In English I, we began Shakespeare proper (1.1.1-30) and discovered that it begins with a little surprise, not entirely pleasant -- a good lesson in the unpredictability of Shakespeare. English 8...
Archive
What our classroom did in previous days, weeks, months, even years…
Overview and Poe
English 8 students continued with a short unit on irony and "The Tell-Tale Heart" for Halloween. We'll be finishing it up early next week. English I Honors students went over the poetry test...
Benchmarking and Irony
English I students had the quarter 1 benchmark test. It took the whole period, and it will require some more time tomorrow as well. We'll be taking another benchmark at the end of the first...
Test Prep and Project Work
English I Honors students worked on their test prep for tomorrow. English 8 students worked on their Nightjohn projects.
Extended Metaphor and Project Work
English I Honors finished the passage from As You Like It as an introduction to the idea of an extended metaphor. English 8 students continued working on their motif/theme project. We'll have two...
Project and Metaphors
English I students looked at metaphors closely, winding up the poetry unit. Today we focused on the function of metaphors: the vehicle/source always adds some meaning to the tenor/target. Students...
Theme and Sonnets
English I Honors students finished with the second sonnet (130), learning about the tonal shift and lyric moment that exists in the sonnets' rhyming couplet. Afterward, students had the final 15...
Sonnets and Theme
English I Honors today put together the last pieces of the sonnet puzzle, adding another tool to their "how do I interpret Shakespeare" toolkit: Then, knowing how each quatrain works, they set out...
Tests
All classes had a test. No homework for anyone tomorrow.
Participles and Parsing
English 8 had review of participles before tomorrow's test, which will include information about participles. English I Honors worked on parsing long Shakespearian sentences. We worked on sonnet 29:...
Tonal Shift and Participles Plus
English 8 students worked on participles in anticipation of the coming test Tuesday on Nightjohn, effective readers' skills, voice/diction, and participles. English I Honors students learned what...
One Art and Effective Readers’ Skills
English I Honors looked at Elizabeth Bishop's masterpiece "One Art." The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster....
