The week: 2/10/14

On Monday and Tuesday, you will be working in the computer lab composing your exploration of your chosen concept in Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible.  I will be available to work through any problems you may experience as you gather your thoughts into a coherent, cohesive essay that illustrates your mastery of language.  Plan to bring three printed drafts that are pretty close to your version of perfection to class on Wednesday to share with your peers. Plan for technical difficulties at home.  If you cannot print at home, for whatever reason, plan to visit the media center before school or -if you have AP Lang later in the day-at lunch.  Anyone who needs a pass to the media center for lunch or for a "free hour" can see me for one.  We do not have the time to allow for printing during class on Wednesday, so pretend this is a document you have been asked to present to your company's Board of Directors at your future job and be prepared. 

The final draft is due Thursday as we have no school on Friday.  On Thursday, I will be handing out the final set of multiple choice questions for the Poisonwood Bible.  These will cover three passages.  Here's the bit which will most interest you:  you will be allowed to drop (from all of the Poisonwood Bible passages) your three lowest grades.  The new set will be due on Monday at the beginning of the hour. We will correct them in class and then you can decide which grades you'd like to drop.

Next week, we will start reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley which is a satire, a cautionary tale that was written in the 1930's, but can I tell you? The man had spooky powers of foresight.  It is about oppression through distraction.  Following that we will be writing our own satires.

The "Monster Project" is looming out there, isn't it?  Everything we have read this semester has been an exploration of the various lenses through which authors choose to view monsters of all kinds.  Hopefully, you've been doing a lot of reading about your topic.  Because we have lost 7 hours to Mother Nature, I am re-structuring this assignment somewhat.  If you'd like to work ahead a bit, you could collect eight texts (articles, essays, etc.) that cover your topic. 

You are going to have to narrow your focus when you complete the actual writing and so it may be useful to start thinking along those lines.  For example, we looked at the "Space Exploration" sample of the synthesis question for the AP Exam.  Space Exploration is a huge topic, so the folks at the College Board asked  students to "develop a position about what issues should be considered most important in making decisions about space exploration."  Another year, they asked students to "take a position on the effects of advertising." Likewise, if I were to focus on School Violence as my monster, I might narrow it considering the following question, "What is the best prevention against School Violence?"  Notice that I've focused my question on the solution aspect so that instead of wallowing in the problem, which is obvious and not a point of argument, I can focus my research on something positive and crawl out of the darkness that has surrounded us all year :)  I think we need this, especially in February and March.  I challenge you to do the same.  And then I would find a collection of texts that explore that topic.  And so should you.  You will ultimately include one graphic that you create. but you should also include a text that is some kind of chart or graph and requires the interpretation of data.  These should be texts that help you explore a variety of angles about your topic.  You are, in case you haven't figured it out yet, creating a synthesis prompt using as your model those created by the College Board. 

For those of you that cannot live without and function best when given a due date, let's call it March 3. So, by March 3, you should have eight texts which include your chart or graph or some other data piece.

This is probably enough for now.
You can respond with any questions or comments and I'll be happy to help.