ALL CLASSES:  PLEASE NOTE:   Starting on January 1, 2012 the students will receive one Study Island assignment per week, due at the conclusion of the week. They can do this assignment as homework and may do the work as many times as they want until they get the grade they want, during that week. After that week ends, the grade will be zero if I have not received the work. Check my homework site for the weekly assignment.  STUDENTS MUST HAND IN A PRINTED COPY WITH THEIR SCORE SESSION HIGHLIGHTED.  PLEASE GIVE YOURSELF ENOUGH TIME TO COMPLETE AND PRINT OUT.   Assigned:  December 30, 2011:  Informational text: analyzing multiple ideas Due:  January 13, 2012 Assigned :  January 13, 2012 Technical Meanings Due:  January 20, 2012 Assigned:  January 30, 2010 :  Structuring Text Due:February 6, 2012 Assigned :  February 6, 2012 Author's Point of View Due: February 13, 2012    ; AP LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION:     Daily Assignments:  PLEASE HAVE READ THROUGH PAGE 25 OF 1984 AND COMPLETE DIALECTICAL JOURNAL Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday:  Thursday: Friday:d   The best laid plans............           ENGLISH 3:  Weekly Assignments: Monday:  HSPA FORMAT AND NARRATIVE TEXT Tuesday:  Wednesday:  Thursday:  Friday:    English 3 Students: Please be sure to have your notebook in class as we embark on our most focused part of the year- Study Island, CollegeBoard, and HSPA preparation   Vocabulary :anthropo: anthropologist, misanthrope, anthropomorphism, philanthropis  mis: misplace, misnomer, mistake, misappropriate pyro: pyrotechnic, pyromaniac   EVERYDAY:  CHECK POWER SCHOOL AND STUDY ISLAND (STUDY ISLAND IS AN OUTSIDE HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT.  YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR COMPLETING AND PRINTING OUT ALL WORK ___________ All classes: I am strongly encouraging all of my students AP and English 3 to read the journal about my experience as a AP scorer. AP students: The journal below is required reading AP READER!!!!!  JOURNA: ( I do not know why that squiggly line is appearing....  ignore)  This past year I had the honor of being selected by College Board as a Reader for the 2011 Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exm. My selection and attendance was probably one of the highlights of my 28 year career in the Rahway school district and probably one of the highest professional honors I could possibly attain in my field.  I LOVED every minute of the experience that involved grading well over 1000 papers in an 8 day period.  I tried to journal about the experience in my "spare time" and have included my thoughts bew.  Saturday, June 11, 2011 The Hyatt is wonderful. Very close to the convention center, comfortable.~ It seems the Galt House is where all of the action is but I am content here. ~Day started with breakfast.~ 8 am orientation.~ 9am training begins.~ We did anchor papers and range locators and discussed them as a group.~ One of the things I really like is the way we had headsets that transmit the information to us from the Head Reader.~ We are at tables with 8 readers and a table leader.~ She is very nice (Peggy Jolly)  University of Alabama, and there is lots of candy to pick from.~ The breaks are short (15 minutes ) and 500+ readers have to use the bathrooms and grab water/coffee. We spent a great deal of time determinig the 3 from the four paper and determining a 6 score.~ It seems the 7, 8 and 9's are elusive.~ One of the papers I scored said, "Florence Kelley was a woman in the early 1900's and she was cool."~ That's it.~ Table Leader scored it a 1!!!~ (and said cryptically- it responded to the prompt ..otherwise we'd have to give their money back" ~I am at a table with 4 high school teachers and 4 college professors.  4 of us are brand new. Everyone here is so nice and helpful.  Live scoring on real papers started after lunch.  I scored approximately 70 papers this afternoon and I think I did well.~ We score the same question the entire time. All of the scorers ask each other : "Are you Lit or Lang?" Then it becomes "Lang 1, 2, or 3?" I am Lang 2 (Rhetorical Anais)  At 5 pm we were done for the day. I took a walk to Waterfront Park. Louisvile is really a nice city. The "South is so much nicer than the north.  Reall. ~ Attended the New Readers reception and spent some time with two women one from Washington State and the other from California..  It was quite fun. I am learning a lot, enjoying this immensely.  Besides the readings, the amazing opportunity to meet so many people from all over the United States is overwhelming and everyone is so nice and so happy to be a part of this.