IN Class, Friday 2/28

For 1984 our discussions will switch back and forth between small and whole group discussion. Today, will be small group, Monday will be whole class, etc.

Topic for today: Character/Characterization and Style. I've compiled the discussion questions generated by both classes for EACH of you to take notes on during the discussion. Your discussion notes will prove your level of participation in the discussion. So...write copious notes. What do you take notes on? You decide.


At the end of class I will also pass out copies of Handmaid's Tale for you to begin reading and if you haven't gotten it back already, your Hamlet pre-assessment.

Reading Schedule for Handmaid's Tale: 

--At least 30 pages per night every night
--Take notes in one of the following styles: 
1. Post-it note personal responses throughout the book. Write on the post-its!
2. Free-write personal response/connections of 3/4 page minimum after each reading session. 

Hamlet Post-Assessment Written Commentary

You can keep your pre-assessment score or you can turn in a revision (old commentary included with final) to me by Monday, March 10. Please take some time to watch the slide show on written commentary posted to the blog (left sidebar). Also read this student blog post about writing a commentary and follow his link to the Wikibooks page. With your revision include a letter outlining waht you changed and why and what you learned during your revision process. Your letter should be one page in length.

Purpose of Fiction Video Homework (Will Assign Monday2/24)

Directions: Watch both videos listed below and takes notes on the following Elements of Speech. After watching the videos and finishing your notes, complete the TASK.

ELEMENTS OF SPEECH:
1. Personal chracteristics of the speaker (what kind of a person do you percieve the speaker to be?)
2. Who is the Audience? How do you know?
3. What is the speaker's Message?
4. What is the Occasion for this speech?
5. Describe the Arrangement of the speech (organization).
6. Decribe the Style of the speech (word choice conveys tone and personality).
7. Notice details of the Delivery (physical action and vocal qualities).

Speech 1: http://new.ted.com/talks/elif_shafak_the_politics_of_fiction
Speech 2: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R4peoHkXsJg (Only watch up to the question/answer)
TASK: Which video resonated with you most? Choose that video and answer the driving question below on a poster using words and images to support your response to the question.

POSTER DIRECTIONS:

Driving Question: How do we benefit from reading fiction? 

For a score of 4 (Assignment will be weighted as 16 points in the Reading category of the gradebook:
--Presents an INSIGHTful response that shows understanding of the speech and the subtleties of the speech that includes a personal connection to the ideas presented in the speech.
--All IMAGERY strongly supports your answer to the question.
--Work is NEAT and free of errors.
--WORDS are powerful, precise and carefully chosen.

Notes on the videos are due with the poster and will be scored separately.

This assignment is homework. Your poster and notes are due Wednesday, March 5th.

And would you mind filling out this survey for a student in Shine's 3rd period? Thanks!

1984 reading schedule

Reading Schedule!

Hamlet Project!!!!

Get those costumes! Get that music! Brush up on your acting skills!!

Here's the project!!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1heQBqbdestb69JHLg7hbP4i9Crfp4pyITNFCTi39nCw/edit?usp=sharing


Also, keep reading 1984!

To be or not to be...

To be, or not to be? That is the question—

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And, by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep—

No more—and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep.

To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub,

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There’s the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th' oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country from whose bourn

No traveler returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.—Soft you now,

The fair Ophelia!—Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remembered.

O, that this too, too sullied...

Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,

Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,

Or that the Everlasting had not fixed

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on ’t, ah fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden

That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature

Possess it merely. That it should come to this.

But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two.

So excellent a king, that was to this

Hyperion to a satyr. So loving to my mother

That he might not beteem the winds of heaven

Visit her face too roughly.—Heaven and earth,

Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him

As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on, and yet, within a month—

Let me not think on ’t. Frailty, thy name is woman!—

A little month, or ere those shoes were old

With which she followed my poor father’s body,

Like Niobe, all tears. Why she, even she—

O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason

Would have mourned longer!—married with my uncle,

My father’s brother, but no more like my father

Than I to Hercules. Within a month,

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears

Had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes,

She married. O most wicked speed, to post

With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!

It is not nor it cannot come to good,

But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

Survey Says!

12 IB student survey (Shine)

Hamlet Resources

http://quizlet.com/17036354/literary-devices-and-hamlet-flash-cards/

http://literarydevices.net/hamartia/

http://franksapenglish.wiki.lovett.org/Literary+Devices  (a helpful chart of identification...ignore the Beowolf references)

Second Semester Extra Credit Opportunity!

Watch this and complete one of the three writing prompts by this Friday, February 7. :) Or this one! Your choice. One more option: click here.