First period began the last section of poetry for the week: imagery. We looked at one particularly amusing poem called “The Country” by former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins (Wikipedia overview).
I particularly like Collins’ work. His poetry is very accessible and yet has a certain calm depth to it. I use “The Country” for a [...]

Everyone, once again, was working on poetry today.
First period finished looking at figurative language today. We ended by adding a poem to the poetry project list of required poems: a poem about urban and/or rural life. (All three poems we read for figurative language dealt with the city.)
One of the poems we read, “Harlem Night [...]

First period finished up the mini-unit on sound devices and moved on to figurative language:

simile,
metaphor, and
personification.

We began by looking at one poem (“Concrete Mixers”) in pairs for examples of all three forms of figurative language.
We’ll be having a quiz tomorrow on the vocabulary terms in “Concrete Mixers”.
Second period worked on Homeric similes before starting with [...]

No update yesterday as I was at home sick.
Today, fourth and sixth periods went over a review of sound devices and the three poems we used to learn about them.
Second period reviewed the first part of the Odyssey.

Second period read one of the most famous episodes in the entire Odyssey: the Sirens, and the passage between Scylla and Charybdis.
First period continued working on sound devices. We also switched at the end of class from examining the language of the poems to examining more carefully the meaning of the poems.
Fourth and sixth periods [...]

First things first: I made a blunder during second period. We were looking at Odysseus’s journey to the underworld and his meeting with Tiresias. I mentioned the two famous victims of the underworld, Tantalus and Sisyphus; I elaborated on Sisyphus and the 20th-century French philosopher who designated him an “absurd hero.” I attributed this to [...]

First period worked on poetry. Specifically, we finished up the selections by Jacqueline Woodson and began the next collection of three poems.
Second period spent some time in the library doing research for their cyclops poem and project.
Fourth and sixth periods looked at a second poem by Jacqueline Woodson, “Almost a Summer Sky.” We used this [...]

First, fourth, and sixth periods worked on poetry, specifically Jacqueline Woodson’s “Describe Someone.” We practiced as a class revising lines to add alliteration and consonance. Students will be doing the same to their own poems for homework.
Second period went over the Cyclops episode in the Odyssey.
Homework

First period:

read “Summer Sky”;
answer questions on pages 227-229 in workbook.

Second period:

semi-long [...]

Second period began looking at the elements of the Coen brothers’ film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? that are taken directly from the Odyssey. We’ll be watching five scenes, and we began today with the Coen brothers’ take on the Lotus Eaters.
First period worked on a rather lengthy quiz, then created signs in Microsoft Publisher [...]

All classes are working on poetry. First period has spent a couple of days doing a refresher on the basic elements of poetry. We’ll have a quiz tomorrow.
Fourth and sixth periods began poetry today. We took a leisurely time discussing poetry and what it is for us personally.
Second period is working on the poem, the [...]

First period began the poetry unit by looking at several elements of poetry, including:

consonnance
assonance
alliteration
simile
metaphor
personification

Second period began reading the Odyssey after we had a quiz on it.
Fourth and sixth periods completed their work on their “Works Cited” page.
No homework for any classes today.

First period completed a second round of MAP testing. We were unable to do anything else today.
Second period began the Odyssey. We looked at elements of the epic form and discussed the background to the Odyssey.
Fourth and sixth periods worked on creating “Works Cited” pages.
Homework

First period: none
Second period:

vocabulary work;
study for quiz.

Fourth period: create “Works Cited” [...]