Taking a Look Back

Welcome back to student life.

 I trust you will find  this  useful as you review for your upcoming test of The Restoration and Eighteenth Century on Thursday the Tenth.

In Which We Sat On Desks

With half our number away for various reasons today, Lit class was rather small. But we accomplished a lot! Mrs. Loconte announced that the test for The Restoration and the 18th Century would be on Thursday, January 10th. Charlie Brown's father was a barber. That gives us, as some stated, "three days" to review. Since no one intends to work much during the holiday. Although that wouldn't be a bad idea...

We went on to review "To a Mouse", and made sure its purpose was clear. From there, we moved on to Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, followed by William Blake's biography, and his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Bethany read for us the commentary on these works. We then started the homework, and class ended a few minutes later.

WHAT TO DO FOR HOMEWORK:

For those who were away:

• Read the Elegy (pp.433-436)
• Read William Blake's Biography (p. 442)
• Read Songs of Innocence, the Introduction and The Lamb (pp.443-444)
• Read Songs of Experience, the Introduction and The Tiger (p. 446)
• Read the commentary on The Tiger (p. 447)
• Hand in your essays/satires/mock epics

For all:

• Answer the Study and Discussion Questions for the Elegy (p. 437, all)
• Read The Eighteenth Century and The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (pp. 449-451), no questions for this section
• Brush up on the 18th Century in preparation for the test

The breakdown for the test is as follows:

• Short answer paragraph responses (general ideas, themes)
• 6 paragraphs, 5 marks each (total of 30 marks)
•  Quotes (who is the author and what's the significance)
• 10 quotes, 2 marks each (total of 20 marks)
• History and Literature
• Total of 15 marks

That's a grand total of 65 marks. There is no essay portion on this test.



Enjoy the holidays, ho ho ho!

Spiderman

Today Mrs. Loconte was sadly missing so we had a sub whose name escapes me at this moment, not because he was not memorable, but because I don’t believe that he ever actually told us his name. With our work laid out neatly for us on the board, we began by reading Preface to Shakespeare. We were particularly intrigued by Johnson’s comment that “Shakespeare has no heroes.” We all proceeded to agree with this statement and decided that almost all of Shakespeare’s protagonists have flaws. The sub then pointed out that he preferred heroes with flaws than heroes without. He used the example of DC comic book characters begin too good and perfect whereas the Marvel superheroes have flaws that make them much more relatable. With the subject of Marvel brought up, I asked the sub why Spiderman was not included in the Avengers (something I have been wondering for quite some time). We then had an interesting conversation about who owns the rights to make Marvel movies and we concluded that we should all get together and see the 1994 version of the Fantastic Four even though we’d have to download it illegally. After we satisfied our superhero curiosity we proceeded by finishing the questions to accompany the Preface. Next we read To a Mouse in a variety of fascinating accents ranging from, Scottish, to Scottish-ish, to pirate, to utter nonsense. It was all quite enjoyable. The first word spoken on the moon was Okay. Nice choice. We then attempted the questions and began a conversation about how utterly disturbing short stories are. After this, the AP-Calc joined us and we went over our Greek alphabet in the dying minutes of class. We ended early at three to join the rest of the school in a farewell assembly for Rob (in which we unfortunately never did get to sing our Sound of Music song). If you read this whole post, I congratulate you. And if you didn’t, don’t worry about it, I understand because let’s be honest, if I just saw this big chunk of words, I probably wouldn’t either.

Homework:

·        You guessed it, PROJECT due Tuesday!

·        And possibly go over To a Mouse since the accents may have distracted us from the meaning…just a little.

Cards, Cut Hair, and a Battle of the Sexes...Very Epic

Today we started out by planning our trip to the graveyard.  We will hopefully go tomorrow if rides can be arranged.  Otherwise it will be postponed to Monday.  If you were to spell out numbers, you would have to go until one thousand until you would find the letter "A".  After that we read and discussed the Rape of the Lock.  It was incredibly epic for something so trite.  Next we looked at some epigrams by Pope and picked out our favourites, which was difficult because they were all really good.  We finished by reading the intro to the Age of Johnson.
Homework:
- Read Wit and Nature (p. 414-415)
- Read Samuel Johnson's Bio (p. 418)
- Read the intro to Johnson's Dictionary and a few of the entries (p.420)

Read Canto 3!

Don't do the questions!

Thursday's Special: Extra plump kids. Roast them, bake them, boil them just the way you like

I apologize for the late blog, hopefully everyone did their homework and hopefully everyone who did so got their UBC applications in on time. So on Thursday, just for recaps, we read on A Modest Proposal Jonathan Swift. It was definitely one of those more memorable pieces that we have read, in my opinion. It was absurd, but a very well written poem with convincing arguments as to why selling your children for food would be a good thing. We talked about our thoughts on the poem and our first impressions. In the beginning of the class we had a short recap on The Restoration Age, we talked about the Age that we are in right now and many various things. We also got our essays back and I do believe that everyone left class kind of in a more unended (made that word up hehe) way. Like the discussion on A Modest Proposal wasn't completely concluded and their was so much more we could say. But regardless of that it was a Thursday and we were all anxious to get home and wait for the weekend to come. Did you know that the largest Christmas present was the Statue of Liberty given by the French to the US in 1886

Homework:
Answer Questions on A Modest Proposal pg 388 1-4
Read Alexander Pope's Bio pg 400
Read the introduction of The Rape of the Lock pg 401

Sojourners in A Land of Books and Couches

Having been evicted from Mrs. Loconte's room due to light installation, our class today was held in the library. This new environment proved to be ironically distracting, as Mrs. Loconte pointed out.  I blame the couches.  We began with a discussion on the marking scheme for our most recent writing assignment, which will take the form of either an expository essay, a persuasive essay, a satire, or an epic poem.  Essays will be marked using the typical 6 point scale; the satire will be graded on content and creativity, and should be between 500-750 words; the epic poem should contain all the heroic elements, be presented in a mocking tone, and be 50-80 lines long. The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet. After this lengthy, winding discussion with a few interruptions and digressions, we quickly went through the homework on Gulliver's Travels. Pretty light on the homework front today - come to next class with your ideas for our lit shirts and research the rules for the game "ombre". 

