Good morning classes. Our lesson today has two sections: a quick writing prompt and the next chapter from The City of Ember.

Our writing prompt for today is:  Please share your thoughts on returning to schools on Monday. How do you feel about coming back to MAA? Is it a relief? Do you have concerns? Etc.    As always, please spend 10 minutes quietly writing on this prompt.

For our novel today, we will be listening to Chapter 9: The Door in the Roped-Off Tunnel (click the link below). There are also three questions to be answered when you finish reading. The questions are as follows:

1. What does Doon find in Lina’s apartment? What does it cause him to do?

2. Describe what happens when Doon and Lina visit the Pipeworks.

3. Doon and Lina make both an inference and a prediction based on what they saw in the Pipeworks. What is their inference and what is their prediction? (Remember:  an inference is a guess about what is currently happening, and a prediction is a guess about what will happen next).

The writing prompt and the questions have been sent to you as a single assignment in Teams. You can record your answers and your response to the writing prompt in the same document and submit as one single assignment.

As always, I am available throughout the day to take any questions you may have. Good Luck. Looking forward to seeing all of you soon.

Chapter 9:  LISTEN

Good morning. Please use today as a “catch-up” period. Take this time to work on any unfinished assignments from previous language arts lessons. It is important to be up-to-date on language arts work – please log into Teams today to check and see if you have any late or overdue assignments. Today is a great time to catch yourself up.

Good luck. And, as always, I am available throughout the day to take any questions you may have.

If you are caught up on everything, and would like something to work on today, please send me a message through Teams. There is a bonus assignment for extra marks - I will send you the link.

Good morning. Please use today as a “catch-up” period. Take this time to work on any unfinished assignments from previous language arts lessons. It is important to be up-to-date on language arts work – please log into Teams today to check and see if you have any late or overdue assignments. Today is a great time to catch yourself up!

Good luck. And, as always, I am available throughout the day to take any questions you may have.

Good morning 7P. As we discussed yesterday, we are focusing on Social Studies in today’s lesson (Math will be covered during our Teams call this afternoon).

Below, there are three pages from the textbook attached – pages 90, 91, and 92. These pages are from a section titled “Daily Life in British North America.”

Please carefully read the pages, then answer the following questions, in complete sentence form:

1. How might a farmer’s home be different from a wealthy person’s home?

2. What are some things that might be found in any home, in both rural and urban areas?

3. How did most people travel in British North America?

4. Describe what travel over land was like in British North America.

5. What were some common childhood diseases?

6. What is an epidemic?

7. Describe the healthcare that most people received.

Language Arts – Friday Lesson

Good morning classes. Today we will focus on The City of Ember. We will continue to play “catchup” by reading chapter summaries. This serves as a review of everything that has happened so far, and will allow us to move on to new chapters next week.

Today we will read short summaries of chapter 4, 5, 6, and 7. You will find these below.

When finished, there is a short assignment to complete. It contains questions that cover all of the book, from the introduction up to and including chapter 7. It is attached below. I attached it twice, in a pdf and in a word file. Also attached below are summaries of Chapters 1 to 3, from earlier in the week.

This assignment has also been sent through Teams and is due today. Also in teams, you can find all of this material in the “files” section of our team. Good luck. And, as always, I’m available throughout the day to answer any questions you may have.

Chapter 4: Something Lost, Nothing Found

Lina finds Granny tearing up their couch while looking for something she had heard that her grandfather, Ember’s seventh mayor, lost long ago. Later, Lina’s work takes her to the greenhouses, which stand near trash heaps at the city’s southeast edge. Lina is delighted to deliver a message to its manager and her friend, Clary, but sad because the greenhouses remind her of her father, who worked there before he died. 

Lina learns from Clary that a new disease has infected Ember’s potatoes, one of the city’s food staples. The two then hear loud sobs from Sadge Merrall, who is in great distress after attempting to venture into the Unknown Regions. While searching for something that might help the city, Sadge encounters only immense darkness that fills him with fear. Sadge tells Clary and Lina that the Unknown Regions will never be penetrated without a portable light source, something that doesn’t exist in Ember. As Clary and Lina discuss mysteries about Ember’s Builders, the Unknown Regions, and where they came from, Lina tells Clary about her imagined city of light. Lina stresses that the city feels real and that she believes there’s a hidden doorway that leads out from Ember.

