Week 4

DEVOTION

Students led our discussion of chapter 3 by using the 5 Common Topics.  

LATIN

By next Monday, you should be able to COMPLETELY fill in Verb Charts 1, 2, and 3 as well as the first section of Chart 4 (which I distributed in class).

With our snow delay, Latin and math were a bit abbreviated, but we had an epic battle reviewing Latin vocabulary with Pictionary!

Keep preparing for the NLE.  Complete exams 2001-2004 for Latin study hall tomorrow, and 2005 & 2006 later this week for our next study hall.

MATH

We spent our lunch hour playing Board Slam and Knockout.  We have a competitive group, and it was fun!  We will resume sharing problems next week, so make sure you prepare a discussion to lead on Monday.

SHORT STORIES

Today each student shared what they wrote to complete the statement "My story is about...."  The purpose was to articulate their STORY FOCUS.  A few students didn't write out their assignment (or they forgot to bring it to class)...we have a very difficult time getting through everyone's ideas if students aren't prepared, so please make sure you bring your work written down in advance to class if you want to share. 

This week, you will work on the SETTING of your story.  We discussed what this includes - e.g., where and when the story takes place, the five senses (sights, smells, sounds, etc.), and what feelings the author is trying to evoke (fear, joy, excitement, hopelessness, etc.).  Part of your assignment this week is to brainstorm the setting of your story, using the 5 Common Topics to help you describe it.  Write out a description of your story's setting and bring it to class!  Make sure you read your guide for the complete assignment!

We also discussed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, again using the 5 Common Topics, and shared the Bible verses students found.  One question we considered was whether age has more to do with physical attributes or mindset?

SCIENCE

Students shared their summaries of chapter 3 of Defeating Darwinism and added to their own outlines as needed.  We also reviewed the 3-5 main points from each of the chapters so far, and I encouraged students to keep a running list of these.

This coming week, scan/touch/read chapter 4 and outline all major points.  Bring your outline to class and be prepared to discuss it.

LOGIC

We reviewed some problem exercises in lesson 8 together.  Overall, I think most students have a good handle on the material from the past 2 weeks.  We also played a Jeopardy review game of this material.

This week you are moving on to 10-14a.  Make sure you complete all the reading early in the week (and study the vocabulary - new and old!).  Then begin rereading each chapter and working through the exercises.  Hopefully you can do that at least for lessons 10 and 11 - then next week you will finish up through lesson 14a.

MOCK TRIAL

We added Barbara Barrett's information to the master timeline today - be are to be keeping up with your own timeline.  We also practiced making a PDI chart (similar to an ANI chart - "P" is information helpful to the prosecution, "D" for the defense, and "I" helpful).  This week you will TYPE a PDI chart for EACH witness and turn in a copy of your charts to me on Monday.

Then we reviewed sections 1-7 in the case materials.  This week, reread sections 8-9.

POSTREMO

* Parents - please let me know if you plan to stay during the students' Latin study hall on Tuesday, February 12, for us to review logic.

* The votes are in - our dinner & movie night for Inherit the Wind will be Sunday, February 10, from 3:00-7:30 p.m.  Also plan on Mock Trial movie nights on Sunday, February 24 and March 31, from 4:00-7:00 p.m.

* It looks like the date of our (optional) writer's workshop downtown will be changing (because they are now not available on our requested date of Feb. 6).  We'll hopefully have more details soon, but we're looking at Wednesday, Feb. 27 or March 6.  Stay tuned!

Blessings on you and your studies this week!

~ Mrs. D