Mr. Drury's English Class

End of Year Information We are fast approaching the end of the school year! There is some very important information and dates to keep in mind moving forward. Please read everything related to your course below! English 4 Deadline for Grades: The final day to turn in any assignment is Friday, May 7! If you are not passing the course by this date, you will not graduate! Students are currently completing Enrichment/Acceleration assignments. These assignments are crucial for their 4th term grade and can both help or hurt their overall grade (it is weighted at 80% of the 4th term grade). Parents, please look at your child's grades and ensure they are not falling behind. I will try to contact parents of failing students by phone, but I may not be able to reach you and our deadline is fast approaching! Also keep in mind: any assignment from any point in the school year may be turned in without late penalty! Additionally, major essays/projects may be revised and resubmitted for a higher g...

Plagiarism Policy Update: Alternate Assignment There has been numerous students who have plagiarized their work on the course's Independent Reading Projects. This has been evident for both English 4 and AP Language/Composition students. Academic Dishonesty is never acceptable. Cheating fails to provide experiences that lead to reflection and growth of the applied skills. Dishonesty and cheating can lead to being terminated from your job, losing scholarships, expulsion from a program or the entirety of a university or training school, or, in extreme cases, civil or criminal litigation. On these projects, academic dishonesty was demonstrated via copying and pasting work from a website and claiming it as one's own work. I have identified these people and informed them via comments on those assignments. My original policy has been to score the assignment a ZERO with no possibility of redoing the work or making it up; however, given the unique circumstances of this school year, I am...

 Narrative Writing Activity Corrections and Resubmissions I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving break! I have received numerous emails about the possibility of redoing the Narrative Writing Activity and decided to address that in detail here! Students, regardless of the grade you received, may make corrections/revisions and resubmit this assignment. The deadline is December 4th, before midnight. Please carefully read through the information and suggestions below: Rubric The assignment is worth 30 points total in the performance (summative) category. We will have more assignments in this category throughout the term; I hope to have at least 5-6 per term. Since this is our only one for this term so far, it will look scarier when graded due to this category being weighted at 80% of your term grade. As more assignments are added, this will balance out better. The main idea, for the district, is to make our grades reflect a student's ability to perform the skills we practic...

 Newsletter for Week of Nov. 2 I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! There are several important announcements regarding our course and things coming up this week! End of Term One The first term will on Thursday, November 5th. Any late or missing work must be turned in before this date! Once your term grade is calculated, it is permanent. My policy is that students cannot make up any work from a previous term. Keep this in mind as it may have a major impact on your overall grade. Quarantine Work Due to there being quite a few students in quarantine, all work and class materials will be posted on Google Classroom. Please read all directions, notes, and PowerPoints carefully. Even if you are in quarantine, the expectation is that you will work at the same pace as those in person. You are responsible for turning in work and keeping up with the pacing guide. If there are any questions over assignments, you may email me or text me on Remind. If you would like to meet via Zoom to di...

 Newsletter for Week of Oct. 12 Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful fall break and that everyone is ready to make our big transition back to in-person learning! Below are some important announcements for this week: All Classes Monday and Tuesday will be virtual. There will be no lessons or Zoom meetings. This time is set aside for you to catch up on any missing or late work from the previous weeks. Please make sure that you have completed all assignments up to now. You do not want to come back to in-person classes while trying to make up virtual work! We will be back in the building starting on Wednesday. Be sure to have your mask (and a spare just in case!) and, I cannot stress enough, try to be flexible and adaptive as possible. School will be different, but we can persevere and have an awesome time! I should have more information tomorrow about how things will look from Wednesday to Friday! English 4 If you are marked as in-person, you will continue class with me; howe...

 Fall Break Travel Information Below is a release from the district regarding travel, especially out-of-state travel, during fall break: Scott County Schools will be on fall break on October 5-9, 2020.  There will be no virtual classes during this time.  We anticipate that some students and staff members will travel during fall break and wanted to address questions related to expectations for travel and self-quarantine recommended by government officials. In July, the Kentucky Department for Public Health issued a travel advisory with the recommendation of a 14-day self-quarantine for travelers who go to any state reporting a positive testing rate equal to or greater than 15% of COVID-19 testing.  An up-to-date listing of these states is posted at  www.kycovid19.com .  This list changes frequently but, at the time of this printing (9/28/20), the following states were included in the travel advisory: Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.  Th...

 Release about Masks for In-Person Classes Below is a release from the district reminding families about wearing masks when we transition back to in-person classes. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns! FOR RELEASE SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 We want to make families aware that students who return to the classroom on October 14 will be required to wear masks for the majority of the school day.  As previously communicated, schools will offer frequent breaks which allow students to remove their masks while socially distanced.  Students will be able to remove the mask while they eat or drink.  But, for most of the day, students and staff will be masked.  This includes the bus, the classroom, and moving throughout the building.  Kindergarten students in Scott County will be required to wear a mask, consistent with the expectation for students in grades 1-12.  This is a change from the guidance previously communicated.  After careful consideration,...

