Happy Halloween!

We started today by adding your Nollop poems to our Dia de los Muertos altar. So far, they look beautiful!

I gave you an optional review for your test over the first half of the Odyssey on Monday, and an assignment about irony in the Odyssey to finish for homework. Here are those documents: Review for Odyssey Exam Part 1 Irony Review

Here are the irony videos, if you would like to review:

During class, we read book 12 of the Odyssey, and students wrote a PIE paragraph (P-I-E-I-E-I-E) responding to the question, “How does Homer depict women in Book 12 of the Odyssey?”

Have a good holiday today!

Today we talked about… THE LAND OF THE DEAD!

We read Book 11 of the Odyssey (the “Nekyia” – or THE SUMMONING OF THE DEAD!), on pages 1226-1230. Here’s what we used to discuss it: The Odyssey Book 11

Homework is to have your Day of the Dead poems ready to go! 🙂

Two-Sentence Scary Stories!

Today in class, we are talking about two sentence scary stories. Please see me for a handout. Your homework is to submit three two-sentence scary stories. These must be totally your own work!

Period 1, submit your scary stories here.

Period 3, submit your scary stories here.

Period 4, submit your scary stories here.

Period 6, submit your scary stories here.

Period 7, submit your scary stories here.

We started today by watching this incredibly cute short video about the holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead – November 1).

After that, we talked about an Ella Minnow Pea project that is due Friday – a Day of the Dead poem to a fallen letter from the alphabet. Here is an electronic copy of that assignment: EMP Day of the Dead

Next, we read pages 1224 and 1225 from the textbook – Book 10 of the Odyssey, where Odysseus encounters the witch goddess Circe. We watched that section from the film (starting at around the 52:00 mark):

We discussed that section of the epic using this PowerPoint: The Odyssey Book 10

And your homework for tonight (due tomorrow) was to write a PIE paragraph about Circe. Here is an electronic copy of that document: PIE Paragraph 3

We took our vocabulary test today. I scanned your exams after school, and while I did not have time to enter them into Gradespeed, it looked like you all did (on the whole) very, very well – there were tons of 100’s, and even more A’s!

Remember that tomorrow your last Ella Minnow Pea reading guide is due!

Hi students:

I wanted to highly, highly recommend that you use the review I made for your test on Monday. Here it is again: EMP Vocabulary Test Review

If you complete this and bring it on Monday, I’ll give you some for of extra credit (the other teachers and I haven’t decided exactly what form that will take yet).

Today in class, we did PIE Paragraph #2 about Odysseus and Polyphemous: PIE Paragraph 2

With the rest of time after that, students worked on composing their first drafts of their This I Believe essays. We’ll revise those tomorrow, so it’s important that you have yours ready to go.

No homework tonight other than finishing your essay if you didn’t already do that in class. I told you that I would highly, highly recommend that you study for Monday’s vocabulary test using the review that I posted online.

See you tomorrow!

EMP Vocabulary Test Review

Lots of announcements today!

1. No new vocabulary words this week. Instead, you will have a test over the EMP words we have done so far on Monday. Theoretically, this shouldn’t be too difficult, because every word will be one that you have already scene. The intention here is to give you lots of chances to practice, because you will see these words again on your final exam in December. I’ll give you an optional review that should help you study.
2. Homework for tonight is to read this short story: Blindness Story
3. I’m extending the due date for the EMP Reading Guide 5 until Tuesday.

In class, we listened to two short This I Believe essays – here are those links:

1. http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/news/1241557066/
2. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5387045

And here are copies of the essays: WITSGreenHairSpikes    WITSRemembering_All_the_Boys

We worked on pre-writing for our own TIB essays: WITSThisIBelievePre-WritingHandout2014-2

Today we watched the Cyclops section of the Odyssey movie here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J0KzoJSAyY

(from about 30:30 to about 40:30)

Following that, we spent the rest of class talking about this episode from the Odyssey, using this PowerPoint: The Odyssey Book 9

I also gave you the fifth reading guide for Ella Minnow Pea, which is due on Friday. Here is an electronic copy: EMP Reading Guide 5