For the editorial assignment ...

... you are allowed to use any source you like. The links on this page are designed to be helpful rather than limiting.

Also, please remember that you don't need to find editorials about news and politics, though you can if you want to. Feel free to explore editorials about subjects that are near and dear to your heart.

Enjoy!

It's always fun when the NY Times answers my essay prompts ...

"The Women's World Cup Team is the Most American Thing Out There," by Lauren Peace.

Model T-Chart Assignment

Some notes on the task itself:

·      It took me about 5 minutes to find the article (I knew what I was looking for) and a little less than 25 minutes to write up my response.

·      I picked five arguments to respond to; I did not respond to every argument the author made.

·      I found it easier to copy and paste the article into a google doc and work from there, rather than flipping back and forth from an internet tab to a doc.

·      I used a table to format my response so that the quotes and the responses lined up neatly and were easy to read.

·      I put quotation marks around everything I copied from the article. Quotation marks that appeared in the article itself were turned into single quotation marks, which is why some of the quotations begin or end with three quotation marks.

“Opinion: It's Up To Baseball Fans To Demand MLB Teams Add More Protective Netting,”

by Bob Nightengale

USA Today

30 May 2019

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2019/05/30/opinion-fans-not-mlb-demand-protective-netting-girl-hurt/1287048001/

The scene was heartbreaking -- a 4-year-old girl was hit in the head by a foul ball Wednesday night in Houston. Making it even more emotional was seeing Chicago Cubs center fielder Albert Almora, a 25-year-old father of two boys, fall to his knees and weep at the mere sight. 

No baseball player wants to endure the pain that Almora experienced -- watching a foul ball off his bat injure a child. 

Players have told USA TODAY Sports in the past, and reiterated again Thursday, that they don’t permit their young children to sit in the stands at their own games in any area not protected by a net.

“When (2-year-old son) Xavier comes to games, he watches from inside,’’ Boston Red Sox veteran starter David Price told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday. “Baseballs are coming off bats harder than ever.

“Just like always, it takes something like this for MLB to take action. It’s sad.’’

Before the 2018 season, Major League Baseball expanded protective netting to the far ends of both dugouts for the first time, with commissioner Rob Manfred thanking the owners for agreeing to the initiatives.

Now, just a year later, after the latest terrifying incident, we’ve learned it’s not enough.

Just ask Jana Goldbloom Brody, whose 79-year-old mother died last August after being hit in the head four days earlier at Dodger Stadium.

“It’s unconscionable that fans are still getting hurt by hard-hit foul balls and MLB has not increased the netting requirements,’’ Brody told ESPN producer Willie Weinbaum, “even after a foul ball caused a brain hemorrhage and my mom’s death.

 “We see not only the fans, but the players are traumatized by the horror and damage …this sad injury … may be a message from my mom, Linda, to speak out once again and keep demanding more ballpark safety.’’

If you ask Almora and his teammates like Kris Bryant, they’d like protective netting that not only extends from the foul poles, but one that covers the entire ballpark, making sure it’s impossible for anyone to ever be hit again.

“It’s a real awful moment, for a player to go through something like that," Cubs manager Joe Maddon told reporters after the game. "Albert is an emotional young man, with children, so that made it even more real to him.’’

MLB, in response, said Thursday: “The events at last night’s game were extremely upsetting. We send our best wishes to the child and family involved. Clubs have significantly expanded netting and their inventory of protected seats in recent years. With last night’s event in mind, we will continue our efforts on this important issue.’’

