We did it! We made it to the end of the week! I'm so proud of you all! Here's a recap of today's class. Have a wonderful weekend!

English 8

Today we did a review of symbolism by matching images with as many possible meanings as we could. We'll continue this activity and start talking about Greek mythology on Monday! Don't forget to get your independent reading book!

English 9

After our first reading of O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi," we looked at some of the literary devices used in the story. An allusion is when one story references another; in this case, the title is a Biblical allusion to the magi who, in the Christian Bible, brought gifts to the newborn baby Jesus. This allusion makes the meaning of Jim and Della's gifts more clear: the intent (love) is more important than the gift itself. The second literary device we discussed is irony, which has three different types. Verbal irony is sarcasm, dramatic irony is when the reader/audience knows something a character does not, and situational irony is when we expect one thing to happen and the opposite occurs. This story used situational irony when the gifts that were given turned out to be unusable.

English 9 Honors

To finish out our week on George Orwell's 1984, we practiced writing propaganda by choosing a mundane topic (a yogurt stand moving its location, students responding to a teacher, etc.) and writing a press release as if it were written by someone in the Ministry of Truth to promote The Party. You're all getting very creative! We'll jump into some short stories next week!