As discussed in class, for your final mandatory blog assignment, I would like for you to review the Common Core State Standards for College and Career Readiness (http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/introduction/students-who-are-college-and-career-ready-in-reading-writing-speaking-listening-language).

After reviewing the standards, you should craft and submit your initial post.  In this post, please do the following for each of the seven standards:
> Paraphrase and discuss the importance of the standard, including why it is important to college/career readiness
> Assess your own level of mastery for the standard (include supporting details)


Your initial post is due by 11:59pm on Sunday, May 26, 2013.  All comments are due by 11:59pm on Wednesday, May 29, 2013.  These due dates are firm since these are the last assignments for the school year.

Here we are at the end of Quarter 4 (and senior year).  For your final quarterly reflection, you may look as far back and as far forward as you wold like. This is an extra-credit blog assignment, which will go into your Quarter 4 average. Your post should discuss each of the following:
> a triumph or success
> a failure or disappointment
> something that you are looking forward to
> a personal goal

Your comments should offer observations, constructive feedback, advice, or even consolation to your classmates. Your initial post and all comments are due by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, May 29, 2013.

For this week's blog, I would like for you to consider your own strengths and weaknesses in writing literary analysis essays in preparation for the upcoming AP exam.  The first step is to review the feedback that you have received on your writing so far, from me, from classmates, and from other teachers.

Once you have reviewed this feedback, post your thoughts to the blog.  Your initial post should
- discuss your top three strengths and top three weaknesses
- identify how your weaknesses affect your writing in general
- outline a plan for working on those weaknesses in the coming weeks

Your comments should address and extend points made by classmates, with a focus on helping everyone up their game.  Posts and comments are due by 11:59pm on Sunday, April 28, 2013.

Sonnets from the Portuguese is a series of poems written by English poet Elizabeth Barrett to her future husband, Robert Browning. She enclosed a poem in each letter she wrote to him during their courtship; therefore, the full collection chronicles the joys and misgivings that she experienced in giving her heart to him. You have already encountered one of these poems on your poetry unit exam.

 

For this week’s blog, you will select one of the sonnets linked below. Your task is to paraphrase the sonnet (according to the process outlined in Chapter 13) and then write a paragraph connecting the sonnet to the courtship of Carlos and Virginia in Prospero’s Daughter. Your analysis should focus on the poem and the novel, but you may incorporate information about the Brownings where it is relevant. See below for a model paraphrase of the poem from the unit exam.

 

Sonnet VI
Sonnet XIV
Sonnet XXXVIII
Sonnet XLIII 

Your initial post is due by 11:59pm on Thursday, March 21, 2013. Your two comments should offer additional insights and/or extensions of thought expressed in your classmates’ original posts. Comments are due by 11:59pm on Sunday, March 24, 2013. Any extra credit and/or make-up blog work is also due by 11:59pm on Sunday, March 24, 2013.

 

 

Sample Paraphrase – “Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed”

But love, simple love, is truly beautiful and will always be good enough. Fire is brilliant no matter what is burning, a grand building or plain straw; the flame will give off the same amount of light if it feeds on strong wood or just weeds; and love is fire. So when I am moved to say “I love you” (yes, I said it! “I love you”), before your eyes I am changed, I become divine with knowing how the light of love shines from my face onto yours. There is nothing weak or poor about love, even when the weakest and poorest people feel it; when the smallest creatures love God, He accepts it and loves them in return. And so the love that I feel for you shines over all of my flaws and insecurities, demonstrating how the glory of Love improves everything that Nature has created.

The end of the third quarter is here, so it's time to reflect on the past weeks and look forward to the upcoming advisory.  This is an extra-credit blog assignment, which will go into your Quarter 3 average. Your post should discuss each of the following:
> a triumph or success from the third quarter
> a failure or disappointment from the third quarter
> something that you are looking forward to in the fourth quarter (beyond the obvious!)
> a personal goal for the fourth quarter

Your comments should offer observations, constructive feedback, advice, or even consolation to your classmates.  Your initial post and all comments are due by 11:59 pm on Sunday, March 24, 2013.

As discussed in class, this week's topic will be a simple check-in about our author visit earlier this week.  The initial post is required (50 points); comments are optional (5 points each, maximum of 20 points).  All work is due by 11:59pm on Monday, February 18, 2013.

For your check-in, you may discuss any of the following
- your overall opinion of the visit
- new information/ideas that you acquired
- responses to questions raised during the discussion
- responses to discussion of the poems (particularly the ones we analyzed)
- thoughts on the functions of poetry and literary expression
- thoughts on the relationship between literature and social movements
- the purpose/benefits of programs like Writers in Schools
- anything else on your mind (related to the visit, of course!)

Your post should be detailed and reflective, at least two solid paragraphs.  While I encourage you to be honest, I also caution you to take care in how you express your thoughts.  Remember, candor and courtesy can--and should--coexist.

As discussed in class, your task this week is to post an analysis of two poems from E. Ethelbert Miller's How We Sleep on the Nights We Don't Make Love:

1.  "Looking for Omar" (pgs. 48 - 49)
2.  another poem of your choice (of at least 10 lines)

For each analysis, you should
- briefly explain what happens in the poem (e.g. narrative, problem/resolution, etc.)
- write a one-paragraph explication focusing on any one element that we have studied in this unit (prosody, form/structure, character(s), setting, imagery, figurative language, irony, symbolism, meaning)

Initial posts are due by 11:59pm on Saturday, February 9, 2013 (I will begin approving posts on Friday).  Additionally, you should post two comments on other students' analyses.  These comments are due by 11:59pm on Monday, February 11, 2013.  Remember, our author visit will take place during class on Tuesday, February 12, 2013.

For this week's discussion, I would like for you to consider the following quote and then connect it to a real-life hero.

This week, I would like to talk about the idea of being "smart."  This is an important concept in our society, with people focused on proving that they are smart, but not wanting to seem too smart for other people to like them, but wanting their kids to feel smart so they can outsmart others and get a good job.  There are so many different ways to be smart:  book smarts, street smarts, intelligence quotient (IQ), emotional intelligence (EQ), etc.  There are at least as many ways to appear smart:  high test scores, strong GPA, admiration of others, promotions at work, performance on games, answers in interviews, problem-solving abilities, etc.  So, what does it all mean?

For your initial post, I would like for you to reflect on the following two questions (answer and explain).  High-quality posts will show depth of ideas and reflection, connecting abstract concepts to your experiences and developing your thoughts with reasoned argument and quality examples.
  1.  What does it mean to be "smart"?
  2.  What is more important:  being smart, looking smart, or feeling smart?

Your initial post is due by 11:59pm on Friday, January 25, 2013.  I will begin releasing posts on Thursday evening so that you can add your comments to the discussion.  All comments are due by 11:59pm on Sunday, January 27, 2013.