Final Exam Review Material for Everyone

For on-level, these are the terms you need to study for your exam:
Click here for ACA Vocab Review terms
Your final has 67 multiple choice questions on it. No essay, no short answers.
Please make sure to turn in your vocab review crossword - that's a daily grade.
Additional vocabulary: tone, diction, imagery, details, inference, author's purpose, controlling idea, thesis, support, elaboration, organizational structures
Grammar concepts: capitalization, parts of speech (verb, noun, adverb, verb, adjective, pronoun, proper noun), FANBOYS, independent clause, dependent clause, compound sentence, semicolon, apostrophes (showing possession)

For K/H, these are the things you need to study:
Vocab Units 1 & 2
Vocab Units 3 & 4
Vocab Units 5 & 6
Vocab Units 7 & 8
Vocab lists for units 9/10 and 11/12 are still linked on the Vocabulary Notes page (in the usual place to the right).
Your final has 40 multiple choice questions and 1 persuasive essay.
Grammar concepts: Simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences, compound-complex sentences, coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, dependent and independent clauses, subject-verb agreement
Many of these grammar concepts were the subject of previous posts. Feel free to look back at those for an easy review. 
Persuasive Writing: Please take a few moments and review any pertinent writing notes before you take your final exam. Remember to look at the notes on introductions, call to action, and counter argument.

K/H: Things Fall Apart Project materials

Option A: Right here
Option B: Right here
The project: Here be the project

Please read the project page carefully.
A few things I'd like to remind you of:

• Outline is due on TurnItIn.com on Sunday night. If it's not there, you're late. If you're having significant issues, I expect an email as soon as those issues arise. If you need to sign up for my TurnItIn class, go to the top of this blog and see the search bar up there? Type in "turnitin" and it will pull up the blog entry with the class codes on it. (Isn't technology great?)
• The project paper also says to bring a paper copy of your outline for me on Monday when you present. I can use the paper copy of your outline to take notes, etc.
• If you're using borrowed images, please cite the source.

Everyone: Imagery in Persuasive Writing

Today, on-level classes looked at several commercials that use imagery for persuasive purposes. This lesson is a viable one for all classes.

http://www.creativebloq.com/3d/top-tv-commercials-12121024

We specifically looked at commercials #4, 9, 19, and 28.

28 is probably my favorite.

24 is also exceptional.

More commercials:

"Epic Split" / Volvo Commercial

Seat Belt Commercial

John Lewis (2011) Commercial 

(It's a store in the UK.)

Volkswagen Beetle (2011)

Practice: Look at these commercials one by one. Watch them a few times. Watch them with sound, then without. Make a list of images that you see. Write a paragraph full of writing to show about what imagery the commercial contains. Do this with more than 1 commercial, and you'll start to see what I mean.

Notice that many of the commercials start with a hook - for example, the Honda commercial: "For those who love the inside as much as the outside..."

Notice that many of the commercials end with a Call to Action - for example, the seat belt commercial.

Please keep in mind that these commercials were not made by me, but are being used for illustrative purposes for persuasive writing. As persuasive pieces, they may include subject matter that you may not agree with - and that's okay. I'm not trying to change your mind. I'm using them only to illustrate the imagery and writing to show aspects of persuasive writing.

Grammar for K/H Quiz: Subject-Verb Agreement

Here is the answer key for the in-class practice we did this week: right here

Use that to check over your work as you study for the quiz. Quizlets for vocab are posted.

Persuasive Writing: Hook and Call to Action

Yesterday, K/H did a table essay focusing on hook and CTA in preparation for our imminent timed persuasive essay.

Some things to remember for tomorrow:

Hook: The biggest difference between expository and persuasive writing is that in persuasive writing, you care about whether the audience is interested. You care about all aspects of the rhetorical situation and about coming across as an expert. You care about making sure your reader is interested and engaged. That's why doing a hook and doing it well is so important.

Call to Action: Typically, teachers tell students to end their essays by reviewing their main points and possibly restating the thesis. Those are fine options, but allow me to give you some other, more sophisticated ideas to use, as well. A call to action means that you are trying to convince your audience to do, think, or believe something. To do that, I suggest you use emotive language. Think back on the movie clips we saw in class. What was some of the emotive language we saw in those? Take whatever your concrete example is and assign it some emotive language. For example, today's practice prompt included the words "assignments" and "relax."

What are some emotive words that could possibly go with assignment?
Achievement, advancement, success...

What are some emotive words that could possibly go with relax?
Rejuvenate, treating yourself, pampering yourself, putting yourself first, respite, mental or emotional health...

Using emotive language like this makes your topic - relax/assignment - seem more important to your reader, which is a good thing. All of the sudden, the paper's about something bigger than just a simple choice on a prompt page. It's about something that matters. It's not about tasks or assignments - it's about success and the importance of getting things done.

Conclusions aren't just the final words in your persuasive essay. They're a golden opportunity for you to inspire your reader and get the grade you deserve after all of your hard work and dedication.

See what I did there?

Also, please remember that these tactics are appropriate for persuasive writing, not expository or AP writing (unless your AP exam requires persuasion... in which case your AP teacher would be the best person to tell  you whether or not these things would be appropriate).

Dictionary Diving

Today, ACA classes played a dictionary game that looked at abbreviations, parts of speech, synonyms, and guide words.

Remember that you can use a dictionary AND a thesaurus as often as you like on ANY part of the English I and English II EOC exams.

If you'd like to review the game, here's the link: "Dictioneopardy"

Geography of Things Fall Apart

Maps from the Norton Critical ed., 2009.

The village of Umuofia is a fictional one, but this is a map of the Nigeria area, showing the Ibo/Igbo areas.

On-Level: Finishing "Night" by Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel did an interview with Oprah where he walks around Auschwitz and talks about what happened, and reflects on the ultimate meaning of the events he went through. It's about 45 minutes long, but totally worth it. Enjoy!

Tone Practice for exam

Check this out. Tone Review

I recommend that you read the introduction - good review information there.

This whole packet is pure gold, but I especially like pages 3, 4, 5, 29, 63, 66, 91 and 105 as review for our tone exam.

What's next in reading

For on-level: Next grading period, we'll be reading poetry, short fiction, and short (expository) nonfiction. We'll read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee when we return from Christmas. We have class sets available, but you may buy it and bring it to class if you would like to. You may also use a Nook, Kindle, etc.

For K/H: Our next book is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Please have that book by the end of next week, Nov 14.