Week 1 Done! 9th Lit

Congratulations on having your child make it through the first week of school!

This week we focused on breaking down our reading by closely reading 2 poems and our summer reading assignment.  We worked on annotating (marking up) our texts and looking for specific things: connections, questions, figurative language (specifically similes, metaphors, personification, and imagery), and grammar (sentences and prepositional phrases).  Some of this is a review from years' past, some of this is kind of new for some students.  

Some students have been rock stars in the class, doing everything I ask of them, following along, helping other students, completing all of the work, everything!  Some students have been taking their time getting back into the swing of things.  We had a group discussion today about their effort and our goals as a class.  I recommend you also discuss this with your child.  Unlike in middle school, you have to pass ALL of your classes to move on in high school, and your GPA for college matters starting right now.  I know that every student in my classes can earn an A, but it's up to them to put forth the effort to earn that A (you can ask them about my experiences in my chemistry classes.  Yes, plural).  I know how hard it is to be a student, and I know the effort you have to put into each class.

Some students are already ahead of the game and have finished most of their homework for the weekend, but please double check that your child is on track.

1. They need to go over the syllabus with you so that they and you are clear about the expectations of the class.
2. They need to complete the Welcome to the Class Student Survey that is linked on the blog.
3. They need to get you to complete the Parent/Guardian Survey on the blog.
4. They need to make sure they've annotated their Summer Reading for 5 connections, 5 questions, figurative language (underlined and labeled, i.e.: S if it's a simile), and circled any vocabulary they didn't understand.
5. They need to respond to the quickwrite prompt about the tone in the Summer Reading article "There Will Come Soft Rains."  The instructions for the prompt were covered in class and can be found on the Tone and Mood PPT linked on the blog.

All of these links can be found on the 9th Lit Resources page of the blog.  If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me or leave me a voicemail. 

I really look forward to working with you to have an amazingly successful year together.

Sincerely,

Kim Bundschu