Animal Farm Mid-Term Quiz

Introduction and Preface

1.  Orwell wrote Animal Farm as a response to Communism in what country?

2.  Napoleon is a type for what real person in history? 

3.  Snowball is a type for what real person in history? 

Chapters I – IV 

1.  Before they change the name to Animal Farm, what’s the name of Mr. Jones’s farm? 

2.  Who is the old, prize boar who shares his wisdom with the animals? 

3.  What is the song that is taught to the animals? 

4.  Who is vain carriage-horse who doesn’t want to give up sugar and ribbons? 

5.  How many commandments do Napoleon and Snowball come up with and where do they paint them?

6.  What is Boxer’s personal motto? 

7.  Which animals become the best readers?

8.  Where have all the milk and apples gone to? 

9.  What is Mr. Jones doing while the pigs are running the farm? 

10.  What happens at the Battle of the Cowshed? 

Chapters V – VIII 

1. Which animal doesn’t live according to the rules of Animalism and leaves the farm? 

2.  Who is the better speaker and planner for the future?  Napoleon or Snowball?  

3.  What animals are wearing brass-studded collars? 

4.  Which animal becomes the “mouth-piece” for Napoleon? 

5.  How do the animals get supplies that they don’t already have at the farm? 

6.  How does the windmill fall down?  How does Napoleon explain the incident with the windmill? 

 

7.  What does Napoleon force some of the animals to do?  What did the dogs do to those animals? 

8.  Why does the windmill collapse again? 

9.  Where do the pigs find a crate of whiskey?  What do they do with it? 

10.  Squealor has been changing the commandments.  Tell about the change to one of the commandments. 

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 9 (October 29)

Greetings!

We had a great class this week.  I always enjoy the discussions with this group of students.

The Quick Write last week was "Confined to the Couch."  The students were to write what they would do if they were stuck on a couch somewhere for 24 hours.  What would they want to have with them.  This week, we had a similar prompt.  Because October 28 was International Internet Day, I asked the students to write about what they would do on a computer, especially the internet, for a whole day.  Their responses were of mix of social media, Netflix, music, games, and photos.

Our Words of the Day:

idee fixe -- fr. French, "fixed idea" -- an obsession or set ideas

ich dien -- fr. German, "I serve" -- the motto of the Prince of Wales

icon -- fr. Greek, eikon, "likeness" -- a pictorial representation of a religious image; a painting or statue evoking reverence

I collected the rough drafts of the Examples Essays.  For those students who were gone or who didn't have the essay done, please e-mail it to me when it is finished.  I will have the essays back to them next week for them to revise.

Our next item on the agenda was the presentation on Verbs by Eden and Jonathon S.  They had a good presentation that included a video and clear explanations of some of the key points about verbs.  They told us about action/helping/linking verbs, transitive/intransitive verbs, 5 principle parts, verb tenses, and subject-verb agreement. also 

We also concluded our discussions about Animal Farm.  The students had been divided into 4 groups and were assigned a character to discuss.  We heard about Napoleon, Squealer, Boxer, and Clover.  To finish this book, I have two quizzes for them.  We did most of one of them as a class; the multiple choice one is to be done at home.  They can use their books.

Our next book is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  They will start reading the book next week; for this week they are to read the introduction that I put together about the book.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read the intro to A Christmas Carol

-- Animal Farm Vocabulary Worksheet (If not handed in this week)

-- Verbs homework

Links for this week:

Introduction to A Christmas Carol

School House Rock -- Verbs

Grammaropolis Verbs Video

Class Notes

Animal Farm Mid-Term Quiz

Animal Farm Final

Have great weekend!  The weather looks to be great!

Mrs. Prichard

Introduction to A Christmas Carol

            A Christmas Carol is a fairly straightforward allegory built on an episodic narrative structure in which each of the main passages has a fixed, obvious symbolic meaning. The book is divided into five sections (Dickens labels them Staves in reference to the musical notation staff--a Christmas carol, after all, is a song), with each of the middle three Staves revolving around a visitation by one of the three famous spirits. The three spirit-guides, along with each of their tales, carry out a thematic function--the Ghost of Christmas Past, with his glowing head, represents memory; the Ghost of Christmas Present represents charity, empathy, and the Christmas spirit; and the reaper-like Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come represents the fear of death. Scrooge, with his Bah! Humbug! attitude, embodies all that dampens Christmas spirit--greed, selfishness, indifference, and a lack of consideration for one's fellow man.

from Victorian Age

http://www.guidanceassociates.com/victorianage.html

            The Victorian Age is a very elastic term used to denote an extremely dynamic period. Although the Victorian Age roughly spans most of the 19th century (from 1832 to 1900), it is not totally confined within these dates. The rumblings of change to come were felt for some time before 1832, and changes did not stop occurring as soon as Queen Victoria died in 1901. However, lifestyles did change more dramatically during this period than ever before in English history. England was suddenly pulled together by the railways, the penny post, and the rest of the newly constructed apparatus of fast, cheap communication. The country became unified in a way never before possible.

            Prior to the middle of the 19th century, education had been reserved for the nobility and those who could afford to send their children to exclusive private schools. Even if the poor had been able to enter their children in these schools, they would not have done so. A child of six was expected to start bringing home money to help support his entire family; he would be put to work as soon as possible. In those days work meant twelve to sixteen hours a day of grueling, hard labor in conditions that would today be considered totally unacceptable. There was no time spare for education. However, with the appearance of the modern public school system it became fashionable and necessary for the children of the lower classes to at least learn the rudiments of the 3 R’s. With these assets, they could go on to vocational apprenticeships in one of the trades.

            Great nationalistic spirit developed during the Victorian Age, and England struggled to place herself at the top of the international scene. At the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851, England was influential in many countries. By the end of the Victorian Age, the British Empire had reached the high point of its development.

