Honors English 3 Summer Assignments (each month will stack on top of Previous)

July 2018Hope you are enjoying the summer! Everything will turn on at again starting at midnight Thursday, July 19 and turn off at midnight on Monday night, July 23rd. I know July is busy vacation time. Thanks for contacting me if this window doesn't work for you. We'll make special arrangements.

Assignment #1:Be sure to FINISH reading the play! Then take test over your choice of an American drama that always shows up on the AP Exam. You could use other online resources for quick analysis or review. **Just a reminder: All THREE of these plays almost always show up as writing options on the AP exam. The Glass Menagerie and Our Town are really short reads, and I would very strongly encourage you to read them while you have time if you are planning to take AP next year.

3. The Glass MenagerieNow Click each title below to access the test. ** Be sure to read the introductory material I have provided at the start of each test ON the test!​These tests will turn on Thursday night 7/19 at midnight and shut off Monday night 7/23 at midnight.The CrucibleOur TownThe Glass Menagerie

Assignment #2﻿--preparation for 4 Quia activities will take 45 min to an hour!

Mechanics Usage Grammar (MUG) Assignment:Before taking the grammar quizzes, work through all of the practice activities. This should take 45 minutes to an hour.

MUG (Mechanics, Usage, Grammar):​Our study of MUG this year will be tailored SPECIFICALLY to prepare you for the four big standardized tests you'll take (PSAT, ASVAB, ACT, Common Core). The following info comes from an official ACT test prep site:"In order to do well on the ACT and PSAT English Tests, you need to know the basic rules of grammar. Specifically, you need to know the rules of grammar most often tested by the ACT. These Usage/Mechanics topics are:

PunctuationBasic Grammar and UsageSentence Structure

"The ACT English Test requires that you know the rules for the following types of punctuation:CommasApostrophesSemicolonsColonsParentheses and DashesPeriods, Question Marks, and Exclamation PointsNot all of these punctuation types are tested on every ACT English Test. However, you can definitely expect to find questions dealing with the first four items of the list on the English Test you take.

July's MUG Focus: Apostrophes:

Apostrophes are the second most commonly tested punctuation mark on the English Test. Apostrophes primarily indicate possession, but they also take the place of omitted letters in contractions (for example, “was not” becomes “wasn’t” and “it is” becomes “it’s”). You will be tested chiefly on your knowledge of the apostrophe’s possessive function.

You WILL see the answers to these first two practice assignments as you take them. I always include an explanation of the rule so that if you miss it, you understand why!These two assignments will turn on Thursday night at midnight and shut off Monday night at midnight.6. Now Click to completefirst practice assignment at Quia--use the rules on the cheat sheet or link #2 above!7. Then Click to complete thesecond assignment at Quia:**Both of these assignments are worth 14 points. During the school year, I often give two assignments or quizzes with the same point value and then record the better of the two. I left the answers turnedon for these two so you can see what mistakes you might be making.

*Remember: The plurals for numbers used as nouns are not formed with apostrophes!Example: I am a fan of the 1960s. He grew up in the '80s.

For the two quizzes below, keep open theReview Apostrophe Rulessite and Apostrophe Cheat Sheetif you need them.**Both of these quizzes are worth 16 points. During the school year, I often give two assignments or quizzes with the same point value and then record the better of the two.​​You will NOT see the answers to these quizzes until EVERYONE has completed them.These two quizzes will turn on Thursday night at midnight and shut off Monday night at midnight.Now Click here to take theApostrophes Quiz at Quiafor a grade. Then Click here to take a second Apostrophes Quiz at Quia.

So, to be COMPLETELY finished with the July assignment, you should have logged in to Quia a total of 5 times to take your drama/play test, complete two apostrophe practice assignments and take two apostrophe quizzes. Whew!

Until everyone is done taking the tests, I have the tests and quizzes set to provide NO feedback so that no one has an unfair advantage. When I see that everyone has completed all of the assignments, I will turn on the function that shows you your answers and scores. You can see them by simply logging in to www.quia.com, entering your username and password, and clicking on the link to your Honors English class. You should see the list of all of the quizzes and assignments you completed and then see the scores.**NOTE--you can follow the process above to see your June diagnostic grammar quiz score and answers.

Please text or email if you have questions!==================June 2018Assignment #1: Passion Essay due Friday, June 22: Here is the Assignment if you lost packet**Your essay will be due by midnight June 22nd, no exceptions unless you contacted me.You can send it any time before that and thanks to those of you who have!I will share a Google Drive Folder with you to save it to. If you already shared it,I'll move it to the folder.

