Those Rangefinders

As noted in all classes, those rangefinders sure did not exhibit the best and the brightest essays. Ergo, it's time for all of you to make a 6-worthy attempt. Monday will be the timed prompt for certainty and doubt, so make sure to have your chart with you in first, third, and fourth hours. Seventh hour completed the prompt today!

Otherwise, first and third hour completed a MC passage with scoring, and we will go over the answers on Tuesday. Plus the vocab/tone quest will occur on Tuesday for 1,3, and 4.

Certainty and Doubt

1 & 3: After checking out the new scoring rubric for argumentative writing, which is much more conducive to comprehension in a one page format, you received feedback for your team jingoism or team identity essays. Big lessons from these readings is to go immediately into your example for the hook, have a solid transition that moves from the hook's example to the eventual claim idea/abstract noun, and a claim that ends that first paragraph. For those body paragraphs, you need a sub-claim/set-up of the example, warrants throughout to connect the understanding of the concept to the example, and a superwarrant clarifying the big idea at the end. For the counterclaim, complex sentences work the best, which is also the same advice I would give you for setting up the rebuttal as well. Following those meetings, we looked at a philosophical argument prompt on certainty and doubt, and you completed the pre-writing chart for this prompt. Overall, I read a great deal of original examples and a few twists on the counterclaims that convey a great deal of sophistication! Lastly, you began scoring the rangefinders for those prompts with 1-6. As noted in class, absolutely none of these essays warrants a 6, so judge each essay as an individual and not as one number that fits in with others. Make sure to score the essays (skip the last one) for next class so we may further discuss the importance of specificity, organization, and overall argumentative skills.

7: We haven't had class yet, so I'm figuring it will go something like this: first, you have your charts for the certainty and doubt prompt prepped, and I will be meeting with you to take a looksee at your examples and plan; second, we will then analyze the rangefinders for this prompt, which obviously are not up to the standard we would like them to be; third, you know that you will be writing to this prompt next class, so make sure you bring back your chart; fourth, we selected our new topic for tone, which is ice cream flavors. The paragraph for this tone cycle will be due on Monday as you will be busy writing in class on Friday. Emma, your tone word for this topic is derisive.

Fourth Hour Tone Words, Round 3

Since you are working on your philosophical prompt via a pre-writing chart and checking out the rangefinders as well, you may want to take a glance at all of our tone words since class will be focusing on writing arguments for the next few days.

• Abstract
• Apprehensive
• Apprehensive
• Archaic
• Audacious
• Bantering
• Bellicose
• Bellicose
• Biting
• Callous
• Candid
• Caustic
• Churlish
• Clichéd
• Clichéd
• Clinical
• Colloquial
• Contemptuous
• Dejected
• Demoralized
• Demoralized
• Derisive
• Earnest
• Earnest
• Effusive
• Empathetic
• Erudite
• Facetious
• Facetious
• Fatuous
• Flippant
• Idyllic
• Incensed
• Incensed
• Informal
• Insolent
• Jejune
• Jejune
• Laissez-faire
• Laissez-faire
• Omnipotent
• Omnipotent
• Patronizing
• Patronizing
• Pedantic
• Pedantic
• Poignant
• Poignant
• Polemical
• Polemical
• Pompous
• Pretentious
• Quizzical
• Reticent
• Reverent
• Ribald
• Ribald
• Sardonic
• Scathing
• Sentimental
• Simple
• Supercilious
• Trite
• Trite
• Vituperative
• Whimsical

Third Hour Tone Words, Round 3

Here are all of the tone words, which will appear on your vocab 18/tone quest next week. We are obviously taking a little hiatus from reviewing these words in class to focus on writing arguments, so studying is up to you.

