A big THANK YOU to you, students, for representing Bellaire so well on our field trip today! I think our tour guides and teachers at the Chinese Community Center were really impressed with your curiosity and maturity. It looked as though you had a lot of fun – and learned something too!

Tomorrow in class, we will go over CMC Reading Guide 1, and then you will have the remainder of the period to finish Reading Guide 2, since we have to turn it in on Friday to stay on schedule.

Tomorrow is the big day! Please make sure that you have reviewed the field trip info from the class website.

Today in class, we looked at those pieces of artwork relating to the French Revolution, and then students completed the Count of Monte Cristo Vocabulary List #1 Vocabulary.com “quiz” (you are allowed to use your blue vocabulary book and an online dictionary, but not share answers with friends!). Most students had some time remaining to work on their CMC Reading Guide 1.

We talked about our schedule for the week. CMC Reading Guide 1 will be due on Thursday since we are on the field trip tomorrow. To be able to finish the book by the end of the semester, we have to do two reading guides this week, so CMC Reading Guide 2 (CMC Reading Guide 2) will be due on Friday, but I will give you at least half of the class period on Thursday to work on that.

On Monday, students will take an exam over parts of speech. Here is the study guide for that (Parts of Speech Review). You are not required to complete the study guide, but I think it would be a very good idea to use it to prepare. We’ll go over the study guide in class on Friday.

Today we are beginning the Count of Monte Cristo! We’re starting with a lot of historical background so that we can understand why the characters behave as they do.

Here is a basic background guide (CMC Schema Study Guide).

Here is tonight’s homework (The French Revolution and Art Notes).

You will need to watch Crash Course: The French Revolution to be able to answer the questions:

You will also need to do an Internet search to look at the images (search for them using the title). (I’m not able to upload them to the website right now for some reason).

The first CMC reading guide will be due on Thursday (CMC Reading Guide 1).

Some very important information about our upcoming field trip to Chinatown on Wednesday:

1. If you are NOT going on the field trip, you should report to Ms. Newton’s room (140, by the elevator on the first floor) at the beginning of your English class period.
2. For everyone else – go to your first period class at the usual time on Wednesday. Ask your teacher to let you leave at 8:15 AM. DO NOT BRING YOUR BACKPACK OR YOUR LAPTOP. Leave those at school or at home.
3. Meet the buses at the South Rice side of the school.
4. Here is the system of bus assignments:
   1. Ms. Chapman’s Period 3 – Bus #3
   2. Ms. Chapman’s Period 4 – Buses #1 and #3 (make sure you know which bus you are going on!)
   3. Ms. Chapman’s Period 6 – Bus # 5
   4. Ms. Chapman’s Period 7 – Bus #1
5. If you have a special dietary need, we will have food for you at lunch – but you are responsible for telling your waiter what you cannot eat since we won’t have assigned seating.
6. We will return to school around 2:30 PM. Report to your 7th period. If you do not attend, you will be marked as truant.
7. Ask your teachers today and tomorrow what you will be missing. See if you can get any assignments you need ahead of time. Be very polite!

If (and only if) you have a special dietary or medical need that we should take into account when preparing for our field trip, please complete the survey below. (This information will be kept confidential.) If you do not have a special dietary or medical need, you do NOT need to complete this form.

Field Trip Special Need Form

We had a brief chat about JLC, and then students had time to work on their group essays. Here is tonight’s reading: The Joy Luck Club Reading Guide 15.

Please remember to be thinking about what you would like to do for your Count of Monte Cristo book. You can check one out from the school (but you can’t write in it), get one on your own (make sure that you get the correct edition!), or purchase one from the school for $7.

Sorry for the late post! WordPress was having some trouble last night and throughout the day, although it appears to be working now.

On Tuesday, after our JLC discussion, we introduced the group essay for this novel (The Joy Luck Club Essay on Theme – 2017). You’ll have time to work in class throughout this week, and your essay will be due at the end of class on Friday.

Homework was the 14th JLC reading guide (The Joy Luck Club Reading Guide 14).

Four days to go! We can make it!

After your quiz, I gave you some time for tonight’s reading guide, since the chapter is a bit longer that usual (The Joy Luck Club Reading Guide 13).

Also, if you have not already done so, please bring your field trip stuff tomorrow!!!

I asked you to bring headphones tomorrow, but I was looking at our schedule, and I think it would be better to use our time in a different way (I’ll explain tomorrow). So if you were going to go to a lot of trouble for the headphones, don’t worry about it!

Finally, when we return from Thanksgiving, we will begin our next book – The Count of Monte Cristo! You can check a book out from the school, purchase your own copy (here’s a link), or purchase one from the school (which is yours to write in and keep) for $7. If you acquire your own book, it must be the Bantam Classics abridged edition!

Hi students:

I would like to show you the Joy Luck Club film next week (it’s a really outstanding adaptation – Amy Tan co-wrote the screenplay).

This film is rated R and will require parent permission, although I will be skipping over some of the more mature scenes.

I’m trying to figure out if it’s better to have it on Thursday or Friday of next week, though, given that we’ll be on Thanksgiving break the following week and people might have travel plans. Would you please help me decide by responding to this quick survey?

After our JLC discussion today, we looked at the last part of speech we need to cover (although we’ll circle back to some others later) – interjections! Those materials are under the “Grammar” section of the website.

Homework for the weekend is to complete the conjunction and preposition videos and exercises on Khan Academy. Your Monday quiz will focus on conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections, but will also contain some review material from previous grammar objectives. (Just to be clear, there will not be any vocabulary.)