Unicorns, Chaucer, and Long Sleeved T-Shirts

Today marked the release from the prison we knew as "Essay Writing". We kicked off the class by handing in our Renaissance Essays, and flew straight into discussing our Lit tees. We have the go ahead from the higher ups to wear these shirts every Lit-Friday, so that's pretty rad!

We concluded our shirt discussion by agreeing to think up our favourite quote -- be it from a poem, or simply something characterizing Lit class as a whole -- which we will incorporate into our tees. If you could put Saturn in water, it would float. We also seem strongly in favour of using the poets in a Word-Art spelling of "LIT 2013" or something similar. It's still being confirmed, so worry not if you disagree right now. Just be sure to speak up so you are heard!

We then reviewed the History of the Restoration, and wrapped up class by reading "The Age of Pope". We almost started Gulliver's Travels... but didn't quite make it to there. Oh well, four days for that before the next class!

WHAT'S FOR HOMEWORK

- Read Jonathan Swift's Biography (p. 372)
- Read Gulliver's Travels and answer Reading Check Questions 1-5 (p. 373-380, reading check on 380)
- Enjoy the three day weekend

Last one standing

Attention lit students! Today, we have started our day with fun time of "final stand" a game where everyone stands up and last one to stand is the winner... (no way). So basically Mrs. Loconte was to ask us historical questions based on the recent chapter we read and if we don't answer, we have to sit down. Eventually, everyone "died off" except for Bethany and Rachel. In the end, they BOTH win and they get bonus mark as their prize! What a fun way to start our day! Rest of the class we read, "To the Ladies" by Lady Mary Chudleigh and analyzed her terrible marriage and her quite bold/rebellious characteristics of the poem. Then we compared this poem to the speech from "Taming the Shrewd" and mostly noticed the differences between these two literary works. "Taming the Shrewd" focused the point of  BEING obedient to husbands while "To the Ladies", it was rather vice versa.  Well we have no homework other than our essay due on Thursday! Make it good! 

Interesting fact: In "Edward Scissorhands", Johnny Depp only spoke 169 words in the complete movie. 

How Many Children Does Mrs. Loconte Have?

Today’s class began with a very small number of people and a very large number of interruptions. As most of you know, (I hope, or else your observation skills are very poor indeed) today was grade 7/8 day. Thus, for the first twentyish minutes of class we got to observe Mrs. Loconte as she was introduced to the grade 7/8s and answered many repetitive questions. However for the majority of the class it was just me, Bethany, and Mrs. Loconte so it really wasn’t that big of a deal. Together the three of us worked our way through a portion of the poem Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum by Aemilia Lanyer. In her poem she presented an agreement as to why the original in commit by Eve was really not to be blamed on females. Her arguments included: 1. In giving the fruit to Adam, Eve was really jut expressing her love to him and had no way of seeing the end result of her actions. 2. The serpent betrayed Eve and therefore all females. 3. Eve was ignorant of what the serpent had plotted. 4. Adam is really to blame because he, after all, is the stronger sex and he had much more of a chance to get to know God than Eve ever did. 5. Adam actually heard the command directly from God whereas Eve had not. 6. Adam should have known better and reprimanded Eve for taking the fruit instead of accepting it. 7. Eve was created from man, therefore all the evil in her derived from him. 8. It was man who crucified Jesus not women (Pontius Pilate let Jesus be killed even though his wife urged him not to). 9. Women have to go through pain to bear the men so they should be fairer. In essence, those are the reasons for Eve’s case that we gathered from the portion of the poem that we read. It was quite a good read and I hope you guys who missed it will read it some other time! Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy. Weird. Pretty soon after we three had concluded with Lanyer’s poem, Kimberley joined us and then so did Joon. For the rest of the class we mostly discussed the possibility of getting lit t-shirts made. Mrs. Loconte recorded all of our ideas which I’m sure that she will share so I’m not going to write them all here. But think about it over the weekend!

Homework

·        Read The Restoration on page 348

·        Read the short biography on Lady Mary Chudleigh on page 354 and then read her poem To the Ladies on page 355

·        Read the biography of Samuel Pepys on page 358, read The Diary of Samuel Pepys on pages 359-365, and do the Reading Check questions on page 365.

Have Fun!

Renaissance – Done

Well, we've completed the test (except for Coral).  Gadsby by Ernest Wright is over 50,000 words and does not contain the letter "e".  All we have left is the essay.  Keep in mind that you cannot write your essay on any of the topics you wrote on the test.  Happy writing.
Homework:
 - Complete the handout on the literary history of the Restoration and 18th century

Bipolar Bromance

Hi Guys!

So today we made the wise choice of doing review and pushing back our other activities to friday. For review we made a list with columns , if you wish to continue this list it was; Title and Author, Type of poem, Aspects of the Period, Devices, Quotes, Importance. It has been proven that short bursts of studying repeated frequently are much more effective than one long session. I also have the list of all the things that will be on the test, incase you've misplaced your own. SO here we are!

Renaissance History
Whoso list to hunt (150)
Sonnet 67(156)
The passionate shepard/ the nymphs...(162)
Sonnet 30,116,29(169)
The Elizabeathan age (261)
Of Studies (259)
The Jacobean age (263)
A valediction (266)
Holy sonnet 6,10(269)
Meditation 17(271)
Easter Wings (274)
To his coy mistress (276)
Tribe of Ben(281)
On my 1st daughter/son (283)
Song to Celia(284)
To the virgins..(288)
When i was young and fair (292)
On his blindness(303)
Paradise lost (305)
Pilgrims progress(319)
17th century (322)

I know it's a lot but don't get overwhelmed! We know our stuff , good luck errybody!

Something to peruse, not amuse, so don't abuse

Where's my Muse?!

PP

Question

Mrs. Loconte, I was wondering if you could possibly post all of the poems that will be on the test. I kind of forget which ones we did and didn't seeing as there were a lot!

