Compound and Complex Sentences

Find here a good site that discusses types of sentences.

Our College Autobiography Rubric

The successful essay will:

1.       Succeed in giving a quick but vivid impression of you as a person, as a student, and an achiever;

2.       Use striking language, sharp imagery, sentences that surprise with their originality and forcefulness of thought;

3.       Use compound and complex sentences (compound sentences: linking two sentences with "and," "but," and similar words; complex sentences: qualify sentences with clauses introduced with words like "while," "though," "after," "because," "although"—I'll place a discussion of sentence types on the blog later today).

4.       Adhere to the conventions of grammar and spelling.

College Office Autobiography Sheet

Here's the College Office's remarks on creating your college autobiography:

GUIDE FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

Purpose:
The purpose of this essay is to help the College and Career Office write a recommendation in support of your application for college admission. Admissions personnel want us to provide information beyond what they see on your transcript. Therefore, your autobiographical essay is crucial because it enable us to get to know you so that we can write strongly on your behalf. This essay should not be a list of your courses or extra curricular activities. Instead, it should reflect your personality and help us to see you as an individual. This essay does not go to the colleges; however, it may become the foundation for college essays you will later submit with your applications.

 Content: In general, it is best to concentrate on the present (your high school years) with a view towards the future. You may select a theme from the following suggestions or choose a topic that you feel reveals something unique about you.

 1. Family: How has your family influenced you to become the person you are? What special circumstances do you feel College Admissions should be aware of, such as: illness or a death in the family, relocation, divorce, etc,; factors that may have affected you or your ability to achieve your full potential or inspired you to do your best.

 2. School: a) How has your academic program reflected your interests and future goals? Have you pursued any related studies outside of school? (Give specific data.) DO NOT give you’re your course grades. b) What are the most meaningful extracurricular activities in which you have participated? What, specifically, did you do? How have those experiences benefited you, the school and/or the community? How are they related to your interests and goals?

3. Special Interest/Future Goals: What special interests (music, athletics, hobbies, etc.) occupy your personal spare time and your summers? What specifically have you done in pursuit of these interests? Are they related to your personal goals and plans for the future? How? What do you expect to prepare for? (If you are undecided, say so.) What choices have you considered? Why d you think you’d like such work?

4. Work Experience: What jobs have you had? What, specifically did you do? What were your responsibilities? Specify whether this work was part-time (after school), summer employment, salaried or volunteer. What did you learn in skills, self awareness, understanding of others, etc.? In what way was the work related to your ideals, future goals or needs?

Stopping by Woods questions

1) What is the significance of the title?

2) What is the significance of reversing the word order in line 1?

3) What is the point of the word "though" in line 2?

4) How does the rhyme scheme add emphasis?

5) Describe the meter and how does it relate to the poem's meaning?

6) What images are used and how do they comment on the poem's larger meaning?

7) Provide more than one explanation for lines 8 and 15.

8) Comment on the use of the words "easy" and "downy."

9) Provide examples of assonance and alliteration.

If you wish to take a stab at questions 6 and 9, feel free, but we'll do those in class.

Syllabus for AP English (literature)

English Literature and Composition Course Syllabus 2014-2015

Mr. Vilbig—Midwood High School

Areas of Focus

New York State Common Core ELA Standards

This course will align with the New York State Common Core Standards, which detail skills you’ll be expected to master as preparation for college. We will focus on the following:


Reading Standards for Literature

1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

3. 
Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.)



Writing Standards

1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. Explore and inquire into areas of interest to formulate an argument.

a. Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.

b. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases.

c. Use words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.

d. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.

e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.


Speaking and Listening Standards

1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

2. Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.

3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.

4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.

5. Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Language Standards

1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 11–12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.


5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.


6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Course Introduction

Advanced Placement English is an annual class taught to only the best English students in lieu of another senior English class. In both degree of difficulty and in quantity of material read, the course will be among the most challenging you’ve experienced at Midwood. Students taking the course will be expected to interpret the nuances of language in order to achieve comprehension, to learn to see how symbol, metaphor, tone, setting, and point of view create meaning. In this class, the focus will be on how language creates meaning, and students will be asked to think about that meaning in more complex ways.

Advanced Placement English is challenging and rewarding. Students taking the course should not be primarily interested in achieving college placement or credit (although this may happen for some of them), but instead in the rewards of careful and rigorous study to produce the skills needed to develop a widened background and a deepened sense of the value and purposes of literature and how it applies to our lives. For you information, the AP Literature and Composition Exam will take place on Wednesday, May 6, at 8 a.m.