• Abstract
• Ambivalent
• Apprehensive
• Archaic
• Audacious
• Bantering
• Bellicose
• Biting
• Callous
• Clinical
• Clinical
• Colloquial
• Contemptuous
• Cynical
• Derisive
• Diffident
• Disdainful
• Disdainful
• Effusive
• Empathetic
• Enervating
• Enervating
• Erudite
• Eulogize
• Facetious
• Fatuous
• Flippant
• Flippant
• Forthright
• Gauche
• Gauche
• Hubristic
• Hubristic
• Idyllic
• Impartial
• Incensed
• Incredulous
• Informal
• Insolent
• Irreverent
• Jingoistic
• Jovial
• Jovial
• Laissez-faire
• Laudatory
• Laudatory
• Obsequious
• Omnipotent
• Pompous
• Pretentious
• Quizzical
• Reverent
• Ribald
• Sardonic
• Scathing
• Seductive
• Simple
• Supercilious
• Supercilious
• Unctuous
• Urbane
• Urbane
• Vituperative
• Volatile
• Volatile
• Whimsical
• Wistful

First Hour Tone Words, Round 3

Here are all of them for preparations for your vocab/tone quest next week:

First Hour:
• Aloof
• Apathetic
• Archaic
• Audacious
• Callous
• Candid
• Caustic
• Churlish
• Clinical
• Concrete
• Contemptuous
• Cynical
• Cynical
• Demoralized
• Derisive
• Didactic
• Diffident
• Disdainful
• Earnest
• Effusive
• Elegiac
• Elegiac
• Empathetic
• Erudite
• Formal
• Forthright
• Gothic
• Gothic
• Idyllic
• Impartial
• Incredulous
• Irreverent
• Jejune
• Jingoistic
• Lugubrious
• Lugubrious
• Macabre
• Malicious
• Nihilistic
• Nihilistic
• Nostalgic
• Obsequious
• Partisan
• Partisan
• Patronizing
• Poignant
• Pretentious
• Provocative
• Reverent
• Scathing
• Seductive
• Sentimental
• Sentimental
• Trite
• Unctuous
• Vehement
• Vehement
• Vituperative
• Whimsical
• Wistful

Fourth Hour Brainstorming

We started off by sharing our brainstorms for empathy, faith, and guilt and then moved into a group activity for further brainstorming and utilization of exemplification and argumentation or writing. If absent, you will need to complete the following steps:
1. Open and share a Google doc with me. You can title it whatever you would like - as long as it's school appropriate.
2. Time yourself 3 minutes and brainstorm all examples for the abstract noun "identity," remembering to not self-edit and attempt to bring in examples from multiple subjects.
3. Time yourself 3 minutes and brainstorm for your next abstract noun "jingoism," just as above.
4. Choose one of your brainstorms or the writing.
5. Write a claim for your definition of your abstract noun.
6. Select one of your brainstorm examples and writing a supporting body paragraph to that claim.

Afterwards, we looked at the new scoring rubric for argumentation. The expectations are much the same as the 1-9 CDQ rangefinders from last week: a claim that is proven through evidence through the entirety of the essay, evidence from relevant, specific, multiple examples that are explained through warrants and set up by sub-claims, and the sophistication from multiple subject examples, connecting ideas under an umbrella claim, a counterclaim, syntactic style, transitions, strong diction, and argumentative voice that is not kidnapped by any persuasive intentions. All of the aforementioned will lead you to a 6. Anything lacking will decrease the score in some manner.

With the new scoring rubric in mind, you then received the philosophical prompt, the first one the AP introduced after the CDQ-style ones, and a chart to help break down this prompt and prepare for writing. The rest of the class was dedicated to working on this chart and running it by me (if time permitted) and having the rangefinders for this prompt to score. Anything not finished was or homework as all of this needs to come in to class on Friday ready or meetings/feedback and analysis of essays.

By the way, vocab and tone have not disappeared. We will still have a quest over 18 and all of your tone words coming up next week. We are taking a little detour to go back to writing and assess everything you learned this quarter. The same goes or multiple choice passages - we will be having a series of 5 coming up soon too as we will have our first full MC test after spring break.

More Brainstorming!

