Today we talked about Aristotle’s system of rhetoric. Here’s a short video that explains some of it:

I gave you an excerpt from a chapter of a book on the Japanese invasion of China in World War II to read as background for the Joy Luck Club and practice in rhetorical analysis: The Rape of Nanking Reading. That reading guide will be due Thursday (not tomorrow).

We also spent some time setting up Khan Academy accounts. For homework tonight, I would like for you to try doing the nouns activities. If you run into technical issues or can’t get to all of it, that’s okay – let me know tomorrow. This is a new system for us, and we’re working through some of the set-up and glitches.

Today we took our grammar review quiz. We’ll be going over some of the questions that a lot of people missed later in the week.

No homework except to finish your essays on the Odyssey!

A few very important reminders:

• Make certain that you will have a copy of The Joy Luck Club by next Friday. I gave you the option of finding your own copy, purchasing one for $12, or checking one out from Bellaire.
• We’ll also have a grammar review quiz on Monday.

With our time today, students worked in their groups on their thematic essays about the Odyssey. You will have time after your quiz on Monday to finish these, and they will be due on Tuesday.

As we have discussed in class, we are starting The Joy Luck Club next week. I gave you three options for getting the book: 1) finding it yourself, if you would like to see if you can get a used copy from Half Price Books or if you already have it, 2) ordering a copy of your own to keep for $12 from Bellaire, or 3) checking a copy out from Bellaire.

If you decided to find the book yourself, here is the Amazon link to it.

If you’re ordering it from a local bookseller, the title is The Joy Luck Club. The author is Amy Tan, and the ISBN is 0143038095.

Please make sure that you have your book by Friday, October 20.

If you ordered a book from the school, please bring your $12 to school on Monday or Tuesday.

If you’re checking out a book from the school, I’ll help you with that next week.

Today we talked about the ending of the Odyssey, and then I announced our last Odyssey-related task: a group essay over a theme. Here are those instructions and topics: The Odyssey – Group Essay on Theme.

Homework for tonight is to work on this. I also told you that you’ll have all of tomorrow and the time after your quiz on Monday. This assignment will be due on Tuesday.

Remember that we’re having a showing of O Brother, Where Art Thou? tomorrow!

Thank you for your hard work on the PSAT! Homework was to read the second part of the Penelopiad and complete the reading guide (The Penelopiad Part 2 Reading Guide   The Penelopiad – The Maids).

Here are the results from today’s quiz – good show! I’m really proud of you and impressed. Quite a few of you who have struggled on the last two really brought up your scores, and it seems like those of you who studied saw that reflected in your grades.

The average score across all classes was a round 90.0. And 17 people had perfect scores! 🙂

IMPORTANT: Please remember to go to your assigned room for the PSAT tomorrow!

A few of you sent me into a panic this afternoon when you asked where the PSAT tickets I was supposed to give you were. I did some checking with other English teachers, and no one was given tickets to pass out to students. If you want a ticket, you can print one out from your College Board account, or you can just show up to your room assignment tomorrow.

Here are those room assignments:

As for today, we took your third vocabulary and grammar quiz. If you missed it, please come in on Friday during lunch to make it up.

No homework tonight! Get a good night’s rest!

Hi, students –

Unfortunately, I have caught a cold and won’t be able to be with you on Monday. I have asked your substitute to give you the reading and reading guide (The Penelopiad, Part 1). Please read this in class silently and answer the questions on your own. You’ll turn that in to me at the beginning of class on Tuesday, when we will take the vocabulary and grammar quiz.

Please be very, very good for your substitute – I want to hear that he or she was so impressed with your intelligence and comportment!

-Ms. Chapman

We finished the Odyssey! Our study of this epic poem culminated in a nice conversation and a viewing of Crash Course:

With our remaining time, we finished vocabulary are discussed adjectives and adverbs (please see the grammar tab for those resources).

You don’t have any reading or homework for the weekend, but please be studying for your vocabulary and grammar quiz on Monday! (Remember that Vocabulary.com is a great resource for this.)