AP Vertical Team

Do we want to make plans to set up some meetings in the next few weeks or during the summer for some extra cash and iron out the final wrinkles in the portfolio system etc? I will be away from June 23-27 but would be willing to do so any other time. Mrs. Barton told Cheryl and me that there was money left over from the grant available.

Week of June 4-June 8

Final Journal Collection #39-50 on Monday, June 4
Review for Final Exam Tue/Wed (June 5/6)
FINAL EXAM JUNE 6, 7, & 8
PREPARE TASK #4 ESSAY OUTLINE FOR FINAL ON FRIDAY JUNE 8

Free Teacher's Guides

I found free Penguin Teacher's Guides if you need any--they are pretty good

http://us.penguingroup.com/static/html/services-academic/teachersguides.html

Reformatting the Summer Reading List

Alright, the time is now. If you would like to see any changes in the Summer Reading List, either in selections offered or requirements, then you must respond. Either post your suggestions to the blog (for those of you reading a print copy, mackenglishdept.blogspot.com) or write me a note on this sheet of paper and put it in my mailbox. Or email me. Or send up a concise smoke signal.

Click here for last year's reading list. Again, if you're reading a print copy of this post, then you should find the reading list on the other side of this sheet.

Let's Meet This Week

We have several important things we must discuss.

1. Summer Reading List - The time is now. Let's identify the works we want to replace, and agree on what work we are demanding along with it.
2. Writing Portfolio - Let's agree on 3-4 pieces per grade level and start working on this next year, with the expectation that we will identify a few more types of writing per grade in the future.
3. If there's anything else, I've forgotten. Forgive me. Let's get this going again.

I propose we meet on Friday, if that's cool with everyone. I can't drop off the boy until 7-ish on Wednesdays, and with the length of the 7:10 am Tim Horton's drive through line, I barely make it by 7:30. I'll talk to you guys individually this week to make sure this is cool.

The Quest to Determine a Book List

Okay, slow but steady movement on the grade level book list. The short term goal of the CLT team is to identify 5-8 novels for 9th grade that could only be taught at that grade level. One of these books would be a mandatory selection, and Anne will be moving to purchase a copy of this book per student.

We are meeting again June 5th and 6th to finish the list. See me with any questions.

10th Grade Academic Intervention Services (AIS)

BPS is moving to comply with state mandates for AIS. Therefore, next year we will be instituting AIS for sophomores. All sophomores who have been designated as significantly below grade level and in danger of failing the Regents exam will have a AIS class that will meet three days a week in addition to their regular English class. The curriculum will be Language! E & F.

So, 9th grade teachers are going to need to compile a list of students whom they feel qualify for AIS. Again, significantly below grade level and in danger of failing the 11th grade exam.

Fluency Assessments - Important!

I attended a Curriculum Lead Teacher meeting this morning at Riverside. One of the main topics was the fluency assessments that are being rolled out in May. Here is a draft of the announcement you will receive in a few days.


We also received this sheet, titled "Quick Tips for Fluency Practice"


And this handout on Reader's Theater




We also received some materials related to fluency. Julie and Anne presented information to help us develop our own fluency materials for next year. These handouts will help us to determine grade level appropriateness.

They gave us a cool tool which lists the selections from the McDougall Littell textbooks, along with their Lexile scores, Dale-Chall scores, and DRP scores. That way, we can figure out if a piece is too difficult to use as a fluency activity.

In order to help us understand what each number means, they also distributed handouts which can be found at the following websites:

• The Dale-Chall list of the most commonly used words in the English language.
• The Fry graph for estimating reading ages, as well as the Fry Readability Formula description.
• The DRP test from the 9th, 10th, and 11th grade McD-Lt textbook (they're all the same!)

I have a copy of the textbook selections in my room. Anne is going to be emailing a .pdf document, and when I receive that, I'll make it available here.

Reading Websites

Robin shared two wonderful websites at our meeting.

Readwritethink.org is a wonderful place for lesson plans.
Reading.org has materials for students.

