Makerspace Calendar
Refer to this calendar for the overall structure of the last month:
We will spend most of our time before the end of school making things. The course expectations for focus and productivity haven’t changed, but you will have more autonomy. Note that any end-of-year test prep or individual GAP improvements will take precedence over unstructured makerspace activity. It’s not exactly a feast-or-famine framework, but it’s similar.
Pareto Projects
Review the expectations for the Pareto Project, including the last updates for juniors or sophomores, and then complete the following Google Form:
Note that the last question on the form requires you to write at least 1500 characters. This is a substantial amount of analysis, and it should be taken seriously. You are strongly encouraged to write your response separately, because Forms does not save in-progress work. The form will not accept anything less than 1500 characters. There is a visual approximation of what that looks like embedded in the form itself.
You can use Monday’s class period to work on this form and the response required at the end of it.
Exams
Refer to the following calendar for the schedule for final and Regents exams in all subjects:
RE10 Specifics
Sophomores will spend the next month prepping as necessary for their final exam, which has two components:
- A reading passage with multiple-choice questions, modeled after the passages on Part 1 of the Regents Examination in English Language Arts
- A timed essay modeled after Part 2 of the Regents Examination in English Language Arts
For the multiple-choice practice, we will use old Regents Exams, Google Forms, and metacognition. For the timed essay, we will use old exam prompts, metacognition, and the Grammar as Rhetoric and Style work you’ve just completed.
We will begin our prep on Monday. A separate instructional post will be uploaded and photocopied then with digital archives of all the materials you’ll receive in class. We’ll review the protocol then, so if you’re reading this before class, all you need to prepare for is a shift to much more separate and individualized work — no groups, and computers and devices only if they aren’t a distraction.
AP11 + RE11 Specifics
All juniors must take the Regents Examination in English Language Arts. You have already been given access to every resource you need to prepare for it, and we will use whatever class time you require to practice and review. Refer to this post for all the required information:
Printed copies of every single element in that post will be available in our classroom for the rest of the year. If you are an AP student, start the period on Monday by emptying your test-prep folder of all AP materials. Then use Google Classroom to organize yourself by deadline. RE11 students can focus on the Pareto update and any other instructional posts.
The final exam for juniors is a more complicated subject. Read the following paragraphs carefully.
If you are in danger of failing English for the year, then you are required to take a separate final exam. This exam will be an essay-driven assessment designed to give you, if you are in danger of failing for the year, an opportunity to pass. You will be informed if this applies to you after Q4B GAP scores are determined on May 19.
If you are required to take a separate final exam in English, your final average will be determined by five scores, including that final exam score. The ELA Regents Exam does not count as part of your GPA, regardless of your overall average.
If you are not in danger of failing English for the year, you will not be asked to take a separate final exam.Your final average will be determined by your four quarterly grades only.
If you have questions about any of this, ask those questions below or in the comment section of the individual course posts, where I can clarify for everyone or forward things along to the folks who make these decisions.