AP Scores

I don't know how many of you will actually look at this blog again (especially since I know most of you detested it during the school year) but I just wanted to let you know that I am incredibly proud of each and every one of you. The scores were great, but more importantly, I wanted to thank you for your hard work this past semester. All of you improved tremendously over the semester and it could not have been done without your hard work and dedication. I know that I worked you hard at times, and I know at times your probably wanted to kill me, or Joseph Conrad, but you did the work without [much] complaint. I hope you understand that all the work I asked you to do was to not only prepare you for the AP test and college, but hopefully the real world.
On a more sappy note, I already miss you guys. During my last semester teaching, you were the bright spot in my day. Coming to school and preparing lessons for you was a privilege for me. I know that probably sounds strange, but it is true. Your potential and hard work inspired me to work harder because I never wanted to let you down.
Thank you for a great semester. Thank you for all of the open discussions, whether it be about gender, racism, imperialism, life, or death. You taught me just as much as I taught you; I am a better teacher and person because of each and everyone of you.
I hope you continue to keep in touch. I will be going to back to school full time in August at UNCC, so I may see some of you around on campus. If you would like to continue using this blog to discuss school, your summer reading, or anything at all, please feel free to do so (With that being said, has anyone started reading Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman? I heard Atticus Finch is a racist in this novel!? Thoughts?)
So because I am Ms. Payseur, and because I am annoying, I am going to leave you with one of my favorite poems. I promise, you don't have to do a TPCASTT :) It's from the preface of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

Have a great summer. 

Have an even better freshman year. 

Study hard.

 Meet interesting people. 

Be a little weird.

Love,

Ms. Payseur

sarahpayseur@gmail.com

 

2001 Question 2: Due Thursday

The following is a Question 3 sample from 2001. Directions:

1. Read the prompt and begin brainstorming what you would use.
2. DO NOT read other classmates' entries before writing your response. 
3. Draft an outline on your own paper.
4. Write a couple paragraphs about what characters you would contrast and how they effect the overall work. Be sure to include how you would organize your essay (progression of ideas and  what specific details you would use). You may use your novel and notes to help you!  You DO NOT need to write an entire essay. The purpose of the exercise is to review the novels that we have read.

2001:
One definition of madness is “mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it.”  But Emily Dickinson wrote:

 “Much madness is divinest Sense--

     To a discerning Eye--"

Novelists and playwrights have often seen madness with a “discerning Eye.”  Select a novel or play in which a character’s apparent madness or irrational behavior plays an important role.  Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain what this delusion or eccentric behavior consists of and how it might be judged reasonable.  Explain the significance of the “madness” to the work as a whole.  Do not merely summarize the plot.

2004 Question 3 Prompt: Due Wednesday

The following is a Question 3 sample from 2004. Directions:

1. Read the prompt and begin brainstorming what you would use.
2. DO NOT read other classmates' entries before writing your response. 
3. Draft an outline on your own paper.
4. Write a couple paragraphs about what characters you would contrast and how they effect the overall work. Be sure to include how you would organize your essay (progression of ideas and  what specific details you would use). You may use your novel and notes to help you!  You DO NOT need to write an entire essay. The purpose of the exercise is to review the novels that we have read.

Critic Roland Barthes has said, "Literature is the question minus the answer." Choose a novel or play and, considering Barthes' observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers any answers. Explain how the author's treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. 

2010 Question 3 (Due Tuesday)

The following is a Question 3 sample from 2010. Directions:

1. Read the prompt and begin brainstorming what you would use.
2. DO NOT read other classmates' entries before writing your response. 
3. Draft an outline on your own paper.
4. Write a couple paragraphs about what characters you would contrast and how they effect the overall work. Be sure to include how you would organize your essay (progression of ideas and  what specific details you would use). You may use your novel and notes to help you!  You DO NOT need to write an entire essay. The purpose of the exercise is to review the novels that we have read.

Question 3 (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)
Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” Yet Said has also said that exile can become “a potent, even enriching” experience.

Select a novel, play, or epic in which a character experiences such a rift and becomes cut off from “home,” whether that home is the character’s birthplace, family, homeland, or other special place. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching, and how this experience illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or one of comparable literary merit. Do not merely summarize the plot.

"Dover Beach" Matthew Arnold: Due Wednesday

"Dover Beach" was published in 1867. Many have considered this poem a reaction to Darwinism and a new mode of thinking. After you have analyzed this poem, write a response. Connect to King Lear if you can. Then respond to at least one classmates' post.

"The Black Walnut Tree" Blog: Due Thursday

After you have highlighted and annotated the student samples, look back at your own essay and write a reflection:

• What score would you give your essay? Why? 
• Are you surprised by any of the sample scores? Why or why not?
•     Based on these essays and their scores, what do you wish you would have done differently?
• Is there anything that you could of incorporated that would have made your essay better?

Question 3: Due Wednesday

The following is a Question 3 sample from 2008. Directions:

1. Read the prompt and begin brainstorming what you would use.
2. DO NOT read other classmates' entries before writing your response. 
3. Draft an outline on your own paper.
4. Write a couple paragraphs about what characters you would contrast and how they effect the overall work. Be sure to include how you would organize your essay (progression of ideas and  what specific details you would use. You may use your novel and notes to help you!  You DO NOT need to write an entire essay. The purpose of the exercise is to review the novels that we have read.

Question 3 (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)

 In a literary work, a minor character, often known as a foil, possesses traits that emphasize, by contrast or comparison, the distinctive characteristics and qualities of the main character. For example, the ideas or behavior of the minor character might be used to highlight the weaknesses or strengths of the main character. Choose a novel or play in which a minor character serves as a foil to a main character. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the relation between the minor character and the major character illuminates the meaning of the work. You may choose a work from the list below or another appropriate novel or play of similar literary quality. Do not merely summarize the plot.