Mea culpa (Forgive me)

In my haste to tally your scores, I failed to calculate them correctly. If you got all fours and fives, your score is correct. If you received any threes or twos, I owe you points.
Here's why: on a five-point scale, 5= A, 4= B, 3 = C, 2 = D and 1 = F.
But 70% of 5 = 3.5, not 3 and 60% of 5 = 3, not 2.

For most people, it's not a big difference, only a couple of points, but every point counts. For a few people it's more, a whole grade difference.

Feel free to calculate your scores yourself and bring them to me on Monday and I will correct your score in engrade. Or we can sit down together and calculate it.

I'm sorry for any distress this has caused you and I apologize for my mathematical ineptitude.

Final Exam: Your Portfolio

Final exams are Monday (period 2) and Tuesday (period 3). You final exam is to turn in your portfolio.

Your portfolio can be a three-ring binder, a plastic folder, or some other kind of folder that allows you to turn the pages. You will come to my desk one at a time and show me your portfolio, turning the pages as you go.

For full credit, your portfolio should include the following:

Cover page
Table of contents
Letter of intent
Research paper
20-Hour Log
One or more of your score sheets
A typed reflection on the entire semester

You may also include other artifacts, if you like.
Clean copies of the letter of intent and research paper are preferable, but graded copies will be accepted.

Your portfolio conference should take 3-5 minutes, at which time I will write the grade on the portfolio and return it to you.

Congratulations! You are almost done with your Senior Project journey.

Presentation Room Assignments, Slides Due

The schedule has been posted in the box with the title Room Assignments. This may change if any students have been inadvertently omitted or if any failing student has been inadvertently included.

Your slides are due by 3:04 p.m. Thursday. You may email them to me in the case of PowerPoint, or share them with me in the case of Prezi. My email address is kcusolit@lausd.net. Make note that the last letter is left off because the LAUSD style is your first initial and the first six letters of your last name.

Alternately, you make transfer them to my laptop during class on Thursday.

Giving Tuesday Movement From Causes.com

Giving Stories: Started by Giving Tuesday Movement

Join: Make this holiday a chance to give back to charity

We all know Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but next Tuesday, #GivingTuesday will encourage millions of American shoppers to give back this holiday season. To kick it off, share your story of why giving is important to you and how you make it a part of your life.

SHARE YOUR STORY

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Pledge: Donate your old electronics to Goodwill

Dell is committed to reducing e-waste in the world, but they need your help. This holiday season, Dell is asking people to take a personal pledge to donate old electronics to Goodwill stores nationwide. Click to learn more about the Dell Reconnect pledge and how you can help people in need.

SEE THE PLEDGE

Electronic Donations: Started by Shannon Riley

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Pledge: Be kind to a service worker throughout the holiday season

Service workers are a vital part of the American workforce. Cause leader Freeman Hall is taking a personal pledge to be kind to a service worker this holiday season. Find out what you can do to participate.

SEE THE PLEDGE

Respect for Service Workers: Started by Freeman Hall

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Petition: Clean up oil spills in the Amazon

Raising a collective voice for underrepresented communities in the world is something we see a lot on Causes. Cause leader Amanda Garratt started a petition to demand that Maple Energy, an oil company, clean up spills associated with their work in the Amazon. Check out her petition to learn more.

SEE THE PETITION

The Amazon and oil: Started by Amanda Garratt

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Story: Read how cause leader Roger saved a front yard garden in Orlando

Cause leader Roger Doiron used our petition tool to successfully fight for a garden at the White House. Then, he saved a front yard garden in Quebec. Now, read about his latest victory in saving a front yard garden from destruction in Orlando, FL.

READ THE STORY

Front yard gardens: Started by Roger Doiron

Final Drafts are due by 8 a.m. Monday

And the first person to turn in the final draft is...Daniel Boror (period 2) on Saturday. He was followed by Anderson Lemus (Anderson! You're all banged up. You could have had more time. You must be bored.) and Tania Dominguez, both on Sunday.

Just 47 more to go.

Rough drafts are due on Friday

Upload your rough draft to Turnitin.com. Papers should be eight-to-10 pages, including a Work Cited, and should be in Times New Roman, 12 point type, double spaced, with one-inch margins. There is no cover page. Use MLA style for the heading on the first page and the following pages (last name page number in upper right corner).

Self Education

15 Additional Note Cards Due on Monday

As Friday was the only day we had in the library this week, you have until Monday to turn in an additional 15 note cards. Thirty is no magic number, but it is a start. I encourage you to take as many notes as necessary, using your outline as a guide.

Next week you will begin writing your rough draft, which will be submitted on Turnitin.com

(The video below was mistakenly posted here. It was for my advisory. Rather than remove it, I decided to leave it in case someone is interested. It explains the teenage brain.)

Watch this video and post a one paragraph comment.

Another Great Source

America Revealed is a program that aired last spring on PBS. You can watch short videos on a variety of subjects. I haven't watched them all, but the ones having to do with food, and the one about making 3-D plastic models were good. The link is at right.

We will meet in the library on Tuesday and Wednesday to take notes from sources. Remember, one idea per card. You will turn in 15 cards by the end of class on Wednesday. (The following week you will turn in 15 more.) You may want to buy some index cards, or split a pack with a friend.

