Sept. 28-Oct 2
Grade 9:
Working on Short Story Unit. This week we have read the story "Thank-you Ma'am" page 72.
Vocabulary on the story:
1. Ma’am: is a short form for madam, a term used for an older or married woman
2. Stoop: To bend over, or to lower the head and shoulders to pick up something, or a small door step outside an outer door.
3. Willow-wild: tall and thin
4. Half-nelson: a wrestling hold, arm around his head
5. Presentable: a good presence, looking acceptable in public
6. Suede: a rough leather
7. Ice-box: a refrigerator that cools with ice
8. Barren: very bare or sparse, can also mean a woman cannot conceive a child

Root Words

cred: believe, trust
Example: credible: believable
incredible: not believable
creed: a statement of beliefs or faith
discredit: to dishonour

dem: people
Example: democracy: government of the and by the people
pandemic: disease spread over all of the people
endemic: something regularly found in a group of people.
(Being blond is endemic of Grand Mananers).
demography: the science of describing a certain population
demographics: the statistics of a group of people: average age,
education level, income level

dic: to say, to speak, or to tell
Example: diction:how a person enunciates or pronounces words
verdict: the decision of a jury.
addict: a person with a strong habit (the habit speaks to the
person)
dictate: to say something aloud

Grade 12:
Anglo-Norman Period. The two literary forms introduced in this period are ballads and romances. Notes on Ballad and Romance>
A ballad is the poetry of the common people. A short narrative poem (song) themed around love, war disaster. Written in quatrians, with a rhyme scheme of ABCB, and a rhthm of iambic tetrameter followed by iambic trimeter.
A romance is a long narrative poem, themed around vices and virtures, usually told around tales of knights.
Assignment for marks: Write a paraphrase of part 4 of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Notes on the Age of Chaucer

III. The Age of Chaucer from AD 1350 to AD 1400.

Chaucer was born circa 1344, son of a wine merchant with connection to the Royal Court. We know little of Chaucer’s education, except that he was well read. His literary life is divided into three phases:
early works, mostly French influence, such as Roman de la Rose, an allegory of the whole course of love.
Second period, has an Italian influence, his major work of the period was Troilus and Criseyde. Some scholars consider this his best work.
Third or English Period. Major work of this period was Canterbury Tales.
This was the first work to write of ordinary people, not knights, or heroes or kings and princesses. The work was planned to consist of a Prologue and 128 tales, four from each of the 32 people on the pilgrimage; however, only twenty-four tales were written.

Other writers of this period were:

William Langland: (1332-?) most popular work is Piers Plowman.
John Wycliff (1324-1384) was one of the most powerful figures of the Fourteenth Century. His great work, which earned him the title, Father of English prose, is the translation of the Bible. Wycliff himself, translated the Gospels, and some other books of the New Testament, while his followers, especially Nicholas of Hereford, finished the rest. His translation was slowly copied all over England, so it fixed a national standard of English. The first complete Bible in English was finished by 1382.