Homework: May 3

GOOD LUCK ON SATs, and on AP Tests, everyone!!!

Honors English 11

• You're working on developing ideas for your Gatsby synthesis essay. So far, you've created a mind map of the story, and you've done some informal writing to explore interesting topics. You've started developing a "working thesis," and now you need to collect specific proof to fully define your thesis so you can write the best essay of your life. This weekend, look through the book to find the proof that will help you refine your thesis and make your argument strong. You can do this in whatever way is most effective for you:
• a map (you could add a section to your mind map, or on the back, or on a new sheet of paper)
• a list 
• an outline
• a freewrite
• On Monday (or Tuesday, for those of you taking AP tests on Monday), you'll bring in A PROPOSAL--a written version of your WORKING THESIS, your proof, and the literary critic that you'll likely use to help build your argument/analysis. Next week, we'll keep building on your arguments, and we'll start writing the essays, and we'll refine our ideas, and we'll write some more...
• A resource: For those of you looking for specific language, you can find the text of Gatsby here, and you can use the Ctrl-F feature that I showed you in class to search for words. So, if you're going to write about Daisy's voice in the story, you can search "voice" and find each time the word comes up in the whole story. Makes finding your proof a whole lot easier!
• Since so many of you like TED Talks...if you're interested in bio-engineering, check the post below this one for the TED Talk I watched with my senior English class. It's pretty crazy...

English 12

• Today we did some independent reading, and then we watched a talk on bioethics and bio-engineering. We'll continue our conversation about the benefits and challenges presented in the Talk.
• Over the weekend, read and carefully annotate Chapter 23. Look out, Elizabeth!!!