As we inch nearer to winter break and final exams, I'd like to take this opportunity to touch bases with you about what we're doing in Language Arts 3-4H and some of the resources available to you and your children for language and literature.

Our current unit covers poetry with a special emphasis on the ode and the sonnet. During our poetry unit I will be teaching my students two different ways in which to analyze poetry: TPICASTT (title-paraphrase-imagery-connotation-attitude-shift-title again-theme) and SOAPS (subject-occasion-audience-purpose-speaker), and they will be expected not only to analyze poetry but to write it. We will hold 2 days of in-class original poetry presentations on November 13th and 14th, which is when their poetry notebooks are due.

The following webpages will help you in your understanding of TP(I)CASTT and SOAPS(Tone): http://www.krucli.com/tp-castt.htm http://www.mistergweb.com/soapstone.pdf

Following poetry, we will have a 2-3 week unit on argumentation/persuasion. This is an important skill for AIMS as well as our DVWA (Deer Valley Writing Assessment), and we will be discussing audience, rhetorical approaches, Rogerian and classical argumentation strategy and logical fallacies.

Please use these resources to help your children prepare for argumentation/persuasion: http://courses.durhamtech.edu/perkins/aris.html http://sitemaker.umich.edu/english225/files/barronclassicalrogerian.doc

Finally, we will conclude the semester by studying parts of Beowulf, the great Anglo-Saxon epic. After our study of poetry, students should be well-prepared for Seamus Heaney's excellent translation of the poem: http://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-New-Verse-Translation-Bilingual/dp/0393320979.

I love working with your kids and am always ready to help. Students can make appointments to see me during Academic Prep period or before school for one-on-one writing assistance or literary analysis help. Please feel free to contact me if there is anything I can do to help your son or daughter better succeed in my class.

Thank you, Mrs. Merry Gordon