To the Present

In first, third, and seventh hour, we wrapped up our king and queen speeches with George III, Edward VIII, George VI, and Elizabeth II. At this point, you have quite a variety of texts - speeches and poems - that reveal a great deal about the monarchs and their ideals, inner feelings, and motivations. Fourth hour, we made it through George VI and will wrap up Elizabeth's speeches after our break.

In the meanwhile, you have the prompt for these speeches. While you are not officially assigned this prompt YET, I highly suggest you start working on notes, organization, and content of the essay. The official assignment will happen on Wednesday.

Wednesday's class will wrap up the kings and queens synthesis work, feature the return and analysis of your synthesis diagnostic prompt, and review the components of the AP exam. Now that we have finished all of the AP skills, we will have the first practice exam starting next Thursday.

The Tudors

In all classes, we are wrapping up the Tudors and their speeches and poems. For tomorrow, make sure to have all sources - from both packets - close read for class.

And the Daughter

In all classes today, we moved from Henry VIII's hubris to Elizabeth I's determination in her early response to Parliament and their demands of marriage and offspring. For Wednesday's class, make sure that you have close read all sources through G.

Kings & Queens

Kings & queens & guillotines. Ah, those three words combining equate to the great Aerosmith song, which is highly appropriate to mention as Steven Tyler celebrates his 70th birthday today. For our class, we focused on the first word today, looking at how King Henry VIII's strategies how to address Parliament. Tomorrow will be about Elizabeth I and her specific problems - that definitely were contrary to her father's personal life.

Synthesis

Today's focus was the rangefinders (except for our diminished 4th hour in which we reviewed terms and vocab). On Monday, we will start with Kings & Queens Speeches, which are contained in the packets that you received earlier this week. You have not reading to do, but feel free to preview read and look up background on the kings and queens for additional information.

Argumentative Scenarios

After all the action of scavenger hunts and synthesis prompts, our block day afforded us the opportunity to pause and consider the key characteristics of the various argumentative prompts that have filtered past your pencil the past few weeks. First, we looked at the timed argumentative prompt, which, due to time constraints, often results in a mention of the counterclaim and then a speedy return to the main argument in form of the rebuttal with an exemplification. Next, we looked at the non-timed argumentative prompt, which, due to a lack of time constraints, affords one to bring in a full counterclaim (or counterflaw in this case) section, a full rebuttal section, and a full conclusion section. As note with L***'s argument from last semester, more time means more paragraphs, more citations, and more thoroughness overall. Last, we looked at the synthesis prompt, which is, in essence, another style of argumentation with all of the evidence given to you in the form of 6 sources. For homework, you are to score the rangefinders for this synthesis prompt. You also have in your possession the Kings & Queens Speech Packets, which we will be reading, analyzing, and eventually synthesizing in the next 2 weeks. You are welcome to read ahead.

Synthesis

We completed our last diagnostic prompt today, and it covered the synthesis writing portion of the AP exam. Synthesis is the best of all the AP Lang world: you have to construct an argument, analyze passages for evidence, and properly cite sources to gain a base value of a 5. We will talk more about synthesis in the upcoming days after we go over how to write argumentative essays in various scenarios (timed vs. untimed). 

This is a reminder to any absentees on Monday to complete the chart for make-up allusion quests that was shared with you yesterday. I think all of us would like to put that one in the books. 

The Great Class Allusion Scavenger Hunt

We are currently in the midst of our great class allusion quest scavenger hunt, and first hour currently holds the lead with 327/360! This would be the first time an AP Lang class has scored higher than AP Lit in this activity!

For all of those absent, I sent you a Google doc that you will need to complete. We need to figure out the date for the make-up scavenger hunt, and it is up to the 9 of you to fill this out as soon as possible.

The MC Test Returns

Overall, the first timed MC went well with 56 of you reaching goal 1, or 27 out of the 54 questions correct. As we continue forward with full tests, you will strive for goal 2 (60%), goal 3 (70%), and goal 4 (a 2 on the exam). We spent the whole class analyzing the first two passages of the exam; the rest of the exam is for individual analysis. When we return, we will have our allusion wall scavenger hunt. If you want to research or check out some new allusions, feel free to do so in preparation.

