Kurz 2/28

Today during class we analyzed what a counterclaim is. In this process we watched a scene of "Bowling for Columbine" involving the scene with Marilyn Manson. We had to talk as a class to come up with all of the claims used against Marilyn Manson and the way Manson and the director disproved them in the interview. We analyzed how Manson was refuting and disproving the ideas and theory that he was one of the biggest causes for the shooting. During this we also analyzed what kinds of counterclaims there are and how to use them. As a table we had a row of types of counterclaims and what they are and how each one can be used to make your argument stronger. Each person had to define the type of counterclaim and write our own counterclaim of that kind based on our claim for the research paper and explain each one . After we wrote the claims, four per person, we had to write 2-3 sentences refuting the claim for each one. The website for the types of counterclaims was posted by Mr. Rivers classroom and the types of counterclaims were the six columns. Each type of counterclaim had the definition right under the word when the little picture icon was clicked on. Each person's claims and answers were answered under the link in the answers on classroom. The counterclaims will soon be used in our paper depending on which one suits your argument better. This will be very helpful to know in the near future.

Olivia Agius 2/28/17

Today in class the focus was on counterclaims and how to use them in the essays we have been working on. At the beginning of the class we were asked two related questions: 1.What is a counterclaim? 2. How do you use one in your essay? As groups we then discussed it, before talking as a class and giving definite answers. We decided a counterclaim was defined as an anti-thesis, and it is opposing a claim. Then, we said we would use it in our essays to discredit or refute the opposing views in order to strengthen our claim. Next we watched a clip from the movie Bowling for Columbine which was focused on who people blamed after the Columbine shooting. Basically, all the blame went to one man; Marilyn Manson. The class discussed what some counterclaims against the director were that related to Marilyn Manson. As a class we came up with three, one being that Manson's music causes violence. From that we were asked how the director of the movie used Manson in order to discredit and refute the counterclaim. One example was that he showed Manson using logic and data to see not only normal but smart. The last thing we were asked to do today was to go into groups and work on an assignment on classroom called logical fallacies. Every table was given one row and were asked to describe the fallacies in the row, and then connect it to our own topics. My group was given the gambler's fallacy, composition fallacy, black or white, and anecdotal. There were a few more difficult fallacies, but overall it was easy to find a good definition to use. Tomorrow we will be working on this as well, and then post our answers on classroom.

Bayleigh Takacs 2/27

Today in class we worked on our outlines. Mr. Rivers` walked around the class helping students and answered any questions we had. Students made sure their outlines fulfilled all the requirements that are found below. In order to achieve the best grade possible, I would recommend a clean, organized outline with specific topic sentences. In my outline I have a topic sentence followed by more information about my topic sentence as well as evidence. Mr. Rivers` would be happy to help if you email him before the deadline, that is tonight, 2/27, at 11:59 pm.

Gillian Kee-2/27/17

Today in class we work on our outlines for our research paper, it is due tonight 2/27/17 at 11:59. The requirements for the outline are;
      -Thesis statement (30)

        Is it specific? (10)

        Is it clear? (10)

        Does it organize your paper? (10)

     Body paragraphs (60)

       Topic sentences (20)

        Film evidence + Analysis (20)

        Research evidence + Analysis (20)

    Layout (10)

        Visual consistency/clarity

I would recommend making it very organized not just because it is required, but it will help you later when you have to write the essay. MAKE IT VERY CLEAR, it will also help you. In my outline I had; 

1. A thesis statement 

2. 5 body paragraphs each with 2-3 quotes(1 from film, 1 from outside research) 

a conclusion and intro were not needed. 

In Today's class you only missed time to work on your outline, Mr. Rivers was walking around answering any last minute questions. If you did have questions and you were not in class today I would suggest emailing Mr. Rives. 

