Friday, January 25, 2013

AP English Language Timed Writing and Multiple Choice Strategies

Midyear Exam Review Day 4
Today we annotated and discussed the notes you made on a scene from Galileo.
Instead of having you (1) write a sample thesis, (2) take notes on timed writing strategies, and (3) take notes on multiple choice strategies, I am posting them below.

Briefly here's an overview of the exam again: multiple choice questions on the longer texts we have studied (Hamlet, Lord of the Flies, Galileo); multiple choice questions on the rhetorical and literary terms; multiple choice questions on style and conventions; multiple choice questions from an AP exam; and a passage analysis and evaluation essay.

(1) Sample analysis and evaluation essay thesis
First here's an example of a rhetorical analysis and evaluation thesis that is bold and nuanced:
In his transcribed lecture "Here is a Lesson in Creative Writing" Kurt Vonnegut uses deadpan, ironic humor; conversational diction and syntax; simple, yet evocative diagrams; familiar allusions; and an ironic shift at the end to argue that the best creative writing explores mysteries, uncertainties, and doubts without providing clear and comforting answers to life's problems. Although Vonnegut's allusions are not particularly nuanced and although some of his humor falls flat, his lecture is effective as a whole because he establishes a connection with audience (ethos) through references to familiar stories, appeals to emotion (pathos) with humor, and uses reason (logos) to develop his unusual interpretation of Hamlet.
The first sentences offers a typical rhetorical analysis thesis. The second sentence builds on the first sentence but adds an evaluation of the rhetoric. (Remember that the exam prompt could use an excerpt from Galileo or from "Here is a Lesson in Creative Writing". I haven't decided yet.)



(2) AP English Language Exam Timed Writing Reminders
concept by Elizabeth Johnson Tsang, adapted for AP EngLang by Mr. James Cook
I have crossed out all the notes that do not apply to the midyear exam prompt: rhetorical analysis and evaluation of a passage. I have highlighted material that applies particularly to the midyear exam prompt.

Pre-Writing
Read the synthesis prompt before reading the synthesis sources. Annotate the sources with the prompt in mind.

Remember the heart of the synthesis essay (Question 1) is the ability to use multiple sources (at least three) to develop your own response to the prompt.

Underline the key directions words in the question: what exactly are you to do and how are you to do it. (If the question says “such rhetorical elements as tone, etc.” then you may choose. If it says “tone,” then you must discuss tone.)

Remember the heart of rhetorical analysis (usually Question 2) is “what is the argument and how does the author use rhetorical strategies and techniques to achieve that purpose?” Use SOAPSTone to annotate. The mnemonic device will help you think of elements to analyze and help you avoid merely summarizing and paraphrasing.  On the midyear exam you will also need to evaluate how well the author uses the strategies to achieve the purpose.

Remember the heart of the argument essay (usually Question 3) is stating your position and using well-organized reasoning and evidence to support and develop that position.

Jot down a plan! Don’t start writing until:
·        you have something to say (bold, insightful assertion that addresses the prompt)
·        & you know how you’re going to develop your assertion with specific support

Write the synthesis essay first but you can do the other two essays in any order.

Writing
Be bold and insightful in the introduction.
  • The intro must contain a clear statement of your main insight.
  • If necessary, leave a space of several lines, then go back and fill with a clear statement of your main insight or a precise word for that insight. (Some of you are better able to write a strong thesis statement after writing the body paragraphs of a rhetorical analysis. Know yourself.)

Remember that the AP Exam is asking students to recognize and create rhetorical complexity and nuance.

Q1 and Q2. Don’t describe or summarize unless you analyze.
(Don’t describe a technique or summarize a passage unless you analyze how it contributes to your main insight about the meaning.)

