Shakespeare:

Today:

We finished act IV

We took a quiz on act IV

The Abuse of Desdemona:  I asked you to find a line that Othello use to abuse Desdemona.  We circled around the room and every time you ran into another student you needed to say the line in a different way.  How did saying this awful things make you feel?

We started act V.

Brit Lit:

We finished Jane Eyre.

We defined the characteristics of Victorian fiction.

We completed part 3 of your final portfolio, writing a letter to future students taking this class.

Reminder:  we will be working on parts of the portfolio in class in a single Google doc.  After today, you should have parts 1 and 3 completed.  If not, please finish these for HW.

Download Attachment

Available until Feb 6, 2016

Download Attachment

Available until Feb 6, 2016

Download Attachment

Available until Feb 6, 2016

Shakespeare:

Today:

We acted out act IV

Othello Talk show

Brit Lit:

We learned about the Bronte Sista's

Pg 922:  Charlotte

We read CH 1 of Jane Eyre

We discussed the power of 1st person narration

Writing assignment:  What is in the Red Room?  Write from Jane's 1st person point of view (I)

Shakespeare:

Today:

Journal:  The MAX free write.  Pick anything on your mind and write one pg on it.

We finished act III

We took a quiz on act III.

HW:  Begin outlining your final essays.

Brit Lit:

Today:

We had work day #2 to begin putting your final portfolio together.  By the end of today's class you should:
Have rewritten 5 of your 30 journal prompts.  Foe each, you improved on your prompt.  Each needs a 3=5 sent reflective piece at the end.

Shakespeare:

For a laugh:
http://wn.com/the_muppet_show._swedish_chef_reciting_shakespeare_(323)

Shakespeare Final Exam:

The World of Shakespeare: Final Exam Review Sheet

 

Your final exam will ask you to answer (5 of 7 CP) 7 of 7 H)  questions based on the plays and sonnets that we read in this course.  To assist you in remembering, you may bring in one sheet of notes to remind you of specific plays and characters.

 

We read the following:  Othello, Hamlet, The12^th Night, The Taming of the Shrew and selected sonnets.

 

The following prompts are possible questions to consider (hint, hint):

 

Examine the relationship in terms of a timeline between Desdemona and Othello.  Please make sure to examine the end of their relationship, and how specifically Othello believes she has not been faithful.

 

 

Please read the first page of each play.  How is the opening in each play important to the story?  Does it bring you in and make you interested?  How?  Please have specific examples from at least 3 plays.

 

Talk about what makes a Shakespearian tragedy.  Please examine one tragedy in your study group and discuss how it fits.

 

Please define the following literary devices that Shakespeare uses:

Alliteration, simile, metaphor, reversed word, reversed sentence construction, classical allusion, personification, inflection, stress, aside, using language to show class and status in the play. Sonnet

 

Character can be defined by how one handles power.  Look at 3 characters and make a list how each handles power.

 

Discuss the use of comedy in his plays.  What ideas and specific plays hold up well and still make us laugh.  Please use specific scenes in your discussions.

 

Please review important information on Shakespeare.  Please work to define what we know about him.  If you had to write his obituary, what would you list about his life?

 

Define a Shakespearian Sonnet.  What did his sonnets reveal about him that his plays may not have?  Pick a sonnet and be familiar enough with it that you could reference it in an answer.

 

 

 

Shakespeare:

Today:

Journal Prompt: Imagine that Desdemona is black and Othello is white.  How would the play be different.  Please discuss three parts of the play that would be different and why. 1/2 page

We had time to finish Worksheet #2 "Chaos is Come Again." 

We finished act 3.

Brit Lit Final Exam Portfollio:

Portfolio Final Assessment

For your final assignment, I will ask you to reflect back on the work that we did together.  A portfolio allows you the opportunity to think about what you have done, what you have learned, and how you may have changed through the process.  A completed portfolio consists of the following four parts:

 

Part I:  Journal Prompts  Please select 5 out of the 30 journal prompts that you are most proud of.  For each one, please type out  a revised and improved version.  Please follow each one with a 3-5 sentence reflection piece as to why the prompts that you selected were meaningful and what specifically you chose to improve upon in your rewrite.

 

 

Part II:  Selected Assignment  Please select one assignment that you are the most proud of from  your writing folder and include it in your portfolio.  Please include a 3-5 sentence reflective piece commenting on:

1.        What specifically did you learn from this assignment?

2.       What specifically did you find most challenging in this assignment?

3.       If you could do this again, what could you improve on?

 

 

Part III:  Letter to Students  Please write a one page letter to future students taking this class.  Please give advice on what to expect from me as a teacher, as well as your comments on the activities and assignments that we did in class.  Please make reference to specific assignments and novels in your discussion.

