standardized testing today

rhs ap testing schedule

This just in:

open soda

April 16

JOURNAL TOPIC:
How does it feel to be in charge of your own learning in crunch time?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Slight recap of yesterday's conversation
3. Macbeth: discussion &/or quiz on Act II


HW:
1. Comment to the AP Reading List page with 3-5 literature analysis URLs (extra credit for more; please list in order of quality, best first).
2. Read Macbeth Act III
3. Post your answers to the Jane Eyre questions below (thanks, Mackenzie!)

(***PLEASE NOTE: As we review our progress in each period today, we will discuss the schedule and refine yesterday's ideas.  Even though the school calendar belongs to standardized testing, our learning calendar belongs to us.  Please be sure to consult the blog and/or your Inbox so that you don't miss anything on the days we don't meet in class.  Mahalo.)

M C Questions Ch 1

recap of yesterday's discussions

Thanks to everyone who participated in yesterday's discussions.  Here is a brief recap:

• The Macbeth video (part I + link to PBS) now lives here 
• We will be accelerating our reading pace on Macbeth and doing readers' theater by request (i.e., we won't read the whole play out loud in class, but we will read those lines/scenes that you want to hear out loud and/or discuss)
• Macbeth was unfairly maligned-- it HAS been on the AP exam (in 1983, 1999, 2003, 2005, & 2009)
• We need a central place for literature analyses so that students don't have to hunt through a year of everyone's blogs to review titles/main features of the books on the AP reading list.  To that end, everyone will be asked to contribute links to 3-5 literature analyses (by title) as comments to the AP Reading List page; a small group of volunteers will help me aggregate the URLs and create links through the page for easy reference. 
• The Spring Break lit circles groups will present their novels as micro-lessons in class this week and next, and will assign their multiple choice & essay questions for homework on the day that they present.
• We will generate and write on a series of open essay topics that include literature analyses and the lit circles' titles.
• We will have a poetry boot camp next week (period 0 lead = Sarah; period 3 lead = Sam & Feli; period 4 lead = Mackenzie.  If you're interested in see them and/or me.)
• We will use online tools (and telephones, cars, cans/string, etc.) to collaborate and make use of the testing time this week and next.  Three weeks before the exam is not a good time to lose four days of thinking about the exam.
• We will thematically contextualize Macbeth & the other works of lit we've studied this year, and (time permitting) we'll revisit dystopia with a selection from The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

If I've forgotten or misremembered anything, or if you've had a great idea since we talked, please comment to this post.

ap scores online this year

Following is a screen shot of an email I got from the fine folks at the College Board.  For your reference and convenience, the "new AP student site" is here. 

keep calm and master eng lit comp