First period began with a vocabulary starter, using the verb “obscure” in a sentence. Example sentences included:

• The teacher was standing in front of me and was obscuring the board.
• I tried to obscure the broken lamp, but my mother found it anyway.

Afterward, we continued working on “Flowers for Algernon,” focusing on inferring.

Second and fourth period continued with Great Expectations, looking at the EQ, “How does a Dickens novel reflect the Victorian Period in England?” We began with an examination of the first two sentences in chapter ten:

The bulk of the class was spent looking at the motifs we will examine throughout the book.

Sixth period continued with The Giver, working to extrapolate details about the setting from the things that strike us odd in the initial chapters. We used the “Inferring about Setting from Initial Strangeness Graphic Organizer (Ch1-3)” materials to help.

Seventh period looked at the question of audience and purpose in writing. We examined how they’re connected and how one often influences the other. We then applied it to our current writing project.

We’ll be applying this information tomorrow to write a second draft.

Homework

• First period: none.
• Second and fourth: read chapters 11-13 in Great Expectations.
• Sixth period:
• read chapters two and three of The Giver;
• complete the graphic organizer begun in class.
• Seventh period: none (if you have already completed your first draft).