GPA Calculator

Our Tech Department doesn't have the Skyward GPA calculator incorporated yet. I know many of you need to see that. I ran across this GPA Calculator on Google Sheets. To use it,

1. Click the link below. 
2. Off the File menu, choose "Make a copy..." and it will create a copy you can edit. 
3. Input your classes and grades.

Voila! Your GPA!

GPA Sheets Template

Never Argue with an Elephant

Elephant trumpets, "Please don't shoot me!
Just write a good paper..."

Choose one of the following prompts.

Option 1

“Shooting an Elephant” concludes: And afterwards I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant. I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.” Orwell implies that such petty and selfish reasons, if we are honest enough to admit it, often drive our actions. Write an essay in which you argue for or against Orwell’s position concerning human motives. Support your essay with evidence from your reading, observation, and experience.

Option 2

Early in the second paragraph of the piece Orwell’s narrator says, “Theoretically – and secretly, of course – I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.” And he concludes the same paragraph: “Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism; ask any Anglo-Indian official, if you can catch him off duty.” With these qualifiers, Orwell suggests that a duplicity accompanies authority, a difference between the expression of the public and the private self. Write an essay in which you defend, challenge, or qualify that position regarding human expression. Refer to your reading, observation, or experience to support your position.

Option 3

In paragraph 7 Orwell observes that “when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys,” and that “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.” Consider the implications of these statements concerning human nature. Write an essay in which you support, refute, or qualify Orwell’s paradox and metaphor. Refer to your reading, observation, or experience to support your position.

Vital Statistics

Due December 19, 2014
750 words (+/- 10%)
MLA format required

Remember that this is an argument paper. You are not analyzing the essay per se, but arguing a position about a broader issue raised in the essay. Sources for writing argumentative essays are below.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/05/
http://www.roanestate.edu/owl/argument.html
http://web.clark.edu/martpe/writing_strong_argument_papers.htm
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/argument/

UPDATE
Upload both in Google Classroom and in Turnitin. We can use Turnitin for formal peer reviews, and for both you and I to check papers for plagiarism and grammar. Based on my experience with the JFK papers and the feedback from 3rd period, it's better to grade the actual papers on Google Docs as the feedback is so much easier to read and process (it's oddly kind of messy in Turnitin).

Google Classroom Part 2

Now that we have Turnitin.com, we'll be using that to turn in our essays to check them for plagiarism and grammar. That said, we will also be using Google Classroom to turn them in for grading. We'll use the class website as the main place to find assignments and I'll link to the other sites you need to upload to from here. There are also quite a lot of resources on this site that you may have not been using. Google Classroom didn't really have a way to gather those resources for you.

Sorry if you guys feel like guinea pigs for multiple systems this year. Thank you for your patience.

See this space for information about our upcoming argument essay soon. It will be due before Christmas.

Google Classroom

For day to day announcements and assignments, we are using Google Classroom this year. You get to it by going to http://classroom.google.com. You will need to log in with your fifeschools account. Use the code we set up in class.

Ahhh, Summer!

Welcome to AP English Language and Composition!

We have a summer assignment. Don't worry; it's not too onerous. It's a little reading, a little thinking, and a little writing. Be thoughtful, but don't make it more than it is. Follow the link above for instructions and materials. Have a wonderful summer and I'll see you on September 3rd!

If you have questions, please feel free to email me!

NOTE: The summer assignment link sends you to a folder with pdf files hosted by Google Drive. You can view them in your browser, but I strongly suggest downloading the Huck Finn articles to your computer and either printing them or opening them from your computer. The browser interface won't allow you to rotate the articles (they are scanned from a book and are flipped on their side). One student told me she had a hard time reading them as it was uncomfortable to turn her head. ;) You have other options!

What's a picture of the Roman Colosseum doing on this page?

Well we just got back from an awesome trip to England and Paris! Next summer we are going to the French Riviera (Monaco, Nice, Eze) and Italy (Florence, Assisi, Rome, Sorrento, and Pompeii). If you are interested in joining us, check out the trip at http://www.explorica.com/Giddings-1059.

