First and seventh periods continued with The Glory Field. We’ll soon be switching from in-class reading to reading homework assignments. The in-class progress so far has been somewhat slow as we’ve been taking the time to set up the story, understand the setting, and the characters via a family tree. Thus far, we have covered [...]

Fourth period took some time really to examine the introduction of Miss Havisham:
In an arm-chair, with an elbow resting on the table and her head leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall ever see.
She was dressed in rich materials — satins, and lace, and silks — all of [...]

We spent first and second periods administering the second day of the PASS writing test.
Fourth period went over the chapters we’d completed yesterday. We did a bit of administrative house cleaning, as I pointed out the reading schedule (available here and at courses.ourenglishclass.net).
Seventh period began The Glory Field.
Homework

First, second, and seventh periods: journals.
Fourth period: see [...]

Due to PASS testing, first period did not have regular class today.
Second period met during seventh period’s slot and we began The Giver. We read the first two pages and looked at how the reader’s response journals will work.
Fourth period continued work on Great Expectations. We read chapter three in class and went over chapter [...]

First and seventh periods completed in-class work on a letter-writing project with schools across America. We used it as an opportunity to practice for tomorrow’s PASS test.
Second period finished up the anticipatory set for The Giver. We’ll begin after the coming two days of pass testing.
Fourth period began looking at the themes in Great Expectations [...]

I once lived about a quarter of a mile from here.
lipnica_wielka_tartak_centrum
Nostalgia will do odd things.

First and seventh periods had another informal practice PASS. We are participating in the Great American Mail race, and students wrote their first letters today. (First, seventh period finished up the work from yesterday regarding subject-verb agreement.)
Second period began a new unit by writing about the perfect world.
Fourth period began Great Expectations. We went through [...]

First, second, and seventh periods all finished up verbs (though seventh didn’t quite finish) by looking at subject-verb agreement.
Fourth period went over the material from homework video on Dickens’ life. (Stills below) 
It’s a great video for providing students with a brief biography of Dickens. 
The animation makes it just lighthearted enough that it doesn’t feel like [...]

First, second, and seventh periods finished up verbs. Now that we’ve covered nouns, pronouns, and verbs, we’ll be trying to cover subject-verb agreement quickly before the PASS test.
Fourth period almost completed work on clauses. We’ll be starting a new unit on Great Expectations, with a grammatical focus on phrases, clasuses, and sentence types, and we are [...]

First, second, and seventh periods went over linking verbs in a desperate attempt to get subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement finished before the PASS writing test next week. We should finish up working on verbs tomorrow.
Fourth period went over clauses, both independent and dependant/subordinate. This is in preparation for Great Expectations, when one of the grammar [...]

All classes went to the spring book fair today. This year we were given only fifteen minutes in the fair, which seemed fair enough.
Afterward, first and seventh periods began working on linking verbs, with the eventual goal of working on subject/verb agreement.
Second period evaluated their PASS exams.
Fourth period worked on quoting and the use of [...]

I’ve been sharing example songs for English I students to get an idea of how the soundtrack project should be. I’ve created a small sample of the song we went over today at the beginning of class.

We had a late start, so first period didn’t have class today. Second period only had twenty minutes; we continued our whirlwind review of the parts of speech.
Fourth period continued watching Romeo + Juliet and discussed a little about the project.
Seventh period did first period’s work from yesterday, so the two classes are now caught [...]

Whew — what an odd day. First period went over yesterday’s test, as did second period. Additionally, first period began working with verbs. Second period didn’t get that far: Dr. Mark made the announcement regarding the early dismissal, and it became almost impossible to get back to work. (It also didn’t help that we had [...]

First, second, and seventh periods all had a test on nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. We spent the remainder of the time going over examples of PASS writing test responses, evaluating and discussing the individual essays’ strengths and weaknesses.
Fourth period took the final quiz on Romeo and Juliet and we continued watching the film version. We’ll [...]