Just an idea

Okay,
Is anybody interested in a Carver Lit 12 shirt? (Its totally okay to say no!)
If we could create a logo and or quote and be allowed to wear it like the PE department has sweaters/hoodies  , I for one think that might be a novel idea.
Of course, I would have to get the admin's approval, but as I said, its just an idea.
Feedback please.

Mr. Test

Only a week left till the big test! So better get studying and not leave this till the last minute! 

And thus today ended another class of Lit which was very sad because we lost two days previously due to our long weekend, but I think everyone enjoyed that 5 day off! Everyone entered the classroom and we started talking about miscellaneous subjects, such as how our class seemed to be segregated, the first documented of the word Nerd was from Dr. Seuss in 1950 from his book If I Ran The Zoo, from the boys and the girls. Brought us back to our old days of when we didn't sit next to the boys or girls. Then we had a short discussion about our last week hotly questionable topics, and concluded that those questions are always nice to ask but we don't really have an answer for them. We got a marble!!! We then went over the rest of Paradise Lost and then read John Bunyan and Pilgrim's Progress. And ended another class of our grade 12 Lit.

Oh and a heads up just for the people who are in Pre-Cal 12, we might be having a math test on Wednesday , so just a heads up. 

Study! Study! Study!

Homework: 

Read The Celestial City pg 322 and do the reading checks 1-5 

Attempt to finish The Paradise Lost Review Sheet 

If anyone forgot what is going to be on the test 

History /10

Quotes-provide both the author and a explanation /20

Literary terms /5

Multiple Choice of the Growth of the English Language /10

2 Essays (about 400 words) 

The entire test is /65

So study hard!!! and good luck everyone!!! 

Blinded by Pride

We began our last class of the day today by sharing our Renaissance and 17^th Century Poetry Assignment. We had a good mix of choices, including carpe diem and regret poems, sonnets (Holy and not), and responses to poems. It was a good time for us to display our creativity and rhyming skills. We also received a marble for our work!

Once our poetry was read, we talked about the unit test and a take-home essay. We established that both would be assigned for the end of November (see below for exact dates).

Following this brief side track from literature (although related and very important), we read Milton's On His Blindness poem. The only part of the human body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye -- it receives oxygen directly from the air outside the body. We found it challenging to think about what Milton was telling us through his use of Biblical reference and his own thoughts. We eventually concluded that though our talents may be stripped from us, it is all to the glory of God and we can still serve Him, even if we can't see it right away.

We then moved on to Paradise Lost. We discussed the questions, especially the confusion regarding Question One. It was mentioned that the "beginning" of the epic may not refer to the beginning of this book -- rather, that this entire book was the beginning (first out of ten books). We continued reading after the questions, and finished up to line 124.

Thus concluded our Literature class for November 6th.

HOMEWORK:

 - The Unit Test on the Renaissance is currently set for Thursday, November 22nd. This date is subject to change, depending on how far along we get in the coming classes.

- The take-home essay will be due on Thursday, November 29th. This date is not subject to change, as we have already read almost all the topics given out (refer to the sheet titled "Take Home Essay" for page references and topics).

- Read Paradise Lost and do the questions up to and including #24 (this means, you can stop reading once you have answered that question, at line 191).

Awkward...

Seeing as I forgot to post an interesting fact here's another post from me. The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans. So if you're ever in a jam grab a koala and use its fingerprint instead of yours!

Importune Me No More

After stating off the class on an unfortunate note (no marble after a homework confusion), the class began to quickly pick up as we briefly discussed the readings from the previous class The Tribe of Ben and Ben Jonson. We then went over Jonson’s poems On My First Son and On My First Daughter. These poems sparked and conversation about love. Can love vary in amounts or is love just love? Does love grow with time? Is it possible to love two people the same but show it in a different way? Even with the insights of Mr. T or questions were unresolved. Oh well, some things in life must remain a mystery. We also read Song: To Celia by Jonson which introduced us to poetry of compliments though we thought it was more of a form of worship. Next we read and discussed Elizabeth I’s poem When I Was Fair and Young which began an interesting discussion again. This too was unresolved seeing how Queen Elizabeth I is no longer alive and we cannot ask her what she meant when she wrote this regret poem. We decided that we would like to study the poem Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum in full which Mrs. Loconte said we could do at a later date. Among other things we had a debate about the use of a rhyming dictionary, Mrs. Loconte’s English students succeeded in bumping up their test marks, we recognized the need to learn more about bibliographies especially in text citation, and we watched as Rachel gracefully missed her mouth as she took a drink of water. Just a day in the life of English Literature 12 class. We concluded our class by reading the biography on John Milton and, without fail, were assigned homework.

Homework:

·        Read the beginning of Paradise Lost and due questions 1-8 on the handout.

·        Finish Renaissance and 17^th Century Poetry Assignment due Tuesday

Lustful Poetry

To my dearest fellow lit companions,

We have finally managed to go through another day! Today we started off with homework check and received a marble :) Most of the lit class we talked about Andrew Marvell and his lustful poem "To His Coy Mistress." As we analysed this poetry, we found the author quite creepy and desperate. Yet, it was very interesting to see how he often used "time" to express different imagery. Then we read Robert Herrick's bio and his poem, "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time." We thought this poem was superior than the other poem,     since Herrick's poem was more general and profound. For homework, read Tribe of Ben, and Ben Johnson and why he has a tribe. Also read about his lost son. Do all the questions please! Have an amazing day :)

Religious Tangents

We started the class going over Holy Sonnet 10.  We went over the various meanings of the word ravish.  Then we moved on to Meditation 17, with its famous line, "no man is an island."  We learned about the three different comparisons in Meditation 17: a book, an island, and gold.  After that we talked about Herbert's Easter Wings.  First, Mrs. Loconte showed us that if you turn the poem on its side, it is shaped like two birds, representing the lark and falcon in the poem.  Obama’s schoolmates in Indonesia sometimes called him “Curly Eyelashes” because his lashes were so long and curly.  We answered the questions, until we hit a few theological snags.  Then there was a lengthy tangent on the fall of Satan and Jesus's decent into hell.  Eventually we got the phones out to search for references online.  Joon eventually found the passage in Isaiah 14:12-15, 

"¹² “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, who didst weaken the nations!¹³ For thou hast said in thine heart, ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.’¹⁵ Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.""  We are not quite clear on whether or not Jesus descended into hell.

