Happy Monday! Please remember that I am out at jury duty today, and you should be working on your essays in Google classroom. Please make sure that you hit the “submit” button before your class period ends today.

Remember that your Dracula Chapter 1 reading guide is due tomorrow and that you also have a quiz over the first list of vocabulary words.

On Friday, we started reading/listening to Dracula. Your first reading guide (Dracula Reading Guide – Chapter 1) will be due on Tuesday.

If you were absent today in class, please come by either this Friday or next to make up some quick multiple choice questions over a short article.

We also went over this schema guide for the novel (Dracula Schema Guide). No homework for tonight, but please try to bring your Dracula book (if you have it) for tomorrow.

Today in class we began the essay that you will write on Monday — please see Google Classroom for more information about that assignment. We also discussed Dracula Vocabulary List 1 — since I will be at jury duty on Monday, you will take that quiz on Tuesday (words from The Black Count will not be on it).

Please make sure that you have finished listening to the podcast for class tomorrow!

Today in class, students continued to read this excerpt from The Black Count (The Black Count Reading) and answer these questions (The Black Count Reading Guide). If you did not finish today in class, please finish for homework.

Your homework that will be due on Thursday is to listen to this podcast and answer these questions (Lore Podcast).

Welcome back! Today in class, we will be starting off the semester by looking at some vocabulary for an excerpt from a book that we will  be reading in class — “The Black Count,” which is a biography of Alexandre Dumas’s father, the inspiration for The Count of Monte Cristo.

One week from today we will be starting Dracula — again, we don’t have enough copies of the book to check out to everyone. You can:

1. purchase a copy yourself (I recommend the Dover thrift edition — that matches the page numbers on the reading guide)
2. purchase a copy from the school for $5
3. go to Half Price books or another used bookstore
4. see if an older sibling or friend can lend you their copy
5. read the text online

No homework for tonight!

I have an unexpected doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, so I’m afraid that we won’t be able to do our movie after school However, you can still get the same amount of extra credit if you watch the 1999 version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and complete this viewing guide (A Midsummer Night’s Dream Viewing Guide) — you must turn this in to me on the Monday that we get back.

It’s Friday the 13th, but it’s also the last class day of the semester, so I think we can call it even.

Some important announcements:

1. You have an opportunity to earn up to 5 points of extra credit on your final exam by reading a free-choice book (approved by me in advance) over the break and submitting a reflection through Google classroom. You can check a book out from the classroom library after your final exam.
2. And another extra credit opportunity! After your finals on Wednesday, at 1:30 PM, you can come to my room and watch a movie connected to our curriculum in some way. Which movie? I haven’t decided yet — I need to preview some stuff over the weekend to make sure that it’s school-appropriate. I’ll post the selection on Monday. (It might be something connected to the Hero’s Journey or something related to Shakespeare.) But this movie will be special because I will give you the choice of either 1) adding 10 points onto a quiz or 2) bringing a zero or a low score on a daily assignment (not something weighted double) up to an 80. It can be a reading check that you bombed or a reading guide that you forgot to do or somesuch.
3. Please, please, please study for your final. As we discussed in class, what will have the biggest payoff will be studying grammar and vocabulary. You have a grammar review, you have practice quizzes for vocab, and you can create your own lists using Vocabulary.com.

On Thursday we considered how the plot of The Count of Monte Cristo could translate into different forms of media. 😉 No new homework!

Today in class, we discussed the climax of The Count of Monte Cristo. You only have one section left (CMC Reading Guide 10), and that’s due on Friday.

I also gave Periods 1, 2, and 4 copies of a grammar review to help study for the final exam (Parts of Speech Review). Periods 6 and 7, the copy room didn’t make enough copies, and now all of their machines are broken, but I will try to get you a paper version tomorrow.