 School Opening Information Below is a statement from the school district concerning a change in the date we will open for in-person school. Feel free to email or message me if you have any questions! FOR RELEASE September 18, 2020 School will open for in person classes in Scott County on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020.  Families in Scott County still have the option to choose what best meets their needs, whether they plan to send students to school in person or elect to continue virtual learning.  Teachers will be in contact with families to determine plans specific for each student.  For your planning purposes, please note that virtual learning will continue as scheduled through Friday, Oct. 2.  The week of Oct. 5-9 will be Fall Break.  Oct. 12-13 will be used to transition between virtual and in person, allowing time for students to complete their virtual learning program and schools to make needed changes to the master schedule to accommodate all students....

 Newsletter: Week of 9-14 One week down! It has been a hectic week, but I think a lot of us are starting to get the hang of the new technology and things have started to go smoother! Thank you all for your hard work and perseverance! It's stressful enough to deal with so many changes in our lives, but then to compound it with an entirely different mode of learning has definitely aggravated the situation! However, it will get easier as we move forward! I have become aware of many of the tech errors I created within these first two weeks of activities and, after some experimentation, feel confident about the Google Classroom platform as well as many of the apps that can utilized with it! Let's stay motivated and rock out the rest of the Getting to Know Me assignments! Looking Ahead: Weeks 2 and 3 This week (week 2), we will continue with our Getting to Know Me activities. These activities serve two primary functions: to get to know each other and to learn the basics of several of...

 Summer Reading Assignment for 2020-21 School Year A few of you guys have informed me that you did not get any information regarding the summer assignments; so, I decided to post that information here! Try to completely read your book within the first week of school so that you will not fall behind with any related assignments! Let me know if you have any questions! AP Lang/Comp You will need to read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. We will reference this book throughout various activities in our first unit. English 4 You can select any book from the list below: 2020 – 2021 Kentucky Bluegrass Award Master List for 9-12 KBA     Athena Protocol / Shamin Sarif / Harper Teen, 2019. Jessie Archer is a member of the Athena Protocol, an elite organization of female spies who enact vigilante justice around the world. Athena operatives are never supposed to shoot to kill—so when Jessie can’t stop herself from pulling the trigger, she gets kicked out of the organization, right befo...

 Welcome to the 2020-21 School Year   Welcome back! I am super excited to kick off another great school year! This will definitely be a year of flexibility and change. We are currently set to start the year online and return to in-person classes on October 12, right after fall break. However, these transitions are always subject to change depending on the number of COVID-19 cases and, even while in-person, school will be a bit different this year. Ultimately, we will persevere and learn how to adapt side-by-side. This year will be a very interesting experiment in educational modality. If we remain positive and strive to do our best, we will all learn and grow (Including me! I am still figuring a lot of stuff out with the numerous online platforms and apps available!). Let's rock it and have a great year! Important Notes for All Classes Students in both AP Lang/Comp and Eng 4 need to do the following: Join my Remind for your respective class AP Lang/Comp Code: @g3k643 Eng 4 Cod...

Looking Ahead... Below are a few notes to consider as we look to the future, whether it be graduation and your future goals or next school year! Graduation Continue to check the school's homepage for updates and any changes that may occur! Additionally, be sure to continue checking your student email as this will be the school's method of official communication if they need information from you. Here is the link to our school's homepage: Scott County Schools After Graduation As you all step towards your future goals and plans, feel free to contact me anytime you need help with anything! I will eventually close out Remind as we move into next year; however, feel free to keep my email address or friend me on Facebook.  Feel free to ask me for help with anything from writing a resume, college essays, career research, job interview preparation, or anything you can think of! You may be moving on, but I am always here to help if you need it! Summer Reading...

Graduation Announcement Plans for this year's graduation have been emailed out to all school staff as well as the Georgetown News-Graphic. Below is the email sent to me along with a link to the Georgetown News-Graphic article regarding graduation: The Email Sent to All Staff Principals from Great Crossing High School, Phoenix Horizon Community, and Scott County High School presented a unified and thorough plan to members of the Scott County Board of Education in a special-called meeting on April 28 to discuss graduation.  Principals developed the three-prong plan to meet the requirements of government and health officials with consideration to the preferences stated by students at each school. First, all three schools will employ the service of Herff Jones to develop a professional virtual graduation program.  The company has years of experience and produces a high quality product that will include a separate graduation program for all three schools....

NTI Prompts for May Directions For each NTI day, choose ONE JOURNAL to respond to. If there is only ONE, you will respond to that journal. When you are finished, you may submit it via email or by sharing a google doc. If you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact me by email or Remind! Please include the following with each submission: Name, Date of NTI Work, and Class Period. May 4th (Monday) Choose one of the prompts below: Choose a color that describes how you feel today, and explain why this color is the best explanation of the feeling. Find someone who chose the same color, and compare and contrast your reasons. Describe the best memory you made at Scott County High School this school year. Be as descriptive as possible. May 5th (Tuesday) Choose one of the prompts below:  “We can shoot rockets into space, but we can’t cure anger or discontent.” -John Steinbeck. Which do you feel Americans should invest more in: space travel or mental health? Ex...

