PSAT Info.

Freshmen, here is the PSAT info. for you.

Juniors, here is the PSAT info. for you. 

What does your score mean?  Check the benchmark page here.

More Practice?

• Review Tests from the CollegeBoard here. 

• 2016 PSAT

• 2015 PSAT

For Naomi

Makeup goodness:

1. Fill these out:

• Thesis (fill-in)
• Thesis (answers)

2.  Answer the reading questions for the Odyssey.

3.  Prepare a thesis; spend as much time at home on this as you wish to make a good one (based on the notes in part 1).  You will write an essay in class when work above is done based on the prompt at the end of the thesis review (basically, what is an important truth about life that the Odyssey illustrates?  Find 2-3 good locations in the Odyssey to prove this idea.  Length: 1 page or more, handwritten.

4.  Do the grammar handout on dialogue.

Please check in with me each class day on your progress.  These must be by or before Oct. 23

Thank you,

Mr. S

While I'm Away

Hi students,

Remember, you have three tasks:

1. Submit your story to the contest by this Sunday.  
• Carefully follow the instructions for Young Writers Contest you will find at that link.  Obviously, if you are mailing it, you would need to send it by Friday. 
•  Otherwise, submit electronically or hand deliver it with the contest form filled out. 
• Delete the heading info. from your story (like my name and the class). 
• Make sure you have a cool title. 
2. Finish Reading The Odyssey. 
3. Answer all questions I gave you (reading journal).  If you lose it, you can see/reprint it here.   These are due next Tuesday. 

Antigone

Dear students and parents,

I have found an excellent, copyright-free version of Antigone.  The text is brief, so I can print what we need, and you will not need to buy a book (even better!).  Also, we will be watching a film version. 

If you are interested in looking over resources in advance, you can see them here on the blog: Antigone.  We will be heading into this in two weeks. 

Reminder of our Odyssey Reading Schedule

• Book 9 by Tuesday, Sept. 11
• Book 15 by Tuesday, Sept. 18
• Book 21 by Tuesday, Sept. 25
• Completed by Friday, Sept. 28 

Your quiz on Friday will be through Book 17 of the Odyssey.  I will provide class time to read today and Thursday.   

Lesson Plan for Week 5

Hi everyone,

Your lesson plans are now in one link on the left side of the blog under "The Course."

Some students had a hard time distinguishing the weeks with all the posts on the main page and then had trouble finding things if they were no longer showing up on the main page.  This way, there is a full page break between weeks and one document goes all the way back to the first day of class, which should be easier to follow.

Thank you,

Mr. S

Humanities III, Week 4

Tuesday, Sept. 4

• Fix Grammar
• Recite
• Review the Odyssey (Book 3)
• Continue the Odyssey (Book 4)
• Term: Dramatic irony
• Vocab.: treacherous, aegis 

• Writing: Young Writers Contest
• Rough Draft Hand Written (five to ten pages; due Sept. 11)
• Final Draft Typed (four to eight pages; due Sept. 18)
• 2,100 Word Limit (roughly eight pages if typed and double-spaced) 
• Many of my students have won writing awards; I hope you triumph, and I can add you to our roll of writers! 
• Submit your story to Bookshop Santa Cruz by Sept. 30 (online or mailed in).  
• If you place or get honorable mention, you will earn extra class credit.  

HW: Finish Reading and Annotating Book 4



_____________

Thursday, Sept. 6

• Creative Writing:
• The Basics of Plot 
• Work on Thy Story
• Review Book 4, begin Book 5

HW: Read and Annotate Book 5
_____________

Friday, Sept. 7

• Review book 5; begin Book 6. 
• Work on your Story

HW: 

• RD of Your Creative Writing Story is Due On Tuesday (five to ten pages, handwritten)
• We now read one chapter per day with no reading on Sundays, so 6 chapters per week.  That means that you need to keep the following schedule.  If we are able to move faster because we get an extra book done in class, then we will update the schedule at that time.
• Book 9 by Tuesday, Sept. 11
• Book 15 by Tuesday, Sept. 18
• Book 21 by Tuesday, Sept. 25
• Completed by Friday, Sept. 28 

Humanities III, Quiz 1

8/31

Humanities III, Quiz 1

Please answer in complete sentences; some answers will require more than one sentence. 

1.  Why should we write in our books?

2.  Explain in medias res and its importance to the epic.

3.  Why does Athene aid Telemachos? 

4.  Give me an example of an epithet from the Odyssey.

5.  What is a thesis?

6.  One paragraph: explain the background that creates the tense situation in the opening books of the Odyssey. 

Week 3

Tuesday

• Fix Grammar
• Recite
• Review Book 1
• Begin Reading Book 2 
• Continue with Thesis Notes

HW:

• Finish Annotating Book 2 
• Journal 3:
1. Why does Telemachos go to the assembly?
2. What does Telemachos initially ask for at the assembly?
3. What happens after he finishes speaking the first time? 
4. Who speaks after the strange portent in the skies?  What does he say?
5. How does Eurymachos respond? 
6. How does Telemachos's request alter? 
7. Who is aiding Telemachos?  How is that character aiding him? 

