Natalie studied the life of Jonathan Swift today for British Literature. She then took a quiz on the content. A writing assignment was given in response to chapter one of Swift's, Gulliver's Travels, focusing on critical thinking elements purpose (of the author for the book and this opening chapter) and viewpoint (including the characters in the beginning narrative). I corrected Natalie's essay on John F. Kennedy's speech on World Peace. Her writing is insightful and shows critical thinking. She made only one error in parallelism, and MLA format. Smaller errors were notes -- I write all over the page -- and strong points noted.

Sam turned in her Vignette for a grade. I will return it to her next time. We continued reading Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. We talked about characterization. Sam and I filled out a character chart. We are going to analyze the pardoner and the wife of Bath because we are going to read those two tales. We began filling out our chart with the Nun and the Monk. Sam does quite well with interpreting difficult literature which is one of the main learning standards for this grade level. I told Sam to bring her Sherman Alexee novel with her so that she can continue reading independently while we interpret more difficult texts.

Vlad and I reviewed his grammar quiz. (parts of speech and their functions, and subjects and predicates). He did not do so well and will take a retake at some point with open notes. For now we are moving forward and will look at sentence structure from some other perspectives until we find something that works. The goal is for Vlad to write for different audiences and purposes with a more sophisticated sentence structure. Today we also reviewed Vlad's homework (direct objects, indirect objects and objects of the preposition). Vlad did well on this! :)

Natalie completed her test on Acts 1, 2, and part of 3 today. She is continuing to read Act 3 of Hamlet. She also has a typed up vocabulary list from the past weeks of our vocab course. Her assignment for a test grade is to write the part of speech of each word, and then a sentence that shows meaning in context. Due 10/11.

Alexa and I talked about the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. We began to explore the author's background. We watched "The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe." We answered an accompanying study guide. Alexa has not read any of Poe's stories but finds the author interesting and is anxious to begin reading.

Natalie spent the classtime working diligently through an exam on Hamlet Acts 1 and 2. This was open book and notes, and involved more than memorization or choosing answers -- she had to show good critical thinking and reasoning with the information as well. We begin Act 3 next Thursday.

Natalie worked through details concerning John Locke and his writings, and moved on to the study of Daniel Defoe. She has taken four quizzes in British Lit. so far. There will be a culminating test for which I'll prepare a study guide. The last portion of today was for vocabulary, specifically Greek and Latin roots with six highly academic key words.

Sam and I began reading the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. We discussed some study sheets to give our reading a purpose. Sam needs to pay attention to the specific characteristics of the travelers. We need to discuss how to annotate a text so that Sam can do that as we continue to read. Sam seemed to enjoy the premise of the prologue and although we just began reading, I think that she will enjoy it.

Sam and I revised her vignette. We briefly discussed her independent reading novel. We talked about reading difficult texts to prepare her for college. We discussed Beowulf that she read last year. We then briefly talked about the Middle Ages. Then I introduced the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Sam is very receptive to the literature.

Sam and I revised her working vignette. We talked about the rhythm of the lines and where to end one and begin another. Sam enjoyed the writing assignment and took direction well. She knew exactly how to revise for effect. We then talked about THE ABSOLUTE TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN. We discussed the three chapters that she read on her own. We decided together that she could read up to and including chapter 10. She likes the study guide questions because they provide a focus for her reading. I do not collect the study guide questions; they are to help Sam with understanding the novel. We ended the day by reviewing punctuation rules for co-ordinate conjunctions.