Chapters 5: On Night Street

Granny’s aging mind grows more muddled, so Lina has Mrs. Murdo, their neighbor, keep her company. Lina visits a store on Night Street, run by Looper, that has colored pencils, a rare commodity in Ember. There, she buys two, one green and one blue, but loses Poppy. As Lina searches for Poppy in surrounding streets, a blackout, the longest in Ember’s history, consumes the city. When the lights return, Lina finally finds Poppy and learns that Doon kept her safe in his father’s shop during the blackout.

Chapters 6: The Box in the Closet

In response to the blackout, citizens attend a meeting in Harken Square. Mayor Cole attempts to calm the crowd, saying those in power are managing the problem. But the townspeople sense he is lying. They grow angry and yell and surge at him as he escapes into the Gathering Hall. After the meeting, Doon rails about the mayor’s lies, but his father advises him to learn to master his anger. At home, Lina finds Granny ransacking a closet, from which she’s unknowingly dislodged a beautiful but damaged box with a mechanized lock and opened lid. Nearby, Poppy chews and rips up a piece of paper lined with perfect printing.

Chapter 7: A Message Full of Holes

Lina studies the paper scraps and concludes the original note must have come from the Builders and the box must be the lost item Granny was seeking. Although Poppy destroyed much of the message, Lina’s able to make out a seven-step list of instructions. Many of its words are now missing, but Lina regards the message as a mystery and determines to solve it, believing the message could help Ember. 

At work, Lina invites Captain Fleery to her apartment, where Captain Fleery reviews the message, only to dismiss it as unimportant. Captain Fleery then reveals she is a Believer: someone who thinks the Builders will return to save the city. At the Supply Depot, Lizzie tells Lina about Ember’s supply shortages and that only Mayor Cole and Farlo Batten, who is in charge of the storerooms, have access to reports on light bulb and vitamin supplies. After Lizzie shows no interest in the message from the box, Lina writes to the mayor, notifying him of her find, but she receives no reply. As Lina studies the broken message more, slowly filling in words such as river and door, she realizes the message pertains to the Pipeworks and that kind, curious, observant Doon is the right person to help her fill in the blanks.

7P – Thursday, January 20, 2022

Good morning class. Today we will focus on Social Studies only. The lesson today is a small project. It involves reading from the textbook, and then filling in a chart (with information found in the reading).

Because we are focusing on Social Studies only, you should be using both of your 45 minutes learning blocks for this project. That should allow plenty of time to finish this today. If you find that you have extra time leftover when finished, please use this time to work on something from another class.

Step # 1: Please read pages 82 to 89. This section deals with the various peoples found in British North America, their opportunities, and some of the challenges they faced.

Step # 2: Complete the “Think it Through” question on page 89.

This project will be sent out as an assignment in Teams. I have attached a blank chart in a word file – you can record your answers here (and submit). All pages you require are attached below.

7E/7P Language Arts – Wednesday Jan. 19

In today’s lesson we will be completing mini lesson 3 of persuasive writing and reading chapter summaries from The City of Ember.

In mini lesson 3, you are given sections of a speech by Abraham Lincoln (President of the United States in the 1860s). Your job is to “paraphrase” certain sections of his speech; paraphrase is a fancy word for summarize – they mean the same thing.

So, when you paraphrase, you summarize the important points in your own words (you say what you think the speaker or writer is really saying).

The goal of this lesson is to get you in the habit of identifying the main idea of a piece of persuasive writing. In his speech, Abraham Lincoln is trying to be persuasive – it’s your job to figure out what he is really trying to say. Good Luck.

We will be reviewing the answers to Mini Lesson Two and Three during Friday’s Teams call. Please click on the attached lesson below to access mini lesson 3.

As mentioned above, the second part our lesson is a short reading assignment from our class novel, The City of Ember. Over the course of the next few classes, we’ll be playing “catchup” – where we review everything that has happened so far.

Below you will find a summary of the Introduction, and chapter 1, 2 and 3. Please read them carefully, as we may have an activity involving this information later in the week. Also, you could choose to do this reading activity during your 20 minutes reading block in the afternoon.

Finally, as always, I’m available throughout the day if you have any questions. Good Luck!

