First period began a new unit on “Flowers for Algernon.” We’ll be looking at point of view, inferences, and some basic grammar for the unit.

We began by reading the first progress report in the novella, which is replete with mistakes, and then making inferences from those mistakes.

Second and fourth periods began by working in groups to explore several motifs in Great Expectations that run through the entire book. All groups will be examining the following motifs:

• social classes
• gender roles

Additionally, each group is exploring one of the following motifs:

• economics
• family units
• education
• housing
• penal system
• law enforcement

Finally, we looked at chapter seven and did some analysis of Dickens’ prose:

Sixth period began the most exciting novel we’ll look at all year: The Giver. We used the essential question “What does ‘perfect’ mean?” as an initial frame of reference for the book.

Seventh period continued with its work on writing connected to the drama unit we’re finishing up. We looked at voice and how it’s created, reading an example text, “My First Free Summer” to explore the three main markers of voice.

Homework

• First period: none.
• Second and fourth periods:
• complete the final Lord of the Flies writing (as necessary);
• complete chapter seven of Great Expectations.
• Sixth period: write a brief explanation of what it would have taken to make sure all members of our group wrote the same perfect day story you would have written for yourself.
• Seventh period: examine the first page of “My First Free Summer” to find examples of varied sentence structure: one long, one medium, and one short.