Vocab Quiz TOMORROW!

First Vocab Quiz on Unit 1 is tomorrow! Remember, these are the following dates for vocab quizzes (I will not be posting a reminder every week, so mark your calendars!)

1st Quarter

Aug 29: Unit 1

Sep 12: Unit 2

Sep 26: Unit 3 (Combo of 1, 2, 3)

Oct 10: Unit 4

2nd Quarter

Oct 24: Unit 5

Nov 7: Unit 6 (Combo of 4, 5, 6)

Nov 21: Unit 7

Dec 12: Unit 8

Analyze the Rhetoric!

Now that you have taken the terms and identification portion of the test, you will now analyze the SOAPS of a recent persuasive speech: President Barack Obama's 2012 Inaugural Address. Feel free to listen to his speech tonight so you can hear and see the inflection and emphasis he puts on certain words. Tomorrow, you will just have an abbreviated transcript to work with in order to label and clarify the SOAPS of his rhetorical strategy. Short and sweet Inaugural Address--PERFECT for analysis!

First Test on First Documents!

English III Classes

Forming a Nation (Foundational American Texts)
Test on Tuesday and analysis on Wednesday (Sept. 26 & 27)

Study the following documents:

• SOAPS
• Declaration in Brief
• Declaration and Crisis Packet (handout in class)
• Ben Franklin aphorisms (in textbook and in class notebook)

The Suitor, Death

Today, we have finished looking at Whitman and Dickinson. I have attached some awesome extra stuff here on the blog if you want to study some more and practice analyzing poetry a little more.

If you are looking for more in-depth Emily Dickinson, check out this excellently thorough, line-by-line analysis of "Because I could not stop for Death."

Or, you can also check out this parody that uses modern cartoon gags to spruce up this traditional poem.

To review our thoughts on "I heard a Fly buzz," check out this college-level course lesson review. The professor thoroughly and accessibly identifies the main ideas and analysis of this death poem.

Remember your Whitman and Dickinson test is tomorrow. That means you need to make sure your Whitman and Dickinson handout and rotation is complete! You may even get to use it for reference!

Transcendentalist Unit Projects

Everything for the Transcendentalist Unit is due at the end of class tomorrow! Remember to finish your Transcendentalist Project (below), Chart, Walden Packet, Instructional Book Page, and Research Paper Revisions. All of these assignments can be found on this blogpost.

Transcendentalist Project!

Instructions after the jump!

Midterms: MONDAY, March 24

ALL CLASSES:
Your midterm will be given on Monday, March 24. The first half will be a standardized test packet that includes reading passages and comprehension and analysis questions. The second half will be vocabulary practice with twenty words plus literary terms that you will more than likely see on the standardized test that will be your final exam, mandated by the state.

For some standardized test-taking skills practice, check out this blog post!

This midterm should be totally within your grasp and hopefully continue your flying aces in my class!

Scarlet Letter TEST!

The time has come to study for The Scarlet Letter test! The test will be Wednesday, Mar 19 (study after the ACT?). Focus on the characters, symbols, and overall meaning of the text by using these assignments to study:

• ABC Symbol Chart
• Glencoe Activities 1-8
• Glencoe Actiities 9-24
• Conflict Chart (ABC Chart Section)

If you have been paying attention in class, you should have no problem at all with this test!

English IV: Test TOMORROW!

Tomorrow you will be taking an open-book, open-notes test after you finish watching A Knight's Tale. You may use any of the following handouts you have received for this unit, but you may NOT use your friends in class.
Handouts:

• Seven Deadly Sins
• The Pardoner's Tale
• Canterbury Tales Character Chart Introduction

Tuesday, we will share each other's stories and watch "The Pardoner's Tale." Do not complete this section of the test tomorrow.

Beowulf Test!

