Hand out AP Language & Composition Sourcebooks to all of those absent yesterday (13 absences)

Sharing your October 29 journal with two other people: October 29, 2014: What did Orwell get right in 1984? 
 In thinking about what he got right, you would need to be thinking 
about what his novel is saying to an audience now. What he got right asks you to be conscious of what was fictionalized and what actually happened, the Orwellian truth, long after his novel was published. Without being too literal, take a look at history (from 1948, when he wrote the book, to the present) and write about some of the ideas, social and political trends, warfare, impacts/uses of technology, changes in language (e.g., text-talk), and anything else you might think of which seems to be an echo/reflection of the types of things Orwell was warning us about in 1984.  Please write a thoughtful 11-15 sentence reflection, due at the beginning of class tomorrow (we will discuss them).


North Korea Prison Camps


Next, peruse the AP IV 300 + tone words (32) and Some words to use in thinking about tone (33-34).  Do any of these words seem like they would be helpful in talking about yesterday’s writing prompt?

Which tone words did you select yesterday? Where do you sense a shift in tone?   

Finally, on the back, or at the end of your outline, write or rewrite four to six sharp sentences based on the resources you received today and the observations you and your partner made yesterday.

Sentences from yesterday...add to paper/board...

Following the examples for showing rather than telling on page ___  of your yellow composition workbook, write/copy three good explanatory sentences which deal with the  one (or more) of the 
following: (Write the sentences next to the categories which they seem most directly related to)

1. tone
2. diction
3. selection of details
4. images/imagery
5. figurative language
6. syntax
7. purpose
8. other

HW: Read and annotate the following.  At the top of each page write a sentence or two summarizing the main ideas from this page and then write another sentence or two explaining how it might be useful to you in reading for rhetorical strategies and in writing a rhetorical analysis essay.

o   Top Ten “Moves” to Improve Your Writing (1-2)

o   the thesis crafting mini-lesson on Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (16-17)

o   and the sample mini-essay on David Berman’s poem, “Snow” (11-12) in your green Writer’s Sourceboo

o   Words of Evaluation (23)

o   Scholarly transitions (37)

o   Words to Build a Style Vocabulary (38)

Share your annotations and summaries from last night's homework...


Homework:  On Monday you will be writing an in-class essay in 

the DC. The essay prompt is

Reread the passage beginning at the top of 219 and ending at the bottom of 220. Then write a  rhetorical analysis essay in which you describe Orwell’s tone in the passage and how particular rhetorical choices contribute to this tone. Also address whether the tone seems appropriately suited to Orwell’s subject matter and purpose(s) in this passage.  Some possible rhetorical elements to consider could include but are not necessarily limited to the following: diction, syntax, figurative language, images, organization/structure, and selection of details.

Dear 4AP students,

Thanks for working so hard and behaving so well while I was out. Wonderful reports from the subs! You were great! I’m proud to call you my students.

Today, while I catch up with paperwork, I want to give you some time to finish your outlines from yesterday, and then spend some time looking over a writing a resource that you are receiving today: The AP Language and Composition Writing Sourcebook.  It contains lessons, examples, etc. that were either created or gathered by a group of AP teachers at LT.

First,  closely read and annotate the page 47 -54 in the AP Language and Composition… These pages address rhetoric and rhetorical analysis writing.  Beginning at page 51, at the top of each page write a sentence or two summarizing the main ideas from this page and then write another sentence or two explaining how it might be useful to you in reading for rhetorical strategies and in writing a rhetorical analysis essay.  (Note that 53 was accidentally printed twice)

·         Next, discuss your annotations with your partner from yesterday. Is there anything from pages 47-54 which might be helpful in writing an essay in response to yesterday’s writing prompt?  Next, peruse the AP IV 300 + tone words (32) and Some words to use in thinking about tone (33-34).  Do any of these words seem like they would be helpful in talking about yesterday’s writing prompt?

·         Finally, on the back, or at the end of your outline, write or rewrite four to six sharp sentences based on the resources you received today and the observations you and your partner made yesterday.

