Tag: drawn and quartered

Here is a blank copy of the calendar for Q4, which is already in progress:

[pdfjs-viewer url=”http%3A%2F%2Fsisypheanhigh.com%2Fmalachite%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F04%2FRE10-Calendar-Q4.pdf” viewer_width=100% viewer_height=600px fullscreen=true download=true print=true]

The end of the year starts on April 19, when we return from spring break. We won’t see another day off until the end of May, and you’ll have final exams a week later.

This calendar is meant to be printed and filled in according to your needs. Note the dates of each panel of your Q4 GAP triptych, as well as the Fridays you’ll be in the iLC. All other assignments, instructions, and feedback will be posted here and on Google Classroom, as always, and we will spend April 19-20 setting things up¹. I’ll share a copy of the calendar through Google Classroom, too.

The Non-Denominational Evil Spirit in the Details

You’ve gone over a month without an instructional post here, and not just because of the two weeks we’ve had off for spring break. We’ve been using offline resources to work on grammar, and we won’t be posting copies of those resources to the website. Instead, you’ll continue to work on the “Grammar as Rhetoric and Style” sections that were photocopied from The Language of Composition, the textbook kept on the bookshelf in our classroom. As necessary, I’ll scan those assignments and post them on Google Classroom, where they’re permitted².

What we’re going to do with these GARAS exercises is apply them. Here’s a slightly edited copy of the assignment given through Google Classroom on April 7:

Grammar as Rhetoric and Style: Week 1

The goal is understanding and application. You should learn by doing, and you should also ask for redirection and feedback from your teachers. Take your time in class to study the lessons, complete the exercises, and receive feedback from your teachers about your understanding and application. Do not rush.

Part 1: Direct, Precise, and Active Verbs | Read the explanation of direct, precise, and active verbs in the photocopied packet distributed in class. Take notes that help you to internalize the concepts and terminology. Then complete Exercises 1-3 in their entirety. You may write the answers by hand or type them online, and you may work alone or in groups. If you choose to work in a group, work in a shared Google Doc, so we can track through your revision history each member’s contributions.

Part 2: Concise Diction | Read the explanation of concise diction in the photocopied packet distributed in class. Take notes that help you to internalize the concepts and terminology. Then complete Exercises 1-3 in their entirety. You may write the answers by hand or type them online, and you may work alone or in groups. If you choose to work in a group, work in a shared Google Doc, so we can track through your revision history each member’s contributions.

If you didn’t finish those exercises, that’s your job this week. We’ll pause on Friday to talk about your Pareto Projects in the iLC, but by that point, we’ll already have moved on to the your next writing assignment, and your efforts from April 3-7 are part of this quarter’s first GAP score. You might already need to make up a lot of lost ground.

Regardless, you’re going to write creatively in order to practice these two lessons. You’ll select a prompt, write a response by hand, and then type up a revision that employs what you learned from Part 1 (direct, precise, and active verbs) and Part 2 (concise diction). You’ll have to identify where and how you’re using grammar as rhetoric and style.

That self-analysis and metacognition will be formalized later. For now, you can start writing whenever you’re done with the GARAS exercises from before break. Head over to the site we used on March 27 to start this focus on grammar:

http://www.writersdigest.com/prompts

Choose any prompt from there that you haven’t chosen before. Keep in mind that your goal is to gain more control of grammar in context in order to be a more effective writer overall. Let us know what you’re working on, and we’ll help you as you go. Ask questions here, in the comment section, as necessary.

1. This includes finalizing Q3 GAP scores and reorganizing our physical space. We’ve had almost two weeks to atrophy, so we’re going to need two days to start moving again. ↩

2. One of the authors, Larry Scanlon, was a teacher in Brewster for three decades, by the way, which is a cool thing to note. ↩

Here is a blank copy of the calendar for Q4, which is already in progress:

[pdfjs-viewer url=”http%3A%2F%2Fsisypheanhigh.com%2Fmalachite%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F04%2FRE11-Calendar-Q4.pdf” viewer_width=100% viewer_height=600px fullscreen=true download=true print=true]

The end of the year starts on April 19, when we return from spring break. We won’t see another day off until the end of May, and you’ll have final exams a week later.

This calendar is meant to be printed and filled in according to your needs. Note the dates of each panel of your Q4 GAP triptych, as well as the Fridays you’ll be in the iLC. All other assignments, instructions, and feedback will be posted here and on Google Classroom, as always, and we will spend April 19-20 setting things up¹. I’ll share a copy of the calendar through Google Classroom, too.

The Non-Denominational Evil Spirit in the Details

For the next two weeks, you are going to work on the practice Regents Exam you began before break. You should already have Part 2 finished, but you’ll now get a few days to correct any lapses there. Next up is Part 1, which asks you to read passages and answer multiple-choice questions, and Part 3, which requires a couple of paragraphs of rhetorical or literary analysis².

You have until Monday, April 24, to finish Part 1. Copies of the practice exam are available in our classroom, and you’ll remember that our goal is to understand the test, not just take it. You will use the rest of the week to answer all of the multiple-choice questions, and then you’ll record your answers. In fact, I’ll prepare a Google Form that will require you to record how you answered each question. You’ll have the correct answers provided in class, which we’ll use to start hacking and reverse-engineering the logic of the test. The Google Form assignment will let us plan out group work and individual feedback going into next week.

One other note: On Friday, you’ll have time in the iLC to revisit your Pareto Projects. Remember that those projects are built for 20% of your time, with the other 80% dedicated to test prep — until May, at least, when we’ll reorganize ourselves around something else. You need to use your time in class effectively, which means working on this Regents Exam for a few days.

1. This includes finalizing Q3 GAP scores and reorganizing our physical space. We’ve had almost two weeks to atrophy, so we’re going to need two days to start moving again. ↩

2. Brief, perfunctory analysis, at that. The real difficulty of the exam lies in the essay, which you’ve now ostensibly deconstructed, and the multiple-choice section. ↩