Assignment #2: To give me an idea about where our mechanics, usage and grammar skills are,we'll start our ACT English preparation with a diagnostic quiz. You CAN'T study for this. I need toknow what you currently know! :-)

To take the Grammar Quiz, you need to join our class! Follow these steps:

Step 2. Now, click the area labeled Students. When the next page appears, enter your username and password if you already have a Quia account. If you can't remember username/password, use the "forgot" links and Quia will email you the information. If you do not have an account, click the link Create my free account. Fill out the form that appears. Select "Student" as the account type. When you are done, press the Create my accountbutton.

Step 3. You should now be in the Student Zone. Type in the class code TPPF633in the text field and press the Add classbutton. Now you're done!

Now that you have registered for the course, you can view your class web page, take quizzes, view your quiz results, view time spent on Quia activities, and read your instructor's feedback from your Quia account.

Follow these steps to view your results:

Step 1. Log in to your account. (Remember, go to the Quia Web home page at https://www.quia.com/web and click the area labeled Students.)

Step 2. Click on the class name.

**There will be a 72-hour window on the grammar quiz. It will open on Thursday night, June 21st at 11:59pm and close 72 hours later (3 days later) Sunday, June 24th at 11:59 PM. If you have any problems, email or text me! Don't wait until AFTER the deadlines to do so!! If you are going to be gone during that 72 hour window, you must contact me BEFORE the testing session expires.

**Just an FYI. Twenty-four (24) honors students took this diagnostic quiz last June. The high score was 94%, and the low score was 58%. The class average was 85%.﻿﻿​===========================================

August Assignments My original thought was to have you post in a discussion forum but sooooo many of you read The Scarlet Letter and Hattie Big Sky that it would be very redundant. Please have the novel read for the first week of class, when we will take a test over the book in class.

Grammar Quizzes will turn on at midnight Thursday night/Friday morning August 17 and shut off at midnight Sunday night, August 20th--NEXT WEEK!

**Grammar reminder: Please don't EVER skip the practice activities I provide for you every week. You'll practice the skills you need for the assignments or quizzes. Remember that ALL of these skills will be tested on the PSAT, ACT, Common Core, etc.

MUG: Another of the 6 most commonly tested marks of punctuation on the ACT is COLONSYour Objective:-To become familiar with the rules that govern the use of colons in well-written sentences-To develop basic skills in the use of colons in well-written sentences-To practice using colons in various writing situations

Now STOPand Complete the Colon Assignment #1 at Quia for a grade.(Assignment will turn on at midnight Thursday night and off at midnight Sunday night. Instant feedback will be provided to help you understand the rules.)

I'll take the better score of the two colon quizzes below. Both are worth 17 points. While quizzes are set so that you can take them more than once, only your first score is recorded.Please remember this important rule:there MUST be a COMPLETE sentence before a colon!-- Take Colons Quiz #1 at Quia (Instant feedback WILL be provided)

--Take Colons Quiz #2 at Quia (No feedback will be provided until after all have taken).

(Quizzes will turn on at midnight Thursday night and off at midnight Sunday night)

Use the rules links above while you take the quizzes! Open several tabs with rules open if you need.

Please let me know if you have any accessibility problems. I think I have everything set right this time! :-)

P.S.: If you haven't already noticed, I always provide LOTS of instructions that you need to read carefully! Attention to detail is SUCH an important skill for success!

Good luck! See you soon! PLAY OUTSIDE! DO SOMETHING FUN! EXPLORE! BE A KID!

August 2017 Assignments My original thought was to have you post in a discussion forum but sooooo many of you read The Scarlet Letter and Hattie Big Sky that it would be very redundant. Please have the novel read for the first week of class, when we will take a test over the book in class.

Grammar Quizzes will turn on at midnight Thursday night/Friday morning August 17 and shut off at midnight Sunday night, August 20th--NEXT WEEK!

**Grammar reminder: Please don't EVER skip the practice activities I provide for you every week. You'll practice the skills you need for the assignments or quizzes. Remember that ALL of these skills will be tested on the PSAT, ACT, Common Core, etc.

