Postponed!

Feeling a little bit like the woman on the right? Well, this post is for you, then. The presentation has been moved from Thursday to Tuesday when we get back from Memorial Day. Hopefully that makes you feel like the woman below. :)

If you're doing a Google Doc presentation, please remember to share it with me so that I can collect them and we don't have to log in and out of accounts on Tuesday.

Read Gatsby Chapter 4 tonight. (I'm going to see the movie on Friday!)

Oh yes, and here are the rubrics. You don't need to print them out, I just wanted you to see them even though we've talked about them and they are very straight forward. Remember, the evaluation is based primarily on the concerns of the AP synthesis rubric, so #1 on the presentation rubric is the most important and weighted the heaviest.

Dance! Baby, Dance!

For the AP test is over!
(don't forget to scroll down below the video for some important messages)



Dance, Bubba!! :)
Now that you have the dancing out of your system (right, when do you ever get dancing out of your system?), it's time to start those papers if you haven't already. If you lost your information on that, scroll down from this post 6 or 7 posts and you'll see it.  We'll try to get a lab day or two next week, but we will also start The Great Gatsby too. So, if you plan on buying a copy, do so this weekend. Otherwise, we'll pick up copies from the library on Monday. Have a great weekend!!

AP Test Reminders

Show up around 7:40 at the district office board room. Don't forget your magic AP pencil. Don't panic. Get good sleep. Summary equals death. Cite 3 or more sources. Calm down. You're as ready as you're going to get. You've got this.

Watch this space. Charlie made you a video about the AP test.

This other one is from a couple of years ago...

Post AP Test Party Sign-up Sheet: Tab 1 for 4th period and tab 2 for 6th period (you may have to log in to edit, but I don't think so).

Here is the Dance Walking video for 4th period. It may get the blood flowing to your brains a bit before the test tomorrow morning. That and it's just silly. A bit of silliness before a big test couldn't hurt.

Feeling stress? Check this out for a smile

Rare documentation of the
elusive tree octopus.

As you are one test into the essentially two week gauntlet of AP and SAT testing, it is important that you not let the pressure get to you. If you do, pretty soon you'll be seeing octopuses in the trees. Don't fall for it. Don't panic. Remember a towel is the most useful object in the universe, after your brain of course. ;)

May you be caught in a bidding war...

How Colleges Fight For Top Students

Thinking some more about Thoreau

Random Picture: Don't you feel better knowing
there are moths bigger than your head?
I bet they didn't have these at Walden Pond.

Still working with Where I Lived, and What I Lived For on page 276 of your books, search Thoreau for the following assertions we worked with in class today. They are all there. Most are explicit and some are implied.

1. You can never truly know anything without experiencing it for yourself.
2. We have very little control of our lives.
3. Most people move through life half asleep, as if they were on autopilot.
4. The reality of a thing or situation is often different than our initial impressions of it.
5. Truth is something that exists far away (in time and/or space) that we will come to know someday in the future.
6. In order for true community to take place, individuals must know themselves and have something to contribute.
7. Our lives will never have meaning until we know ourselves deeply.

The last couple are more implied in the passage. Rather than finding a single reference for those, you'll likely need to combine a few references. Oh, and blog them once you find them. ;)

Just in case you didn't notice the shadow of its
wing on her face in the picture above, here's another to
establish size perspective. That moth is on the same side
of the door as the person taking the flash picture.
Moths seek the light, right?

Papers

______________'s paper

A number of people spent much of Sunday stranded in a foreign land. Given my heartfelt aversion to reading poorly thought through and constructed papers and the decided pleasure that comes from reading papers that are buoyed by creative vision and honed by ruthless revision, I have offered those that were on the Jazz trip an extra 24 hours.

If those of you who were not stranded outside a bus that was in no danger of catching on fire want to put your papers through an extra round of revision, you may turn your papers in on Tuesday as well. If you'd rather not look at it anymore, you may turn it in whenever you like before the deadline. Well, it is a free country so you could in fact turn it in after Tuesday, but then it would be late of course. (<--- humor)

Citing Sources
Remember when you're citing the essays from our textbook, they are sections/essays in an anthology. The three people on the cover are the source editors, and whoever actually wrote the article is the section author.

The path of the lahar!

If you are interested in why we have those crazy lahar drills, here are some links to keep you up at night.
General Info
Good gov site
According to PBS, Mt. Rainier is America's most dangerous volcano...
Paths of Destruction: The Hidden Threat at Mount Rainier

Official release about today's test:

On Monday March, 5th at noon, Pierce County Emergency Management will test the 17 outdoor lahar warning sirens in the Puyallup River Valley. This is a monthly drill that takes place on the first Monday of the month. A Pierce County Alert will be launched at 9:00 on Monday morning to citizens who have signed up to receive informational messages.

Hazlitt Angst

William Hazlitt  a self portrait

As discussed in class, we will have an additional optional timed write on Tuesday. If you are happy with your score, you do not need to write this one unless you want the practice. This score will replace your Hazlitt score, though I'll actually take the higher or the two. If you do not wish to take advantage of this opportunity, please bring a book or something to work on quietly while your classmates write.
4th period, happily we discovered in 6th period that the Hazlitt timed write was miscategorized as a take home paper rather than a timed write, so the damage is not as dire as you saw in class today. See GradeChecker for the accurate percentage.

