For the Week of August 25th.....

ALL Parents:

Progress Report grades are due Thursday. Students will receive their progress reports when we return from Labor Day Holiday.

AP Parents:
This week, we are mostly working on AP Test Practice, focusing on the multiple choice section and the prose question, question 2.

Students are also reading Heart of Darkness outside of class and will respond to Blog Question #3 by Friday. We have reading quizzes on Friday. I will take the scores from all of the reading quizzes (6 total for Heart of Darkness) and average them together for a test grade.

Honors Parents:

This week, we are continuing our discussion of the American Dream and what it means to us. We are looking at various documents from history and discussing their merit as persuasion and how they help us to better define the American Dream. When we finish reading and analyzing these documents, students will write an essay that I will use as an assessment of their understanding. We will begin brainstorming for the essay on Friday and write a rough draft in class when they return from the Labor Day holiday on Tuesday, the 2nd. The final draft will be due the following Monday, September 8th.

For Week Of August 18th...

Honors American Literature (1st and 6th Periods):

• Students have checked out books that they should be reading at home for the Independent Reading Assignment (more details on my website). This will be an ongoing assignment through the semester. 
• Students should be working on their vocabulary lists for Units 1-4 out of the red vocabulary book.
• This week, we will begin talking about the American Dream and what it means to us. This will be a core theme of the whole course. 

AP Literature (5th Period):

• Students should have been working on the final draft of their Between Shades of Gray essay. This is due Monday via email or printed copy brought to class. 
• Students will be getting copies of the AP Literature syllabus on Monday. Please review the syllabus carefully and sign it. Students should bring it back on Tuesday signed. 
• If students haven't created their blogs using Blogger, they should do so this week. If they are having trouble doing so, they should come and see me before or after school.  I will be glad to help them. 

Regular American Literature (2nd, 4th, and 7th) 

• We are going to continue our discussion of the American Dream by reading documents pertaining to the subject. 
• We are also preparing for the GHSWT  (GA High School Writing Test) each Wednesday. Students will take this test on Wednesday, September 24th. 

For Week Of August 11th...

Honors / AP Students: 

All Honors/AP Students were required to read the One Book, Many Voices selection, Between Shades of Gray, for Summer Reading. One Book, Many Voices is a county-wide initiative funded and supported by the Sara-Hightower Regional Library. Its goal is to "foster literacy, encourage dialogue and build community in Floyd County by inviting citizens to read and discuss the same book and participate in programs related to the book and its themes" (One Book, Many Voices Website). One of the programs that all Honors/AP students will participate in is the essay contest. This will give students an opportunity to publish work and win a cash prize! AP Literature students have already written the first draft of the essay and the final draft is due on Monday, August 18th. 10th grade Honors students will work on the essay in class this week, with the first draft being due on Wednesday, August 13th and the final draft being due on Wednesday, August 20th. 

Also, please mark your calendars for Thursday, September 25th. The author, Ruta Sepetys, will speak at the Rome Auditorium at 7:00PM. Typically, tickets are sold for the event at Kroger, the library, and other places around town. Ticket prices are usually under $10.00. I am going on how they did it last year. I will let you know as soon as I have more information. This is an extra credit opportunity for students. 

If you would like more information, please visit the website: http://www.romelibrary.org/events.html. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks! 

For Week Of August 4th...

Honors / AP Students:

Please bring your copies of the books for Summer Reading on Monday. If you checked a book out from the library, you will need the text for the assignments we will do this week. You can re-check it out or borrow one from someone else in another class.

It was so nice to meet everyone today. Great first day at MHS!