Wednesday, 8/19

* Open

• Copy down the simple sentence and explain why it is simple:
• a. Because Sarah Smith eats dragons, she has scales. 
• b. Sarah Smith has scales because she eats dragons. 
• c. Sarah Smith has scales, for she eats dragons. 
• d. Dragon-eating, Death-cheating, sweetly beating Sarah Smith ate ten tasty dragons.
• e. This is an evil trick.  None of these are simple, silly. 

* Pray and Recite

* Terms (see above)

• Please work whilst I check your summer reading. 

* The Book Prop. (see the Outside Reading link under Reading)

HW: Finish Your Terms and Vocabulary; find a good book to read. 

Summer Reading Link with Links that Link to the Links

Here is the Summer Reading Link for Those Who Need It

Tuesday, 8/18

This is my dog:

Æ

* Opening

• Grammar: Simple Sentences
• Copy: A simple sentence has only one independent clause (also known as a main clause) and no dependent/subordinate clauses.
• Now provide as many examples as you need from the following in your notes:
  
  Though a simple sentence doesn't contain any subordinate clauses, it isn't always short. A simple sentence often contains modifiers. In addition, subjects, verbs, and objects in simple sentences may be coordinated.
• Examples:
• John hit the ball. Simple sentence.
• John hit the gargantuan earth ball with a bat. 
• Still a simple sentence; I added modifiers and and a phrase (but didn't add a clause). 
• John and Larry and Sarah (but not Kim) hit and smacked and whacked the earth ball yesterday. 
• Still a simple sentence; I added coordinated subjects and verbs. 

•  So, what are counterexamples?
• John hit the ball while I drank iced tea. (This is complex because "while I drank tea" is a dependent clause.) 
• John hit the ball, and Jill caught it midair. ("and Jill caught it midair" is an independent clause...so the two make it a compound sentence.)

• More examples of deceptively simple sentences.
• "Your future is assured. You will live, secure and safe, Wilbur. Nothing can harm you now. These autumn days will shorten and grow cold. The leaves will shake loose from the trees and fall."
  (E.B. White, Charlotte's Web. Harper & Row, 1952)
• "They shot the six cabinet ministers at half-past six in the morning against the wall of a hospital. There were pools of water in the courtyard. There were wet dead leaves on the paving of the courtyard. It rained hard. All the shutters of the hospital were nailed shut. One of the ministers was sick with typhoid. Two soldiers carried him downstairs and out into the rain."
  (Ernest Hemingway, Chapter Five of In Our Time. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925)

• Thought for Food
• 'God made mankind,' is a simple sentence.
•  'On the sixth day God made man of the dust of the earth after his own image,' is also a simple sentence...but that doesn't make the meaning simple, just the structure. 

* The Lord's Prayer

*  Cædmon's Hymn 

• Copy down your first memorization poem. 
• You will have a quiz in no less than three weeks.  You will receive one point for each line written or recited.  
• That letter (æ) is an ash.  You may us it or "ae" when writing his name.  

* Review

• Literary History in Boxes
• Literary History in Sentences

HW:

• Twenty Annotations for the Anglo-Saxon Chapter.
• Begin Definitions for Your Vocabulary and Terms if you Wish

Schedules for a Normal Week

Summer Letter from Mr. Schwager

Dear students and parents,

I hope your summer has given you opportunities to rest, reflect, recreate, and read.

I write to make you aware of opportunities for class, college, and spiritual enrichment, should you be interested in such pursuits this month.

1. Class Advancement

• Don't forget your summer reading assignment.
  • http://hyddeousstrength.blogspot.com/2015/05/ap-english-literature-summer-reading.html
  • Consider reading a book that your parents enjoyed; discuss it with them as or after you read.  Here is the AP list to choose from:
    • http://mseffie.com/AP/APtitles.html
  • Be sure you read the annotation notes in the article (I also copied them onto the blog)
    • http://hyddeousstrength.blogspot.com/2015/05/annotation-notes-from-slowreads.html
  • I've been reading along with you.  So far, I've enjoyed some clever detective fiction (by Dorothy Sayers), a great book on college essays (by Sarah Myers McGinty), a bullfighting treatise by Ernest Hemingway (my writer from the AP list), some glory from G. K. Chesterton (The Man Who Knew Too Much), a book on kindness published by my pastor, and the book of 1 John (repeatedly).  Right now I'm reading a biography of modern Russian spies.  Bru-ha-ha!

2.  College (and class) Advancement

• If you plan to attend a four-year college, you should prepare extensively in July and August.
• Your first major quarter 1 assignment (in AP) will require you to research and write your college application essay.  Why not do that assignment (or get a BIG head start) this month?
  • http://hyddeousstrength.blogspot.com/2015/05/college-essay.html

3.  Spiritual Development

• Why do we study?  We study to grow in wisdom.  What is the most profitable book to study to grow in wisdom?  God's Word.  By studying the Bible carefully, you encourage your faith (essential for eternity) and actually develop your close reading skills (essential for college).  But we are busy modern people: how do we get rich insights from challenging original languages (Hebrew and Greek) to arrive at thoughtful, seasoned applications?  One way is to walk though the Bible with the late Dr. J. Vernon McGee (a great pastor and Bible chair at Biola).  Via podcast, he will take you through the Bible in five years (about 20 min. per day).  Thus, if you start listening now, you will have considered every book of the Bible the same summer you graduate college.  We're in 1 John now, and it's rich!  Join me (you too, parents!):
  • https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/thru-bible-on-oneplace.com/id580874786?mt=2
• If you miss a day or two, catch up, or just pick up where you are.  I know many of you will grow richly in God's grace if you use this podcast as a backbone of your Bible study. 

Feel free to email with any comments or questions: marcusschwager@mvcs.org.

Enjoy!

Mr. Schwager