This course is designed to build a solid foundation of knowledge, skills, and strategies that will be refined, applied, and extended as students engage in more complex ideas, texts, and tasks. Students will be enhancing their grammar and writing skills.
Monday, October 27, 2025 - Friday, October 31, 2025
Monday, October 27, 2025
Bell Work
Lesson 10
1. credentials - written evidence showing that a person has a right to a certain position or authority
2. genial - favorable to growth or human comfort; kindly and friendly
3. morbid - having an abnormal interest in the unwholesome; gruesome
4. cumbersome - clumsy; unweildy; hard to handle
5. hoax - an act that is intended to fool or deceive; something that has been established by fraudulent means
6. plaintiff - a person who initiates a lawsuit; the complaining party
7. larceny - theft; unlawful taking and carrying away of another's property
8. prospective - probable; expected in the future
9. quorum - the minimum number of members needed at a meeting to make official decisions
10. superfluous - more than is needed; excessive; surplus
Add the following vocabulary to your sheet:
sagacity - the ability to make good judgments or to plan ahead
suppositions - assumptions or hypotheses
vain - baseless or worthless
Today we are going to look at paragraphs 4-7...
Our goal and quick write for today will be:
How does the narrator's point of view continue to develop a central idea?
Take a couple of minutes to read paragraph 4 and annotate the paragraph according to the following:
Box or circle unfamiliar words and phrases
Star (*) important or repeating ideas
Put a question mark (?) next to a section you are questioning or confused about
Use an exclamation point (!) for areas that remind you of another text or ideas that strike you or surprise you in some way.
Now take a couple of minutes and come up with the answers to the following questions about paragraph 4:
1. Why does the narrator experience "feelings of triumph"?
2. What does the use of "chuckled" reveal about the narrator's feelings in this paragraph?
3. How does the narrator respond to the old man's sudden movements?
Now take a couple of minutes to read and annotate paragraphs 5-6 according to the following:
Box or circle unfamiliar words or phrases
Star (*) important or repeating ideas
Put a question mark (?) next to a section you are questioning or confused about
Use an exclamation point (!) for areas that remind you of another text or ideas that strike you or surprise you in some way.
Take a couple of minutes to answer the following questions:
4. How does the narrator respond to the old man "crying out"?
5. Why does the narrator not "move a muscle" for a "whole hour"?
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Lesson 10 - Exercise 2
Now take a couple of minutes to read an annotate paragraph 7...
Box or circle unfamiliar words or phrases
Star (*) important or repeating ideas
Put a question mark (?) next to a section you are questioning or confused about
Use an exclamation point (!) for areas that remind you of another text or ideas that strike you or surprise you in some way.
We are going to break paragraph 7 down into two parts:
Breakdown number one:
"Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan" through "I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart."
6. Why does the narrator pity the old man?
7. Explain the narrator's feelings in the following sentence "I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart." What is the purpose of the word "although" in this sentence"?
Breakdown number 2:
"I knew that he had been lying awake ever since" through "--to feel the presence of my head within the room."
8. What are the old man's suppositions?
9. Why are the old man's suppositions in vain?
10. What does in vain mean in this context?
11. What is the "unperceived shadow" in the last sentence?
Quick Write:
How does the narrator's point of view contribute to the reader's understanding of the central idea?
Vocabulary:
scantlings - rafters or timbers that compose a house frame
planks - a long, flat piece of timber
cease - to stop
stealthily - slowly, deliberately, secretly
Today we are going to look at paragraphs 8-13...
Our goal is to understand how Poe's structural choices contribute to the development and refinement of a central idea.
Take a couple of minutes to read and annotate paragraph 8 based on the following:
Box or circle unfamiliar words and phrases
Star (*) important or repeating ideas
Put a question mark (?) next to a section you are questioning or confused about
Use an exclamation point (!) for areas that remind you of another text or ideas that strike you or surprise you in some way.
1. How does the narrator describe his movements in this paragraph?
2. Why does the narrator move in these ways?
3. What is the effect of Poe's use of repetition in this excerpt?
4. What do you notice about the development of the central idea in this excerpt?
Now take a couple of minutes to read and annotate paragraphs 9-10...
Box or circle unfamiliar words and phrases
Star (*) important or repeating ideas
Put a question mark (?) next to a section you are questioning or confused about
Use an exclamation point (!) for areas that remind you of another text or ideas that strike you or surprise you in some way.
We need to discuss these questions before we move on to the next section...