Two Excellent Sources

National Public Radio and TED.com are two excellent sources of information. The NPR.org website has transcriptions of all their radio stories. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) has videos of experts talking about various subjects. Use the links at right to check them out as one of your 10 sources.

We will meet in the library on Tuesday and Wednesday. You have 10 bibliography cards (sources) due by the end of class on Wednesday.

Letter of Intent due on or before Sept. 4

Ms. Fox will be your substitute while I am gone. You will work on a section in the Expository Reading and Writing Course book.

Your typed letter of intent is due on Tuesday, Sept. 4. If you would like to turn it in sooner, you may. Ms. Fox will put it in the inbox for your class and I will read it upon my return.

Los Angeles Times Online

I have registered for the Los Angeles Times E-Edition, meaning all my students now have access to the electronic version of the LA Times. You can read the daily paper online and you can search for stories in back issues. This will be convenient for expository composition.

To access it, click on the link at right (and then bookmark it) and enter the following
Username: Cusolito
Password: room 421

Syllabus is posted

You can find the syllabus in the box at right. I look forward to meeting you all tomorrow and welcoming back those of you I know. See you periods two and three.

Summer Assignment

The Five-and 10-Year Plan is in the box at right. There is also a story from the Washington Post called "Reclaiming the Lost Year," to get you thinking about senior year. Students in my contemporary composition class have read it already.

Who Should Go to College?

 Click on the link to read this opinion piece in the Sunday, April 1 edition of the New York Times.
Education’s Hungry Hearts - NYTimes.com

Philosophical Journal

You will be keeping a philosophical journal as you read The Stranger by Albert Camus. You may get a special notebook or use notebook paper and staple the entries together. Each entry should be at least a half a page of standard size notebook paper; if you use a smaller notebook, adjust accordingly. Write each entry on a separate page. There will be 15 entries, including three separate entries over one weekend. Journal entries will be posted on the board each day. The entire list is as follows:
1. In The Guest, Daru doesn't want to take sides. He thinks he can escape responsibility by letting the Arab decide his fate. Can you really avoid making decisions in life? When is not making a decision a decision in itself?
2. In The Guest, the Arab chooses prison over freedom. Freedom can be liberating or frightening. Can it be isolating to be completely free?
3.Read chapter two of The Stranger. On pg. 21, Meursault says, "I don't like Sundays." Compare how you feel on a Friday afternoon with how you feel on a Sunday afternoon. Is there a difference? What is it?
4.On pg. 21, Meursault says, "I cut out an advertisement for Kruschen Salts and stuck it in an old notebook where I put things from the papers that interest me." Cut out pictures, ads, articles that interest you from a newspaper or magazine and paste them on a separate page in your journal.
5. Read chapter three of The Stranger. On pages 27-28, Salamano says, "He's always there." Comment on the love/hate relationship in your life. (sibling, computer, etc.)
6. On page 39, Meursault realizes the sound he hears is Salamano crying. If you heard someone crying (neighbor, friend, stranger), what would you do?
7. Read chapters four and five of The Stranger. Choose one of the following journal entries:
Have you ever been disappointed in a goal? What did you do? Give up or try again?
Does adversity make you stronger?
Is marriage a serious thing? What does marriage mean to you?
What is your impression of Paris? Do you want to visit there?
What is your impression of old age?
What is your best physical quality? What if you lost it?
8, 9, and 10: Read chapter six of The Stranger. Keep a diary for the weeekend. You must have at least an entry for Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday. (see handout for complete instructions.)
11. Read part II, chapter 2. "There are some things I've never liked talking about." (pg. 72) What are the things you don't like talking about? Why? If nothing, why are you able to talk about everything?
12. Read part II, chapter 3. "It was just chance." (pg. 95) Comment on the role chance has played in your life.
13. Read part II, chapter 4. "My fate was being decided without anyone so much as asking my opinion." (pg.98) Have you ever felt this way? Explain.
14. Read part II, chapter 5. "Maman used to say you can always find something to be happy about." (pg. 113) How do you find things to be happy about? What makes you happy?
15. Read Albert Camus's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech. "Each generation feels called upon to reform the world." (handout pg. 526) Does this observation apply to your generation? Why or why not?

Poetry Trilogy Assignment Due by 8 a.m. Friday

The directions that I handed out in class are also available in the file in the box at right.

Your assignment needs to be submitted to Turnitin.com no later than 8 a.m. Friday.
LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Please Take the Class Survey

PowerPoint Slides Due Tuesday

You should have 8-12 slides, including the title slide. I told everyone to delete the colon after the word By. On second thought, delete the word By. Just put your name on one line and the words Senior Project on a line below it.

It would be a good idea to have your thesis on one of your slides. It does not have to be identified as such, nor does it have to be in a complete sentence. However, this is your central idea, and it should be expressed.

PowerPoint Slides Due Jan. 17, 20-Hour Log Due Jan. 23

Your PowerPoint slides are due by the end of class on Tuesday, Jan. 17. Save them on a flash drive and transfer them to the appropriate laptop. (I will have a list of whose slides go on which laptop.)

Your 20-hour project log is due on Monday, Jan. 23. If you still have not completed a project, consider creating a brochure, a blog, or a Facebook group page.