1 & 3: We finished up vocab and reviewed tone prior to sharing our brainstorms for dishonor, empathy, faith, and guilt, which continued our work towards original, mature examples that stem from variegated subjects. Then, we broke into groups with each group brainstorming for the abstract nouns of "identity" and "jingoism," then choosing to be either team identity or team jingoism, and then splitting up examples to create a team essay. Each group member will be writing one paragraph (which you decided in class) for the start of our next class. Be ready to analyze and have feedback since we will be completing more writing, brainstorming, and evaluating of arguments.

4: After vocab and tone, we spent the hour brainstorming abstract nouns in 3 minute increments. Words included in our brainstorming included achievement (riding a bike, Blues Stanley Cup, Mongols, Nobel Peach Prize), absurdity (Groundhog's Day, Salem Witch Trials, Dahmer, Lord of the Flies), dishonor, empathy, faith, and guilt. Tomorrow, we will be sharing brainstorms for the last 3 abstract nouns listed, so if you were absent, you are expected to have brainstorms completed and your four favorite choices for each one determined.

7: Today was all about brainstorming, writing, and evaluating in the name of team identity or team jingoism and then writing a team argumentative essay for the team's selected topic. After the writing process, you received direct feedback to help you with your future argumentative writings.

Brainstorming!

As I have heard from a few of you, our brainstorming activities for abstract nouns is a challenge and a fun experience as you are able to mine your brain for all of its knowledge and share some of your own ethos with the rest of the class. Yes, all of this brainstorming, exemplification, and argument are leading to writing timed prompts, so be ready, my Langers, to put all of your knowledge and skills to the test.

Before the agenda takes over the blog today, I would like to announce that the next vocab/tone quiz will not be a quiz but a quest and a performance grade as it covers all of those tone words thus far. This will be the last overall quiz/quest over tone words as we will be looking them as individual rounds and not accumulating ones.

1: Vocab/tone around the circle plus graded Modest Proposal MC followed by the differences between non-timed and timed arguments and then ending with brainstorming of abstract nouns. For each abstract noun, we timed or 3 minutes with the last 30 seconds designated for selecting your 4 best choices. We made it through achievement (Hierarchy of Needs, Space Race, The Olympics, MLK,Jr.) and Absurdity (Blood Lake, Reality T.V., Alice in Wonderland, Zeus and "his relationships"). For homework, time yourself regarding dishonor, empathy, faith, and guilt and be ready to share examples.

3: Almost identical to first hour, with the exception that we had a chance to do the brainstorm for dishonor in class, making empathy, faith, and guilt your timed brainstorming abstract nouns for over night.

4: Vocab/tone around the circle plus the CDQ rangefinders, which gave us lessons in how to organize an argument essay and the importance of exemplification and explanation, and then ending with the differences between non-timed and timed prompts.

7: First, our vocab and tone quest followed by sharing our last three brainstorming for abstract nouns, and hopefully beginning our team abstract noun essays.

7th Hour Round 3 Tone Words

Here are all of the tone words from our first 3 rounds. All will be included on your tone quest.

• ·         Aloof
• ·         Ambivalent
• ·         Bantering
• ·         Caustic
• ·         Cautionary
• ·         Choleric
• ·         Clichéd
• ·         Colloquial
• ·         Concrete
• ·         Dejected
• ·         Didactic
• ·         Eulogize
• ·         Fatuous
• ·         Formal
• ·         Insolent
• ·         Irreverent
• ·         Kowtowing
• ·         Malicious
• ·         Nihilistic
• ·         Nostalgic
• ·         Pedantic
• ·         Polemical
• ·         Resigned
• ·         Reticent

The Unexpected Example

You be surprised all of the "stuff" that resides in your brain. You have examples of history, current events, science, math, literature, pop culture, music, art, and more that the average high school student probably does not have in their ethos file. With that in mind, the more original examples that you can incorporate into your essay, the better chance that you will captivate the graders and earn a higher evidence and sophistication score. Next week, all classes will be mining their brains for this ethos and trying to accomplish the coalescing of multiple subjects into one solidified argument. And, as we have spent so much time this quarter prepping for exemplification and argumentation, it's time to put that into writing! You will have many writing assignments to exemplify and argue in the next 2 weeks, so be prepared to do your best.

