Thursday, 2/12/2009

 AP ENGLISH

Homework Due

• College-Prep Research Worksheet
  

Mid-Term Exam Preparation

• I handed out the review sheet for the final, and we discussed what you'd need to be able to do or talk about for each item (frame story; gothic; vocabulary; critical approaches; intertextuality).
  
• I talked about the in-class essay--what a good reader should do.
  
• I talked about the out-of-class Frankenstein essay that will be due next Thursday, 2/19.
  

What Does a Good Reader Do?

• We made a list (added to our own lists) of what Nabokov and Perrine say a good reader does.  The list is long and detailed, and we talked about the fact that many of the items on our list were things we missed in our first reading of each author.  It took REREADING the texts to dig more deeply into them.
  

Frankenstein

• Nikki and Shelby talked about two scenes in the novel, the first where the monster asks Victor to make him a companion, and the second, where Victor decides against completing the female monster, and then dismembers her.  Their scenes generated a lot of discussion about all kinds of issues:  what makes one person love another; arranged marriages; Western view of love and marriage, versus other cultural views; whether or not the monsters are human or animal; sexuality; Victor's indecisivenesss or "drama-queen"-ness, as Paul dubs it; and more....
  

Homework

Thoughtfully consider the following questions, and come to class tomorrow ready to discuss them:

• Why did Victor refuse to accept the monster he'd created?
  
• What might be my possible thesis for the Frankenstein essay?
  

Start preparing (by review and research) for the vocabulary final on Tuesday, and the mid-term final on Wednesday.

CREATIVE WRITING

Portfolio Reminder

• We reviewed page 9 in the textbook about how the portfolios will be evaluated at the end of the term.
  
• We discussed page 16, which showed how the title of your table of contents needs to be called something that relates to your portfolio title.
  
• We watched Miguel's PowerPoint portfolio, and then we talked about how we'd evaluate it.
  

Mid-Term Reflection

• I handed out grade printouts.
  
• We filled out mid-term reflections, and we selected one piece of writing for our parents to read at conferences tonight.
  

Writing Experiment #8

Life at Thirty

• We pretended we were thirty, and we wrote, in present tense what our life is at thirty.
  
• We saved our rough drafts.  We will revise them Tuesday, then print a final copy for me to read aloud in class later next week.  These should be top-secret--no on else should know the details you're using, because we're going to try to guess who's who next week.
  

TURBO-ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING

Writing Experiment

• Two Lenses--directions are on page 6 of your textbook.  We spent five minutes talking about ideas, and about fifteen minutes typing.

Sharing

• We workshopped the Persona Poems, printed and handed them out for folder log-in.
  

Mid-Term Reflection

• I handed out grade printouts, and we logged-in any miscellaneous papers as needed.  We completed the self-reflection and handed it in, along with a piece of writing for parents to read at conferences tonight.
  

Snacks

• I brought chocolate--not as filling as Mike's Pop Tarts yesterday, but still good....  Sarah is bringing snacks mañana.
  

Writing Workshop (on the following, all due at the beginning of class tomorrow)

• Childhood Memoir
  
• Reflection
  
• Rubric
  
• Saying "It" Poem
  
• Rubric