I have a valuable piece of technology that belongs to one of you (4th period).  I don't know whose it is, but you probably know you are missing it.  COME BY BEFORE SCHOOL, please.  

TODAY IN CLASS
Moderate chaos today, but we survived.  Sorry about the running back and forth.  If any group feels that you brought out something special on the spur of the moment that is not in either your co-written essay or on the hand-out, please let me know!

• 3rd period--finished presenting.  Expect a few final follow up questions from me first thing tomorrow  based on material I'm reading tonight. 
• 4th period--we have one final presentation (a Song of Solomon group).  Sorry about the delay; I know you were all present today, and I'm trusting that since tomorrow is the final, there will be a repeat performance!!  We will all be together in the regular classroom; Tess folks, you just get something extra. And as I said to 3rd, there will be a few questions either to groups or to the class in general.

TOMORROW

Finishing up today's work, then . . . 

The final exam--60 questions; your novel; GradeCam.  

BUT ALSO TAKE NOTE--

Final essays are far from in.  Make sure you get a receipt.  If you don't get a receipt, I will not be seeing your paper.  End of flexible deadline period:  Tonight, June 8, at 11:59 p.m.

I am not entering any 0's for missing essays in the middle of the night tonight.  However, anything not on www.turnitin.com by the time you take your exam tomorrow will convert to a 0. From there it is a private conversation with an extremely short timeline to work with; don't go there.

TODAY IN CLASS

More Sound Track presentations.  More work time for the group passage analysis.

A couple of random but important questions, not related to any specific group's work, but important to each book overall.  Make sure you think through these individually and touch base with your group tomorrow for corroboration/revision.

Song of Solomon

1. What is RUTH’s side of the story regarding what

happened the night her father died?  “So what?”

2. Who was Circe in mythology, and how does

that connect with Circe’s role in Milkman’s journey?

Tess of the d’Urbervilles

1. Three closely related questions:

·         Why does Angel not go to the university as his brothers had done?

·         What part of that has to do with his father, and what part has to do withhim?  

·         How does that affect our understanding of Angel’s personality?

2.  What is Dairyman Crick referring to after the rooster crows when Tess and Angel are leaving for their honeymoon?  What is the "truth value" here?   Consider the role of folklore as well as legends in the novel.

SUMMARY OF THE END . . . 

Friday:  Group Work Time.  If you have a hand-out completed, I'll run it off for you.  If you don't, you will be responsible for printing out enough for your audience.

Group Passage Analysis:

• Due as a HARD COPY ONLY by class time on Monday.  
• Hand-out due then as well. 
• Presentations--10 to 12 minutes each. Be prepared before you are called on.

Individual Essay: Folder already open

• Submit ONLY to www.turnitin.com  
• Sure, I'd like for you to have it done by Friday or early in the week-end.  But this deadline is flexible up until the . . .   
• ABSOLUTE deadline:  Monday night, 11:59 p.m.  (Please don't wait that late.)

Tuesday, June 8:  Final Exam, during regular class time.  Covers ONLY the book you read.  GradeCam!

TODAY IN CLASS
A start on the Sound Track Presentations--technological difficulties of one sort or another set us back a bit, but we shall prevail!  And I really enjoyed the music I heard today, and look forward to hearing the full selections as well as  reading all of your insightful connections.

Regarding tomorrow:  In finishing the presentations,your group MUST adhere to the time limits (5-7 min.). Aim for 5 minutes if you can. Decide what's MOST important, and focus on just a couple of things.

FOR TOMORROW
The passages to analyze for the other group piece of work were assigned by the "luck of the draw."  If you were absent today, please contact someone in your group to learn which one you need to annotate for tomorrow.   The full list of passages is available here:  Passage Selections

The annotation is via note-taking; too often a printed passage is "annotated" by a host of underlinings and circlings without sufficient commentary.  If you have to take notes, you will need to say why. This can be MESSY, in cryptic shorthand notes, disorganized (probably just working through the passage, and otherwise pretty rough.  BUT you will need to have it out.  I will check to see that you made an honest, earnest, group-worthy effort.

The process from this point on is explained in the assignment hand-out linked   here .  I will have print-outs of this in class tomorrow.  (By then I might even have decided what the actual word limit is.)

Post-Prom Class Day

TODAY IN CLASS
Some off-topic discussion of both "high school" and the Patriot Act/broader tensions regarding the intersection of individual privacy, government intrusiveness, and government responsibility for national security.  The former was inspired by some first-period artwork and the latter, of course, by the lapse in the surveillance privileges of the NSA.

And then more or less down to business, with the 12-14 folks on hand.  Song of Solomon people:  Know Milkman's family tree; study the song--figure out the links to what Milkman learns, know how Pilate's Chapter 1 version ties in; make sure you understand references in S of S to 50's/60's to specific ideological positions, events, and people connected with blacks in America during that time.