Thursday 

• Review Book 2
• Read and Annotate Book 3
• Continue with Thesis

 HW: Study for the Quiz

Friday

• Quiz 
• Finish Book 3: Read and Annotate Only

Week 2

Tuesday

• Recite our new poem
• Origins 
• Greek Mythology
• How did mythology arise? 
• Who are the chief Greek gods and goddesses...and how do they relate to Roman gods and goddess?
• Gods and Goddesses
• Overview of the Odyssey
• What is an epic?
• Who was Homer?
• What happens in The Odyssey?
• The Last Forty Days of a Ten Year Journey
• Our Edition and Introduction

 HW: Read and Annotate the Introduction


Thursday

• Fix Grammar
• Note about grades
• Recite
• Terms:
• Epic:A long, grand, narrative (story-telling) poem about the brave, exemplary deeds of ancient heroes.  A "primary" epic the oldest type, based upon oral tradition; a "literary" epic is written down from the start.  Examples of the first type include Homer's, Iliad and the Odyssey, and the Anglo Saxon epic, Beowulf; examples of the second type include Virgil's Aeneid, Spenser's 
  
  Faerie Queene, and Milton's Paradise Lost.  
• Epithet: a picturesque tag or nickname associated with a certain character.  Epithets can serve as a mnemonic device to remember and distinguish different characters.  Homer also used epithets to fill out the syllables in a line of poetic meter.  Most of the important people in the Iliad have a special epithet that serves as an extra name.  Athena is the only one described as 'grey-eyed.'  Homer often refers to the Greeks 'as the 'well-greaved' or 'brazen-clad Achaeans.' The title, 'lord of men,' is most often given to the leader of the Greek forces, Agamemnon.  Achilles receives epithets based on the swiftness of his feet.  Odysseus is 'much-suffering' and 'crafty' or 'wily.'  Perhaps the most famous epithet in Homer is the one he used for the passage of time, ‘rosy-fingered Dawn' (Odyssey, 2.1; cf. Iliad, 8.1; 11.1).
• Epic simile
• Read together 

 HW: None


Friday

• Recite
• The Thesis Teaching Begins (this will take a while)
• Let's just fill in the first box defining the thesis. 
• Read Together

HW: Due Tuesday of Week 3:

• Read and Annotate the rest of Book I of The Odyssey (pp. 29–38).  You do not need to understand everything you read.  Give it your best shot; mark statements you find interesting; mark question spots.  We will review in class.  As we gain momentum, we will increase our pace. 

Freshman Humanities: Week 1

Hi friends,

Here is what we are working with in our first week.

Thursday

• Welcome!
• Journal 1: Describe a bird call (without naming the bird) in 1-2 sentences. 
• Review the Syllabus
• "Marginalia: How Should We Read?"

Friday 

• Opening Grammar (complete sentences)
• Journal 2: When have you had an uninvited guest at your house (person, rat, etc.)?  Describe the tension in one paragraph (5 or more sentences). 
• Review the poem together (Billy Collins)
• Copy our Memorization Poem: "Never Again Would Birds' Song be the Same"
  

HW: 

• Fri.: Finish Annotating "Marginalia"
• Tue.: Have your binder in order (see the order in the syllabus) and signed

Welcome!

"And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15). 

Example? The Pantheon in Rome (25 BC, then AD 125) which became the church of Saint Mary and the Martyrs in the 7th century:

 

Fine print: Translation of the Latin you see in the facade above: "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, in his third consulate, made it." Actually, Agrippa did not make this.  He made the original, a rectangular building of limestone, about 25 B.C.  Rome burned in A.D. 60, 64, 79, 100 and 110. Emperor Domitian rebuilt it once.  Then, from A.D. 118-128, Hadrian built a new temple out of concrete with a different shape.  One of the few parts of the original still intact was the facade attributing the work to Agrippa.  

Emperor Hadrian's dome remains the largest unreinforced concrete dome on earth.

• Your Teacher
• Your Course
• Blog
• Syllabus
• Course Plan

So, have you ever listened to music?  On Pandora?  If so, it doesn't hurt to know a bit of mythology. 

Apollo and the Muses

The Junior Thesis Project

Hi students,

You will see a link on the left and right side of the blog for the junior thesis project.

Please read it and do the easy initial assignment (choose a subject, email me, and meet with a senior).

Thank you,

Mr. S