halfway through our paper meetings, which will continue Friday.

4: We are almost near the end of our paper meetings, so we will wrap those up tomorrow.

7: We had a quick vocab review awaiting our tornado drill, and we started paper meetings (about 1/3ish completed) which will continue on Friday.

All AP Langers:
If you are interested in UMSL for college credit, go to this website, check out the video, and register: http://www.umsl.edu/continuinged/acp/.

College Credit Options

At some point during your class, you received information regarding college credit options at FZN and the MOBap Excel program. (UMSL info will be tomorrow.) 

As an AP Lang student, you have the opportunity to earn college credit in a variety of manners at a lower cost than you would on a college campus. 

First, you can earn college credit during the course by signing up and paying $65-66 per credit hour. Your grade for the course will then transfer to your college transcript. Second, you can earn college credit from scoring a 3 or above on the AP test in May. This allows you to have credit for a 3 hour course, but you will not receive a grade on your transcript. Our class prepares you for this test as we go through prompts, practice exams, and skills to help you score well. (The average last year was a 3.3.) 

Now, this is not a Sophie's Choice situation - you can do both, and if your individual situation works, I highly encourage you to do both and amass as much college credit as you can while in high school. I have had students in the past take college credit through one of the schools during first semester and then just take the exam second semester. While I do encourage you to do every AP and advanced credit option available to you, it ultimately comes down to you, your family, and your future aspirations. 

And on a final note, I do know that, in almost every case of education, more college credit earned via dual credit or AP exams can only help you.

Now back to AP Lang Land...

1: We reviewed your vocabulary today, which mean a quiz is tomorrow. We attempted to jump back into the tips power point and managed to wrap up the scoring expectations. Obviously, there are many tips remaining - about 15 slides worth if I remember correctly. We will then have paper meetings to discuss you writing. Remember, nothing to be lachrymose about on this diagnostic prompt. I have a feeling that if I gave you the same prompt today (calm down, it is a hypothetical), the majority of you would do infinitely better.

3 & 4: You completed your first vocabulary quiz. Then, we made it through the AP scoring handout and (fourth hour kind of) a review of essay organization to help guide your future essays. I know you were disappointed to not hear all the tips and tricks of rhetorical analysis writing, so we will just have to finish up next block class.

7: We finished up our 15 vocabulary words, which means the review is tomorrow and the quiz will be Friday. Then, you were formally introduced to the 1-9 scoring scale and the goal sheet for your rhetorical analysis essays. We started a review of paragraph structure, and you know have tips on how to construct your introduction and your thesis statement. More tomorrow! 

AP Writing Expectations

After our preliminary vocabulary work (third and fourth hour should be ready for their quiz tomorrow), we looked at the expectations of AP Lang rhetorical analysis prompt writing, reviewed all those strategies nestled into "The Roseto Mystery," and started the scoring scale differentiation. We will pick up tomorrow where we left off today.

Chopin's Purpose

After vocab experts - third and fourth hour have finished the process and will review on Monday for their quiz on Tuesday - we spent the majority of class in feedback conferences for your "Story of an Hour" strategy paragraphs. Common suggestions range from specific topic sentences (author, strategy, and purpose of strategy), evidence incorporation (one is something, two is something better), transitioning evidence appropriately, and concluding the paragraph with an overall statement. Some of the classes then had time for card games with 4th hour currently at an AP Lang high of 80%.

On Monday, we will return to the "Roseto Mysetery" text to review rhetorical analysis. Read once more, notice further strategies, and clarify any purposes that you may have already written.

The Card Leaders

After another successful round of cards, fourth hour continues to have the highest accuracy in AP Lang with 60%. Let's see if you can improve this statistic and maintain first place with the other classes ready to challenge you.

In order of play, we began with vocabulary, worked in groups to identify the purpose and strategies of "Story of an Hour," played cards, and worked on your toolbox and portfolio.

For tomorrow, be sure to walk in with your decorated portfolio and your strategy paragraph for "Story of an Hour."

Rhetorical Analysis #2

Technically, I suppose it is rhetorical analysis #3, but I'm not counting the prompt as part of your development as a rhetorical analyst. At this point, you are participating in another practice, and you should be able to understand the gist of what you will be working on the rest of the semester.

 And, before I delineate our completed work today, I want to send kudos to seventh hour for their enthusiastic attitude, well-written purposes today, and their clever strategy identification (Taylor & Faith - wow on that umbrella!). We are catching up after missing a day of class last week!

1 & 3: We continued with vocab experts (first hour stands at 8; third hour stands at 12). You worked in a collaboration to identify the purpose of "Story of an Hour," looking at why the author is writing the text. Purpose requires a specific infinitive (to expose, to exemplify, to illustrate, and many more that you identified) and the "about what" or topic at hand (some stunning diction across the hours). Next, your group selected strategies to reflect the purpose, and you were assigned to write one paragraph analyzing one of the strategies. The rest of the hour was card games, working on your toolbox, and working on your portfolio. Make sure to bring your portfolio back to class on Friday, where it ill remain awaiting all of your writings.

7: Wow - what a class period! First, you received feedback on your "Theme" strategy paragraphs and how to improve for the next one (to be introduced very shortly.) We then - finally - started vocabulary and reviewed a few rhetorical strategies as well. To mix it up, we then read "Story of an Hour," and you created purposes and highlighted strategies in the text. for homework, you will be writing your strategy paragraph for the text. In addition, make sure to bring back your decorated portfolio for Friday's class. If you had to step out early due to golf, stop on by tomorrow for a portfolio.

All AP Lang Classes -

P.S. If you are struggling with identifying purpose, I recommend trying this out whenever you read an article (news, sports, pop culture). Read your selected text, and then determine what the author's purpose is in writing. Even if it is an article about the latest Justin Bieber news, you can determine if the author is using derogatory language to criticize his youthful indiscretions or utilizing fawning language to express affection for his activities. (I'm not sure why I chose Justin Bieber for this example, and I'm not sure why I know enough to create purposes for articles about Justin Bieber. Yes, I read everything.)

Story of an Hour Text

First, third, and fourth hours, here is a link to "Story of an Hour," in case you lost your copy, forgot to grab one if absent, or would like to read in a digital format:  http://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/webtexts/hour/.

Seventh hour, if you want a preview of the text, you may read it digitally, but we will be spending quality time with this text on Wednesday's class, and you are not expected to have the reading completed prior to class.

Anyone for Cards?

If any of you would like to practice, learn, review, or some other educational verb the rhetorical strategy terms, stop by my room after school on Wednesday, August 23, or Monday, August 28, for some quality time with the rhetorical strategy cards. (If no one wants to play cards by 2:45 on the given day, I reserve the right to close the room and head home to evaluate writing prompts. Is it weird that I missed evaluating writing prompts?) 

While we do play "matching" games in class, this will be an opportunity to have some supplemental game time and help you learn rhetorical strategies (and their definitions) at a faster rate. The more familiar you are with terms, the more ease you will have with a passage requiring rhetorical analysis.

Diagnostic Prompt 1

Such a rarity that all classes are completing the same work on the same day, but here we are at diagnostic prompt writing day. Utilizing your "Roseto Mystery" passage, you were given a prompt, wrote an essay in a timed environment, and now await feedback on how you presented the information. Thus far, and it is only second hour so I do have a small sample size, I have watched the majority of you jump into writing the essay - even if you are still feeling your way into the rhetorical analysis. That attitude, one of determination, is just what you need to be successful with any writing prompt.

Tomorrow will resume our introduction to rhetorical analysis with "Story of an Hour" (1, 3, 4, you may want to consider what the purpose of the text is and what strategies you are seeing in the text prior to class), continue with vocabulary (as some hours know, I like to bring in rhetorical strategies too), and have some bonding time with your toolbox.

It's Day 5 of AP Lang, and you are now fully enveloped into rhetorical analysis. Just imagine how much more you have to learn and apply as we continue forward throughout the semester!

