jessup's AP English: April 2016

Friday, April 29, 2016

Please Upload your AP Major Works to the DRIVE. Please use an external Drive account (Gmail) as DISD accounts won't allow you to share.

YOU'VE MADE IT (almost)

I know I don't say this enough: I'm EXTREMELY PROUD and HONORED by the work you've done and the commitment you've shown. Each of you has grown in ways I only DREAMED possible or imaginable at the beginning of the year. I've seen your thinking mature and become more critical, your observations connect to beautifully complex, original ideas, and your confidence assert itself to create order from texts that say life is, at best, ambiguous, uncertain, and unknowable. NONE of these are EASY skills. YOU'VE taught me MUCH and for this I am both grateful and thankful.

REMEMBER, you're looking for 57% on Multiple choice and three 5s. YOU CAN DO THIS!!!!

TRUST, as you always have, your ability to talk to a text and let it tell you something. Find what "pops", decide a mood, look for irony, an epiphany, and an image to hold onto and then write your way through chronologically - stopping enough to tell the AP reader why something has added value, connection. WHAT does the speaker want up to know about life?

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Fences MAJOR GRADE assignment Due Friday 4/29 (5/1 if you are absent)

To Complete this assignment you will need to have finished Fences. The themes of The Creation of Order, Freedom vs. Protection, Personal Apocalypse, the American Dream, and The African American Difference are crucial to any understanding of character in Wilson's Fences.

Of these FIVE themes SELECT THREE and apply them to a Major character who you think best represents a particular theme. For Example You may think ROSE works best for The Creation of Order, and Freedom vs Protection while TROY is appropriate for Personal Apocalypse or The African American Difference...choose whichever combination works best for you (as long as you do not use ONE character for all three and as long as you use ROSE for at least one).

THEN Create a Representation of that character (drawing/collage) in relation to that particular theme. Your character must have:

1. A statement of who they are LITERALLY and FIGURATIVELY (metaphorically/symbolically). ex. Lit: Billy Parham is a cowboy, Fig: He is the mythical hero of new adventure standing alone, self-reliant and ready to confront whatever awaits him with his own unique and inherent resources. He is like Adam from the Bible

2. Character Traits, 2 Quotes that best represent WHO they are and HOW they define him/her and a character that "foils" them (and why). He is innocent, noble, idealistic, near-sighted, a drifter, reactionary, stubborn, lost ....is foiled best by the "she-wolf".

3. A statement about how others PERCEIVE Them with supporting evidence.

4. A statement about how they PERCEIVE others/the world with supporting evidence.

5. A symbol relevant to the theme and an explanation of how it develops meaning for the character and the play in terms of this theme (the literal and figurative meaning). ex. Blood: literal....; Fig: Binding agent, commonality, family, essence, truth of existence...

6. A Representation of the setting with a statement about how it impacts the character's life (with text support) and reveals theme. A violent, atavistic border world where there is no order "save that which death has put there." It is a setting where God is silent and even powerless. Billy's attempts to create order from this landscape are doomed to fail because they rely on the christian belief in good and evil, and not the inevitable, immutable reality of the natural world: life and death.

whatever awaited him with the aid of his own unique and
inherent resources - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/revisions-of-the-american-adam-9781441187079/#sthash.paKNDdis.dpuf

7. A Clear Statement that summarizes how theme is revealed in this play and SO WHAT? What are we supposed to learn/understand about life and the human experience.

ADD EVERYTHING UP!

When you are finished you will have three DIFFERENT Representations to submit.

You may create small posters (Legal size or larger FRONT AND BACK for EACH) or you can create this digitally with any number of multimedia applications. EXTRA CREDIT: Create a representation of GABRIEL, examine HOW he opens HEAVEN'S GATES and explain why this so essential to the play and the lives of the characters.

Monday, April 25, 2016

Since you're here, consider how these themes operate in Fences: The Creation of Order, Freedom vs. Protection, Personal Apocalypse, the American Dream, and The African American Difference.

Please share your AP Major Works Projects to the appropriate folder:

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Fences Assignment - Due 4/21 Beginning of class AND MORE

In Dropbox ("Fences Discussion"), or in my classroom, you will find the discussion handout (ignore the SlideShare suggestion for now). Please have your text annotated and be prepared to discuss each idea.

