English 8 students made the shift from a think-aloud to the “Same Something” protocol — in other words, the kids began implementing effective readers’ skills. We’re forming the foundational techniques for tackling all the texts we will fact this year, and the first steps have gone quite well.

English I Honors students finished determining what analysis is (i.e., what we’ll be doing all year) and how it’s different from summarizing. In a word: inference. Question analysis asks:

• Why did the author use this word?
• How are the plot and setting connected?
• How does the author use irony to create conflict?
• Can we trust the narrator?

We’ll be applying these types of questions to the texts we read over the next few weeks.

Homework

• English 8 Studies: none.
• English I Honors: 
  • re-read “The Sniper”;
  • mark the text for foreshadowing;
  • free-write about whether or not we can tinker with the setting without affecting the conflict.