Coiner's Corner
Progress in the New Semester
by Lee Coiner
January 28, 2010
We are now into the fourth week of the new semester. The year is going by quickly. My seniors started the new semester with a research paper on "Assassinations". They are currently getting ready to read the novel Treasure Island.
The ninth grade started with a unit on nonfiction literature. They read a series of stories and then took tests. After the nonfiction unit, they began a study of William Shakespeare: his life and times. They are preparing for Romeo and Juliet. They will read, discuss, quiz and do memory lines from this drama.
The tenth grade also started a unit on nonfiction. They too read a series of stories and tested over these stories. Currently they are preparing to read The Diary of Anne Frank. They have just finished with an oral report and then they will read and analyze the play about Anne Frank. After the Anne Frank study, they are going to do another play Pygmalion. This will probably take them up to studying for the state reading tests.
The eleventh grade started the semester off with a unit in the Revolutionary period where they read selections from Ben Franklin, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. They are currently reading selections from the Romantic period where they study the authors Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen Vincent Benet. After this unit, they will finish the quarter with a formal research paper, which will take about four weeks.
All classes will be preparing for state assessments and MAP testing for the spring. Hopefully, they will do well like they did with the MAP test in the fall. It will be a busy semester and will seemingly go by quickly.