Notes & Drafts

F.Y.I. As a reminder, the flaw essay is a step-by-step production with participation points for the initial 7 steps of the process. These 7 steps were broken down into three sections: step 1-4 (brainstorming, flaw selection, counterflaw selection, and claim), steps 5-6 (writing notes - i.e. actual quotes, statistics, and facts - from each source and selecting the given range), and step 7 (first draft). If you have elected to not complete some of the steps by the given deadline, you will not receive participation points for those parts of the assignment. Participation points, while little in bits and pieces, do sometimes make the difference in the long run. 

And as a second reminder, all the deadlines for the assignment are final deadlines, which means absentees still have opportunities to gain points for all of the work. Here is the exact language on the assignment handout:*All the deadlines are the final deadline to have work checked or turned in. You may work at your own pace and complete items as soon as possible. If absent on a deadline, you are expected to turn in your work. That means either e-mailing, sharing, or taking pictures and sending them to your instructor to prove your completion of the given task. If you are at school or any part of the day, you are still required to have your work checked.

For all classes, we checked steps 5-7 and then divided into peer review groups to finalize the essay. If you were absent, you are expected to peer review outside of class if you want to have that feedback to help you with the drafting process. All the rules of writing argumentation, exemplification, and quote incorporation still apply to this essay. And, don't forget that this is a research essay. If you don't have citations and a Works Cited Page included you will not score higher than a 2 as you did not follow the prompt. 

The Flaw Essay is the culminating assignment of the quarter - it ties together everything we have worked on for the past 8 weeks. Hence, this is a substantial assignment and the opportunity to show off your writing skills, informed examples, and overall essay ability. 

Researching & Writing

First hour completed the last vocab/tone quiz of the quarter and then joined all of the other classes in researching and working on the human flaw essay. Tomorrow/next class will feature a check on all four of your sources and your first draft in addition to our peer review day.

The Week of Flaws

No matter the hour, all of the AP Langers are in some phase of their human flaw argumentation essay, which is due by Friday. Hence, when you have time in class or study hall or outside of school, you have something to do in regards to research, crafting the essay, and working on the Works Cited Page. In addition, I would like to finish up evaluating the MC test from last week, and there are still a few of you yet to complete this test. If you did not take this exam, you will need to either do so or schedule a time no later than Tuesday.

1: While I was checking your steps 1-4, you had the chance to review vocab for the team vocab quiz tomorrow. Following the steps, we looked at a Works Cited Page and discussed format and how this ties into the citations in your essay. Last, we looked at the rangefinders - which turned out to be more about what not to do when using exemplification to inspire strong arguments.

3: After checking your first 4 steps of the human flaw, we reviewed format for MLA, Works Cited Page, and citations. To end the hour, we looked at the rangefinders for the certainty and doubt prompt.

4: After reviewing how to format a Works Cited Page, you had the rest of the hour to work on your Flaw essay.

7: After talking about the Works Cited Page and looking at the certainty/doubt rangefinders, you had the remaining part of the class to work on your human flaw essay.

Flawing

Just a reminder that all the deadlines for the human flaw essay are in effect, and if absent, you are to share/photo the work to gain your completion points for the research phases.

1: We finished vocab today - finally - which means review and quiz will be next week. You now have your Human Flaw essay assignment, so make sure to complete steps 1-4 for Monday. You now have a better sense of MLA format, so make sure to have your essay properly attired to avoid any deductions. For Monday, you have rangefinders to score for the Certainty and Doubt prompt.

3: We stared with your team vocab/tone quiz today and then reviewed your Human Flaw essay assignment with steps 1-4 due Monday. In addition, you have the rangefinders to score for our last argumentative prompt.

4: These flaws are dynamic this year! With a little tweaking here and there, you have a strong beginning to your research and this essay. At the end of class, we looked at the Rangefinders for the Certainty/Doubt prompt, which indicated that the "9" writer knows way too much stuff. See you on Monday to review Works Cited Page and research.

7: To commence, I had the opportunity to look at your 1-4 steps for the human flaw essay. Now that you have had some feedback, you are off to the research process. Before doing so, we reviewed how to format an MLA-style essay. Last, you have the rangefinders to score for Monday's class.