The First Five Weeks

If you were a puppy, this is how big you'd be in 5 weeks.

I am looking for a typed, single-spaced, one-page response to the question, "How are you doing in this class so far?"  Set it up in MLA form, but do everything in single-space:  heading on the left, four lines, centered title, one-inch margins.  YOUR CHALLENGE will be that bottom margin.  How are you going to get it to exactly one inch?  Consider this part as a little puzzle piece:  just exactly enough words to create that margin:  no more, no less.

Here are some things to think about.  DON'T write a response that slavishly moves through this list, answering the questions.  These are here to help you see what I am thinking about when I look at you.

PARTICPATION:

• Do you follow instructions the first time you are asked?  
• Are you contributing to a collegial and collaborative atomosphere?
• Are you sharing your ideas and your questions at the table?
• Have you participated by speaking out publicly?
• Did you contribute to our Socratic Seminar?
• Are you writing in your writer's notebook with full, focused attention?  Are you filling pages?
• Have you taken good notes when I've given you notes?
• Did you complete your summer homework to the best of your ability?
• Are you working to keep the classroom focused and on track, or are you one of the people who make the classroom excessively loud and chatty?
• Have you chosen an appropriate book for your first quarter book project?  Did you remember to bring it on Monday?
• Does the inside surface of your portfolio offer a glimpse into your personality?
• Do you have your notebook in class every day?
• Is your notebook in good order?  Is your Table of Contents up to date and accurate?
• Is your vocabulary homework finished, or will it be by Wednesday?

PROGRESS:

• Have you learned anything so far?
• What goals do you have for yourself?
• What kind of things are you going to be working on as a writer this quarter?
• (Progress will be hard to measure at this point.  This is going to be pretty subjective.  That's OK for now.)

PERFORMANCE:

• What grade did you get, or do you expect to get on your summer homework?
• What score did you receive on your Postman timed write?  Do you understand WHY you received the score you did?  
• What score did you get on your vocabulary test?  (You'll know the answer to this on Wednesday.)
• How did you do on the writing assessment, "Is there a downside to technology?"   Are you citing sources?  Are you integrating the words of others into your own sentences?  Is your argument central?  Did you craft an argumentative thesis?

A Little Snap

HI Kids!  :)

So, here's what I am looking for from these revisions:

First, I'd like to see everyone practice PERFECT MLA set up.  I will have the ruler out when I look at your papers, so make sure your margins are one inch, all around.

I want a title that is NOT BORING, not a repeat of the prompt in any way.  How do we come up with titles?  One way that I sometimes use is I'll comb through my essay for a phrase that has a little snap to it, that is meaningful somehow.  I have to write FIRST, and come up with a title last.

Next, underline your thesis.  Is it argumentative, or descriptive?  Can you find it?  Is it one sentence, or two?

Comb through your essay and look for any of the "detractors of maturity and style and perspective,"  and delete any usage of "basically," "says," or "in today's society."

I want you to write at least two sentences that successfully use subordination, and please make sure that the MAIN clause contains the MAIN idea.

That's it!  Of course, you may revise any other portion of your essay to improve it, strengthen it, clarify it — but all we are focused on for THIS paper are five things:  MLA, title, thesis, detractors and subordination.

WORK IN PROGRESS. October 1-5, 2012

I feel like we are right in the middle of a conversation...some of my kids have the syllabus, some do not, and we have not yet discussed syllabus specifics!

Here's what happening on Monday:

First of all, it's Silent Sustained Reading for your nonfiction text, and the assignment for this book is coming soon.  It will be due in first quarter, so you have to read at home.  You have to MAKE TIME to read.  Fake reading will not fly.  I can offer some classroom minutes -- the October Mondays, and on the two days where you will have a substitute:  October 10 and 19.  The rest is ALL YOU.  You have to make time in your day for sitting still, and reading a book.

I will be sending around a yellow pad, so you can tell me what book you are committing to (title and author), how many pages there are, and what page you are on today.

Tools to use:  

• Text message subscription:  call 971-264-2776 and send the text @apeng11 to subscribe to text message reminders.  
• Check out the Shared Google Calendar.

Tuesday:

10 minutes of free-writing to a prompt.

Next, I will be returning your "Is there a downside to technology?" essay -- I have glanced at all of them, and have started to score them, and it has been checked in as complete; you will see my initials on the essay...I want you to revise that essay, type it up, print it up, and attach the original "on-demand" essay.  This product is due on Friday.  Check the blog post "A Little Snap" to see specifically what I am looking for in that revision.

We will have a mini-lesson on subordination.  Please take notes, complete the exercise assigned on an exit pass, and consult the links that I offer you in the blog post.

Next, this is the day that we will discuss the syllabus in detail, and I will give you a handout regarding 3P grading.   I am going to want you to write a self-evaluation of your work thus far, based on the criteria we have talked about.  There is a blog post describing this self-evaluation entitled "First Five Weeks."  The self-evaluation is due on Thursday.

Wednesday:

Any questions from Tuesday will be addressed, and if we were unable to finish going over the syllabus on Tuesday, we will wrap up here in the first 10 minutes.

If we were able to finish, our first 10 minutes will be spent free-writing to a prompt.

As soon as you are done writing,  I will be checking for your vocabulary homework, and then we will take our first vocabulary test.  We will take the test and score it, and I will be asking you to submit an exit pass.

We'll discuss the AP vocab that is on the board.

