Make Vocab Quiz 1

If you were not in class during our first vocab quiz today, you will need to make arrangements to make up the quiz by Friday. You may schedule before school, after school, or during a study hall (preferred) or during class (if only option).

The sea, the birds, the light

Kate Chopin is the perfect author to start AP Lit: she focuses on character development, she critiques gender, class, and racial inequalities, and she loves the same motifs throughout her writing. (Jeez -- that was sure a hint for your short story presentation.)

Reminder for all classes: If you are absent during participation, you will need to show me your notes for the assigned readings. You are expected to shows me these notes the day you return.

2: The ladies completed the first vocabulary quiz and then spent the remainder of the hour discussing chapters 1-5 (whole class) and chapters 6-10 (partners/groups). We ran out of time, alas, for the chapter 11 group to share, so that will wait until Thursday. To prep for our block day, read through Chapter 25. We will be doing individual sharing with this section -- so pay attention to the literary devices.

4: After our vocabulary quiz, we completed a full class discussion of chapters 1-5. (Great job focusing on class differences in this milieu.) Alas, time betrayed us and we did not finish our small group discussion of chapters 6-11. We will resume on chapter 8 on Thursday. In addition, read through chapter 22.

Claiming Chopin

After reviewing for tomorrow's vocabulary quiz, you were officially assigned the Chopin presentation, which will feature a short story and its connection to other Chopin writings. As a result of this assignment, you each claimed a short story for this assignment. Remember, that you have a copy of all the short stories in your school e-mail. Check there for links and summaries to help you decide whether you will read more stories to further your presentation.

*Presentations will occur after we finish reading and analyzing The Awakening. Most likely, these will begin Monday.

Second hour, we will finish our full class discussion on chapters 1-5 tomorrow. Then, you will have small group responsibilities for chapters 6-11.

Fourth hour, we will begin your full class discussion with Alex's "Woah" and "Wow" thoughts and then have small group work for chapters 6-11.

Meeting Chopin

After finishing up vocabulary today, we spent time with paper meetings and working out ideas for improvement next time. (Fourth hour, we will finish meetings on Monday.) At some point of the hour, we recapped the life of Kate Chopin, a controversial figure breaking gender roles in her writings. For homework, read the first 5 chapters and prepare discussion starters and points for next class. (If you were absent, guess what? The Awakening is online so you will be expected to contribute.) I also passed out the overall assignment for the reading. We will go over this in-depth on Monday, but you are more than welcome to get a head start on it.

And, since Haley and I were talking about my dresses fourth hour, here is the link to my friend Kristen's website : http://iheartfink.com/ Yep, there are pictures of me in her lookbook.

Lucetta & EJ

As I have had little sleep the last two nights, I will make this a bullet list:

• We added 4 new words to vocabulary, which means we will add the last 3 words of the unit tomorrow.
• We close read, discusses, and created thesis statements regarding the characterization of Lucetta and Elizabeth Jane and their relationship. If you want to learn more about these ladies - or at least the context that leads to this conversation - read The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. I love this novel -- it makes up for Jude the Obscure. Seriously, nicknaming your child Father Time is asking for trouble. Well, that was a small tangent.
• We discussed the AP grading evaluation of 1-9 and how your essays will be evaluated. During tomorrow's class, we will have one-on-one conferences to discuss anything involving writing, "The Birthmark," and AP Literature-related. 

For class tomorrow, read up on Kate Chopin's biography and have a working knowledge of her background. I had a clever awakening pun for this moment in the blog and, sadly, it just escaped my brain. Alas...

Characterization of Tom (not that one or that one -- the Buchanan one)

After our second day or vocabulary, we spent the day working on characterization, a popular prose prompt topic. With AP Literature, you do not have a straightforward characterization. You must tie this in with relationships to other characters, recognize subtle shifts, compare and contrast multiple characters, or connect the character's journey to the overall theme of the passage. Phew! To emphasize this complexity of characterization (really into alliteration with this post), we focused on Mr. Tom Buchanan and his slow recognition of rival romancer Gatsby. From his body language, words, and descriptions, we noted his character traits and how this created an uncomfortable, condescending, and competitive world with his fellow characters.

Second hour, you have homework -- highlight the character traits of Lucetta and Elizabeth in your text. We will work in partners or groups of 3, depending on the size of class that day, to discuss and present your analysis. Then, it will be time for "The Birthmark" and its discussion and essay review.

Fourth hour, don't fret -- you'll know what the above means during class on Thursday.

P.S. Scholar Quiz is our school's academic trivia team. Some of you have attended our practices, which occur every Friday after school in room 404. You are all welcome to attend our practices -- whether you look to be a full time player and earn a letter for competing or a part time player wanting to have fun and learn in a supportive team atmosphere. By the way, it is never too late to join the Scholar Quiz team. We are a splub competing with schools across St. Charles and St. Louis counties, we have finished second in district competition five times, and our goal this year is to win districts and make it to sectionals for the first time in our school's history. If you like trivia and have scheduling conflicts, we have trivia lunches every block Thursday in the library conference room. Bring your lunch, play trivia with us, and spend some quality time with the Scholar Quiz team in a relaxed environment.

"Easiest Day in AP Lit"

"Easiest" may be a hasty generalization of sorts, but today's class centered around preparation for our upcoming classes: namely, constructing your literary toolbox and your portfolio. These items will be necessary to furthering your literary vernacular for upcoming discussions, term quizzes, and analyses.

Agenda-wise, we started with our first four vocabulary words of the year! Oh, how the list shall fervently grow and grow without much of a moratorium in between. Then, second hour had a fire drill, and fourth hour had a close read regarding setting and theme on the valley of ash in The Gatsby. Lastly, you worked on the aforementioned toolbox and folder.