Regents Task III Scoring

Alrighty, we met, we graded, we discussed, and here are the commonalities we found:

Postives

• Use of citations to support their text
• integrated their texts effectively (relevancy & grammatically)
  
• used rhetoric...in their introductions...they had a good enough grasp of the task to create a good read
• Mrs. Douglas has her students start with aphorisms in order to grab the reader's attention
• once the focus established, it was held. The majority of students were able to hold the thought that they were talking about the influences of grandmas
• excellent sentence structure
• impressed with the prewriting...it seemed to help...it was nice to see outlines
• focused on a larger element, in this case characterization

Areas in Need of Improvement

• must show how authors use techniques to characterize...
• need stronger controlling ideas...make sure the connection between both works is obvious in the thesis
• more connection between the technique and element and the controlling idea...for instance...it should be clear how the techniques convey the theme...how do they relate to the thesis, in this case...the controlling idea about the influence of grammy's
• retelling of story...plot summary
• seems to be a great deal of confusion between imagery and symbolism...
• omit Passage I and Passage II, refer to the works by the poem title and the workc title
• essay conclusions seem abrupt...needs to be clear that a conclusion is a conclusion...howsa bout a transition?
  

Check out Boq's Blog...

I haven't asked Lesley if I could do this, but she let on that she has created a blog for her classroom. So, hee hee, I've added it to the sidebar under "Other Classroom Blogs." I've also added a link to Frank DiLeo's AP Literature site. Frank is a dynamic teacher from City Honors who uses a blog with his classes. Enjoy.

AP Language and Composition Exam

We have ordered 75 AP Language exams. Mia, Kristine, and Cheryl need to toss the softball around and negotiate to dole out exams. Let's make this happen ASAP.

Summer Reading

Guys, its time we started to discuss the summer reading assignment. In the beginning of the year we reassessed last year's effort and proposed changes to be more successful his year. Mainly, we wanted to rework the list and roll out the program earlier. Here is a link to a .doc version of last year's list.

And here's a picture:
From memory, here's a few changes I'd like to see:
Replace All-Bright Court since it was so hard to find last year.
Get rid of Kavalier and Clay. I read some of it and couldn't make myself read on.
Any other suggestions?

Regents Practice & the Half Day

Today a significant amount of 11th graders took a practice exam in the cafeteria. This time they attacked the Task III essay. Tomorrow we will be grading this exam. Bring a friend!

Blogbad Badblogger

First of all, I apologize for being so blogbad lately. Between grades being due, vacations, and class coverage, I haven't had time to pass much news along. Plus, because of vacation, there hasn't been much news as the AP Vertical Team hasn't met. Tomorrow we'll talk, and I promise another installment of "What's In My Mailbox" very soon.

Week of April 23-27

Quiz on Act 1 Romeo & Juliet Monday
Read Act 2
Complete Study Guide questions for Act 2
SSR on Friday-Bring a book to read

Yay! NEA Grant Winner

Hey folks! Looks like we took a brief blog-cation. I've got a heap of mail to share and and multiple announcements and what not. But, I'll save that for tomorrow. Today, I'd just like to share that I'm fairly confident I was awarded a $500 NEA grant, titled "Drop Everything and Read Bookshelf Awards." I haven't been notified, or anything, but I found this recent announcement online.

Good times. Here's the blurb:

In celebration of National Drop Everything And Read (D.E.A.R.) Day, the NEA Foundation and the National Education Association (NEA) offer the D.E.A.R. Bookshelf Awards. These awards are made possible in part with support from HarperCollins Children's Books as part of the NEA's commitment to promote children's literacy and motivate readers of all ages. This program awards $500 to public schools for the purchase of books and reading materials that will entice students to drop everything and read!

Summer School

You have probably already read this, but the The Buffalo News ran an article Thursday about the BPS board meeting and gave details about summer school arrangements. Apparently summer school will only be available to students who failed a Regents course, seniors in need of a few classes to graduate, and students who are faring well and would like enrichment (I wonder if that is the PreAP class Anne was talking about recently.

Anyhoo, I know there was some question Tuesday about the availability of summer school for sophomores and freshmen. Lookie like no dice.

What's In My Mailbox?

Ah, now for another installment of "What's In My Mailbox?" It's a light edition today folks, but only in quantity. The quality and depth is thicker than jelly and deeper than Lake Erie. Well...almost.

First of all, Studio Arena sent me this flier today, announcing ticket sales for next year's productions. Next year they are performing To Kill a Mockingbird and Indian Blood. Here's the info:






































Also, Norton is offering some free stuff. You can get a free examination copy of The Norton Anthology of American Literature and other titles. Free is good.

Language! Walk Through

All right, for real this time. I mean, for real, for real. Really. They're coming through. At least, they claim to be coming through. Here's the memos: