After our discussion of the second part of the Penelopiad, we began talking about verbs (please see the grammar section of the website for the notes and lesson).

There’s no homework for the weekend, but you will have an essay quiz over the Odyssey on Monday!

Today we talked about some of the major issues in the Penelopiad, and we continued working with NoRedInk.com. Homework for tonight is the second part of the Penelopiad (The Penelopiad Part 2 Reading Guide  and  The Penelopiad – The Maids).

We had our last talk about the Odyssey today! It was an epic adventure for us as readers. We also talked about what happens to the characters after the epic is over, and we watched John Green’s summary and analysis:

Homework for tonight is to read the first part of the Penelopiad (The Penelopiad Part 1 Reading Guide and  The Penelopiad – Penelope).

Finally, we will be watching O Brother, Where Art Thou? this Friday after school. The movie will be finished at 5:45 PM.

We had a lively discussion about Odysseus’s scheme of revenge in class today! Students also worked on their diagnostic for NoRedInk. Homework for tonight will be Books 23 and 24 (13 – Books 23 and 24 and Books 23 and 24 Reading Guide).

Please make sure that you have joined Noredink.com using the links in the post immediately below this one.

After our quiz over nouns today, students began working on a diagnostic using Noredink.com — you did not need to finish that (I will give you time in class tomorrow).

Please make sure to read Books 21 and 22 tonight and complete that reading guide (12 – Books 21 and 22 and Books 21 and 22 Reading Guide).

Period 3 — Click here!

Period 4 — Click here!

Period 6 — Click here!

Period 7 — Click here!

We had just enough time in our shorted periods to talk about the Odyssey today! Please remember that you have a quiz over nouns on Monday.

It was an easy going day today! Students had some time to read The Odyssey and work on their questions. The reading guide for Book 15, 16, and 17 is due tomorrow (Books 15, 16, and 17 Reading   and    Guide10 – Books 15, 16, and 17); 18, 19, and 20 will be due on Monday (Books 18, 19, and 20 Reading Guide  and  11 – Books 18, 19, and 20).

A few important announcements:

1. Our quiz on Monday will be over nouns, not vocabulary.
2. If you were here for the extra credit movie last week, you know that we had some problems with HISD’s wifi and had to watch the second half of the Odyssey movie (the 1997 version) instead of Unbroken.
   1. If you weren’t there to watch the second part of the Odyssey, you can watch that on your own this weekend, take one page of notes, and give that to me on Monday for extra credit on this week’s Odyssey Vocab 3 quiz.
   2. We are watching Unbroken this Friday! It’s an early release day, so the film will start at 1:30 PM and be finished by 3:45 PM.

In class, we talked about Odysseus’s final adventures before returning to Ithaca and looked at a poem about Circe (PIE Paragraph 3).

Homework for tonight is to read Books 13 and 14 (9 – Books 13 and 14Books 13 and 14 Reading Guide) and complete the reading guide — you had about a 15-minute head start on that in class today.

We had a lively discussion about the world of the dead today in class. After that, students completed some practice on nouns (please come get a paper copy) and began reading Book 12 and completing the reading guide (8 – Book 12 and Book 12 Reading Guide), which is due tomorrow.