Happy End of Semester!

Well, we have reached the end of 2017 and the first semester of AP Lang. You have amassed a great deal of knowledge - whether welcomed or not - on rhetorical analysis, all those strategies and fallacies, and multiple choice passages. The last assignments, the final and the Lucy argument, will be evaluated over break and added to the gradebook upon completion. You will receive all of these assignments back in the new year, which will begin our class looking back on what we have worked upon during first semester.

Second semester will be a tad different as we focus more on argumentation, multiple choice, and synthesis writing. To start of the semester, we will resume vocabulary for about 5 units, study different allusions from mythology, Bible, pop culture, literature, and history to help with exemplifying your arguments, dive into various modes of discourse including satire, description, process analysis, exemplification, and argumentation, write creative tone paragraphs, practice multiple choice passages, and continue to work on writing so that you will score well on your essays and the AP exam.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! After diligent work to progress in AP Lang and all of your classes, I hope you take the time to relax, enjoy time with those closest to your heart, consume delicious food, and welcome in the new year in a safe and exciting manner!

And...for those of you who may want to try out advertising...

As many of you may recall from last year, I visit classrooms in January to help pique interest in AP Lang and let students know all the options available to them junior and senior year. (Yes, I will be out of the room during that time, but you know you will have something to keep you busy.)

Another way to call attention to AP Lang is to create a poster that grabs the eye and provides key words that would attract a student to the course. And in the past years, our department chair has blown up this poster into a mega-poster that is on the English department bulletin board second semester.

With that in mind, I have a proposal, not a modest one, for my AP Lang students.

If you would like to make a poster for AP Lang, and perhaps earn 10-20 extra credit points (dependent on effort), create one advertisement and share/e-mail it to me by 7:00 a.m. on January 3. This will need to be in digital format.

You will find below some facts about the course that you may want to include; however, you can also bring in stuff you have learned or liked this semester to encourage a student to take the course. Remember, this is an advertisement and prospective students walking down the hall will not stop to read full sentence explanations. The winning poster will be selected by another teacher or staff member and will receive an additional 10 extra credit points. The extra credit is for second semester and not first semester.

AP Lang Facts:

• Junior and seniors
• Full year course with an objective to pass the AP Language and Composition exam in May
• College credit earned through test scores and/or dual credit enrollment
• Curriculum focuses on the components of the AP Language and Composition Exam: multiple choice, rhetorical analysis, argumentation, and synthesis
• Close reading strategies and analyses of short passages, varying literary genres, and modes of discourse
• Non-fiction textual emphasis: autobiographies, biographies, diarists, critics, essayists, and writers of history, politics, science, and nature
• AP prompt writing skills and practices to foster mature writing style and analysis
• Writings will include expository, narrative, analytical, argumentative, and research-based techniques
• Full-length texts are 2 memoirs during the school year
• No summer reading
• Or anything else you find pertinent, interesting, engaging, memorable

Semester Finales

In 1, 3, and 4, we wrapped up our review via the portfolio to see what writing habits could be improved upon for the final prompt.

In 7th hour, you had the experience of taking the final first, which is a culmination of rhetorical analysis writing, terms, and multiple choice passage. Hopefully, you had a lot of confidence going into this writing experience since your class had the highest average on the last writing prompt!

For all classes, don't forget to turn in your Lucy argument - especially since it is the last grade of the quarter and will impact your quarter and semester grade if you elect to not complete the task.

Prompt Review Part II

1: Finished our team close read and constructed a team introduction with a team thesis statement finishing up the paragraph. For homework, you will need to each write your assigned body paragraph.

3, 4, 7: Reviewed rhetorical analysis essay structure, shared our body paragraphs for the Wuthering Heights Team Close Read, created a team introduction, shared 2 paragraphs from each group. For homework, you have the MC passage to finish. Take 15-20 minutes if needed - don't make this a hour long assignment.

And, a belated National Porg Day to you all. I can't believe I missed out on celebrating everything Porg. I hope there's time to add Porgs to my wish list for Santa. 

