Students had more time to work on their Shakespeare research today. If you’re looking for some more information, here are the two sources that I would recommend:

Shakespeare’s Globe in London (where I will be studying this summer!)

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC

After our final discussion of The Glass Castle, we began a project in which students will consult a variety of sources on Shakespeare’s life, world, and works. We’ll spend all of tomorrow finishing the research, and then students will have part of class on Thursday and Friday to create their products (William Shakespeare Background Activity – Artifact and William Shakespeare Background Activity – Notes). The notes should be complete by the end of class tomorrow, and the artifact is due on Tuesday.

Today in class, students wrote essays responding to the “New Face of Hunger” article. If you were absent, please come make it up during lunch either tomorrow or on Friday.

Tomorrow, please have your final Glass Castle reading guides (6) to discuss and turn in. Also, please try to remember to bring your book back, if you checked one out.

Happy three-day-weekend! I know we’re all excited to have a little extra R&R.

Today we discussed the penultimate section of The Glass Castle; the final reading guide (Glass Castle Reading Guide 6) will be due on Tuesday.

As a reminder, you will be writing an essay for a major grade on Monday on the article we discussed earlier in the week. Please make sure that you have read the article BEFORE you come to class, and that you bring your copy (which you may annotate) with you.

Enjoy your Friday off, and I’ll see you after the weekend!

Students seemed to find the poverty simulation activity that we did today (Poverty Simulation Exercise) very interesting! There was no additional homework for tonight – please just make sure that you are ready to turn in Reading Guide 5 tomorrow.

We had some good discussions today about The Glass Castle – I’m glad to see that it looks like most of you are really enjoying the book!

As a reminder, your fifth reading guide will be due on Thursday. We also discussed the essay that you will write for a major grade on Monday in class. The essay will mimic what both the SAT essay and one of the AP Language exam essays will look like in 11th grade. Here is the article to which you will be responding (The New Face of Hunger) and here is the rubric (SAT Practice Rhetorical Analysis Essay Rubric). I told you that the reading guide for the article (The New Face of Hunger Reading Guide) is optional, but highly recommended to ensure that your understanding of the article is sufficient.

And remember – our film for this week will be on Thursday and not Friday! We’ll be watching the 90’s version of Much Ado About Nothing, another romantic comedy.

Today students took their second vocabulary quiz for The Glass Castle. I also gave you the run-down of what’s due when – Reading Guide 4 (Glass Castle Reading Guide 4) is due tomorrow; Reading Guide 5 (Glass Castle Reading Guide 5) is due on Thursday; and Reading Guide 6 (Glass Castle Reading Guide 6) will be due on Monday.

Also! We will have an extra credit film on Thursday of this week (instead of our usual Friday, because we have that day off) – it will be Much Ado About Nothing, another romantic comedy by Shakespeare.

Today we worked on both the podcast (Memory Podcast) and the third reading guide (Glass Castle Reading Guide 3). Both are due at the end of class tomorrow – I will give you half the period to finish them, and we’ll spend the other half on vocabulary.

Remember that our extra credit showing of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is tomorrow too!

Click here!

After our vocabulary quiz (and cookies!), students began working on The Glass Castle Reading Guide 3 (Glass Castle Reading Guide 3). I asked you to make sure to bring headphones or some other personal listening device tomorrow, when we will listen to a podcast on memory. Also! The extra credit film for this week is A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s a little like a funny Romeo and Juliet, which we’ll be studying shortly.