Tess people--questions you might have about the text content but were afraid to ask.  I'm not meaning deeply literary things--just references of one sort or another in the text or motivations you might have missed or . . . . (What, for example, do you think Dairyman Crick thinks of when the rooster crows as Tess and Angel are leaving?  What is the significance of Old Lady Day?  Why wouldn't Angel's father send him to Oxford, and how does that tell us more about Angel than about his dad?  How does that relate to Angel' and Tess?  Etc.   Are there things you don't "get"?

FOR TOMORROW
If you did not read Friday's blog post, do so.  If you don't have a hard copy of the final essay assignment, you can get one tomorrow.  (Forgot to ask today's attendees if they all had one.)

Groups should get their soundtrack material either to Dropbox (link in previous post) or on a flash drive or CD to load onto the front computer.  Half the presentations will go tomorrow, the other half on Thursday.

We forgot to draw for scenes until too late in the period.  FIRST THING tomorrow, and instructions for the group scene analysis.  Then 3 or 4 presentations.  Then work time.

Wonder of Wonders, a Blog Post!

The Finale

I hope you have (or will have had by the time you read this) a happy and safe time at Prom and all associated events.  A few years ago, prom was the Saturday night before senior finals began on Monday.  That year things really were over by then.  This year . . . just a few steps to go.

1.  Here is the updated version of the Sound Track group project; note that it contains the link for putting your music into my Dropbox as well as some final instructions about a cover sheet for the hard copy material.
Sound Track Project

2. And here is the corrected copy of the final essay (individual) with the intended Choice C for Tess instead of the accidental duplication that's on the hand-out I distributed today.
Final Out-of-Class Essay

3.  Now, the other assignment is a group event, and you really can't start until your group receives its designated passage as determined by either the luck of the draw or the throw of the dice. But just for those who missed class today, be aware that there will be a passage analysis that incorporates both the focus on the passage expected in your prior AP work as well as connections that you and your group will make with other significant aspects of the novel.  The formal hand-out for this will be distributed on Monday, and except for the music presentations during part of Tues/Wed, you'll have next week in class to work on this.

By the time you have participated in both group projects and written your final essay, I sincerely hope that you will be well prepared for a straightforward GradeCam test over your book on Tuesday, June 9.  Then you will be, really and truly, done with high school English.

TODAY IN CLASS
Yesterday's AP Lit Exam:  Without any reference to unauthorized disclosures, we talked about vocabulary (vs. literary terms) and the extent to which limited vocabulary could affect understanding of passages, questions, or specific response choices on the AP exam.

Then I tried to provide some sort of overview for deciding which novel you want to read for the final month of school without giving too much away.  Options:
Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon
Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles

People who were gone for testing or otherwise absent today--I really don't want to summarize all I said here.  You could ask some friends, or wait until tomorrow.  BUT read through the following hypotheticals:

• If you already have one or the other, then do the one you have in hand (time is of the essence here).
• If you have both, you might bring them both tomorrow. Decide in class, and perhaps loan the other text to someone else.
• If you have neither one--In class tomorrow I will have some Chapter 1 copies of Song of Solomon; Tess is available in an e-text that can be read online or downloaded for free.  

So I actually expect that during class you will be able to get started, one way or another.  Reading will be our primary agenda tomorrow.

1.  Here is a useful set of reminders:  Advice to Young AP Students
      (with a nod to bowdlerized versions of Herrick's carpe diem poem title)

2. With nearly half of you not taking the exam, and a "real" multiple choice test taking 60 minutes, we haven't done a whole one since early in the year.  Every one is different, they are meant to be hard, and the main reason for "practicing" is to realize that the questions are difficult so that you don't panic if you think you aren't doing well.  But IF you would like to practice on your own, and would genuinely do so, you can pick one up tomorrow.

3. Everyone who is not in class tomorrow because of the Calculus tests please stop by between afternoon classes or at the end of the day.  I completely left at home today something I really want you to see.

4.  For tomorrow, DO remember to read the "Arun" passage (on the back of "One Art") and think through how you would respond to that passage.  (15 min. or so)

5.  And for tomorrow (just added, but if you can, try to do this), review "My Last Duchess" and be prepared to say HOW we know what happened to the Duchess and what, if you were the emissary, you would tell your employer when you return. (another 15 min. or so).  You should have already read this because it was in Ch. 7 (Figurative Language 3), assigned in the schedule last Monday. 

6.  On your own between now and Wednesday--Just think through . . . .
a) Use the Question 3's for Crime and Punishment to review that--choose several.
b) Imagine which ones of those might (could) apply to other works we have done.


Works We Have Read that You Should Have Well in Mind for Wednesday:

Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses
Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis (use this one only if it appears on the list of suggested works)
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll House
Kate Chopin, The Awakening
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus
William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

It would be good to have one or two works from prior years of study IF you feel you know them well already and are willing to invest some review time (or even Shmoop time--never use it instead of reading, but it actually is a pretty good source for helping you remember and refresh. Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby would probably be my top choice here.