English I Honors students finished up our whirlwind overview of meter in poetry before taking some time to work on their poetry projects. I’ve updated the rubric, specifically regarding the analysis of figurative language or sound devices. The new rubric is available here.

English 8 Strategies began working on their projects, an analytic paragraph of either Flowers for Algernon or The Outsiders (depending on which literature teacher they have). Those working on Flowers for Algernon (first period) have these prompts to help guide their writing:

1. Our relationships with other people are more important than our achievements.
2. It is better to accept your fate than to try to change it. (“Fate” means destiny.)
3. It is important to have empathy for others. (“Empathy” means more than sympathy: it means not just feeling sorry for someone but feeling the same thing with someone.)
4. Sometimes, it’s better to remain ignorant about certain things. (“Ignorant” doesn’t mean stupid; it just means you don’t know something.)

Students working on The Outsiders (fifth period) have these prompts to help guide their writing:

1. We can often misunderstand people for a very long time, and when we find out the truth, it can be too late.
2. Sometimes, people’s lives aren’t what they seem. People who seem happy and liked are in fact miserable.
3. Some people are so bad that they cannot be saved. There are people who are “past the point of return” and can not be turned into good people.
4. Sometimes when people are abused, they come to see it as normal. For them, it’s almost not abuse any more but it’s simply “how things are.”

The rubric is available here.

Creative writing students continued with their Reflections contest essays.

Homework

• English I Honors: work on poetry project.