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Assignments for 01/10/2022

Assignments due for the week of January 10th, 2022

Winter cottage

PSAT/SAT/ACT Test Prep

We went over the ACT Writing section today and also how to prepare for the actual day of testing. Parents and students will get an email in the next two weeks of how to sign up in your local school district to take the PSAT or SAT free in April. Please let me know if you have any questions about your scores on the two tests and what percentile that would put you in. By the end of the semester, you should turn in a writing plan for any essay assignment. It should include three things:

  1. 10 Vocabulary words that you could use in a variety of situations. List the word and the definition. Choose words that could be used commonly in a variety of situations.
  2. List two personal experiences that you could be prepared to write about and a lesson you may have learned.
  3. List two references to a person or event in history or literature that you could use in a number of different ways.

If you need help coming up with good vocabulary words, I will have the SAT cards available next week in class. These simple tips will help your essay to “stand out” to graders who evaluate it.

Explorations in British Literature

We discussed today how and why Shakespeare ended up writing sonnets and what the rhyme scheme for his sonnets was. We also covered the reading in your notebooks on sonnets by English authors and how poetry also took the shape of the subject about which the “bard” was writing. Review for a quiz on the Elizabethan Age. Review the terms listed in your Twelfth Night study guide or just review that section on the test itself. We will also review all of this one more time in class next week. We also discussed the shift to the 17th century, a time of political insecurity, religious controversy, and intellectual agitation. The Cavalier poets and their “Seize the Day” philosophy became prevalent even as the Puritans took over rule of the country. We found that Francis Bacon, the father of the English essay, introduced prose to his country. We discussed essays and John Donne’s metaphysical writings. For next week, read the excerpt from Pilgrim’s Progress and answer the questions on p.78. Read the excerpts from Milton’s Paradise Lost and answer the questions on pages 80-85. Then, continue with Milton’s poem on his blindness and answer the questions on page 86. Finally, read the description from Samuel Pepys’s diary on the great fire of London and answer the questions about it on pages 88 and 89. We will talk more about the history of the fire next week.

U.S. Government

Complete the final pages of your notebook by finishing the branches of the U.S. military. We will go over each of them in class next week and discuss the important terms to study for the exam. Complete pages 82-84, 86-88, 90-92, and 94-96. We will also begin our review for the final exam. Watch the following video on the four branches of the U.S. military. (Be prepared for questions next week.)

Quick Looks at Great Books

We began reviewing our literary terms in the notebooks and began the new study guide you were given. For next week, read Acts I-III in Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. We will discuss the events and have a quiz in class next week. Also, complete page 6 in your new study guide. (Directions on page 5.) This will give you an idea of what the theater setting looked like in Act I of the play. We will continue to work on the study guide together in class. Watch Cyrano’s famous “Nose Speech” from Act I.

Previous Assignments for 2021: