THANK YOU AND POST YOUR ESSAYS HERE

A great big thank you to all of you who have sent me essays over the summer and comments.  I have a sense  of who you are as my students this year and have begun to care about you as deeply as only a SOTA writing teacher can.  You are the focus of my work next year.  So let me know who you are!  Post a comment or two.  Introduce yourselves outiside of your major (I'm a writing teacher, musician, theatre director, etc.).   Trust me,  I know how to teach APLANG--- a new acronym I'm hoping will catch on.

Those of you who wish to post essays here for feedback and comment can.  However, there probably will be a character limit on your post.  It might not work as you expected.  You might want to wait for the other opportunities I can suggest in class.

But if it works (even in two parts), let me know.

We have to share and revise our writing. That's fundamental.  So start getting over your egos and insecurities.

Keep writing,

Ms. Gamzon

TAKE THE QUIZ/POST YOUR COMMENTS

It's good to see all of you APLANG class members beginning to post comments. The quizzes do not count (as you probably know), but finding this web site, setting up your account with a recognizable name and posting a comment does! Tell your friends! That's the real test!

Think about it---if you can tweet, text, update your status on Facebook, you can certainly post a comment on a class blog (it takes 5 minutes max).

And here's the fun link to Lynn Truss' quiz--Sign on and comment

Dear AP students,

If you are visiting this blog, good for you. Sign on with a recognizable name. Become a follower of this page and link your pages if you wish. This is the class web site,and we need to use these resources.

Have fun with this Eats, Shoots, and Leaves quiz (publish your results):

www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz284239208aa10.html

AP Summer Work Letter/Welcome

Dear Students,

School starts next week. Can you believe it?

I hope you've had a great summer. I've enjoyed mine and am excited about getting back to work with all of you.

Some of you have already sent me sample essays, and I will be getting back to you shortly with some comments on them. Remember that SOAPSTONE is only a guideline for how the College Board wants you to approach analyzing the rhetorical strategies and stylistics a writer utilizes to convey MEANING, PURPOSE, and TONE. You can write about all these things and more as the course progresses. PLEASE BE SURE TO USE AN MLA HEADING, TITLE YOUR ESSAY, and QUOTE FROM THE AUTHOR'S TEXT (as much as necessary).

I've attached two sample essays from last year which I hope will help you in writing yours. What you are practicing with these 5 essays is the first of three 40 minute essays that will be on your AP exam. So please take this summer assignment seriously. You will be sharing an one or two of your essays with classmates for comments and revisions during the first school week. So be prepared for that.

Also, you do need to have read 2 of the 11th grade summer reading novels (just like the other students in 11th grade). You will be asked to write a critical lens response sometime during the first week regarding that as well. I hope you've read more, and we can talk about your "good book" recommendations in class.

OK---Strunk and White and Lynn Truss---please, please work on your grammar and punctuation. It does count on the AP exam. Some former AP students only got a 2 on the exam because of weaknesses with spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Don't let this happen to you. I will be posting an easy quiz on the website which I hope you'll take and do as a COMMENT after you sign in to the website and become a follower.

This year's website will be a continuation of last year's--apenglish9.blogspot.com

If you go there, you can get an overview of what we will be studying all year. So, please visit it and let me know you've signed on as a follower.

What else? If you have questions or concerns, feel free to email me at mlgamz@aol.com. I'd love to hear from you about school work and/or just how your summer's gone.

AP English Composition and Language is 9th period, the last class of the day. You are a large class, but I look forward to working with all of you and know that you will make my day special!

Ms. Gamzon

AP 2010-2011 Summer work Strunk and White quiz/comment

Take the quiz and post your own comment on your results and thoughts about the text. Also go to Grammar Girl link for some commentary on Strunk and White.
Grammar Quiz:
highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073526142/student_view0/chapter9/grammar_quiz.html


Grammar Girl link:
grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/strunk-and-white.aspx