Mrs. Loconte eventually managed to cut in with the homework, which is the following:
Read the bio on Andrew Marvell and read his poem To His Coy Mistress.

That poem was ravishing, darling.

  So the first bit of class was spent reflecting deeply on the literary devices in John Donne's Great Valediction. Half an hour, and a decent write up later we dove straight into John Donne's Holy Sonnets. Starting with Holy Sonnet 6 and then on to Holy Sonnet 10, The Anglo-Saxons called August Weod Monath, meaning weed month, because weeds and plants grew the fastest in August although we finished the questions take a few minutes this evening to reflect on the use of the harsh vocabulary in the poem, and more specifically that word "ravish". Once you've reflected on that quickly turn to page 273 and read the bio on George Herbert followed by Virtue and Easter Wings. Tomorrow is a day 2 so we WILL have lit class! See you all tomorrow,
-Coral

The Tragic Loss of Two Marbles

Welcome back to Lit everybody!  Today was spent in discussion of John Donne's highly metaphysical "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning."  As we studied the poem together, many hidden significances were brought to light; the poem took on a new and greater meaning as we analysed the conceits and comparisons Donne so brilliantly uses to illustrate and illuminate the rare love he and his lover share.  The longest geographical name that is accepted in the world is “Taumatawhakatangihangak oauauotamateaturipukaka pikimaungahoronukupokaiwhe nua kitanatahu” (85 letters) which is a hill in New Zealand – it is a Maori phrase which translates to “place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as land-eater, played his flute to his loved one”.  Mrs. Loconte suggests rereading the poem and commentary to cement these ideas in your mind and garner even more enjoyment from this profound poem.  For homework, read Holy Sonnets 6 and 10, and Meditation 17.

Notes on the Goings-on of our Second Unit Thus Far

The 'Rebirth' from Wyatt to Donne

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

 

 

This is the copy of the assignment that was handed out on Thursday. Sorry for the late post!

7-3 = 4 = SMALL CLASS

So for all ya'lls people who were at the WE Day concert hope you had fun rocking, jamming and just totally being awesome!!! And hope that it was educational too, I guess. So for those who weren't here guess what? WE got our tests back!!! Yahhh!!!!!

Today our class started with Joon and his brilliant math skills informing Mrs. Loconte that our marks on the engrade website was not weighted out so it wasn't proper. Which was good because it boasted our marks up by quite a bit. Then WE were given back our test which WE disputed over and had some questions as to if that question was right or not. Oh and everyone for the Anglo-Saxon Period number 16 the correct answer that WE concluded with is D. After that WE asked if WE could get two marbles, TWO MARBLES, for both The Renaissance assignment and Shakespeare's Sonnet and WE got two marbles!!! Which basically means we are in the lead haha. After WE were given the marbles WE went over both of the assignments and had a good discussion about them. WE had a good discussion about the Shakespeare Sonnet, there is a type of snow called Watermelon snow that slightly tastes like watermelon, and the good news is that WE all know what love is! And not the whole idea of oh I love your hair and what not but real true love, to be able to stick by someone even through thick and thin. Mrs. Loconte also read us a news article that was posted in The Province during last year's Valentine and thought that it was relevant, and it was. It talked about two married couples who had been married for 75 years and are still in love with each other and still happily married. After We read on Francis Bacon who is probably one of the greatest writers and man who is pure genius. We then ended the day shortly again because WE had a homeroom thing where WE had to get our directories from our homeroom teacher. And thus ended another short day at Lit 12 :(
So.... for homework read 261-262
read 263
read 264 John Donne's bio and read the Great Valediction #1-9
How many WE's can you find?

Classy Classical Music in Class

Dearest classmates,

Today we felt the full force of a literature test -- really, a multitude of quizzes stapled together, covering topics ranging from The Anglo-Saxon Period to Chaucer to the history of Middle English. A few minutes into the block, the tests came around and silence entered the room, save for the sound of shifting chairs, scratching pencils, and classy Classical tunes eminating from the radio. Our minds hard at work, we did our best to recall the information we've studied for the month or so. Except no Beowulf. Or The Canterbury Tales. So that was a relief.

3:15pm rolled around a little sooner than most of us expected, and it was time to mark. Somehow, by Mrs. Loconte's efficient marking style (ie. slaves), we managed to mark the whole test and return them to Mrs. Loconte to tally up. Some of us managed to glimpse our marks, while others simply left after collecting the homework package, rushing to catch the bus, or hit the gym, or just get home.

We have learned from this experience that when we are being tested on the historical portions of Literature, we are truly tested on the historical portions of Literature. Small details that are overlooked, such as the fact that Uranus has three moons named Puck, Titania, and Oberon, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, can easily show up on the review test. Skim reading may help, but it's never a bad idea to sit down with a few days before the test and reread the full text.

The aforementioned homework is as follows:
- If you have not finished the Renaissance reading and question answering (pages 128-148, with the ten review questions on page 148), grace be to you. Make sure that is finished by Thursday, as Mrs. Loconte did not check today.
- In the Sonnet package handed out at the end of class today, complete section 2 (The Marriage of True Minds), answering questions 1 and 2 on pages 25-26.

Enjoy your evening and may your minds be filled with learning and the expansion of knowledge!

Is Shakespeare Gay?

Sorry for the late post! I wasn't able to get to access the blog site due to some internet problem; but now I can! So from Friday's perspective, most of us finished and brought the Canterbury Parody assignment except for Rachel who decided to do the prologue. Overall, everyone did phenomenal job and we also received a marble! Yay! Keep up the work! Then I was able to present my bonus project on Black Plague and how it changed the feudalism in England. Then, it was our time to get back to our text books and read some amazing love (luuube) poetry (Did I write it right?). One was about a young shepherd offering his love to the girl with materialistic goods; but the other one was a response to the shepherd's proposal about girl "kindly" refusing him. We went on a discussion of the characteristic of both poetry and shepherd's flaw in his approach to his love. Lastly, we got into Sonnet and read Sonnet 29 and 130. We learned that Sonnet was mainly a love theme which I was mind blown about.