Author’s Arguments	My Response
“The scene was heartbreaking … Albert Almora, a 25-year-old father of two boys, fall to his knees and weep at the mere sight.”	The opening line of the argument pretty much announces that this is going to be an emotional argument rather than one based on facts and statistics. That’s an interesting choice because data about the number and velocity of foul balls entering the crowd is plentiful and easily available.
“Players have told USA TODAY Sports in the past, and reiterated again Thursday, that they don’t permit their young children to sit in the stands at their own games in any area not protected by a net.”	I find this argument fairly convincing: if players – who have an enormous amount of experience watching balls zip into the stands – think the stands are unsafe, they have a lot of experience to back up their claims.
“‘It’s unconscionable that fans are still getting hurt by hard-hit foul balls and MLB has not increased the netting requirements,’ Brody told ESPN producer Willie Weinbaum, ‘even after a foul ball caused a brain hemorrhage and my mom’s death.’”	Most of the author’s arguments are captured in quotes from other people. This quote (another emotional appeal) is one of four direct quotes in a 13 paragraph article. The author name-drops three other people without directly quoting them. I’m not sure whether this helps or hurts the argument.  I think I’d like to see a little more reasoning and a little less quoting.
“‘We see not only the fans, but the players are traumatized by the horror and damage …this sad injury … may be a message from my mom, Linda, to speak out once again and keep demanding more ballpark safety.’’’	This quote is less convincing than the argument in box two, above. Messages from beyond the grave are rarely credible sources.
MLB, in response, said Thursday: “‘The events at last night’s game were extremely upsetting. We send our best wishes to the child and family involved. Clubs have significantly expanded netting and their inventory of protected seats in recent years. With last night’s event in mind, we will continue our efforts on this important issue.’’’	This is a fascinating way to close an opinion article. The author closes with a quote without providing any commentary. The reader is left to infer that the author believes MLB is not doing enough, despite their “best wishes.” It’s a great way to condemn someone without alienating them.

Summer Homework 2019-20

AP Language and Composition

Summer Homework, 2019

Welcome to Mr. Kline’s AP Language and Composition! I’m very excited about next year and I’m looking forward to meeting all of you. As with most AP classes, our work begins this summer. If you have any questions, I frequently check my e-mail over the summer. I encourage you to reach out for help!

Click here to e-mail Kline.

A note on e-mail etiquette: Remember that your audience is an English teacher. It is perfectly acceptable to be friendly and funny in your e-mails, but you should always use your best spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Thanks in advance.

Your assignments:

1.     On June 11^th or 12^th (the finals days), bring a hard copy of your favorite piece of writing from this year to Mr. Kline in B206. This could be any mode or any genre; it could be a piece you’ve written for class or written for fun; it could be a clean copy or a copy with teacher feedback – I don’t care what you give me, I just want to see writing that you’re proud of.

2.     Relax. Take June off. Don’t think about school again until after July 4^th. Seriously. You’ve been working hard this year and your brain needs a rest.

3.     Memorize the definitions of some fancy rhetorical strategies (attached). Expect a quiz within the first week of class.

4.     Read “How to Mark a Book” (attached).

5.     In three separate weeks over the summer, find two editorials that express opposite opinions on the same topic. For each editorial, create a t-chart that lists the author’s arguments on one side and your opinion of the author’s arguments on the other. Submit a copy of each editorial with your t-charts. Editorials may be found in The Oregonian, or you may find one or more of these national newspapers online: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Boston Globe, New York Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, or The BBC. Each of these news outlets has its own political bias, so it will be instructive to note which papers you agree with most often. Also, The Oregonian often publishes edited versions of editorials published in other papers. Noting such editorial choices can be instructive and interesting. Bring these with you on the first day of class.

6.     Craft an essay that provides your personal answer to the question “What does it mean to be an American?” You may base your answer on your personal reading as well as events in the news, in history, and in your own life. Your paper could consider the emotions, traditions, duties, debts, obligations, and privileges of being an American.

This paper is the foundation of this course, and will be revised several times over the year. Please word-process your paper, following MLA format. This paper is due on the first day of class. The library is not open on the first day of school, so you will need to arrive with a hard copy. Late work is not accepted in AP Lang.

If you have any questions or difficulties, do not hesitate to contact me via e-mail. My job is to be your advisor, not your obstacle.

Happy Summer!

Kline

Handy reminder:

This document will be posted to my AP Lang blog:

http://aplang-o-rama.blogspot.com

If anything interesting happens over the summer, I’ll post it there.
Before the school year begins, be sure you understand the definition of all of the following terms. Many of the terms are defined on the website The Virtual Salt:

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

Flash cards are not required, but they make an excellent study aid.

