BE PREPARED.

 Hey guys! So today we got another bonus assignment! It will be due at the end of Hamlet and has two options. One is to make your own code following the pattern of Polonius' advice to Leartes, the second is to write your own To Be Or Not To Be speech.
Also during class we went over the questions for act 3 scene 2, read act 3 scene 3 which was very short.
On Thursday, we will be reading scene 4 (last scene of act 3) which will feature a "Passionate Hamlet" and his mother, as well as a spying Polonius. After we finish reading WE WILL BE TAKING THE QUOTES QUIZ, so be prepared <3

To Be or Not To Be

Today we tackled Hamlet's most well-known monologue and one of the most famous passages in all of Shakespeare's works, "To be or not to be..."  As none of us felt qualified to read this monologue, we listened  to a couple readings of it instead.  It is a very profound passage and it provoked a very interesting discussion surrounding suicide, depression, etc, in particular from a Biblical perspective.  We also talked about how Hamlet is proving to be more and more indecisive and governed by fear.  We finished Act 1 Scene 1 together and started Scene 2.  The Scene 2 questions are due on Tuesday, you do not need to do the Scene 1 questions.  Have a good weekend!    

Joon = Mrs Loconte

I had high hopes of giving out a quiz today but alas, it was 'not to be'.

It is all about the journey rather than the destination though, (at least in this context) so I was happy to discuss the "I have lost my mirth" dialogue, and "you are a fishmonger" exchange, as well as a host of others.

We will finish #s 14 to the end on Thursday, take that pesky quiz and Carry On.

"So wise so young, they say, do never live long". Richard III

I suggest you read ahead and cover 3.1 so when we come to it as a second reading we will be able to get at it in a bit more depth (hopefully) a bit more quickly.

Yesss! Remembered!

As you can see I did remember to do my blog post, with no help from any of you I might add since none of you remembered to facebook me…lucky for me I set an alarm on my ipod which worked out fantastically. Anyways, back to lit. We started today’s class with a Hamlet Act I quotes quiz which I think for the most part went fairly well…well at least better then the Victorian history quiz. A cockroach can live 9 days without its head before it starves to death. So I suggest that you make sure you actually kill it, otherwise you could be living with a cockroach for nine days that you don’t know about and what’s worse than finding a cockroach in your house, losing a cockroach in your house. After we proceeded to read through Act II Scene 1 and answered the questions. We started Scene 2, but didn’t finish so please complete this scene and its corresponding questions for homework. There will also be another quotes quiz I believe on Tuesday. Have a fantastic long weekend!

When in doubt, act crazy.

Today we started out by looking at our poetry and history tests for the Victorian age.  Thankfully Mrs. Loconte agreed to make the history portion a quiz if that made our marks higher.  Thank you Mrs. Loconte. After sorting that out we moved on to Hamlet.  We reviewed Scenes II, III, and IV.  We established that:

• Hamlet is witty and suicidal
• The queen married Claudius after a little less than a month
• Laertes's advice to Ophelia is sound
• Ophelia is much more concise than Laertes
• Polonius's advice to Laertes is good, but is all about appearances, rather than substance (though we cannot determine whether his father has already given him advice about character)
• Hamlet gives three causes for people's vices: birth, habit, and fate

After that we did Scene V.  The following is a spoiler.  Do not read until you've read Scene V.  Hamlet talks with his father's ghost.  Turns out that Claudius poured poison into old Hamlet's ear while he was sleeping and told everyone he died from a snake bite.  Hamlet Sr. tells Hamlet Jr. to avenge his death (kind of implying that he ought to kill the king) but to leave his mother out of because Hamlet Sr. loved his wife, and you know, she's his mother.  Hamlet Jr. won't tell his friends what the ghost said because he's not quite sure who to trust.  He makes them promise to never tell that they saw the ghost...and if he happens to "go crazy" in the near future, well, just go with it.  He's not sure what his plan is yet, but pretending to be crazy seems to be the logical next step to buy time.

Hopefully this helps clear up any lingering questions because the Act I quiz is Thursday.  This quiz will be composed of quotes.  You will need to identify the speaker and explain the quote.  Interesting observation by Rachel, for those of you who missed it, the bombing at the Boston Marathon mirrors To An Athlete Dying Young by Housman.  Just food for thought.

Carlyle's book? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows of course!

  So yesterday in Lit we were displaced to Mr.Rose's class where we first took our quiz. After having turned the page back and forth several times as if it would give us a revelation we all handed in our quizzes...needless to say we all got 100% on that test...We dove right into deep conversation with Mr. Rose before finishing scene 2 of Hamlet and answering the questions as a class. Be sure to read on and do the questions for the rest of the act and i'm sure if you want to get ahead you're welcome to. We hope Mrs. Loconte's children will feel better after the weekend and that she will be back with us on Monday! Have a good weekend!

Here's to a Victorious Victorian Exam

Surely the following will look familiar to you: Review PP

Hamlet, At Long Last

Today began with a short review of My Last Duchess and Because I Did Not Stop For Death for the benefit of those who were not in class when we studied those poems, in light of the Victorian Age tests on Thursday (poems) and Friday (history).  A more in depth review PowerPoint can be found on the blog.  Studying is recommended.  We then launched into our long awaited study of Hamlet, which is shaping up to be a very interesting, thought-provoking play.  We were given some background information on the play, which is based on a real-life, historical Hamlet and read Act 1, Scene 1 in class.  The corresponding questions are due on Thursday.

The Importance of Having Accents

Today's class began with a discussion of the end of the Victorian Era, which brings with it both a unit test and a bonus assignment.
We then moved on to The Importance of Being Earnest, reviewing Act II and reading through Act III. We speculated on the ending, but none of us thought (or at least, voiced) that Jack and Algernon would be brothers -- or that Jack's real name was indeed Ernest, as he claimed it was for the rest of the play. It was a fun and satisfying read.
Following our finishing of the play, we read the information regarding the novel and the growth of the English language, found at the end of the Victorian Era unit section in the textbook. The Swahili word for 'lion' is 'Simba'. Since we were in a strange mood, Brody began reading the first paragraph in an accent, which became mandatory for the rest of the paragraphs as well. We had English, Australian, Jamaican, Korean, Chinese, Southern, Pirate... it made the information much more lively, to say the least.
Mrs. Loconte ended the class by handing back our Romantic Era Poem Portion Unit Test. Then we skedaddled out the door!

FOR HOMEWORK:
- Finish (or start) the bonus assignment of writing 6 letters -- three from a poet in one era and three from a poet in a different era -- which show the differences in style of writing and living; this is due on the 12th of April
- Begin reviewing for the Poem Portion of the Unit Test, which will be on Thursday, the 11th (Happy Birthday to you, Rachel; let's hope your present is an A); refer to the reading guide for a full list of the poems and works that we covered
- Begin reviewing for the History Portion of the Unit Test, which will be on Friday, the 12th

Brain: on

Welcome back after our "3 weeks" worth of spring break! I already miss my bad and even now my brain isn't functioning very well unfortunately. Anyhow, today in lit class we started our class bit slowly. We read a poem by Emily Dickenson. At our first reading, it was very hard to grasp the full meaning of the poem but after reading two more times, we went over the poem together to understand what it means. Though the poem, we came to a conclusion that "Death is a gentleman." We also got into a philsophical/spiritual discussion of whether we enter heaven directly after our death. After that we started to recap on "The Importance of Being Earnest." We went through more of character analysis and went through our homework as well. After that we started reading the Act 2 of the story.

The homework: Read Act 2 of the Importance of Being Earnest and do the study questions! Have a good night everyone :)