Final Project Assignment

AP English

Final Exam/Project

Develop a one sentence theme that you can trace through the entire curriculum.

Using that theme, write a 1-2 page paper that explains how that theme is proven in at least three of the works we have read. The paper needs to be an AP-caliber thesis.

Finally, do a visual representation of that theme, correlating it to the curriculum of this year. This does not have to be literal, but can be figurative and artistic. You will present it to the class (BRIEFLY) on Monday, May 9.

Week of May 2

AP Test this week!!!! Please, please remember everything I said to you about taking it seriously and please give it all you've got!

Monday, 5/2
No Class

Tuesday, 5/3
Circuit Training

Wednesday, 5/4
AP Lit Test!!! 8 AM, Arena 12/13

Thursday, 5/5
All with me for two hours
Lovesong

Friday, 5/6
All with Adam

Final Projects are due Monday, 5/9

Week of 4/25

5. We have 5 class days left together before the AP test.
7. We have a total of 7 class days left together before you walk out those doors and leave me behind, left with nothing but your picture stuck some random place, a Popsicle stick project, a copy of some awesome written assignment, and a whole lot of memories. And probably I'll be crying in a corner somewhere. So there's that.
I have such a frantic feeling, that sand slipping through your fingers, Time's winged chariot at your back urgency. I know it's so cliche, but I can't believe it's over. It seems like I walked into that room only yesterday to talk to you for the first time. And now here we are.
Please help me make the most of the last of our time. And please remember all that I have said about taking the test seriously.

Monday, 4/25
The Things They Carried AND assignment due

Tuesday, 4/26
Prose Focus

Wednesday, 4/27
Poetry Focus
6:30 -- my house -- movie night. Don't leave me alone with a set up and no people.

Thursday, 4/28
Open Focus
Toolbox due

Friday, 4/30
Feel free to come hang out. 😉

The Things We Carry

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 did write one of my own last year while my students wrote theirs. I have pasted it below, but it also 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 I Carry

Written in April, 2015

One year away from halfway through… Halfway through the “home years”, halfway through my teaching career, halfway…halfway…

In the past fourteen years, I have carried many, many things. I have carried things for my students and I have carried things because of them. Some things are so very heavy and painful to bear. I have carried the crushing blow of a college rejection, the anxiety of Spring Break trips, the heavy load of the death of a parent. I have suffered under the weight of test scores and I have nearly drowned in the flood of white with blue lines or black text that covers my desk. I have carried the knowledge of kids who work all night and go to school all day just so that they can help a parent pay the bills, of a girl who was skipping school to chase the paper trail that is beaurocacy from the Social Security Office to the bank to the Housing Authority so that she could stay in school and live in a safe place. I have carried disabilities and health plans. I have carried the stress of seniors as they feel pressured to make life decisions RIGHT NOW when those life decisions don’t even need to be made for several years. I have carried the financial burden of a student who didn’t have the money to pay her father’s burial expenses and the funeral home was going to hold the body until they found the money. I have carried the weight of an empty chair at graduation, cap and gown draped over it for a student who never came home. I have carried other students across the stage, metaphorically speaking, to receive a diploma that probably should have had my name on it as well.

But oh, the beautiful things I have carried… I have carried the bite in the air of a Friday night football game, the tears of a successful curtain call, the triumphant cap toss in May. I have carried projects that perfectly captured the theme of a literary work, bags of brown research paper envelopes that proved to some that what seemed to be impossible was very much within their reach. I have carried Holocaust Memorial Projects that took my breath away because I know that THEY GOT IT, they embodied the message and purpose of Holocaust education. I have carried checks to non-profit agencies that represented blood, sweat, and tears from Holocaust Lit kids who went so far above and beyond in their projects that it astounded even me. I have carried the words of thousands of letters of recommendations. I have carried 2100 (more or less) names and faces. I have carried five yearbooks and the staffs I will never forget. I have carried 13 proms. I have carried college graduations and military deployments and weddings and new babies and new jobs for the “kids” who will always be “mine”. I have carried millions of text and fb messages and the occasional handwritten letter that boost my spirit in a way very little else can. I have carried requests to proofread and analyze long after these people leave my classroom.  I have carried the thrill of exciting news, the joy of seeing someone find his or her dream calling, the excitement of watching an athletic ability flourish at the collegiate level.

I have carried the words, the stories… so, so many words and stories. I think when you teach English, you become, in some sense, the keeper of the stories.

O'Brien Assignment

You will get an end of the year checklist today.  There really isn't much left (AT ALL) and I just want to make sure we are all on the same page with everything.

Through this week, 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)

Lit Terms 6

Keep pushing!

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

Week of April 18

It may be a crazy schedule week, but we are ready to make it happen. :)

Monday, 4/18
1,2, 4
AP prep

Tuesday, 4/19
AP Prep

Wednesday, 4/20
1,2,4
AP Prep

Thursday, 4/21
1,3,4
AP Prep

Friday, 4/22
TTTC
Lit Terms 6

Week of April 11

Lots of AP Prep coming at ya!

Monday, April 11
Show Monster projects
Poetry Focus

Tuesday, April 12
Test strategies focus

Wednesday, April 13
Allegory, Everyman

Thursday, April 14
Test
Teacher Letter

Friday, April 15
MC Focus
JOURNALS DUE

Monster Projects, Options A-D

This is due MONDAY!!! 

Option A, Personal Narrative/Creative:

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 influence, anxiety, depression, not taking school seriously in 9th and 10th grade and having to fight the next two years to bring up a GPA, one mistake that had negative and far-reaching ramifications, unplanned pregnancy, affairs, etc.

Write an index card about the monster and its power, then visually illustrate OR write a page in which you fully describe this monster and its power.

Option B, Research:

Look up a monster from another culture. Write a page in which you explain the origins of the monster, its description, its powers, and any other pertinent details about it.

Option C, Contemporary Connections:

Find a news article, past or present, about monstrous behavior as reported by the media. Print out a copy of the article and write a page summary of it, including your opinion of the behavior and its monstrosity.

Option D, Creative:

Create your own monster and monster story. The monster should have a background, name, and history or developmental tale that explains its existence. You have some options here... I want the details of the monster on an index card, then I will need some sort of sensory representation of the monster. This is where the various creative energies of this group will come into play. You could do a video for your monster (James, Oliver). You could create it on a canvas (Jayda, Sergio). You could create a soundtrack of music for your monster (Alec) or a tv episode based around your monster (Will). You are welcome to perform a monologue AS your monster (Matt W, Julia) or write a story with your monster as the main character (Sarah) or write a song from the monster's perspective (Marco) or a video game about your monster (AJ, Drew) or a half-poster board cartoon starring your monster (Chastin). 

Whatever you want to do, this entire project is WIDE OPEN to you. Dazzle me, people. Dazzle me with your monster-making, you young Frankensteins.