AP Practice Links and other sites

Practice information
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_information/2002.html

TP-CASTT Example
http://skyview.vansd.org/bquestad/Poetry/tpcastt/poemanalysis.htm

SOAPS
http://parkrose.orvsd.org/mod/resource/view.php?id=1142

21 Poems for AP Consumption :)
http://edsitement.neh.gov/feature/twenty-one-poems-ap-literature-and-composition

Lit Terms
http://edsitement.neh.gov/reference-shelf/glossaries/literary-glossary-index

Tim O'Brien Links

Please make certain that you have read The Things They Carried chapters assigned in the previous blog post. Today, I asked you to write a reflection on the things that you have carried throughout this educational career or your lives up to this point. I haven't read these yet, and I did write one of my own while you wrote. I may turn it into a blog post, but for now, it reminded me of a blog post I wrote a while back. The link is below, if you want to check it out. It might be a good time to read it, as you are coming to the end of your time with your teachers, going on your senior parade, etc..
http://athenajdavis.blogspot.com/2013/11/its-heavy.html

Below are links to three Tim O'Brien interviews/reviews/articles. I would love for you to have read and/or listened to them by class time tomorrow.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125128156

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-04-18/entertainment/ct-ae-0418-lit-life-20100418_1_e-book-read-tim-o-brien

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/books/review/tim-obriens-things-they-carried-read-by-bryan-cranston.html?_r=0

The Things They Carried assigment

This is a far more public forum than I normally would use to say anything like this but it's the only way I can get to all of you while it's still relevant.

I am not mad at you. If I came across as short today, it's just because I am tired and overwhelmed with all that's left to do and sad that the year is almost over and our time is so short and a little stressed about this test and I hated that our valuable class time had to be spent on demographics instead of the poetry review that we were supposed to do and the morning was pretty hectic, etc, etc, etc.. I LOOOVE you all and I have loved this year and I have loved this class and every day has been a joy. Seriously. Thank you for being the people and students you are. Thank you for your attention and your positivity and your enthusiasm and your kindness, even if some days it was fake. ;) I have loved so many classes through the years, and so many AP groups specifically, but you all have absolutely been the easiest to work with and the most gentle and kind. And you're SO. FREAKING. SMART. :)

OK. I feel better. :)

In regard to the Toolbox, remember that you are ALL doing a set for Grendel and then you can pick for your second set from either: Heart of Darkness, Everyman, or your Love Month book IF I APPROVED IT FOR THIS. If you haven't asked me yet and you do one that is not approved, you will not receive credit for it.

I am giving you an end of the year checklist on Monday. I just want to make sure we are all on the same page with everything.

Over the weekend, with the O'Brien book:

Tim O'Brien was a soldier in the Vietnam War. The Things They Carried is classified as a work of fiction, although it has many roots in his experiences. It is set up in the format of a series of essays. There are a few I want you to read and we are going to use one or more for our work on passage questions. I would have had you read the whole book but there is quite a bit of profanity and I don't want to require you to read something that might be offensive to you. The chapters I have chosen are acceptable. There is one more assignment that we are going to do with this book that is more creative and reflective. I would like for you to read the first essay (chapter), "The Things They Carried" (same title as the title of the book) in order to be better able to do that assignment but it's a little rough in places, so if you start reading and find that it bothers you, you are not required to read it. I know that you are incredibly busy people right now (as am I), but if you enjoy the reading and have the time, I would read all of it if I were you. It has been used MULTIPLE times on the AP test, so it's another good one to have in your arsenal.

Chapters you are required to read include:
"On the Rainy River"
"Church"
"Ambush"
"In the Field"
"Good Form"
"Field Trip"
"The Lives of the Dead"


Chapter I would like for you to read to complete the additional assignment but it is not required:
"The Things They Carried" (first chapter in the book)

Great Test-Taking Strategy Lesson

http://study.com/academy/lesson/how-to-answer-multiple-choice-questions-about-literature-test-taking-strategies.html

Monster Assignment

Option A: Real Life Monster? Find a news article that details what you would define to be especially monstrous behavior. Print the article and write a summary of both the article as well as the reasons you find it to be specifically monstrous.

Option B: Monster Research 

Monster _________________________________________________

Country of Origin _________________________________________

Date of first appearance in literature, drama, etc _________________

Creator/Author ___________________________________________

Appearances in literature ___________________________________

Appearances in performing arts ______________________________

Qualities ________________________________________________

What makes him/her a monster? _____________________________

Nemesis ________________________________________________

List at least 5 additional facts about the monster below:

Website(s) used __________________________________________

Option C: Grendel Essay

Who, ultimately, has a greater influence on Grendel-- the shaper or the dragon? Fully explain and develop your answer-- try to acknowledge the logical counterarguments. (Note: part of explaining your answer will be defining the influence of the shaper and the dragon.)

Option D: Monster Creation

Think of "monsters" in your own life, specifically, the lives of those close to you, or society in general. By "monster", we mean situations that are of our own making that have gotten out of control and taken over our lives. Addictions, time management, getting in with a group of people with negative influences, anxiety, depression, not taking school seriously enough in the underclassmen years and having to fight to bring up a GPA, one mistake that had negative and far-reaching ramifications, unplanned pregnancy, affairs, etc..

Write a paragraph  about the monster ands its power, then visually illustrate.

Lit Terms 6

Keep pushing!

Naturalism
Modernism
Epigraph
Antihero
Juxtaposition
Periodic sentence
Apposition
Tricolon
Antithesis
Causal relationship

Week of April 20

This week will be a wild mix of lots of things. :)

Monday, 4/20
Monster Day

Tuesday, 4/21
Allegory/Everyman
Exeter Book

Wednesday, 4/22
Test
Monster stuff due

Thursday, 4/23
AP Practice- Strategies
MOVIE NIGHT!

Friday, 4/24
Lit Terms 6
Journals due
AP Practice- Poetry

Lit Terms 5

Getting close now....

Lyric poem
Inversion (in grammar and comp)
Oxymoron
Puritanism
Epanalepsis
Anthropomorphism
Syntactic Permutation
Epistrophe
Antimetabole
Transcendentalism

Week of 4/13

GRENDEL!!! :)

Monday, 4/13
Discuss the ending of Beowulf

Tuesday, 4/14
Assign Everyman
Grendel

Wednesday, 4/15
Grendel

Thursday, 4/16
Ther Thur
Give FFF out to Group 1
FFF due from Group 2

Friday, 4/17
Grendel Seminar (all)
Lit Terms 5
Assign Exeter Book
All with me

*Everyman is due Tuesday, 4/21.

Lit Terms 4

More, more, more! We are getting good.

Syntactic fluency
Regionalism
Chiasmus
Anaphora
Plain style (in writing)
Unity (in the grammatical sense)
Rationalism
Aphorism
Synecdoche
Didactic

Week of April 6

One page, people. The remainder of high school for you fits on ONE. PAGE. Make that page count!

Monday, 4/6
OFF

Tuesday, 4/7
Passionate Shepherd to His Love, Nymph's Reply
Read Beowulf section 1 for h/w

Wednesday, 4/8
A-S Notes
Discuss 1
Epithets/Kennings
Read 2 for h/w

Thursday, 4/9
1-TT
2-Flurry of Frenetic Focus
Lit Terms 4 Quiz

Friday, 4/10
...