"If you prick us, do we not bleed?"

-->From Shylock to Jay-Z humans have persistently pondered the essential question of existence:  What does it mean to be human?  Now you can join the conversation.  For your final AP Xtreme Adventure, you will be adding your viewpoint, considering what makes us human.  Drawing from our readings and discussions, your own experiences and ideas, and whatever else you think is relevant, you will work with a partner to weigh in on this age-old question with a well-designed pecha-kucha. 

PECHA-KUCHA REQUIREMENTS

            • Four-minute speech, identifying a thesis, scripted and presented  

               to your AP Xtreme class

            • Sixteen slides, each lasting 15 seconds, to accompany your speech, plus a works cited slide

            • Information derived from previous readings or new research, with
               proper citation, addressing three human qualities:

                        psychological

                        biological

                        social/cultural

            • At least one direct quotation taken from this year’s readings

You may work with any student from AP Xtreme 2012-13 on this assignment.  The completed project will be presented to the combined classes, and your grade will count for both.  Each partner will give part of the speech and will be scored individually, based on the Oregon Common Core Standards for Speaking.  Both partners will be scored equally on the content of the speech, the slide selection, and presentation.

TIMELINE     

May 20 - 31     Preparation:  Library/labs available; bring laptops if you can

May 24            Documentation Sheet:  Thesis, supporting ideas, and sources

May 31            Speech Script with MLA citations

June 3 - 7         Presentations

DOCUMENTATION SHEET INFORMATION (what you wrote) is HERE.

Time Melts

Oh, man.  Remember September when May and the AP test and the end of the year seemed impossibly far away?  Yeah.  Here we are.  Before you know it, you'll be floating down the river, basking in the summer sun and the glory of your AP test scores, and thinking ahead to an impossibly far away next school year.  Time = weird; am I right?  Anywho, this week we'll tick off the days with exercises and readings and discussions--all of which should put the final touches on your test readiness.  Who needs The Hammer when you have this kind of thrill ride?

MONDAY, 5/6
AP Test #Last
• finish
• review
Style Matters
• information
• exercise

TUESDAY, 5/7
Humor in Writing
• selected readings
• discussion

WEDNESDAY, 5/8
Cultural Literacy!

THURSDAY, 5/9
AP Test Eve
• final tips
• practice

FRIDAY, 5/10
AP Test!!
Gatsby!!!
Bears!!!!
(minus the bears)

Just a Few More Hoops

Hey!  More words!  This week's adventure in AP Xtreme brings the LAST AP Prompt response--lucky #13!  We'll take some more time sharpening those skills for next week's official exam, writing a final personal essay (about words, of course), and discussing some language-specific ideas and issues.  Keep track of your grades in Student Assistant; everything should be in now.

MONDAY, 4/30
AP Prompt #12
• returned
• reviewed
Mother Tongue
• reading check
• response
READ How Much Wallop Can a Simple Word Pack? for TUESDAY

TUESDAY, 4/31
How Much Wallop?
• discussion
• response
Words on Words
• directions and expectations

WEDNESDAY, 5/1
Cultural Literacy!
TED

THURSDAY, 5/2
In Plain English:  Let's Make It Official
• read
• analyze
• respond:  discussion

FRIDAY, 5/3
AP Prompt #LAST! (Synthesis)

Thunderation!

Well, this should be fun.  We're brewing up a STORM of a week with ACT and the Mr.Thunder pageant, but we still need to keep plowing toward that AP Test (and glory, duh).  So, you'll want to eat your Wheaties, get a good night's sleep, and be all that you can be.  Later you can sit on the couch, eat Cheetos, and wait for the lightning.  We have just one reading this week, but lots of writing and, of course, fun.  Ready?

MONDAY, 4/22
AP Prompt #11
• general discussion
• writing groups:  revise
Read Mother Tongue

TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, 4/23-24
**NB:  Because of Tuesday's ACT, periods 1&2 will meet Tuesday
and periods 3-7 will meet Wednesday.  This schedule is for both days.
Politics and the English Language
• identifying Orwell's ideas
• applying Orwell's ideas

THURSDAY, 4/25
AP Prompt #12

FRIDAY, 4/26
Mother Tongue
• reading check
• response

Use Your Words

Now that we've figured out all we need to know about biology, let's focus on what really matters:  WORDS.  E.M. Forster famously asked, "How do I know what I think until I see what I say?"  Good question, E.M.  Words are what allow us to think, or at least to express our thinking, and to reveal our understanding.  This week, we'll begin focusing on our amazing language--reading, writing, and talking about it in all sorts of ways.  ALSO, we'll start some serious boot camp shape-up for the AP exam:  Be all that you can be!

