Week Six
Monday, 9/8/25
Vocabulary List Four.
Continue reading Macbeth, I.v-TBD, with summary notes.
Reminder: YPF drafts due two weeks from today.
Tuesday, 9/9/25
Continue reading Macbeth, TBD, with summary notes.
Wednesday, 9/10/25
Vocabulary Exercise Four.
Continue reading Macbeth, TBD, with summary notes.
Thursday, 9/11/25
Finish reading Macbeth, TBD-V.ix, with summary notes.
Article: "Themes and Construction: Macbeth."
Assign Essay One: Macbeth Analysis Essay.
Research annotations due Monday, 9/29.
Final paper due Wednesday, 10/8.
Friday, 9/12/25
Vocabulary Quiz Four.
Quiz and summary notes due: Macbeth.
Discussion: how to create an annotation and how to cite verse drama.
Week Five
Tuesday, 9/2/25
Pastoral Poetry, Norton pp. 502 and 513.
Review for Unit Test Two (The Sixteenth Century).
Slideshow & worksheet: Introduction to Unit Three (The Early Seventeenth Century).
Reading assignment, due Friday: Introduction to Unit Three, Norton pp. 655-681.
Wednesday, 9/3/25
Senior formal portraits.
Finish reading the introduction to Unit Three and/or work on YPF drafting.
Thursday, 9/4/25
Unit Test Two.
Slides & worksheet: Introduction to Shakespeare.
Begin reading Macbeth, I.i-I.ii, with summary notes.
Friday, 9/5/25
Open-note quiz: Introduction to Unit Three.
Continue reading Macbeth, I.iii-I.iv, with summary notes.
Week Four
Monday, 8/25/25
Reminder: The Canvas course page is now available. All long-form writing assignments, such as research papers, will be submitted there.
Distribute "Expectations for College Writing."
Vocabulary List Three.
Open-note quiz and summary notes due: Chaucer.
Read folk ballads, Mirrors & Windows pp. 85-91.
Terms worksheet: ballad, slant rhyme, refrain, repetition, dialogue, and mood.
Tuesday 8/26/25
Review for Unit Test One (The Middle Ages).
Unit Two Introduction slides and worksheet.
Read the Introduction to Unit Two, Norton pp. 359-389, by Thursday.
Wednesday, 8/27/25
Vocabulary Exercise Three.
Unit Test One (The Middle Ages).
Read excerpts from the English Bible, Norton pp. 399-403.
Read Elizabeth I, Norton pp. 403-404 & 407-408.
Thursday 8/28/25
Open-note quiz on the Introduction to Unit Two slides and reading.
Terms worksheet: sonnet, Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet, Shakespearean (English) sonnet, sonnet sequence, rhyme scheme, octave, sestet, quatrain, couplet, metaphor, meter, iambic pentameter, iambs, and scansion.
Read sonnets, Mirrors & Windows pp. 195-207.
Friday, 8/29/25
Vocabulary Quiz Three.
Write a sonnet as a class.
Assignment: hand-write an original sonnet.
When finished, work on YPF drafting.
Week Three
Monday, 8/18/25
Vocabulary List Two.
Quiz: Beowulf; summary notes due.
Read "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and “Morte d’Arthur,” Mirror & Windows pp. 140-162, with summary notes.
Tuesday 8/19/25
Distribute amended syllabus.
Finish "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and “Morte d’Arthur,” Mirror & Windows pp. 140-162, with summary notes.
Quiz, Arthurian Legends; summary notes due.
Assign the playwrighting project for Barter Theatre's Young Playwrights' Festival.
Drafts due for workshop on Monday, 9/22.
Final plays due Monday, 10/6.
YPF RESOURCES:
Wednesday, 8/20/25
Vocabulary Exercise Two.
Begin reading "The Canterbury Tales Prologue," Mirrors & Windows, pp. 96-105, with summary notes.
Homework: work on YPF drafting.
Thursday 8/21/25
Finish reading "The Canterbury Tales Prologue," Mirrors & Windows, pp. 105-116, with summary notes.
Homework: work on YPF drafting.
Friday, 8/22/25
Vocabulary Quiz Two.
Read “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” Mirrors & Windows, pp. 119-133, with summary notes.
Chaucer quiz and summary notes due on Monday.
Homework: work on YPF drafting.
Week Two
Monday, 8/11/25
Complete Vocabulary List One.
Read “Seafarer" and “The Wife’s Lament,” Mirror & Windows pp. 55-63.
Read Bede, Norton pp. 30-37.
Finish reading the Introduction to Unit One, Norton, pp. 4-26.
Tuesday 8/12/25
Read "Understanding Literary Forms, Poetry," Mirrors & Windows pp. 15-17.
Read "Introduction to Beowulf," Mirrors & Windows pp. 18-19.
"Social and Cultural Change; Medieval Period," Mirrors & Windows pp. 79-84.
"Introduction to Beowulf," Norton pp. 37-42.
Open-note quiz tomorrow on the Introduction to Unit One, Exeter Book Readings, Bede, and the Introduction to Beowulf.
Wednesday, 8/13/25
Vocabulary Exercise One.
Open-note quiz: Introduction to Unit One, Exeter Book Readings, Bede, and the Introduction to Beowulf.
Begin reading "Beowulf," Norton pp. 42-50, with summary notes.
Thursday 8/14/25
Senior meeting.
Vocabulary Quiz One.
Continue reading "Beowulf," Norton pp. 50-TBD, with summary notes.
Friday, 8/15/25
Finish "Beowulf," Norton pp. TBD-109 by Monday.
Beowulf summary notes due and quiz scheduled for Monday.
If finished early, students may begin reading "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and “Morte d’Arthur,” Mirror & Windows pp. 140-162.
Week One
Thursday, 8/7/25
Distribution and review of the English 245 course syllabus and Norton, Volume I.
Register students in EMC Textbook Portal (Mirrors & Windows) & Canvas.
Senior meeting @ 9:15.
Read "Heroes and Kings; Anglo-Saxon Period 499-1066," Mirrors & Windows pp. 1-6.
Friday, 8/8/25
Review the VHCC Plagiarism Guide.
Slideshow & Worksheet: Unit One, The Middle Ages (to ca. 1485).
Begin reading the Introduction to Unit One, Norton, pp. 3-TBD.