Classy Talks : 2014

Semester 1, Week 14 update
Both classes can bring snacks for the last class: Girls may want to bring sweets and the guys
a salty snack or drink. See below for notes on final exams and quizzes.

Culpeper – Final Class ‐ Friday, December 12 (Remember, we already have a pizza day
scheduled).

Vint Hill – We meet Thursday, December 11 and Monday, December 15th (half day).

www.goodreads.com

www.pixgood.com


http://realmagick.com/animal-farm-characters/

Homework Review – complete before week 15 class
Algebra 2	Lessons 51-54. Also, bring one math question from your own math book to put on the board.
Latin	Translation lines 3-21 of Helvetian Drive to the West.
Logic	Finish Lesson 14 and answer questions. Quick Word Bank Quiz on the final day.
History: HSWTL	HSWTL & SOA Bluebook Quiz (2 Essay questions - listed below)
History: Art	Art Identification Quiz
Art Presentation:	Art Lecture Presentation
British Literature Essay:	Read Animal Farm (read page 92 of guide - it charts the characters in the book). Testimony Essay: Show if these two works (Tale of Two Cities and Animal Farm) are each an authority on rebellion against government? Truth in fiction? More than cold hard facts?
Biology:	Finish Chapter 8 and exams.

JUST A QUICK WORD ABOUT QUIZZES:
*This year, Math and Biology are given at home.
*I sent the Latin Quiz home over Thanksgiving to be returned this week.
*The Logic Quiz will be a quick Word Bank quiz based on the charts on page 5 and page 62
of the text.
*Art Identification Quiz involves completing a chart with information for the top 11 artists
we studied (the Art Chart is posted in the Week 11 blog update).
*Art Presentation will be assessed based on student’s use of clear speech, comprehensive
evaluation of the art piece using all the requested facts, and a visual prop.
*History Bluebook Essays involve looking at your notes before the exam and answering the
questions based on things you remember from How Should We Then Live, State of the Arts,
and literature books.

Here are the actual exam essay questions:
1. Examine a particular time period from one we studied and use one artist and one
author to help share information about that time period. (Hint: if you cannot find an
artist and an author in the same period, you should still choose one era with its artist
and an author from another era to compare differences, or to tell about
circumstances, or to find a topic that relates the two.
2. If you were standing in a museum in front of a painting or sculpture and needed to
evaluate the art piece, what guidelines would you use to decide if it is good art? Try to
think of 5 or more tips for evaluating art.

Notebook Checks, Art Presentation Assessments, and Semester Progress Reports will be made
available for those that finish their exams and any missing papers (unless excused by
parents) by Week 15.

Algebra 2 – Lessons 47 – 50 rate & unit conversions, fractional exponents, completing
squares of binomials (and trinomials), using parallel lines to find angles, and using sine and
cosine.

Latin – We begin to translate Caesar’s reports about the land of the Gauls (Helvetian Drive
to the West). Class discussion includes the introductory information in Latin 2 about
Imperialism, leadership, the Gaul’s defenses, and Caesar’s rise to power.

Logic – We finish the last of the Syllogism rules that can be broken: the Qualitative Rules.
The final chapter in the Logic book is a full book review. We discuss Elements of Style
before week 15.

History – We finish the final chapter of HSWTL and take a look at the society problems that
lead up to the threat of imposed world order.

Art Essay – We cover Monet and Impressionism.

Art Presentation Project – We finish the selection process of pictures for our “Art
Presentation” project. The students picked an art piece to “critique” and “present” to the
class on week 15. The students will need to include the specific details of the painting
regarding: date, artist, era, museum location, etc. They also will explain what they think is
occurring in the picture and the possible influences that the painter relied upon to create
the artwork. Finally, the student will present why the piece does or does not fit parameters
that define “good” art.

British Literature – Discussion about Charles Dicken’s Tale of Two Cities. Finish Animal Farm
and the final Literature essay for Week 15.

Biology – We finish half of chapter 8: genes, DNA, dominant traits, and probability squares
(Punnet Squares).

We’ll add pictures to the next blog. Have a good week.