I was really curious what made Shakespeare gay but here are some points I found on the internet that prove him gay:

1. The first 124 out of 156 Sonnets are widely known to be accepted as a love poem to a man.

2. All of Shakespeare's Sonnets are dedicated to "Mr.W.H"

3. "Sonnet 126" begins "O thou, my lovely boy." And, while I'm not sure if Shakespeare envisioned himself the Day Man or Night Man -- or if the lovely boy is a metaphor -- this poem (the 126th of the 126 man- directed sonnets) is one of the only ones that just comes right out and declares its man slant.  

4. In his plays, there are so many cross-dressing plays when guys have to have women roles. Women were not allowed to act back then. 

Homework time: 

1. Make sure you read those 20 pages of Renaissance in your text book starting from page 128 by Tuesday.  

2. Our Quiz will be also on Tuesday so study hard! The breakdown of the quiz is on the previous blog in case anyone missed it. 

Have a great day! 

Noli Me Tangere

So first off we decided that the Renaissance history reading would NOT be due tomorrow! (Phew! It’s 20 pages!) Just thought we should get that cleared up because I’m pretty sure otherwise someone will do if for tomorrow. After we decided that, we read the description of Sir Thomas Wyatt together and his poem Whoso List to Hunt. We deciphered the poem together and discovered what an extended metaphor is (basically the whole poem is a metaphor). We also went over the questions orally on page 151. Next we read the essay about the sonnet so that we would “know the rules before we played the game.”(Mrs. Loconte, 10/11/12) Then we read the description of Edmund Spenser. We read about his epic poem The Faerie Queene, which we wanted to read, but then found out that it was like six books long… so we kind of lost interest. We then read Sonnet 67 and went over it together. We did the questions on page 157 orally. Joon and Brody discovered that girls prefer mutual affection opposed to aggressive pursuit… they were awestruck to say the least. We also found out about how Mrs. Loconte met and got to know her husband! (It was just like in the sonnet!) After we completed this, we decided to work on the Renaissance reading and save more sonnets for another day. Oh, and by the way, the phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. Who knew?!?

Homework:

FINISH YOUR PROJECT for the Canterbury Tales (we will be sharing them in class tomorrow)
Read The Renaissance by Tuesday and do the reading check questions on page 148
Oh, and do the bonus project by tomorrow if you want to

Portfolios are Done!

Today we started class discussing how long the parodies need to be for our lit project.  We determined that it should be longer than the cook and around the length of the franklin.  It should also be in rhyming couplets, but it does not need to be in old English or iambic pentameter.
We then discussed our upcoming quizzes.  It will cover everything during the medieval period, not including the prologue of the Canterbury Tales and Beowulf.
After that we read Bonny Barbara Allan.  It was a tragic love story about a relationship gone wrong.  Sir John Graeme dies of a broken heart over Barbara Allan and Barbara Allan died out of guilt of her lack of courtesy to Sir John on his death bed.  They are buried together in a church yard where the roses over his grave entwine in a true love knot with the briers over hers.  
Lastly we went over Everyman.  When Sesame Street’s Big Bird visited the Nixon White House as a guest of First Lady Patricia Nixon, the Secret Service’s radio frequency got mixed up with Big Bird’s microphone frequency so the Secret Service was picking up Big Bird’s lines in their earpieces.  We discussed the questions and whether the play focusses too heavily on good works.
Homework:
Read the Middle English Period for tomorrow
Lit project due Friday
Bonus project due Friday

Quizing Breakdown

Putting together my quizzes I have the following things for you to be mindful of:

A) The Anglo-Saxon Period- Historical Intro
B) The Growth of the English Language- both The Old English Period & The Middle English Period
C) Ballads
D)Chaucer: His Times and Works (no detail about the Prologue at all)
E) The Medieval Period- Historical Intro
F) The Pardoner's Tale
G) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (an open-book quiz)

Test/Quiz Update

The day of the test/quiz (you decide) will be the 16th of October.
All material studied, including history, will be examinable.

Discuss

Proposed Formats:

Test

Two Parts

A: Relevant names from all studied material thus far~ matching

B: Short Answer~ paragraph style (maybe 3 or 4)

Or...or!

Quizzes

One on each work studied (including history) exactly the same as Fridays.

Thus, you either have one test mark or several quiz marks.

Couresty is Key

Well guys, for better or for worse, we've made it to the end of another week!  We hurdled over two short quizzes with grace and ease, stumbling only slightly on some of the tricky Canterbury vocabulary, which led to a short discussion about the format of future quizzes.  In the end, however, we all agreed that multiple choice is, in fact, the preferred format.  12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.  We then dove into the literary intricacy and brilliance that is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, exploring ideas such as chivalry, honesty, and total forgiveness.  Our study was prematurely brought to an end by an all-school assembly regarding the retreat next week, perpetuating the idea that our Lit classes always seem to be cut short for some reason or another.  For homework, read Every Man and do the corresponding review questions.  Also keep in mind that our Lit projects are due either Thursday or Friday of the first week back to school.  Thus begins a much-anticipated, much-appreciated 10-day hiatus of school!

Name That Pilgrim!

    I'm sure the 70% of us who were in class today would agree that today was a fun, productive lit class. After the usual check and discussion on homework we read the "Pardoner's Tale"(p.81) which the whole class enjoyed. In other news, the Medieval unit is fast coming to an end and with that a new project! There's a crater on the far side of the moon named after Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales assignment will be due either Friday, Oct 12/ Thursday the 11 if it's a day 1 on that Friday. Also if you're interested in bonus marks, the bonus assignment will be due within the same week. On top of all that, let's not forget our test tomorrow on Beowulf(open book) and Canterbury Tales(multiple choice)

Study up!
-Coral

A Little Help is a Beautiful Thing

Hi Gang,

In the event that you may find "Sir Gawain.." easy to read but hard to understand, I have included a PowerPoint that will help you glean the overall themes of this poem. Read it, strive to 'get it', answer the Reading Check questions but don't let it get in the way of your studying for the quiz tomorrow.

