I know why the caged bird cannot read...uh, it's a bird.

Over the next few days, we will be looking again at this essay. I urge you to read it again before Thursday. If you felt lost or like her argument was just that students don't get lame high school English books, you especially may want to read it again as it may take you some time to come to grips with her argument. On Thursday, we will be working in groups on questions 1-3, and 5-10 of the Questions on Rhetoric and Style on page 100 numbers .

Juggling this and your metacognition paper should be sufficient for this week when you factor in the vocab quiz and timed write. So we'll make the Graff template write-up of this due on Monday in the same post as the questions.

Congratulations on finishing your papers! It looks like only three people ignored the multiple instructions and demonstrations and dire warnings about naming their file. Per our previous discussions, those will be counted as late.

ASB/Cabbage Patch Week

Wheeling in the crazy!

Welcome to one of the craziest weeks at Fife High School, and perhaps anywhere else as well. You might ask if this is a good week to start your first major essay. The answer to that question of course is that there is no time like the present! So here is the rough schedule for the week:

Monday: Read Thinking as a Hobby and annotate in groups. Start looking at SAT Vocab Week 2 and get going on the grammar from Chapter 4 in the TLC if you haven't started it already. It takes a while (early reports are about 3 hours if you try and do it all at once). Buy your ASB card.

Tuesday: Go over Thinking as a Hobby together as a class and then introduce and explain the first paper. If you haven't already, Buy your ASB card.

Wednesday: Go over the grammar. Deal with any ongoing confusions about the essay and maybe look at an example from a previous year. Haven't you bought your ASB card yet? Do you want to lose Cabbage Patch/ASB Week?

Thursday: Writing Day in the Study Hall Lab! Focus! Focus! Focus!

Friday: SAT Vocab Quiz Week 2 and take the first step toward being the 2nd class in a row to win as juniors and then again as seniors!

DGP is dead! Long live Grammar!

This year, we will not be doing DGP in AP. Instead, we will be working through the Grammar as Rhetoric and Style activities in our TLC book. If you browse through the table of contents, you'll notice that each thematic chapter contains a grammar section that focuses on a particular grammatical element. The first one appears at the end of Chapter 4 and explores the appositive.  For Wednesday of the coming week, please complete all of the exercises in the Chapter 4 grammar section beginning on page 167 (there are 5 exercises with 5-10 questions a piece).

As I told 6th period when they asked, this may be done on paper or the blog. Since we'll be going over it in class, it may be better to have it on paper. Students last year preferred paper for the grammar assignments.

If you want one of those grammar shirts, you can get one here. WARNING: they are overpriced. Really? $25 for a grey t-shirt?

FYI: Word has just come out that the parent/student online access to grades will go live on Monday.

First Timed Write

George having a cup of tea

Now that you've looked at your first timed write, read yours again and estimate where it may have been. This is not about what you got, but about practicing evaluating your own writing. Don't get hung up on whether it is a 2 or a 5 or a 6, but see if you can determine the approximate range it falls in. Use this generalized AP rubric to help you (you can find it on my blog under the Class Info and Docs tab).

Bring your TLC books tomorrow.

When rhetoric goes wrong

Remember we have a timed write tomorrow so come to class with paper & pen and get ready to write!

Oh, and read the section in the TLC book entitled When Rhetoric Goes Wrong beginning on page 26. No blog post, just read it. We'll talk about it after the timed write.

Give Parents a Break

The Classical Model

Read pages 13-25 in the book and do the assignment on page 26 (on the blog).

All right, I realize that we are skipping a bit. There is a reason for that; we'll talk about those sections in class.

Have a great weekend!

PS I mentioned to at least one of the classes that I was still hoping to do the activity I normally do on the first day. As I have the "equipment" for that activity and as it would be bad for me to eat all of it all by myself, I'll try and work it in next week. :)

PPS I keep forgetting and I need to mention this before cold season. I brought in a couple of boxes of tissue, but that isn't going to last. Therefore, I will offer 10 points EC per box up to 2 boxes (so 20 points) if you would like to bring in facial tissue. (Sidebar: Kleenex sounds so much better than facial tissue, but I was trying not to be brand specific. There's nothing wrong with Puffs and other brands that I don't know the names of...in fact I kind of think knowing two name brands of facial tissue might be a bit excessive. Anyway, so we aren't wiping our noses on our sleeves this autumn and winter and spring...)

Rhetorical Einstein

In the Language of Composition book (the  TLC book), read pages 1-10 and do the assignment on page 9-10. You should do that assignment on the blog. That means you create a new post titled with the assignment title and with your response in the blog body. If you have given me your blog address, I will get your assignment. If you haven't, I won't. Remember to hit "Publish" or it won't get to me.

Due Tomorrow

• Summer Assignment
• Rhetorical Vocabulary Test
• Syllabus

Setting up your blog, Part II

1. Go to: http://mail.fifeschools.com
2. login using your school username and "password" as your password
3. Go through the rigamarole to change it if you never set it up last year. If you are completely new to the school, you may not have a login yet if your didn't turn in an AUP form when you registered.
4. Check out your new email account. If you go into settings, you can change the theme, and labs allows you to customize your tools quite a bit. That's you school email account. Yea!

Now click the link in the upper left of the page that says Documents or Drive

1. Click create new and create a new document
2. Write something profound, but not too long. No pressure.
3. Name it. We'll use the following naming function:
• Per# Last First Assignment Title
• We'll call this assignment: Trial Doc
• for example: Per6 Giddings Andrew Trial Doc
4. Share it with me (agiddings) using the Share link in the upper right of the document window. Allow me to edit and I can leave comments for you.

Now go to More then Blogger

1. login using your FULL fifeschools email address if not already logged in
2. create a blog (you'll need your cell phone, or one of someone next to you)
3. email the link to your blog to agiddings@fifeschools.com .
4. play with it and learn how to use it. Make it pretty if you want to. :)

Some tips regarding the blog:

Pay Attention

Read each noodleblog post in its entirety.  I will do my best to give you clear instructions.  Do your part by reading them.

Hit Publish

When you publish your posts, hitting “save” only saves them.  You must hit Publish for your post to make it on your blog in such a way that others can read it (or give you credit for it).

Learn how to use the site

Poke around and see what there is to see. Play with it a bit.

Make Sure You’re Up To Date

Go back and make sure you've done all the assignments and all the parts of the assignments on this blog.

In the future, check this blog every day for announcements and assignments.  You are responsible for doing the work posted here.

Set up your blog!

This year, you will turn in your daily type home work assignments on your blog and your larger process papers on Google Docs. In order to get going, you need to set up a blog. We will set these up in class on Wednesday. If you are technically adept or adventurous and like being a tad ahead of the curve, you can try and set your blog up early.

To do so, log into your Fife Schools account and from the top bar, choose More and then Blogger. Follow the prompts to set up your blog from there. It can be called whatever you want and you can play with the design to your heart's content, but remember that this is a school class blog you will use for AP English Lang this year and AP English Lit next year. 

Setting your blog up early is not required. We will take time as a class to do this. Please do take some time to familiarize yourself with my blog. It has a lot of resources available for you in the links on the left and in Class Documents.

Also, please do not be alarmed or feel disoriented if my blog design changes. That will happen every so often.