HW: Read and annotate the following.  At the top of each page write a sentence or two summarizing the main ideas from this page and then write another sentence or two explaining how it might be useful to you in reading for rhetorical strategies and in writing a rhetorical analysis essay.

o   Top Ten “Moves” to Improve Your Writing (1-2)

o   the thesis crafting mini-lesson on Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (16-17)

o   and the sample mini-essay on David Berman’s poem, “Snow” (11-12) in your green Writer’s Sourceboo

o   Words of Evaluation (23)

o   Scholarly transitions (37)

o   Words to Build a Style Vocabulary (38)

October 29, 2014

Periods 1-3: Senior AP English

AP: Rhetoric of Language and Comp                                                             1984 by George Orwell

(Individually) Paying close attention to tone, purpose, diction, syntax, and selection of details (whew…what a list!), reread the passage that begins at the beginning of 219 and ends at the end of 220. (10 minutes) 

(With one or two partners) Discuss your annotations and the prompt below (10 minutes) and then get started on the following:

(With one or two partners) Do the following assignment:  October 29, 2014, 1984: Tone and Purpose in pages 219-220   (due at the end of class): Create a detailed outline  - containing, at a minimum, a thesis, topic sentences and important textual evidence - for an AP-style essay which responds to the following prompt (20-30 minutes).  Note that this prompt might later be used for a graded in-class essay assignment.

Prompt: Reread the passage beginning at the top of 219 and ending at the bottom of 220. Then write a  rhetorical analysis essay in which you describe Orwell’s tone in the passage and how particular rhetorical choices contribute to this tone. Also address whether the tone seems appropriately suited to Orwell’s subject matter and purpose(s) in this passage.  Some possible rhetorical elements to consider could include but are not necessarily limited to the following: diction, syntax, figurative language, images, organization/structure, and selection of details.

Reminder about the difference between tone and mood: The tone of a piece of literature is the speaker's or narrator's attitude towards the subject, rather than what the reader feels, as in mood. Mood is the general feeling or atmosphere that a piece of writing creates within the reader.

Other Reminders:

Diction: word choice

Syntax: arrangement of words

Juxtaposition: placement of two things closely together to emphasize similarities or differences

Images/imagery: Content/language which appeal to the senses; language which helps the writer paint a picture, bring a scene to life, and perhaps create a certain atmosphere or mood

Selection of details: the author’s inclusion of particular details in a passage in order to achieve a particular purpose or effect

Connotation: Meanings or associations that readers have beyond its dictionary definition

Personification: lifelike qualities given to an inanimate object

Homework:

Please do the following journal entry titled: October 29, 2014: What did Orwell get right in 1984?  In thinking about what he got right, you would need to be thinking about what his novel is saying to an audience now. What he got right asks you to be conscious of what was fictionalized and what actually happened, the Orwellian truth, long after his novel was published. Without being too literal, take a look at history (from 1948, when he wrote the book, to the present) and write about some of the ideas, social and political trends, warfare, impacts/uses of technology, changes in language (e.g., text-talk), and anything else you might think of which seems to be an echo/reflection of the types of things Orwell was warning us about in 1984.  Please write a thoughtful 11-15 sentence reflection, due at the beginning of class tomorrow (we will discuss them).

October 27, 2014

Learning Target:

Make connections between current events and our reading.

Notecards: Please write a question and comment from this weekend's reading. Also, write one MC quiz question from Part 3.

Are We Safer 21 minutes

Top Secret America

Top Secret America

Homework: 15 questions (30 points) quiz tomorrow on Part 3 of 1984 


horror-before-the-beheadings-what-isis-hostages-endured-in-syria.html

October 23, 2014 1984

Learning Target: Make connections between literature and the modern world.

Exposing-the-truth-of-abu-ghraib



Digital Nation Distracted By Everything

Milgram Experiment

Ashcroft Experiment

HW: Read pp. 275-312

The last chapter, 299-312, is actually the Appendix: The Principles of Newspeak. 

It is fairly compex examination of the connections between diction (word choices), syntax (sentence structure), and their effect on our ability to think, our ability to formulate ideas.  This is directly related to our study of rhetoric, so read it carefully, at a time when you are awake enough to comprehend it.

October 22, 1984

Learning Target: Make connections between literature and the modern world.

