Homework for Friday, 4/24

• Test Booklet -- answer questions through page 63
• Writing: "Flowers for Algernon" is not a realistic story. (An operation like the one the doctors performed on Charlie Gordon is impossible.) But is there anything normal and realistic about Charlie as a character? Explain your answer. (1/2 page, notebook)

Homework due Thursday, April 23

• Finish "Flowers for Algernon." Expect a quiz!
• Test booklet -- finish questions through p. 51

Homework due Wednesday, 4/22

Test booklet -- finish questions through page 42.

(In some of the test booklets, the 3rd paragraph on p. 26 is messed up. Here is the paragraph, in its entirety:

Beyond the last house on Trunion Pike in Winesburg, there is a great stretch of open fields. The fields are owned by farmers who live in town and drive homeward at evening along Trunion Pike in light creaking wagons. In the fields are planted berries and small fruits. In the late afternmoon in the hot summers when the road and the fields are covered with dust, a smoky haze lies over the great flat basin of land. To look across it is like looking out across the sea. In the spring when the land is green the effect is somewhat different. The land becomes a wide green billiard table on which tiny human insects toil up and down.

Homework due Tuesday, 4/21

1. Test Prep:
   In your notebook, answer questions up to p. 23 in the sample question booklet.
2. Writing:
   What is your long-term plan for improving your writing? Write one page about it. Don't bore me! (1 page, notebook)

Homework due Monday, 4/20

1. Read "Flowers for Algernon" pages 198-203 (up to "Progress Report 13")
2. Test Prep book: answer the questions up through page 13. (Do this on a separate sheet of paper.)

Homework due Tuesday, April 14

Anything can be the subject of great writing, whether it's a life-changing event or just a trip to the store!

Please describe an event that happened in your life during the spring break. Length: 1-1/2 pages, in your notebook.

Describe the event, using descriptive details. Also tell me about your thoughts, emotions and reactions to what happened. Include:

• Introductory paragraph to get the reader's attention and state your main idea
• at least three body paragraphs
• Concluding paragraph to restate your main idea and leave the reader with something to think about!

HEY! READ THIS!!!

Please bring your vocabulary sheets to class tomorrow; I will collect them before the quiz.

More about clauses...

clause – group of words that contains a subject and verb

• independent clause: expresses a complete thought (a complete sentence is a clause!)
• dependent clause – does not express a complete thought.

Two roles* that clauses can play in a sentence:

• adverb clause (acts as an adverb)
• adjective clause (acts as an adjective)

* ...and there are more!

Simple sentence: one independent clause

• My uncle baked some cookies.

Compound sentence: two independent clauses joined by a conjunction (such as and, or, but)

• My uncle baked some cookies and he took them to work.