CAK ape 12

Due to CAK blog policies in relation to blogger.com, the site for this class has been moved to Gaggle. I apologize for the inconvenience of changing sites, but remaining with blogger was going to become even more inconvenient. Click on the link below, or copy and paste it into the address bar, to see the posts for this class.

http://www.gaggle.net/blog/bakerenglish

I recommend going to the new site and adding it to your favorites so that you can find it again. When you look at that blog, be sure to check which class you're viewing--the same blog contains English 12 AP and English 11 Advanced, with different entries for each class.

Today's agenda:

• Quiz on Lord of the Flies in relation to chapter 2 of SS&S
• Discuss conflict, plot, structure of LotF
• Homework for Monday: Journal entry on "Once Upon a Time" from SS&S, pp. 231 ff.
• Long-term homework assignment: Select which of the two books by your author you will use for the focus of your research paper. (Hint: it should be one for which you can find critical articles.) Reread that book carefully as literary fiction, taking notes on elements of the work that stand out to you as important to the crafting of the novel. Be especially aware of structural elements.
  

Today's agenda:

• Brief quiz on chapter 1
• Discussion of chapter 1 in relation to Lord of the Flies
• Review of a sample AP Lit exam to see what we need to be preparing for
• Homework for tomorrow: SS&S chapter 2. Summer reading list (signed) and novel summaries.
• Homework for Monday: Journal entry on "Once Upon a Time" from SS&S.
  

What should you expect from the course?

An AP English course in Literature and Composition should engage students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. In general form, this approach includes three main activities:
· the experience of literature through reading and writing
· the interpretation of literature through the close reading of selected texts
· the evaluation of literature, both in assessing their literary merit and their cultural and social value

In the course of those three activities, students should expect to do these more specific tasks:
· make careful observations of textual detail
· establish connections among their observations
· draw from those connections a series of inferences leading to an interpretive conclusion about the work’s meaning and value
· recognize the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure
· study a work’s structure, style, and themes
· study figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone in a text

The course emphasizes the development of stylistically mature writing, characterized by the following:
· a wide-ranging vocabulary used with denotative accuracy and connotative resourcefulness
· a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordinate and coordinate constructions
· a logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques of coherence such as repetition, transitions, and emphasis
· a balance of generalization with specific illustrative detail
· an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, maintaining a consistent voice, and achieving emphasis through parallelism and antithesis

I'd like to get to know you better than I do now. On the index card I've put on your desk, please put the following pieces of information:

• Your name
  
• An email address where I can reach you
• A phone number where I can reach a parent or guardian--tell me the name of the person I will reach at that number
  
• Which days of the week you DO NOT have a zero period class
  
• On the back, if you want me to pray for you in any way, feel free to put prayer requests.

The rest of today's agenda:

• Hand out class guide and go over it
• Hand out Structure, Sound, and Sense, journal instructions, and vocab list.
  
• Homework for tomorrow: Read Structure, Sound, and Sense, Fiction chapter 1. You do not need to read the stories, just the text of the chapter. Be prepared to remember what chapter says.
• Homework for Friday: Summer reading list (signed by you and a parent), novel summaries. Lively Art of Writing work for students who didn't take 11AP.
  
• Also begin getting your notebook and dividers ready for use by Monday.

• Welcome to English 12 AP. This year we'll be reading and writing and talking and listening over and over until May. Although reading and writing seem more academic than talking and listening, all four activities are vitally important to your success in the class. If you just keep on reading and writing without talking and listening, you may improve a little just from practice, but you may also just keep on reading and writing at the same level all year. The talking and listening activities are the way to refine your skills and help others refine theirs.
• You already know some of your strengths in reading and writing. Start thinking now about how you can take those strengths--the things you do well and the things you enjoy doing--and build them into an even stronger base for performance. This way lies victory.
• Think also about how you can use your strengths to enhance the entire class. Your talents and abilities aren't for your benefit alone; they are for the benefit of the whole body. Let us share in them.
  You also already know some of your weaknesses; some of you who worry about your performance probably know these all too well. As we move through the year, look for ways to work around your weaknesses by using your strengths as much as possible. Where the weak areas are unavoidable, work on improving them enough that they don't get in your way, and then get back to your strengths. Again, it's in your strengths that you will find success.
• I look forward to getting to know you better this year, to watching your abilities grow in the different ways that work for each of you, and to helping you meet your goals for this class.