Semester 1 Week 13 update

Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities www.allthingsd.com

www.charlesdickenspage.com

www.cliffnotes.com

Claude Monet Impression Sunrise

Homework Review – complete before week 14 class
Algebra 2	Lessons 47-50. Also, bring one math question from your own math book to put on the board.
Latin	Lesson 17, ex., Open Grammar Quiz (the translation page is extra credit only)
Logic	Finish Lesson 13 and answer questions
History: HSWTL	HSWTL – chapter 12 to the end and questions in the guide (section X).
History: Art Essay	Notebook and Timeline Collection and discussion. Review and practice for the Art Identification Lecture (Week 15). Testimony Essay on “Claude Monet’s qualifications to be an Authority on Impressionism.” Look at Monet’s painting Impression Sunrise. Annotated Mona Lisa pages 96-97, 102-103
Art Presentation:	Practice for the Art Critique/Presentation on week 15 (pg. 48).
British Literature Essay:	Finish Tale of Two Cities. Words Aptly Spoken questions on pages 75-83.
Biology:	Finish Chapter 8 up to page 242 and read Exp. 8.1. Lab Journal Collection

Algebra 2 (Chapters 43-46) Welcome to Trigonometry. This week’s lessons jumped right into the study of measuring triangles using simple line measurements combined with the more complicated ratios related to angles.

Latin – We covered changing Latin adjectives into adverbs (much like adding –ly to English adjectives). We also discussed changes as the comparative and superlative forms are added (-er, -est, more, and most).

Logic – We continued tackling fallacies in Syllogisms. The students zoomed through 12 exercises in class to spot the different distribution rules for syllogisms that can be broken.

History – We discussed our essay topic regarding the shift from Romanticism to Realism. Since we only have one painting left, we took a quick pop quiz to see how much we remember about the paintings we’ve evaluated this year.

This next essay discusses what qualities make a person an expert (including: knowledge, skill, consistency, peer recognition, & education). The students write about Monet and Impressionism.

Many of the Impressionists took their painting inspiration from the Realistic painters. Impressionists took the realistic scenes one unique step further (They realized that the human eye focuses on one focal point at a time and blurs the rest of the world around the focal point automatically - like a camera shot. They also enjoyed the effect of painting quick glimpses that they eyes might glean from unfocused details.). The reigning art experts were opposed to the new style (most of them had opinions about the acceptable subject matter - historical, Biblical, or mythological - and they valued set standards in clean lines, brushwork, and tones). Once photography emerged in 1839, both Neoclassicism and Romanticism suddenly seemed dated. Painters started to begin infusing beauty back into ordinary life scenes, portraits, and landscapes. In France, the Barbizon painters met to push for realistic outdoor paintings, and in England, the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (painter, poets, and critics) rose up to paint truthful nature scenes. Both groups reacted against emotionalism of Romantic painters and against the academic rules governing the painting of artificial subjects and ideals. Realistic painters like Courbet even refused to paint angels since he couldn't physically see one to be able to render a likeness. The Impressionists faced an era of changing politics and technology (cameras and even paint in portable tubes affected the opportunities for painters to dabble in new ideas). They stretched the realism to a new level as they played with light and brush strokes. Monet surrounded himself with like-minded painters (Pissaro, Renoir, Manet, Sisley, and others) to form the Societé Anonyme des artistes, peintres, and sculpteurs et graveurs. He painted with an emphasis on lighting and small brushstrokes with pure colors. He frequently painted the same subject in different light levels. He consistently stayed with this style throughout his life. Monet was impressed by Manet's strong break from the rules in society. Manet inspired others with daring techniques and controversial subject matter (Manet fought against old styles of painting and he chose modern settings. He was inspired by the Spanish painters. He liked bold brush strokes, strong colors, harsh tonal contrasts, and modern subjects and scenes). Monet's own paintings had fewer tonal contrasts and more subdued pastels. He poured atmospheric light into his scenes. The earlier Realistic painters included accurate atmospheric light and serene scenes, but the Impressionists included all the realism but then dialed back the sharp hyper focus of details and caused the light to glow. Impressionists truly rejected many of the styles and subjects that preceded them. As with each era though, soon the younger painters grew bored and wanted to experiment and explore new ideas.

Lastly, we read a few pages from Saving Leonardo (pgs.243-245).This reviewed biblical viewpoints and the arts.

Art Presentation Project – Prepare for Art Presentation on week 15. Aside from introducing the art piece, the students also begin to critique the piece for its form and meaning.

British Literature – We are saving our full discussion on The Tale of Two Cities until we finish the book this week.

Biology – Before starting labs, we discussed parts of cells again...more specifically, the structure and function of DNA. We covered DNA replication, viruses, and cell reproduction. We also completed a few fun lab projects.