Quiz Prep - Pre-Reading Discussion for A Christmas Carol

Today, the student and I:

• Prepared for tomorrow's Quiz over the Chapter 5 Summary: Missions and Settlements
• Examined an Animated Chronology of Spanish Settlement in Texas
• Finished reading, highlighting, and analyzing the Ch. 5 Summary
• Quizzed one another over key facts and concepts in the Summary
• Used a Practice Study Map to quiz one another over locations of key missions and presidios
• Prepared to Read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol by
• Generating a list of Possible Discussion Questions About Christmas
• Choosing one of the questions and discussing it
• Agreeing to read the first few paragraphs of ACC (see below)

Assignments

1. Quiz over Chapter 5 Summary
2. Be working on your Essay Ranking the Explorers (Due Thursday; Mrs. Horner will let you continue working on it in Grammar/Writing class.)
3. Read the first 8 paragraphs of Stave One of ACC (clicky clicky): "Marley's Ghost" 
4. Write at least two discussion questions over the reading.
5. Vocabulary for ACC: If you're having trouble understanding some of Dickens' "big words," here are some Stave-by-Stave lists of words, defined for your learning and reading pleasure. (Thanks to Phil Jones for doing this!!) 

• Stave One 
• Stave Two  
• Stave Three 
• Stave Four 
• Stave Five

Tolsto(r)y Followup - Explorers Essay - Ch. 5 Summary

Students returned from Thanksgiving and:

• Discussed several followup questions over Tolstoy's "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"
• Began writing an Essay Ranking the Spanish Explorers - See instructions here.
• They will be able to work on it in Grammar class with Mrs. Horner.
• The essay will be due Thursday.
• Began reading and discussing the Chapter 5 Summary: Missions and Settlements
• Students will take a Quiz over the Ch. 5 Summary on Wednesday.
• We finished the first paragraph, pausing to relate key terminology from the reading to things depicted in the maps and pictures to the right.
• We color-coded key terminology and then inserted arrows stretching from the words to the picture. Click here to get an idea of how this was done.
• We distinguished between missions & presidios.
• Did a sort of anticipatory discussion of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, which we will read and discuss over the next week. One question raised and discussed was "Why does Dickens call his chapters "Staves"? Click here to see various formats available.

Assignments

For Wednesday - Quiz over Ch. 5 Summary: Missions and Settlements
For Thursday - Essay Ranking the Explorers