On Monday, students took their Count of Monte Cristo exam. Homework for tonight is to master the words on the Dracula Vocabulary List #1 on Vocabulary.com. (As a reminder, you can just click on “Ms. Chapman” under your class vocabulary site and it will take you to the list I generated.)

On Friday, students finished their prepositional phrase practice activity and then had the rest of the period to work on their multigenre projects (due February 23). I emphasized how important it is to be working on those gradually over the next few weeks, as opposed to trying to complete everything the weekend before the project is due.

Please remember – on Monday, CMC reading guide 10 is due, and you will take your CMC novel test! If you haven’t read the book, it will be extremely difficult (nay, impossible!) to pass! 😉

Lots going on today!

We began with an article about revenge and a set of questions: The Complicated Psychology of Revenge

Next, we discussed your Multigenre Portfolio – due on February 23. Definition of Genres and Elements of the Multigenre Essay        Multigenre Rubric

Finally, we practiced identifying prepositional phrases. Prepositional Phrases For each of these sentences, I want you to 1) circle the prepositional phrase, 2) draw an arrow to the word it modifies, and 3) label the phrase as an adjective or adverb.

Homework for tomorrow is CMC reading guide 9.

Please make sure that you bring your (charged) laptop tomorrow!

Today in class, we began with some practice in combining sentences using appositives and present participles. (Please see me for a copy.) Then we discussed irregular verbs (also please see me for a copy of those notes) – if you need some help reviewing irregular verbs, I highly recommend this website.

Finally, we talked about your upcoming Count of Monte Cristo test (on Monday). Here is what you can expect from that:

• No vocabulary
• Quotation-to-character matching
• Multiple-choice questions covering reading guide objectives
  • a selection from the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo
  • poetry related to The Count of Monte Cristo
  • a nonfiction selection related to The Count of Monte Cristo

In terms of studying, my advice to your is that you make sure that you are familiar with the objectives listed on the reading guides.

CMC reading guide 9 is due on Friday; the happiness essay is due tomorrow.

Today we looked at some of the most outstanding essays over ambition, and mined them for strategies that we can apply in our own writing. Students began working on an essay about happiness (due on Thursday): Happiness Essay Prompt Happiness Essay Rubric

Homework for tonight is CMC reading guide 8.

Important Announcement – As we discussed in class today, we will begin reading Dracula on February 23. Students in Ms. Chapman’s Pre-AP English class will need to have a paper copy of the novel (by Bram Stoker) by Monday, February 23. Electronic copies are available for free online – students may print there and bring them to class, if they so choose. Any unabridged edition of the book will suffice. Students may also bring $4 between Wednesday and Friday, and Ms. Chapman will order copies for them.

Today students took their CMC vocabulary list 3 quiz in class. Afterwards, I gave students the rest of the period to finish their CMC reading guide 7 (due tomorrow). If you did not take your quiz today, you must come during Friday’s lunch tutorials to make it up!