Lots of important announcements to kick off today!

1. I passed out the instructions for your self-selected book project today. You’ll be writing a letter to someone about your book. Here is an electronic copy – Free Choice Reading Letter-Writing Project – note that you need to turn in a paper copy of FIVE quotes from the first half of your book with annotations on Friday. I want to emphasize that expect your annotations to be substantive – I need to see sophisticated analysis and insight to give you full credit. If you submit something slapdash, don’t be surprised when your grade is mediocre.
2. I will be out on Thursday, so please bring your community class items (tissues, etc.) on Friday. The substitute should not take them. Those are very important, students!
3. Bring your free-choice book with you on Thursday in case you have time after you have completed the activity for the day.
4. You are required to get one of the PowerUp laptops for this class. If you have not already done so, you need to turn your form into the office with a $25 deposit. (If money is an issue, Mr. McDonough has told us the school is committed to finding a way to make it affordable for you.) I will be taking a grade on whether you have taken care of this business by Tuesday.

Today in class, we read the short story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.” Here is an electronic copy of that story, in case you would like to continue reading at home:

SLHFGRBW – Story

Your vocabulary list will be posted shortly in the Vocabulary section. Your vocabulary assignment for the weekend will be to either write one sentence for each word or (10 bonus points) write a story using all the words.

Homework for tonight was to illustrate a quote from the story. I passed out the selected quotes to students today in class, but if you lost yours or were absent, just choose one from this file and print it:

SLHFGRBW – Plot Illustrations

Your illustrations are due to the substitute tomorrow. As I said in class, I won’t grade you on your artistic talent, but I will grade you on:

• Neatness
• Detail
• Whether the illustration is colored

Since I will be out tomorrow, I’ll post the agenda for Thursday some time this afternoon – you can begin working on tomorrow’s homework if you’re feeling peppy!