~ This is truly a paradise for educational geeks like mysf! ~SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 2011 OK. Again-,one word...incredible.  I have met people from all over the country- California, Washington, Georgia, Nevada, Texas, Alabama , Kansas, Massachusetts, Florida, Missouri...everyone is so friendly, so happy to be here, so grateful. Many look forward to this every year and have made life- long friends.~ They room together and look forward to seeing each other at the readings.~ What a great experience to be with people like this.~ Interestingly, they seem to have identical situations in their respectve districts- funding, budget cuts...etc!~ While NJ teachers complain, I ate dinner with a 27 year veteran teacher from Georgia- 67,000 is her max with a Masters Degree....they need 30 years in the system to qualify for retirement benefits. ~OK.. to the scoring.~ Scored over 100 papers today.~ The majority of papers were 2,3,4.~ I have not given a 9 yet nor seen any paper that even qualifies for that score.  The papers are actually terrible.~ I do not know if that is good or bad news.~ What I do know is that Rahway High School students are on par or maybe even a bit stronger than the papers I have seen.~ Rhetorical Analysis is the hardest for kids to understand and all of the Lang teachers agree that it is the hardest to teach without becomin formulaic.  One of the things I find most interesting is the VOICE.~ I can actually "hear" the southern students colloquialism in their responses.  It is a pleasure to read these papers.....Lots of real important stuff to share about this essay when I get back.~ What the scorers (ME!!!) are REALLY looking r. ~Louisville is a really nice city and I am enjoying my stay here.  I am a block away from waterfront park- and across the river is Indiana.  People are very nice here- kind, slower than up north.  I like this a lot.   I headed over to CVS this evening.....it is closed on Sunday-many things here are closed on Sunday!!!  One of the things I find most fascinating is that it stays light until 9:00 pm.~ Like daylight light.~ People have told me that part of Kentucky is actually in the Central time zon "Miss I have to be in bed by 9 pm" is not tired because it is LIGHT OUT!!! ~Tonight I went to College Boards Open Forum:~ some of the questions that were raised included:~ Will they ever rotate the dates that the tests are given?~ Will students ever receive a break down of their scores? Was the synthesis essay unfair to lower class students who are on free and reduced lunch and would not consider or really understand the locavore movement? ~Tomorrow Edwige Danticat is reading, plus I will attend the Test Development Committee for Language! MONDAY, JUNE 13: DAY 3 Same story... loving this, just loving this.~ Finally met a woman from NJ-a Rutger Professor who lives in South Bound Brook.~ I really don't miss NJ~yet.~~The Mid-Western hospitality ( I was corrected today- I am not in the South) continues to draw me in.~ Every morning the staff here all says "How ya doin'"~ and smiles at me....The accent is growing on me! I scored 187 papers today. The holistic scoring works. Our table leader told us that the room average ( approximatley 500 readers reading only rhetorical analysis) was 4.49 out of 9.~ Across the nation the scores really are not that good.~I did see some wonderful papers today, they come in clusters and are usually all from the same schoo. ~ Tonight I grabbed dinner and came back to relax.  I plan to tour some museums tomorrow- they are staying open late for the readers...they are staying open until~8 pm.~ Things in Louisville really do close at 5~pm.   I remember that from my childhood in NJ....and I mist.~ TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2011 ~ So here is how the days unfold at the scoring.~ I always miss breakfast...I just cannot seem to get out of this hotel room until 7:50 which gives me just enough to time to run over the enclosed skywalk-all the buildings in a 3 block radius connect to the Convention Center.~ Scoring starts promptly at 8 am- no excuses no exceptions.~ We sit in a huge room partitioned off 3 ways.~ There are approximately 500 scorers in my section spread out in tables of 8 plus the table leader.~ After a brief "re-calibration" we begin.~ We score for two straight hours, get a 15 minute break and score again until lunch time.~ After one hour for lunch (which flies by) the pattern repeats itself in the afternoon.~ ~I just love this!!!~ How crazy am I?~ The following is for you Bobbie- this is sooooo Orwellian.~ About 1 pm today my fellow scores started telling me that after two full days if "they" feel you are not scoring "adequately"~~ "they" will take you to another room for re-training.