Weekend Notes

We will be in the study hall computer lab during the 2nd half of class on Monday and all of Tuesday.

So, Monday we have 45 minutes in the lab to write.  If you don't have a USB drive, you can get your paper to the lab by pasting it into a post on your blog.

Tuesday is for peer review and revising.

We will spend the first half of Monday looking at some of the introductory material on rhetoric in our books so please bring your books to class on Monday.

Lastly, we'll start our SAT vocabulary with Vocab 1 next week.  All the vocabulary is available here or via a link on the Class Info & Docs page.

Have a great weekend and happy thinking.

Metacognition Essay

Read over the assignment sheet and come to class with any questions (I'm planning a fair bit of time to explain this assignment further as metacognition will be a new concept for most of you).  

Also, please adjust the dates on the assignment sheet to the following:

Rough Draft: 2/3

Final: 2/4

Support Videos

Here is the link to the videos about how to use this site: http://edublogs.org/videos/.

Remember your homework tonight is to take another look at the Rodriguez piece in light of the SOAPStone tool to see if it helps you organize your observations from last night.  

We'll discuss the Rodriguez piece more tomorrow and introduce your first paper (I know, I know).

Welcome to AP!

In this class, we will use Edublogs  to communicate assignments and to turn in much of our daily homework.  To set up your blog, follow these instructions.  Good luck and don't forget to email me your new blog address and watch the training video.  

Other than setting up your blog and signing your syllabus, your homework tonight is to read and mark up the excerpt from Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez.  Do your best and don't worry about being wrong.  We'll use piece in tomorrow's activities.

Also, please remember your signed syllabus tomorrow (probably your easiest points all year).  I look forward to a good semester with you all.

To sum up:

• blog


• syllabus


• article

Class Pictures

Get your class pictures here.

Have a wonderful winter/spring semester!  I'll miss you guys.  Sniff.

 

"You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means."

AP Party

Hey AP 3rd Period People, remember if you want food at our party tomorrow, don't forget to bring something.

Books!!!

I forgot to mention this in class, but

Please bring your books to class!

(No, you can't use them on the test, but we are taking them back.)

Final Reminders

• This I Believe paper presentations are on Tuesday.  Be ready to go as there really isn't time for make-ups.  Next week is going to fly by.


• Remember that if the class averages 80% or higher on the final, then both the final and the DGP final will be set to "can be dropped" and they will only be able to help your grade.

Enjoy your three day weekend and here's to good studying for your various finals and final projects!

This I Believe

Your this I Believe essay is due on Tuesday the 20th.  It should be uploaded to your blog and you will be reading it aloud in class as well.  Here are the requirements adapted fromt he This I Believe submission page (I encourage you to submit them to This I Believe if you wish).

Keep the following in mind when you write your essay:

1. Limit your essay to fewer than 500 words.


2. Describe an event that shaped your beliefs or a person who inspired them.


3. Avoid sermons and editorials—no soapbox declamations, please!


4. Read more of the This I Believe essay-writing tips.

Metacognition Paper

Your Metacognition Paper is due January 15th.  It must be 600-900 words plus or minus 10%.  It's worth 130 points.  Less than the big synthesis essay, but significantly more than many earlier papers. 

PS For those of you in 2nd period, we are grading the analysis timed write from our Double Timed Write of Death exercise today.  Have a great weekend!  (It's GOT to be better than 2 timed writes!)

Musing upon the Metacognition Paper

We will talk more about our metacognition paper tomorrow, but we're cramming a lot into these last couple of weeks so we might not have as much time in class as I'd like to cover everything.  Given that, think a bit about your paper before tomorrow.

This paper is going to be about reflecting upon and analyzing how you think.  Not what you think, but how.  If you can wrap your head around that distinction, you'll be doing well at this point.  So your homework is to wrap your head around that distinction and perhaps start cogitating about how you cogitate.  

PS You did a good job today on the multiple choice activity.  You were able to see things in the text that the AP test writers saw.  Nice work!  Especially given your post-break stupor. :)