Nick Colaco 2/24/17

Today the class continued work on the outlines for our research papers. Mr. Rivers explained to us that we should be using at least two strong pieces of evidence for each of our body paragraphs, this includes one piece of evidence from our documentary and one piece of evidence from our outside research. We spent the majority of the class time working on our outlines and we finished with Mr. Rivers telling us that we should begin to write the next part even if we weren't going to finish it that day, he said that by starting off the next section it would allow us to jump back in easier when we came back to work on it.  Mr. Rivers also commented that the class should make more of an effort to keep up to date with the blog schedules in order to be sure not to miss our day to post.

Colin Higdon 2/24/17

Today in English class we continued working on our research paper outlines that are due on Monday night. We used various resources such as our note cards, example outlines, and class notes. These resources helped us construct a strong outline that we will be able to use when writing our actual research papers. Many people continued perfecting their thesis statements, some people crafted their body paragraph outlines, while others worked on integrating their note card quotes.

 

2-22-17 Connor Gormley

In today's class we talked about constructing beautiful thesis statements. If anybody is having difficultly starting their thesis statement it is helpful to start simple and then revise to get it more specific. To do this you should ask yourself questions like "who, what, when, where, why, and how". We then analyzed what makes a good thesis statement. First, a good thesis statement should establish an argument and layout a plan for your entire essay. Your argument should be clear and argue that your cause regards to being right, wrong, dangerous, necessary, should, or shouldn't. And your plan should be the "how?" of your essay. Before writing your thesis you should decide what kind of thesis that is best for your research. The old reliable thesis statement is the multi point where you state your argument and then the reasons why. This kind of thesis statement will probably not work for most research reports because most likely there will be more than three paragraphs. Instead it would be prudent to use a big picture which looks at the entire purpose of your report and go from there. Although, by doing that you should be weary of making your thesis statement to specific. When debating this is your head it is always better to stay on the side of being more specific. WE then proceeded to work on our outlines and thesis.

2/22/17 Elias Frieling

Today in class we further discussed our research paper. We talked about how to make a good thesis statement by using Who, What, Where, When and Why to make our thesis specific. In addition making a thesis statement is not a one step process, it is very helpful to make a simple one at first and then revise it to make it better afterwards. In a good thesis you should create a specific argument and then create a plan for the rest of your essay in how you support what your thesis argued. After we talked about thesis statements we began to use what we learned on Friday to start our outlines. We are going to be given tomorrow and Friday as well to work on our outlines which will be due on Monday. In our outline we must have our thesis statement, topic sentences, and evidence from our research cards, in a clean, clear format to base our final essay on. Overall today was not that eventful, but was a good starting step for writing our essay

2/22/17 annie monroe

Annie monroe

2/22/17

Hello class!!! Today we are going to be spending most of our time  going over and talking about our film review. This week we will be working with our video editing software. Also our senior paper final draft is due march the 22nd instead of next thursday. He warns us that although the deadline is 4 weeks from now, we must keep working on our essay bc this is not an assignment that we can do last second.  

Also our film review is going to be due march 19th, you will be graded on the following:

What You Say

#S02 (100)

Provide deliberate context for your review (5)

Maintain an objective tone (5)

Display sophisticated verbs and terminology (10)

Match text to the sounds and images on the screen (10)

Deliberately title text (5)

Credit relevant artists (10)

Provide context for the film (5)

Summarize plot (5)

Evaluate content (30)

Evaluate meaning or theme (10)

Conclude (5)

What We See

#F05 (50)

AUDIO - 20

Clarity of your voice over (V.O.)

Clarity from the film

Matches the visuals

Quiet background sound during V.O.

VIDEO - 20

3+ specific clips for close reading

1+ clip not from your main text

2+ text boxes

2+ transitions

FINISHING - 10

Properly shared by 11:59 p.m. March 19

Also in class today we watch the review harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban: why it’s the best. We all got a card with a specific thing to find within this review. My groups task is to evaluate content, while watching the clip we said that the content, He discusses the certain shot types and cut types and analyzes their significance. We said that Whenever there is anything that applies to what he’s saying, he includes it so that we have a visual representation of what he’s saying. Also, it shows that his analysis is objective because we don’t just hear what he thinks, we see how it actually plays out in the film”.