Rhetorical Appeals
Ethos One’s credibility as a speaker and writer.	Logos The intellectual power of one’s speech or writing.	Pathos The emotional power of one’s speech or writing.
Style: Artful expression of ideas: detail, diction, figures of speech (see below), imagery, syntax, tone

Figures of Speech
Figures of Speech: Tropes Artful deviation from ordinary or principal signification of a word.	Figures of Speech: Schemes Artful deviation from the ordinary arrangement of words.
Reference to one thing as another Metaphor Simile Allusion Synecdoche Metonymy Word play/puns Personification Zeugma Onomatopoeia Overstatement/understatement Hyperbole Litotes Semantic Inversions Rhetorical question Hypophora Irony Oxymoron Paradox	Structures of balance Parallelism Antithesis Inverted Syntax Omission Ellipsis Asyndeton Repetition Alliteration Assonance Anaphora Epistrophe Anadiplosis Epanalepsis Antimetabole Polysyndeton

How to Mark a Book

By Mortimer J. Adler, Ph.D.

You know you have to read "between the lines" to get the most out of anything. I want to persuade you to do something equally important in the course of your reading. I want to persuade you to write between the lines. Unless you do, you are not likely to do the most efficient kind of reading.

I contend, quite bluntly, that marking up a book is not an act of mutilation but of love. You shouldn't mark up a book which isn't yours.

Librarians (or your friends) who lend you books expect you to keep them clean, and you should. If you decide that I am right about the usefulness of marking books, you will have to buy them. Most of the world's great books are available today, in reprint editions.

There are two ways in which one can own a book. The first is the property right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes and furniture. But this act of purchase is only the prelude to possession. Full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it. An illustration may make the point clear. You buy a beefsteak and transfer it from the butcher's icebox to your own. But you do not own the beefsteak in the most important sense until you consume it and get it into your bloodstream. I am arguing that books, too, must be absorbed in your blood stream to do you any good.

Confusion about what it means to "own" a book leads people to a false reverence for paper, binding, and type -- a respect for the physical thing -- the craft of the printer rather than the genius of the author. They forget that it is possible for a man to acquire the idea, to possess the beauty, which a great book contains, without staking his claim by pasting his bookplate inside the cover. Having a fine library doesn't prove that its owner has a mind enriched by books; it proves nothing more than that he, his father, or his wife, was rich enough to buy them.

There are three kinds of book owners. The first has all the standard sets and best sellers -- unread, untouched. (This deluded individual owns woodpulp and ink, not books.) The second has a great many books -- a few of them read through, most of them dipped into, but all of them as clean and shiny as the day they were bought. (This person would probably like to make books his own, but is restrained by a false respect for their physical appearance.) The third has a few books or many -- every one of them dog-eared and dilapidated, shaken and loosened by continual use, marked and scribbled in from front to back. (This man owns books.)

Is it false respect, you may ask, to preserve intact and unblemished a beautifully printed book, an elegantly bound edition? Of course not. I'd no more scribble all over a first edition of 'Paradise Lost' than I'd give my baby a set of crayons and an original Rembrandt. I wouldn't mark up a painting or a statue. Its soul, so to speak, is inseparable from its body. And the beauty of a rare edition or of a richly manufactured volume is like that of a painting or a statue.

But the soul of a book "can" be separate from its body. A book is more like the score of a piece of music than it is like a painting. No great musician confuses a symphony with the printed sheets of music. Arturo Toscanini reveres Brahms, but Toscanini's score of the G minor Symphony is so thoroughly marked up that no one but the maestro himself can read it. The reason why a great conductor makes notations on his musical scores -- marks them up again and again each time he returns to study them--is the reason why you should mark your books. If your respect for magnificent binding or typography gets in the way, buy yourself a cheap edition and pay your respects to the author.

Why is marking up a book indispensable to reading? First, it keeps you awake. (And I don't mean merely conscious; I mean awake.) In the second place; reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The marked book is usually the thought-through book. Finally, writing helps you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author expressed. Let me develop these three points.

