Hey, Anyone Get Their Review Books, etc., Yet?

If anyone receives their review books, let me know, so I can start poking around in the nooks and crannies looking for mine. I want my Voice Lessons!

Poetry Professor Concern...Sort Of

Okay, my poetry professor presentations are going fairly well. It is having many intended and many unintended positive consequences. Today we fared into end-stopped lines and stanzas vs. enjambment and the consequence of each. It's that kind of teachable moment that this project routinely creates.

One possible concern. My students seem to be doing considerable research to help along their analysis. I mean, this is great because it adds such depth to our discussions, but I worry that in some cases this research is replacing close reading.

So, what are your thoughts? How do you balance? Do you balance? Does the positive outweigh the negative?

money issues

At the April 18th mtg. Anne said all AP students should be able to take the exam, even if finances were a concern. She suggested I have our coordinator contact Tonja Williams to get info. I did. The coordinator has made no new info available to the kids and there are some kids still not taking the exam because they can't afford to. Is anyone else having trouble getting exams for the kids who don't have money? Does anyone have anything official looking that indicates exams should be ordered for these kids? I'd like to avoid a fight with the coordinator if possible, but time is short. Thamks.

Marginalia

This is one of the strategies I recieved from a recent training. I mentioned it briefly at the last networking meeting. It is simply a strategy that makes the students active readers by selecting different stylistic techniques that you want students to identify and assign a color to each.

For every reading, ask students to identify two different kinds of each and describe why they think the author used that technique to convey:
meaning
theme
tone
archetypes
fig lang
syntax
diction
pov
(other, motif)

The students actually mark up the book/reading with the different colors. It makes for good conversation/discussion in the class.

Resources from Ruth

Ruth brought some books to the networking meeting that might be helpful to all of you.

You can get a free sample copy of the titles below by contacting the company.

English Literature - Close Reading and Analytic Writing
Peoples Education (1-800-822-1080, PeoplesEducation.com)

Essential Literary Terms with Excercises by Sharon Hamilton
Peoples Education (1-800-822-1080, PeoplesEducation.com)

These are not free, but still good...

The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms
By Mark Strand and Evan Boland

A Norton Pocket Guide to Grammar and Punctuation
by Dawn Rodrigues and Myron Tuman

AP Networking Meeting

The next networking meeting will be on April 18th at WNED from 4-7 p.m. Please post some of the topics you would like to talk about so I can put it in our agenda. Also, we need some ideas for the curriculum for a Pre-AP course. Start thinking about the skills that can be front loaded so your job might be a little easier! Just some things to think about while you are on break! Have a good spring break ...