We Made It Through Poetry!

First off, congratulations to Natalie (2) and Kenzie (5) for having the highest average of student reviews for their Lear Diaries. You put in a lot of time, effort, and character relativity to create memorable, engaging, and Lear-related diaries.

At this point, you have turned in your last 2 assignments for the semester: the Psycho Lear essay and the final. I will be evaluating these assignments over break and adding to the grades to SIS during that time. We will be using these assignments to commence second semester and review all those skills you have accumulated - including all that poetry knowledge that you never knew you needed.

Over break, take a read of The Cherry Orchard and complete a book card for this play for the second day we return to school. Often, this play is categorized as a comedy, which we will have a debate - maybe not in the Team Goneril and Team Regan style.

I hope that all of you have an amazing holiday break filled with relaxation, family and friend connections, delicious food, and reading time! You are entering 2018, which is such a significant year in your academic and personal lives. Make sure to enjoy the turning of the clock to midnight, make resolutions that you will keep (if you believe in those), and savor every moment as you move closer to the collegiate world!

And, for those of you who would like to dabble in advertising...

As many of you may recall from last year, I visit classrooms in January to help pique interest in AP Lit and let students know all the options available to them junior and senior year. (Yes, I will be out of the room during that time, but you know you will have something to keep you busy.)

Another way to call attention to AP Lit is to create a poster that grabs the eye and provides key words that would attract a student to the course. And in the past years, our department chair has blown up this poster into a mega-poster that is on the English department bulletin board second semester.

With that in mind, I have a proposal, not a modest one, for my AP Lit students.

If you would like to make a poster for AP Lit, and perhaps earn 10-20 extra credit points (dependent on effort), create one advertisement and share/e-mail it to me by 7:00 a.m. on January 3. This will need to be in digital format.

You will find below some facts about the course that you may want to include; however, you can also bring in stuff you have learned or liked this semester to encourage a student to take the course. Remember, this is an advertisement and prospective students walking down the hall will not stop to read full sentence explanations. The winning poster will be selected by another teacher or staff member and will receive an additional 10 extra credit points. The extra credit is for second semester and not for first semester.

AP Lit Facts:

·         Seniors only

·         Full year course with an objective to pass the AP Literature and Composition exam in May

·         College credit earned through test scores and/or dual credit enrollment

·         Curriculum focuses on components of the AP Literature and Composition Exam: multiple choice, poetry analysis, prose and analysis, and free response analysis

·         Close reading strategies and critical theory analyses of texts including feminist, historicist, psychoanalytic, Marxist, and structuralist

·         Fiction emphasis: poetry, short stories, plays, novels, etc.

·         AP prompt writing skills to foster mature writing style and analysis

·         Writings will consist of literary analyses with additional research and intense study required

·         Full length texts will include novels and plays throughout the course of the school year

No summer reading

Poetry Prompt x 2

Today was part one of the final, which was the dual poetry prompt featuring Plath & Blake. Friday will be the MC full test, so make sure to look over previous passages and your toolbox for review.

I just finished grading the poetry tests - and will be putting them in the gradebook after I finish my daily blogs, so be patient for a few minutes - and out of 37 students, the final tally is A with 11, B with 10, C with 8, D with 2, and F with 6. If you want to stop by and find out your score or see what you missed, feel free to do so during a non-final hour. 

And, don't forget the Lear Psychoanalysis Essay is due by Friday at 12:30 p.m. Hard copy only! For those of you hanging onto a grade or trying to move up, this is your last opportunity.

Prompt Writing Review

Our last day of review featured a 2 poem poetry prompt that we analyzed for its meaning and literary devices. Tomorrow is the actual prompt writing portion of the final, so make sure that you are all here and ready to go.

The Poetry Test

Our whole hour today was for the culmination of two months of Petrarch, Donne, Shakespeare, and Carpe Diem poets: the poetry test, which sure looked similar to your study guide that we reviewed on Friday.

You also received today a handout to help guide you through your Psycho Lear essay. I highly recommend going through each question/statement to make sure that you are not forgetting anything for your essay. This is the last grade for the semester going into the gradebook, and it is imperative that you complete the assignment utilizing all the psychoanalytical criticism and literary devices that we have focused upon over the course of the entire semester. If you elect to not do this assignment, your grade will suffer the consequences.

Tuesday = Practice Writing Prompt
Wednesday = Part I of the final, the Writing Prompt
Thursday/Friday =  Part II of the final, the full MC test
Friday by 12:30 p.m. = Psycho Lear Essay

Prepping Poetry

Our class today was about the poetry review for the poetry test on Monday and throwing cards on the floor to help out with the test and the final. We have a busy schedule next week, including the poetry test, the final review, the 2-part final, and the psychoanalysis essay. These are all point-heavy, performance-based tasks that need to be completed if you want to maintain or improve your grade in the course.

Carpe Poetry Review

To continue with Carpe Diem poetry - the (mostly) iambic tetrameter poems encouraging women to marry or commit to the speaker's relationship suggestions - we looked at "To His Coy Mistress," "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time," "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love," and "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd." In both hours, we focused on the rhyme - feminine, masculine, unstressed, stressed, forced - to combine the speaker's persona and theme with the sound effects inherent in seizing the day. And if that was not enough poetry review to prepare for your poetry test, then you received the poetry study guide, which is one of the tests from last year.