Q1 and Q2. The AP rubrics prefer direct quotations to paraphrase. If possible weave the quotations into your sentences.
  • Avoid leaving quotations dangling on their own.
  • If possible cite the line number of the quotations.
  • Remember “quote like this” (line 12). (Notice the period after the parenthetical citation.) Or: in line 12 the speaker says “quote like this.” (The period goes inside the last quotation mark if you’re citing the line within the text instead of within parentheses.)

The conclusion is of lesser importance if you have a strong, insightful introduction and have developed supporting evidence from the poem. But if you have time to offer a strong, insightful, unifying conclusion then do it; leave the reader with a good impression. [Avoid repeating the introduction. For closure, ask yourself “so what?” – “what’s the big idea I’m asserting in this essay and why does it matter? – and conclude something.]

Try to write to the third page. This means front, back, and onto a second piece of paper.

Understand the holistic grading rubric:
·        Does the student’s response show an understanding of the prompt’s purpose?
o       Q1 Did the student synthesize at least three sources into a well-developed response to the prompt?
o       Q2 Did the student develop an understanding of how the rhetorical techniques and features contribute to the argument in the passage?
o       Q3 Did the student understand the issue presented in the prompt and develop a well-organized argument on the issue using convincing support?
  • Did the student answer (all the parts of) the question asked?
  • How well-written and well-organized is the essay?

Miscellaneous Reminders

Put the titles of shorter pieces, like poems, speeches, articles, political cartoons, chapter titles, and essays within quotation marks: “Politics and the English Language,” “Old Father, Old Artificer,” “Why Bother?,” etc. Underline the title of longer works like novels, plays, documentaries, book-length memoirs, book-length arguments: Fun Home, All Souls, Hamlet, Grendel, Polis is This, The Ad and the Ego, etc.

Errors: strike out neatly with one lime line.

Write with a black pen. You don’t have to do this on the midyear but you will have to do this on the AP exam. 


(3) AP English Language and Composition Multiple-Choice Strategies

Overall
 * Be positive. Try to use what you do understand and do know to puzzle out what is less clear. Remember that even getting just 60% of the answers right can result in an overall score that earns you college credit.

* Do not panic. Be aware of the time but focus on the passage and the questions. Remember that no single question will determine your level of success, so don't let a single question monopolize your time.

Particular strategies
What to do first...
* Some students quickly read the questions (but not the choices) before reading the passage. This allows students to focus their annotation of the passage on details that will help them answer the questions.

What to do with the passage...
* ANNOTATE THE PASSAGES! This makes you a more active reader. (In other words, it turns your critical mind on.) If read the questions ahead of time your annotating might be more efficient. I WANT TO SEE THAT YOU HAVE ANNOTATED.

* Eliminate--that means actually cross out--obviously wrong answers. Select the best answer from the remaining options. I WANT TO SEE THAT YOU HAVE CROSSED OUT WRONG ANSWERS.
* Some students benefit from thinking of an answer before looking at the options. This will prevent you from getting seduced by cleverly worded decoy answers.
* Some students benefit from answering detail questions first, because they can then use those details to answer more general (passage-as-a-whole or main idea/purpose/argument) questions.
* Within a particular section of the test it's okay to skip a question temporarily and then return to it. In fact, answers to later questions might help you answer the questions you are struggling with. However, make sure you've answered all of the questions within a section before moving on to another section.
*  Targeted rereading of specific parts of the passage will help you choose the best answer from among possible answers. Avoiding target rereading leads to sloppy mistakes.
* Another way to choose from among two or three remaining options is to do what Mr. Gunnar suggests on his webpage for AP English Language students: "If you have a difficult time deciding between two close answers, try using the true/false technique. Read the stem using both answer choices and try to determine which one makes a more true [sic] statement."

 * Go over the test when you have finished to make sure you've answered all of the questions and that you have answered them in the proper place.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Preparing for the Midyear Exam (Day 1)

Today...

I.
I gave an overview of the midyear exam.

45 minutes (50%)
* Rhetorical & literary term vocabulary
We will review and play with these on Thursday.
In addition, I recommend making study cards and sorting terms you know from terms you are learning. Spend more time with the terms you are learning, but do not completely neglect the terms you know.

