Moses’ AP Blog

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we continued to work on our projects. We had to think of a topic to make a prompt. Mr. Rease said all the groups were going to switch prompts when we finished. No one in the class expected that. It is somewhat annoying though, since we have to do research and stuff just to switch topics. I think my group received the best topic, but hopefully we can get the second best after groups switch topics. Our group will probably still do good on the project, regardless of the topic we have.

 Today Mr. Rease’s class was more eventful than usual. We changed seats. I only moved two seats behind where I originally was. We also received a group project today. The project is about a synthesis essay. However, we have to do a lot more, such as have an annotated bibliography. I do not know the people in my group that well, but I still believe we will get a good grade on the project. 

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we learned about analyzing pictures for evidence. We also reviewed the homework from yesterday. As a bell ringer we had to define a few words, and many people had different definitions for most of the words. We learned about how important it was that we understand what the words meant, because we might answer the prompt incorrectly if we did not understand the words. We analyzed a picture on the same paper we took notes on yesterday. Mr. Tease said we would have to use a picture as evidence in a future assignment. He gave us the last 15 minutes of class off. Tomorrow, we will likely work on the same paper we took notes on.

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we learned about writing a synthesis essay. I am more confident about this type of essay on the AP Exam, since I will not have to worry about lack of evidence. We looked at different types of sources, and how to collect evidence efficiently from the sources. We will probably learn more about synthesis essays throughout the week. Mr. Rease also gave us a homework assignment about getting evidence from images. Today was an easy day.

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we analyzed two poems. They were titled “Success is counted sweetest”and “”Hope” is the thing with feathers.” The first one was about how people never reach success. The second one was about how hope is not always the best thing. I thought they were really interesting. They really made me think about whether I have more faith or hope. In my opinion, faith is stronger, but I still like hope.

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we analyzed a poem titled “I felt a Funeral in my Brain.” It was about someone losing their mind. The poem was like one big metaphor for losing your mind. Even the title is a metaphor. We basically did the same thing we did on Monday. Mr. Rease also showed us a video of someone pretending to be crazy, and someone who actually was. He also showed us how time goes a lot slower when you are not into something by putting on a timer for one minute and having the class not do anything. The minute did not feel that long, but I might have gotten a better understanding of the difference in time of it were a longer time. Today was a good and easy day.

 Today in Mr. Rease’s we had to write an essay. We had a 40 minute time limit, since that is the estimated time per essay on the AP exam. The essay was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I did not finish, but I probably would have if I had about 5 extra minutes. The prompt was about the value of safety and freedom. I did not know exactly what the prompt was asking. I argued that safety was more important than freedom. I do not think I did a bad job, despite not finishing. I am more confident in doing 3 essays in the AP exam now after doing the assignment.

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we read two poems. One was titled, “ I’m Nobody! Who are you?.” The other one was “Heart, we will forget him.” The first poem was about someone who was talking to someone else about being a nobody. In the poem, nobody meant to be different from everyone else, which were the somebodies. The other poem was about someone telling themselves to forget someone. Mr. Rease played a video of a girl singing the poem. She was singing more similar to an opera singer, so it was hard to understand what she was saying. Today was easy. I am not really excited about tomorrow since we have to write an essay.

 Today Mr. Rease was not here. Instead, we had Ms. Reed. She taught most of the students in the class, including me, in 8th grade. Mr. Rease left us a test to complete while he was gone. The test was really easy. We were very lucky that the test had no constructed response. Other than doing the test the class just talked. It was a good day in class.

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we analyzed a poem titled “Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening.” The title is self explanatory. The poem seemed to be mostly literal, but towards the end the lines may have a deeper meaning. We will probably analyze poems the whole week, since we have 3 days in a row. I do not mind, since it is easy and makes the class go by a bit faster. Mr. Rease will be absent sometime in the near future. I cannot remember when he said.

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we analyzed a poem titled “Birches.” It was very similar to what we did yesterday. The poem was about a man who wished to return to his childhood. We inferred that the man did not live life with a purpose from lines in the poem. We talked about the importance of living with a purpose. Mr. Rease said he was doing his purpose currently and showed a text message from his student and how he helped the student without knowing it. Today was also an easy day.

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we analyzed a story titled “Out Out.” It was about a boy who was doing work with a saw. He accidentally cut his hand off and ended up dying. It was a sad poem. The title did not make sense to me at first, since it was only one word twice. The meanings we came up with in class were that the kid was getting pushed out into reality, or that life can be over in a flash, coming from the phrase, “lights out.” The author said out twice to emphasize the meaning of the word, “out.” Today was an easy day since we did not have to write that much and the poem was fairly straightforward.

 Today was a chill day in Mr. Rease’s class. He only gave us a bell ringer and the benchmark if we did not finish. I finished my benchmark today. The constructed responses were kind of hard, but I still finished them. There is not much to say about what happened today. We just got on our phones or talked. Hopefully since we stayed calm the whole class period Mr. Rease will let us do this again in the future.

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we continued the benchmark from yesterday. The main thing we had to work on was the essay. I did not complete the essay, but I did complete two of the constructed responses from yesterday. I need to get better at writing and be able to do it more efficiently. I also should probably try to put in more effort into the work. I should be able to write good essays in a short amount of time by the time I take the AP exam. Maybe tomorrow we will learn more about writing essays.

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we took a benchmark. It lasted for the whole class period. I think I did pretty well on the multiple choice questions. We also had a few constructed response questions, but I couldn’t finish them. The questions were about a passage. The passages were long. One of the passages was about how America changed since they started getting involved with other countries. The other passage was about a rewriting of a song. Hopefully I can finish the benchmark tomorrow.

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we reviewed writing argumentative essays. He gave us 20 minutes to write a body paragraph and thesis statement. The assignment felt pretty difficult to me since I already dislike writing, and every time I thought of a claim, it felt like it was the same as the first one. The prompt was about mistakes being essential to the human experience. I agreed that it was, and the one claim I had was that people learn from their mistakes more than they learn from their successes. I also found it difficult to find evidence for my claim. However, I am likely overreacting about the assignment, since other students completed it successfully. If I recall correctly we have a benchmark test tomorrow. I do not think it will be too difficult.

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we reviewed writing a thesis. We also had to write a body paragraph. The prompt was about the effect of owning objects can have on someone’s character. Body paragraphs are actually pretty easy to write. The hard part really is getting the evidence. I think Mr. Rease and the people who make the assignments have too high expectations of our knowledge on stories that could be used as an example for the prompt. It would be different if we knew what the prompt was mainly about or if we had a source of information we could use while writing. 

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we reviewed thesis statements. The prompt was about something we think is overrated. I could not think of anything, so I borrowed one about being a celebrity from someone else. It seemed like an easy prompt and I agreed with it, so I was able to back up my claim well. Some things other people chose were relationships, Lebron James, and in-person shopping. For homework, we had to write a body paragraph. It is fairly easy, except for the evidence. If I have to use prior knowledge on the AP exam, which I likely will, I probably would not do too well on the essay portion. Maybe in the future I will learn more about what is going on in the world.

 Today in Mr. Rease’s class we learned more about thesis statements. There are two types of thesis statements: 3-point and umbrella. 3-point thesis statements are most efficient when writing a standard 5 paragraph essay. Umbrella thesis statements are most efficient when writing a large essay, like 10 pages.We used two prompts as an example and had to write a thesis statement for each one. It was a pretty easy day, since all we did was just take notes. Hopefully that can continue throughout the week.