Literature
We discussed the relationship between the historical annex and the script's stage directions in the first two scenes. We discussed how the stage scenery might be built and stylized to represent the three floors where the Franks and their friends lived. This helped us make sense of the stage directions. The characters came to life as students read aloud their assigned parts. We answered the first four Study Guide questions for Act I: Scenes 1, 2. We used the ACE strategy for questions requiring us to make inferences about the characters. IXL We worked through several practice items on Skill X.1 covering misplaced and dangling modifiers. We watched the tutorial on this website and started practicing these skills with a packet of exercises from the Warriner's text. We will continue with that on Friday. Homeroom We practiced prayers, meditations, and blocking for the Living Stations. All student readers received scripts and should practice their parts at home. We will have another rehearsal at school next week. Literature
Today we assigned parts and began reading aloud the play, The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. We heard Anne's voice through her diary for the first time as we covered Act I, Scenes 1 and 2. Students began responding to questions on our study guide. We will continue our dramatization tomorrow and will use the study guide to explore the issues presented in the play. Vocabulary We took a quiz over Vocabulary Unit #12. All students should be prepared to begin Unit #13 next week. Look for new flash cards on Quizlet! Independent Reading After our vocabulary quiz, we were able to have most of the class period for Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) of our IR books. Please remember that Survey #3 is due by 7:00 PM on Friday, March 11. If you have finished your book, please go ahead and start another one. Watch for opportunities to share your new title and author in the next survey. Homeroom Tomorrow, all classes will begin practicing for the Living Stations of the Cross in preparation for Good Friday. Penance Service has been changed to March 14. Literature
Today we read the introduction to the elements of drama in the Pearson text, pp. 525-529. Students will need to know the terms on those pages for class discussion, study guides, quizzes, and the unit test. The following are especially important:
We investigated the Anne Frank resources on our class website and watched a brief You Tube clip of a tourist's recent visit to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Our goal is to be able to visualize the historical setting of the play, The Diary of Anne Frank, and to be mindful and respectful of the real people behind the play's characters. Periods 1 and 2 completed an "Exit Card" at the end of class. Period 3 will complete an "Entrance Card" at the beginning of class tomorrow. IXL In writing class today, we practiced corrections for inappropriate verb tense shifts and parallel structure. We watched portions of the tutorials on this website to help us understand these skills. Vocab Unit #12 We worked through the vocab exercises on pp. 136-137 in Sadlier-Oxford, "Choosing the Right Word" and "Vocabulary in Context." We identified the correct words as well as the context clues in each sentence. Our quiz is tomorrow, Wednesday, March 9. Independent Reading After the vocabulary quiz tomorrow, students will have the rest of the period to read their books! Survey #3 is due Friday, March 11 by 7:00 PM. IXL News
Our next set of IXL skills (V.1 through Y.1) will be due on Friday, March 11. These include inappropriate shifts in verb tense, parallel structure, misplaced or dangling modifiers, and redundancy. We will go over the rules for each of these in class and do some practice items together next week. As always, if you have trouble with an IXL exercise, look on our class website for a tutorial or link for extra help. Be sure to read the explanation for any items missed on the IXL website. If you continue to have trouble, email me with an example of the type of sentence you are having trouble with, and we can go over them in class. We are now entering parts of the IXL program that may be new material, so we will look for ways to practice these skills in our compositions. Vocab Unit #12 We completed our flash cards last week and practiced the words in the "Completing Sentences" and "Synonyms/Antonyms" exercises. Look at the online flash cards at Quizlet and take advantage of the practice activities there. We will cover the rest of the exercises in Sadlier-Oxford on Tuesday and take our Quiz on Wednesday, March 9. Literature Last Friday we began Unit IV: Drama in the literature textbook. We will read the play based on Anne Frank's diary. So far we have covered the timeline in the text on p. 532, looking at the major historical events of World War II and their influence on the Frank family. We watched a video clip about the importance of remembering the Holocaust, and we read a current-event NEWSela article about a Holocaust survivor who is about the same age that Anne would have been if she had survived. Independent Reading All students should now be well into their books and have completed their first Reading Survey, which was due on Thursday, March 3. If you have not completed the survey yet, please go the the Resources link and do so. We had a great time in class on Friday looking at the statistical results of the survey. Make sure your ideas and data are included! The next survey will be due by 7:00 PM on March 8. Look for the link soon! |
English 8Daily homework assignments and grades are available through Jupiter. Please contact me through school email if you have questions. Patron Saint of Test-Takers,
St. Joseph Cupertino Patron Saint of the Internet,
St. Isidore
Patron Saint of Students,
St. Gemma Galgani Patron Saint of Procrastinators,
St. Expeditus All you Holy Men and Women, pray for us!
A Classroom Prayer
Holy Spirit, Giver of all good gifts, enter into my mind and heart. Give me the gift of knowledge and the grace to use it wisely. Help me in all my endeavors. Give me perseverance and fortitude. Help my memory, that I may remember what I learn and recall it when necessary. Guide me in the classroom.
O Jesus, You who are the Way, the Truth, and the Life, let me not be deceived by false teaching. Our Lady of Good Studies, pray for me. Amen. Mary, Undoer of Knots,
Pray for Us! A Prayer to Christ, the Divine Teacher
O source of all Wisdom, Christ the Teacher,
You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Teach us to embrace the truths You have revealed to Your Church. Fill our souls with Your Grace that we may love God above all and our neighbors as ourselves. Christ Jesus, friend and Teacher most patient, bless us and teach us. O Light of the world, teach us always to follow You that we should not walk in darkness, but have forever the Light of Life! Amen. Archives
August 2023
|