Month: January 2021

And so it begins. As night follows day, Semester 2 follows Semester 1, and we begin a new  “Circle of Life” here in AP Language. A circle wherein we hone our hard-fought skills by closely reading, rhetorically analyzing and writing a draft essay about a fresh text each week, even as we pay our respects to and celebrate a text well studied by drawing upon all our learning — and  the spirit of our ancestors — to write our best and final essay for a Townsel rubric score. A cycle in which we gird ourselves for the upcoming battle of the AP Lang exam by examining our opponent, unit by unit, in AP Classroom.

This week, you’ll work with your accountability partner to create a detailed outline for an essay you’ll write collaboratively during your second class of the week, rhetorically analyzing Amanda Gorman’s occasional poem “The Hill We Climb”; you’ll post your partner essay on the blog; and you’ll use your rubric to work with your partner to peer review and assign a rubric score to two other essays. Separately, you’ll work independently to write your best and final Locavore essay and  complete Unit 4 in AP Classroom. Stick with our cyclical battle plan all spring, and you’ll be singing “Hakuna Matata” on our May game day!

This Week’s Assignments

First, you’ll work with your accountability partner to create a detailed outline between your first and second class of this week for a rhetorical analysis of Ms. Gorman’s poem; I’ll review your prompt with you on Monday (juniors) or Thursday (sophomores). Pro tip: An effective outline comprises the full Aristotelian argument, the specific text evidence you intend to employ, and your thinking about where — and ideally what — you plan to include to satisfy Townsel’s required writing elements.

Then, you and your partner will work with your accountability partner during scheduled class time on Tuesday to write an effective rhetorical analysis of Ms. Gorman’s poem, capable of scoring at least a 5 on the six-point AP rhetorical analysis rubric. You’ll turn in last week’s Gorman SPACE CAT analysis and worksheet analysis, and your outline, to this Google form and post your essay in on the blog. Then, you’ll both collaborate again to review, comment upon and rubric score two posted essays.

Separately, you’ll write and turn in on this Google form your best and final locavore essay, taking into account all the feedback you received in blog comments and addressing all the issues raised in peer review by your accountability partner. This one’s for a test grade, so make it count!

Finally, you’ll go to your favorite home away from home, AP Classroom; per usual, you’ll watch and take notes on the assigned videos FOR UNIT 4 ONLY; then complete the assigned FRQ and MCQ assessments BY SUNDAY, 2.14 (JUNIORS) AND WEDNESDAY, 2.17 (SOPHOMORES). YES! I’m giving you two weeks to complete Unit 4 on Facebook. You’re welcome.

We’re pushing forward here in this new semester. And, in the words of Mufasa, “Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice but to believe with you.” We’re getting there!

As we round the corner for a new semester, we begin reviewing all we’ve learned so far this year and deepening our skills. We’ll start with rhetorically analyzing Amanda Gorman’s stunning poem “The Hill We Climb,” recited at the presidential inauguration, working in pairs to break down the poem line by line and, then, complete a SPACE CAT analysis to get ready for writing a rhetorical analysis essay. You’ll also work with a partner to conduct  thorough peer reviews of each of your locavore synthesis essays, conduct a peer conference to discuss each others’ constructive criticism and reflect on the blog feedback your essay received as a jumping off point to rewrite and resubmit your essay for a quality grade next week. Finally, you’ll work in AP Classroom again to extend your exam-readiness, watching the videos and completing a couple of culminating assessments for Unit 3.

This Week’s Assignments: deadlines 10 p.m. Sun. 1.31 (Jrs.)/10 p.m. Wed. 2.3 (Sophs)

First, you’ll  watch the amazing Amanda Gorman deliver her poem “The Hill We Climb.” Then you’ll pull up the full text of the poem and download this analysis worksheet to deeply analyze the text. Once you’ve completed the analysis sheet for the poem, you’ll then work as a pair to complete a thorough SPACE CAT analysis of the poem. Keep your work handy; you’ll be working with in class for at least another week in preparation for writing a rhetorical analysis essay about her poem. That done, working with your accountability partner, pull up these student essay samples for the Locavore prompt and the official AP synthesis rubric, then read, discuss each sample essay with your partner, and assign each a score. This is called range-finding, and it helps you determine where you and your partners’ essays might have fallen on a six-point scale if you had written the essay as part of an actual exam. Once you’ve read, applied the rubric and agreed on scores for your sample essay, use our standing course AP synthesis peer review checklist to conduct a thorough peer review (in a google doc) of your partner’s essay. When you’re done, you’ll share your peer review with your partner and cut and paste it into this week’s Google check-in form.

Finally, you’ll work independently in AP Classroom to complete the videos and assessments assigned for Unit 3 — not just because of the May AP Language exam, but because of the upcoming March administration on campus of the SAT. Pro tip: The College Board is in charge of both the SATs and AP exams, so the work you do in AP Classroom is directly aligned to improved reading and writing scores on the SAT exam as well.

