Today, we started to read Beowulf. The plan is to read this section by section, which is about 20 minutes a day. While we are reading, we will be on NO TECHNOLOGY. Your brain can’t multi-task, so you can read/listen if you are texting/playing a game/listening to music. It’s only for 20 minutes: you can handle it. I promise!

Remember: part of the reason my students have success on this is because they watch me. I do crazy things to help you remember and understand the story. Please stay with me. 😉

Afterwards, we answered basic review questions at your tables. I will not grade these. Instead, I will save this for you so that you can review before quizzes and tests.

We know that the poetry section is difficult for us. Last year, you guys did rhetoric. Historically, the poetry essay is the lowest scoring portion of the test. So let’s tackle this!

One strategy used to analyze poetry is TP-CASTT.

Today, we read sonnet 29 and filled out the TP-CASTT together as a class. What I’d like for you to do as homework is to use that information to write an analysis about the poem. We are going to practice a few times on this (three, to be exact). You will turn in all three and choose your BEST paragraph for me to grade.

Eventually, after we do this a few times to know what we are doing (and what I’m looking for), we will take a major grade over this.