2/17/2017 Christina Bally

Today in class, we discussed the requirements and expectations of an outline. We then read a sample outline and discussed what the strengths and weaknesses were. The first outline we read was an example of a strong outline. The strengths of the first sample outline included consistent formatting, logical order of paragraphs and a clear connection between the analysis and topic sentence. The only weakness included was evidence not being clear. Afterwards, we discussed what the grade should be and what the person who made the outline could do to improve their theoretical grade. We then read another sample outline. The second sample outline was an example of a weak outline. This outline was structured a lot different than the first outline that was considered. This outline was color coordinated by film and scholarly quotes. After reading the sample outline we discussed with our groups what the grade of the outline should be. Afterwards, we discussed with the class what the strengths and weaknesses are. The weaknesses included the layout being too spread out, the thesis being too long with no clear claim, inconsistent font, poor grammar, and lack of synthesis. Also, there were too many pieces of evidence used under only one topic sentence. There were not many strengths present except for color coordination and the clear interest from the reader. We considered the given rubric and the person who made that particular outline would not have passed the assignment. We ended the class by reading a final outline example. The strengths included a clear thesis statement yet it was wordy. The evidence was not clear. Although, the indentation was very consistent throughout the outline. The grade that would be given would be an 88 to 94.

James Lynch switch with Connor Gormley 2/16/17 (Blog #2)

James Lynch

Mr. Rivers

2/16/17

American Lit.

3rd MP Blog #2

After a long, and stressful first half of the week of working on our note cards, our class was blessed to have a nice and easy class. We started off class by answering a question that was posted on the classroom page, why is important to read aloud to children? I answered the question saying that we read aloud to children because they get more information out of actually hearing the words, as opposed to reading and see them. After this, Mr. Rivers explained to us that it was national read aloud day. He then told us that he was going to read aloud to us for the class. Our class was very happy to hear the excellent news. He began to read a text from the book written by some guy from the office, called the Tortoise and the hare. It was about how a hare lost in a race against a tortoise. He was humiliated, and it ruined his career. A while after there were talks of a rematch, and then it became official. The hare began to train harder than ever before, while the tortoise did the same as he did before, which was minimal work. The day of the rematch came, and the heir smoked the tortoise, breaking his personal record and the world record. The moral of this story was that slow and steady wins the race, until truth and talent takes it’s place. This was a very relaxing class that I had enjoyed very much.

Ryan Ryersen 2-16-17

Today, is National Read Out Loud Day so in observation of this holiday we discussed the benefits of reading out loud and we read two stories out loud in class. At the beginning of class we were asked “Why do we read out loud to children”. I responded, that reading out loud allows children to understand these stories and ideas without getting tripped up by the intricacies of the words. During our class discussion we mentioned that reading out loud allows for certain words and phrases can be emphasized which helps lead to the child's recognition of tone when interacting with others. Reading out loud also teaches the children to focus in silence a valuable skill to learn at that age. If nothing else, having a book read out loud to you can induce some nostalgia of younger times. After this discussion, Mr. Rivers read us a satirical short story of the classic tale The Tortoise and the Hare. The story was about the hare’s life after the race between the tortoise and the hare. The hare and the tortoise eventually rematch each other. The hare ends up winning proving that talent and skill is better than mere dumb luck. After Mr. Rivers finished we discussed why we preferred having a book read to us. I preferred having the book read to me because I could imagine what was happening without getting caught up in the words. After this discussion we then began to read the beginning of a more serious text called Twelve Angry Men. This was a play so we divided up the roles to different people throughout the class. We then began reading the first chapter of this play. This gave a similar effect as the other story but this story featured multiple people talking creating a more realistic sense.

