French Madeleines

We began in English I by setting some background knowledge for the poem we read. Kids needed to know what a Proustian madeleine was, so we listened to a story from 16 years ago on NPR dealing with this passage from Rememberance from Things Past:

No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. … Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? … And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea.

We then dove into “The Lanyard” by Billy Collins

It was soon clear why we needed to take 7 minutes to cover Proustian madeleines. It allowed us to cover quickly what an allusion (verb: allude) is and how it’s used.

English 8 students, after taking the required biweekly common formative assessment on Mastery Connect, finished up Nightjohn chapter 5 (which includes one of the greatest acts of bravery in adolescent literature) and a bit of work on No Red Ink as necessary.