1 & 3: Vocab experts, tone work, rangefinders on C,D,Q, which furthered the components of specific exemplification, sub-claims and organization of argument, and the necessity of having an example first thing in the hook to set up evidence and the claim.

4: Same as third hour, but you are scoring the rangefinders for the C,D,Q for homework for Monday's class.

7: After reviewing vocab and tone, we spent time talking about arguments in a timed scenario and brainstorming examples for abstract nouns. The brainstorming allowed us to discuss the best examples, the range of the examples, and what examples we may want to avoid for a mature argument. In class, our abstract nouns were achievement, absurdity, and dishonor. Our agreed examples for achievement included Elon Musk as our hook, Abraham and Ada Lovelace for our body paragraph examples, and Jefferson/Founding Fathers for rebuttal. For absurdity, the class choices were flat earthers, Aztec traditions, Irish Potato Famine, and Dem/Rep Politics. 'To keep you practicing your brainstorming, you will time yourself 3 minutes for each of the following words, brainstorming as many examples as possible and then choosing your 4 best examples. The words for the weekend are empathy, faith, and guilt.

Argument, Carpe Diem Style

A little jovial current event happened at the L.A. Zoo recently: the birth of a baby gorilla! Here is a video detailing Angela's arrival and why it is significant for a critically endangered species, a species that cares for its young just as humans do. Stay tuned at the end as the segment also gives you a way to help save the land and the lives of gorillas in the wild, and it involves recycling your technology. Baby Angela.

1: After vocab experts, we did our speed learning with this third round of tone words, followed by a review of argument and its claim, evidence, warrants, counterclaim, rebuttal, and conclusion. To make this an intriguing endeavor, we read "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell and looked at his Carpe Diem speaker's argument components. To further review argument tomorrow, this poem will be referenced, so it would behoove any absentees to break down the poem for its argument.

3: Same as first hour, but we also discussed the phrasing of challenge, defend, and qualify, or the former phrasing involved in AP argument. Challenging calls the original prompt into question, defending adds support to the prompt, and qualifying can either land in the middle of looking at the prompt's accuracy and inaccuracy or adjust the argument to add another position.

4: We completed the Modest Proposal MC questions and then started off our new vocab unit.

7: After vocab experts and tone work, we completed another MC, this one timed at 12 minutes and requiring you to rely on close reading and process of elimination to add your accuracy. Then, we began brainstorming activities on abstract nouns with the emphasis on selecting the best examples from a plethora of subjects and ranging these examples appropriately and effectively. We will be continuing with MC and brainstorming to set up your first of two argumentative essays coming up.

Passages

Whether in multiple choice, argument, or tone, we are all working on a passage of some sort. 

First and third hours had their Modest Proposal multiple choice questions today and will resume vocab and share tone paragraphs tomorrow. 

Fourth hour concluded their analysis of MC passage 5 and then worked with new vocab and our next round of tone words to the topic of Walmart. Your Modest Proposal MC will be tomorrow.

Seventh hour continued with vocab and your 8 tone words and then moved into looking at the CDQ argumentative essays. The great lessons here would be to always maintain a focus on your argument and bring in as many mature, specific examples as possible to convey your understanding of the prompt. If time permitted, we completed a MC practice to keep us in the mindset of process of elimination, close reading, and breaking down questions to have the greatest accuracy.

The Burden of History

As many of you are students of history, you are aware that this is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and other concentration camps and the end of WWII. As the years go further by, we lose sight of the human toll on those that suffered. As a result, as some of my classes are aware, I have been following the Auschwitz Memorial on Twitter and reading the harrowing stories of human cruelty and loss every day. Furthering this immersion into the horrible side of history, CBS Sunday Morning recently aired this feature of survivors from the camp and what they are trying to do to keep the memory alive of the people who did not survive there: Return to Auschwitz. I was debating whether to share this with you since it is harrowing and heartbreaking, but I decided to do so for 2 reasons (beyond just to increase your historical ethos): 1. over 60% of  millennials do not know what Auschwitz was and 2. one of the daughters interviewed made the comment that subsequent generations carry "the burden" of what humanity has done to each other. The "burden" is true - we study, learn, and attempt not to repeat what our ancestors have done. Alas, I think we all know that does not always work.