Plotting of the week:

Tuesday - Vocab Experts, Characterization close reads (with highlighters)
Thursday - Portfolio folder decor due, Birthmark discussion, AP Lit grading scale, essay return
Friday - Characterization with Madame Bovary & a dual analysis of a text and its modern day adaptation

Next week - Kate Chopin!

Diagnostic Day

This will be the revised blog. The original one featured the title from AP Lang. Oops -- many of you have already graduated from this class and must have been confused. Sorry!

Today's class centered around the diagnostic essay for "The Birthmark."

For Monday's class, make sure to have your index cards (if that is your preferred toolbox) and your vocab expert word ready to go. And second hour, don't forget to bring your Gatsby setting close read.

Prepping for Friday & Monday

In both classes today, we finished up our "Helens" by analyzing our close readings for speaker, diction, imagery, form, and tone. As noted in class, these literary devices and analyses are the starting point for literary analysis essays.

Following Helen, you received the official "Birthmark" essay assignment, which you will be typing up in class tomorrow. Make sure you make an outline on the back of the handout and bring your close read in order to write the best diagnostic test ever.

P.S. As envisioned by Lyle, you are welcome to set up your Google document --- title it, put your heading on it, set up any specific formatting you need --- prior to class starting. You must wait until we are in the library to start the actual writing.

For Monday, have your index cards (if that is your choice) and your vocab expert word ready to go. Second hour ladies, bring back the Gatsby setting close read for us to finish.

Prepping for Friday & Monday

In both classes today, we finished up our "Helens" by analyzing our close readings for speaker, diction, imagery, form, and tone. As noted in class, these literary devices and analyses are the starting point for literary analysis essays.

Following Helen, you received the official "Birthmark" essay assignment, which you will be typing up in class tomorrow. Make sure you make an outline on the back of the handout and bring your close read in order to write the best diagnostic test ever.

P.S. As envisioned by Lyle, you are welcome to set up your Google document --- title it, put your heading on it, set up any specific formatting you need --- prior to class starting. You must wait until we are in the library to start the actual writing.

For Monday, have your index cards (if that is your choice) and your vocab expert word ready to go. Second hour ladies, bring back the Gatsby setting close read for us to finish.

Oh, Helen!

Don't forget to work on your literary analysis close read of "The Birthmark" for Friday's class. On Thursday, you will receive the official writing assignment -- I just made copies -- and you will be able to create an outline on the back of the handout.

Don't forget to bring in your index cards if you are choosing to make flashcards for your literary terms on Monday. If you choose to not partake in flashcards, I have plenty notebooks for you to use.

Onto card game, in which fourth hour finished 4-4 with literary terms. Afterwards, we worked on the Helen poems (I love her, I hate her, I love her, I hate her), close reading for as many literary devices as we could find. In case you want clean versions of these poems, go to the following links:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44888
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/helen

For tomorrow's class, second hour will be sharing their small group analyses, and fourth hour will find out what these small groups will constitute.

Theme of AP Lit

I am very excited to have 35 students in AP Lit this year. With two sections, we can mix up readings, discussions, and assignments accordingly.

To begin class, we left behind required paperwork and information. Instead, we started our collaborative environment by teams listing literary terms on the board, and we commenced our participation by having an informal q & a.

Then, the paperwork came back: discipline review, schools policies, the AP Lit syllabus (which still, mournfully, has our favorite Scottish play listed instead of King Lear).

To wrap up today's course, you received a list of AP Literature terms. For this list, you will either create flashcards or use a Steno pad to learn unfamiliar terms and add these to your analyses in class. Then, you have a glossary of lit terms -- there is an overlap -- to help you recapture forgotten lit terms and learn new terms.

Due Friday: Close read "The Birthmark" for literary devices, themes, motifs, and critical schools (Historicist, Feminist, Psychoanalyst, Marxist). You will use this close reading on Friday to compose a typed essay in class. This will be your "Summer Reading in 4 Days" assignment and provide a writing sample for the course.

*For those of you wondering about the ins and outs of close reading, we will do a few in class during the upcoming days to give you a sense of what you may annotate for literary analysis.

Last year's AP Lit was one of the best classes I have ever had -- the content, the discussions,  the parties, the random raps. I hope you enjoy our short stories, novels, plays, and poetry and that these literary marvels will inspire you to read more for your own enjoyment.

P.S. I'll start wearing the big heels tomorrow.

Literary Terms to Know

On Tuesday, I will be handing you a two-sided handout with literary terms. Some of these terms should be quite familiar to you and others may seem like made-up words. When I taught English II, I expected my sophomores to memorize 35 literary terms while we were studying Lord of the Flies, Taming of the Shrew (now Macbeth, which was purloined from our AP Lit class), short stories, and poetry. Before I start giving you dactyls and conceits, here are those 35 terms, which you should have down prior to class or within the first few days. 

• onomatopoeia
• assonance
• simile
• allusion
• repetition
• symbol
• hyperbole
• tone
• mood
• imagery
• metaphor
• alliteration
• diction
• personification
• voice
• speaker
• sonnet
• stanza
• rhyme
• free verse
• dialogue
• protagonist
• antagonist
• static character
• dynamic character
• round character
• flat character
• third person limited
• third person omniscient
• satire
• theme
• setting
• situational irony
• verbal irony
• dramatic irony

Another literary element that will show up in almost all of your readings is the motif, a repeated literary device (often a symbol) that helps to construct a theme. For instance, in The Great Gatsby, there is a green light; in Macbeth, there is blood and lots of it - real and imaginary; in Lord of the Flies, there are Piggy's glasses and that conch shell.