Upcoming plots & plans:

Wed/Thurs = Diary Evaluation Day, Card Throwing, Poetry Study Guide Time
Fri = Poetry Study Guide Review, Essay Proposal Due
Mon 18= Poetry Test
Tues 19 = Practice Prompt/Poetry Review for Final
Wed 20 = Writing Prompt of Final
Thurs/Fri 21/22 = Multiple Choice Section of Final
Fri 22 = Final Draft Due

Cocoa & Cram is Monday evening here at school. To give you a highlight package of an AP Lit Cocoa & Cram, it will involve a sample prompt, card throwing, and a MC passage to review strategies. F.Y.I. We will be doing a sample prompt and the card throwing in class (as noted above). I would also like to offer a couple after school opportunities to review in case you are not going to attend Cocoa & Cram OR you will be busy studying with another teacher OR if AP Lang students take over my time at the event. These 2 opportunities will have the same prompts and samples, so you there is no need to come to all of them. Unless, you want to show off in front of others.

Monday = 3:45-4:45 Room 404 AP Lit Review
Tuesday = 2:35-3:20 Room 404 AP Lit Review

Carpe Close Reads

We finished up our fourth and fifth rounds of MC close reads with Bishop & Dickinson pieces.  I will be sorting through your results and taking the best 4 out of 5 scores for the gradebook. If you have not completed a MC passage, you have until the end of the day Wednesday to complete these activities.

In the last part of the hour, we read "To His Coy Mistress" to look at Carpe Diem style poetry and the poetry techniques that Marvell adopts to his persona. We will look at more Carpe Diem poems tomorrow, and you shall have your poetry review packet to prep.

This is a busy time in AP Lit Land with your diaries due on the block day, your paper proposal due on Friday, a Poetry Test looming (could be this Friday, could be on Monday, which will be determined by what happens in class), final preparations, the final, and your final draft of the psychoanalysis essay. The majority of this quarter has focused on analyses of texts and participation. Now, you will need to exhibit all of this knowledge for significant assignments.

Ending the Way It Began

First off, absolute kudos to Hannah for noting that the opening scene of King Lear features Kent chatting with Gloucester and the play ends with Kent conversing with Edgar!

For most of class, we discussed Act V for participation points - looking at the demises of (almost) everyone, the iambic pentameter usage, and the animal symbolism now connected with Lear!

At the end of the our, you received the King Lear Psychoanalysis Essay assignment with its proposal due next Friday.

Someday My "Prince" Will Come

Well, that was surely the most energizing AP Lit class that I have witnessed in a long while! To begin, our close read groups over-analyzed a passage, indicated the iambic pentameter and the lines that did not fit such a metrical pattern, and led us in a fairly smooth gallop. Then, in a moment that will live within my brain for several years to come, Team Goneril debated Team Regan for the hand of Edmund. With a fighting spirit, our spokespeople, Cicely and Brooke, delineated all the selling points and all the detriments that each character has exhibited throughout the play - including specific references to the play, its plot, its lines. To complete the class - and calm us down - we worked on MC passage 3. Friday will begin with Act 5 analysis as we say goodbye to the Lear family.

Close Read Revolution

To be honest, it's not really a revolution, but the alliterative "r' properties make it sound so incredibly original!

To begin class, you completed your second MC passage, which will need to be scheduled for makeup as soon as possible.

To end class, you prepped a character's speech for over-analysis, iambic pentameter, and galloping for tomorrow. If absent, you should prepare the above for Lear's speech 4.7.69-79.

Pentameter

For today's class, we spent the hour on 2 speeches from 4.1 (Edgar's opening) and 4.2 (Albany & Goneril's back and forth) to practice close reading and identifying iambic pentameter. As noted, when Edgar is in a zen-like state of self-awareness, he is spot on with his iambic pentameter. However, when he feels that his father has been unjustly battered, he adds a stressed "thee" to further his denouncement of the world. Furthering iambic pentameter alterations, Albany starts off in complete control of his sentiments, but, alas, falters in his delivery as his wife emasculates him. And, the best part, the iambic pentameter between 2 characters! If you happen to see a line with a sudden stoppage of iambic pentameter, you may want to look at the next character's speech to see if he or she continues the meter. This could show connection, disconnection, or, in the case of our "happily" married couple, a tug of war of control in an argument.

Tomorrow will be more emphasis on Act 4 plus MC passage 2. 

Don't forget to be working on your diary for class. We are moving toward the end of the play, which means diary, psychoanalytic essay, and a poetry test. 

3.7

To start, we finished up Act 3 participation by sharing significant lines from the last scene.

Then, we completed our first team close read on a MC poetry passage, which ended with each of you taking MC passage 1 for a grade. If you were absent, you will need to schedule a 12 minute session to take the MC passage.

Otherwise, make sure to have Act 4 finished for Monday. Sorry, Brooke, it had to happen to Cornwall sooner or later.

P.S. Thanks to fifth hour for taking my quick survey today. It looks like you want more card throwing, close reading, and meter review, so I shall prep that up for you.