Anglo-Saxons and Beowulf

Test on MONDAY, February 24

Study the following documents:

• Anglo-Saxon Literary Elements
• Comparing Anglo-Saxon Tales
• 12 Steps of the Hero Myth
• Beowulf Questions and Chart (DUE MONDAY)

Remember that your Comic Strip is also due on Tuesday. You may work on it after you finish your test.

Preparing for MSL Standardized Testing

Next week we will all be taking North Carolina Final Exams that WILL COUNT as 25% of your FINAL average. In order to prepare, we have reviewed various test-taking skills and content in class; however, you can review with these handy websites, games, and English tools! Review to DO YOUR BEST ON THE TEST!

• Practice with the flashcards we reviewed in class!
• Use this Comprehensive List of Lit Terms and Definitions.
• Take this mini-quiz as another "refresher" of literary terms!
• Sift through PowerPoints and "Hint" Pages for how to take standardized tests!
• Check out the Basics of Literary Elements. There are several review games near the bottom of the page.
• Practice with Scholastic Worksheets.
• Or, find your own resources with this Library Reference List that will direct you to books and other resources!

Exam Schedule (Fall 2013 Courses)

Day	8:30-12:30 EXAM PERIOD	“3rd” Period	“4th” Period
Mon	3rd	1st	2nd
Tues	1st	2nd	4th
Wed	2nd	4th	4th
Thur	4th	3rd	2nd
Fri	2nd (Makeup)

Macbeth TEST!

We have finished reading Macbeth, completed many worksheets, analyzed quotes and setting and motifs, and watched the PBS Macbeth. It's TEST TIME!

Review the following worksheets:

• the elements of a tragedy
• character quotes
• the Globe Theater illustration
• theme trackers (If you are curious about the other Theme-based Questions for the other themes in Macbeth, check out this document.)

You've also got this awesome rap for you to listen to as review! It's got main themes and plot summary!

The following sections will be on the test:

• matching INCLUDING theater definitions and character identification
• fill-in-the-blank with easy, one-word answers
• a super-short answer section requiring three-eight words
• multiple choice about plot
• two short answer questions (paragraph)
• paragraph responses to TWO themes 
• identify the parts of the Globe Theater

English IV Midterm

On Thursday, third period will take a general literary device midterm. These are elements we have looked into through all our units and should be a giant review from all the years of English/Language Arts you have had in school. Be sure you CAN succeed on this midterm--I have tried to make a test you can excel on to help pull up all those poor grades of yours. You can review with these handy websites, games, and English tools! Review to DO YOUR BEST ON THE TEST!

• Practice with the flashcards we reviewed in class!
• Use this Comprehensive List of Lit Terms and Definitions.
• Take this mini-quiz as another "refresher" of literary terms!
• Sift through PowerPoints and "Hint" Pages for how to take standardized tests!
• Check out the Basics of Literary Elements. There are several review games near the bottom of the page.
• Practice with Scholastic Worksheets.
• Or, find your own resources with this Library Reference List that will direct you to books and other resources!

Eng IV: TEST TOMORROW!!!!

Study all of the handouts you have received for this unit. These are the following handouts you should study:

• Seven Deadly Sins
• The Pardoner's Tale
• Canterbury Tales Character Chart Introduction
• Work analyzing political cartoons for SOCIAL COMMENTARY (not a handout)
• what is the issue?
• what is the author's opinion?
• how do you know?

If you check through the Canterbury Tales tag on the blog, you can review and watch videos to help your studying!

Pride and Prejudice: A Look into Romance

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
     So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's witty comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues. Renowned literary critic and historian George Saintsbury in 1894 declared it the "most perfect, the most characteristic, the most eminently quintessential of its author's works," and Eudora Welty in the twntieth century described it as "irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be."--Introduction by Anna Quindlen.

Sparks fly when spirited Elizabeth Bennet meets single, rich, and proud Mr. Darcy. But Mr. Darcy reluctantly finds himself falling in love with a woman beneath his class. Can each overcome their own pride and prejudice?--IMDB

Please continue using your worksheet to follow the text's character development and interactions before your FINAL TEST on Friday, May 31st!