Exposing-the-truth-of-abu-ghraib



Digital Nation Distracted By Everything

HW: Read pp. 260-274

October 21, 2014 1984

Learning Target:  I can use textual evidence to support my factual reading of the text.

Use textual evidence (embedded into the grammatical flow of your sentences) to answer each of the following:

1) Where is Winston?  What confusion does he express concerning exactly where he is at in that building?

2) There seem to be two different classes of prisoners. What are these two groups? How does the behavior of each group while in prison - and their treatment by the guards - differ?

3) What are some of the methods of torture - both mild and severe - which we hear about? 

Exposing-the-truth-of-abu-ghraib

HW: Read 239-260 

October 20, 2014

Bellringer:  Towards the end of chapter 9, Winston reflects that he now knows how human inequality had been maintained, but he still does not understand the motives for maintaining inequality: "why should human equality be averted?" (216).  

Why do you think that The Party - and ruling classes in past ages - have made an effort to maintain inequality?

Activity 1: Chapter 10 hand out and discussion

Homework: Read through page 239 (Part 3, chapter 1).

Share your journal entries on war, social hierarchy, and the economy in 1984 

• Either read them aloud or paraphrase them with sufficient detail and textual evidence to give groupmates a full picture of your insights, logic and evidence 
• Clearly and try to project so groupmates can here you; don't mumble.  Listen actively and then comment and ask questions of each person

When you are finished sharing...

• Take out a sheet of paper and put all of your names on it, today's date, and the period.

• Each group should come to a consensus about the three most important points in the chapter so far.

• Write each key point down along with a piece of textual evidence/ a quote to support each point

• Finally, discuss and write down one connection between the issues raised in this chapter and the world today.

Army document providing evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq from 2003-2011

Army FOIA documentation of chemical weapons in Iraq from 2003-2011

Report on US helping Iraq during 1988 chemical/biological attack on Iran

Video news report on Army documents proving US found chemical weapons in Iraq from 2003-2011; however, they did not find active chemical weapons plants, just stores of old weapons built in part with US and European assistance 

Ms. Gutierrez made this, but we’re also going to use it because it’s good and she was nice enough to share it!

How does Orwell set up a series of contrasts/opposing ideas, sometimes within the same sentence and for what larger purpose, to what end, for what thematic point? Write one good, hefty paragraph. Due in 15 minutes.

Reminders:

Diction: word choice

Syntax: arrangement of words

Juxtaposition: placement of two things closely together to emphasize similarities or differences

Oxymoron: paradoxical juxtaposition of words that seem to contradict one another

Connotation: Meanings or associations that readers have beyond its dictionary definition

Personification: lifelike qualities given to an inanimate object

Example:

“The bluebells were so thick underfoot that it was impossible not to tread on them. He knelt down and began picking some, partly to pass the time away, but also from a vague idea that he would like to have a bunch of flowers to offer to the girl when they met. He had got together a big bunch and was smelling their faint sickly scent when a sound at his back froze him, the unmistakable crackle of a foot on twigs. He went on picking bluebells. It was the best thing to do. It might be the girl, or he might have been followed after all. To look around was to show guilt” (118).

My Paragraph: In this passage Orwell contrasts the innocence and optimism of bluebell picking with the harsher reality that is Winston’s life: if he is caught he could be vaporized, killed, tortured. The juxtaposition of “bluebells” which were “thick underfoot” with the more frightening sound of an “unmistakable crackle of a foot on twigs” is Orwell’s way of using language to show that the innocence of lovers meeting, of sharing time together, of being alone, of a man making the independent thought of gathering lovely flowers for a woman who has professed her love for him is saddled up against the panic and terror of the being followed, of being seen. In Orwell’s new world, the telescreen dominates, and Big Brother sees all; Winston thinks, “he might have been followed after all” and yet in this moment, Winston continues doing this rebellious act, and “picked another and another.” The simplicity and beauty of picking flowers for a woman is contrasted with the horror of a world where love, solitude and sexual pleasures are outlawed. 

