AP Lit: Catching Up, Getting in Sync & Preparing for What Comes Next

Friday was a good day to take a breath, look at where we have been, how relatively little time we've spent together, and what is coming next on our horizon.

I also shared a story of how my dad and I destroyed a canoe in the middle of Kenduskeag Stream getting ready for a race.

(This isn't us.  This is just to give you a sense of what I avoided when we dumped above these falls.  Also, it happened several years before this.  At this point, I'm wondering why I've included this video at all.  Context.  I'm going with context.)




We did a brief review of the readings in AP Lit thus far.
Cunningham's The Hours
Foster's How to Read Lit Like a Professor Intro & Chapter 1.
Smith's "I Don't Miss It"
St. Vincent Millay's "First Fig"
as well as your own summer reading novels

We spent a little time with the PowerQuotes from Foster and connecting them to our summer reads.

I noted how Foster's first chapter functions much like a synthesis essay in his tone and approach.  It is worth revisiting as you shape your first synthesis.   Ask yourself the degree to which your essay feels like his.

We spent some time discussing the indie book project, an assignment that is due at the end of the quarter -- I've noticed a trend that so many teachers try to avoid due dates at the end of the quarter, we may actually be better served having this project due right near the end of the quarter.  Fancy that.

This led to a discussion of the protagonists in The Hours and I previewed this coming week's work which will include both a design challenge and a writer's workshop.

Here's What Was Due Friday

Read.  How to Read Lit Like a Professor Chapter 1.

Find. a POWER QUOTE.  One line from the text that you think captures the essence of the chapter.

Read.  The Hours. 173 - 195

Blog.

Start.  A Blog on Blogger for AP Lit.

(You may repurpose an old blog on Blogger for this purpose, too. I'd love to see your past work.)

Critical Creativity Post. Discuss your Oreo challenge.  Explain your intentions.

Analytical Post.   Discuss how the power quote you uncovered in How to Read Lit Chapter 1 relates to your summer reading texts.

Due.  Friday.  9.23.2016.

Here's the Out of School Work for Monday 9.26.2016 to Friday 9.30.2016

Finish.  The Hours.
Due. Tuesday, 9.27.2016
Be prepared to do some intense work with the text in-class.

Read. How to Read Lit Like a Professor
Chapter 2. Acts of Communion.
Creative Blog Challenge.  5 Course Meal. Design a metaphorical dinner menu for a dinner party at which Laura, Virginia, and Clarissa are the guests.
Part a. Use the names, flavors and ingredients of the various courses to demonstrate and understanding of the characters' journeys over the distance of the novel.
Some things to consider:
What might be served as appetizers? The main course? Dessert?
Part b. Put your design and media skills to work and create the menu itself in Google Docs, Google Drawings, hand craft it with your artistic abilities or otherwise.
Part c. Name the restaurant in which you will be serving this meal with part of a PowerQuote
from Foster Chapter 2.
For extra super bonus impress the pants off Mr. Ryder credit, actually create the meal in part or in full.  Take pictures or video.  Put it on your blog.
Due. Friday. 9.30.2016

Write.  Working Draft of Complete Synthesis Essay.
Due. Tuesday. 9.27.2016.
We will be workshopping these in class because . . .

Write.  2nd Working Draft of Complete Synthesis Essay
Due. Thursday. 9.29.2016.
We will be doing another workshop on Thursday because . . .

Write.  1st Submission Draft of Complete Synthesis Essay
Due. Monday. 10.3.2016.

Anticipate a short story or selection of poetry to read for Monday as well.
I will assign these on Thursday, 9.29.2016.  I haven't yet decided exactly what.  Next week, (10.3.2016 - 10.7.2016) we'll start off October with Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.  
I want to start it in class though.

AP Lit 3G: Diving Deeper Into Joyce (and some test prep, too)

We opened our day with some much needed test prep in the form of a multiple choice item.

From there, Mr. Ryder ranted a little bit.  It was a thing.  It had nothing to do with you folks, but of course, we already knew this.  We missed out on Hamlet time as a result and that's too bad.  He feels rather unpleasant about that as he writes this.

Then we did some amazing deep diving into Joyce and uncovered epiphanies, manipulation of language & aesthetics and free indirect discourse.  We used your design kits and marked up copies of the stories -- big strokes, lots of messy thinking, doodles and highlights and brackets abounded!  Also, super glad you captured your thinking with your phones -- so important to document your processes.

And wow.  You folks did an exceptional job on this.  I was impressed by what we found, including such observations as:
* Free indirect discourse can be as short as a word
* Little epiphanies tend to surface early in a story and build to a larger understanding
* Joyce loved the sound of words and the sounds often reflected his themes and ideas

We had a few minutes at the end of class to start a short brainstorm for "Frankliners."

Important to note!  The major due dates calendar is WAY OFF right now.  I'm adjusting it on Monday evening.

HOMEWORK

Blog: 3+ Posts (next week, you get to take off for vacation! woot!)

Req'd Post: Analytical work.  By this week you will have read three chapters from "How to Read Lit" -- "Blind," "Geography," and "Season." Foster delivers a great deal of thinking across these three chapters and I believe strongly they apply to Joyce's stories.

Find three powerful ideas from Foster -- one from each chapter -- and then apply those thoughts as lenses for looking at Dubliners.  Explain how each applies and can illuminate understanding from Joyce's work.  (You might focus on multiple stories or only one or two -- that is up to you.  Having a strong sense of Foster's thinking is more important than having a strong sense of each of these stories.) 

You may write, record, film or otherwise capture your thinking, so long as it is clear and can stand on its own without tremendous interpretation on the part of your audience.  Lots of digital tools you can use for this AND it could just be a series of paragraphs as well.  Work to your strengths/interests.

Due: Fri, Feb 14

Read: How to Read Lit Like a Professor "And so Does Season"

Due: Fri, Feb 14 

Write: Working Draft of "Frankliners" story/poem

Due: Wednesday Workshop, Feb 13

Upcoming: Read Frankenstein

Due: Thursday/Friday following Feb break.

AP Lit 2B/3B: Gallery Walk and Hamlet

Today, we'll start with a quick recalibrating -- this feels more like a start to a new quarter than last week did.

Let's climb on to NoRedInk.com for a couple of minutes, play with Apostrophes 3, explore the practice areas.  We can do this while transitioning into our next work.

We'll review effective feedback.  Take a look at all of these pictures from the way back machine when we were doling out feedback on our last round of projects.  Let's see if we can increase our rate of meaningful, effective feedback for these.

Then it is time for the gallery walk for the latest round of book projects.  Post-It Notes will abound.


From there, a few minutes with How to Read Lit Like a Professor and powerful takeaways worth putting up on the board.

We will end today with a Hamlet viewing, picking up where we left off just after "To be or not to be."

HOMEWORK

Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: Create a visual 3x3 of the town (or county) where you live.  What does that place mean to you?  How can you capture your relationship with your town through pictures?  Consider taking or drawing/painting your own.  Give considerable thought to how you arrange them.

MUGS: Apostrophes 3 on NoRedInk.com
Quiz: Thursday/Friday Feb 6 & 7

Read:  Read & and review Joyce's "The Dead" & all three other Joyce stories; be certain to 3x3 "The Dead"
Be Prepared: To work with all four 3x3s, Wed/Th/Fri

Read & Annotate: How to Read Lit Like a Professor "Geography Matters . . ."
Post: Annotations on the blog

Heads Up: Frankenstein is next!  Will need to be read by Thursday AFTER Feb break.  Let me know if you need a hard copy.  Many, many, many places to get it free online including here.