Everyone, once again, was working on poetry today.

First period finished looking at figurative language today. We ended by adding a poem to the poetry project list of required poems: a poem about urban and/or rural life. (All three poems we read for figurative language dealt with the city.)

One of the poems we read, “Harlem Night Song,” was by Langston Hughes.

Langston Hughes in 1936, photographed by Carl Van Vechten

Second period looked in depth at the question of hospitality in the opening sections of the second part of the Odyssey. Specifically, students discussed in groups the hospitality shown in Eumaeus’s tent as well as the role hospitality plays in Penelope’s continued patience with her suitors. Students worked on materials for their response journals.

From John Flaxman's illustrations for Odyssey

Fourth and sixth also continued working on figurative language. Fourth period finished up “Concrete Mixers” and took a quiz, ending the day by looking at personification in “The City is So Big.” Sixth period completed “Concrete Mixers.” Both fourth and sixth periods went over the tests from yesterday as well.

Homework

• First period: write first draft of city poem.
  • Second period:
  • read “Death in the Palace”;
  • possible quiz tomorrow on the reading.
• Fourth period:
  • read “Harlem Night Song”;
  • find one example of figurative language in the poem;
  • write first draft of city poem.
• Sixth period:
  • study for vocab quiz (words from “Concrete Mixers”);
  • write first draft of city poem.