Watch Great Expectations Preview on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

So I’m home sick with my second stomach flu in two months, nice. I drag my sorry self out of bed to send a student’s letter of recommendation that I had been putting off (lesson learned, self:no more procrastinating). My reward, when I check my email, since I don’t feel like moving again, is this little reminder of the upcoming version of Great Expectations. Now, I know I always warn against watching film adaptations before the AP exam, but this just looks so FANTASTIC! (plus I’ve gotten a little lax with the whole Pride and Prejudice thing, although THAT is about as faithful as adaptations get, which is why it is almost six hours long). I got a little teary just watching the Dickens trailer. I can’t wait. My warning to you is to keep straight what is different from the book, so you don’t end up writing about the film, especially since ALL the dorky AP readers will have recently watched it. We WILL know. You could simply record it and wait. The exam is just over a month away. Sorry.

Miss you. Now back to bed.

Have a great weekend, but no blogging. Just finish up those SSR books and one pagers for Monday.

Exam tomorrow: You must bring your own question from the list of “AP Open Essay Prompts.

Be prepared to write about that prompt’s angle and how that develops a thematic idea in the work with specific, persuasive evidence from the text (details and quotes).

In class Tuesday: In small groups,
1. discuss quality of thematic statements, and
2. together, compile evidence (details and quotes) that would show their development THROUGHOUT THE NOVEL

This is the kind of thinking/prepping/studying you need to do tonight for the essay on Wednesday.

Write a one sentence statement that captures the fullness of the major theme of Great Expectations. Don’t make it a fortune cookie (a theme by itself); tie a thematic idea to a specific reference to the novel.

Here is an example for Frankenstein:

Victor’s ultimate destruction in the pursuit of the tormented creature that he made without proper foresight cements Shelley’s notion that the pursuit of knowledge, when tainted by passion, is dangerous and that one is safest when moderated and encouraged by friends.

These are the changes for teh remainder of the unit, making the nightly assignments shorter . Make sure you get a total of two reader responses in for the unit.

M 2/27 Discussion period 8 Mandatory RR due this week
T 2/28 Ch 40-41
W 2/29 Poetry “Eros” and “Eros”
Th 3/1 Ch 42-44
F 3/2 Ch 45-47

M 3/5 Ch 48-50
T 3/6 Ch 51-53
W 3/7 poetry “Crossing the Swamp”
Th 3/8 Ch 54-55
F 3/9 Ch 56-57

M 3/12 Ch 58-59 end
T 3/13 Discussion
W 3/14 in class essay

Just in case I didn’t explain this clearly enough, you have a reader response due some day during the week indicated; you choose the day, but you must hand it in at the start of class before discussion of that section. You pick the reading assignment you write about, but you must hand your response in at the start of class before any class discussion or activities on that assignment. You can wait until Thursday night, but keep in mind that you have other work due for me then, and you may not find something meaningful to write about in Thursday night’s assignment.

Freedom. It has its ups and downs.

By the way, you cannot sit and write your response during SSR. They are due at the beginning of class.

And yes, your responses must be handwritten in pen, or I will not grade it, and you will have to write another one another day. Tough, I know, but some of you are not forcing yourselves to get comfortable writing in ink, which is what you have to do on the exam IN TWO MONTHS!

There will be no open essay due Monday, March1.  Instead, next week I will be setting you up with a wiki assignment to take its place.  

Your blogs were due by 7am 2/26.  Monday will be a review day, building off the thematic sentences I asked you to write for the novel.  Tuesday will be an in class essay exam on the test.  Wednesday, I’ll set you up with the wiki assignment.  Enjoy the snow!