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