About half the crew on the banks of the Thames

Pictures and summer

For pictures from the other day, click this link.

You were both very good classes this year. I'm definitely going to miss you, though I will get to see many of you next year. :)

If you're taking AP Lit next year, don't forget that it has a different site: http://giddingsaplit.blogspot.com/. The summer assignment is there. Remember to read thoughtfully, but not to obsess.

Have a wonderful summer!!!

Monday and the final study guide (of sorts)

Don't be like the boy in navy or the girl in pink
looking the wrong way!

Monday

1. Put the desks in a big circle (you'll have to put them back both periods for Creative Writing and English 11, so keep that in mind when watching the clock)
2. Have a deep, substantive conversation about the themes and the take-away meanings of The Great Gatsby. Huh? Try the questions below...

Starter questions (Please read these and think about them before arriving to class on Monday.)

• Is The Great Gatsby a "great" novel? Why or why not? What are the elements of the book that would lead you to that conclusion?
• Looking at the book as a whole, how does our primary theme come out? What is Fitzgerald saying about class? What is our final judgment on Gatsby himself? Is he a good guy? A bad guy? Misguided? A victim? Why do you think that?
• What is the tragedy of this novel? Is there more than one? Think outside the box. Think of all the characters. Think of themes. Make connections. Throw out ideas to the group and play with them.
• Have someone read the final 7 paragraphs of the novel out loud to the class (from the break on pg 188/179). What are we meant to make of this? What does this tell us about class, the American Dream, and ourselves (the human condition)?
  Once you've talked about this a bit, have someone read this: In a Facebook discussion, an acquaintance of mine (Mr. Giddings) posted the following about this passage a while back. She wrote, "The past is where we are rooted. As much as we venture forth as pilgrims of the world and the future, our roots shape our identities, paths, motives. When you view the book through the lens of what it says about the American Dream, our society was founded upon our ancestors’ eager conquest of the New World and its riches and freedom – those beacons of light that drew them hither (similar to the green light). And while I don’t feel Fitzgerald denies the possibility of progress, I think he acknowledges how much we carry with us into the future. If you view the passage through an archetypal/Jungian lens, the last page also speaks of our collective consciousness."
  Do you agree or disagree with this commentator? With all of it? Part?

That should be enough to get you going. If you end up staring uncomfortably at each other, you're obviously not thinking enough. Think!



Final Study Guide

Attack that final like a mad flapper!

• final study guide

Hmm, this section turned out to be kind of short....

We'll deal with questions Tuesday and Wednesday. Our final is Thursday. Friday we'll do something chill. Stacy will likely turn up. Mr. Giddings will likely remain fairly chill.

The Great Gatsby begins

Flappers!

Here is the schedule and instructions for our Gatsby readings and literary device entries!

Here's an abbreviated study guide for those who find them useful. It is NOT required that you complete this.

We are going through this pretty fast -- essentially 9 chapters in about 2 weeks. Don't fall behind and feel free to read ahead if you'd like, though out of respect for those who don't appreciate spoilers, please confine discussions to the schedule.

We'll have a itty-bitty, little in-class writing event that will in no way extend into anything bigger with sources or word limits. The limit does not exist...except of course the limit imposed upon us by the class schedule. Either that of we'll do a project. I'll give you guys the choice. We'll talk Friday.

Literary Device Entries
Over the course of this short unit, you'll write two (2) literary device entries. Instructions are here. We'll go over them on Friday (tomorrow).

Use this literary device website to look up devices. It has good definitions, explanations, and multiple examples for each term.

The Great Gatsby Reading Schedule

Chapter	Page Range	# of Pgs	Read by
Chapter I	5-26	21	5/19
Chapter II	27-42	15	5/20
Chapter III	43-64	21	5/21
Chapter IV	65-85	20	5/22
Chapter V	86-102	16	5/27
Chapter VI	103-118	15	5/28
Chapter VII	119-153	34	5/29
Chapter VIII	154-170	16	5/30
Chapter IX	171-189	18	6/2

These page numbers are taken from the blue book. If you have the white book, refer to the actual chapter.

