Dear Scholars,

We worked on and performed several skits in class on Thursday. Please continue to write. If someone else would like to post notes, the recording of the class is available here: http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/496435-advanced-writing-and-college-prep-english-march-17-2011

I have not had time to do thorough notes for the Thursday class as I have been working on a new chapter for the next edition of our college prep textbook.
The vocabulary story does not have a glossary yet and the playsheet does not have an answer key, but I’m sure you can figure those out. Please let me know if I have made any major errors.

Be sure to get your copy of the class literary journal from the EIE store.

Dear Scholars,

Screen sharing didn’t work last week. We’ll make sure to fix that. Last week’s feed and recording is here: http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/491022-advanced-writing-and-college-prep-english-march-10-2011

Class feed this week will he here: http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/496435-advanced-writing-and-college-prep-english-march-17-2011

Copies of our Advanced Writing Class Literary Journal for fall will be available at EIE this week thanks to Adrian’s excellent production work. You should all have copies for your academic portfolios. We will discuss this issue and our next issue. Much credit goes to Angela, Adrian and all of you for your excellent work on our first issue. Unfortunately, not everyone had pieces in this issue due to its theme and to space considerations. We will try to make sure that everyone is represented in the next one. It may be possible to have it printed by and available on Amazon.com.

Last week, after a brief discussion of part time jobs, the topic presented by Breana, the subject of skits arose and the suggestion was made that we do the cheese shop sketch and write further skits.

Angela has written a very nice skit on the composition of the Gettysburg Address. A perfect example, and a place to start.

Cheese shop
I’m sure you’ve all looked the skits posted in the Skit Section of our classroom. Our Cheese Shop classroom page has now been expanded to include a full script of the sketch together with an account of how it was inspired and a table of all cheeses mentioned. Please everyone watch The Cheese Shop. We will do one or more readthroughs of this sketch. It’s actually trickier than one might think, but very worthwhile.

A Scriptwriting forum has been created in the classroom. Please post ideas and scripts.

Reading and listening resources from last week.

If you have time, please give these a try.

Bertrand Russell on the Atomic Bomb. 1945
This is quite short but brilliantly insightful.

On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
This is a quite long and difficult but very significant work.

Dear Scholars,

This week Breana presented the debate topic: Is it a good idea for high-school students to have part time jobs? We discussed it briefly, but then the topic changed. We can pursue this topic more later.
Writing class journal
Adrian brought in a sample of the historical fiction issue of the Advanced Writing Class Literary journal. He has done a superb job handling the layout, duplication and binding. Much credit goes to Angela, Adrian and all of you for your excellent work on our first issue. Unfortunately, not everyone had pieces in this issue due to its theme and to space considerations. We will try to make sure that everyone is represented in the next one. There will be a limited number of copies available at the EIE bookstore next Thursday. You should all have copies for your academic portfolios.
Cheese shop
McKenna joined our class for the first time and made some excellent suggestions including a request that we act out the Cheese Shop skit — and, after some discussion of the subject, we decided to revisit the topic of skit writing. Please look at the skits posted in the Skit Section of our classroom. Our Cheese Shop classroom page has now been expanded to include a full script of the sketch together with an account of how it was inspired and a table of all cheeses mentioned. Please everyone watch The Cheese Shop.

A Scriptwriting forum has been created in the classroom. Please post ideas. This could be a lot of fun.

Dear Scholars,

Last week’s recording (http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/486036-advanced-writing-and-college-prep-english-march-3-2011) had screen sharing problems but the audio seemed to work.

This week’s class feed and recording will be here: http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/491022-advanced-writing-and-college-prep-english-march-10-2011

We are continuing with the subject of persuasive essays and debates. These have been very lively and informative. Breana has submitted this week’s topic: The advisability of high-school students holding down part-time jobs. Please come with ideas.

There have been some very good vocabulary postings. Make sure to read them and learn the words. Would a quiz help?

Projects to cover:
Sam’s The Outlaws of Sherwood
Dorothy’s persuasive essay on texting
Amanda’s persuasive essay on television and health
Dorothy’s essay on vitamins and dancers
Sam’s vocabulary
Amanda’s vocabulary
Marc’s historical fiction

Note: there have been no postings of lectures and debates lately. There have been some good lectures presented by Fry, and Hitchens was interviewed on 60 minutes recently, but some content makes these inappropriate for our purposes in class. You may look them up on your own if you like. I have found very little new material from the other great speakers, Berlinski, Eagleton, Miller, Fisk etc. Please contribute to classroom resources by posting articles and lectures if you find good material.