A tale on the most famous of Arthur's Knights:

Septemer 25, 2012

Honestly coming up with a name for this post is difficult so my post title will be the date. Sorry for being original, but it was nice and easy

Today we started classes with Mrs. Loconte collecting our poems that were due last week, literally, but we just typed out a good copy for her so she could put them up on the back of her wall. Then she announced that we would be having a quiz this Thursday. Which really shouldn’t have been much of a surprise to us, seeing as how she did inform us last Friday that she would be giving us a quiz this week? Thankfully, our quiz was postponed to Friday due to the student council retreat and because our class only has 7 people literally half our class is gone. So we concluded to postponing it to Friday!!! Yipieeeee!!!!!

So for those who are curious and for those who just forgot our quiz is on Beowulf and all 24 of Canterbury Tales. All questions will be multiple choice and Beowulf is open books. So thank goodness for that.

Afterwards we chatted a little about our lives and school and how some courses are a lot more stressful than others. In general, how we just feel overwhelmed with some courses and others we really enjoy. Oh and by the way (BTW's) our Lit class has about 4 marbles now I believe (anyone please correct me if I'm wrong). Then we went over Canterbury Tales, from the highly classy Merchant to the very flirtatious (note* she has five husbands) Wife of Baths. Then we kept reading the Tales and thus ended our class ):

INTERESTING FACT OF THE DAY!!! (Trumpet sound) (Drum roll)

Did you know that bubble wrap was suppose to be designed as wallpaper

(oh ahhhh)

Homework: Finish Canterbury Tales and finish all the questions

Also do the reading check pg 79# 1-10

FYI

Couple links:

Updated Lit notes

Canterbury Tales Question Sheet

September 20, 2012

Today's class began with the ever so regular projector problems. Thankfully we managed to get technology on our side in only a few minutes. Who knows when it'll just stop working for good?

We popped Beowulf into the laptop, found where we left off, and continued from there. I have got to say, when Grendel was on screen attacking everyone, I could feel the evil he emanated. Good thing Beowulf was around, and managed to kill Grendel. Too bad Grendel's mother wasn't too happy -- leaving all the men in Herot pinned to the chandeliers as a sign to Beowulf of her anger. Shudders.

Moving from that terrible scene into something a bit more light, we opened our homework and continued with The Canterbury Tales. Discussion ensued regarding the fact that Chaucer didn't finish his work on the stories. Questions were raised as to the exact number of stories each member of the pilgrimage was to tell. Our textbooks record 124 stories as the original plan, yet only 24 were penned by Chaucer before he died. Librarius.com has these 24 stories online. However, Librarius states that 30 people went on the pilgrimage. The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want. After some research, I have concluded that there is no sure conclusion. Some sources suggest 24 pilgrims, each with two stories. Some sources suggest 30 pilgrims, with two stories, bringing a total story count to 120. And our textbook suggests 24 pilgrims (if you consider the 'tradesmen' to be one entity), each with two stories, although that math doesn't add up to 124. Let's all agree that he died before he finished and leave it at that (although some think he intentionally didn't finish -- but that's another story altogether).

A question was also posed about the monk's "lover's knot". Here's a link to a lover's knot.

FOR HOMEWORK:

1) Read The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (pp. 65-70). Do the questions on the sheet handed out for the pilgrims, beginning with the Merchant and ending with the Wife of Bath (for a total of nine sections).

2) Be aware that there will be a quiz soon. Tuesday was mentioned, but nothing was set in stone. You have been warned...

Bianca

Yes, you!
I am awaiting your post to this blog.

Singing His New Song Aloud While He Shaped It . . .

                First off, lines 522 – 526 of Beowulf are shear brilliance, hence my choice of title. Secondly, today we started out class with a quick homework check and yes, we got another marble meaning we are still at the top of the leader’s board…even though it’s not technically a competition, but to us, of course, it is. We then went through the questions from Beowulf together. First we finished up The Coming of Grendel section from last class and then we continued on with The Coming of Beowulf and Unferth’s Taunt. We learned what the literary term aphorism is which is “a terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation”. Yay! Another term to add to our long list of literary terms! (That comment was in no way sarcastic as I thoroughly appreciate learning new things.) Afterwards, we read The Battle with Grendel and, upon our insistence, the summary of The Battle with Grendel’s Mother (which we concluded would have been much more exciting and climactic than Beowulf’s battle with Grendel) and The Fight with the Fire Dragon (in which the heroic Beowulf dies a hero’s death). We concluded by reading The Burning of Beowulf’s Body and finishing up the question packet together in class, to which I might add, was most agreeable. Then Mrs. Loconte assigned us some homework (which was maybe not quite as agreeable, though we really cannot complain seeing as we have five days to complete it). Oh, and by the way, every year more people are killed by donkeys, than in aircraft crashes, so beware of donkeys, they have it out for you.

Home Work: (due Tuesday)

• Read the riddles on page 39 and 40 and make a riddle yourself. Your riddle can be in verse, but doesn’t have to be and it must be between 10-15 lines.
• Read pages 41 – 54 (The Old English Period and The Medieval Period) and do all of the review questions on page 54. (P.S. Mrs. Loconte suggested we read this in sections, otherwise we might fall asleep…though NOT because it is boring!)

2,996

So today we started out by reviewing our responses to the Titanic poem.  We also went over the six-point essay marking scale.  On the overhead projector we saw all the possible responses to the poem.  I don't know about you guys, but most of those points did not occur to me.
After that we discussed the whole Day 1, Day 2, problem.
Mrs. Loconte then showed us some power point slides on Beowulf.  We paid extra attention to "kennings" since that was one of the more puzzling questions.  Lastly we reviewed the homework questions, and ended up spending a lot of time discussing the fall of Satan, repentance, and the contrast between good and evil.  2,996 people died in the 9/11 terrorist attack 11 years ago.  2,977 were victims. We did not get to the section about The Coming of Beowulf.  We didn't even finish The Coming of Grendel.  I guess we'll finish that on Thursday.  Since we all did the homework we got a marble, so good job everyone and keep up the good work.

