AP: Thou Shalt Not Commit Logical Fallacies

Attention, AP and IB:

yourlogicalfallacyis.com

Click it.

IB: Novels into Film - 2nd Semester

Here it is: your link to the list of novels that would make potentially outstanding oral presentations.

Remember that your outside book and movie for your oral presentation (which is due next semester during the 5th six-week grading period) is due on your exam day. I would recommend having a back-up book in case someone gets in line ahead of you and chooses "your" novel.

As always, if you question the validity of your book then you should probably choose another book. Furthermore, try to choose a book that you have not read before. It would be an awful shame to show up with beloved and weathered copy of Hunger Games only to have the class look down upon you with scorn and derision. (Choose a better book, Catnip.)

IB: Transgression and Redemption Final

1. How does the city serve simultaneously as a symbol of society and of Raskolnikov's state of mind?
2. Does Razumikhin serve as Raskolnikov's foil? Defend, challenge or qualify.
3. What impact do the descriptions of the various apartments--including those of Raskolnikov, Alyona, Sonya, Luzhin, and Dunya and Pulcheria Alexandrovna--have on our understanding of the characters who inhabit them and the events that take place within them?
4. What effect does having the murder occur at the very beginning of the novel have on the structure of the novel?

Prep all four; draw on exam day. You will use your prepped notes and your novel to answer the question you draw.

AP Exam Result Calculator

Working on your practice exams in class? Wondering what you might get if you took the results of your in-class essay and plugged them in?

WONDER NO MORE!

AP Pass will take the results from your mock exam (or homework, or in-class essay, or lab work, or whatever you call it that you do in Calculus) and convert the results into an estimated AP score.

Remember that any score you put in there today will only be an estimate of how you might do today; it is not a prophecy nor is it gospel truth.

(You can also put in various scores to figure out the min/max for your AP Fantasy League stats. For example, my AP Fantasy Team is absolutely crushing the other teachers' at the moment.)

IB Questions for Candide

1. How does Voltaire design the opening chapter of Candide to be recognized as a parody of the Biblical story of the Fall, and why would Voltaire be doing this?

2. Compare how Voltaire has explored the themes of judgment and punishment, or disguise and deceit, or love and friendship, and with what effect.

3. If Candide is a satire, then what is the dominant vice or folly of society being criticized?

4. Interpret the last words of the short novel (in Robert M. Adams’ translation): “[…] we must cultivate our garden."

 

Parameters:

• Exam on November 5 (the day before the Satire project is due)
• You may have one side of one sheet of paper as prep notes for each essay
• You will be asked to draw one essay on one topic from the essay question bucket on the day of the exam. The luck of the draw determines which essay you will write.
• The exam will be open prep note, and open book (which means you will be expected to quote directly from the text.)

I will be available during my regular office hours for assistance with essay outlines.

AP Super Saturday Prep Session Reminder!!!

Attention AP (and IB students):

The deadline to sign up for the Super Saturday Prep Session Event on the 16th of November is Halloween.

REPEAT--OCTOBER 31 is the DEADLINE for the AP SATURDAY PREP SIGN-UP

Clickee for the link to the registration.

IB Satirical Comic Book Project 2013

Due November 6, 2013

Now that you've finished reading Candide and are familiar with satire and the techniques used to create it, you now have the chance to be a contemporary satirist, like Voltaire, using humor to criticize human vice and folly in order to effect change. You have an open opportunity to make fun of society in order to change it!

The world is yours to mock!

Any and all of the taboo subjects are available for your mocking. I challenge you to create a Satirical Comic Book that clearly and effectively mocks some aspect of your world.

Your Satirical Comic Book must include clear and properly executed examples of:

• Allusion
• Situational and/or dramatic irony
• Verbal Irony in the form of sarcasm
• Understatement and/or exaggeration (Litotes and/or Hyperbole)
• Pun or oxymoron
• Humorous metaphor or simile
• Parody
• Caricature and/or Burlesque

Remember, the point of satire is to call the readers attention to some problem in order to change it; therefore, it should also do the following:

• It should clearly mock something—society in general, school, government, teachers, parents, etc.
• It should be long enough to effectively mock the thing in question.
• It should use original photos, drawings, or other art to demonstrate creativity and originality.
• It can use a program such as Comic Life, ToonDo, Xtranormal, or any other computer program you like. Or you can do an "old school" comic if you prefer (strip or book).

It must be submitted by November 6, 2013 at 4:30pm CST in one of the following manners:

• A functioning link to the work online via email sent to pmcghee@dallasisd.org (be certain to verify that I have received it by the assigned date and time)
• A thumb-drive/memory stick/DVD/portable data-saving device containing a copy of the project
• A full-color, frame by frame printout of the comic in hard-copy format
• An old-school “funny book"