AP English
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.
- Henry David Thoreau
News
The picture that we took of all of us in our AP shirts will appear in the May 31st edition of the South Belt Leader. Grab one today! You know you want to — you're famous now!
AP Test Survey Form: How was your AP test?
The text of Brian Estrada's second visit to the class (6th and 7th period saw him "live" :))
Essay: College Pressures (William Zinsser)
Ajay Sheshadri's speech is now online! I might get all the cool stuff that I want to do done by next week - no guarantees; I'm bad with those. If so, things will be a lot smoother in terms of updates @_@.
If you'd like to e-mail Ajay Sheshadri with questions regarding medical school, high school, college, or the life of a "doctor" in general, you can e-mail him at ajay.sheshadri@utsouthwestern.edu
Purdue (OWL) MLA formats for tricky situations.
The research paper site is finally up! All documents and goodies are there. I'm lazy and sleepy now :(
AP English III is a very demanding course. I teach it at the college level for two reasons: First, I want my students to have the best chance possible to make high scores on the very challenging AP Exam. Second, for students who score a 3 or above on the AP Exam, this class may take the place of at least one college class; it must, therefore, include work of equivalent difficulty and sophistication. Students and parents alike must expect a work load commensurate with the course being college level. Moreover, students must expect to become engaged with college-level texts that deal with mature themes and that require similarly sophisticated readers.
I have high expectations of my students - in academics and in character; therefore, I will expect you to do your own work. I know that there is great pressure among your friends for you to "help" each other. There are, in fact, times in class when help from other students is indeed appropriate and useful. For example, on certain well-defined and announced occasions, you will do classwork in groups or with partners. On these exercises, I expect you to work together to arrive at a group response to the assignment.
On the other hand, I will expect that most of the work you turn in will be yours alone. Any violations of this policy will create a number of administrative hardships for you, as described below. A more tangible, but no less important, problem you face if you cheat is the damage you do to your relationship with me. If you violate the trust I place in you, you will create between us a breach of faith not easily overcome. Do not treat our relationship lightly.
I expect all out-of-class work to be your own. Any evidence I find that the work you submit is not yours - such as my direct observation of copying or striking similarities between two papers - will result in the same consequences for both borrower and lender: a zero on the assignment, a conduct grade no higher than N, a discipline referral to the office and consequent disciplinary action, as well as notes to the sponsors of any organizations to which you belong and to the coaches of the sports in which you participate. Moreover, if I am ever asked to respond to questions about your character for a college or scholarship application, I will have to report what you did.
While I understand that this course is difficult and that it puts you under a lot of pressure, you must remember that you will not have the benefit of your friends or of Cliff's Notes when you take the AP Exam in May. You must, therefore, do your own work in order to develop the analytical skills you will need to succeed on this exam and in this class.
-Mrs. Jones
