Vocabulary Quiz List 17 Today

Don't forget that Steps 1-3 of your research project are due next week.  For those of you in need of extra credit, you should turn it in on Monday for the extra points.

Step 1:  Type your research proposal, which should include the following information in a paragraph:

What is your topic and why are you interested in it?  What question/s led you to the question for which you are seeking answers?  What is your working claim?  Remember that it needs to be a claim of policy.

Use MLA format:  12 pt font, double spaced, heading

Step 2:  You need to turn in print copies of pertinent pages from your sources.  For academic journals and for longer sources, print the first page and at least 2-3 additional pages that include information you might use for your paper.  For shorter sources, you should print the entire document.  For books, you should print at least 3 pages that contain information you might use.

These pages needed to be annotated.  Annotations should include highlighted text, your handwritten notes on the side with questions, comments, ideas.  Circled or boxed in text.  Sticky notes with additional notes.  Here's a video tutorial for annotation nonfiction texts:  VIDEO

Step 3:  You need to include a list of bibliographic entries.  Title it Bibliography centered at the top of the page.  Go to Easybib.com to set up your entries.  Once you have cited and collected them all, you can copy the entries and paste them onto your Word Document.

Homework:  Read "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift, which can be found on page 914 in your textbook, A Language of Composition.  If you don't have your book, you are still responsible for reading the selection.  Here's a link to the selection.  Read!!!  Expect a reading check quiz on Tuesday, April 2nd.  "A Modest Proposal" is a very interesting selection (to put it mildly) with some unusual twists.  I will know if you read it or not, so read!!!

Writing Exercise #6

Identify the most serious reason that begging, which is so prevalent in our cities today, is a problem. Propose a solution to the problem of begging.  Support your argument with facts, experience, expert testimony, and logic.

Here are some broad reasons brought up in class discussion:

1.  Society has a moral/ethical obligation to help those in need.
2.  Begging fosters dependency on "handouts" and doesn't allow individuals to learn to become productive members of society.
3. Begging creates safety issues for the beggar and for drivers.
4. The beggar might be have other motives, like criminal activity.

Vocabulary Quiz List 17 tomorrow!  Here are the Flashcards.

Don't forget about your research project deadline  for Steps 1-3 which is due Wednesday, April 3rd!

Today we read "Homeless: Expose the Myths" by Joseph Perkins located in Readings for Writers.  You can find the selection and the questions that you need to answer here.  On your own paper and in complete sentences answer only the first five questions about "The Facts."

Writing Exercise #5

The topic is poverty.  Select from the 8 different organizational patterns of development which way you'd like to write about poverty.  This is not an essay; it is an exercise.  I expect you to write as much as possible in the time allotted using a variety of patterns if possible, though you can write using just one pattern as well.

AP Practice Exams

I am in the process of scheduling several Saturdays for AP practice exams (1 hour for 55 multiple choice questions, a 10 minute break, and 2 hours and 15 minutes for the 3 essay questions).

Because you have never taken an AP English Language and Composition Exam, you need to experience the time crunch so that the day of the exam, you're not caught unawares.  One of the many strategies for improving your odds at doing well on the test is to take a practice exam in its entirety replicating the conditions as much as possible.  Taking a practice exam won't guarantee that you will "pass" the exam, but it will surely alleviate some of your stress on testing day.

Tentative schedule:  April 6, 13, 20, and 27.   9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

While the practice tests are not required, I can offer you 20 points of extra credit on a test grade for each session you attend.  Some of you are in dire need of extra credit.  Please consider this option.

Timed Writing

Here's the prompt.

Vocabulary Quiz List 16 Today!  I hope you studied.

I distributed this handout with instructions for the preliminary steps of your research paper project.  Heed the deadlines, which are included on the handout along with some extra credit options for turning in your work a couple of days early.  Some of you are in dire need of this option.

You will need to spend time in front of a computer with Internet access and at the library.  If you are a dual enrollment student, you should also be able to access UTB's library center.  Since the remodel at the public library, they have a state of the art computer center.  Go!  Go with friends. Go on your own. Just go.  You will need your library card to access the computer center.

At the top of this blog, I have permanently added the link to EBSCOhost, the online database, so that you can remotely access it from anywhere as you search for academic journals for your research.

Don't forget the importance of intellectual curiosity.  Happy Research!

Here's tomorrow's Timed Writing question.

Choice Slips Presentation Today

Writing Exercise #4

Doubt vs. Certainty  (Description; Cause Analysis; Process Analysis)

Describe certainty.  Use details: concrete and sensory.  Remember that a technique of description is describe what something is not.  Also, you can use figurative language to describe.  Use similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole.  What does it feel like to be certain of something?  How do you know when you're certain of something?  What causes certainty?    What are the steps one can take to achieve a sense of certainty?

Writing Exercise #3

Doubt vs. Certainty (Definition; Example; Division and Classification)

Write an extended definition of the meaning of doubt.  Write a list of as many examples as you can think of that involve situations in which someone experiences doubt.  Examine your list and organize it into categories.

For tomorrow's exercise we will write about certainty using three different patterns of organization.

Friday's timed writing will be based on the relationship between doubt and certainty.

Here are the Flashcards for Vocabulary List 16.  The quiz is on Thursday.

Writing Exercise #3

Watch Malcolm Gladwell's TED Talk "Choice, Happiness, and Spaghetti Sauce"

What connection do you see between Dan Gilbert's talk and Malcolm Gladwell's?  Are they opposite views on a similar subject or the same views just approached differently?

Happy Spring Break.

If you're interested in pursuing the subject of happiness a little further over spring break, you can watch a documentary about happiness called Happy.  It's available on Netflix instant streaming.  Here's a Preview.

You can also read about happiness.  Dan Gilbert's book, Stumbling on Happiness, is available at the Brownsville Public Library.  Some of Malcolm Gladwell's books, though not strictly about happiness, are also available for checkout.  Happy Reading.   :)

Of course, for those of you who actually read this blog, I will provide some extra credit options if you do read any of these selections or watch the documentary.  If you find a different book about happiness (there are a few others at the library or you can find some where books are sold--consider Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project),  feel free to read one of those.

Vocabulary Test Lists 13-15 Today!

If you missed today's test, it is your responsibility to make it up.

Writing Exercise #2

Watch Dan Gilbert's TED Talk, "The Surprising Science of Happiness."

Write a well-developed paragraph in which you either support or deny Gilbert's claim about happiness.  Be sure to include examples to support your position.

Writing Exercise #1 Part 2

Abraham Lincoln said, "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." In other words, our personal level of satisfaction is entirely within our control. Otherwise, why would the same experience disappoint one person but delight another? Happiness is not an accident but a choice.

Is happiness something over which people have no control, or can people choose to be happy? Plan an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Write one well-developed body paragraph.  Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.

Don't forget about tomorrow's test.  Here's the link to the combined vocabulary Flashcards.

Vocabulary Quiz List 15 Today.

Writing Exercise #1 Part 1 Brainstorming

What makes you happy?

Write down as many things as possible.

TAKS ELA today!  Good luck :)