An Hour

Let's commence with the commonalities between the four AP Lang classes, and then branch off into how they differed today.

Tomorrow is the diagnostic rhetorical analysis day to see how you write to a prompt, analyze a text for rhetorical strategies and purpose, and compose in a timed setting. Hence, you have had the "Roseto Mystery" passage to close read for strategies and purpose. Write your best tomorrow. It is a diagnosis of where you are in the collegiate writing process and will help you with your future writings.

*For the prompt tomorrow, you are allowed to use your close read of the passage (highlighting and notes) as instructed. You will not be allowed to use prewritten paragraphs or a full essay as this was not part of the instructions.

1, 3, 4: At the start of the hour, we looked over your individual strategy paragraphs for "Theme for English B." For the most part, you understood the identification of the strategy and explaining its role. Just don't forget to have a directed topic sentence with the strategy and the purpose and textual evidence to support your ideas throughout the paragraph. We then moved onto vocab experts (Day 1 for first hour; Day 2 for third and fourth hours.) Last, we read Chopin's "A Story of an Hour," looking at the meaning of the text. Bring this back on the block day for the analysis portion. Also, bring your toolbox on Wednesday as we will have some time to work on it during class.

7: As mentioned in class, we had to sacrifice vocab experts and toolboxes in order for you to have a practice run on rhetorical analysis. Identifying purpose and strategies, you looked at WHY a text is written and WHAT the author uses to convey his or her purpose. For homework, you are to write your individual rhetorical analysis paragraph for this poem. If you want feedback on this paragraph prior to prompt writing tomorrow, you will need to come see me BEFORE school for hints and suggestions. Passing periods will not work due to the prompt writing all day. On Wednesday, bring "Theme" paragraph back for partner analysis, vocab experts to begin, and your toolbox.

Theme on Rhetorical Analysis

Happy Friday to all my AP Langers! Make sure you read your hour's summary since the discipline reviews altered the plan for a few of you!

1: At the start of the hour, you received "The Roseto Mystery," a passage that you will close read for rhetorical strategies and use on your first diagnostic prompt on Tuesday. This diagnostic prompt will be your first foray into collegiate-level writing, and a baseline to see what you will work on during the year. The diagnostic will be scored on a 1-9 AP basis to give you a sense of the AP evaluating process. In the gradebook, this will be evaluated by 50% content and 50% completion.

Following that "surprise," we worked on identifying the purpose and the rhetorical strategies of "Theme for English B."

For Monday, we will start Vocab Experts, compare and contrast your "Theme for English B" analysis paragraphs, and (fingers crossed) work on your rhetorical toolbox.

3 & 4: We started with our first 4 words of Vocab Experts, so your vernacular should already be improving!

Following vocab work, we worked in identifying the purpose and the rhetorical strategies of "Theme for English B."

At the end of the hour, you received "The Roseto Mystery," a passage that you will close read for rhetorical strategies and use on your first diagnostic prompt on Tuesday. This diagnostic prompt will be your first foray into collegiate-level writing, and a baseline to see what you will work on during the year. The diagnostic will be scored on a 1-9 AP basis to give you a sense of the AP evaluating process. In the gradebook, this will be evaluated by 50% content and 50% completion.

On Monday, we will resume vocab, look at your analytical paragraphs for "Theme for English B," and (hopefully) work on your rhetorical toolbox.

7: At the start of the hour, you received "The Roseto Mystery," a passage that you will close read for rhetorical strategies and use on your first diagnostic prompt on Tuesday. This diagnostic prompt will be your first foray into collegiate-level writing, and a baseline to see what you will work on during the year. The diagnostic will be scored on a 1-9 AP basis to give you a sense of the AP evaluating process. In the gradebook, this will be evaluated by 50% content and 50% completion.

Meanwhile on Monday, we will be starting vocab experts, working on "Theme for English B," and checking out the rhetorical toolbox.

Card Games

We started off class today with the Vocab Experts assignment. Each of you received one vocabulary word, and you will teach the class the definition, at least 2 synonyms, and a memory trick for the word.

