English Studies (fifth period) began looking at the film version of Nightjohn to compare it to the book. We’ll be working on this all week.

English Strategies (fourth period) completed chapter five, with a few comprehension questions and some more theme work.

English I Honors began looking at the role connotation plays in poetry by looking at Lorna Dee Cervantes’ poem “Starfish.”

They were lovely in the quartz and jasper sand
As if they had created terrariums with their bodies
On purpose; adding sprigs of seaweed, seashells,
white feathers, eel bones, miniature
mussels, a fish jaw. Hundreds; no-
thousands of baby stars. We touched them,
surprised to find them soft, pliant, almost
living in their attitudes. We would dry them, arrange them,
Form seascapes, geodesics…We gathered what we could
In the approaching darkness. then we left hundreds of
thousands of flawless five-fingered specimens sprawled
Along he beach as far as we could see, all massed
Together: little martyrs, soldiers, artless suicides
In lifelong liberation from the sea. So many
Splayed hands, the tide shoveled in.

We focused on the words “martyrs” and “shoveled” (bold in the poem above).

Homework

• English 8: complete the themes project by Wednesday.
• English I Honors: complete the poetry forum question for “Starfish” and then respond to three others’ replies.