The Final Push

In all classes today, we are reviewing the skills, strategies, and expectations to help you score well on the final, which features a rhetorical analysis prompt, a toolbox quiz (without toolbox usage), and a MC passage.

For today - and into tomorrow - we are completing a team close read on a passage. The team close read forces you to pick out phrases, words, strategies, and all the other details that relate to the prompt. As a result, you then have to explain that connection, which would, I hope, eventually tie back to purpose. The "P" word is back!

For third and fourth hour and seventh hour (polysyndeton), complete your solo body paragraph for the close read. Absentees will be assigned work tomorrow during class.

And, do not forget about your Lucy argument, in which you will create your claim based on Lucy's character and utilize evidence from multiple sources. It is imperative for all students to turn in this essay in order to maintain or improve their grade. Any students not completing this assignment will see their grades drop as consequence.

The Real Lucy Grealy

1: Prior to your essay assignment, we divided into teams claim, warrants, counterclaim, and rebuttal to practice brainstorming appropriate evidence for the claim and the counterclaim (it is a valid secondary position that requires support), group evidence together to help determine warrants and which claim evidence could be transferred to help out the rebuttal, and construct a rebuttal statement referencing the validity of the counterclaim and then returning to the claim's stronger position. After all of this on the board, you received your Lucy Argument and Lucy Logs to begin writing this last assignment of the semester. The argumentative essay's prompt is WHO IS THE REAL LUCY GREALY? This will require evidence from your variety of sources to construct a strong argument. This is a hard copy only assignment and must be turned in by 12:30 p.m. on Friday, December 22.

3 & 4: See above for notice of the Lucy argument prompt. The hard copy assignment handout has more specific details, but that should not stop you from the writing process.

7: Thanks for following directions and moving around during seventh hour today. See first hour's synopsis for the Lucy Grealy argument assignment.

See you next week for review!

On the Last B Day Before Holiday Break...

If you are nominating your educator or employee of the year, you do no have to fill out that hard copy form - just share it with Julie Leacox by the end of the school day on Friday and make sure you mention in a note whom you are nominating and, of course, your name.

All classes, you also need to read and annotate the Suellen essay regarding her sister - you know her by the name of Lucy Grealy - and her troubled reaction to Ann Patchett's memoir. If you want to read it online, here you are: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/aug/07/biography.features.

1: We accomplished a great deal today - responding to Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" speaker via rhyme, prose, and timely (get it) argument; completing a practice multiple choice passage to gauge your strategical usage with timing; starting your teacher of the year argumentative mini essay, which will be 3-4 paragraphs indicating this person's strengths on a personal level and a school-wide level. You will need to complete your first draft (required) of the essay and share it to me by 7:24 a.m. on Friday morning. If you would like to officially nominate (yes, split infinitive, regretful), then you will need to share your revised essay with Julie Leacox.

3 & 7 (and probably 4th hour on Thursday): We started class with time for you to finish the first draft of your teacher argument essay. I hope many of you are planning on nominating these staff members - I know I have found out so much about my colleagues through this process! At the end of the hour, we worked with the other half of the argument (that would be the counterclaim and rebuttal - I'm really into parentheses and dashes today - I once had an AP Lit student who constantly worked in parentheses into his essay - that was annoying). On the board, we looked at how you can group evidence together to create 3 "evidence groupings" for your essay's body paragraphs and how you can save one of those evidence groupings for your rebuttal section. Yes, it's true -- you can have evidence incorporated into a rebuttal and you can have a whole paragraph to do so. Overall, if you are writing an essay that is a non-timed writing prompt, you would have, at minimum, an introduction, 2 body paragraphs of supporting evidence and warrants for the claim, a counterclaim paragraph with evidence, a rebuttal paragraph with evidence, and a concluding paragraph. Hmm...why am I so specific with essay structure? Could it be that you will be assigned your last essay of the semester on Friday regarding the nature of Lucy Grealy?

