English III focuses on some major works of British literature. The course continues to develop skills in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking. This junior-level class also devotes time to preparation for the PSAT/SAT, building vocabulary, research, and the use of educational technology.
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Week of 6/8
The Glass Castle, daily reading assignments posted on blackboard
Tues, 6/9, Test on The Class Castle
Mon, 6/15, Final Examination at 8:15. Bring books, pencil, and pen to class. The review sheet lists all the material convered on the exam as well as the types of questions you will find. Good luck!
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Advanced Placement English Language and Composition is essentially a course in critical reading and effective writing. Students will grow increasingly adept at reading and discussing literary texts written in a variety of periods and styles, with particular attention to nonfiction. Students will also become increasingly skillful in writing three types of papers: an essay of close textual analysis, which will determine a given selection’s purpose, audience, and use of rhetorical devices; an open-ended argument, which will support, challenge, or qualify a given assertion; and a documented essay, which will synthesize and identify outside sources used to strengthen one’s own case.
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Richard Lederer begins his book The Miracle of Language with this claim: “It is only through the gift of language that the child acquires reason, the complexity of thought that sets him or her apart from the other creatures who share this planet. The birth of language is the dawn of humanity; in our beginning was the word.” This gift of language–in its many forms–is the heart and soul of this course.
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Welcome to your POST-AP-TEST Edgate page. It contains most of what you need to know and do for the rest of the school year.
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#1 The Play. Bring with you to class everyday Arthur Miller's adaptation of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. We will enact and discuss the play in class and compare it to several contemporary films. Activities (announced in class) will have the value of one or two quizzes.
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#2 Entering the Coversation. Read the four recent articles provided and, once again, post reactions and replies on the Eng3AP message board. Go to learn.unioncatholic.org. Click Humanities and choose AP Language. Enter your USERNAME and PASSWORD, click on the course again, and follow the directions for ASSIGNMENT 2. Note that you must post twice: once to respond to one of the questions and then by replying to one of your classmates' blogs. Each entry should be thoughtful, relevant to the prompt (and the article from which it comes), and grammatical, and at least five sentences. The activity will have the value of a quiz. Get started! Both postings are due by Monday, June 1.
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#3 "My Turn": The Autobiographical Narrative. Read all assigned autobiographical essays from The Bedford Reader. Follow this schedule:
Due Tuesday, 5/26: Maya Angelou's "Champion of the World" (88), Amy Tan's "Fish Cheeks" (94), and Annie Dillard's "The Chase" (99)
Due Thursday, 5/28: Brad Manning's "Arm Wrestling with My Father" (144), Sarah Vowell's "Shooting Dad" (152), Brent Staple's "Black Men and Public Space" (205), and Sandra Cisneros' "Only Daughter" (596)
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These short essays will serve as models for the paper you will write, a paper that will serve the same two-fold purpose: to narrate and describe in detail a personal experience and to provide through it an observation or message for a wider audience. In other words, it's "your turn" to write your story. This final--really final--paper of at least two pages will have the value of a test and is due on Wednesday, June 10, the final day of class! (Or before, of course.)
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And that's it! Thanks for a happy and productive year--and have a great summer!
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Note. Do take some time to read the attachments below. They are the successful and now published essays of your classmates: #1 is Megan Carr's rhetorical analysis of "An Elementary School Class Room in a Slum," #2 is Jamie Ciocon's rhetorical analysis of "Slipping," and #3 is Aaron Pinkard's response to the summer reading topic of rebellion in Black Boy and 1984. Your teacher again requests that all students who have been invited to publish their essays on Ed-gate submit them via e-mail.