5. How does the old man's eye affect the narrator?
6. What does the narrator mean when he states that he had directed the ray of light "as if by instinct"?
7. Where has the narrator previously discussed his acute senses? Why does he remind the reader of this in paragraph 10?
8. What action is happening in paragraphs 8, 9, and 10?
9. What do you notice about the development of central idea in this excerpt?
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Lesson 10 - Exercise 3
Take a couple of minutes to read and annotate paragraph 11...
Box or circle unfamiliar words and phrases
Star (*) important or repeating ideas
Put a question mark (?) next to a section you are questioning or confused about
Use an exclamation point (!) for areas that remind you of another text or ideas that strike you or surprise you in some way.
Breakdown number 1:
"But even yet I refrained and kept still" through "so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror."
10. Why does the narrator hold the lantern motionless?
11. What explanation does the narrator give for his "uncontrollable terror"?
Breakdown number 2:
"Yet, for some minutes longer, I refrained and stood still," through "His eye would trouble me no more."
12. What does the narrator mean when he says the "old man's hour had come!"?
13. Why would the old man's eye no longer "trouble" the narrator?
14. Consider the story's pacing in paragraphs 8-10. How does Poe use text structure and time in paragraph 11?
15. What do you notice about the development of the central idea in the excerpt?
Take a couple of minutes to read and annotate paragraphs 12-13
Box or circle unfamiliar words and phrases
Star (*) important or repeating ideas
Put a question mark (?) next to a section you are questioning or confused about
Use an exclamation point (!) for areas that remind you of another text or ideas that strike you or surprise you in some way.
16. What are the "wise precautions" the narrator takes?
17. Why does he refer to the "precautions" as "wise"?
18. What structural choice is Poe making throughout these paragraphs?
Quick Write:
How do Poe's structural choices contribute to the development and refinement of a central idea?
Add the following vocabulary to your notes:
reposed - rested
dissemble - to give a false or misleading appearance
deed - something that is done, performed, or accomplished
fatigues - weariness from bodily or mental exertion
gesticulations - animated or excited gestures
audacity - boldness or daring, especially with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions
vehemently - emotionally, passionately, intensely
mockery - ridicule, contempt, or derision
hypocritical - the pretense of having virtues, beliefs, or principles that one does not actually possess
Take a couple of minutes and annotate paragraphs 14-15...
Box or circle unfamiliar words and phrases
Star (*) important or repeating ideas
Put a question mark (?) next to a section you are questioning or confused about
Use an exclamation point (!) for areas that remind you of another text or ideas that strike you or surprise you in some way.
Answer the following questions:
1. Why does the narrator have a "light heart"?
2. In paragraphs 14 and 15, what is the effect of the narrator's question "What had I to fear?"
3. What does the narrator do in the "enthusiasm of [his] confidence"?
4. What is the narrator's "perfect triumph"?
5. What does the narrator do with "wild audacity"?
Now take a couple of minutes and read and annotate paragraph 16.
Box or circle unfamiliar words and phrases
Star (*) important or repeating ideas
Put a question mark (?) next to a section you are questioning or confused about
Use an exclamation point (!) for areas that remind you of another text or ideas that strike you or surprise you in some way.
Answer the following questions:
6. What does the narrator mean by "I found that the noise was not within my ears"?
7. What is happening to the narrator in this paragraph?
Take a couple of minutes and annotate paragraphs 17-18...
Box or circle unfamiliar words and phrases
Star (*) important or repeating ideas
Put a question mark (?) next to a section you are questioning or confused about
Use an exclamation point (!) for areas that remind you of another text or ideas that strike you or surprise you in some way.
8. Describe the narrator's way of speaking in the beginning of this excerpt.
9. What effect is the "noise" having on the narrator?
10. How do the police react to the narrator's behavior?
11. Why does the narrator think the police were "making a mockery" of his horror?
12. Why does the narrator call the police officers' smiles hypocritical?
13. Who does the narrator call "Villains"?
14. What does the command, "dissemble no more" reveal about the narrator?
15. What drives the narrator to "admit the deed"?
16. What is the effect of Poe's use of punctuation in paragraphs 17 and 18?
Quick Write:
Where does a new central idea emerge? How does Poe develop this idea in the conclusion of the story?
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Lesson 10 - Exercise 4
We will listen to the short story "The Landlady" and discuss the story as we listen.
You will complete the questions that go with the story.
You will also complete the writing assignment that goes with the story.
Notes for the story:
Foreshadowing in "The Landlady" Warning Signs Billy Misse
dThe Bed and Breakfast sign The empty streets and lack of guests
The landlady's peculiar behavior The landlady's overeagerness
The guestbook Familiar names in the guestbook
The stuffed pets The stuffed dog and parrot
The tea The taste of the tea The landlady's strange