Teacher Arguments

1: We completed our practice introductory argument on our subject of inspiration, Honey Boo Boo, by sharing claims, evidence, and super warrants. Then, we read "To His Coy Mistress" to identify an overall claim, sub-claims within the argument, evidence and warrant connecting to each sub-claim, and the overall meaning of a Carpe Diem poem. Tomorrow will be a busy day, so be prepared for a lot of work with multiple choice and argument.

3, 4, & 7: We analyzed the answers of MC passage 4. Then, you received the Educator of the Year/Employee of the Year Argument essay. To accumulate the main components of this assignment, you are to select a teacher or staff member that you would like to nominate and write a 3-4 paragraph essay on a Google Doc. Your purpose is to convince the committee readers that your nominee is the best instructor or worker at our school. For this assignment, you will be completing 1 draft for a participation grade, and you will be showing it to me during the block class for instant feedback. If you choose to, you can revise for a second draft and turn it in to Ms. Leacox by Friday to officially nominate your selection. For any length of essay, you should dedicate one paragraph to the personal reasons for nominating this person and one paragraph to the school-wide influence of this person (order is up to you). If you choose a 4 paragraph essay structure, you want an introduction with a hook and a claim, 2 body paragraphs with a sub-claim, evidence, and warrant(s), and a concluding paragraph. If you choose a 3 paragraph essay structure, you want the above items, but you will tack on a concluding sentence or sentences to the last body paragraph. This will be due approximately 35-40 minutes into the block class, so if you do not think you can complete this in that time frame, then you should work on this essay this evening.

Argument in Many Forms

1: We reviewed claim, evidence, and warrant today, which culminated in a viewing of a Honey Boo Boo clip to inspire you to create a claim from its subject matter. We will finish up the evidence and warrant component tomorrow, do another c, e, w activity, and try out another multiple choice passage.

3 & 4 & 7: We identified claim, evidence, and warrant in regards to Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" and created responsive arguments to the speaker of that poem. We also completed MC passage 4 - for this one, you were timed 12 minutes and could apply any strategy that you needed. Tomorrow, we will go over the answers and why these are the best choices.

Discussion in the Dark

My favorite day of the year, the day we discuss Lucy, Ann, and the memoirs, the day of discussion in the dark. Having witnessed four separate discussions, each class offered different topics, perspectives, and impressions from the breakdown of Lucy and Ann's relationship, thoughts of Lucy's psychology and behaviors, and personal anecdotes that allowed us to find empathy instead of judgment.

We will be back to argument and MC next week!

Purplue Prose

While I was prepping questions for the Scholar Quiz's team weekly trivia lunch (in the library conference room every C and D day), I found one regarding a phrase that I know from EMF's "Unbelievable" but had never actually truly studied: purple prose. According to Jeopardy, it is "writing full of exaggerated pathos" and other sources slam its existence for over-the-top, elaborate emotions that distract from an actual argument or topic. For some of you out there, purple prose is all too real, so here is an article regarding how to fix any attempts to go purple in your writing: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/purple-prose-how-to-recognize-it-and-tame-it/. Since we are starting argumentation this week and next, it would behoove one to recognize when pathos rears its head in writing. And since purple prose is all about emitting pathos to the audience, shouldn't we rename it purplue prose in honor of Keats? 

No matter where your class ended on the block day, we are taking a moratorium on MC/argument and having our Lucy discussion day on Friday. Be ready with your thoughts are Lucy, Ann, motifs, themes, observations on aesthetical concerns, and anything else pertaining to the books. 

1: We worked with 2 multiple choice passages today (#2 and #3) by close reading and categorizing questions, analyzing passages, and, hopefully, selecting the correct answers. 

3: We started with our third MC passage, which gave you an opportunity to complete the questions individually. Our highest score was a 9/10, and we had many score over the 50 percent goal intended for each MC passage. Following this passage, we reviewed claim, evidence, and warrant by creating these steps for topics relating to Honey Boo Boo. 