As an AP Lang student, keeping abreast of history and current events does aid your arguments and understanding of texts, whether they be archaic or recent. I highly recommend watching news features and reading online newspapers to help you with your constant learning of the world around you. In addition, you never now when a five minute segment may inspire you to do something to help others or, minimally, give you an example for an essay.

By the way, these videos are not required watching. Only for those of you wanting to add to your knowledge banks.

Some more stories that I have seen/read in the past months:

Here is another story regarding orphanages in Tennessee, true history, that also could be an example for your future arguments but also for your continual building of empathy: Tennessee Orphanage.

Adding to your ethos regarding military families and how military dads are shaping their children's lives: Homefront Dads.

How DNA solved the mystery of a body in a cave: The Cave Criminal.

And since this year we adopted a giraffe from the zoo (we adopt an animal every year as a Valentine Day's present to each other), here is a little background on those magnificent animals, the ones that have the highest blood pressure of animals: Nature Up Close: The Giraffe.

And lastly, especially in a non-timed prompt, avoid Hitler. First off, do you know how many high school students rely on this horrendous figure for almost every prompt (seriously, I don't know how that happens)? Second, if you want to stand out to the grader, try to find other nefarious historical figures such as Pol Pot (per Caleb Fick's recommendation) or Idi Amin that will show off your ethos.

Well, that was a tad focused and a tad desultory - I blame the sweets and coffee from AP Lit's bon voyage party in second hour.

Oh, and if you want to continue to sound smart and prepared for class, know what the word "coy" means - it will come into play later this week!

For our classes today:

1: Completed our fifth MC passage, which was timed and solo and analyzed for further understanding of the passage, the questions, and the phrasing of answers on the exam. We then voted on our next tone topic, twins, which will find its writing tomorrow during class.

3: In regards to the fifth MC passage, ditto to first hour. We then voted on our next tone topic, accents, which you are writing in paragraph form this evening. While you don't have to time yourself the 10 minutes that you have in class, try to keep to that approximation as this is a creative activity and not a research essay.

4: We began class with going over our vision exemplification paragraphs to give you all a sense of how to construct this mode of discourse. The emphasis, as always, in on the topic of exemplification an the specific examples help to validate your ideas. We then completed MC practice passage #5 as our earlier hours did. I'm hoping (you are taking it right now as I type) that we have a chance to go over every question in analysis, but whatever is left over will be how we start tomorrow's class.

7: After vocab and tone work, we returned back to argumentation using the poem "To His Coy Mistress" to review claim, evidence, warrant, counterclaim, rebuttal, and conclusion. This poem also allowed us to discuss the terms challenge, defend, and qualify, phrasing that used to pop up in argumentative prompts and may be referenced from time-to-time. To further our understanding of c,d, q and get us in the mood for argumentation writing, we are somewhere in the process of scoring the c.d.q rangefinders and looking at their abilities with argumentation.

Happy Quizentine's Day!

And on this Quizentine Day, first and third hour finished their exemplifications on vision, fourth hour was assigned their individual paragraphs on vision for Tuesday, and seventh hour reviewed the fifth MC passage and started vocab.

Exemplifying

1 & 3: We completed MC passage 4, emphasizing process of elimination and explaining correct and incorrect answers to help you break down the questions and add to your knowledge for the next passage. We began exemplification with its five parts: brainstorming, thesis writing, relevance assessing, range determining, and specific writing. In order to do so, we are working on writing definition paragraphs explaining the meaning of the abstract word "vision." If you happened to be absent today, you will need to 1. brainstorm a list of multiple examples that would reflect vision. 2. write a thesis statement defining the word "vision" in your own words. 3. select 1 of your examples that best represent the thesis. 4. write 1 paragraph exemplifying how your example reflects the thesis.

