On Monday, I was out sick, and yesterday we had the SAT, so we took our vocab and grammar quiz today! Your next Glass Castle reading guide will be due on Friday (Glass Castle Reading Guide 3).

Happy long weekend! Today we began with more practice of sentence composing (we focused on using gerunds as subjects and predicate nominatives). Then students began reading The Glass Castle — the first reading guide is due on Monday (Glass Castle Reading Guide 1).

If you don’t have a paper copy of the book, here is a PDF. -> The_Glass_Castle_-_Jeannette_Walls

On Wednesday we went over our first Glass Castle vocabulary list. Please complete Vocab.com by Sunday night and be ready for a quiz over those words plus direct and indirect objects on Monday.

Today was a grammar intensive day — we began with a lesson on direct and indirect objects, and then we practiced composing our own sentences using prepositional phrases. Please see the grammar section of the website for materials.

After our vocabulary quiz, students finished their Dracula fan fiction assignments — please see the link immediately below this post to submit yours before the beginning of class tomorrow.

Turn in your Dracula fan fiction by the beginning of your class period on Tuesday here.

As a reminder, please see if you can find a copy of The Glass Castle some time over the next few days. Here’s the copy you need.

I’m worried that we won’t have enough to check out to everyone, and if that winds up being the case, we’ll have to have some people reading the electronic version.

Happy Friday, and Happy End-of-STAAR (at least for English)!

Today we went over Dracula Vocab List 4; please make sure to complete your Vocab.com and study for your quiz on Monday.

With the second half of class, students began working on a piece of creative writing inspired by Dracula:

Dracula Fan Fiction

Your task for this assignment will be to compose a (short!) piece of fiction inspired by Dracula.

• It doesn’t have to be a complete story (although it can be) – you’re aiming for about 500 words. It could just be a scene.
• It should take some element that was present in the original novel and develop or expand on it. You need both substance from Bram Stoker’s text and your own creative imaginings. Some possibilities:
  • How did Dracula actually become a vampire?
  • How would Dracula get by in the world of 2019?
  • What’s the deal with the vampire ladies?
• HAVE FUN! And make it something that your reader (me!) will enjoy!

This will be due on Tuesday, and you’ll also get the time after the quiz on Monday to work on it.

We’re almost done with Dracula! Today in class, we listened to and discussed the first part of the last chapter; for homework (due Friday), please finish the reading guide (Dracula Reading Guide – Chapter 27).