Don’t fall behind! There will be a test (Gatsby Stuff will be on the final)

Our schedule for the next couple of weeks

Since we won't be meeting on May 4th, happy Star Wars Day!

Next week is different between the periods because of lab time restrictions.
1st period: Week of May 5th
Monday: English Lab
Tuesday: Go over Practice Test
Wednesday: In class write
Thursday: Relax and talk test strategy, including the Magic AP Pencil Ceremony
Friday: AP Test!!!

3rd period: Week of May 5th
Monday: Go over Practice Test
Tuesday: Library Lab
Wednesday: Library Lab
Thursday: Relax and talk test strategy, including the Magic AP Pencil Ceremony
Friday: AP Test!!!

All: Week of May 12th
Monday: Study Hall Lab with paper due by the end of the day
Tuesday: PARTY!!!!
Wednesday: APUSH test (No class for most of you)
Thursday: Finish Mean Girls and get copies of The Great Gatsby
Friday: Begin working with Gatsby (Woot! Woot!)

TV Bad! TV Good? Orwell, Huxley, Postman Oh My!!!

Brain rotting in 3...2...1

Anyway. About the paper...

Write to prompt 3 on page 787 of your book. Keep it to 1000 words +/- 10%. You need to use at least 3 sources from the conversation section (p. 766-787) and at least 2 outside sources. Those can be ones we've read or seen in class, or ones you find on your own.

Remember that a synthesis paper is essentially a research paper in that you are using sources. Those sources need to be cited. So, remember to look over the research paper resources for how to do that. Also, Easybib.com is your friend and he loves to help out with works cited pages.

It is due on Monday May 12. I don't normally give so much time on this one, but given the timing of various things, this is how it's working out this year.

Other Information

Timed Write Tuesday -- Whoo hoo!! Pen, no pencil.
By Wednesday, have the multiple choice section done and be ready to discuss.
By Thursday, have all the conversation essays read and blogged and be ready to discuss.

Video note: If you missed Merchants of Cool and want to see it, the link is in the previous post. It is fair game as a source for your essay.

Common Bibliographic Entries for the Pop Culture Paper

Watching TV Makes Us Smarter? Sign me up!

Read Watching TV Makes You Smarter on page 766 and do the questions on page 776 (there are 5 of them). In addition to blogging the questions, take a look at the classical model of organization on pages 13-17 of your book. Does Johnson follow that in this essay? If so, explain. If not, describe his structure and explain how he uses it to effectively make his argument.

Maybe watch some TV. After all, the AP test is coming up. ;)

TV Focus
For those of you who will be gone Thursday and Friday, or just those of you who like to do things ahead of time, read and blog the questions to the other 4 essays from page 777-787 for a total of 17 questions over the 4 essays.

We'll be watching Merchants of Cool on Friday. If we start right away, we should just finish. We'll discuss on Monday along with the essays you read from pages 777-787 (see above).

Yes there will be more timed write and multiple choice practice next week.

High School Confidential: The Present-Tense Moment in American Life

Part 1: For Monday after Spring Break, read pages 707 -714 and blog the Questions for Discussion #3 on p. 714 and Rhetoric and Style questions 1-7; 9-12 on page 715.

If anyone has the time and inclination, watch Election and report back to the class. Is it as good as Denby says it is?

Part 2: Read Corn-Pone Opinions by Mark Twain on page 717. From page 721, blog Questions on Rhetoric and Style numbers 1-11 for Monday after Spring Break. 

If you'd like to try and make some, here's a recipe for corn pone.

 Remember if you wish to rewrite your Orwell paper, it is due at the end of spring break. Also, make a copy of the original to edit. Leave the comments in the original document intact.

There is No Unmarked Woman

Charge of the jumpsuits!

