Today in class we read Book 12 of the Odyssey, in which Odysseus meets the Sirens, Scylla, and Charbydis (pages 1230-6 in the textbook). Then we read one of my favorite essays of all time, “Solitude and Leadership” – your assignment was to write a paragraph analyzing whether Odysseus demonstrates that kind of leadership. (One point I want to make – you need to write your response explaining if his leadership style is consistent with the one that the author of “Solitude and Leadership” describes, not whether you believe that Odysseus is a leader or whether he is a good leader.)

If you did not get to finish, here are the electronic copies of those documents, so that you can turn your assignment in tomorrow:

textbook – part 1

Leadership and the Odyssey

Solitude and Leadership

A reminder that the videogame extra credit is due tomorrow if you would like!

And here’s the detention slip that I mentioned to some of you:

Today in class, we worked in our Malcolm Gladwell reading groups to write PIE paragraph responses to some discussion questions. Each group answered three questions. If you were absent, you need to choose two to answer and turn them in to me by Wednesday. Here are electronic copies of those questions:

Blink Discussion Questions

David and Goliath Discussion Questions

Outliers Discussion Questions

The Tipping Point Discussion Questions

What the Dog Saw Discussion Questions

As a reminder, your summary of what you have read in your Malcolm Gladwell book so far is due tomorrow!

Hey students! I discovered last night that there is actually a videogame about the Odyssey. I haven’t been able to play it yet myself, but I wanted to tell you about it so that you can consider putting your R&R time over the holiday break to good use. I’ll even throw in 10 extra credit points on one of your PIE paragraphs for good measure. If you are interested in playing, here’s what you do:

1. ***Make sure your parents are okay with you playing the game. You will have to download some software (and I think it only works on PC’s), and I can’t tell you everything about the age-appropriateness of the content (it doesn’t look like a bad game, but it’s a conversation you should have with your parents).

2. Go to this link to download the software. You can apparently get a free trial for an hour or purchase the game for $2.99. Obviously make sure your parents are okay with you paying this amount if you go that route.

3. Play the game. Have fun with it!

4. Write me a PIE paragraph telling whether I should recommend this game to students next year. You point should be “You should/should not” recommend this game to students next year, Ms. Chapman.” You need two illustrations to support that point and two explanations. So just to be clear, the format for the paragraph should be P, I, E, I, E.

This  will be due on Wednesday, December 4. I hope it’s a good game! 🙂

So obviously the main event today was all of the PIE! It was a lot of fun, and I hope it was a great way to kick off your Thanksgiving holiday. Thank you guys for bringing such delicious pastries to share with your friends!

But it was also still a learning day! We read aloud from Book 11 of the Odyssey (as I mentioned in class, also called “the Nekyia” – pages 1226-9 in the textbook). Then we discussed some of the more important issues in this section. Here is the PowerPoint in case you missed today’s class or want to tidy up your notes:

The Odyssey Book 11

I also told you all that you need to be reading your Malcolm Gladwell book over the break. Next Tuesday (December 3 – a week from today) – you need to turn in a one-page summary of what you read. The instructions for how to do that are here (note that you need to follow the PIE format for how to write that exactly):

Malcolm Gladwell Reading Check

Also note that there is an extra credit opportunity for this assignment, worth 10 points. Here is the link to the 60 Minutes interview with Malcolm Gladwell on his latest book, David and Goliath. For those of you who are reading D&G, you can choose any other inteview with Malcolm Gladwell online.

Once more, I hope you all have a fantastic break! I’m headed off tomorrow to visit my grandmother in Arizona, and then possibly the Grand Canyon.

Here is a color chart demonstrating how the Himba tribe in Africa differentiates between colors.

And here is a link to an article on how some women see extra colors – colors that the rest of us don’t even have names for!

Today in class we…

1.  Took our vocabulary quiz over the Odyssey vocabulary words.

2. Finished our Circe PIE paragraphs.

3. Read the excerpt from Book 11 of the Odyssey (pages 1226-30).

One more day to go! 🙂

Today in class we read about Odysseus’ encounter with the witch-goddess Circe (and also talked briefly about his time with the God of the Winds, Aeolus). We read the story from pages 1224-5 in the textbook, and then talked about some of the significant issues in this episode. Here is the PowerPoint with discussion points:

Book 10

Then we began writing about whether Circe was a hero or a villain by comparing Odysseus’ version of events with a poem called “Circe’s Power” by Louise Gluck. Here is that assignment:

PIE Paragraph 3

As a reminder, this is not due for homework; I will give you time in class after your vocabulary quiz on Monday to complete it.

Your homework for this weekend is to 1) read the first two chapters in your Malcolm Gladwell book, and 2) complete your vocabulary sentences (using also the Commonly Confused Words sheet – see earlier posts for an electronic version) to turn in on Monday before the quiz.

Three more reminders:

1. You have the opportunity to earn 10 points of extra credit on your quiz by watching the video on language and color that I posted a few days ago and writing a summary of it. You must turn in your summary with your quiz on Monday.

2. Tuesday is Pie Day! If you would like, you make bring a pie to share (I’ll provide plates and utensils) in celebration of both our study of PIE paragraphs and Thanksgiving.

3. I posted a video of the film version of the Odyssey under the “Odyssey” tab at the top of the website – if you feel like vegging but still doing something a little enriching this weekend, watch it! It’s pretty good.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

The Internet tells me that this is called a Polyphemos Moth. Apparently when it was being named, it was Call-a-New-Species-Exactly-What-It-Is-Not Week. Given that Polyphemos’ name is a bit ironic (“wordy,” for someone who doesn’t even know the word “nobody”), I guess it’s a double-joke? Or scientists just might not know what they are doing. This is why English class is more important that Biology, students. You don’t want to be responsible for giving a moth a stupid name.

Today in class, we:

1. Talked about vocabulary. Vocabulary sentences are due on Monday. The list of words is on the vocabulary section, and here is the Commonly Confused Words page that you will need to write your sentences:

Pre-AP List 12 Sentence Exercises

Also, here is the who/whom video we watched in class:

2. We talked about some of the deeper meaning of Book 9 (the Cyclops episode) from the Odyssey. Here is the PowerPoint we used:

The Odyssey Book 9

3. We took a reading quiz over the short story “Blindness.” If you were absent, please come make it up ASAP during tutorials.

4. Your homework was to write using PIE paragraphs about Book 9 and “Blindness.” Here are those pages in case you lost yours.

PIE Paragraph 2

This is due at the start of class tomorrow. One thing I want to point out – you need TWO paragraphs to fully answer this question, one explaining how Odysseus describes Polyphemos, and the other explaining how Polyphemos describes Odysseus.