Today's Homework:
- Read Unferth's Taunt and do the corresponding questions in your package.

LE FIRST POST

Sorry guys for the late post! This is going to be the first blog that is going to be posted for this year Lit class. Yay! So I thought I should start with an interesting fact. “Dead by the age of 80, a man named Michael Tolotos was rumored never to have seen a woman in his whole life, and he wasn’t blind”. I don’t know how he could call himself, “man”.

           Yesterday we began our class by arranging our desks in circular formation with a dot in the middle (me). We also decided that whoever is in the circle should be the one posting the blog that night (also me). Unfortunately, without knowing this, I became the “first” author of the blog.

 It was a glorious day for receiving marble and I think we are going to win the party (keep up the good work)! Mrs.Loconte went over the Anglo-Saxon period with us and events like Dark Ages and how we do not call it the “Dark Ages” ages anymore. Sorry, I do not remember the reason why.

           Later, Ms. Ho came in and took her time to help change our courses. Then Rachel suggested a name for our blog, “Chaucer’s Children” which I just realized it was already our blog title. We also went over 10 questions of our homework in lightening speed and managed to be diligent students. Lastly, we had to do a writing assignment on poetry and its topic was The Convergence of the Twain. Our objective was to write an irony of this poetry. I don’t know about everyone else, but it took me around 10 minutes to just think. Well in the end, it was a happy ending that we all managed to hand them in.. I think.

Homework! : P.11 Beoulf

-       Intro

-       Coming of Grendal (p.12)

-       Coming of Beoulf (p.17)

-       Complete corresponding questions of handout

-       Total: pp 11~19

Have a wonderful Friday evening!

-       Joon 

How's My Font?

Don't want to get b(l)ogged down with font fixations, but I am partial to this one. It's Calligraffiti which kind of is an homage to the calligraphy we spoke of today regarding Middle Ages manuscripts, while being slightly in keeping with a graphic-style of writing that I had earlier. Hopefully, it will meet your approval.

Here, for your edification, is the link to my PP presentation in class today.
See you Monday!

Class Notes

How to Be an Author

Step 1:

Email me your gmail email @ Rebekah. Loconte78@gmail.com










Step 2:

Once I receive your email address, I will send you an invitation to be an author






Step 3:

Accept my invitation









Blogging will start tonight. We will blog in alphabetical order, thus Bethany you are up.

Day One down....

Your homework, as you will remember is to read the Anglo-Saxon period and answer all review questions that follow.

Welcome to Literature 12

Behold your first blog post!

And here is your course outline

The Rest is Silence Act 5, Scene 2

Thank you for your posts and for giving me yourselves every morning.
Take care, grads.
Rebekah

Reading List

The following links link to the reading list for Lit.  Happy studying!
(reminder: we only need to study the starred material)

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5i3HC6gCyVHRzRaTjZQcDBsalU
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5i3HC6gCyVHYzhfcUM0eEQyT1E
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5i3HC6gCyVHZEFqQzFOZlRPMkE
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5i3HC6gCyVHMlFtOG51dWNsSEU

It's the end of the world as we know it.

There is little to report for the happenings of today's class. I am certain that we all are thankful to have survived our final quotes quiz, and that for at least a little while we will not need to decipher whether a line was spoken by a captain, a seaman, or a clown. I myself am somewhat saddened over our completion of the study of Hamlet. I found it a rather exhilarating play to read and rank it alongside my other favorite Shakespearean play, Macbeth.

Yes. The tragedies are just that wonderful.

After our quiz we proceeded to the lower computer lab to practice for our final exam. I hope that we were all successful in accordance with our own personal standards. If not, at least we have a week to review our prior studies.

All that is due tomorrow is the line memorization bonus assignment, given in full detail approximately three posts below. If you wish to boost your mark on one Hamlet quiz to 100%, or if you merely desire to engrain Hamlet's philosophical ramblings forever into your memory, I encourage you to give it a shot.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful evening, and that we all make the most of our final class of Lit tomorrow :)

- Jaclyn Loewen

Winding Down

Unfortunately, today was a low key day, so there is nothing controversial to discuss.  However, despite being low key, it was hardly boring. 

We began the class with some announcements from Mrs. Loconte concerning end of the year activities like convocation, turning in our DPA forms, and the award ceremony.  From there, we proceeded to jump right into watching the rest of the Mel Gibson version of Hamlet, starting from when Ophelia drowns and ending with the huge blood bath at the castle.

Devotions today were led by Donna, who always seems to have insightful little stories or YouTube clips to share.  Anyway, she showed us a YouTube video by the Skit-Guys, which was a somewhat humourous representation of how we need to give God control over our entire lives, and how no matter how useless or broken we think we are, we are actually originally masterpieces made in God's image.  We would do well to remember that.

For the rest of the class, we discussed the final scenes of Hamlet, delving into how Hamlet was a fatalist.  We also went over the Hamlet Act 5 Scene 1 & 2 questions in extensive detail.

HOMEWORK - the only thing you are reading this for. I know..
Act 5 Quiz: It's the last one, so study hard and finish well.

Peace.
Kharis  

Skippity, Skip, Skip!

Well, to say yesterday was a boring day is to speak a lie.
I really don't understand those who skipped.

First off, we had an awesome first class, laughing all the way through out with those strong enough against peer pressure and with enough integrity to stay.  I must say, it was an adventure in itself.
Yes, all we did was watch a movie.  But that is such an inadequte description of the journey we took into a mad man's mind, seeing them brandish their swords against each other and make fun of their characters.  It was extremely unsatisfying to end the class: we were about to see them all drop dead.  Sigh, at least the rest of the class will be able to enjoy that pleasure on Monday.