7: As we move forward with MC and start to turn back to argument, today we copied down new vocab, created new tone paragraphs to the topic of school rules, completed the MP MC, and voted on the topic for our next multiple choice practices.

Exemplification

First off, kudos to those of you who wrote your multiple choice questions for A Modest Proposal, especially those in seventh hour as I just finished copying and pasting your work for your classmates. While this may seem a minor activity, becoming a test-maker will help you understand the intricacies of the questions, distractors, and overall accuracy of answers to make you a superior test-taker.

4: Today was our vocab/tone quiz, our fourth MC practice passage, and the start of exemplification. We didn't make it too far, but you have the introduction of the five parts of exemplification: brainstorming, thesis, relevancy, range, and specificity. Since all those terms mean absolutely nothing without actual practice, we are currently working in groups to exemplify the abstract noun of "vision." Thus far, you have created a brainstorm of all the examples you can think of regarding "vision" with the intent to have these ready for class and group discussion next time around. Remember, your brainstorm should include different subjects: art, history, myth, sports, pop culture, current events, math, science, psychology, literature, music, film, and any other variety of ideas. To be able to show a commonality between all those examples conveys maturity and understanding of the topic, two components we want to feature in our future writings.

Questions, Questions, Questions

1: You completed the tone and vocab quiz and A Modest Proposal reading, which sets you up for writing 10 MC questions with answers A-E, of varying difficulties, of whole passage and directed sections, and includes the answer key. If you need the passage, the link is on a previous blog - actually two previous blogs.

3: We reviewed for tone/vocab quiz tomorrow, finished those last paragraphs of a A Modest Proposal, and prepped for your completion of 10 MC questions with answers A-E, of varying difficulties, of whole passage and specific sections, and add the answer key. If you need the passage, it is on the previous blog and one from last week as well. You also completed the fourth MC practice passage, which we will go over next time.

4: We reviewed tone/vocab and then completed MC passage 3. You still have a day to finish up your A Modest Proposal questions, so don't forget to share with me.

7: We wrapped up our first exemplification practice on vision and then moved into the fifth MC passage.

Eat Those Babies!

Our satire reading is at the forefront of AP Lang today, or at least in three of the classes, as we read and digested (yep, couldn't help myself there) the situation in Ireland, the British upper-crust pretension, and Swift's hyperbolic satire to further indicate the cruelty all have to the impoverished, namely those poor lads and lasses born into a world of begging, rags, shambles, and utter miserable existence of the time. 

Whenever you will need it, either for readings or making multiple choice questions in the near future, here is the link to the text that has the same paragraph numbers as our textbook: A Modest Proposal.

1: After vocab/tone review - and yes, all of those previous tone words will make reappearances, we spent the rest of the time reading "A Modest Proposal," which we will finish the last paragraphs tomorrow.

3: After finishing up all the new vocab, we reviewed the tone too, and then made our way into "A Modest Proposal," with 2 paragraphs left to read for tomorrow!

4: We wrapped up "A Modest Proposal," and you have an assignment that is due by 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday via sharing: to write 10 multiple choice questions on the text on a Google doc, provide answer key, and write questions that offer a variety of questions in difficulty and style. Use your MC packet for hints on how to write the questions, and remember to take a looksee at your previous MC passages for ideas. We also finished up vocab and tone work today for reviewing purposes tomorrow.

7: We completed the vocab/tone quiz, which means a new topic will be here later this week! Meanwhile, we continued on our pathway of exemplification, moving through the steps of brainstorming, thesis, relevance, range, and specificity. At this point, you are on the specificity step and writing an exemplification paragraph to further validate your team's thesis of vision. Have this ready to go for class tomorrow!

Seventh Hour Tone Words, Round 2

During Friday's class, we reviewed all the vocab and tone words in preparation for our quiz on Monday. We also started our exemplification unit, which concentrates on brainstorming, thesis-making, relevancy, range, and specificity. We started our team exemplification, making it through the first two steps.