MUG: Another of the 6 most commonly tested marks of punctuation on the ACT is COLONSYour Objective:-To become familiar with the rules that govern the use of colons in well-written sentences-To develop basic skills in the use of colons in well-written sentences-To practice using colons in various writing situations

Now STOPand Complete the Colon Assignment #1 at Quia for a grade.(Assignment will turn on at midnight Thursday night and off at midnight Sunday night. Instant feedback will be provided to help you understand the rules.)

I'll take the better score of the two colon quizzes below. Both are worth 17 points. While quizzes are set so that you can take them more than once, only your first score is recorded.Please remember this important rule:there MUST be a COMPLETE sentence before a colon!-- Take Colons Quiz #1 at Quia (Instant feedback WILL be provided)

--Take Colons Quiz #2 at Quia (No feedback will be provided until after all have taken).

(Quizzes will turn on at midnight Thursday night and off at midnight Sunday night)

Use the rules links above while you take the quizzes! Open several tabs with rules open if you need.

Please let me know if you have any accessibility problems. I think I have everything set right this time! :-)

P.S.: If you haven't already noticed, I always provide LOTS of instructions that you need to read carefully! Attention to detail is SUCH an important skill for success!

Good luck! See you soon! PLAY OUTSIDE! DO SOMETHING FUN! EXPLORE! BE A KID!

​

​

July Assignments due Friday, July 24:﻿﻿Another month flew by! Hope you are enjoying the summer! Everything will turn on at again for 72 hours starting at midnight Thursday, July 23 and turn off at midnight on Sunday night, July 26th.

Assignment #1: Test over your choice of an American drama that always shows up on the AP Exam. **Just a reminder: All THREE of these plays almost always show up as writing options on the AP exam. The Glass Menagerie and Our Town are really short reads, and I would very strongly encourage you to read them while you have time if you are planning to take AP next year.

Click each title to access the test. ** Be sure to read the introductory material I have provided at the start of each test!**

Mechanics Usage Grammar (MUG) Assignment:Before taking the grammar quizzes, work through all of the practice activities. This should take 45 minutes to an hour. MUG (Mechanics, Usage, Grammar): Our study of MUG this year will be tailored SPECIFICALLY to prepare you for the four big standardized tests you'll take (PSAT, ASVAB, ACT, Dakota Step). The following info comes from an official ACT test prep site:

"In order to do well on the ACT and PSAT English Tests, you need to know the basic rules of grammar. Specifically, you need to know the rules of grammar most often tested by the ACT. These Usage/Mechanics topics are:

PunctuationBasic Grammar and UsageSentence Structure

"The ACT English Test requires that you know the rules for the following types of punctuation:CommasApostrophesSemicolonsColonsParentheses and DashesPeriods, Question Marks, and Exclamation PointsNot all of these punctuation types are tested on every ACT English Test. However, you can definitely expect to find questions dealing with the first four items of the list on the English Test you take.

July's MUG Focus: Apostrophes:

Apostrophes are the second most commonly tested punctuation mark on the English Test. Apostrophes primarily indicate possession, but they also take the place of omitted letters in contractions (for example, “was not” becomes “wasn’t” and “it is” becomes “it’s”). You will be tested chiefly on your knowledge of the apostrophe’s possessive function.

6. Now Click to complete first practice assignment at Quia--use the rules on the cheat sheet or link #2 above!7. Then Click to complete thesecond assignment at Quia:**Both of these assignments are worth 14 points. During the school year, I often give two assignments or quizzes with the same point value and then record the better of the two. I left the answers turned on for these two so you can see what mistakes you might be making.

*Remember: The plurals for numbers used as nouns are not formed with apostrophes!Example: I am a fan of the 1960s. He grew up in the '80s.

Now Click here to take theApostrophes Quiz at Quia for a grade. Then Click here to take a second Apostrophes Quiz at Quia.**Both of these quizzes are worth 16 points. During the school year, I often give two assignments or quizzes with the same point value and then record the better of the two.

So, to be COMPLETELY finished with the July assignment, you should have logged in to Quia a total of 5 times to take your novel test, two apostrophe practice assignments and two apostrophe quizzes. Whew!

Until everyone is done taking the tests, I have the tests and quizzes set to provide NO feedback so that no one has an unfair advantage. When I see that everyone has completed all of the assignments, I will turn on the function that shows you your answers and scores. You can see them by simply logging in to www.quia.com, entering your username and password, and clicking on the link to your Honors English class. You should see the list of all of the quizzes and assignments you completed and then see the scores.**NOTE--you can follow the process above to see your June diagnostic grammar quiz score and answers.