James Lynch 3rd MP blog #1 2/15/17

James Lynch

Mr. Rivers

2/15/17

American Lit.

3rd MP Blog Post #1

Welcome fellow students of the wonderful class of Mr. Rivers. Today I am going to  explain to you, the reader, what we did in class today. First, It all started when Mr. Rivers was talking about the new MLA citation format. The whole class was so excited to hear this. After he explain the MLA citation, we all started to work on our slides in class. This was all that we did, so now I am going to talk about what I am basing my slides on. I am making an argument that we, the humans of our beautiful planet Earth, are destroying the planet by simply being careless of our actions. We have emitted a very large amount of CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere, which is starting to warm the planet too much. The arctic and antarctic ice caps are melting, and once they go, the solar energy that is being transferred to our planet won’t reflect back into space, which will heat the planet way too hot for humans to live on. So we need to start acting now, and come up with better solutions for our everyday necessities to make our planet beautiful again. Thanks for tuning into the Lynch blog, and I hope everybody has a wonderful, and splendid night.

Signing off,

James Lynch

Blog 2.14.16 - Sean Patrick Scully III

Good evening class,
Today was another independent work day where we continued our work on our note cards for the first large part of our documentary argumentative essay. We began the class by receiving back our *actual* note cards where we wrote our goals for each class period over how far along we wanted to be with these online note cards. By the end of the class day, we reviewed what our goals were, and marked down specifically how accurate we were at obtaining our goals.
Overall, today was completely independent, and it was up to everyone's self to decide how efficient they wanted to use class time. This is something that Mr.Rivers stressed in the beginning of the class period, that everyone procrastinates a little bit, but you must always manage your time well.
Mr.Rivers then observed the classroom and walked around to help any students in need. He constantly was able to help students figure out any problems they had with their note cards, and overall I would consider this a successful day in class, depending on how much work each individual accomplished.
The note cards are due tomorrow at 11:59PM, so everyone should manage their time to post it accordingly.


Thanks,
Sean Patrick Scully III

Nick Elnasser 2/13/17

Hello class,

Today, Mr.Rivers started off by giving everyone a small index card when we walked in. He drew a table on the board for us to draw on the index card which would show him our progress for our documentary note cards. The chart was 3x3 and going down was dates, and going across was How many note cards are done, How many articles do you have, and How many documentary sources do you have. We were supposed to set goals for ourselves to complete by the end of today and tomorrow and at the end of the period write down whether we completed those goals or not.  He then said that we don't have to lie about how many note cards we did because this isn't graded, he just wants to see how far along we are. Once everybody finished filling in the chart we got right to work on completing more note cards. We independently worked for the whole period and we got a lot more note cards completed. All 25 note cards are due at 11:59 P.M. on Wednesday. Right before the bell, Mr.Rivers asked to check whether we completed our goals. He said to put a check mark if it was completed, a + if you exceeded it, and a - if you did not reach it. Once we completed doing that Mr.Rivers walked around the room and collected our index cards. Finally, everyone logged off and shut down their computers and we were all off to the next class.

Ryan Ryersen 2-8-17

Today in class Mr. Librizzi came in to discuss scheduling for next year. He started by explaining how colleges will view the senior year schedule. He discussed that you should not try to go above and beyond however you also shouldn't take all easy courses you should pick courses that contain approximately the same rigor as the classes that you are currently enrolled in. We then preceded to discuss each subject the first is English. There are seven English classes that you can choose from and many English electives. In order to graduate you need four years of English so at least one English class is required. Next is science, only 3 years of science are required but a fourth is beneficial especially if you plan to go to college for a science related major. Which science you go into depends on the class you are currently enrolled, however Mr. Librizzi recommended taking a form of physics because most colleges want to see a physics on the transcript. Next was world languages these are the same as before only 2 years of the same languages are required and colleges require varying number of years of a world language. Next, was the social studies, the social studies department offers many electives. It is recommended to take a course if your major focuses in the humanities sector. Next, we discussed electives there are visual and performing arts and 21st century skills. The electives are mostly the same as previous with some slight adjustments. Video production and audio production merged into one course encompassing all of video and audio production. There is co-op which half the day you can gain school credits for working there are also positions available around the school however these are competitive positions so file your application as soon as possible. Don’t forget to work on the note cards.