~ I,of course, became extremely fearful and asked , "How will I know if I am doing well?"~ They said, "Oh, you will find out.~ Someone will tap you on the shoulder and take you away."  I asked if anyone of them had ever seen this hppen and they said YES, they had seen it and that scorer was never invited back again~ (VAPORIZED!!!) ~ It is so strange- they show you what a 6 paper looks like and even if you don't agree, they ask that you "see it as a 6"; They will work with you until you finally "see it as a 6."~ Poor Winston Smith in 1984 would have never made it here.   Much to my surprise, our table leader came back at 4 pm and told us that as a table we scored a total of 4800 papers in three days (9 of us).~ The average score of the rhetorical analysis today was 4.79 and our table average was 4.80 ( a little high, explained Pegg..) ~To my amazement, she told the College Professor from Iowa that sits across from me that she was the fastest reader  ( 800 papers)~ That is when I said, "Am I the slowest?" (still fearing the dreaded re-training room) and to my utter joy she told me that I am, at our table, the "most accurate!!!" ~Tonight I went down to Museum Row and visited a truly spectacular Da Vinci exhibit.~~~ I like Louisville.~ It is a quirky town that is a real mix of West and South.There is a "pumpkin cinderella" coach that is outside my hotel that takes people on tours, there are quirky, horse sculptures randomly placed all around the city, and a homeless man with a guitar with only two good strings, all the rest are visibly broken, sings outside the hotel and it is all "just fine" ~Incidentally, I see Ruben Rodriquez often which is almost a fluke considering how many people are here.~ LTF has expanded to Hawaii and Europe.~ It is so nice to see him.~ Tomorrow Bobbie Ann Mason is reading after our scoring and I am looking very forward to that.~ I hope you don't mind me sending this but I feel as if I am writing to an actual "audience!" ~WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15 ~ I am almost done with my week here.~ I am very sad about that.~ I have so enjoyed this..... The Table Leader told us today that we are 73.4% finished with the grading and at this rate we will have our "closing ceremony" on Friday at 2:00 pm.~ There is a dance and party from 7-10 on Friday night.~ Many people from the West Coast are leaving the hotel at like 4 am on Saturday morning.~ They have 5 hour flights.~ My plane leaves at 1:50 pm.~ I will be sad to go and say goodbye to all of these people.~ It is odd how close you become here. ~Tonight I went to see Bobbie Ann Mason.   She read from her new novel due out at the end of this month.~ It was so wonderful to attend a "reading."~ The whole idea of just "being read to."~ No discussion, no quiz, nothing- just words from an author.~ ( I am going to try to remember this in September...words from an author.)~ They had a brief question/answer session at the end.~ Someone asked her how it felt to have come from Kentucky (she is a native of this state).~ She said that in order to continue h writing she had to leave; she spent a number of years living in Paris France.~ But then she said that she eventually did come back to Kentucky and she calmly stated :~ "It is no longer where I am drawn to, its simply where I am."~ I thought that was wonderful. ~I am starting to think about PowerSchool and grading my final exams....... ~And just for the record, I maintained my status as the "most accurate Reader....." FRIDAY, JUNE 17: THE END So, it is hard to believe it is over. I graded my final paper at 1:12 pm.~ It is absolutely how amazingly intense this experience is and then how quickly it just ends....Wow. I have learned a lot about this well oiled machine that ETS is!~ Some of it so confidential, I dare not put it in print.   I did really well here and Peg Jolly, my table leader was please.  ~Tonight, my new friend Erin, from Washington STATE (Vancouver) and I went to Churchhill Downs ( home of the Kentucky Derby).~ Well there were plenty of AP scorers there~ We had such fun....the clothing here is different and it is fun to look at -it appears it is all about the shoes here.... my practical Easy Spirits did not really fit.  We took pictures, bet a few races.~ I won 40 cents and she won 20 dollars and we bet on Jesus.....~  ~I am going to miss it: the professional development, the once in a lifetime opportunity, the people that I have met, the calm demeanor of the mid-westerner, this odd camp for "grown up geeks"~ Everyone here was just so friendly and nice and I am so grateful for this opportunity. ~Safe flight tomorrow!!!!~ * * *Edit/E141 BSS=15 BSE=15 BSD=15 B=171 D=171--> *Edit/E141 BSS=0 BSE=0 BSD=0 B=31 D=31--> *Edit/E141 BSS=15 BSE=15 BSD=15 B=328 D=328-->