Education: The Ralph Waldo Emerson Way

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Now that you've read Emerson's On Education on page 102 of The Language of Composition (TLC), and now that we have a bit of an idea as to what he is on about, it's time for some analysis of how he does what he does. To that end, thoughtfully respond on your blog to Questions on Rhetoric and Style 1-3, 5-6, and 8-12 on pages 108-109.

And as you do this and your other homework, remember that:

"Not less delightful is the mutual pleasure of teaching and learning the secret of algebra, or of chemistry, or of good reading and good recitation of poetry or of prose, or of chosen facts in history or in biography." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Take delightful pleasure in this learning activity up through Wednesday evening (due Thursday November 10). Along with the vocabulary quiz 9, we'll discuss this in class on Thursday.

Though we'll stick with analysis, we'll also start talking about the argument question next week.

Of interest...transcendentalism. If that article proves too heady for you,Wikipedia's is okay.

Some thoughts on argument analysis

1. Published arguments seldom begin with a thesis (and may not end with one). Frequently, the thesis is only implied. 
2. An analysis of an argument is rarely “right” or “wrong,” but some answers are much better than others. The answer that explains the text in the most thorough way is superior. 
3. Thinking of yourself as a member of the intended audience for an argument is essential to analyzing argument. 
4. Often when we reject an argument, it is because we are not part of the intended audience. 
5. The analyst needs to pay attention to assumptions concerning the reader’s race, nationality, and gender. 
6. Pay close attention to pronouns. They shift references. 
7. An analytic explanation rarely occurs in a chronological order; it usually involves moving backward and forward within the text being analyzed. Using chronological order usually moves an analysis to summary. 
8. While knowing Aristotle’s three modes is important, it is also important to know the work of Rogers (the psychologist) and Toulmin (the logician). 
9. Whether or not an argument contains fallacies is not germane to understanding it rhetorically. 
10. Analyses need to measured against the evidence of the text itself. 
11. It is usually more important to consider what is implied. 
12. When you read an argument, you should try to determine why it was written in the way it was written. 
13. The analyst needs to determine whether the thesis is direct, indirect, implied, deliberately hidden, or subversive (A Modest Proposal is an example of a subversive thesis).

doc

Don't forget to do the assignment in the previous post. Also, check out the link under writing on the left for notes on good writing entitled the YES Writing Guide .

Autumn of the Multitaskers

Take another look at the multitasking article and identify the overall claim/assertion (the glossary of The Language of Composition has a good definition if you need one). Then, identify the claim/assertion in each section of the article (handily, sections are indicated by a drop cap).  Blog your results by Wednesday.


By the way, Nate found a good NPR story on this subject. You can read it or listen to it here. Aside form looking at assertions, this topic goes well with our metacognition papers as we seek to learn how to use our brains most effectively.

Oh, and check the calendar...

Side note: Here is a really graphic blog on texting while driving that I found while looking for a picture of someone running off a road in Wyoming. ONLY for those with strong stomaches. It is the result of an accident. Seriously only for those with strong stomaches.

Oh, and I thought all of these cartoons were funny and I couldn't decide which one to use.

 

Boom

You could spend a lot of time on YouTube watching these old videos. This one shows the effects of blasts on different types of houses.

Mmmm....babies

Though a disturbing piece, A Modest Proposal is a brilliant argument — in part because it is so disturbing. Let’s take a closer look at how Jonathan Swift crafts his argument.
To that end, blog your responses to the following questions found on pages 920-921 in TLC: Questions on Rhetoric and Style #s 1-5, 7-9.

Period 4: Here's the link to that article I alluded to today that I said I'd link for you. In the Also See box, take a peek at The End of Men as well if this issue interests or concerns you.

Ever Procrastinate?

This is the most interesting thing I've ever read about procrastination. I am most definitely an incubator and I've worked hard to increase the time I start before something is due. Anyway, you might find this interesting. And it might help some of you with your Metacognition papers.

Because what they do about this will affect you...

Check out this article. It's not very long and raises some interesting issues. It was written by the former governor of New York.

For 4th period

So the question was asked, "What happens if I can't figure out how I think?" Immediately this song came to mind. You asked if I could post it, and so here it is. ;)

Disclaimer: Do not, under any circumstances, believe this to be true of you or your paper. It's just a song. That said, this one comes to mind too. ;)

Internet Personalization

At all disturbed by The Merchants of Cool we began watching today? Beware the rise of the filter bubble. The following video is one of the TED talks and this one is particularly interesting. If you ever use Facebook or Google to stay in touch with people and the world around you, you should listen to this video. It's only 9 minutes. Take a look.

Any artists out there?

Do any of you write poetry, short stories, or plays?  Do you take pictures? Do you paint or sculpt or something else?

Mirror Magazine (available at Spring Fling) showcases the talents of FHS students. We would like to feature as wide a selection of student work as possible. If you'd like to be in the magazine, send your work to me (note it's for Mirror), email it to mirrormagazine.fife@gmail.com, or just give it to me.

You don't have to be brilliant to be included in the magazine -- you just have to go to FHS.

Timed Writes and the AP Test

Tuesday 3/19 we will do an analysis timed write. The original plan was to do one of each analysis and argument over the next two weeks. We are doing analysis first just in case the class decides they want more practice at analysis before the test (it has been a little while). Regardless, when we have our practice test, you'll write an argument, an analysis, and a synthesis.

As we get closer to the test, please communicate to me where you feel unprepared and we can spend some time on it. I have plans, but we can be flexible.