 

 

Part IV:  Letter to Yourself  Please write a letter to yourself.  In this letter, please comment on specific areas that you have improved upon while taking this course.  Think about thoughts and feeling that you have had while reading and writing in this class.  Please try and give specific evidence to back up your statements.  You should aim to cover at least three areas of improvement, with three specific examples.  Please also feel free to comment on how you have changed as a person through assignments and class discussions.

Part V:  To be completed in class during your final exam:

5 Paragraph Essay (H) 3 paragraph (CP/CPA):

Please answer the following question.  Please structure your response in a well- written (as apposed to poorly written) 5 paragraph essay.  Please make sure to give specific examples to back up your thesis.

Obtaining greater power or status is something that many people strive for, but is this ambition good or evil? In other words, what effect does trying to change one’s position in society have on a person? In at least three works of literature we’ve read in class, identify characters who struggle to change or maintain their power or status.  Explain whether this struggle turns out to be good or bad for them.  Do they succeed? What causes their success, or failure?           

Please include all parts along with this assignment sheet in a manila folder, with your name, date and class clearly marked on the front.  If you do not have one easily available, please see me.

Brit Lit:

Today:

Like Dickens, imagine that you get paid by the word.  In fact $1 per letter- so large words = more cash.  Please write a journal prompt worth at least $900 ( 900 letters= about a page).  You can't repeat the same word over and over and it can be about anything on your mind.

Final Exam Day 1:  Please find the 5 journals that you are most proud of.  Please create a Google doc and type each one out, making improvements in your writing.  For each, please write a reflective piece as why each journal was selected and what did you improve.

I collected your questions from The Signalman.

I am afterschool this Tuesday (till 5)  and Thursday for those needing to make up missing term work.  Term 1 is ending fast- end in greatness.

Shakespeare:

Today:

Journal:  Select 4 words that added, would dramatically change the story of Othello.  What words would you select and how would it change the story?  1 page.

We performed act III.

Brit Lit:

Today:

Welcome back!  I hope that you had a restful break and came back ready to finish strong.

Journal:  Pick one meaningful day from the last 10 and explain in detail the entire day.  1 page

What the Dickens?  We learned about Charles Dickens on pg 880.

We read The Signalman Pgs 881-890

Answered questions 1-6 on pg 891.

The last 15 minutes we had small dickens theater: Take the story and in a small group show the story in front of the class as a short play.

Download Attachment

Available until Jan 22, 2016

Shakespeare:

Today:

We presented your Sonnet projects for the class.  We will finish those remaining/late on Tuesday.

Reminder:  Bring in your secret santa gifts!  the holiday shrub is lonely.

Brit Lit

Today:

We used the computer lab and ipads to complete one of the three prompts for the Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Reminder:  Secret Santa this Wed before break.  Bring those gifts in :-)

Shakespeare:

Today:

In small groups we reported on the news of the day with The Cyprus Ch 5 News.  Each group needed to report events as a newscast.

We did act 3 sc 1 with a monkey on the back.  One read lines (monkey) one acted the lines.

We ended with Othello Friday.

Brit Lit

Today:

We finished The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

We listened to the Iron Maiden version and compared the lyrics

I assigned the following project.  This is due at the end of class of Monday:

Rime of the Ancient Mariner  Assignment

 

The Ship's Log

Every ship is supposed to have a log book, which is filled in every day by the captain. If he dies, the next senior officer fills it in (usually the First Mate). You should write a series of entries for the log of the ship in the poem. For part of the voyage, these will be written by the captain; after all the other men die, only the ancient mariner is left to fill it in.

 

Storyboarding

The fantastic details in the story are well-suited to vivid illustration. You can use a series of pictures with captions underneath to turn the poem into either a storyboard for a film version, or as a comic strip. Minimum 15 frames – every frame must have a caption that is a minimum of 1 complete sentence.  If you choose this option, you MUST do the drawings yourself and you CANNOT do stick figures or oversimplified pictures.  Choose this only if you have some artistic talent.

 

Newspaper (and other) reports

When the ship leaves port, to the cheers of the sailors' friends and sweethearts, no-one has any idea of what is to happen; but the return of the ship, its sinking in sight of land, the strange lights seen on it, the one survivor, his strange tale and his effect on the pilot and his boy - all this adds up to a mystery any reporter would love to write about. Write either newspaper report

OR 

an official report of the naval authorities investigating the loss of the ship and all its crew bar one.