Third & fourth hour will start vocab experts on Friday; first & seventh hour will commence on Monday due to discipline reviews during those hours.

Next, we played with our rhetorical term cards and matched terms to definitions. Competition-wise, fourth hour had the highest accuracy with 60% for the AP Lang classes (5th hour did win overall AP English with a score of 80%). Remember, many of these terms are brand new to you and your classmates. This is the first immersive step into learning and recalling the terms and their meanings. We work with these cards all year - yes, all year - so you will continually add the AP Lang jargon to your own diction (notice that I just put two terms in that sentence).

At the end of class, you received "Theme on English B" to read. This is solely a comprehension read to understand the plot and what is happening in the poem. You are instructed to not write out the handout, to not take notes, and to not identify rhetorical devices. We will do all of that as a class next time around (Friday for 1, 3, 4 and Monday for 7).

Tomorrow will be a bit different for each hour due to our schedule, but I do have a surprise for all of you tomorrow at the beginning class.

Welcome to AP Lang Land

Day 1 is in the books, and it is not the most exciting day with the plethora of handouts, syllabi, and information coming at you from seven sources. However, day two is when the real fun begins when you read, analyze, share, and become an official AP Lang student.

As I mentioned to some of my classes, the goal of AP Lang is to make you college writers, thinkers, and speakers. I will provide you with all the tips, strategies, hints, and ideas to help you attain this goal. Apply the suggestions and consider the feedback, and you will see improvement in your English abilities.

For those absent, you will need to pick up the class syllabus and the rhetorical toolbox term list. To better succeed at rhetorical analysis in AP Lang, you will be creating a toolbox of terms and definitions. The toolbox can be flashcard-based with an index card holder or can be list-based with a Steno notebook (provided). On Monday, you will either bring your toolbox to class or be given the Steno notebook.

While those terms may seem daunting, these are the terms that will anchor our analysis for first semester and beyond. As mentioned in class, this toolbox is for YOU, which means your flashcards and/or lists are to help you learn and use rhetorical terms during class. You are not expected to have all these terms defined tomorrow or next week. Instead, you will continue to add to your toolbox as the class progresses. The toolbox is not for a grade and will not be spot-checked, which means when we have open toolbox quizzes or opportunities to use the toolbox on assignments, you will have all this information at your fingertips. I highly recommend you create this toolbox to help you with this class.

In addition, the first participation grade occurred, which means absentees will need to see me before or after school to make up this assignment.

Tomorrow, we will play with the cards, which will give you the opportunity to learn at least three or four terms for your toolbox. Then, we will be close reading a text via color marking. If you like highlighters, you will have a fun day tomorrow!

AP Lang Round 7

Welcome to AP Language and Composition, which is currently entering its seventh season, iteration, round, or version, depending on your diction preferences.

AP Language differs from your average English class. How so? Other than we deal (primarily) in the realm of non-fiction, our class concentrates on three areas of writing: rhetorical analysis (the what and the why), argumentation (claims and whatnot), and synthesis (incorporating multiple texts and citations). Underneath the umbrella of each area, we will study modes of discourse, multiple choice strategies, and writing methods to help you for AP testing and college-level writing and analyses.

My goal is to help you become college writers, perform at the highest level on the AP exam, and generally create a team atmosphere of learning. While writing eventually becomes a solo sport, the means to success come from a collaborative camaraderie. The outside points of view, the revising peers, the random discussions, and any interpersonal activities pays dividends in the long run.

While you are waiting impatiently to have the syllabus in your hands, I would like to give you a few suggestions for common writing errors. Instead of typing out all these hints again, I will advise you to check out the links to blogs from last year's course. While we will be working on all of these items at some point during the class, you may start improving these mechanical faults at the start of the year and from your own study as well.

READ THESE. PRACTICE THESE. WRITE CORRECTLY PLEASE.

http://fznaplang.blogspot.com/2015/11/prompt-writing-tips-bird-edition-part-i.html
http://fznaplang.blogspot.com/2015/11/prompt-writing-tips-part-ii.html