Where did this week go? With that Monday holiday, this was a very short week; nevertheless, we accomplished quite a bit in all classes. In ninth grade, we read Walt Whitman poetry. We focused on Whitman's Drum-Taps poems, a collection written about the Civil War. This will tie into our next book, The Red Badge of Courage, which we will start next week. During class we focused on annotating with a broad to narrow approach, determining the overall tone and message before we look for specific literary devices like metaphors or alliteration. We will be ready to learn some new vocabulary and start reading the book next week. It will be very valuable learning experience to draw comparisons between Whitman's poetry and The Red Badge of Courage.
Tenth graders are in a College Prep unit. In a college experience, sometimes students have to write without much time (not for assigned homework, of course, but for timed testing situations). We spent time learning how to plan and write and essay response quickly. We also learned how to write when you are limited on words, like for a college application or scholarship essay with a word limit. Both present challenges to students that can be improved with practice. We also learned some strategies for attacking ACT reading passages.
It was only three days but we accomplished quite a bit, with bigger plans for next week. I appreciate the effort of all of these students!
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