 

Minimum 30 sentences total.

 

Download Attachment

Available until Jan 16, 2016

Shakespeare:

Journal prompt:  Write a sonnet about this time of the year.

We made small pocket sonnet books

We designed a cover that reflected your images and feelings.

We formed a Congo line and placed them in the holiday shrub.

After lunch I gave you more time to work on your sonnet project.  These are due Monday.

Brit Lit

Today:

Journal:  What is romance?  Is it dead?  What is the most romantic thing that you have ever seen or done?     1pg

I gave you your progress report grades.

A block finish Young Frankenstein and compared it to gothic lit using the terms that I gave you.

B Block:  Began the Romantic period.  We read the intro section.
We read parts 1 + 2 of the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.

Shakespeare:

We began with
journal prompt 31: What is love?  What do you think about inter-racial relationships?  What do you family feel about race and religion?          1page

We had a good discussion on race and relationships.

We looked at the relationship of Desdemona and Othello.  Is it love or lust?  Why?

We had 30 minutes to work on your sonnet movies on the ipads.  These are due Monday.

We finished act 2.

Brit Lit:

Today:

We finished watching Young Frankenstein

Journal:  Please select 5 elements of Gothic Lit that this movie pokes fun of.  For each explain how.

I passed back the bulk of you for so far in this term.

Shakespeare:

We began reading our Herald.  See video above :-)

Pg 64.  The Psychiatrist's Couch.  Pg 64.  We looked at Iago's soliloquy on 65.  In pairs, one played doctor, one Iago.  Using Iago's lines as answers, ask him about his obsession with both Othello and Cassio.  We performed these after lunch.

We put names in Lord Vader's dome for Secret Santa.

We covered Act II, sc 2.  One of his shortest scenes at 10 lines. 

Last 10 min: Othello Fridays!

Brit Lit:

We finished Frankenstein and our look at Gothic Lit.

We shared our Gothic Lit stories by candlelight.

Up next, Romance

Shakespeare

Today:

We finished act 1

We wrote a sonnet (must follow the rules) to Desdemona from either the perspective of Othello or Rodergio.

After lunch we gave our sonnet to a random person and wrote back as Desdemona.

Brit Lit:

Today:

We reviewed the characteristics of Gothic Lit.

We finished writing our Gothic stories on the ipads.

Stories due Thursday.

Shakespeare:

Today:

We went to the computer lab to write the 1st draft of your paper.  For Kelly, here is the paper rubric:

  She’s The Man: A Parody of The Twelfth Night

 

An introductory paragraph stating your thesis.  In it you should first define parody, and then lead to your opinion.  Did the movie parody the play the 12^th Night?

 

____________________ out of 20 points

 

A 3 paragraph body that examines the connections between the two.  I would suggest organizing your examples into three main paragraphs: Similarities in story, Characters’, and finally your opinion on if the play is needed to truly appreciate and enjoy the film.  Each paragraph needs to have a transitional thought/idea/word.  Specific examples need to be given from both.  This is not a summary of the movie or play.  You are examining the movie to answer whether it is a successful parody.  Does it work and succeed as a story on its own, or is previous knowledge of the story needed? 

 

_____________________out of 60

 

A final conclusion paragraph that restates your thesis.  Please avoid terms like I have proved, etc.  I should not be used in this type of paper. 

 

____________________ out of 20

Brit Lit:

Today:

We learned about J. Swift.  The original Swiftie...

We read Gulliver's Travels.

We answered questions 1-9 on pg 545.  This counted as a quiz for today.

Journal Prompt:  Gulliver's Travels is a series of tales that has the character of Gulliver in imaginary and magical locations.  Please tell of the next story in his travels. You should begin with him awakening in a new land.  Please write this in 1st person.  Extra credit if you also follow the real story with satire.                                                                                    1 page

Shakespeare:

Today:

We finished act 1, sc 1.

I shared vacation photos from Venice.

After lunch, we did the following assignment

O Beware, Sir, of Jealousy:

Passion and Jealousy in Othello:

 

Directions:  Please read the following and explain in 1 page what they reveal about passion and jealousy.

