Monday the Last

We are in the final days of AP Lang for this year, and we are still looking at the highlights of American Literature. First and third hour performed The Crucible - with endearing dances too! Fourth and seventh hour played audience for The Scarlet Letter.

The Savage Savants

Two days post exam, and the alliterative-minded third hour poses with a blank canvas behind them, akin to that blank notebook paper awaiting the savants' diction and syntax to cover its lines.

The EKS

It's a heartbreaking condition, living with incurable EKS (English Kid Syndrome) that makes one constantly criticize boring verbs, improper punctuation, and miserable mechanics. Time did fly - literally and figuratively - in first hour.

"The Favorites"

One day after the exam, fourth hour with the last side of the allusion wall intact enters the world of American literature. These "favorites" helped take down all of the posters and the bulletin boards, making room 404 a blank canvas for next year's crop of AP English students. Even with our small numbers, we sure had a blast this year.

There's No Crying in AP Lang

Seventh hour posing less than an hour after their AP Lang exam with the once lovely background of the allusion wall reminding them of all the Biblical, mythological, literary, historical, and cultural references haunting their days in room 404. 

American Literature

For the past couple of days, we have changed perspective, leaving behind the world of rhetorical analysis and argument, for a land of literature that portrays the American voice. Each day, we look at an era and genre of American literature, learning its background, reading texts, playing the characters that populated the works. After each day, you will have a quiz covering the big picture ideas from the texts, which means paying attention during class is quite helpful. While I hope you are here for every day of our studies in American literature, if absent, you will not have to make up the readings or the quizzes, but I hope you would like to read some of these famous texts for the cultural references and understanding of literature.

Day I Texts:

Grandmother Spider Steals the Fire: http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore120.html
Jonathan Edwards's Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (the whole thing): https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1053&context=etas
Anne Bradstreet's Verses upon the Burning of our House: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43707/verses-upon-the-burning-of-our-house-july-10th-1666
Anne Bradstreet's To my Dear and Loving Husband: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43706/to-my-dear-and-loving-husband
Salem Witch Trials Jeopardy: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/scopesjeopardy%5B1%5D.htm

Day II Texts:
Arthur Miller's The Crucible http://www.mpsaz.org/rmhs/staff/eewhitaker/crucible/
Possibly American Romanticism/Transcendentalism/Dark Romanticism Power Point

At this point, first and third hour have completed Day I of our experience, featuring the Native American myth, Puritan preacher and Puritan wife, and the Salem Witch Trials.

Fourth and seventh hour have moved into performance mode, acting out The Crucible and setting up the Dark Romanticism necessary for the Scarlet Letter next week.

Shoe update: So, the highest voted shoe that was in my size would be the green Eve pair, and they are ordered and currently hanging out in Germany before the flight across the sea.

Shoe Results

Since today is the AP Lang exam, it is the day to count the votes for the official AP Lang shoes of 2018. (This also keeps me distracted from the butterflies in my stomach while waiting for you.) Alas, several of the options are no longer available in my size, which means I will be internet searching to see if any remain out there. Here are the top 5:

1: Charlotte Olympia Belinda in Ivory, which is very reminiscent of my Good Gracious Coral pair at home. My favorite brand, the one that I covet, is the ever-British Charlotte Olympia. When Dad and I were hopscotching around London, we spent some quality time at her Maddox Street store and felt completely pampered. Dad now believes he is an expert on shoes (he also claims he's expert on Keats too). Alas, the brand has shuttered all of its U.S. stores, so I am becoming much more familiar with customs and the fees involved. https://www.charlotteolympia.com/en/shoes/sandals/belinda-ivory-B001141SUE0110.html

2: Charlotte Olympia Serine, which is part of the Million Dollar Mermaid collection. I did load the shoe options this year with Charlotte Olympia (23 of 43), so it is not a surprise that 4 of the top 5 come from London. As my life revolves around the pool opening, the Mermaid collection is the perfect grouping of whimsical shoes. I really wanted the Seahorse design, but that baby sold out rather quickly. I can only hope that someone, who barely wears it, will put it up on the RealReal for me. https://www.charlotteolympia.com/en/shoes/platforms/serine-pink-S185733SIL0650.html

3: Charlotte Olympia Eve, which sounds like a Biblical allusion to me. https://www.charlotteolympia.com/en/shoes/platforms/eve-green-V009961SUK0300.html#q=eve&page=1&start=8 This was one of the runner-ups for AP Lit, but those literary savants went with the Birds of Paradise and the bird motif that begins with The Awakening, the fist text we read in AP Lit. They are quite stunning in person as you see below.

