We learned about the key features of Jazz music: syncopation and the pentatonic scale. Each student got drum sticks, then a drum and we beat "normal" rhythms, then syncopated rythms. We read late Langston Hughes poems and "felt" the syncopation. We analyzed the poems for content, musical quality and then of course form, meter and rhyme scheme.

Students were 30 min late.This was a farewell (for the summer) class. We played a dictionary version of Balderdash and had a really fun time.

-Collect exams from Ashley and Sadie (Devin already completed).
. Review each item and discuss differences in reponses.
. Identify grading structure
. Return all corrected exams and papers.

Formatting a script: 1.Hollywood production companies are usually very picky. 2.Do Not follow a published screenplays you can buy in a bookstore.

Ashely finished up her final exam and we spoke about college a little bit.

Students and I played dominoes today - cuban style.

Students and I played spanish scrabble.

Discuss cake for end of the year.
Order from Cake Kingdom

Vocab test. 16 quesions Sadie and Ashely each missed 2, Devin missed 9. Devin and I worked on some of the ones he missed and I discovered (and admitted) my test was flawed -- two of the ones he missed could actually have been right it turns out -- so he "only" missed 7 in the end. I let the girls leave 5 minutes early and worked with Devin on his test. I chose 4 of the ones he missed and reviewed meaning, and asked him to look back at his notes for the definitions and examples for those words and to write me a new sentence for each as homework. Right after we took the test we reviewed Walt Whitman's freeform poems, and looked back at the line "I Sing America." Then we went to Langston Hughes. We reviewed what was going on during the Great Gatsby era and talked about Jazz. We talked about the references to jazz in Gatsby adn discussed the origins of it. We talked about syncopation in music and I gave them examples (with drumbeats on the table). Then I read them some Langston Hughes poetry aloud and told them they were allowed to laugh if they needed. I think they were a little embarassed, but I told them to let it out. Then Ashley volunteered to read a poem (in 1927 African American dialect) and she did a beautiful job. I told them to focus on the musicality of the poems (instead of just the teacher-y "meter and rhyme scheme" stuff.) I wanted them jsut to feel the poems. I showed them some places where Hughes referred to Whitman (for ex. when he wrote "I too sing America").

She worked on her final exam. It is long and is a review of everything we covered. Since everything is important for her SAT and the next math course she would take, I wanted her to remember everything.