            During this period the extreme poverty of the lower working classes was pointed up by the increasingly congested living conditions of city life. While the nobility still hung onto its money and its social barriers, and an individual’s birthright tended to be the deciding factor of his future, the rapidly expanding middle classes made steady inroads. The middle-class novelist, Charles Dickens, did more than any writer before or since to expose the sufferings of the working class. His books found their way into the drawing rooms of the titled and wealthy, and social consciousness began to rise. Emancipation of women and the rights of children became popular cases for the previously sheltered nobility. They brought their money and influence to bear in demanding better working conditions and broader education for the working class. A kind of feverish sentimentality of guilt gripped everyone.  The debt owed to Charles Dickens for the many reforms of the Victorian Age is certainly not a small one.

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 7 (October 8)

Greetings!

We had a good class today. The students were well-engaged and, as always, a delight.  

For our Quick Write, I gave the students two options:  1) This month is National Seafood Month; write about seafood or lake food.  2) This was was Edward L. Stratemeyer's birthday.  Born in 1862, he wrote the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries. Students could write about something related to mysteries.  We were lucky enough to hear a good recipe for pan-fried walleye.

Our Words of the Day:

fresco -- fr. Italian fresco, "cool, fresh" -- a painting done rapidly in watercolor on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling, so that the colors penetrate the plaster and become fixed as it dries.

dixit -- fr. Latin, dixit, "he himself said" -- a dogmatic statement which the speaker expects the listener to accept as valid

xenophobia -- fr. Greek xenos, stranger; phobia, fear -- a fear of strangers or of foreign things

Following our beginning of class activities, we discussed the homework that I passed back to the students and the homework that they handed in.  I briefly talked with them about homework and some the challenges they might sometimes have in getting work done and handed in.  Occasionally, directions are unclear or the assignment is hard.  For those times, students should come and see me so that I can help.  For the other issues, distractions, forgetfulness, busyness, and even laziness -- they have to solve those problems for themselves. They've been a hardworking class, and I have this discussion with them to encourage them to take charge of their work.  

We had our third Parts of Speech presentation today:  Adjectives with Brady and Daniel.  They showed a video and gave a short explanation about the uses of adjectives.  The homework worksheet for this will be e-mailed out later.  Following the explanation, we filled in some possible adjectives for this sentence:  This is a ______ pizza.  We paid special attention to words that carried opinions.  I'm also including a link at the bottom for the video done by Writing 2.

They've handed in the final drafts of their Personal Essays and received their next writing assignment: an Examples/Illustrations Essay. For this essay, they are give concrete examples in order to explain a more abstract topic.  For our previous assignments, the students completed 2 steps:  a rough draft and a final draft.  For the rest of the assignments for this class, we will focus on a 3-step process that includes pre-writing, a rough draft, and a final draft.  The pre-write can include an outline, a mind map, a Venn diagram, or a T-chart.  Any research for a paper is also part of the pre-writing activity.

We have neared the end our our book, Animal Farm.  Because of our presentations and writing discussions, we have not spent as much time talking about the book as I would like.  I can tell, however, that they are doing a careful job reading the book by their thoughtful responses to the study guide questions.  I divided the class into four groups to discuss Napoleon, Squealer, Boxer, and Clover.  They were to list details for the following areas:  physical characteristics, relationships, character/personality traits, and key actions.  Next week, the students will share the main points of their discussions with the rest of the class.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Review assignment character

-- Bring 3 specific points about this character to share with your group.

-- Adjective homework

-- Examples Essay Pre-Write

Links for this Week:

Class Notes

Adjectives Videos

School House Rock Video

Writing 2 Adjectives

Adjectives Worksheet

Have a great weekend and a good Fall Break!

Mrs. Prichard

Adjective Worksheet

Adjectives Videos

Below are the videos for the Adjectives Presentation.

This video was produced by the presenters for Writing 2.

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 6 (October 1)

Greetings!

Yesterday was a great day, weather-wise and class-wise.  

I gave the students two options for the Quick Writes.  September 26 was John Chapman's birthday; most know him as Johnny Appleseed and remember that he traversed our young country planting apple trees.  The second option was to comment on the fact that October is National Pizza Month.  I heard from the students their favotie apple recipes and favorite pizza combinations.

Our Words of the Day included:

chapeau -- fr. French chapeau, "hat"; fr. Latin cappellum, cap -- a hat

charadae -- fr. French, charra, "chatter" --  an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance.

charisma -- fr. Greek charis, "gift/grace"-- an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance.

The students got back their rough drafts, and as is my policy, we go over common mistakes found in those rough drafts.  One of the best ways to learn grammar is to learn in in the context of their own writing.  For this discussion, we covered introductions/conclusions, contractions, punctuation in dialogue, and semicolons.

This week we had our Pronouns presentation given to us by Jonathan G. and Jeremiah.  A video along with a short presentation were given; students were also given some homework.  Writing 2 also had their Pronouns presentation this week, and I will be including a link to the PowerPoint presentation that one of the students put together.  Additionally, I have some other links for students to check out if they want to do more research.

In the final minutes of class we talked about Animal Farm.  We read the portion that shows now Napoleon has become ruthless and executes some of the animals.  We also discussed how the animals were not noticing the changes that were happening and were allowing themselves to be led by such wicked leaders.  

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Final Draft of Personal Essay

-- Pronouns Homework

-- Read Chapters 9 & 10 of Animal Farm

-- Answer 2 Study Questions and fill in 3 Vocabulary words

Links for This Week:

Class Notes

Understanding Pronouns

Pronouns PowerPoint

Pronouns Video

Pronouns Explanation

See you next week!  Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard