Week 3

Thank you all for your patience as this post is on the late side.  We had an "incident" yesterday with Jackie.  Not perceiving the relative size difference between herself and a lab and boxer walking near our house, she decided it would be fun to harass the pair.  She did not fare well in the encounter and suffered many severe lacerations.  Thanks to Dr. D (our super-hero vet, who has saved her neck before) she is going to pull through.  She will now serve as a living illustration for our monster novels.  Frankendog!

Here are your assignments for next week:

Writing

• Complete the Story Sequence chart for Rime of the Ancient Mariner
•  Transfer 10 points to your ANI chart and mark them so I know which ones came from this week's invention

Reading

• Romans 7
• Section 2 of the Monster-mester schedule (click on the monster pic to the right to see details)

Week 2 - Spring

Readings:
As usual, highlight with yellow and pink as you read.  Use orange to mark schemes and tropes when you notice them.  If the highlighter bleeds through, feel free to use a pen to underline instead (the Dover Edition pages are a little thin).  You can put boxes around names instead of using pink, and use stars in the margin beside sections you would mark in blue.
For Frankenstein - after you read each chapter, go back to the beginning of that chapter and write a chapter title and a few key events to help you narrate.

• Aristotle for Everybody Chapter 16
• Jeckyll and Hyde: (Story of the Door, Search for Mr. Hyde)
• Frankenstein: Letters 1-5, chapters 1-5

Writing:

• Authority: Expert worksheet (pages 191-194)
• Create an issue from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.  Make an ANI chart w/ 20 items in each column.  Include 10 items from the topic of Authority (Witnesses, Experts, etc.) and mark those with a circled letter A.

Week 1 - Spring

It was so great to see you all today!  Here are the assignments for next week.

Reading

Read the Rime of the Ancient Mariner AT LEAST TWICE!  Use pink for characters and orange for schemes and tropes you recognize. Write a short summary for each section on your second read through.

Writing
Complete the invention worksheet on pages 171-173 of your student workbook.

Week 12

Thank you all for a great fall semester!  I hope everyone enjoyed our class Christmas party as much as I did.  You all brought some fun (and very funny :) gifts. I enjoy watching your creativity in action.

I just placed an order for our first book of the spring semester.  Please read Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow before our next class on January 8th.  If you have already paid your deposit, you can expect your book to arrive before Christmas.  If your deposit is still in the mail, not to worry.  I'll place a second order Dec 29th. Otherwise, you can purchase this version on your own, and adjust your deposit accordingly.

http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Sleepy-Stories-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143107534/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1419020662&sr=8-7&keywords=the+legend+of+sleepy+hollow

About next fall…

It seems our family will be moving into a different season this coming September.  Carter is going to return to Oak Ridge Christian Academy for his junior and senior years.  Lauren and Koby will continue to home school.  My plan is downshift our Thursday afternoon class to the junior high level and restart LTW from the beginning with a new group of students ages 12-15.  Though I’d love to continue to also teach at the high school level, I must acknowledge my limitations.  So it’s with more than a twinge of sadness that I’m letting you know this will be our final semester together.   

May God richly bless you this Christmas in the joy of Christ’s coming!

Cathy Rape   

Week 11

I'm tentatively scheduling  our last fall class for Thursday, Dec 18th from 1-4p.  I'm still waiting to hear back from a few families in hopes that we can find an earlier time. But unless its unanimous, we'll stick with our regular Thursday block on the 18th.

No writing assignments this week - unless you have something to correct.

The following students have volunteered to bring a prepared narration for a chapter of The Scarlet Letter.

19 - Carter
20 - Walker
21 - James
22 - Caleb
23 - Aaron
24 - Kate

We'll plan to wrap up our book discussion in the first half, and then have some fun with a white elephant gift exchange.  If you'd like to participate, bring something that connects in some way with our reading/discussion this semester (Cicero's on Friendship, Pilgrim's Progress, or The Scarlet Letter).  Each person will have to guess the literary connection in order to  have the option to steal.  Keep it under $10, or better yet, don't spend anything :) The best gifts for this game turn out to be the imaginative ones that use ordinary things from around the house. (Remember Mrs. Simcox's sack of soccer-boppers representing the "bag of winds" from The Odyssey)

I'll have snacks as usual.  You are welcome to bring a treat to share if you'd like to.  Let me know if that's your plan so I can estimate how much more food to provide.

Noel!

Movie Version

I watched the PBS version of The Scarlet Letter.   We checked it out from the library.  It was very well done, with much of the dialogue coming directly from the book.  It seems you can watch it for free at this site.

http://www.watch-the-movies-online.com/the-scarlet-letter

Week 10

As we approach this week set aside for giving thanks, I'd like to express my gratitude for this class.  I am truly grateful for each of you!  I enjoy our conversations each week, and look forward to hearing the insights that you all bring to the discussion.  I'm thankful for the opportunity to grow and learn from you as we journey through great books together.

Reading assignment:

• Finish reading The Scarlet Letter
• Continue to highlight as previously instructed, and write a should question for each chapter

Writing Assignment:

This week we will revert to the Introductory Persuasive Essay from lesson 2.  This is so that you can focus on writing well developed proof paragraphs.  Do your best to explain as fully as you can why you selected each sub proof to support your thesis.   Give examples and quotes from the book when possible, and explain the relevance of each point to your thesis.  Use schemes, tropes, and analogies that you have learned.  Plan to write 2 or 3 sentences per sub proof.

Also, remember that you now have a DELIBERATIVE issue. This means that you are looking forward to a decision yet  to be made (deliberating) rather than looking back to judge a decision after it has been made.  You will need to use your imagination to place yourself in the story at the point of the action, as if you do not yet know the outcome for certain.  This change of perspective will alter your language, especially the use of verbs.  You can still use information in the book that occurs after the point of decision, but avoid language that speaks as though those events have already occurred.  You can say that they might occur, will likely occur, or even that they will occur, so long as your verbs are consistent with those events occurring later in the story.  

Example:

"Hester should not vow to keep her husband's identity a secret.  He intends to seek out and destroy her child's father. He is not to be trusted, and she will be putting her minister's well being at risk."

Complete arrangement AND elocution this week.

• Use the sorting & outline worksheets given in class for the Introductory Persuasive Essay 
• Write your DELIBERATIVE essay with well developed paragraphs using the check list handout.