Hamlet and Gertrude?...um...

Today lit class was all girls. We were deserted by the boys, though I suspect that they were probably on some secret spy mission…or something like that. Anyways, we continued watching Hamlet from his “To be or not to be speech” up until I think about when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern get executed, but I could be wrong. For homework please read the history section on the Modern Age and do those reading check questions. Also read “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats. Don’t forget about you essay which is due June 11^th!

Teacher Posting Alert!

Hi Scholars,

Several things:

1. Your essay is due June 11th.
2. There is a quotes quiz tomorrow on Act 5
3. You have a bonus assignment as reiterated by Coral in her last blog post. This will be due June 6th. Should you chose to undertake this assignment you will share it the class.
4. We will watch Hamlet tomorrow after the quiz, bring all movie-watching consumables as you see fit.
5. If you would like to improve any Act quiz to 100% see THIS LINK!
6. With lit days as rare as a rich homeless person, I have elected to post my wrap-up notes here on the blog instead of discussing them in class: closing this chapter on Hamlet 
As they are extensive I trust you will read them thoroughly. There will be some discussion after the movie.
7. Don't forget to write a brief response on the more noble character: Laretes vs. Hamlet.
Lastly, 8. Your marks are now up on Engrade. Knowing this #8, may help you with #5.


The rest is silence.

Roll on, thou o'erlong and lasted year, Roll!

Today's class began with a quick check at the rest of the year. We have only 8 classes left (less now, since today's is over)! We talked about what has to be accomplished by the end of the year and we speculated on a possible review class during exam week.

Following the discussion, we went to Hamlet, reviewing our answers for the end of Act IV. We then did the Act IV Quotes Quiz, and began reading Act V.

It was put to question whether we would like to have a cumulative test for Hamlet, or to have another Quotes Quiz for Act V. The word 'obnubilate' means 'to obscure; to cloud over'. Although there were voices crying out for no more quotes, by the end of class some minds were changed and it seemed that one more Quotes Quiz may in fact be the winner. It was not solidified so think it over.

FOR HOMEWORK:

- Finish Act V:i and the related questions
- Ponder the meaning of life
- Begin preparation for the essay work regarding Hamlet (refer to the hand out for ideas, or make your own!)

Mrs Loconte for valedictorian!

To recap on Friday, we started talking about the valedictorian vote that was held in Mr. Rose's lab on the 3 rd block. Most of us said that although it was desirable,  we didn't seem to have much time for it. Yet Mrs. Loconte told us that it is definitely an amazing opportunity to become a valedictorian and also a great way to represent our 2013 grad. In most of our class, we worked on snippets. After we finished writing we went on to discussion of several quotes, phrases or words in the play. Many of the points we discussed were very philosophical. I for example talked about the word "fish monger" and how it represented "a person who wants to fish information" or "a person who sells prostitute."

The homework: read act 4 scene 7 and do all th questions. Read act 5 scene 1 up to the point where hamlet enters (roughly stop at line 54)

Alas, It Was Not To Be...

As is evident by the time shown at the bottom of your screen I have once again forgotten to blog. I have therefore decided that after forgetting so many times, it was not to be. I was not meant to write blog posts. But that is beside the fact because here I am writing a blog post late yet again. Oh well, better late than never I guess. To start off class today I received a recap of what has happened in the play since Act 3 (and boy did I miss a lot: Polonius dead, Ophelia mad, and Hamlet off to England, what?). We then read Act 4 Scene 6 even though that was actually for homework, but there was a misunderstanding for no one did it…thankfully is was only a page. After we read Scene 7 as well which was a rather lengthy scene involving much deliberations between Laertes and Claudius. We finished off with a discussion about “The Hamlet Question” and like so many before us were not able to figure it out either. Sometimes I wonder is Shakespeare could see us now if he’d just laugh and be like “Ha! I don’t even know what’s up with Hamlet; I was just having some fun!” I feel like this might be a common occurrence in literature, people writing plays and books just to confuse those who study it in the future. Awesome. Anyways, if you’re still up and don’t know the homework it’s to do the in-class writing and discussion activity about picking and analysing three phrases. Oh, and there’s an Act 4 quotes quiz on Tuesday.

Poor Ophelia

Today we started by reviewing scenes i-iii of Act IV.  Essentially, Claudius is sending Hamlet to England, supposedly to protect him after Polonius's death, but really, he wants Hamlet to be killed in England.  We did scene iv in class where we run into young Fortinbras.  Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.  Hamlet has a good speech at the end of this scene.  We did most of scene v in class.  In this scene we find that poor Ophelia has gone mad, (really insane, not like Hamlet) and that Laertes has returned from France to find out about his father's death.

Homework:
Finish scene v and do the questions.