We had a great class this week. At the beginning of the class, I asked the class to pray for my daughter. She has mono, and she had called me that morning to say that she thought she might have bedbugs in her dorm room because her feet were covered in small bumps. I'm glad to report that she's doing better, and that the issue wasn't bedbugs but she has a sever allergic reaction to some meds that her doctor gave her. A hearty "Thank you" to them for agreeing with me in prayer!
Our Quick Write was in recognition of a well-known author. January 27 was the birthday of Charles Ludwidge Dodgson, more commonly known as Lewis Carroll. He was a member of Christ Church and told stories to the daughter of the dean, Alice. These stories became Alice in Wonderland. For the students' own writing, I had them write about some place that they could imagine as the perfect place -- either real of imaginary.
We had more Latin roots for Words of the Day:
cave -- L. hollow -- English derivatives: cave, cavity, excavate, cavern, cavernous, excavator
capio -- L. take, seize -- English derivatives: capture, captive, captivate, captain
The Rough Draft of the Mystery Story was due this week. I think the students have enjoyed writing these. My plan is to sit with a cup of tea and read these while the men of the family watch the Super Bowl tomorrow. I'll have them back to them next week so that they can revise them.
We talked only a little about our literature selections for this week: "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" and "The Engineer's Thumb." We have two more stories left in this book. As a Final Exam, they are to write an answer in essay form to the following question:
What Makes a Hero?
Is Holmes a hero? What qualities do you admire in heroes? In at least 3 paragraphs, discuss whether or not Holmes possesses these qualities, using examples from the text. Specific instances and quotes should support your comments. You may want to consider whether some of the flaws Watson acknowledges keep Holmes from becoming truly heroic in their eyes. Feel free to compare Holmes with other literary characters.
We spent a lot of time discussing our Grammar topics. My goal was to work through the comma rule regarding placing a comma following introductory elements and subordinate clauses. In order to talk about this comma rule, we had to begin with simple sentences and dependent/subordinate clauses and then move on to subordinating conjunctions, compound sentences and then complex sentences. Fully knowing commas can be a rather complicated process.
Assignments for Next Week
-- Read "The Final Problem" and "The Adventure of the Empty House"
-- Write an essay to answer the question, "What Makes a Hero?"
-- No Grammar worksheet -- we finished it in class
Links this week:
Class Notes
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