We’re picking up steam, making sure we’re ready for all that comes ahead this spring, making sure we’re ready to brave, as Amanda Gorman wrote so beautifully, “the belly of the beast.”

This week, our blog work is all about exam readiness — and our work will be so straightforward I’m not going to spend a lot of time setting up here.

First, you’ll be turning in your locavore synthesis outline as you turned in your timed writing. If you haven’t prepared your outline for an Aristotelian essay yet, go get that done. Second, in your first period of this week, you’ll be writing the essay in 40 minutes — 60 minutes if you have extended time — and turning it in IMMEDIATELY with your outline — when you’re done. I’ll provide you with links to a Google form to turn in your work, then you’ll come here and post it as a comment. 

Second, you’ll review the AP synthesis rubric, then come back TO THIS BLOG POST and use the  rubric to peer score two of your peers.

Next week, you’ll use the AP Synthesis rubric, to conduct a detailed peer review for an accountability partner of your choice and, then, conduct a one-on-one conference with that peer.

Pro tips for timed writings, which we’ll be doing regularly from this point forward:

• Do the outlines in advance. They help, and for the next several timed essays, you’ll be allowed to plan in advance and use them as you write.
• If you miss a timed writing, you’ll need to arrange with me to make it up within three calendar days.
• The process we set this week for writing, reviewing and rewriting will be our process for timed essays the rest of the year.
• Your peer review score is not your grade — I will assign your grade. And if you’re not happy with your grade, you’ll be allowed to rewrite for consideration for a higher grade.

This Week’s Assignments:

1. Bring your completed locavore outline to your first class of the week for the timed writing. You’ll be turning it in for a grade, along with your timed essay, via a google doc I’ll supply to you during class.
2. When you’re done turning your work into the Google form, you’ll then cut and paste your essay as a comment, HERE, below. As you turn it in, make sure that it’s formatted properly before you hit submit.
3. By your Sunday night, 10 p.m. deadline (juniors) or Wednesday night, 10 p.m. deadline (sophomores), come back to this blog post and use the rubric to score two of your peers and comment, providing the following information: give BOTH of the people you comment on a suggested score, broken down by the rows of the rubric, provide a few sentences explaining the score you assign, then tell them 3 SPECIFIC things they did well in their essay and 3 SPECIFIC things you think might improve their score.
4. Go to AP Classroom, complete for a late grade any Unit 2 work you have not yet completed. I’ll be assigning work on Unit 3 next week, and you don’t want this work to stack.

See you in class Tuesday (juniors) and Thursday (sophomores) for our first timed writing!

Relationships are complicated — good, bad, weak strong, ugly, pretty. When they’re good, there’s nothing better but, then, when they’re bad, they suck all the air out of the room. Some of the strongest rhetoric in history has been applied in the name of wooing great loves and, conversely, ending toxic relationships. There is, then, lots to be learned by looking at writing and rhetoric through the relationship lens.

We spent most of our fall sharpening our argumentative skills by learning and applying the Aristotelian argument. This week, you’ll wipe the Winter Break dust off the Aristotelian structure to argue passionately about a relationship that took its toll, in different ways, for man of us. Then, in class and with a group, you’ll write another letter — this time, synthesizing some information to proffer some much-needed relationship advice.

This Week’s Assignments:

1. I took the break, the entire break, and nothing but the break to sleep, read and binge-watch “Bridgerton,” so I’ll be updating grades to input your Santa efforts this week. If you still owe me work, GET IT IN. Progress reports go out at the end of the week. Some credit is better than NO credit.
2. Read the love letters linked above, and the breakup letter examples here. Refresh your understanding for what typically goes into a killer love letter or a cutthroat break-up letter, then pick one of each and conduct a formal SPACE CAT analysis for both. Use the linked worksheet as your guideline, but be THOROUGH, be SPECIFIC, and use complete sentences. Don’t limit yourself to the tiny space on the worksheet, write what it takes to get the job done. (You’ll turn your work in to this week’s Google self-report.)
3. Employing all parts of the Aristotelian argument and all of Townsel’s required writing elements, write a letter either a) breaking up with 2020 or b) flirting with 2021. Your choice. We’ll talk about this assignment in class, but your work should channel all that you learn from reading and rhetorically analyzing great love and effective break-up letters.
4. You’ll build on our newfound appreciation for relationship rhetoric by working with a team to kick off our collective effort to synthesize at set of supplied “documents” and provide a fellow BTW student with relationship advice. More on that in class.
5. You’ll turn in all your work via this week’s Google form, due by 10 p.m. Sunday evening, 1.10.21. TWENTY-ONE! So glad to be moving forward!

I look forward to seeing you on Zoom this week on Tuesday/Wednesday (juniors) and Thursday/Friday (sophomores)!