Finals Week

Parents,

This week is finals week here at Reavis.  Your son/daughter will be taking his/her American Lit. exam on either Thursday (2nd Period) or Friday (1st Period).  Please make sure he/she completes the review sheet, looks over the unit exams that I will hand back tomorrow, and studies the list of vocabulary words we learned this semester.

If you have any questions, I can be reached at derickson@d220.org.

Thank you and happy holidays,

Don Erickson

November 26-30

Last week we read two poems ("The Raven" and "The Bells") and one Gothic short story ("The Pit and the Pendulum") from Edgar Allan Poe.  When you get a chance, ask your child if he/she can define Gothic Romance.

Gothic Romance:  Literature that has a gloomy, ominous setting and contains strong elements of horror, mystery, decay, and the supernatural.

This week we will be finishing up the Romanticism unit.  The students will review for the unit test on Monday and take the exam on Tuesday. 

Also, later in the week, the students will be taking the Vocabulary #6 Quiz.  The following is a list of the words they will be quizzed on:

Set #6

mendacious (adj):  lying; dishonest

veracity (n):  truthfulness

anomaly (n):  irregularity; abnormality

banal (adj):  unoriginal; ordinary; dull; trite

idiosyncrasy (n):  a peculiarity specific to one person or thing

precept (n):  a rule to live by

inane (adj):  senseless; silly

exemplify (v):  to illustrate by example

spurious (adj):  false beyond a doubt; fake

awry (adj):  twisted to one side; away from the correct course

Please make sure they are ready for both tests.  If you have any questions or concerns, e-mail me at derickson@d220.org.

November 12-16

On Monday, the students will have their Vocabulary #5 quiz.  If you would like to study with your child, here are the vocabulary words, he/she will need to know:

Set #5

consonant (adj):  harmonious; in agreement

assimilate (v):  to take in; to absorb; to learn thoroughly

reciprocate (v):  to repay or return in kind

cryptic (adj):  mystifying; mysterious; puzzling

bemused (adj):  confused; bewildered

conjecture (v):  to guess based on little evidence

ambiguous (adj):  unclear in meaning; able to be interpreted in different ways

abstruse (adj):  difficult to understand

flagrant (adj):  glaringly bad; notorious (refers to what you see or do)

salient (adj):  jutting out; striking; conspicuous

On Tuesday, the students will hand in an original thesis statement and one detailed body paragraph that supports their thesis statement.  This assignment needs to be typed out and double-spaced.

Later in the week, we will be reading from the poetry and short stories of Edgar Allan Poe.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at derickson@d220.org.

October 29 - November 2

This week marks the beginning of Unit 3 (Romanticism) in American Literature.  Last Friday, the students took their Unit 2 exam and you can check your child's score on Parent Connect.  On Monday, the students read the introduction to Romanticism and they took a quiz on the reading today.  Those grades are also posted on Parent Connect.

Tomorrow we will be finishing the story "The Devil and Tom Walker" in class and the students will be expected to provide an example of imagery, foreshadowing, symbol, and irony from the story.  Later in the week we will be studying the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe.

The Words of the Day for this week are:  assimilate, reciprocate, cryptic, bemused, and conjecture.  Please encourage your child to use these words in order to earn extra credit in the class.

Have a great week and if you have any questions, please contact me at derickson@d220.org.

October 22-26

Major weekly assessments:
     Tuesday - Vocabulary #4 Quiz (40 points)
     Thursday - Unit 2 Age of Reason Exam (80 points)

This is an important week of testing for the students.  To prepare for Tuesday's vocabulary test, the students were required to write original sentences using the vocabulary words over the week-end.  On Wednesday in class, they will review for Thursday's unit exam.  Throughout the week, many of the students will be meeting with me individually during class to discuss their recent essays on The Scarlet Letter.