Today students took a STAAR-style test connected to Dracula. If you were absent, please come make this up on Thursday during lunch. Homework is to make some progress on your group play scenes and individual Dracula project.

Today students read a short poem and answered some multiple choice questions about it — if you were absent, please come make this up. We continued to read the play version of Dracula; although you don’t have homework, you should be working on your project at home.

Today in class we looked at the first part of the Dracula play and continued to review parts of speech. Your homework is to work on your individual Dracula project, due on Monday the 24th.

Today we finished talking about the text of the novel Dracula — now we’ll be moving on to the play. A few important announcements:

1. You won’t have a vocabulary quiz on Monday; instead, you’ll have a STAAR-style exam related to Dracula. It will consist of a fiction passage, a nonfiction passage, and a poem that you have not read before, and you will be assessed on critical reading ability using multiple choice questions.
2. Although you don’t have reading homework over the next two weeks, you do have an individual project (Dracula Creative Response) — this will be due on Monday, February 24. Please work ahead so that you don’t have an overwhelming amount of work the weekend before it’s due.
3. You will also be working in groups to perform a scene from the play next Thursday and Friday during class (the 20th and the 21st). Here are those instructions (Dracula Scene Performance Rubric and Play Sections).

Today students took their Dracula List 3 quiz; if you were absent or did not take it for some reason, please make it up on THURSDAY during lunch instead of Friday, when I have a meeting.

Homework was Chapter 16 (Dracula Reading Guide – Chapter 16 v2).

Today we talked about Dracula, reviewed some parts of speech, and began working with Dracula Vocabulary List 3. Homework is Chapter 14 (Dracula Reading Guide – Chapter 14).

Today we finished the mock STAAR — if you need more time, please just come in Thursday or Friday during lunch. Homework is Chapter 13 of Dracula (Dracula Reading Guide – Chapter 13).

Today we started working on the district-required mock STAAR exam. This will count for a small amount in the gradebook. We’ll continue working on this tomorrow, but if you were absent today, you’ll probably need to come in to lunch on Friday. No extra homework for tonight for periods 1, 2, 4, and 6!

Today in class, students took their grammar quiz. Homework is Chapter 12 (Dracula Reading Guide – Chapter 12) for periods 1, 2, 4, and 6, and Chapter 11 (see Friday’s post) for period 7.

On Friday, period 1, 2, and 4 worked on Chapter 11 (Dracula Reading Guide – Chapter 11) in class, while periods 6 and 7 went to the Chinese New Year performance as a bit of a treat.

**Note — I didn’t get a chance to give period 7 this homework, so you all will just be one day behind the other periods for a while.