4: Gucci Web Bow Pumps in Red, which feature a removable bow! I'm not sure how that exactly works, but I do love Gucci and how well-made their shoes happen to be. I'm currently collecting their Angel platforms (3 so far). https://www.farfetch.com/shopping/women/gucci-removable-web-bow-pumps-item-12295382.aspx

5: Charlotte Olympia Paloma in Yellow, which would be a sister pair to the ones I have in blue. There were several versions of the Paloma on the voting sheets, and these classic pumps are a colorful accoutrement to many an ensemble. https://www.charlotteolympia.com/en/shoes/pumps/paloma-yellow-E001002SSA0700.html#q=paloma&page=1&start=7

Thanks for voting!

We start the fast-forward version of American Lit next class :)

One Day More

If you know your Les Miserables, then the title allusion should send you humming a tune of characters banding together to fight and revision their lives in the midst of revolutionary battles and romances.

Whether you are a musical buff or not, one day more also signifies the amount of time until the AP Lang test will be here. Actually, 24 hours from the time of this typing, you will have finished the exam and seventh hour will be in the throes of Native American myth and Puritan texts in our fast-forward version of American Literature.

After months of breaking down multiple choice answers, rhetorical analysis prompts, argumentative examples, and sources for synthesis, you are ready to take this exam, you are ready to go for the scintillating 5, you are ready to wrap up this year with outstanding essays!

See all of you bright and early for breakfast tomorrow!

2 More Days

After nearly nine months of prompts, strategies, and arguments, we have arrived to the actual exam, albeit its presence will occur on Wednesday. In classes today, we talked MC, prompts, and Wednesday's schedule and expectations. Remember that the breakfast will be available no later than 6:40, our toast will be at 7:05, and we need to arrive in the foyer in the vicinity of 7:10 a.m. for attendance purposes. All belonging - including phones - can be stored in my room during the exam.

F.Y.I. If you want additional practice time, seventh hour will be having an all-term review session on Tuesday. If you have a study hall, you are welcome to join the class and have some play time on the buzzers :)

The AP Lang Cram Session is for three hours after school tomorrow and highly recommended for additional practices and review of terms.

5 Days

We are 5 days away from the AP Lang exam, and I promise I won't write you a corny poem titled 'Twas the Night Before the AP exam next week (I already did that for AP Lit - yes, I did: http://fznaplit.blogspot.com/2018/05/twas-night-before-ap-lit-test.html). At this point, all of the tips and tricks should fall on the side of redundancy; however, refreshers and reminders are always helpful in the moments leading up to the exam. With that in mind, we spent today reviewing the MC portion of the exam and promoting the need of close reading for comprehension and for patience to break down complicated syntax for meaning. Thank you to our top 5 scorers in each class for taking the time to summarize a passage in a sentence-by-sentence fashion. For whatever passages we did not finish in class today, we will wrap up on Monday, which will also feature writing prompt analysis and toolbox term reviews. There are also the third lunch and after school study sessions next week, which would be wise to attend. You have worked so hard to attain vocabulary, terminology, and writing prompts that you have all these tools ready at your fingertips!

Lucy - She's Back, or At Least You Keep Holding Onto Her

Thanks to Dan and Brett for helping me numerically organize Autobiography of a Face and Truth and Beauty today! Alas, through our organizational methods, there are still MANY books floating out in the world that need to be returned immediately. Fines are coming in the near future!

The MC Results

Excluding the 4 students who have to make up the MC portion of the exam, we have a few high scoring AP Langers who deserve some laudatory remarks for their effort, patience with difficult passages, and overall need to score higher than me on the exam. While I do have mixed emotions of pride and annoyance (paradoxes work), the overall vibe does fall towards the former feeling, or at least it will in a couple days. Out of all the test-takers, we had 9 of you reach goal 4, which means you already have a score of 2 on the exam. These nifty nine missed 8 or less on the exam (BB, AF, CP, BH, ES, CF, CO, BA, LL), which is quite impressive. What is even more impressive is that one student tied my score (CF), and three students scored higher than I did (LL, BA, CO)! We will be going over the MC passages tomorrow and/or Monday, depending on your class schedules - especially the Baudelaire one as many classmates did not utilize close reading skills as much as they could have with that passage. Congrats you 8 and for the 80% of my students that did score 50% or more on the exam.

Pacing

Since I'm on this side of nervous and on coffee - during the school day, sorry in advance - as the AP Lit students are currently diving into their MC passages (please have some great passages), I need to send a note of appreciation to my first hour for doing exactly what I wanted them to do for their 2 prompt exam today - they even shut the door just as I would have!

At this point in the second practice exam cycle, first, third, and seventh hour have completed all parts of the exam! If you are thinking to yourself, wait, I have only taken (fill in the blank here) parts of the test, then you need to take this a.s.a.p. Friday's plan is to go over the MC exam (guess what I'm bonding with tonight), and the writing prompts on Monday (guess what I'm bonding with over the weekend), and the review of all on Tuesday, perhaps with buzzers involved. Don't forget the 3rd lunch sessions and after school sessions to help prepare - especially to remind you of all the terms you may need in your back pocket on the exam day.

