Wednesday, November 8, 2017

     It's been a beautiful start to November, on the "heels" of the excitement from spirit week and the KA auction. We have so much to be thankful for in regards to this school, all of you who keep it going, and God's mercy and blessings. We love all the students and being able to guide their learning! 
     First up is to welcome Des! She is settling into the eighth grade/middle school, and has made a good start. 
     The middle school grammar students are now called the "Grammar Scientists." They realize it takes a scientific approach to solving the mysteries of grammar, and we use this as we dissect sentences daily! We drilled in the verb tenses, then the pronouns, and are now digesting adjectives in all their various forms. We even get in a little "art" by diagramming sentences. If all this isn't enough fun, they wrote short autobiographies, which helped them learn a little more about each other.
     The American Literature class of Juniors completed their study of authors of literature of revolution. The drift into the 18th century use of "reason" was clearly seen in Paine, Bartram, and  Freneau's writings. Phillis Wheatley, though, was deeply convicted of God's love and providence in her life, and reflected this in her writing. She recited a poem to a class of astronomy students at Harvard College and, in it, reminded them their greatest foe was sin, and their search for knowledge must be coupled with a desire for Godly wisdom. Her conviction shines through her poetry, in the midst of an age where authors were turning away from God. Writings from Irving and Cooper entertained us as they did their first readers in the 19th century period of literary romanticism. Bryant also wrote during this period, but had a much different focus-great writing, but not so uplifting!
     The 9/10 English class will take the test on Unit III Friday.  We have read many works containing allusions and symbols.  We have experienced how the use of allusions and symbols makes the meaning of the writing much deeper and richer. You might ask a 9th or 10th grader who their favorite aurthor was in this unit...maybe Kipling, maybe Poe, maybe Chesterton???
     The 7/8 English class finished the loooong Unit 2 today with a test. The focus was on characters who made significant choices, and the results of those choices.  King Midas eventually realized the Golden Touch was not as great as he thought it would be.  He decided it was far better to have a real daughter than just a golden statue of her! We hunted for implicit themes, and were thankful for explicit themes! We appreciate it now when we see repetition in writing, and even learned the fancy term "anaphora" so we can more easily talk about it, along with other literary terms.
     Along with all the reading and analyzing of others' writing, the literature students did a great job of creating their own haiku, diamante poems, and narrative poems. You may have seen these at the auction (or have one decorating your house! ), as they painted the poems onto pumpkins in various styles of "word art." 
     Thanks for all of you parents who came to conferences.  I really appreciate all the support you give your students, this school and the teachers. I am happy to hear from you anytime! 

Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Luke 10:2

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