If reading is to accomplish anything more than passing time, it must be active. You can't let your eyes glide across the lines of a book and come up with an understanding of what you have read. Now an ordinary piece of light fiction, like, say, "Gone With the Wind," doesn't require the most active kind of reading. The books you read for pleasure can be read in a state of relaxation, and nothing is lost. But a great book, rich in ideas and beauty, a book that raises and tries to answer great fundamental questions, demands the most active reading of which you are capable. You don't absorb the ideas of John Dewey the way you absorb the crooning of Mr. Vallee. You have to reach for them. That you cannot do while you're asleep.

If, when you've finished reading a book, the pages are filled with your notes, you know that you read actively. The most famous "active" reader of great books I know is President Hutchins, of the University of Chicago. He also has the hardest schedule of business activities of any man I know. He invariably reads with a pencil, and sometimes, when he picks up a book and pencil in the evening, he finds himself, instead of making intelligent notes, drawing what he calls 'caviar factories' on the margins. When that happens, he puts the book down. He knows he's too tired to read, and he's just wasting time.

But, you may ask, why is writing necessary? Well, the physical act of writing, with your own hand, brings words and sentences more sharply before your mind and preserves them better in your memory. To set down your reaction to important words and sentences you have read, and the questions they have raised in your mind, is to preserve those reactions and sharpen those questions.

Even if you wrote on a scratch pad, and threw the paper away when you had finished writing, your grasp of the book would be surer. But you don't have to throw the paper away. The margins (top as bottom, and well as side), the end-papers, the very space between the lines, are all available. They aren't sacred. And, best of all, your marks and notes become an integral part of the book and stay there forever. You can pick up the book the following week or year, and there are all your points of agreement, disagreement, doubt, and inquiry. It's like resuming an interrupted conversation with the advantage of being able to pick up where you left off.

And that is exactly what reading a book should be: a conversation between you and the author. Presumably he knows more about the subject than you do; naturally, you'll have the proper humility as you approach him. But don't let anybody tell you that a reader is supposed to be solely on the receiving end. Understanding is a two-way operation; learning doesn't consist in being an empty receptacle. The learner has to question himself and question the teacher. He even has to argue with the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying. And marking a book is literally an expression of differences, or agreements of opinion, with the author.

There are all kinds of devices for marking a book intelligently and fruitfully. Here's the way I do it:

• Underlining (or highlighting): of major points, of important or forceful statements.
• Vertical lines at the margin: to emphasize a statement already underlined.
• Star, asterisk, or other doo-dad at the margin: to be used sparingly, to emphasize the ten or twenty most important statements in the book. (You may want to fold the bottom comer of each page on which you use such marks. It won't hurt the sturdy paper on which most modern books are printed, and you will be able take the book off the shelf at any time and, by opening it at the folded-corner page, refresh your recollection of the book.)
• Numbers in the margin: to indicate the sequence of points the author makes in developing a single argument.
• Numbers of other pages in the margin: to indicate where else in the book the author made points relevant to the point marked; to tie up the ideas in a book, which, though they may be separated by many pages, belong together.
• Circling or highlighting of key words or phrases.
• Writing in the margin, or at the top or bottom of the page, for the sake of: recording questions (and perhaps answers) which a passage raised in your mind; reducing a complicated discussion to a simple statement; recording the sequence of major points right through the books. I use the end-papers at the back of the book to make a personal index of the author's points in the order of their appearance.

The front end-papers are to me the most important. Some people reserve them for a fancy bookplate. I reserve them for fancy thinking. After I have finished reading the book and making my personal index on the back end-papers, I turn to the front and try to outline the book, not page by page or point by point (I've already done that at the back), but as an integrated structure, with a basic unity and an order of parts. This outline is, to me, the measure of my understanding of the work.

If you're a die-hard anti-book-marker, you may object that the margins, the space between the lines, and the end-papers don't give you room enough. All right. How about using a scratch pad slightly smaller than the page-size of the book -- so that the edges of the sheets won't protrude? Make your index, outlines and even your notes on the pad, and then insert these sheets permanently inside the front and back covers of the book.