* Standard English language style and conventions
What English language conventions and aspects of style should we all know at this point in the year? We'll review these on Thursday.

* Literature: Hamlet (study notes & test), Lord of the Flies (study notes & lenses), Galileo (study notes)
We'll be discussing Galileo all week. To prepare for the other texts study the materials in parentheses above.

* AP multiple choice questions based on a passage from a work of rhetoric
You cannot really study for this, but you have been preparing for it by participating in this class. We will, however, review annotation and multiple choice strategies on Friday.

45 minutes (50%)
* Rhetorical analysis and evaluation of a passage
We have written several rhetorical analysis essays throughout the year. Review how to create effective introductions, theses, supporting paragraphs (minithesis, supporting evidence, supporting explanation of evidence, concluding sentences, transitions), conclusions.
To continue our practice we will be looking at how rhetorical strategies contribute to purpose in Kurt Vonnegut's "Here is a Lesson in Creative Writing" and Bertolt Brecht's Galileo.
Tuesday and Wednesday we will also be discussing and practicing how to use rhetorical analysis to support an evaluation of the effectiveness of rhetoric. (See below.)
Friday we will discuss some of the things we should consider when writing under the pressure of time.

II.
I then read to you a transcript published in 2005 of Kurt Vonnegut's lecture "Here is a Lesson in Creative Writing," which was apparently first given in New York City.
Go here for the transcript (excluding the opening).
Go here for a video of part of the lecture.

1. One question for us as quasi-experts on Hamlet is this one:

Is Vonnegut right about Hamlet? (What, if anything, does he stretch, caricature, or simplify for rhetorical purposes?)

2. Another set of questions, as students of rhetoric are these:

What rhetorical strategies does Vonnegut use (1) to characterize Hamlet as a play about the fundamental unknowability, mystery, and ambiguity of human fortunes and misfortunes & (2) to claim (by extension) that much worthwhile creative writing often explores and exposes the unknowable, ambiguous mystery of being instead of providing the comfortable, conventional, and often uplifting shapes of fairy tales and other popular fictions? (This is rhetorical analysis.)

Is Vonnegut's argument effective? Think of Aristotle's rhetorical triangle: logos, pathos, ethos. Think of the purposes of rhetoric: to argue, to inform, to engage. Think of SOAPSTone. (This is rhetorical evaluation built on rhetorical analysis.)

3. & then, as students of Brecht's play Galileo, here's something to try tonight:

For homework tonight create a graph for Galileo.

Choice 1: Take Vonnegut's x/y axis and use it to graph the fortunes of the protagonist, Galileo, in Galileo by Brecht. Vonnegut's y-axis is Good Fortune (at the top) & Ill Fortune (at the bottom); his x-axis is Beginning (on the left) & End (on the right) (or Beginning & Entropy). Please label the events that coincide with the changes of fortune.

Choice 2: Invent your own x/y axis. Make sure you make clear what each axis represents. Make sure you've made clear what exactly you are plotting on the graph.

Think of your graph as a kind of argument or thesis or position or claim about the play. Be prepared to defend your position by explaining the graph and supporting that explanation with evidence from the text.

Friday, January 18, 2013

A Fond Fare-thee-well to Our Fellow Writer and Scholar Logan Hughes



Below is an unconventional sonnet I wrote for Logan using Googlism to generate content that I then edited. Add your well wishes to Logan in the comment box below.

Logan, please continue to visit us on the blog.

Best of luck in Indiana.
*******
Sonnet for Logan Hughes

Logan is expecting an emotional finale.
Logan is psychic.
Logan is pissed.
Logan is an idealist.
Logan is surrounded by water.
Logan is the narrator.
Logan is a must for every school's curriculum.
Logan is more than just a child whom I have known.

