English 8 Strategies (fourth period) did some work on summarizing as well as using specific effective readers’ skills. We’ll finish chapter five tomorrow.

English 8 Studies (fifth period) worked on their final project for Nightjohn.

English I Honors (sixth and seventh periods) tried their hand at interpreting a poem by Billy Collins:

Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

We’ll finish up tomorrow.

Homework

• English 8 Studies: none.
• English I Honors: continue working on your short story project, due Friday