Robbie Gennat 2/8/17

Hello class it's me again. School was fabulous day three today. Class today was not as I predicted yesterday. We spent the large majority of time today talking about scheduling with Mr Librizzi. Tomorrow and tonight we should continue working on our note cards. Everyone in class is past the practice note cards and, after getting approval from Mr Rivers, are working on their individual note cards. When working on your own note card, make sure you are using the correct source. I had to go back and revise all of my cards because I used a source that was not MLA. MLA format is different than the other methods of citing work so be careful you are using the correct one as they all look similar. Additionally when working on the note cards, you do not need the (Author Page#) after the quote. I made this mistake multiple times which cost me time and effort trying to locate what page it is from. The note cards are due on Monday, all 25 of them. It may seem like a lot of work, especially if you were absent this week, however they go by fast once you are in the groove of things. I personally have already got half of them done. I found EBSCO to be the fastest and easiest database to use and cite information. Additionally, it contains a plethora of sources and articles to sort through. Anyway, you missed nothing important in class today. Nevertheless it would be wise if you to talk to your guidance counselor about the information you missed. Until next marking period, Robbie.

Robbie Gennat 2/7/17

Good evening classmates. Class today took place right after lunch as it was a day 2. The weather was rainy, painting the scene for a dreary class. We started class by reviewing the new blog schedule. You can acces this on google classroom. It is a table and allows you to sign up for the days you want. Most of the days are filled already so you might not get a choice in the day you want. Nevertheless, put your first name and last initial with you period in parentheses. For the second day put your name in all caps. We then continued with the note cards we were making yesterday. After getting a practice note card on Bowling for Columbine approved, we continued onto our own documentary's note cards. We were exposed to a plethora of databases that we should use in our research. Mr Rivers went around all class helping students with their note cards. After a sneaky bathroom escape by student (he left without asking, signing out, and grabbing a pass), Mr Rivers reviewed the classroom policy on bathroom breaks. He reassured us to ask him, sign out and then grab a pass. By doing this, all parties involved are safe and liable. To wrap up class we signed out and hung out. We will continue working on the note cards tomorrow. Please come to class tomorrow with a smile and positive attitude. Let's make tomorrow the best class ever. Rumor has it tomorrow is Mr Rivers birthday so be sure to wish him a good one in class. With best regards and gratitude, this your friend Robbie signing off.

Sean Patrick Scully III - 2.7.2017

Good evening fellow classmates,
Today in class, we began to choose our schedules for blogs for MP3 and this time around we were able to choose our own date. I chose today so I could get this over with, and not accidentally forget. Then we were informed more on the current project we will be working on until the beginning of March, which is the documentary-based argumentative essay. The beginning part that we are working on are the "note cards" to help us form source based evidence using quotes to form arguments opposing or defending our chosen documentary and the arguments within it. We began class to re-inform ourselves of what our task is, and then we began to work independently towards our own project and documentary information. We use official site based research websites to counter or argue for our documentary's arguments. Overall, we mostly worked independently today in class, and not much was said out loud between the class. However, as Rivers reminded us, when we are doing independent work it is entirely up to us to how efficiently we want to use that class time. He also reminded us that we are able to go the bathroom whenever we want, but we MUST sign out and take the pass, or else that PRIVILEGE will be revoked immediately.
Lastly, and most importantly, apparently today is Mr.Rivers's Birthday, and maybe I was just not listening to when he said it, but I don't recall him ever saying that. So we should all wish in our hearts tonight for Mr.Rivers's to have a joyous birthday, and receive many great gifts.
Thank you,
Sean Patrick Scully III

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