Hughes is still the boss.
Hughes is huge news.
Hughes is one of the most popular writers.
Hughes is one of the most important scholars.
Hughes is on the move.
Hughes is a wizard.

January 18, 2013
by Mr. James Cook with help from Googlism

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Class in the Computer Lab on Wednesday





  1. Annotate the Psychological and Biographical Lens handouts with this question in mind: How does each lens help you understand Lord of the Flies? You will use the annotations tomorrow (Thursday, January 10) during a Socratic Seminar about the lenses. (Note: you should also annotate the anthropological lens if you have not yet done so.)

  1. Seek out peer feedback on your thesis statement & supporting statements (mini-theses). Here are questions to guide the feedback.
Is the thesis statement clear to the peer reader? Is it stated in a precise, sophisticated manner? Does it succeed in capturing an essential meaning of the work as a whole? Then, has the student also written a sentence that clearly and reasonably states how a character contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole?  Is there also a sentence that clearly and reasonably states how a visual motif contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole? In your view can each of the statements be supported by citing and explaining evidence from the book?


  1. Work on the first draft of your William Golding letter. The first drafts is due on Friday (January 11). Here's a link to the assignment.



Friday, January 4, 2013

Getting Started with the Golding Letter

1. Sharing questions and passages.

In the comment box below please post your essential question, character, four significant passages (brief description of passages and page numbers), visual motif, and four more significant passages (brief description of passages and page numbers). This a way to help each other out.

2.Golding expository letter assignment.



Imagine that you are William Golding. From his point of view write a letter to the students of Gloucester High School explaining how a character (or set of characters) and a visual motif contribute to the meaning of the novel*. You will write a single letter explaining the significance of both the character and the motif.
 
Support your explanation of the character’s and the motif’s significance by citing places in the novel where you, as Golding the author, use the character to develop the novel’s meaning and specific places where you, as Golding, use the motif to develop the novel’s meaning*. Make sure you thoroughly and insightfully explain how the parts -- the particular uses of the character(s) & object(s) -- contribute to the meaning of the novel as a whole*.

[*Think of "meaning of the novel," "novel's meaning," and "meaning of the novel as a whole" as shorter ways of saying "how the novel enacts a response to an essential question--or set of essential questions." What that means is that in the letter you're going to become Golding in order to explain how a character and a visual motif contribute to the development of a response to an essential question.]
 
Special considerations because you're writing as Golding...

Consider what Golding has said about his mankind and his novel.
When thinking about Golding’s point of view and Golding’s purpose in constructing the novel, consider some statements Golding has made about the novel.

“I believe that man suffers from an appalling ignorance of his own nature.”

“The theme (of Lord of the Flies) is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of society must depend on the ethical mature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable.”

For more of Golding's views you'll find his Nobel Lecture at nobelprize.org.
 
Consider Golding's life.
The following is an excerpt from the Nobel Prize website. (Golding won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983.)

"Taught at Bishop Wordsworth's School, Salisbury. Joined the Royal Navy in 1940 and spent six years afloat, except for seven months in New York and six months helping Lord Cherwell at the Naval Research Establishment. He saw action against battleships (at the sinking of the Bismarck), submarines and aircraft. Finished as Lieutenant in command of a rocket ship. He was present off the French coast for the D-Day invasion, and later at the island of Walcheren. After the war he returned to teaching [until 1962], and began to write again. Lord of the Flies, his first novel, was published in 1954."



Consider Golding's writing style, particularly his syntax and diction. 


3. Here's a way to get started with the writing...


Thesis

Step 1.
Start with an essential question.
________________________________________________________________________

Step 2. Overall meaning of the novel
Now write a clear, bold, insightful, nuanced sentence (or two) that conveys how Lord of the Flies addresses the essential question.This response to the question will be a statement of the novel's meaning and/or of Golding's purpose. This response will be your thesis. (You can write the sentence from Golding's point of view now, or you could switch it to his point of view when you write a draft of the letter.)