1. So, this idea of marked and unmarked gender styles is interesting. The more I think about it, the more I think it is true. But Deborah Tannen's article is constructed in an interesting manner as well. To examine that structure and the techniques she used to get her point across, blog the questions 1-8 on page 393.

Human Barbie: Creepy

2. We also took a look at Barbie Doll on page 403-4. Considering the essay There Is No Unmarked Woman, attempt to explain why and how the expectations for women's looks and styles affects how women live their lives. Are there good things about the expectations and the world of fashion and makeup, or is it wholly pernicious to society and to personal and professional relationships? Append this to the questions.

Due on Monday

The Assertive Angel

For your homework, blog your response to the following prompt:

Assertion Journal: The Angel in the House

Defend, challenge, or qualify the following assertion noting the complexity of the issue and acknowledging any possible objections to your point of view: the angel in the house is dead and no longer lives in the imaginations of either women or men.

Remember to explain the assertion, provide support for your position, and address the counterargument. Responses should be 250-350 words.

NOTE: For those of you who have yet to read Professions for Women in our textbook, the Angel in the House might not make sense. Read Professions for Women, and then write the assertion journal.

Women's Brains

Brains....brains....braaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnssss!

As we wrestle with the unpleasant, but important to understand Women's Brains by Stephen Jay Gould, work on the Rhetoric and Style questions 1-12 on pages 354-55 of the TLC book. They are due Monday.

As you work with this essay, think about the implications of the ideas in the essay -- both those of Gould and of those he quoted. Are there echoes of those ideas alive and kicking today? How? When? Where? To what extent? ;) Append a brief reflection on those questions at the end of questions 1-12.

Next week we'll look at some more gender themed stuff while also hitting the test prep with another timed write and more multiple choice.

Synthesis, Sources, and the AP test! Oh my!

Here is the AP Scoring Excel File that we used in class today. You can play with this to your heart's content.
Don't play with it so much that you forget to do your homework, though. In our books, read pages 62-68 and blog the accompanying assignment that terminates on page 68.

Visual Analysis

Read this whole post as it contains the expectations for quality.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Now, we’re not going to write a thousand words, but pick two of the pictures below and compare them. Compare their visual elements. Compare their argument. Compare their effect on the viewer and the way those effects are created. As we just read Richard Selzer’s The Surgeon as Priest, how do the images you chose to analyze relate to that essay?
Really analyze these images. Don’t stop with something like, “This picture shows a scary looking surgeon and reinforces people’s fears about going under the knife.” Continue on with how that effect is created. What specifically in the image makes the surgeon look “scary”? Don’t forget colors, lighting, angle, medium, and other effects. Please blog your analysis for Monday.
I'll be looking for your connection to The Surgeon as Priest and the depth of your analysis. This score will, uncharacteristically, go in the writing category rather than the skill building category.

If you didn't get to see TTV, here's the link.

Shooting an Elephant Argument

Elephant trumpets, "Please don't shoot me!
Just write a good paper..."

Choose one of the following prompts.

Option 1

“Shooting an Elephant” concludes: And afterwards I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant. I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.” Orwell implies that such petty and selfish reasons, if we are honest enough to admit it, often drive our actions. Write an essay in which you argue for or against Orwell’s position concerning human motives. Support your essay with evidence from your reading, observation, and experience.

Option 2

Early in the second paragraph of the piece Orwell’s narrator says, “Theoretically – and secretly, of course – I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.” And he concludes the same paragraph: “Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism; ask any Anglo-Indian official, if you can catch him off duty.” With these qualifiers, Orwell suggests that a duplicity accompanies authority, a difference between the expression of the public and the private self. Write an essay in which you defend, challenge, or qualify that position regarding human expression. Refer to your reading, observation, or experience to support your position.

Option 3

In paragraph 7 Orwell observes that “when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys,” and that “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.” Consider the implications of these statements concerning human nature. Write an essay in which you support, refute, or qualify Orwell’s paradox and metaphor. Refer to your reading, observation, or experience to support your position.

