Today we read a piece of short fiction related to some of the themes in The Hot Zone – “The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allen Poe. Here’s the story and the reading guide (the-masque-of-the-red-death).

I’m sorry for the late post! WordPress seemed to be having trouble last night. On Monday we took our vocabulary quiz – the most common score was a 100! I passed out Reading Guide 5 (the-hot-zone-reading-guide-5), which will be due on Wednesday.

We spent all of today talking about what we have read! I distributed your reading guide 4 (the-hot-zone-reading-guide-4), which is due on Monday. Please also make sure that you are ready for your vocab quiz (no grammar!).

Today students finished reading and responding to “Wild Flavor” – we’ll talk about it in class tomorrow (along with Reading Guide 3). There’s no additional homework!

We had lots going on today! I told you that I will be out tomorrow taking my French family to the rodeo in San Antonio, and I gave you the materials that you will need for tomorrow.

Today we read an article of literary criticism about Dracula (a-disease-with-a-bite-reading) and you began writing a precis using the Google Classroom.

Tomorrow you will turn in your Reading Guide 2 and will finish writing your precis. You will also start reading another article (wild-flavor-abridged) and complete a reading guide (wild-flavor-reading-guide).

And I went ahead and gave you the third reading guide, which is due on Friday (the-hot-zone-reading-guide-3).

We had some interesting discussions about Ebola today! Homework for the next two nights is Reading Guide 2 (the-hot-zone-reading-guide-2), which is due Wednesday. With the remainder of class, students took this week’s grammar and vocab quiz. We had a lot of people who were absent, so if you fall into that category, please come make it up Friday during lunch.

Sorry this is a little late! The website was having trouble uploading documents.

On Friday we went over the first vocabulary list for The Hot Zone (under the Vocabulary section). Students also practiced rhetorical analysis by looking at some political cartoons (ebola-political-cartoons).

Lots of stuff going on today:

1. We checked out copies of The Hot Zone. (And if you still have not brought back your copy of Dracula, please get that to me ASAP.)
2. I gave you your first reading guide (the-hot-zone-reading-guide-1) and told you that it is due Monday.
3. We went over using the pronouns “who” and “whom,” which will be on your quiz on Monday. Check the grammar section of the website for the handout.
4. We introduced rhetorical analysis as one of the main skills for this next unit and students began to practice it using this handout (in-the-shadow-of-ebola-rhetorical-analysis-viewing-guide) and this video.

We celebrated our last day of Dracula with a reading of the play version! After the performance, students answered a few questions about drama as a genre. If you were absent, please come get those as paper copies from me.

Happy Valentine’s Day! It seemed like it was quite a celebration today!

We went over a few general announcements:

• You should be finished with Dracula tomorrow, as we will have a reading check over the final chapters.
• If you checked out a copy of the book from the school, please bring it to turn in tomorrow.
• We’ll have an extra credit move (Contagion) on Friday.

Today in class, we read an excerpt from a book of literary criticism about vampires and other monsters. If you were absent, please pick up a paper copy from me.