Lights and Tunnels: RE10, Part 2

  By English 10 Regents (2016-2017)

Part 2 of a two-part series that probably isn’t going to be renewed for another season. Low ratings, naturally.

RE10 Final Exam Work

The final exam for this course will be given on Monday, June 19, at 8AM. (You can see the rest of the final exam schedule by clicking here.) It is a two-hour exam. Room assignments will be made closer to the exam date; we will post locations in class and on Google Classroom as soon as they’re available. The exam itself will have two parts: timed multiple-choice questions and a timed essay.

Each of the subsections below is a required assignment that will prepare you for the exam. We will also tie that test-centered work to metacognition, collaboration, organization, and most other GAP skills and traits. You will need to read directions closely, work steadily, and ask questions as you go. Your final two GAP scores depend on this work, as does your final exam score.

When you practice, you will need to take Part 1 silently and individually, using your computer only to enter your answers when you get to the step that requires Google Forms. We have to invoke the cemetery rows of traditional testing in order to get the most accurate data.

You will also need to take Part 2 silently and individually, writing by hand first, and then using your computer only as necessary to access backup copies of materials, including any required GARAS lessons. Note that these GARAS lessons are hyperlinked below, but the link goes to a scanned copy of the textbook; the printed, collated packet is much easier to use, so you will be asked to work offline whenever possible.

This instructional post is a checklist, too, when it is printed. Each of the Unicode boxes next to a bolded term or phrase is meant to be checked off as you complete a section of the exam prep. Monitor Google Classroom for deadlines and submission requirements.

☐ Part 1: August ’14

This is the multiple-choice section of the August ’14 ELA Regents Exam. There are three passages and 24 multiple-choice questions. Here is the section in full, followed by the required steps you must take:

 

☐ Practice the Multiple-Choice

  1. Read and annotate ☐ Passage A.
  2. Answer the multiple-choice questions for ☐ Passage A, circling your answer in the exam packet.
  3. Repeat Steps 1-2 for ☐ Passage B and ☐ Passage C.
  4. Enter your answers for all 24 questions in the Google Form below.

☐ Complete the Google Form

☐ Complete the Metacognition

  1. Get the correct answers for all 24 questions from the Google Form.
  2. For ☐ Passage A, write a metacognitive breakdown of your work, including both correct and incorrect answers.
  3. Work with peers and your teachers to ☐ develop that metacognitive breakdown into an understanding of your strengths and weaknesses on this type of passage.
  4. Repeat Step 2-3 for ☐ Passage B and ☐ Passage C.
☐ Part 2: August ’14

This is the source-based argument prompt from the August ’14 ELA Regents Exam. Here is the section in full, followed by the required steps you must take:

 

☐ Practice the Source-Based Essay

  1. Read and annotate the ☐ Directions, ☐ Topic, ☐ Task, and ☐ Guidelines.
  2. Read and annotate each of the four sources: ☐ Text 1, ☐ Text 2, ☐ Text 3, and ☐ Text 4.
  3. Write an ☐ essay response to this prompt in the provided Regents booklet.

☐ Copy the Exemplar Essay

  1. Read and annotate the ☐ rubric for Part 2, which can be downloaded by clicking here.
  2. Copy by hand the entirety of ☐ Anchor Paper – Part 2 – Level 6 – A, which can be downloaded by clicking here.
  3. Read and annotate the ☐ state’s scoring explanation for Anchor Level 6A, which immediately follows the model paper itself.
  4. Repeat Steps 2-3 with ☐ Anchor Paper – Part 2 – Level 6 – B and the ☐ state’s scoring explanation, both of which can be downloaded by clicking here.

☐ Grammar as Rhetoric and Style

  1. Identify ☐ examples of the GARAS lessons in your own essay by annotating and analyzing the effect of any or all of the following:
  2. Identify ☐ examples of grammar as rhetoric and style in either of the anchor papers (6A or 6B) by annotating and analyzing the effect of any or all of the following:

☐ Complete the Metacognition

  1. Outline a ☐ metacognitive analysis of your own essay, using details from the rubric for Part 2, the two anchor papers, your understanding of the four GARAS exercises, and the state’s scoring explanation for both anchor papers.
  2. Work with peers and your teachers to develop that metacognitive outline into a ☐ response that explores your strengths and weaknesses on this type of essay.
☐ Part 1: August ’16

Note: You will complete Part 1 of the Aug. ’16 exam when you finish Part 1 and Part 2 of the Aug. ’14 exam. Depending on how long the Aug. ’14 exam takes and your own needs, you may skip Part 1 of the Aug. ’16 exam to practice Part 2.

This is the multiple-choice section of the August ’16 ELA Regents Exam. There are three passages and 24 multiple-choice questions. We will complete this practice on an individual basis or if it is otherwise necessary for us to complete it. Here is the section in full, followed by the required steps you must take (which are identical to the steps for Part 1 of the August ’14 exam):

 

☐ Practice the Multiple-Choice

  1. Read and annotate ☐ Passage A.
  2. Answer the multiple-choice questions for ☐ Passage A, circling your answer in the exam packet.
  3. Repeat Steps 1-2 for ☐ Passage B and ☐ Passage C.
  4. Enter your answers for all 24 questions in the Google Form below.