After all the vocab work is completed, I will be collecting your annotated articles by Carr, Iyer and Pennebaker.

I will pick up an armload of notebooks to score.

Thursday:

10 minutes free-writing to a prompt.

Notebook return.

We'll spend some time organizing our work in our portfolios, and looking at what we've completed thus far.  You will have a quick worksheet to complete, and this, along with your self-reflection, will go into the portfolio.

Friday:

10 minutes free-writing to a prompt.

Lesson #1:  Introduction to Writer's Workshop.  Workshop norms.  Practice:  Peer Review --> review of revised technology essay.  MLA checklist.  Highlight sentence demonstrating subordination.  Turn in.

Lesson #2:  How does content and purpose shape decisions about genre?  What is genre?  How does it work?

Weekend Homework: 

350 word blog post about your book.  Who is it by?  What is it about?  How is it going so far?

Do you have a short attention span?

Don't worry. Here's a 9-part series, played out in 10 minute chunks.

Well, here it is...

...a sure sign of the end of the world as we know it.

Maybe we should go back in time and tell the Founders...oh, don't worry so much.  The people will eventually accept any benevolent leader that provides them with entertainment.  We the people don't really WANT a participatory democracy.  It's too much trouble.

Branded 2012 Trailer

Branded Trailer [WARNING: RATED R]

I saw the trailer to this movie a while ago and was reminded of our focus on the deterioration of society because of a certain corrupted control. Unfortunately it received horrible reviews, but then I still don't believe in reviews anyway. So, since I haven't watched it yet, I am still excited to see it. Has anyone? If so what did you think? Do you see any relevance between our concepts in class and the trailer?

George Sauders, "The Braindead Megaphone"

A link to the clip we listened to today:  Jim Fleming of "To the Best of our Knowledge" interviews George Saunders.

Happiness Advantage

There are several things we can work with to rewire our brains for top performance, to help us guard against the negative effects of stress, and to live a happier life right now.  We don't have to wait until some bright future, when we've finally reached goals, and we're holding the acceptance letter of the college of our choice -- because as Achor correctly points out, whenever we do achieve a goal, we merely reset, set a new goal, and push happiness "out beyond the cognitive horizon."  There is no end to the things you will want to achieve in this brief lifetime.  You will always be striving towards something!

Happiness is not defined here as some cheery emotion, some bright yellow paint that we slap over the rocky terrain of our inner landscape, denying or obscuring what we actually feel.  Rather, happiness is better understood as the energy and focus we feel when we are striving after our own highest potential, seeking our own best self.  It is a completely subjective concept -- only you can say what it looks and feels like for you.  It is not determined by outer circumstances  -- it's not grades or GPA (or later, money, position, or prestige).  To move our concept of happiness beyond a "cheery mood," Achor suggests that some of words that we might use to think about happiness are

• joy
• gratitude
• serenity
• interest
• pride
• hope
• amusement
• inspiration
• joy
• love

Study after study confirms that happiness precedes high achievement.  It is more than a good feeling: it is an essential element to our success.  In our class this year, let's think about happiness as more than a mood -- let's think of it as our work ethic.  We need to continually remind ourselves and each other of the proven, tangible strategies that offer us quick bursts of happiness, and that raise our baseline for personal performance.

Do you want to read about happiness for your first book project?   The two I have read are The Happiness Advantage, by Shawn Achor, and Happier, by Tal Ben-Shahar, the two men who taught the famous class in positive psychology at Harvard University.

I Heart Nonfiction

Want to be the smartest one in the room?  Read more nonfiction!

Some of these links are already in the list over there on the right margin, but I'll stick them here for your convenience.

This is the Shelfari Nonfiction book page I created for my AP classes...I haven't revised it in a while, so if you know of a book that I should add or delete, let me know!

And here is the Cal Berkeley's summer reading page from 2011...as you can see, there is a theme that I you are familiar with by now.  If you click around, you'll find all of Cal Berkeley's reading lists ("Education matters," "Best books about science," "Banned Books," and many more) which always yields good ideas for reading.

Do you know about Byliner.com?  I love this site, and often download high quality, short reads for about $2.    This may not work for your book project, but it might point you in a fruitful direction.

How about Librarything.com?  I have an account here, and try to catalog everything I read, and everything I intend to read, but frankly, it's an enormous time drain, and I start feeling overwhelmed.  But about once a year, I go crazy and catch everything up.

I like to browse Powell's for the award winners.  Look at everything, but be sure to check out the nonfiction.

Every once in a while, a student will come up to me and ask if they can read a novel.  Sometimes I say yes, so it's worth a try.  It really depends on the book; I want to assure you that you'll be back into the land of literary fiction next year with AP English Literature.  Let me encourage you to focus on nonfiction this year.  :)

Set up your portfolio like this!

This is what I like to see:

Upper left:

Through words and pictures, show your major life influences.  What people have influenced your life the most?  What ideas do you find inspiring and compelling?  What music, books, organizations have shaped your life?  How?

Upper right:

Draw or find a picture of yourself that best represents you.  Beneath that picture, write a brief caption that explains its significance.

Bottom left:  

Write one paragraph about your hopes, your dreams, your goals, your desires.  These may be dreams for yourself, your family, your friends, or the world.  I'd appreciate it if you wrote seriously about this topic.

Bottom right:

Make a list of five interesting or little known facts about you.  Be creative -- I want to learn things about you that I don't already know.