Tone words thus far:

• Bantering
• Caustic
• Cautionary
• Choleric
• Clichéd
• Concrete
• Dejected
• Didactic
• Eulogize
• Fatuous
• Formal
• Insolent
• Irreverent
• Kowtowing
• Polemical
• Reticent

Fourth Hour Tone Words, Round 2

In class, we added vocab, reviewed tone words, shared the rest of our allusion posters, and commenced our satire, "A Modest Proposal," with a four paragraph reading. We will finish this criticism of British treatment of impoverished Irish on Monday.

In the meantime, here are all the tone words thus far:

• Abstract
• Apprehensive
• Apprehensive
• Archaic
• Audacious
• Bantering
• Bellicose
• Callous
• Churlish
• Clichéd
• Clinical
• Colloquial
• Contemptuous
• Dejected
• Demoralized
• Derisive
• Earnest
• Effusive
• Empathetic
• Erudite
• Facetious
• Fatuous
• Flippant
• Idyllic
• Incensed
• Informal
• Jejune
• Laissez-faire
• Omnipotent
• Patronizing
• Pedantic
• Pedantic
• Poignant
• Polemical
• Pretentious
• Reticent
• Ribald
• Sardonic
• Scathing
• Simple
• Supercilious
• Trite
• Trite
• Whimsical

Third Hour Tone Words, Round 2

Friday featured allusion posters for the entire hour (if memory serves), which means we will finish up this latest round of vocab on Monday and work on satire as our latest mode of discourse.

All the tone words thus far:

• Ambivalent
• Archaic
• Bellicose
• Biting
• Callous
• Colloquial
• Cynical
• Derisive
• Diffident
• Disdainful
• Effusive
• Empathetic
• Enervating
• Erudite
• Facetious
• Flippant
• Forthright
• Gauche
• Hubristic
• Idyllic
• Incensed
• Incredulous
• Insolent
• Jovial
• Laissez-faire
• Laudatory
• Laudatory
• Obsequious
• Omnipotent
• Pompous
• Pretentious
• Quizzical
• Reverent
• Ribald
• Sardonic
• Scathing
• Simple
• Supercilious
• Unctuous
• Urbane
• Vituperative
• Volatile
• Whimsical
• Wistful

First Hour Tone Words, Round 2

Friday's first hour finished up any new vocab, which means review on Monday and quiz on Tuesday. In addition, we finished our allusion posters, which means you will have ample opportunity to start incorporating all that knowledge into your exemplifications and arguments. But first, we have satire to start off Monday and additional multiple choice passages filtering through all of our modes of discourse.

All tone words thus far:

• Aloof
• Apathetic
• Audacious
• Candid
• Caustic
• Churlish
• Clinical
• Concrete
• Contemptuous
• Cynical
• Demoralized
• Diffident
• Disdainful
• Earnest
• Elegiac
• Gothic
• Impartial
• Incredulous
• Irreverent
• Jejune
• Jingoistic
• Lugubrious
• Lugubrious
• Macabre
• Malicious
• Nihilistic
• Nihilistic
• Nostalgic
• Partisan
• Partisan
• Patronizing
• Poignant
• Provocative
• Reverent
• Seductive
• Sentimental
• Sentimental
• Vehement
• Vituperative
• Wistful

Same Stuff, New Day

Our cycle of working with vocab, tone words, multiple choice, allusions, and modes of discourse continues today and tomorrow and into next week. All of these components are coming in handy for close reading texts and writing essays, which, yes, will be returning in the very near future. You are going use all of the information amassed over these opening weeks of third quarter and apply to your writing so that it may continue to aggrandize to mature, collegiate-level abilities.

More specifically, the classes are at these points:

1: Vocab at 12 words for this unit, tone words reviewed, multiple choice passage 3, as ever emphasizing close reading, completed.

3: Wrapped up our team close read of MC passage 3 and completed the attached questions, vocab at 12 words, tone words reviewed, commenced allusion poster 4.

