November 16-24

Hello, parents!

I hope you all had a good weekend and are all going to get some time to spend with your families next week! This week in English is all about finishing up one unit and beginning another. We are bringing our essay unit to a close this week, and then we will be beginning our unit on The Odyssey. Here is a brief run-down of what we will be doing in class this week:

Monday- Vocabulary
Tuesday- Test review
Wednesday- Essay test
Thursday- Begin learning about Homer
Friday- Learning about Greek mythology

Today in class (Monday), we will be getting new vocabulary words and playing a vocabulary game as a review of this week's words and the words of the two previous weeks.

Tuesday and Wednesday in class will be all about the essay test. We will be playing a game of Jeopardy in class tomorrow as a review for the test, and then the essay test will be on Wednesday. the students will be divided into groups for tomorrow's review, and the winning team from each class will receive 5 bonus points on the test. It might be helpful if your child wants to review what we have learned about essays tonight so that he/she can have a better chance of winning the game and receiving bonus points (and Nerds candy, too!). Wednesday will be the test over essays. I had thought about having them do a timed essay in class, but after much thought, I decided to have a test in which they actually answer questions about essays and excerpts from essays.

Thursday, I will be presenting information to the classes about Homer and the time period surrounding The Odyssey. I'll give them some background information before we begin actually reading the story. Friday, I will be doing much of the same thing, except we will be talking about Greek mythology.

Next Monday and Tuesday are almost set in stone, so I thought I would go ahead and explain them as well. I know for certain that we will be doing abstinence training on Monday in class, so they will not be getting any new vocabulary words on that day. Tuesday in class, I'm not sure if we will be doing abstinence or if we will be working on The Odyssey. Either way, their reading logs will be due on Tuesday.

The students don't have much homework this week, since we are beginning a new unit. The main homework that they will have for this week is to study for the test on Wednesday. After that, they should work on their reading logs for next Tuesday.

Thanks again for checking this and staying informed! If you have any questions or concerns about this class, please feel free to let me know! Have a great week and a great Thanksgiving!