Read a sentence at a time. Stop and think about what you read. Don't plow through the reading and then reflect; instead, reflect as you read! Use a dictionary when you encounter a word that that you don't know and rewrite it in your own words, staying faithful to the text.
Here's was today's reading we read in class:
Deposed [...] that she does not know at all who set fire to the house of her said aunt. That shortly before the fire appeared, she saw the said woman pouting in the kitchen and saw her go out the door to the street and speak with Marie Manon, slave of Sieur de Berey. And that she has since heard by hearsay that she had told the said Marie Manon that she would not sleep in the house, nor her master. Which is all that she said she knows, except that she saw two or three times, before The fire, the man named Thibault with the said woman in the kitchen of the said Dame Francheville. [...]
And here is how, as a class, we made sense of the text, editing it, rewording it, making it readable:
Marguarite de Couagne
testified that she does not know who set the fire to her aunt’s house (Madame
Couagne). Shortly before the fire appeared, she saw Angelique pouting in the
kitchen and then go out the door to speak with Marie Manon. Since the fire, she
has heard through hearsay (gossip) that Angelique told Marie Manon that she
would not sleep in the house that night, nor would Madame Couagne. That is all
she said she knows apart from the fact that before the fire she saw Angelique
two or three times in the kitchen with Thibault.
Also here is a list of today's words that we learned:
hearsay = gossip
e.g., "Who told you that I took her marker? That's all hearsay!"
pouting = crying
e.g., "Stop pouting!"
caveat = a condition
e.g., "You can use the computer today -- but I have a caveat to add..."
As always, thanks for the fantastic work in class!
-Mr. Charalambous
