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.