Happy Last Day of February!

Today we took the first part of our mock STAAR exam. I know that it’s not exactly riveting, but I appreciate your good efforts. No new homework — please just make sure that you finish the first reading guide for The Hot Zone.

Thanks!

Happy Tuesday! Today students wrote their grammar sentence — if you were absent, please come make those up on Friday. We also went over Hot Zone Vocabulary List 2; students worked on the practice quiz in the back of their books.

The extra credit movie for the week is Contagion.

Homework (due on Thursday) is the Hot Zone Reading Guide 1 (The Hot Zone Reading Guide 1

Today we will be taking our Dracula critical reading exam. After you are finished/for homework, please complete this viewing guide (In the Shadow of Ebola Rhetorical Analysis Viewing Guide) and view this film. **Note — at the 15:10 to 15:45 mark, there is a scene in which a boy is shot because of the quarantine. I would recommend skipping this.

On these days, we acted out some sections for the play version of Dracula. Thank you so much to both our actors and audience — I had a blast, and I hope that you did too.

Please remember to complete your last Dracula reading guides — 26 and 27. On Tuesday, we will be starting The Hot Zone. And on Monday, of course, we will have a Dracula-themed critical reading multiple choice exam. As I said in class, it will involve STAAR- and AP-style questions over poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. This is an assessment of skills, not content, so I don’t recommend spending a lot of time trying to study.

On Wednesday, we went over the sentence styles you will need to be able to demonstrate next Tuesday (without notes or assistance, for a grade): Sentences Feb 27.

Homework was Chapter 25 of Dracula: we’re almost finished!

Today in class, please do the following:

1. Read the academic article “A Disease with a Bite: Vampirism and Infection Theories in Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (A Disease with a Bite Reading).
2. Write a one-page summary and analysis of the rhetoric used in the article. What is the author’s thesis? What logical arguments and evidence does he use to support that thesis?
3. Submit that to Turnitin.com.

Homework is Chapter 24 of Dracula!

Quiz day! Please make sure that you finish reading Chapter 23 and complete the reading guide.

We will be starting The Hot Zone on the week of February 26. You have a few options for getting a book; you can check on out from the school, you can buy one yourself (here is the Amazon link), or you can bring $6 to school by Wednesday and I’ll order one for you.

A bit of an update — we have been asked to wait just a little bit to give you the practice STAAR exam. So instead, on Monday, you will have a quiz over Hot Zone Vocabulary List 1 (and only those words — no review words, grammar multiple choice, or sentences).

All of the Hot Zone vocabulary lists have been loaded into Vocabulary.com, so you can practice to help you study.

Please make sure that you read Dracula Chapter 22 and complete the reading guide for homework.

On Thursday, we went over another poem and some multiple choice questions (The Giaour). Please don’t throw this out — you will need it for something next week.

Homework was Chapter 21 of Dracula.