MARCH 24TH
WEEKLY AGENDA
FOR
AP ENGLISH


MONDAY, MARCH 24TH:

Good news! According to Fred Aurriemo, the school’s fund for “Gifted and Talented” will pay for our tickets to the Hollywood Actors’ Co-op production of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. So save Friday night, April 11th. Everyone who goes will receive an “A” worth 10 points (a little less than the value of an essay) in the roll book.

Go over writing techniques for AP essays. Your William Blake compare and contrast essays will be returned to you. If you made lower than a "B", you should redo the essay employing some of the techniques we will go over today.

IF YOU MAKE LOWER THAN A “B” YOU SHOULD ALWAYS REDO THE TEST OR THE ESSAY FOR A HIGHER GRADE.

You will also receive some handouts - which I believe were given to you last semester - regarding writing techniques, i.e., sentence structure, different ways to begin sentences, etc. We will briefly go over these in class for you to start using in your essays.

Begin discussing Dostoevsky’s CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. We will discuss the back story and an analysis of the setting of the murders, and the recurring motifs employed by Dostoevsky throughout the book. We will also explore the concept of the übermensch and how it applies to Raskolnikov.

So this is a friendly reminder to bring in the huge piles of references, and background material that have been given to you over the last two months. We will discuss the literary and philosophical aspects of the book, starting from the beginning.


TUESDAY, MARCH 25TH:

Continue discussing CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. We will discuss Raskolnikov’s sense of destiny as shown when he goes into a tavern and overhears a conversation regarding the wretched pawnbroker, and then later falls into a stupor and overhears yet another conversation between Elizavet and some rag sellers. We will also discuss Jeremy Bentham’s concept of “Utilitarianism” as it pertains to the scene of the young drunk girl Raskolnikov tries to save.

Now that we have finished with some of the back work, I will - finally - pass out the much beloved and greatly anticipated grammar and vocabulary books today. Today you will be assigned Unit 4 (I believe) in your vocabulary book, which will be due on Tuesday, April 1st.



WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26TH:

Your John Keats “Bright Star” and Robert Frosts’ “Choose Something Like a Star” compare and contrast essay will be due today.

You will be given another prompt today; this one will be from a scene in the beginning of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. It will be due on Friday, March 28th.

Today a handout on gerunds will be given to you (it’s from the UNSCRAMBLING grammar book from last semester you all loved so much). We will briefly go over this. The handout will be due on Monday, March 31st.

Continue discussing CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.


THURSDAY, MARCH 27TH:

Warm-ups:

Using five of your vocabulary words from Unit 4, write five complex sentences with gerunds. Vary the beginning of each sentence and try to avoid the very boring and over used “subject - verb - direct object” or “subject - verb - complement” formation.

Read Jean-Paul Sartre on “Existentialism”, W.T. Stace’s “Man Against Darkness” and Reinhold Niebuhr on “The Christian Commitment” in PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE.


FRIDAY, MARCH 28TH:

Warm-ups:

Using five of your vocabulary words from Unit 4, write five complex sentences with gerunds. Vary the beginning of each sentence.

Continue reading on existentialism.

Your CRIME AND PUNISHMENT is due today. You will be given another prompt from CRIME AND PUNISHMENT which will be due on Wednesday, April 2nd.

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