It’s been fantastic to finally put faces to names.  To start with LA,  we’ve acted out Beowulf.  We’ve watched bad goat videos.  We’ve tried to figure out what Beowulf teaches us about “us” and “them.”  And we have commenced the reading program.  Students have a chance to choose between “The Highway Reader Plan” and “The Rocky Road Reader Plan” — they’ll be selecting different books from different genres to read over the next couple of days.  (I’ve posted a bunch of reading recommendation resources into Google Classroom.)

Upcoming due dates:

1. Every night:  Read 30 minutes
2. Due Thursday, September 1st:  The Reading Plan.

Ask to see your student’s Google Classroom if you are interested in more happenings!  I’m working to try and get parent access for this resource — stay tuned!

(These are initial thoughts — all subject to change.)

We’ll begin the year exploring how our mythology defines our humanity.  We’ll focus specifically on the hero’s journey, beginning with Beowulf.  We’ll look at how to read a text closely and critically.  Don’t worry — we’ll have a variety of translations – ranging from picture books to excerpts from Seamus Heaney’s translation.   We’ll even poke into parts of the story from Grendel’s point of view.

At the beginning of September, we’ll wrap up our discussions on Beowulf with a “conversation café” where students will have the opportunity to pose their own hypotheses about this classic tale.   Using Beowulf as a foundation, we’ll also begin writing some short pieces about our journeys and our identities.  What do we want to teach our readers?

We’ll spend October continuing to delve into the structure of writing.  We’ll focus both on content and grammar, with specific emphasis on sentence structure, paragraph development, and idea organization.   Our attention will not only be on writing our hero’s journey, but also on critique.  How does one give kind, helpful, and specific feedback?

Stay tuned for more information about genre reading, book groups, check-ins, theatrical presentations, and more as the year progresses!