Study for Voc 9 Quiz!

word	syn	ant
pique	hype	ignore/stifle
linguistics	study of language/Language Arts	"slang" no antonym
plebian	commoner	high class/noble
precocious	early development/prodigy	mentally challenged/slow/average
predatory	bully/hunter/top of the food chain	prey
prowess	skilled/skillz	mediocre/useless
pugnacious	eager to fight/aggressive/rowdy	calm/docile/peaceful/passive
purloin	thieve	own/give
quixotic	idealistic	realistic/practical/cynical
rabble	mob	single
rabid	fanatical/obsessed	calm/stagnant
raconteur	storyteller/	sometimes a lawyer/lecturer
cognizant	knowledgeable	not informed/negligent/ignorant
febrile	feverish/pyrexia	healthy/well
apostasy	unfaithful--> loss of faith/disillusioned	faithful/believer

Vocab 1-8 Midterm Study List

To study for your midterm, click after the jump to get vocab lists 1-8 below.

TEST on Thursday!

Study all of the handouts you have received for this unit. Make sure you bring ALL of the handouts (The Canterbury Tales Intro, Prologue, and Pardoner's Tale AND The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale handout) to class.

These are the following handouts you should study:

• Seven Deadly Sins
• The Pardoner's Tale
• The Wife of Bath Debates Church Fathers
• Canterbury Tales Character Chart Introduction
• Work analyzing political cartoons for SOCIAL COMMENTARY (not a handout)
• what is the issue?
• what is the author's opinion?
• how do you know?

If you check through the Canterbury Tales tag on the blog, you can review and watch videos to help your studying!

PARENTS!!! PLEASE READ

The first grades of second semester came out in homeroom today.

Please do not panic.

The first two weeks in any class are about establishing expectations and demonstrating proper behaviors. As my class is an English class, these two weeks are crucial to outlining my expectations of writing and reading at this next level in your student's success. I do not want to penalize any student in the process of learning procedure and format. Therefore, Weeks Two and Three in my class are the first to hold significant grades, such as the tests today and tomorrow, vocab quizzes on Fridays, and a compilation grade of students' daily notebooks. You can find all of the assignments thus far posted here on the blog. These assignments are the first significant grades of the term.

As grades were due with only two weeks yet in the term, your student had only two or three grades in the grade system. This means that if one assignment was a failure or missing, it is very probable your student's grade is failing. However, this week has been the end of a unit in all of my classes, resulting in many more grades within the week. Please continue to check on NCWise for your student's improving grade. I am sure that your student's grade will improve proportionally to the work they continue to do in my class.

TESTING DAYS!!!

English III Classes (1st and 2nd Period)

Forming a Nation (Foundational American Texts)
Test on THURSDAY, Feb 7
Study the following documents:

• SOAPS
• Declaration in Brief
• Declaration and Crisis Packet (handout in class)
• Ben Franklin aphorisms (in textbook and in class notebook)

English IV Classes (4th Period)

Anglo-Saxons and Beowulf

Test on FRIDAY, Feb 8 (after the voc quiz....we will probably finish the test on Monday)

Study the following documents:

• Anglo-Saxon Literary Elements
• Comparing Anglo-Saxon Tales
• 12 Steps of the Hero Myth
• Beowulf Questions

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" (Act V, Scene v)

Here is a collection of all of the documents we have completed in our time with Macbeth. Our schedule until Thanksgiving goes as follows:

Thursday: Watch and analyze film versions of the play.
Friday:  Take notes/explore the elements of a tragedy.
Monday: MACBETH TEST
Tuesday: Ballads and Thankfulness

If you are curious about the other Theme-based Questions for the other themes in Macbeth, check out this document.

You've also got this awesome rap for you to listen to as review! It's got main themes and plot summary!

After the jump, I have posted all of the links to the important documents and handouts for this unit. These will be useful if you are missing any or if you would like to study with blank forms!