Hello Students,
As you know, Mr. Moon and I have finished marking the exams, and we've put our scores together for a total - 50/50. As you know, my exam was hard, both in quantity and in content, and many of you expressed a lot of fear as to what the results would be. The average came out to be above 80%, and many people scored very high into the 90's. Unfortunately, many scored very low as well. Let me remind you that 80% is a very high average, and as I've said before, I don't think tests should be easy or have ridiculously high averages in the 90's. If that's the case, the test is too easy. So, scaling and adjusting is something I did and will continue to do. The average for the test is above 91.5%, as Mr. Moon and I promised. You can see the scores on my door. The test was indeed hard, but I was generous. Here's a rundown of what we will be doing more of, and what should be done already:
Reading Assignments
I'd like you to have at least 30 pages of
The Body read for this week's classes, and I'd like you to write a bit about those 30 pages on your blogs as an assigned Reading Journal. The Reading Journal activity for Shawshank was a bit inconsistent and many of you don't work well under a freestyle system where I allow you to write about the book when the mood hits you. For some of you the mood produced wonderful results, but some of you waited far too long to write about the book and film after you were finished with them. Let's try to dig deeper with The Body. It's a great story. Again, you can respond to what you read however you want to. Googling things that King mentions, such as songs mentioned or historical themes from the 50's, can be interesting and add texture to reading.
In-Class Responses
I like what I see from the short film we watched, and you guys seemed to enjoy launching into writing immediately after studying the material. We can do more of these in the future.
The Metafiction - Due before the end of this week: )
As mentioned before, you are free to use any of the stories and free to trim and tailor them if some of the material doesn't work for the direction you want. As well, some of the work became immature and absurd as certain writers decided not to take things seriously. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. You are free to get rid of or change anything that doesn't fit. The point is - try to produce a GOOD piece of creative writing that someone might actually want to read. Pretend you are JK Rowling or Stephen King, and try to write something that jumps off the page.
REMINDER: The blog is the most important aspect of your grade, not the exams. I try to comment and read as much as possible, and I will eventually read and see everything when it comes to grading your blogs holistically. So it does help you to write things that aren't assigned in class, and you are not limited to anything. If you want to write about a movie you saw on the weekend, don't hesitate! Three students, in particular, who have been doing a lot of this are
SuhYoung,
Peter, and
Dennis, among many others. It's great to see students writing for the sake of writing, and not just grades.: )
Next week, we will review the Midterm exam, and discuss what words we will study not that we've covered all the SAT.
In terms of your next official essay, many students expressed interest in writing reviews. We will talk about that more. Suggestions are welcome.
See you in class.
