evaluating online resources

As you research for the debate, please consult this website and refer to its guiding questions about whether an internet source is credible...

Good luck researching!

more AP essay practice

If you're super-motivated to do well on the final exam and want some additional practice, feel free to check out the essay questions on this website. The AP includes all past essay questions.

Try out questions by either annotating and planning an essay, or taking the step of writing one. I'm happy to sit with you and look at your practice essays at any time -- just let me know!

readings for Wednesday / Thursday

Check out this article for our class on Wednesday 29 October (11-2) / Thursday 30 October (11-1).

For homework, write down one quotation from the text you think is interesting, infuriating, challenging, rewarding, exciting, etc. Bring this to class on the notecards I will give you in class.

group identity mashup

Due Monday 10 November

Make a list of all the groups with which you affiliate. Using this list, of groups with which you identify, create a manipulatable that shows how these groups relate to your individual identity. By maniplulatable, I mean that you cannot give me an electronic document – it must be something you create that I can touch and manipulate with my hands. This might be a 3-D thing, like some sort of paper folding, or a collage, a puzzle, a ven diagram, a simple geometric design, a drawing, a flexagon, etc. I’m purposefully being vague in my directions so that you can be as creative as you want. But the manipulatable must:

show in some visual way your affiliations with different groups

The second part of the assignment is a 300-500 word written reflection that describes, explains, debates, expands, etc. your visual. They should go together.

Grading out of 30 points is a simply A (exceptional), B (above average), C (average), D (below average), based on the level of your thought and effort more than on specific outcomes. 

Assignment goals

--To stretch you to think visually rather than merely in words, but also to push your own writing to act as a complement to a visual.

--To spark your thinking about your personal identity as it relates to identities you assume in different groups.  

paragraph re-work

Hi everyone,

We talked about paragraphs last week, and I asked you to do a little revision exercise. Some of you have sent them (thanks!). For the rest of you, please send it to me before you leave for Activity Week. I will grade these and put them in for the first assignment for Quarter 2. They will be graded on effort/completion.

Remember the four elements of a paragraph we discussed, and see if you can improve your weakest body paragraph:
1. Unity
2. Coherence
3. A topic sentence
4. Adequate development

I'll post the powerpoint to the google drive ASAP, so you can see it, but remember that you should have notes considering how little text is on the powerpoint.

Thanks! best, Ms. Mel

1984 text / audio

Hi everyone,

We'll start reading George Orwell's 1984 (1948) this week.

Here is the full text of the book, in Microsoft Word doc form.

Here is a free audio version of the book -- not the best voice recordings, but it's FREE! Please use this if hearing something aloud helps your comprehension.

Also, if you want a hard copy of the book, here is it is on flipkart for Rs. 80. It delivers quickly.

Get excited about entering a whole new world, very different from the one in Atonement. Dystopia, here we come!!

Citing and editorial analysis...

We need to get into the habit of following citation styles so we can learn how to participate in the academic community. The standards these academic organizations set can often seem annoying and too picky, but we don't make the rules: we just learn how to follow them.

For this class, please practice MLA citation, which is the primary style used in humanities writing. The best online repository of information on MLA citation is OWL at Purdue.

This paper will require you to cite one source -- your editorial. The normal format for that type of text is below:

Cite a newspaper article as you would a magazine article, but note the different pagination in a newspaper. If there is more than one edition available for that date (as in an early and late edition of a newspaper), identify the edition following the date (e.g., 17 May 1987, late ed.).

Brubaker, Bill. "New Health Center Targets County's Uninsured Patients." Washington Post 24 May 2007: LZ01. Print.

Krugman, Andrew. "Fear of Eating." New York Times 21 May 2007 late ed.: A1. Print.

If the newspaper is a less well-known or local publication, include the city name and state in brackets after the title of the newspaper.

Behre, Robert. "Presidential Hopefuls Get Final Crack at Core of S.C. Democrats." Post and Courier [Charleston, SC] 29 Apr. 2007: A11. Print.

Trembacki, Paul. "Brees Hopes to Win Heisman for Team." Purdue Exponent[West Lafayette, IN] 5 Dec. 2000: 20. Print.

(The Purdue OWL. Purdue U Writing Lab, 2010. Web. 24 August 2013.)

To read more on in-text, parenthetical citation, check out this page. For this paper, since most of you are using short, electronic articles, you can just cite the paragraph number. We'll talk about this in class.

I hope you'll become more comfortable with this format as you practice it. Let me know if you have questions.