MONDAY, 4/15
AP Prompt #10
• review
• return
• revise
Read Dumpster Diving for TUESDAY
Read "Arguing About Language" for WEDNESDAY

TUESDAY, 4/16
AP Boot Camp:  sentence combining
Dumpster Diving
• reading check
• response/discussion

WEDNESDAY, 4/17
"Arguing About Language"
• discussion
• response

THURSDAY, 4/18
AP Prompt #11

FRIDAY, 4/19
"Mother Tongue"
• read
• respond

Dive in!

We're just one quarter away from the end of the year, sports fans, so time to go for the gold!  This week, we'll focus on writing strategies and skills to take us to the AP test in great shape.  We'll cycle back to the Orwell reading we skipped last week, finish the Scientific Paper, practice some prompt response introductions, and write a 10th prompt.  We have just one new reading for the week, so be sure to get it done.  Here we go!

MONDAY, 4/8
Scientific Paper:  The Abstract
• instruction
• computer lab
Read Dumpster Diving for Friday

TUESDAY, 4/9
Shooting an Elephant
• reading check/discussion
• close reading analysis

WEDNESDAY, 4/10
TED Talk:  Ken Jennings

THURSDAY, 4/11
AP Prompt #10

FRIDAY, 4/12
Dumpster Diving
• discussion
• writing response

Wellllll, hot dang!  It's April!  (No foolin'.)  So, it would seem we're in the final run-up--to the AP exam[s] the last "summer break" of your official childhood (for most of you, anyway), and the end of the school year. Time flies, am I right?  We've made mucho progress, and have bravely gone where only a few have dared to go before, BUT we're not there yet.  For the coming weeks, in the Lang portion of the program, we'll be focusing HARD on the writing niceties that will put us in good shape--for the test AND for anything else that comes along.  Hang on, Xtremers!  This party's just getting started!

MONDAY, 4/1
The Scientific Paper
• How, what, when
• The structure
Read Shooting an Elephant for WEDNESDAY

TUESDAY, 4/2
Write up!
• Reading:  E. B. White
• Writing:  mimicry

WEDNESDAY, 4/3
Shooting an Elephant
• Close reading
• Reading response

THURSDAY, 4/4
AP Prompt #10
Scientific Paper DUE (midnight)

FRIDAY, 4/5
AP Multiple Choice
• strategies
• practice

Cogito ergo sum

What is your destiny?  For hundreds of years, people believed that their lives were guided by external forces they could not control--usually a diety or some greater purpose or plan.  With the discovery of DNA and the mapping of the human genome, the force of destiny has become, for many, a kind coding we are born with.  But with each new discovery and answer to the mysteries of life, new questions arise:  How much control do we have over our own lives?  What good does knowing do?  Can destiny be subverted?  Is there a limit to our knowledge?  Should there be? However you look at it, this is an exciting time to be alive.  Now, let's read!

MONDAY, 3/4
Intricacy
• sharing
• feedback
Radiolab:  (So-called) Life
• response: Sense of Life/playing with life
Read DNA as Destiny for TUESDAY, 3/5

TUESDAY, 3/5
DNA as Destiny
• response
• shared inquiry
Read The Selfish Gene for THURSDAY, 3/7

WEDNESDAY, 3/6
ASHG Essay
• outline DUE
• writing workshop

THURSDAY, 3/7
The Selfish Gene
• response
• discussion:  argument/rhetoric

FRIDAY, 3/8
AP Prompt #8

MONDAY MATTERS!

Although your Xtreme mentors--McKuka--will NOT be with you on Monday, February 25, you will be expected to continue your research with scholarly seriousness. We know how sad you'll be that we're not there. Do your best to survive without us. By the end of the day, the following is DUE on NOODLETOOLS, shared to the McKuka dropbox:

1. Research question
2. Thesis statement
3. Note card:  identify the specific evidence you will use to support your thesis, the sciencey stuff.

Example:  I will use the study of the effect of smoking on the epigenome and examine its heritable influence.

We will see you on TUESDAY, back in your respective Lang and Bio classes.  Be sure you have read The Future of Happiness for Lang on Tuesday.  Come with it printed out and marked up.

Origins

Now that we know how communicative our cells are, we can begin to see how it all connects, where it all began, what it means to us.  In AP Bio, we'll be starting to explore the mystery of DNA, getting ready to kill in the ASHG DNA Essay Contest!!  In AP Lang, we'll focus on the main reading--Life from Scum--to consider the sociological, environmental, philosophical, and all kind of other icals as the growing body of scientific knowledge relates to us.  Stay tuned.