NTI Days 29-33: Apr. 27 - May 1 Learning Targets: I can read closely and cite specific textual evidence to support conclusions (R.1) and examine the development of characters or events (R.3). Directions This is the same as least week, except that there are different prompts! From Monday to Thursday, select a new book to read and record what pages you read each day. Try to read for approximately 20 minutes per day. On Friday, select any TWO of the prompts below to complete. Your response should be a solid paragraph per prompt (about 1/4 of a page per response for a total of 1/2 of a page). Please email or share your completed work to me on Friday using the template below. Prompts: Character Description: You notice a detail about a character (what he or she looks like, thinks, says, or does). Why is it important? What does it reveal about the character? Mark the Motivation: You realize a character's motive(s) (what a character wants). Explain the motive(s) and it...

Adopt a Senior Facebook Group Below is information about the Adopt a Senior group on Facebook. If you are interested, create a post with senior pictures, baby pictures, etc. and a short bio of yourself. If you have not been adopted, write "Not Adopted" at the top of your post. Once you are adopted, change your post to state "Adopted" at the top. This seems like a really cool idea! Let me know if you have any questions! Group Name : Adopt a Senior (Georgetown) Scott County Class of 2020 Description from the Group : As a way to help celebrate the Senior Class of 2020, we have created this group for the community to Adopt a Senior and bless them with love and kindness! This is a difficult time for everyone, especially our seniors. They will be missing out on prom, senior trips, and recently learned they will not be able to walk the line at graduation.  Taking from the group, Bless-a-Senior 2020 the following is posted:  Graduates and Parent...

End of Year Updates Schools across Kentucky will remain closed for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year. We will continue with NTI days until Friday, May 15. Below are some important notes and considerations regarding this information: The administration is collaborating with student leaders regarding how to celebrate the graduating class of 2020. More information will hopefully be released this week or next week. I will post next week's NTI work tomorrow. It will be similar to this week's. Later this week, I will post the NTI work for the rest of the school year. It will primarily consist of reflective journal entries regarding the current epidemic. I am striving to keep NTI as stress free as possible while also being meaningful and relevant. Late work should be turned in approx. one week before the end of the school year (around May 8). I do not know when grades are due. NTI will go to the last day; however, try to catch up on late work with plenty of time to ensur...

NTI Days 24-28: Apr. 20-24 Learning Targets: I can read closely and cite specific textual evidence to support conclusions (R.1) and examine the development of characters or events (R.3). Directions From Monday to Thursday, select a new book to read and record what pages you read each day. Try to read for approximately 20 minutes per day. On Friday, select any TWO of the prompts below to complete. Your response should be a solid paragraph per prompt (about 1/4 of a page per response for a total of 1/2 of a page). Please email or share your completed work to me on Friday using the template below. Prompts: Interesting Intro: You think the author’s introduction is interesting, clever, or engaging. Tell what technique the author used and why you think it is effective. Spot the Setting: You notice a part that refers to the place or time of the story. Why is it important? Significant Passage: You realize a certain part in the text is important. What does it mean? What does it ...

NTI Days 19-23: Apr. 13-17 NTI 19-20: April 13-14 For Monday and Tuesday this week, please complete the survey below. At the end of each school year, I ask all students to complete a brief survey over my course. You do NOT have to provide your name. Please respond honestly and with as much detail as possible. I take your feedback seriously and continuously strive to improve as a professional. Your responses will have an impact on how I teach next year. Lastly, this is only for my personal use and is not shared with the school or administration. Only I will see your responses. Student Survey Link: https://forms.gle/FSKgv4ks4UuQU5MP6 NTI 21-23: April 15-17 For Wednesday through Friday, the entire school will provide time to make up late NTI work. This is also an excellent time to make up any late or missing work in general that you may have. If you wish to make up late work, feel free to email me and I will send you the work along with directions!

NTI Days 14-18: Apr. 6-10 Historian Journal Prompt For this week's NTI, put yourself in the role of a historian. You will write a journal detailing what you are seeing in the news, how the world, how our nation,  and how your friends, neighbors, and family are responding to this pandemic. You are creating a primary source that could be used by people in the future to learn about our lives during this crisis from your unique perspective. Be authentic, honest, and reflective. Consider these guiding questions or any variation of them as you write (you do not need to answer all of these!): What did the government announce/declare/implement today or recently? Does it make sense? Does it impact your life? How did you family respond? What is open in your neighborhood? What is closed?  How is day different from yesterday for you, your family, our nation, the world? Did you see anything today in person, in the news, or on social media that gave you hope or anxiet...