Winter Break Reading Assignment

Read these important, key chapters of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Supplement your reading with any of your favorite literary cheat sites. But actually read the assigned chapter...please...pretty please with sugar on top!

Read the following:

Chapter One 

Chapter Two

Chapters 14 - 17

More on Newtown, CT

Remembrances and some more information about the potential effects on gun control.

Journal #16

Journal #16: Reaction to the President's speech. What was effective about it? How did you feel in light of the tragedy? Do you sense the political implication of his words? How did you feel about that? What do you think these implications will be? Do you agree?

Copy of the speech transcript, here.  

2 teeny weeny new vocab for the week:

reprehensible: deserving blame

innate: a trait or ability that comes with birth, natural

Please bring orange (or yellow) textbooks to class. 

Changes to Course Schedule

Everyone did a really great job today with revisions, and I think we really learned. Thanks to Mr. Sera's flexibility (and I don't just mean his ability to save lives on the beach), we will remain in families until Friday. This has prompted the following changes to the course schedule:

ALL essay revisions (one and two) will be due FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14th. 

VOCAB QUIZ will be post-poned until FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14th. 


Journal #15 will be due Monday, December 17th. 

Journal #15: To Park or not to Park

Listen to this issue on NPR about the potential of memorializing the "Manhattan Project" development site. Here the battle between advocates for chronicling this specific and significant moment in history and those who find it morbid to "celebrate" one of the largest mass-murders in world history. Discuss it in Journal #15. Do you think the sites should be designated as US National Parks? Why or why not. Bust a Google on "The Manhattan Project" if additional clarification is necessary.

Today's Revision Deadlines

ALL re-writes must have ALL previous drafts attached to the back.

Essay One revisions due Wednesday. 

Essay Two revisions due Monday.

Hey APers!!!

Vocabulary Quiz post-poned until Thursday of this week!

Journal #14: Investigation and Cognitive Injury

Today's NPR story is a fascinating review of how police practice. Listen here. Years ago, in a time before DNA evidence, police wrangled confessions from subjects with no regard of cognitive disorders. As a father of autism, I felt particularly close to this story because I could see my son (pictured) being coerced through these methods. Yet, half of US states have legislation to protect cognitively disabled people during interrogations. What are your thoughts about this? Could such legislation seriously hamper law enforcement? Should this be a federal mandate, or does it open potentially dangerous situations.