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Second and sixth periods worked on sound devices (onomatopoeia and rhythm) and context clues, reading the poem “Cat!” by Eleanor Farjeon.

Cat!
Atter her, atter her,
Sleeky flatterer,
Spitfire chatterer,
Scatter her, scatter her
Wuff!
Wuff!
Treat her rough!
Git her, git her,
Whiskery spitter!
Catch her, catch her,
Green-eyed scratcher!
Slathery
Slithery
Hisser,
Don’t miss her!
Run till you’re dithery,
Hithery
Thithery
Pfitts! pfitts!
How she spits!
Spitch! Spatch!
Can’t she scratch!
Scritching the bark
Of the sycamore-tree,
She’s reached her ark
And’s hissing at me
Pfitts!Pfitts!
Wuff! Wuff!
Scat,
Cat!
That’s
That!

We’ll be working on it a little more tomorrow.

Fourth period had a little bit of a surprise: the first group began its presentation only to find they’d been guinea pigs. We got back into groups to look at how the first group could have presented better during the teaching (“After all, you’ll be presenting information all your life, and that’s essentially all teaching is,” I explained.) and how to apply those findings to their own presentations.

Homework

• Second and sixth periods:
  • practice reading “Cat!”;
  • read Walter de la Mare’s “Silver” (page 604).
• Fourth period:
  • sonnets (recitation and written) due Monday;
  • continue planning presentations (to begin Monday):
    • read through “Presentation Basics“;
    • review rubric.