4: Checked the answers for MC passage 2, vocab at 8 words, tone words reviewed, commenced allusion poster 4 sharing.

7: Finished vocab unit, reviewed tone words, reminded you about your task to complete the 10 MC questions for "A Modest Proposal," shared allusion posters, started or possibly completed MC passage 4.

Toning Continues

Our tone work over the past month has definitely provided you with a stronger vernacular, which is evident from our close reads of multiple choice passages and the discussion of content, tone, shifts, and anything else of interest. All classes are currently in their second round of tone and in the throes of multiple choice practices.

1: Completed the second multiple choice passage, added vocab, and reviewed tone.

3: Completed second multiple choice passage, added vocab, reviewed tone, started third multiple choice passage, which we will finish in class together next time.

4: Speed learning for tone words round 2, started vocab experts for unit 17, began multiple choice practice 2 with previewing questions and close reading. Complete the questions for next time and make sure to continue your usage of process of elimination.

7: Vocab and tone work to start and then reading of "A Modest Proposal," our satire example. You can find a copy of the text here with (I think) the same paragraph numbers are our class textbook: MP . Here is the attached assignment, which you will need to complete by Friday at 3:30 p.m.

1. Create 10 MC questions with answers A-E.
2. Make a variety of questions in style (factual, technical, analytical, inferential), references to the text (paragraph, paragraphs, whole text), and difficulty (easy, mid, difficult). Be inspired by the templates in MC packet and by your previous MC passages.
3. Write on a Google Doc and share with me by the assigned date.
4. Indicate correct answers - you are the test maker!

Ergo

As Abby Wright and a legion of other AP Lang students could tell you, "ergo" is the go-to transition for upper level vernacular and coolness factor. I can't tell you how many essays will now feature that adverbial conjunction and how therefore, hence, and a plethora of other trite transitions will lose favor. Beyond ergo, the hours are doing a mixing and matching of activities involving the retainment of vocab and tone words (which helps your writing and your MC comprehension), creative writing and timed writing (those tone paragraphs may be filed under the goofy category, but you are forced to work under a time limit and write something), and, of course, more multiple choice passages. While first and third hour are in the same position, fourth and seventh are doing their own agenda.

1 & 3: Tone round two included sharing your paragraphs and speed learning the 20-22 (depending on your class) tone words. We have some repeated ones, but for the most part, you are learning a whole new set of vernacular vocabulary! Afterwards, we did not have time for a full MC passage, but that did not stop me from giving it to you for homework. Do make sure to 1. close read the passage thoroughly with circling, underlining, noting, or whatever you have to do to clarify the passage's meaning, purpose, shifts, and the like and then 2. adopt process of elimination to answer the questions with most accuracy. While this may seem a piddling assignment, you should take part in every multiple choice experience - big or small, timed or not - as it broadens your understanding of comprehension and style of questions that AP requires you to answer. Well, that was my little speech about the importance of doing work.

4: We - finally - completed the vocab 16/tone quiz 1, which is graded and in line for the book. As that is completed, you also copied down the next unit for future experts, starting tomorrow, and wrote the next round of tone paragraphs for the topic of "chaos," an abstract notion that would force many of you to flaunt your creative muscles. Tomorrow will be the teaching of those new tone words plus a return to multiple choice with questions first strategy.

7: Since I'm so verbose with the other hours, I don't want to shortchange you and just write an enumeration. So, you are in the throes of multiple choice. We have completed 3 traditional, comprehension-heavy passages to practice strategies and understanding. As noted, several times, close read the passage if you want to have that accuracy when the questions need to answered. Today, we completed a diagnostic regarding the other style of multiple choice: the rhetoric ones. Loosely timed, this assessment was to give you a peek at this part of the exam and, hopefully, show off what you can do. We'll be back to more traditional multiple choice shortly, but first comes "A Modest Proposal," the most memorable form of satire that I could possibly assign for us to read. I hope you enjoy because I always do, especially your facial expressions upon reading it! Too much foreshadowing - must stop. This is what happens when I type this up while you are taking your diagnostic in class.