 

SONNET 40

Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all;
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call;
All mine was thine before thou hadst this more.
Then if for my love thou my love receivest,
I cannot blame thee for my love thou usest;
But yet be blamed, if thou thyself deceivest
By wilful taste of what thyself refusest.
I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief,
Although thou steal thee all my poverty;
And yet, love knows, it is a greater grief
To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury.
   Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
   Kill me with spites; yet we must not be foes.

 

SONNET 57

Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Upon the hours and times of your desire?
I have no precious time* at all to spend,
Nor services to do, till you require.
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
When you have bid your servant once adieu;
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are how happy you make those.
   So true a fool is love that in your will,
   Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.

 

SONNET 61

Is it thy will thy image should keep open
My heavy eyelids to the weary night?
Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken,
While shadows like to thee do mock my sight?
Is it thy spirit that thou send'st from thee
So far from home into my deeds to pry,
To find out shames and idle hours in me,
The scope and tenor of thy jealousy?
O, no! thy love, though much, is not so great:
It is my love that keeps mine eye awake;
Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat,
To play the watchman ever for thy sake:
   For thee watch I whilst thou dost wake elsewhere,
   From me far off, with others all too near.

SONNET 87

Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,
And like enough thou know'st thy estimate:
The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;
My bonds in thee are all determinate.
For how do I hold thee but by thy granting?
And for that riches where is my deserving?
The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,
And so my patent back again is swerving.
Thyself thou gavest, thy own worth then not knowing,
Or me, to whom thou gavest it, else mistaking;
So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,
Comes home again, on better judgment making.
   Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter,
   In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.

 

 

 

Brit Lit.

Today:

If you were blind.....
Milton wrote most of Paradise Lost blind, transcribing it to his daughter.  10,000 lines.  Blind.

Today we tried to experience blindness.  You were each blindfolded and lead by words only to the bubbler. 

We looked for the last time at four pictures.  After we imagined that we were blind.  I asked you to describe each picture in your journal from memory.

You were each given a section of Paradise lost.  For your section, you needed to find a picture via the ipads and present it via airplay to the class while reading.

HW:  Finish Paradise Lost.

Shakespeare:

We finished your test.  If you need more time, please see me.

We went over the paper due this Friday.

Brit Lit:

Today:

Journal:  What did you do over break?  Please share one good story, one bad, and one funny.   1 page

I broke you into small groups.  With the ipads you researched and presented on: 
John Donne
Andrew Marvell
Ben Jonson
Robert Herrick

We took a quiz on the presentations.

Shakespeare:

Today:

I was THAT teacher.  We took a test before the assembly.   On a 1/2 day.

Brit Lit:

Today:

We finished our pocket sonnets and used them to decorate the holiday shrub.  The idea is to take a poem off the tree and read a few and connect to another emotion.

Shakespeare:

Today:
We took a quiz on act V
We shared the remaining video projects.
We filled out group evaluations.

We went over the test:

The Twelfth Night

Essay Exam 2015 CP/CPA Please answer 1of the 3 questions in well-developed 3 paragraph (one page) answer.  H Please answer two essay questions.

 

Please answer the following questions in well written essay format.  Please make sure that you back up all statements will solid examples from the play.  You may use your scripts and any notes that you have to answer each question.

 

1. One critic has called this play “an anthology of madness”.  He states that with the exception of Viola and Sebastian, almost everyone in the play exhibits some form of extreme behavior which separates him or her from the norm.  Please give three examples of characters exhibiting such abnormal behavior.  How does this lend itself to the comedy of the play? Please give specific examples to back up your opinion.

2. Often, the charm and humor of this Shakespearian comedy are still appealing and engaging to a modern audience.  How are Viola, Malvolio, Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek responsible for the humor in the play?  Please give specific examples for each.

3. The basic fuel for the play is in mistaken identity.  Seemingly everyone is in love with a person that is not the person that they truly are.  Please examine the love relationships in the play and detail how this is resolved in Act 5.

We played the review game, Who Wants to Win a Pizza Party?  You won and stopped on 80's day- great job!

 

Brit Lit:

Today:

Journal Prompt:  Write a 10 line (min) poem on the following themes:
The Future
Love
Strength

B block finished typing their final draft of their sonnet on the ipads.

Get on the Mic:  We had a mini poetry slam where you shared the best poem that you have written during this unit.

A Block read the poems by Donne.

Shakespeare:

Today:

We watched act III.

I shared the clip of Sir Alec Guiness (Obi-wan Kenobi) dressed in yellow garters.

We  shared your song projects.

We acted out some of act IV

Brit Lit:

Today:

We watched the movie that made me want to be a teacher:  Dead Poets Society.