☐ Complete the Google Form

☐ Complete the Metacognition

  1. Get the correct answers for all 24 questions from the Google Form.
  2. For ☐ Passage A, write a metacognitive breakdown of your work, including both correct and incorrect answers.
  3. Work with peers and your teachers to ☐ develop that metacognitive breakdown into an understanding of your strengths and weaknesses on this type of passage.
  4. Repeat Step 2-3 for ☐ Passage B and ☐ Passage C.
☐ Part 2: August ’16

Note: You will complete Part 2 of the Aug. ’16 exam when you finish Part 1 and Part 2 of the Aug. ’14 exam. Depending on how long the Aug. ’14 exam takes and your own needs, you may skip directly to this essay practice.

This is the source-based argument prompt from the August ’16 ELA Regents Exam. Here is the section in full, followed by the required steps you must take:

 

☐ Practice the Source-Based Essay

  1. Read and annotate the ☐ Directions, ☐ Topic, ☐ Task, and ☐ Guidelines.
  2. Read and annotate each of the four sources: ☐ Text 1, ☐ Text 2, ☐ Text 3, and ☐ Text 4.
  3. Write an ☐ essay response to this prompt in the provided Regents booklet.

☐ Copy the Exemplar Essay

  1. Read and annotate the ☐ rubric for Part 2, which can be downloaded by clicking here.
  2. Copy by hand the entirety of ☐ Anchor Paper – Part 2 – Level 6 – A, which can be downloaded by clicking here.
  3. Read and annotate the ☐ state’s scoring explanation for Anchor Level 6A, which immediately follows the model paper itself.
  4. Repeat Steps 2-3 with ☐ Anchor Paper – Part 2 – Level 6 – B and the ☐ state’s scoring explanation, both of which can be downloaded by clicking here.
  1. Identify ☐ examples of the GARAS lessons in your own essay by annotating and analyzing the effect of any or all of the following:
  2. Identify ☐ examples of grammar as rhetoric and style in either of the anchor papers (6A or 6B) by annotating and analyzing the effect of any or all of the following:

☐ Complete the Metacognition

  1. Outline a ☐ metacognitive analysis of your own essay, using details from the rubric for Part 2, the two anchor papers, your understanding of the four GARAS exercises, and the state’s scoring explanation for both anchor papers.
  2. Work with peers and your teachers to develop that metacognitive outline into a ☐ response that explores your strengths and weaknesses on this type of essay

Pre-AP Work: AP11 Summer Reading

Note: This is the required summer reading for students moving into AP11 next year. If you are not taking AP English Language and Composition as a junior, you can ignore this part of the post entirely.

The Reading

The summer reading for AP11 is taken from the beginning of a college-level textbook on reading, writing, and rhetoric. This textbook, The Language of Composition, gives the background necessary for the work we’ll do next year.

Each of the first four chapters has been scanned and archived below on the BHS server. You can only access these chapters through your Brewster account, just like you can only access hard copies of the textbook in our classroom. Photocopies of these chapters will be made available, and you can sign out a copy of the textbook for a few days at a time. If you’d like your own copy, here is the link to buy it on Amazon.

Note: The glossary is also being included this year.

The Thinking and Writing

As you read, take notes. Make observations. Connect what you learn to yourself and your environment as often and as authentically as possible. The terms you will encounter are important, but always less important than the ideas. To quote another introduction to rhetoric:

Don’t be scared of the intimidating detail suggested by the odd Greek and Latin terms. After all, you can enjoy the simple beauty of a birch tree without knowing it is Betula alba and make use of the shade of a weeping willow without knowing it is in fact Salix babylonica. The same is possible with rhetoric. The names aid categorization and are more or less conventional, but I encourage you to get past the sesquipedalian labels and observe the examples and the sample criticism (rhetoric in practice). It is beyond the definitions that the power of rhetoric is made apparent.

That is from the Forest of Rhetoric, a site that could teach you nearly as much as The Language of Composition, if you allowed yourself to spend some time studying its many branches. You could also learn nearly as much by reading the excellent Thank You for Arguing, by Jay Heinrichs, which is on Amazon here. Heinrichs’ book used to be the required AP summer reading. There are certainly many other introductions out there.

The point of that last paragraph is that the basics of rhetoric and argument and logic are timeless. These are the bones of discourse and understanding in life. You never stop learning them, but you need some sort of substructure before you can experiment, build, and iterate, which are the goals of the Humanities makerspace in Room 210.

As always, I’m your expert and mentor, so you should ask questions and seek advice as you get going. You’ll notice that you have nothing due — no journals, no impending tests, no deadlines. The most I will ask you to do is to register for the course through Google Classroom. The work is due, in the sense that anything is due, on the first day of school, but the work will continue through the last day. Everything matters, not just those soritical moments of summative assessment.

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