First period finished up yesterday’s work with the contemporary parallel of Malala Yousafzai, getting an update on the courageous girl’s condition before reading some of the diary that propelled her into the international spotlight. Afterward, we continued with theme of tradition by looking at the traditional misogyny of the Taliban and its parallels with the racist traditions that flowed from the antebellum period up until half a century ago (and continues to some degree and in some form today).

First period notes

Second and fourth periods took a close look at the opening lines of the Odyssey, looking at some of the stylistic oddities of such ancient writing. We examined inverted sentences, compound-complex sentences (though I didn’t use that terminology with the students), and the extensive use of appositives in the Odyssey.

Second period notes

Fourth period notes

Homework

• First and fifth periods: none.
• Second and fourth periods: read “Calypso” from the Odyssey. (For the new student who doesn’t yet have a textbook, here is a PDF of the required reading.)