Step 3. Overview of how the character contributes to the meaning
Next write a clear, bold, nuanced statement about how Golding’s development of the character contributes to the meaning of the novel. (You can write the sentence from Golding's point of view now, or you could switch it to his point of view when you write a draft of the letter.)


Step 4. Overview of how the visual motif contributes to the meaning
Next write a clear, bold, nuanced statement about how Golding’s development of the visual motif contributes to the meaning of the novel. (You can write the sentence from Golding's point of view now, or you could switch it to his point of view when you write a draft of the letter.)

Now you have your the main points you will need to develop and support in your letter.
 

Step 5.
Create a plan.
Use the statements above and the evidence you have gathered for the class discussions (plus other relevant evidence) to create an informal outline (or a bulleted sequence) of the ideas and supporting evidence you will need to include in your essay in order to develop and support the main idea(s). 

Step 6.
A draft will be due Friday, January 11.
You will self and peer assess the draft in class on Friday.

Step 7.
A final draft will be due Monday, January 14.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Discussion Preparation



Lord of the Flies
putting it all together discussion preparation

Significant recurring characters
(as determined by you)

Piggy
Simon
Jack
Ralph
Roger
Samneric

Robert, Maurice, Bill

Littluns: boy with mulberry birthmark, Johnny, Percival, Henry

[Ralph's father the naval officer & the naval officer at the end]
Significant visual motifs
(as determined by you)
 
* Glasses/specs
* Butterflies (and/or maybe other small creatures)
* Fire
* Conch/shell
* Pigs/boar/sow/Lord of the Flies
* Places on the island (places of power, Simon's place, and/or scar)
* Vegetation on the island: creepers, candle buds
* Painted faces/mask
* Other aspects of the boys' appearance: hair, clothing
* Shelters/hut
* Rock
* Stick sharpened at both ends
*Beast(s)/monster(s)




Essential questions

What is human nature?
How do we suffer from ignorance of our own nature?
How do human nature and human society affect each other?

Key words/concepts to use to create your own essential question:
fear / control / reason / intuition / impulse / cruelty / kindness / needs / desires / hope / pessimism / charisma / extroversion / inwardness / introversion / power / responsibility

Activities

  • Create an essential question that Lord of the Flies addresses.

  • Choose a character that Golding uses to explore the question.
  • Find four or more passages in the novel in which Golding uses the development of the character to explore the question.
  • Optional: further prepare for the discussion by jotting down an explanation of how Golding uses the character to explore the question in each passage.

  • Choose a visual motif that Golding uses to explore the question.
  • Find four or more passages in the novel in which Golding uses the development of the visual motif to explore the question.
  • Optional: further prepare for the discussion by jotting down an explanation of how Golding uses the visual motif to explore the question in each passage.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Homework Forgiveness Opportunity

What did you read over holiday break for personal pleasure and edification? In my sickness and delirium I managed to read a little: I read several chapters of a new book, Words Like Loaded Pistols, about the history of rhetoric; I finished a book about the cultural references and human archetypes in the weirdest book in the English language, Finnegans Wake by James Joyce; I read Boundary Loop, a new book of poems by a new friend, Edgar Garcia; and I read several essays in this online magazine. (I have an essay in the magazine, which I wrote the essay two-and-a-half years ago, so I reread my own essay too.)

I'm curious about what you read and what you thought about it. In your response in the comment box below please provide a summary of the work along with your reaction to how it was written (the writer's style, choices, strategies, techniques) and what it was saying (the theme(s), the point, the meaning, the argument). Conclude with an evaluation of the work. Is it worth reading? For whom? Why? (Note: if you already wrote your response what you have written will suffice, as long as it's 300+ words. If you have not written your response please address the loose prompt I've concocted.

This is an optional assignment. It's due Thursday, January 3. If you complete it and it's on time, I will drop your lowest homework grade.