AP English Language
kaplana@newton.k12.ma.us
Name:
mrkaplanenglish.weebly.com
Date:
NEWTON SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL MISSION STATEMENT
Newton South High School, a community of students, parents, faculty, and staff
(1) IS DEDICATED TO EQUALITY AND OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL; (2) EXPECTS INTEGRITY; RESPONSIBILITY; AND RESPECT FOR SELF, OTHERS, AND THE
ENVIRONMENT; (3) CREATES A CLIMATE OF SAFETY AND KINDNESS; (4) ENCOURAGES COMMUNICATION AND PERSONAL CONNECTIONS; (5) NURTURES
CURIOSITY, CREATIVITY, AND A PASSION FOR LEARNING; (6) FOSTERS SELF-CONFIDENCE AND SUCCESS FOR ALL LEARNERS.
F-Block meets Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (long block), and Thursday
First semester, we will be taking first lunch on Wednesdays. That means you should be in the room at 11:30.
ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE: WEDNESDAY, 11.12 – TUESDAY, 11.18.2014
1. For Monday, 11.10
DUE: Chapters 4 & 5 “Panic Grass and Feverfew” & “The Aftermath” (pp.66-152)
CLASS: Hiroshima
Tuesday, 11.11
No School – Veterans Day
2. For Wednesday, 11.12
DUE: Prepare for in-class analytical writing on passage from Hiroshima
CLASS: In-class analytical writing on passage from Hiroshima
4. For Thursday, 11.13
DUE: Read “Mrs. Kelly’s Monster” by Franklin (handout); follow directions on response
CLASS: Features; “Mrs. Kelly’s Monster;” Profile assignment
1. For Monday, 11.17 – BRING SOMEBODY TOLD ME TO CLASS
DUE: a) Read “The Annotated Monster” (handout); follow directions on response; b) tweet to
#apnshs a link to a feature written in the last year
CLASS: Features; “The Annotated Monster;” Bragg
2. For Tuesday, 11.18
DUE: Feature assignment (tba)
CLASS: features; observations; Bragg
Calendar Dates to Remember 11.18: Youth Risk Behavior Study in Advisory
11.25: Passin’ Time, Advisory
11.26: Half Day, Pep Rally; only A2, B2, and G2 meet
11:27 – 11.30: No School - Thanksgiving Break
12.04: Half Day, AntiBullying; only G3, E4, and C3 meet
12.09 & 12.16: Shortened classes – Parent-teacher conferences
01.16.15: Term II ends
01.19: No school – MLK Day
Important News on the Back!
Upcoming Schedule Issues
I will be away attending a conference the weekend before Thanksgiving, and I won’t be back before the
Thanksgiving break. That means that our class won’t meet on Monday, November 24th, or Tuesday,
November 25th. (Because of the half-day schedule the day before Thanksgiving, we aren’t scheduled to meet
on Wednesday, November 26th.) There will be some assignments for you to complete, but they will be
designed for you to complete them before the Thanksgiving holiday. Here are the things we need to
accomplish before that Break:
You need to
a) have a subject for your Representative Profile. This doesn’t mean you need to have a good idea or some
sort of inkling. What it means is that you have a written list of ideas, proposed one to me, gotten approval
from me, and confirmed with the subject that you will be doing this assignment on that person;
b) read some of Rick Bragg’s work so that you get a feel for his approach to feature writing;
c) understand what an Observation is and try writing one yourself.
One of the upcoming issues you need to keep in mind is that a core element of the Profile assignment is the
Shadow Day. This is a day in which you do very little else other than follow your Profile subject around
during a “normal” day, a “normal” day being a day in which that person is engage is a activity that is at the
center of why you have chosen him/her. If you’ve chosen a South student because she is a dancer, then you
need to see her at school and when she is dancing. If you’ve chosen a doctor, you need to see a full day of
being that doctor. This usually means that you will be missing a day of school. I will be sending a letter to
your parents and an email to all teachers about this, but it will be your job to schedule the day. We will
designate a week for this activity, and you will need to pick the day for it in that week. Right now, it is
tentatively scheduled for December 8th through December 12th, though we might need to do it the 15th
through the 19th. That might seem like a long way off, but it will come sooner than you think once we get
back from Thanksgiving. That is why you need to do a good amount of the groundwork ahead of time.
Two books you need to have:
During Term II, we’re dealing with Features. We will have several readings from
Somebody Told Me by Rick Bragg
The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup by Susan Orlean
I don't care if you buy the books, have e-books, check out copies from the library, get them from previous
students in the course, share copies between friends, or steal them from orphanages, but you’ll have several
readings, and you’ll need to have copies in class each day. What we'll be reading by both authors was previously
published in places like the New York Times, the New Yorker, and Esquire, but there isn't a guarantee that each
piece will be free online or even behind a pay wall that is accessible via our library. The introductions to both
books are also part of your reading, so you'll at least need those independent of what you can scrounge otherwise.
We will begin reading Bragg’s book during the week before the week of Thanksgiving, so I’m asking that you
have that book in class on Monday, November 17th. Both are available at Amazon for cheap. (There is an e-book
version of Orlean’s book. I haven’t been able to locate Bragg’s as an e-book, though.)
You could also search for copies at a local bookstore, if you feel some moral pull to preserve all that is good
and holy:
New England Mobil Book Fair
nebookfair.com
617-964-7440
(has Orlean’s e-book)
Newtonville Books
newtonvillebooks.com
617-244-6619
(can’t search online)
Brookline Booksmith
brooklinebooksmith.com
617-566-6660
(has Orlean’s e-book)
The point is, secure copies of these books sooner rather than later. There will be more that 60 students trying to
get them at the same time, so you can't just drop into a local store the day after the first reading is due.