MONDAY, 2/11
Ask Me About Cell Communication!
• recordings
• evaluation

TUESDAY, 2/12
Life from Scum
• reading check
• analysis:  argument -> support

WEDNESDAY, 2/13
Life from Scum
• shared inquiry: ideas

THURSDAY, 2/14
AP Prompt #7

FRIDAY, 2/15
Intricacy Essays
• sharing
• celebrating
Read The Future of Happiness for TUESDAY

Two cells walk into a bar . . .

Cell communication.  Not your iphone, but the conversations going on inside of you.  Can you hear them?  Can you understand?  This week's focus will be on the most basic of all life forms--the cell.  We will work toward achieving a level of cell literacy through a variety of readings, viewings, and exercises in class and out.  By the end of the week, you should be able to listen in and understand the chatter going on inside you--the conversation of life.

MONDAY, 2/4

Cell Communication

• Cell signaling reading

• Getting the gist: outline

• Cell signaling literacy: paraphrase

Read Life from Scum for Friday

TUESDAY, 2/5

Cell Communication

• GPCR reading

• Coming to terms:  in-text defining

• GPCR literacy:  summarize

WEDNESDAY, 2/6

Grammar!

• antecedents/pronouns

• getting rid of “it”

THURSDAY, 2/7

AP Prompt #6

FRIDAY, 2/8

Life from Scum

• essential questions

• analysis/discussion

It's a Wrap

Heya!  Welcome to Week the Last of the first semester of your AP English Language Experience.  Except for next week's final--the official CIM writing test--this week marks the end of the first half, and just getting this far is cause for celebration and congratulations.  Please be aware that Friday, January 25, is THE LAST DAY to turn in any work--missing stuff, redone essays, etc.  For this abbreviated week, we'll have some readings and talkings and exercises and another AP Prompt.  Wheeee!

MONDAY, 1/21
MLK! Hooooray!

TUESDAY, 1/22
Joyas Voladoras
• read
• oral analysis

WEDNESDAY, 1/23
Cut to the Chase
• Eliminating wordiness
• Sentence combining

THURSDAY, 1/24
AP Prompt #4

FRIDAY, 1/25
Warnings from a Flabby Mouse
• making the argument: appeals/stylistic choices
• larger implications
INTRICACY essay DUE

Pay Attention!

So many things pull at our attention--desires and duties, responsibilities and possibilities, causes and crises call on us, sometimes simultaneously, making it hard to focus on anything.  Yet to truly appreciate and understand something, we have to be able to turn off the noise, to look closely, listen carefully, and ponder deeply.  This week we'll pay attention to our attention.  We'll notice the connections between things, the inner workings and outer manifestations of the world around us, in biology through a microscope; in English through words.

MONDAY, 11/14
The Bird and the Machine
• reading check
• focused discussion:  form and function
• brief rhetorical analysis
Read Intricacy for TUESDAY

TUESDAY, 11/15
Intricacy
• questions
• discussion: details
• writing:  Big Idea, Small Focus--the Intricacy Essay

WEDNESDAY, 11/16
TED:  Beautiful Nano Details
• viewing
• observation

THURSDAY, 11/17
AP Prompt #5:  Analysis

FRIDAY, 11/18
Hills Like White Elephants
• reading
• analysis

So, this is the new year

And I don't feel any different.  Except maybe a little guilty (obviously a good way to begin) for not reading all your research essays over the break.  I blame the figgy pudding.  Anywho, they will be done by the end of the week, so you'll have time to revise, if you choose, before the semester ends.  Yes, we're almost halfway through the year, and closer than that to the AP tests in May.  So, we'll be starting this week with lots of focused attention to the nuts and bolts of reading and writing skills that will lead to success on the test and, more importantly, in LIFE.  Resolution:  Pay attention.

MONDAY, 1/7
The Method of Scientific Investigation
• vocabulary focus
• identifying tone, purpose, intent
• finish reading for TUESDAY
• bring SA, January 2013, to class rest of week

TUESDAY, 1/8
The Method of Scientific Investigation
• response
• discussion
• listen to Radiolab, Choice (Season 5, Episode 1), for FRIDAY

WEDNESDAY, 1/9
Logic-Tight Compartments
• read
• apply Huxley to Schermer: How we use/abuse logic

THURSDAY, 1/10
AP Prompt #4: Synthesis

FRIDAY, 1/11
Choice
• using logic/emotion/reasoning
• taking a stand
• read The Bird and the Machine for MONDAY