First and fifth periods began the day by preparing for one element of the final writing assignment of quarter. The rubric for the review students are writing includes as a requirement the use of three sentences with introductory participial phrases, so we did some extra practice creating such sentences.

First period starter

Afterward, we too the time to do some preliminary planning before breaking into groups to do the prewriting and planning for our review of Nightjohn.

• Notes from first period are available here.
• Notes from fifth period are available here.

During flex time, first period reviewed the required elements of the reader’s journals, since so many students seemed to have forgotten some of the specifics. We read about Red Ribbon Week as our text, then wrote the beginning of a journal entry as a class.

First period reader’s journal example

Second and fourth periods finished up the EQ, “How has art presented the Odyssey through the ages?” We finished up our cyclops-perspective poems that included a requisite Homeric simile before looking at two presentations of the cyclops. First, we viewed a traditional interpretation of the scene.

Still from film

From this, we made a list of the characteristics of the cyclops.

Second period notes

Fourth period notes

And finally, we watched the cyclops scene from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

Still from film

Still from film

After checking to see how the Coen brothers had drastically reinterpreted the scene, we determined that it was indeed the cyclops scene, for it illustrated almost all the characteristics present in the original epic.

Homework

• First and fifth periods: continue planning the Nightjohn review.
• Second and fourth periods:
  • plan a Schaffer paragraph in which you argue that the O Brother version of the cyclops is, despite all appearances, a reinterpretation of the classic scene;
  • read “The Enchantress Circe” and “Land of the Dead,” pages 1059-1064