The Introduction:

The Instructions

As construction of the city of Ember concludes, its chief “Builder” and his assistant discuss the future. They are unsure of what will follow but, without revealing why, determine that the city’s inhabitants need to live there for at least 200 years. So that Ember’s future citizens will know what to do at that time, the chief then reveals a grand plan: They will provide Ember with instructions, sealed inside a box with a timed lock set to open on its own at the right date. Sworn to secrecy, only the city’s mayors, one after the next, will know about the box and its hiding place in Ember’s Gathering Hall. None will know what is inside the box, only that the contents contain critical information for Ember’s people. 

All goes according to the Builders’ plan until an immoral mayor, the city’s seventh, takes possession of the box. Plagued with a coughing sickness, common in Ember at the time, he brings it home, hoping to find a cure that will save him. Although he fails to open the box, he damages it. After the corrupt mayor dies, the box ends up in a closet. The box remains there for generations, until finally clicking open at the programmed time.

Chapter 1: Assignment Day

It’s year 241 and Ember is old, in disrepair, and dark. With no natural light, its only illumination comes from light bulbs and streetlamps. Electricity shuts off nightly, and power outages, which result in blackouts, are common during the day. Children attend school until they are twelve years old. On Assignment Day the children enter the adult workforce. 

At Ember School, Mayor Cole arrives with a bag holding the fate of all twenty-four students in the graduating class: the job they will do for the next three years. Lizzie Bisco stands first and draws Clerk at the Supply Depot, whose underground storerooms contain all of the city’s supplies. Lina Mayfleet disappointedly draws Pipeworks Laborer, which means she will repair pipes below the storerooms. Doon Harrow hopes for Electrician’s Helper so he might fix Ember’s electrical problems and save the city, but he draws the job of Messenger and throws his piece of paper in anger. Scolded by the mayor, Doon rants about the state of Ember with its blackouts and supply shortages. Later, in Harken Square, Doon and Lina trade jobs. As Messenger, Lina gets the job she had first wished for, and Doon feels happy because he will have access to Ember’s generator, which creates electricity from an underground river.

Chapter 2: A Message to the Mayor

Lina runs home, happy about her job, but as she passes unlit streetlamps, feels dread while recalling a rumor about Ember’s dwindling light bulb supply. Lina’s Granny and baby sister, Poppy, are her only family now that her parents have died from the coughing sickness ravaging Ember. Their cluttered apartment above Granny’s yarn shop is decorated with Lina’s drawings of a city filled with light, one born from her imagination despite teachings that beyond Ember, there’s only darkness. 
Later, Lina starts her job as Messenger, reporting to Captain Fleery and delivering messages for Ember’s citizens. Near Garn Square, she passes a group of Believers singing hopeful songs. Later, she delivers a message from Looper Windly, a young man who walks with a lurch, to Mayor Cole in the Gathering Hall. Portraits of Ember’s mayors, including its seventh—her great-great-grandfather, Podd Morethwart—line the walls. As Assistant Guard Barton Snode fetches the mayor, Lina wanders to the roof, hoping to see into the Unknown Regions, but glimpses only blackness while causing a commotion below. After Chief Guard Redge Stabmark catches Lina, the mayor scolds her for trespassing but, upon receiving her message, smiles strangely and decides not to punish her.

Chapter 3: Under Ember

Doon begins his new job at the Pipeworks. Donning an old slicker and boots, he descends a deep, damp stairway leading to the Main Tunnel. There, he encounters Ember’s raging underground river for the first time and begins to mentally map the Pipeworks’s vast, labyrinthine layout. At its west edge, he watches the river vanish into a dark opening in a wall. At its east edge, he sees the chasm from which the river surges into the Pipeworks, along with a locked room housing Ember’s generator. 

While patching pipes, Doon also realizes that Ember is in worse shape than he thought, so he determines to get into the locked room. When he does, though, he discovers that his understanding of how the generator works is as limited as that of his coworkers. Later, Doon’s despondency turns to anger at home, but his father convinces him to stay vigilant at work and pay close attention to everything he sees. And because Doon is fascinated by bugs, his father, Loris, recommends he keep an eye out for interesting insects. But Doon regards this as silly. Doon hopes instead that his work in the Pipeworks will lead him to something that will help save the city.