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!