7: We finished MC passage 2 analysis and then worked on MC passage 3 via close reading and categorizing questions, close reading and discussing the passage, and working on accuracy on the questions. Afterwards, we jumped into argumentation and its claim, evidence, and warrant(s) that populate this mode of discourse. In order to practice these 3 steps, we used Honey Boo Boo as a starting point to construct a claim, evidence, and an overall warrant (yes, in an essay, you would have several warrants, but for this activity, one will do.) If absent, you will need to write a claim regarding topics that are apparent in this Honey Boo Boo clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0InUDCsMhrY&t=21s. Then, you will need to bullet point a list of evidence that would support your claim, and finally you will need to write a warrant connecting and explaining the claim and evidence together. 

Multiple Choice Continues

1: We completed MC passage 1 by utilizing (oops - I know we don't like that verb) close reading, discussion, question categorizing, process of elimination, and class voting for correct answer. Throughout, you capitalized on strategies for comprehending the passage and answering the questions with greater accuracy. Tomorrow will mean more MC and some argumentation.

3 & 7: We completed MC passage 2 by working from the questions to the close read to the discussion to answering to the explaining. Lots of verbs - "all of them tiring" - that's from Cold Mountain. Tomorrow will be the next passage and then a review of argumentation's first three properties, which you would know as claim, evidence, and warrant. 

4: We finished the analysis of MC passage 2 and then spent the rest of the hour with MC passage 3, which involved an approach that combined both previous passages. Through the question close reading, question categorization, close reading and sharing of ideas, and answering of the questions, you completed the passage. Next class will start with argumentation - ooh! - so you will have a chance to use words like claim, evidence, and warrant again.

Challenging Yet Manageable

Tomorrow by 2:40 p.m. you will need to turn in your Lucy logs to me for evaluation. I'm sure many of you will be busy with these tonight after the 5 1/2 weeks that you have had to complete the assignment.

As noted in class today regrading MC passages, the AP Lang passages and questions are challenging yet manageable. Since none of you have run crying and screaming after reading one, I can attest that the aforementioned adjectives are appropriate. F.Y.I. Third hour is still the only class with 100% on passage 1.

1: We completed the vocab quiz for unit 15 and then spent time discussing the AP MC test and all the strategies that are part of taking this exam component. Tomorrow will be our class completion of passage 1.

3: We spent the hour on MC Passage 1 with a focus on close reading first, followed by identification of question types, process of elimination, and class voting to determine the correct answer. We will work on MC Passage 2 tomorrow, but this will feature the questions first before the reading.

4: We reviewed the answers for MC Passage 1 and completed MC Passage 2 during class. We will finish the explanation portion of MC Passage 2 tomorrow and then - probably - move into a review of the basics of argumentation.

7: I am writing this during sixth hour, so hopefully all of this will be true: we began the hour looking at the AP Lang MC test and the strategies that you can use to complete this portion. Then, we working on MC Passage 1 with a close reading of the passage and the categorization of the types of questions. Ideally, we finished the passage and questions. However, if we were left with some questions, you will need to finish those for homework.

Multiple Choice Land

Don't forget that you have until Tuesday to complete the Lucy logs, which will be needed for upcoming assignments and discussions in addition to a significant grade.

1: You spent the hour completing the debate fallacies, which means identifying every fallacy in your given section and thoroughly explaining how it is a fallacy in the comment box.

3: We started on the goofy side by performing our slippery slopes (Hello, Steve and specific hand gestures) and then finished the class talking about MC strategies and AP Lang expectations for this portion of the exam. We will work on a practice passage on Monday to see how you do with AP-level MC.

4: After our chilly fire drill, we spent almost the entire hour on the first MC passage by thoroughly close reading the passage, sharing our notes, identifying the types of questions, practicing process of elimination, and determining a final answer. Whatever we did not finish in class, make sure to have completed for Monday.

7: Oops - forgot to add in seventh hour's agenda from Friday, which was an entire hour dedicated to the debate fallacies.