Now, on my second cup of coffee, for fourth hour's review. Fun fact, I did not start drinking coffee (specifically iced cafe mocha in the bottle) until the AP Lit exam last year. On that day, I had 3 cups back to back and with blood not used to caffeine, it made for a very entertaining day for any in my class and Mr. Bertram. Fourth hour, due to scheduling issues, is 3/4 through the exam with the last prompt (by process of elimination, a great skill for the MC passages by the way, you probably have figured out which one it is) on Friday. If you have missed any, I would highly recommend making any sections up as I will be spending quality time with the MC passages over the next 2 days and then the writing prompts over the weekend. Your class has missed out on some of the reviewing my other classes have completed, so I highly recommend that you attend the after school sessions and the big AP Lang cram next week for additional practices. I know you already have ethos on how to take the AP Lang exam, but the repetition of terms and strategies for the prompts always helps. Jeez, I love coffee. It's even replaced by fondness for Mountain Dew.

We are one week out from the test! Personally, I have seen immense growth from all of you with your close reading and writing skills, so I am looking forward to see how you do on the culminating exam!

And for those of you planning ahead, they have moved up our call time to 7:10/7:15 in the foyer due to the size of AP Lang testers. Breakfast will be available at 6:40 (possibly earlier since I had everything ready to go super early today) and our toast will be at 7:05. Since there will be 76 of you, I may not have the supply to feed all of you a full breakfast; it will most likely be last minutes snacks and carbs for you. Therefore, you may want to have some food in your belly beforehand and bring snacks with you for in between the testing. You'd be surprised how your stomach starts craving food in the middle of a 2 hour (plus 15 minutes) writing prompt exam. We can do this!

P.S. In something completely unrelated to the AP Lang exam, shoe voting continues through next week for those of you helping to select the shoes that will represent your class. And, you may want to start voting for other pairs - the current leading shoe is not in my size.

9 Days

As noted in all of the classes, we are 9 days away from the AP Lang exam, which means your ethos on rhetorical strategies, modes of discourse, and prompt writing is necessary. All terms and techniques are redundant at this point, so adopt the diction of the rhetoric, the claim of the argument, and the sources of the synthesis to score well on the final practice exam and the exam next week. (For those taking the alternative exam, that will be the same day as the AP Lang exam.) There are several options for review sessions to help with these preparations.

When we are not reviewing this week, first, third, and seventh hour will be completing the prompt portion of the final with one prompt on Tuesday and two prompts on Wednesday. Friday will commence the last three days of review prior to the exam day.

Fourth hour, due to some overlap with AP exams, completed the first prompt today, will move onto prompt two tomorrow, and prompt three on Friday.

It's All About the Test

With this crazy schedule, it is difficult to remember where each class may be on the list of Lang review, but here is, hopefully, an accurate representation of all the classes:

1: At this point, we have finished Pride & Prejudice & Zombies with a mini-essay, we have completed one round of class timed toolbox cards (currently you stand in third), worked with a MC passage, and played with the AP flashcards to review and add to your tally sheets. For homework, you close read the Thatcher passage to prep for our review of setting up rhetorical analysis. Tomorrow will begin the first leg of the practice/final exam with the MC portion.

3: Same as first hour with the exception that you are currently in fourth place in the timed toolbox card competition.

4: Same as first hour with the exception that you currently stand in second place in the competition.

7: You are ahead in the game at present, leading the toolbox competition with a time of 6:49:38 and zero errors. As for other menu items, your class has finished Pride & Prejudice & Zombies with a mini-essay, worked with a MC passage, guessed answers on the AP flashcards, and created an outstanding thesis statement for the Thatcher rhetorical analysis prompt. At this point, you have completed the MC portion of the practice/final exam and will complete the rest of it next week.

Don't forget about the after school and lunch study sessions - several of you have attended and it definitely has helped me with passages and prompt analysis!

The 7 Stages of Review

Shakespeare enumerated his seven ages of man, and AP Lang has its seven stages of review, which will be repeated until the day of the AP exam. (And, for all of you taking the alternative assessment, it works out very well that you may take this assessment on the same day as the actual exam during your normal class time.) Our seven stages begin with a timed team toolbox card matching, a MC passage, a cycle of AP Lang flashcards, a rhetorical analysis prompt, another cycle of AP Lang flashcards focusing on one of the 4 main types of allusions, an argumentative prompt, and a synthesis prompt. Of course, you can also take part in additional practices via the offered review sessions.

In all classes today, you turned in your P&P&Z mini-essay prompts, and you received a RA prompt to close read for the next class session.

Seventh hour, ever the trailblazers, completed the final MC test today. If absent, you will need to schedule a time to make this up as soon as possible.