English News

In English, our Twilight Zone project begins Monday. Get ready to step into a new dimension, one "not only of sight and sound, but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination...next stop, the Twilight Zone!"

Our inspiration for our writing assignments will be episodes from this series as well as topics from our novel Devil's Arithmetic. Both deal with time travel, intriguing settings, mood, and imagination.

Our next essay: What would your "Willoughby" be? Willoughby is an imaginary place, a "perfect" world to which we will be introduced. The five senses will be used to describe the sights and sounds found there.

The Holocaust

Have you ever read a book or seen a movie in which the main character is transported back in time? In our first novel, Devil's Arithmetic, Hannah steps back to the year 1942 and experiences first hand the atrocities of Hitler's rule. It is hard to imagine that anyone, especially children, could bear such suffering, and it is especially a celebration of the human spirit and survival.

Our Holocaust unit, which will be cross-curricular, will help us all understand how important it is to keep recalling the past...so no one ever forgets.

We have so many exciting activities planned, including a trip sponsored by Talent Search to the Holocaust Museum in St. Louis where we will speak with an actual survivor.

Go to: http://assignments.discoveryeducation.com and enter assignment code: TBAF2-413B to view the excellent video "The Holocaust: A Teenager's Experience."

Elements of the Short Story

In Literature we have been studying the elements of the short story. This knowledge will be helpful for our novel study as well. Most of our graphic organizers and worksheets have been placed in the Class Shares folders on our computers, saving copying on the rizo machine. Since everyone has his own computer, we can introduce stories with relevant videos from youtube and other web sites.

Next up: "Ransom of Red Chief." Does this little boy remind you of any mischievous kid (maybe yourself!)?

If you would like to follow along as the story is read, use your computer! Put on your headphones, google: www.classicshorts.com/stories/redchief.html, highlight the text, click Edit, Speech, Start speaking and follow along!

Inspiration: Nightjohn

When you woke up this morning, you were amazed and horrified to discover for some unknown reason you could no longer read or write! What would your day be like? Our first narrative essay will explore this situation with the movie "Nightjohn" providing the inspiration. We will use the computers to compose, edit, and publish our essays which will be due next Monday.