Or, you may say that this business of marking books is going to slow up your reading. It probably will. That's one of the reasons for doing it. Most of us have been taken in by the notion that speed of reading is a measure of our intelligence. There is no such thing as the right speed for intelligent reading. Some things should be read quickly and effortlessly and some should be read slowly and even laboriously. The sign of intelligence in reading is the ability to read different things differently according to their worth. In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through you -- how many you can make your own. A few friends are better than a thousand acquaintances. If this be your aim, as it should be, you will not be impatient if it takes more time and effort to read a great book than it does a newspaper.

You may have one final objection to marking books. You can't lend them to your friends because nobody else can read them without being distracted by your notes. Furthermore, you won't want to lend them because a marked copy is kind of an intellectual diary, and lending it is almost like giving your mind away.

If your friend wishes to read your Plutarch's Lives, Shakespeare, or The Federalist Papers, tell him gently but firmly, to buy a copy. You will lend him your car or your coat -- but your books are as much a part of you as your head or your heart.

Agenda, June 12

• Due Now: Develop one prompt from this week into a completed essay of no more than 650 words. This should be a brand new essay, not a revised or recycled version of an essay you've already written. Typed. MLA. Be prepared to share this essay with your classmates.
• Do June 17-23: Climb free at The Circuit with a student ID. Rentals included!
• Do June 24-30: Celebrate Pride Week at The Circuit: $5 day passes when you wear rainbow attire. 

Today's Agenda:

1. Questions about last week?
2. T-shirt talk
3. Story Time with Flo
4. Working v. Sharing
5. Sharing
6. The Return of the Justice Papers
7. Go forth and be just!

Agenda, June 7

• Late: Justice Essay. If you didn't turn it in on time, keep working on it and turn it in after school on 6/11.
• Late: T-shirt payment. If you haven't paid yet, bring your receipt to class on finals.
• Due on the Finals Period: Develop one prompt from this week into a completed essay of no more than 650 words. This should be a brand new essay, not a revised or recycled version of an essay you've already written. Typed. MLA. Be prepared to share this essay with your classmates.

Today's Agenda:

1. Lab Day, all day

Agenda, June 6

• Late: Justice Essay. If you didn't turn it in on time, keep working on it and turn it in after school on 6/11.
• Late: T-shirt payment. If you haven't paid yet, bring your receipt to class on finals.
• Due on the Finals Period: Develop one prompt from this week into a completed essay of no more than 650 words. Typed. MLA. Be prepared to share this essay with your classmates.

Today's Agenda:

1. Shades of Meaning
2. Brainstorm #1
3. Brainstorm #1 Sharing
4. Brainstorm #2
5. Brainstorm #2 Sharing 
6. Two Prompts. Pick one.

Thursdays Brainstorms and Prompts

Thursday’s Brainstorms:

Brainstorm #1: Make a list of accomplishments, achievements, and things you are proud of.

Brainstorm #2: Make a list of things you wonder about intensely. These should be ideas – big or small – that you could thing about deeply for a long time. Items from your curiosity journal might work well here.

Thursday’s Prompts:

1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

4. Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.

5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

Agenda, June 5

• Late: Justice Essay. If you didn't turn it in on time, keep working on it and turn it in after school on 6/11.
• Late: T-shirt payment. If you haven't paid yet, bring your receipt to class on finals.
• Due on the Finals Period: Develop one prompt from this week into a completed essay of no more than 650 words. Typed. MLA. Be prepared to share this essay with your classmates.

Today's Agenda:

1. College Essay App Don'ts, Part 1
2. College Essay App Don'ts, Part 2
3. Brainstorm #1
4. Brainstorm #1 Sharing
5. Brainstorm #2
6. Brainstorm #2 Sharing 
7. Two Prompts. Pick one.

Wednesday's Brainstroms and Prompts

Wednesday’s Brainstorms:

Brainstorm #1: Make a list of commonly held beliefs or ideas that you disagree with. These don’t have to be societally significant ideas (pineapple on pizza, anyone?) but they can be.

Brainstorm #2: Make a list of problems you’d like to solve. These could be intellectual challenges, potential research projects, or ethical dilemmas. Some of the ideas that appeared in your previous brainstorm might resurface here.

Wednesday’s Prompts:

1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

4. Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.