Vital Statistics

Due February 28, 2014
750 words (+/- 10%)
MLA format required

Remember that this is an argument paper. You are not analyzing the essay per se, but arguing a position about a broader issue raised in the essay.

Be verwy quwiet...we're hunting elephants

Maybe not a rubbish van, but this van is now rubbish.

If you weren't in class today, finish reading Shooting an Elephant on page 979 of TLC. Tonight, blog your answers to the questions on page 985.

This elephant wishes Olivia a happy birthday. He's sorry Mr. Giddings gave you all homework on her birthday.

Mr. Giddings reminded the elephant that it's someone's birthday every day, but we don't have homework every day.

The elephant just shook his head.

Assertion Journal: Carlyle on Work

For those of you not in class on Friday, I'm sorry but here's your homework. Don't let it get bigger than 300-400 words and post it on your blog.

Provide a clear explanation of the assertion that follows. Then defend, challenge, or qualify the assertion noting the complexity of the issue and acknowledging any possible objections to your point of view:

“[T]here is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in Work.” –Thomas Carlyle

Use any combination of first-hand, second-hand, or quantitative evidence you may have stored up in your grey matter (as we said before, everything you’ve ever read, seen, or experienced) to make your case. Make sure you follow the organization pattern laid out in the instructions.

Since we're doing Super Bowl commercials on Monday and a timed write Tuesday, I'm changing the due date from Monday by class to Wednesday by class. Spread the word.

Fallacious D

Hasty conclusion like toy balloon: easy blow up, easy pop.

–Charlie Chan at the Race Track 

In order to augment the reading from our packet, research the following fallacies here* and then create for your blog three short scenarios: two of which are examples that you make up using any two of the fallacies below and one that is meant to be logically consistent. In class, we’ll examine these paragraphs and see if the class can guess which is which. Make sure that it’s not obvious that you’re using a fallacy. Make us work; make us better.

• Begging the Question
• Slippery Slope
• False Dilemma
• Post Hoc
• Biased Sample
• Gambler’s Fallacy
• Hasty Generalization
• Ad Hominem
• Straw Man
• Tu Quoque
• Red Herring

* Use this site and this Nizkor Project site to help with this task.

I know some of these were mentioned in your reading as well, but it doesn't hurt to get some more information about them.

Lunch at Jerry's anyone?

If you haven't already, please read Serving in Florida on page 179 of your books. Then blog your answers to questions 1-6 and 9-11. If you weren't in class today, consider her appeal (logos, ethos, pathos) and her argument type (fact, value, policy).

AP Semester Final Study Guide

Version: Winter 2013-14

Primary Study Points

Argument Stasis Questions (Packet)

• Fact
• Value
• Policy

Be able to evaluate a claim and decide the type of argument it necessitates.

Aristotelian Triangle

Toulmin (See blog Class Info and Resources/Rhetorical Analysis Tools/Toulmin Model)
      Know definitions and model

Be able to read a passage and identify what they are talking about, the effect of various rhetorical techniques, the tone, the style, authorial intent, underlying assumptions, etc. Essentially the stuff we’ve been doing all year. If you can answer the blog questions without undue stress, and you seem to get it when we talk about the timed write passages, you should be fine.

There’s more I could ask about, such as thesis types, organizational patterns and their benefits in different situations, and the like. The final was getting kind of long though, so I stopped asking questions. J

This I Believe Paper

Your This I Believe essay is due on Tuesday January 21st. It should be uploaded to your blog and you will be reading it aloud in class as well. Here are the requirements adapted from the 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:

• Limit your essay to 350-500 words.
• Describe an event that shaped your beliefs or a person who inspired them.
• Avoid sermons and editorials—no soapbox declamations, please!
• Read more of the This I Believe essay-writing tips.

You can peruse multiple examples at http://thisibelieve.org. Often the ones put on the radio are a bit better, but not necessarily so.
Andrea Kang's (Class of 2009) This I Believe essay. The Tacoma News Tribune re-posted it from its original posting so all of the comments are gone, but her essay is here.