What else to say...well, second block we got bonus marks, third block we got bonus marks, oh and we got ice cream too!!  Who would trade that for a day of skipping to be bored and play board games?  The teachers think well of you too when you stay, just an added bonus.  (as opposed to thinking of you as irresponsible students)

Well, I'll leave my tirade at that and get to the part you probably will only care about.

But then again, if you skipped the class on purpose, I do not see why you would want to know the homework either.  But then again, if you didn't care, you wouldn't be reading this either.  Teenagers sure are confusing people.  Or maybe it's not the teenager that is confusing but the MOB of teenagers that gets confusing.  Just maybe.

Here goes nothing:
1) Hamlet Essay due MONDAY, June 11
2) read "Disembarking at Quebec" by Margaret Atwood (pg. 1000) for MONDAY, June 11
3) Hamlet Act V quiz - TUESDAY, June 12
4) Bonus Lines (pervious post - Jaclyn and I have claimed lines already) - WEDNESDAY, June 13

*If you believe anything I said here was unjust or insulting, I apologize for insulting you but I do hold my opinion.  Skip day may be tradition, but it is a stupid tradition fueled by peer pressure.  There is no benefit in skip day, "hanging out" can happen at any time and it only hurts the integrity of the individual and of the class.  Practically, you may or may not be able to skip the class, but it is the ethics of respecting the teachers that are there to teach you that really matters.  You are more than welcome to debate this point with me.  I am more than willing to have a well-reasoned discussion about why grads should or should not skip.

Teacher Blog Alert

What, ho!
Here doth sit aforementioned link to "Hamlet".
Thy teacher hath endeavoured to prepare thee well .
Yonder "Wrap-Up Notes" shall prove most fruitful ere you take the final.
I pray ye, young students, that thou peruse it often, thus may it advise thee well.
Adieu.

Hamlet, the Thane of Denmark


Postscript

Bonus!

Mind your memory

A pickle in a bathtub.

We started off with Devotions from Tayler, in which she talked about how she has been tired recently and how God gives you rest.  She also mentioned how God made flowers beautiful, and so are you.  Words of wisdom Tayler.

We discussed, do not go gentle into that good night, written by Dylan Thomas.  In the poem it speaks of the writers father dying, with the writer pleading his father to hold on to life.  He pleads that he should fight death, because life is worth living, and that he can still do more with his life, even though he is frail.

Next we read Hamlet Act 5 Scene 1 and part of Scene 2, and discussed whether or not we would watch the David Tennant version of Hamlet, which we will be doing tomorrow.

Homework:
-  Finish Reading Hamlet, along with the questions, due Thursday.
-  Act 5 quiz on Friday.
-  Essay Due Monday.

Have a great night :)

Hey guys,
Sorry for the late post but I had things to do. So anyways, onto the blog.

Today we spoke about Shakespeare's Hamlet. We also learned about Act 4 and how Ophelia went crazy and drowned herself. It seems that there was a conspiracy behind how Gertrude knew so much about Ophelia's death and how she seemed so relaxed about it. Act 4 also showed how much of a scumbag Claudius is and how he wants Hamlet gone.

The Homework tonight:

- Act 4 quiz tomorrow
- Hamlet Essay due Monday

Check this out! A blog post! A whole week later. Wouldn't expect this, now would we? Hopefully this can boost up my mark so that universities will like me.


In getting dressed up this morning, I forgot one key task to do. That was, to put on pants (harder than you think). Once I remembered pants, I also was notified that I had to blog, thanks to my handy schedule.


There was a episode about Prom a couple weeks ago on Glee. It's a terrible show, and I swear, I honestly only watch it to make fun of it. Seriously. I also like SOME of the songs, not all.

I was totally freaking out. Nails, hair, lashes, brows, leg hairs, toes, etc. Being a girl is hard sometimes, but beauty is pain.

Anyways, it has nothing to do with what happened Thursday in English Literature class (not a lot does, anyways).


We opened up our Hamlet books after hearing a devotion from (insert student). We went over Act 4 in class and sped through the first 4 scenes like Speedy Gonzalez (no relation to Lisa). We did questions as we went along and had vigorous discussion on the motives of each character and the overall plot.

Homework

• Technically, finish Act 4 Scene 5 and do the first 2 questions for it, but Mrs. Loconte also said NO HOMEWORK (because she was feeling nice).
• Take your pick, I know I'm just going to listen to this song.

Insert Famous Line Here

(It's too cliche to write the line as the title.  Just saying)

To be or not to be a high school student, that is the question.  I don’t know about you, but soon we won’t be and first I went yay! Then I went wait… and then finally…awwww.  It’s been four years of work, fun, craziness, and other things that we shall not mention.

Entirely random, though not it you think about what occurred in class today.  Now what would be random is if I started talking about ponies or a pink fluffy unicorn.  Probably one of the most repeated phrases on the band trip, or maybe not.  See?  That’s random.  Sorry, seemingly distracted like we get in class. 

Back to the point.  We started with Mrs. Loconte and a devo about how to lessen stress from a Christian perspective.  I very much enjoyed it and remember this one point the most: rest properly.  Maybe that means I’ll go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight instead of like usual.

Going on, we stepped into the Act 2 quiz.  Now agree with me: it was pretty good.  And your marks seem to agree.  Here is where I remind you that each Act quiz will be EXACTLY the same format. 

But that doesn’t really matter for the moment.  What does is the fact that we read Act 3 Scene 1 (with some… interesting voices for Hamlet and Gertrude WHO IS THE QUEEN, QUEEN GERTRUDE).  That is how the first paragraph with “to be or not to be” came from by the way.  And I just have to mention how mean Polonius was for putting Ophelia is such a horrid position where Hamlet now hates the world because his friends, family, and girl he liked have basically betrayed him. 

Then the bell rang. 

Don’t run away just yet.  We have homework.

Read Act 2 Scene 2 of Hamlet.

Answer the questions for Scene 1 and 2.

Bonus Assignment (Inner Shakespeare) due May 31^st.

Enjoy your weekend!  Hopefully I didn’t ramble too much.  Maybe I should eat less sugar…hmmm…anyways, see yas!