English 8 students worked on their Halloween story, "The Tell-Tale Heart." We made it through the first four paragraphs: we're working on annotations and a summary, so it takes a bit of time to go...
Archive
What our classroom did in previous days, weeks, months, even years…
Figurative Language, Meter, and Poe Writing
English I students finished up the work on figurative language, examining metaphors, similies, personification, hyperbole, and idioms to determine the tenor and the vehicle. We then went over meter...
Quarter 1 Benchmark Testing and the Effects
All students began the day with the first benchmark of the quarter. We'll go over the results at some point next week, but since the test is proprietary, we won't be able to look at or discuss the...
Villanelle and Summary
English I students worked on "One Art," finishing up the somewhat challenging poem and determining: the initial tone the location of the tonal shift the meaning of the lyric moment Afterward, we...
Homework Only
We're only going over homework today. It's Friday -- too tired to do much else.
Tonal Shift and Central Idea
English I students finished up "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," realizing that despite it's apparent difficulty, it's really a rather straightforward poem. Afterward, we used "Good Night"...
Tone and a New Unit
English I students continued with tone, returning to "The Lanyard" to notice how the poet carefully built the humor: We'll do some more tone work tomorrow, adding a new element to explain that...
Test and Final Writing
English I students had their parts of speech test. English 8 students worked on their final drafts of their technology arguments. [gallery type="slideshow" link="file" size="medium"...
Writing, Poetry, and Review
English I students had a final bit of in-class practice with parts of speech identification before tomorrow's test. Afterward, we went over "The Lanyard," covering first the allusion to Proust's ...
First Day Back
English I students worked on a parts-of-speech review before the (likely) test on Friday. Afterward, we began working on tone in poetry. Students received an expansive list of tone words, which...
Teacher Work Day
We're all looking forward to seeing you guys tomorrow. We're glad to be getting back to some semblance of normal for most of us. See you tomorrow!
Waltz Completion and Argument Progress
English I students finished up their work on the poem "My Papa's Waltz," determining that we have to be somewhat careful about reading too much into something based on connotation alone without...