What We've Been Up To...

I haven’t posted here in a while, and I apologize for the lapse.  (That is, I apologize to anyone who might be reading…the tricky thing about a blog is one can never be sure if anyone’s checking in!)  So here’s what we’ve been up to in language arts.

We’ve been reading and discussing a variety of poems and short stories, honing our ability to look at the figurative meaning of texts.  We’ve been examining how various literary devices appear in the poems and stories and, of course, doing some creative writing of our own.  We’ve read and analyzed “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “The Silken Tent” by Robert Frost, “Garden of My Childhood” by Kuangchi C. Chang, and “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou.  Today, students will begin work on a formal analysis paragraph about one of those pieces.

Next week, after critiquing and finalizing the analysis paragraphs, we’ll begin studying Shakespeare’s Macbeth, beginning with a look at some background information about Shakespeare’s time, then launching into a “reader’s theater” reading and discussion of Macbeth.

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable winter break.  We return to school with the beginning of the second semester; it's hard to believe we're halfway through the school year already!  There's a lot to look forward to in the upcoming months.

During the first week back, we'll be studying a list of literary terms.  Students will complete a project to help them learn the terms and definitions, and we'll be reading a variety of short stories and poems to analyze how the literary devices work in literature.  Analyzing literature will be a focus for the upcoming quarter, and I'm excited about the writing and discussion that always emerges from the variety of texts we study.    The first significant assessment for the quarter will take place next Wednesday, January 16th.  It will assess students' ability to define the literary terms from the list.  An understanding of these terms will not only help students analyze texts we study this year, but it will prepare them for success in their freshman year Introduction to Literature classes.

Here are links to some of the assignments we'll be working on in class this week:

LITERARY TERMS LIST

Literary Terms Project (Your Choice)

"The Lottery" Analysis Questions (link to the story)

I look forward to great reading and writing in the upcoming semester!