AF: Fletcher Addresses the Class

We have issues.  Follow along.

The Blog

We have run out of spots on the blog.  Maximum capacity is 100 authors, and the blog has maxed us out -- "too many authors on the blog."  Honestly, this has never happened before.  I have two people who are requesting blog access this morning, so this is what I'm going to do.  There are a handful of people -- maybe 10 -- who are on the blog, but who have not commented or posted once.  I am going to remove the people who have been on the blog for many weeks, but who have not posted or commented yet.  Every year, we see about a dozen or so kids who never post, who drop the class, but who don't tell me directly.  As the summer progresses, they realize they don't want to take this class, and they just fade away.  

If we run out of space again, I will email the kids who have completed the blog requirements to let them know that I am going to delete them from the blog until school starts.  There are about a dozen of you who fit that description.

This will all work out, I guarantee it.

An afterword:  It is understandable, given our current political climate, that students could think that it is OK to make claims that have no basis in reality, or OK to call the positions of classmates irrelevant or ignorant.  This is insulting language, and not acceptable here.  We do not know each other well.  Please use the blog to discuss what we are reading, and treat each other well.  Also, try to think critically.  Do your best to think all the way around an issue.

Brave New World Essays

I've been receiving email about the Brave New World essays.  Here is some guidance:

You are writing three essays of 750 words each, but please create just one document for these essays.  So your document, with an MLA heading, Times New Roman, 12 point type, and 1.5 spacing between lines will be approximately 7.5 pages long.   Please include the prompt you are responding to at the beginning of each essay, and yes, you may include the prompt in your word count.

Why 750 words?  A successful timed write in AP English will usually run between 500 and 750 words.  You are not writing under timed conditions, so I am asking for the top end of the range.  A good writer can sometimes fake their way through the first 400 words, but it's tougher to keep the baloney going for 750 words.

Postman Summaries

The Postman summaries are supposed to be three sentences long.  In writing a summary, it is not necessary or even desirable for the writer to cite from the text.  You are writing a summary, not writing analysis.  It is a different task, and so do not quote Postman beyond a phrase or two, and only when you chose a phrase that is in some way unique or interesting.  Summaries are YOU paraphrasing what the big idea is.  That is what I want to see if you can do.  This is a reading test primarily, and a writing challenge secondarily.