Happy 2009! This quarter will see your kids focusing their efforts and sharpening skills in three primary areas: research, satire (studies of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Austen‚s Sense & Sensibility), and AIMS prep.

Sophomores will be completing a historical research paper in conjunction with their world history teachers. While they will be conducting research and finalizing ideas in that class, they will be fine-tuning thesis statements, composing outlines, drafting and revising in my class. This will be a long-term project several weeks in the making with the final paper being due March 25th. Their papers will be graded on the six trait scale by both their world history and language arts teachers. To help your children prepare, consider checking out these websites on plagiarism and new changes to the MLA citation guidelines:

http://www.plagiarism.org/

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/15/

Our second concentration is satire. We have already worked our way through political cartoons and three of Chaucer‚s Canterbury Tales; your kids should be prepared to sit down to an episode of The Colbert Report and point out verbal irony, pun and parody, among other things! We are continuing our study of satire through Jane Austen‚s Sense & Sensibility. The following sites are great resources on satire and Austen:

http://www.virtualsalt.com/satire.htm

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/22964

Finally, AIMS looms in the not-too-distant future. Fear not˜Mountain Ridge has a comprehensive AIMS preparation program to help sophomores ready themselves for this important test. From February 8th until the tests, students will be receiving extra AIMS tutoring in the form of handouts and class exercises. For additional information on AIMS testing, visit the following website:

http://www.ade.state.az.us/standards/

I love working with your kids and am always ready to help. Students can make appointments to see me during Academic Prep period or before school for one-on-one writing assistance or literary analysis help. Please feel free to contact me if there is anything I can do to help your son or daughter better succeed in my class.

Thank you,