WHAT is the cost of sacrifice in this play as a whole ? (think in terms of wants and gets)

There will be some kind of in class writing for Fences*, as well as AP MC in 5th and 8th.

**AP Major Works - Your Major Works assignment is Due 4/25 - NO EXCEPTIONS! A minimum of these 6 MAJOR Works Aside from the one I gave you on Hamlet (or your own), and two others that you may want to use.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Novel #1, Novel #2, Fences, Death of a Salesman

This is a ONE TIME project grade and you will need them for the next two weeks.

PLEASE - COME PREPARED TO CARRY THE CLASS SO I'M ABLE TO REWARD ALL OF YOU WITH HEAVY PARTICIPATION GRADES (YES, EVERYONE MUST PARTICIPATE IN EACH CLASS FOR ANY ONE TO EARN THE GRADES)

Thursday, April 14, 2016

MultiMedia Novel Presentations

PLEASE SELECT THE APPROPRIATE CLASS LINK AND UPLOAD YOUR PRESENTATION INTO THE FOLDER.

MAKE SURE YOUR FILE HAS YOUR NAME IN THE TITLE!

Friday, April 8, 2016

DOAS and Fences due 4/13

Compose Character Analyses For each of the Lomans in 1st Person.

Biff - I am.... you must address who they are to you, how they appear to others, what they think of the others, what they think about the past, and why they matter. What do we learn from them? Use all those lovely attitude words you've been given,

READ - ACT 1 of Fences - Reading Questions to follow shortly.

Multimedia Presentation of Thematic and Literary Elements in Independent Novel - Must be Uploaded by 4/15

Tools to Help

Stupeflix developer - Free video with effects

Stupeflix studio - an basic version of the above

ClipGenerator - a seamless online short video generator

Here's a tutorial for the above Clipgen

Haiku Deck - Presentations use Teacher free trial log in

SlideDog - Integrated Multimedia Presentation Platform YES it's FREE TRY IT!!!

Powtoon - Custom animations and presentations - both this and the 4ed are free

Projeqt another multimedia presenter and integrator there's also Projeqted

there are also many google apps to help you complete this as well

Remember - Have Fun and SHOW ME YOU KNOW YOUR NOVEL!

Monday, April 4, 2016

Death Of A Salesman by Arthur Miller by Wednesday 4/6

Please READ DEATH OF A SALESMAN Act 1 by Wednesday - Make notes about the 4 characters, but mostly have something concrete to say about Willie Lohman and his vision of the American Dream.

Text is available in DROPBOX

Sunday, April 3, 2016

FYI

If you're just starting this odds are you're really behind. The lens should've been selected when I handed out the assignment, and your article located. This said -

ESSAY FORMAT -

Calibri/Helvetica 11pt font, 1.5 spacing, 1 inch margins. Same simple Header as last time :

Introduction:

3-4 Sentences: Summarize your novel in one amazing sentence _____________ is a novel about ______ and examines the issues of _____, ______, and blank and the idea that (people, men, women)___________________. Explain what a critical lens allows a reader to do and why it's important. (Thesis) While __________ is a novel about ________'s __(adjective)___experience with ____________, by looking at it from the perspective of ____(your critical theory)__ we are able to see ____________ and understand __________ about the human experience.

Body Paragraph 1:

A succinct 2-3 sentence summary of your lens article. Summarize it, do not use a long quote to demonstrate. Your summary of the article demonstrates your understanding. Then extend the idea. HOW DO YOU SEE one pivotal incident in the novel in relation to one or two characters through the application of this theory. Answer how this establishes a new level of understanding (this is the thesis you will support for the rest of the essay).

Body Paragraph 2 and 3

Examine the incident, the character, and the ideas in context. How does this provide a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the character, and their life, their place in society, the world, history, culture (choose a few, right?!). Remember, support your ideas by always connecting evidence to elaboration.

Body Paragraph 4

So What? Theme. Given both levels of understanding what can you say about the novel and what are we supposed to essentially understand.