We started today by watching this incredibly cute short video about the holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead – November 1).

After that, we talked about an Ella Minnow Pea project that is due Friday – a Day of the Dead poem to a fallen letter from the alphabet. Here is an electronic copy of that assignment: EMP Day of the Dead

Next, we read pages 1224 and 1225 from the textbook – Book 10 of the Odyssey, where Odysseus encounters the witch goddess Circe. We watched that section from the film (starting at around the 52:00 mark):

We discussed that section of the epic using this PowerPoint: The Odyssey Book 10

And your homework for tonight (due tomorrow) was to write a PIE paragraph about Circe. Here is an electronic copy of that document: PIE Paragraph 3

We took our vocabulary test today. I scanned your exams after school, and while I did not have time to enter them into Gradespeed, it looked like you all did (on the whole) very, very well – there were tons of 100’s, and even more A’s!

Remember that tomorrow your last Ella Minnow Pea reading guide is due!

Hi students:

I wanted to highly, highly recommend that you use the review I made for your test on Monday. Here it is again: EMP Vocabulary Test Review

If you complete this and bring it on Monday, I’ll give you some for of extra credit (the other teachers and I haven’t decided exactly what form that will take yet).

Today in class, we did PIE Paragraph #2 about Odysseus and Polyphemous: PIE Paragraph 2

With the rest of time after that, students worked on composing their first drafts of their This I Believe essays. We’ll revise those tomorrow, so it’s important that you have yours ready to go.

No homework tonight other than finishing your essay if you didn’t already do that in class. I told you that I would highly, highly recommend that you study for Monday’s vocabulary test using the review that I posted online.

See you tomorrow!

EMP Vocabulary Test Review

Lots of announcements today!

1. No new vocabulary words this week. Instead, you will have a test over the EMP words we have done so far on Monday. Theoretically, this shouldn’t be too difficult, because every word will be one that you have already scene. The intention here is to give you lots of chances to practice, because you will see these words again on your final exam in December. I’ll give you an optional review that should help you study.
2. Homework for tonight is to read this short story: Blindness Story
3. I’m extending the due date for the EMP Reading Guide 5 until Tuesday.

In class, we listened to two short This I Believe essays – here are those links:

1. http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/news/1241557066/
2. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5387045

And here are copies of the essays: WITSGreenHairSpikes    WITSRemembering_All_the_Boys

We worked on pre-writing for our own TIB essays: WITSThisIBelievePre-WritingHandout2014-2

Today we watched the Cyclops section of the Odyssey movie here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J0KzoJSAyY

(from about 30:30 to about 40:30)

Following that, we spent the rest of class talking about this episode from the Odyssey, using this PowerPoint: The Odyssey Book 9

I also gave you the fifth reading guide for Ella Minnow Pea, which is due on Friday. Here is an electronic copy: EMP Reading Guide 5

Today we took our Ella Minnow Pea list 4 vocabulary quiz. We also read Book 9 of the Odyssey (the Cyclops story) – tomorrow we will be discussing that in more detail. If you didn’t get a chance to read or want to review, that section starts on page 1210.

As a reminder of some things that are coming up:

1. Your Ella Minnow Pea Reading Guide #4 is due tomorrow (Tuesday).
2. Your Hero’s Journey story is due on Wednesday.

We began class by discussing your homework from last night. Here is a link to a video of the African tribe (the Himba of Namibia) that we discussed:

http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=30670#.VEB_gfldWSo

(This is so, so cool – please check it out! The section on the Himba starts about halfway through.)

Today we finished up our discussion of Book 1 (the introduction) to the Odyssey. We read Book 5 (about Calypso), and discussed it using this PowerPoint: The Odyssey Book 5

We also talked about a couple of upcoming assignments.

Your Ella Minnow Pea Reading Guide #4 is due on Tuesday. EMP Reading Guide 4

And your hero’s journey story is due on Wednesday. Hero’s Journey Writing Assignment

There was no homework tonight so that you can start working on your story (worth a double daily grade).

With our very short class today, we presented your Hero’s Journey posters. I also talked about your homework, which is to listen to a podcast about the Odyssey and answer some questions. Here is an electronic copy: Podcast Homework

And here is the link to the podcast website:

http://www.radiolab.org/story/211213-sky-isnt-blue/