Note that I use parallel structure, repetition, integration of short quotes and most importantly, I discuss the ways in which Orwell uses contrasting images to get at a larger thematic idea! It’s not enough to just note the devices writers use…you have to begin to use language yourself in more complex ways. If I showed you a yoga video and asked you only to note the yoga positions and never asked you to get on a mat and try them yourself, it would be an empty exercise. Get on the mat and try the positions! Child’s Pose.  There’s also so much more I didn’t cover in the passage. I might discuss the “faint sickly scent.” Why “sickly”? Is this a contrast too? I might look at the word “froze” as a contrast to his kneeling down. These are two completely different gestures. Wouldn’t you rather kneel down and pick bluebells for a love interest than have your back freeze in terror? Yes. Me too.

October 15 & 16, 2014

us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html

What does the geopolitical map look like in the world of 1984?

HW: Journal Entry: War, Social Hierarchy, and the economy in 1984   According to "the book" in 1984, what is the purpose of war in relationsto maintaining a social/economic hierarchy? (one page - incorporate quotes)

Read and annotate pages 193-200

Digital Nation


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/



The United States of Secrets

Pentagon Kept Secret the Findidng of Chemical Weapons in Iraq

HW:  1984: Read pp. 179-193

October 10, 2014

Learning Target:

I can make connections between current events and literature.

Activity 1: Begin this weekend's reading: Read pp. 136-179 for Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Activity 2: The United States of Secret's

October 9, 2014 1984 Part II chapters 1-2

What do you think of this? Is it accurate? Fair? What allusions does it rely on (allusions to current events, literature)? Would someone who had not read 1984 get this?

Find textual evidence to address the following:

Winston admits that as recently as two weeks prior to their meeting, he wanted to rape and murder Julia (120).  Why might he have such disturbingly violent thoughts about her?  Find textual evidence from last night's reading which address why he might dislike people like her and why that dislike would turn to such disturbingly violent thoughts. 
HW: Read and annotate pp.126-136 for tomorrow

Period 1
Maddie Brennan has to make up the in-class writing assessment and chapter 7-8 quiz
Joe Connor has to make up the in-class writing assessment
Blake Edwards has to make up the chapter 5-6 and 7-8 quizzes

Period 2
Quinton Hughes has to take chptr 7-8 quiz
Nikola has to take the in-class writing assessment

Period 3:
Michael Caplice has to take chptr 5-6 and 7-8 quizzes
Macy has to take the in-class essay assignment
Jay has to take the 7-8 quiz
David Beedle has to take the 7-8 quiz

October 8, 2014 1984 Part I In-class Writing Assessment

Learning Target: 

Through my writing, I can thoughtfully and articulately explore connections between literature and the world I live in.

Activity 1: Write 1984 Part I In-class Writing Assessment

HW: 

• Read and annotate 117-126 in 1984
• College Essay Revision Assignment due either tomorrow or Friday, whichever works best for you.

October 3, 2014

Learning Target: 

I can read and learn from college essay examples.

I can generate discussion questions and participate in a small group discussion about literature.

Activity 1: 

On one side of the notecard provided, please write a comment, observation or connection to last night's reading. Provide some context for your comment by referencing particular page numbers and briefly explaining/summarizing the part of the text you are commenting on.

On the pother side of the notecard, please write an inferential discussion question.

When finished, hand in your notecard and pick up a the college essay examples packet and begin reading the first essay.

Activity 2: 

Read the college essay example packet and comment on the strengths and weakness of each essay. 

For the first essay, read and annotate for things you feel are successful in each paragraph and the essay as a whole.  Think about what strategies she employs to make her piece work for her and her audience (the college admissions officer).

For the second essay, read and annotate, but in this case, I would like you to look for things that are problematic.  Describe those with some brief annotations beside each paragraph.

For the third essay, simply read it and then take a look at the critique on the back.

Homework: Read pages 81-104 for Tuesday.  (Group guidance on Monday)

By Wednesday, An annotated copy of your revised final draft.

October 1, 2014 1984 Chapters 5-6

Learning Targets:

I can make connections between literature and current events.

Activities:

Reading Quiz

North Korea, 1984, and Skiing?
North Korea, Big Brother, and Skiing? Discuss similarities between North Korea and Airstrip 1 in 1984.

Discuss chapters 5 and 6

Homework: None!

Tomorrow: 1984 In-class reading and discussion

Friday: College Essays returned, look at examples and discuss 1984