December 7th and 8th Grade English Classes

Dear friends,

In the 7th-8th grade English class, we are doing a two week series of on-line lessons on Advent using Scripture, fine art, music, poetry, and film. I have already posted the homework assignments for 8 days, which you can find by clicking here: Advent Assignments. This week's assignments are at the top.

As a recap of what we did during the two Monday classes in December:

December 1:

• Read and discussed Luke 1
• Read student Thanksgiving stories and poems
• Looked at pictures from the book One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham and discussed the concept that the Biblical story of redemption does not begin with the birth of Christ but with creation
• Read an abridged version of classic O. Henry short story The Gift of the Magi
• Listened to Christmas music by Sara Groves.

December 8:

• Read and discussed Luke 6,
• Read student responses to last week's art and literature assignments
• Looked at all of the Giotto paintings on the life of Christ and read two poetic essays from Madeline L'Engle's book The Glorious Impossible
• Read my new poem "The Story Did Not Start with a Stable and a Star" (which is also included in the December 10 assignment)
• Compared three different versions (Celine Dion, National Christian Choir, and Sara Groves) of the song "O Holy Night"

We probably did a few other things each of these weeks, and we certainly took some bunny trails off of the aforementioned topics, but those are the main things.

Anyone is welcome to use the lessons I have posted. You can always adapt them for younger or older students.

Blessings,
Virginia Knowles