B Block shared their Macbeth movies.  Any group that was not ready- these are now past due.

Have a good weekend.

Brit Lit:

Today:

We started with the journal prompt:  Can word really change the world?  What do you think are the most powerful words ever spoken?  If you had to leave the world with one sentence, what would you words be?    1/2 pg.

Sonnet Part II:  We wrote the 1st draft of your sonnet.  I gave you a worksheet on this to follow.

We looked at the poetry found in the movie Dead Poets Society.

We watched the 1st part of this movie- the reason that I became a teacher.

Shakespeare:

Journal:  Take the found poem that I gave you and imagine what character might find it.  Please respond in a 1 pg

I wish that I could take you all to the real Globe- today I did my best.  We watched a performance of the play at the real Globe in London.

Quiz on act 3.

Brit Lit:

Today:

Journal #21:  What do you think of poetry?  Share one positive and negative experience.  1/2 pg

We did ipad poetry:

Using the ipads we wrote on the themes of:  Love, Death, Winter

B Block also did Mad Lib sonnet poetry

Brit Lit:

Today:

Journal:  Macbeth leaves room for a sequel with Fleance not becoming king at the end of the play.  Consider if Shakespeare wrote Macbeth II- what would it be about?  How would you have Fleance become king?  You may do this as a comic or narrative.   1pg/ten frames

We finished the movie.

A Block:  We took notes on a sonnet and completed a mad lib one following the notes.

B Block:  Finish your Macbeth movie projects.

A Block HW:  Find and bring in a poem that connects to you and has meaning.  We will be using these in class Tuesday.

Shakespeare:

Today:

We started off looking at bear baiting lines in the play.

We also looked at the biggest examples of classical allusions in the play.
I broke you into groups of 2 and asked you to make up 10 modern allusions that will not make sense in 400 years.

After lunch, we worked on your song project.

HW:  Please finish act 2.

Brit Lit:

Today:

We started off class imagining what Macbeth's facebook page would look like at this stage of the play.  Specifically, I asked you to write 15-20 posts.  These could be comical.

We watched the 2nd page of the PBS Macbeth Doc with Ethan Hawk.
I asked you to write 10 things that you learned from the doc.  I collected this and counted it as a quiz.

We came VERY close to finishing the play.  Tuesday....we find out the ending.

Shakespeare:

Journal Prompt:  Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.  What is the danger of power?  Describe a moment when you were given power.  How did you use it?  1 page

We watched She's the Man- a parody of the play 12th Night.  This will eventually lead to your next major paper.

ipads were delayed one day, so we needed to reschedule the 12th Night music assignment to Friday.

HW:  Please finish act 2.  I smell a quiz Friday, which will also be the last grade of term 1.  As always, end in greatness.....

Brit Lit:

Today:

Do you believe in love at first sight?  Describe your experience with love 1/2 page
Write a 1/2 page love letter fro Lady Macbeth to her husband.    1/2 page

We finished act 4.

I played the Queen is Dead by the 80's group The Smiths.  While we listening, we wrote a suicide letter from Lady Macbeth to the world.

I am afterschool today for anyone that needs to make up work or needs help with the play.

Brit Lit:

Journal:  If you knew that you only had 60 days to live, what things would you do?  What 10 things would be on your "bucket-list?"                                1 page

You each made a 2015 version of the Macbeth stew.

We acted out Act IV.

Shakespeare:

Today:
Journal:  We all have two faces: one we show others, and one that is truly who we are.  Describe your two faces.  When do you show each?    1 page

We went over the 12th Night Music Assignment.

We started act II.

HW:  Finish act II

To make you smile: http://wn.com/the_muppet_show._swedish_chef_reciting_shakespeare_(323)

Shakespeare:

Today:

We started class looking at some of the most interesting lines of the entire play, out of context. 

Journal Prompt:  Please select a line that connects to you and use it to comment on.  1 page.

We reviewed all of the parts in the play.

We played three strikes and you quiz, narrowing escaping a quiz.

I introduced the music project for the play.  These will be due next Friday.

HW:  Please review act I and have act 2 finished for Thursday.

Brit Lit:

Today:

Journal:  Please write a one page spark note- styled explanation for acts 1-3.  1/2 page for each act, 8 main events for each act.

We took your journal entry and broke into three groups.  Each group needed to make it into 32 seconds, deciding what could be taken out.  Video samples below :-)

We acted out act IV sc 1.

Up, up away

https://www.skypixel.com/pilot/videos/shakespeare-2015