Today we continued to discuss Dracula (Dracula Reading Guide – Chapter 4 — due tomorrow) and practiced composing sentences using appositives. Remember that we’re watching Dracula Untold tomorrow after school!

We spent all of today looking at Dracula — please finish the reading guide for Chapter 3 (Dracula Reading Guide – Chapter 3) by tomorrow.

Today we spent all class talking about Dracula — we discussed the first chapter, looked at the depictions of Dracula in film over the course of the past century, and then listened to part of the audiobook for Chapter 2 (the reading guide for that is due tomorrow — Dracula Reading Guide – Chapter 2).

Today we had our exam over our unit on The Hot Zone. Homework is the first Dracula reading guide, due tomorrow (Dracula Reading Guide – Chapter 1). Please check out the Dracula section of the website for some helpful resources!

We began today with a discussion about some of the context of Dracula (Dracula Schema Guide). With the remainder of class, students completed prewriting for the essays that they will write on Friday (Epidemic Essay Prompt).

Today in class, you will have a choice of things that you can work on:

1. Listening to this podcast and answering these questions (Lore Podcast — due tomorrow).
2. Reading the Hot Zone and working on your last reading guide (The Hot Zone Reading Guide 8 — due Friday).
3. Reading this article (Time 2014 Person of the Year – The Ebola Fighters) in preparation for your exam (worth three grades) on Monday.

Today we had a STAAR- and AP-style reading quiz over “The Masque of the Red Death” and a related nonfiction article.

Please remember that Hot Zone Reading Guide 7 is due tomorrow!

Also, as we discussed in class, our next book is Dracula. I recommend finding your own copy of the Dover Thrift Edition of the book because that one matches the page numbers of the reading guides. The version that school has does NOT match the page numbers of the reading guides. You can purchase one by bringing $7.50 or you can buy one online or you can probably snag a copy from an older sibling or friend.

On our shortened day, we just had time to talk about the most recent section of The Hot Zone and listen to the audio of “The Masque of the Red Death.”

The next reading guide (The Hot Zone Reading Guide 7) is due on Tuesday.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today in class, we practiced answering STAAR and AP-style multiple choice questions over an article (“The Most Terrifying Thing About Ebola”). If you were absent, come get a copy — it’s just for practice, not for a grade.

You will, however, have a similar kind of reading quiz on Monday, so be prepared for questions like what we discussed today.

And once again, no movie tomorrow — you get to leave early, but I have meetings!

I was out for a couple of doctors’ appointments on Wednesday, so you had the day to work on your Hot Zone reading!