Tag Archives: theme

Sound Devices, Theme, and Narrative Poetry

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First and sixth periods worked with theme. Second and fourth periods completed their look at consonance, assonance, and rhyme. Seventh period began a long narrative poem that we all remember from middle school, “The Highwayman.”

Homework
  • First and sixth periods: make a list of the stories we read in the unit. For each story, make a sub-point list that includes:
    • characters,
    • setting, and
    • conflict.
  • Second and fourth period: determine the rhyme scheme of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet XVIII.”
  • Seventh period: none.

Ballads Completed, Sound Devices, and Short Stories

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First and sixth periods continued working with short stories. We’ll be finishing up the unit tomorrow and preparing for Tuesday’s test on Monday.

Second and fourth periods began looking at the musicality of poetry, specifically be examining sound devices.

Seventh period completed the four-day (though it was supposed to be only three-day) ballad lesson.

Homework
  • First period:
    • read “Thank You, M’am”;
    • complete six “Say Something” annotations in writing using four of the five skills.
  • Second and fourth periods:
    • re-read “The Gift” and find two examples of consonance and two examples of assonance;
    • read “Possum Crossing” (697) and fine one example of consonance and one example of assonance.
  • Sixth period:
    • complete questions 1-5 at the end of “Thank You, M’am”;
    • write a brief description of what you think the theme of the story is.
  • Seventh period: write a letter about the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing (the subject of “The Ballad of Birmingham”). Address your letter either to one of the mothers of the victims or one of the perpetrators.

To the parent that was asking about the organization of the binder: you’ll find that material here.

Point of View

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First period did some general catch-up work. Second period finished The Giver. Fourth period began discussing point of view in Great Expectations. Seventh period didn’t have class.

Homework
  • First, fourth, and seventh periods: none.
  • Second period:
    • read Louis Lowery’s Newberry Acceptance Speech;
    • determine two or three possible themes for The Giver.

Displacement and Mood

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First, fourth, and sixth periods began a new selection that will focus on mood. Our first task: determine what mood is and how writers create it. And to do that, we … listened to music and watched movie trailers. We did this to see what mood is: an atmosphere created by a work of art. We watched a trailer for a romantic comedy, then watched a re-cut version of the trailer that made the film appear to be a horror film. We then transitioned to mood in writing, looking at three ways writers create mood.

Second period continued I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. We looked at the continuing theme of displacement and how that theme is manifested in the dentist episode and Bailey’s encounter with a dead body.

Homework
  • First, fourth, and sixth periods: “Mood” handout, exercise A, numbers 1-3.
  • Second period: Read chapters 26, 27.