English 8 students finished up text structures with a light game of game-play: a Gimkit and a Kahoot. Virtually everyone demonstrated that they have mastered text structure identification.

English I students looked at Homeric similes, which are strange, pattern-breaking poetic forms distinct to Homer’s writings (hence the name).

To begin with, they are inverted: they begin with the vehicle and then transition to the tenor, with a semicolon but no “like” or “as” separating the two. Second, they’re very long:

                                                   A gull patrolling
between the wave crests of the desolate sea
will dip to catch a fish, and douse his wings;
no higher above the whitecaps Hermes flew
until the distant island lay ahead,
then rising shoreward from the violet ocean
he stepped up to the cave.

Once we worked through it as groups, everyone was able to see the pattern inherent in Homeric similes.

Students who were absent can follow along with this link. (T and I, you will have to be logged into GCS to view the link.)

Homework

• English 8: prepare for the fragments quiz tomorrow.
• English I Honors: write your own Homeric simile, making sure to fulfill all the requirements of the pattern