-Students need to remember, if you want to participate in the Shakespeare Festival I need to know by this Friday so we can get everyone signed up!
-All book reports are due by March 6th: NO EXCEPTIONS!!! (see my policy on late work!)
-Anyone who is interested in the extra credit reading over spring break, please e-mail me and I will send you a list of readings to choose from. A 1 page summary will be due on the first day back.
-Group presentations for To Kill a Mockingbird start next week!!
2/22/10
Movie Magic
Many of the texts we study are sometimes difficult to comprehend because the use of language has changed over the years. Some stories that seem stilted and boring are often full of jokes that we don't get, anger that's hidden in layers of outdated insults, passion that's lost in translation, or tremendous violence and bloodshed that doesn't leap off of the page through traditional reading.
Movies are a fantastic way to see and hear the story that is intended. Over the years many classic stories have been displayed on the silver screen in ways we never could have pictured while trying to decipher it in the classroom.
For this assignment, choose any movie (new or old) from the list below and watch it at home. Write a 2 page paper telling how this enhanced the text for you; or if it didn't, tell us why!!!
(for this assignment you may even use a video game ie: the new Dante's Inferno) :P
Movies are a fantastic way to see and hear the story that is intended. Over the years many classic stories have been displayed on the silver screen in ways we never could have pictured while trying to decipher it in the classroom.
For this assignment, choose any movie (new or old) from the list below and watch it at home. Write a 2 page paper telling how this enhanced the text for you; or if it didn't, tell us why!!!
(for this assignment you may even use a video game ie: the new Dante's Inferno) :P
- Romeo & Juliet
- Of Mice and Men
- Lord of the Flies
- The Crucible
- Beowulf
- Dante's Inferno
- The Hobbit
... you Socialist PIG!!!
George Orwell's Animal Farm is one of the most layered texts we will be studying this year. It has heavy themes, motifs, and symbolic references that refer to very specific historic events. Each major character on the farm has a real life counterpart. Instead of having you all write papers analyzing these different aspects of literature, I would like for us to have an interactive online discussion about what you think Orwell is saying about socialism and people. Each student should write a short post analyzing one aspect of the book. It can be about a character, a building, a passage, or even just one quote. Each student is required to make one original post and respond to at least one of your classmate's posts. Remember to follow our blog rules!!!
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here...
Illustration by Gustave Dore, from Canto XXXIV
Dante's Inferno takes us deep in to the darkest of worlds. Each circle holds a different caste of sinners, and each tormented soul is being punished in a manner that is fit to their crimes. Use this matching list to study for your test! The circles of hell are posted first, and the type of sinners are listed below. You will need to know the general inhabitants of each circle, but you will not be asked to know the rings or the pouches in the deepest pits. There are also sometimes more than 1 kind of sinner in each category. This means that you will have more options for answers than circles; you only need to provide 1 answer for each circle.- 1st circle (Limbo)
- 2nd circle
- 3rd circle
- 4th circle
- 5th circle
- 6th circle
- 7th circle (has rings)
- 8th circle (has evil pockets, or pouches)
- 9th circle
- hypocrites
- seducers
- heretics
- panderers
- gluttons
- sullen
- wrathful
- suicides
- betrayers of kin/country
- pagans
- flatterers
- thieves
- prodigals
- lustful
- avaricious
- sodomites
- blasphemers
- astrologists
Bonus Questions:
What hero that we studied earlier this semester does Dante meet in the 8th circle?
How many mouths does Lucifer have, who is in each one, and why?
Silly Sonnets :-P
The word "sonnet" derives from the Italian word sonetto, which means "little song". Shakespeare makes great use of the sonnet throughout Romeo and Juliet, with the most famous being from the scene where the lovers first meet.
For a poem to be considered a sonnet it must follow very specific rules. It must be 14 lines written in iambic pentameter, or five stresses and five non-stressed syllables per line, like so:
For a poem to be considered a sonnet it must follow very specific rules. It must be 14 lines written in iambic pentameter, or five stresses and five non-stressed syllables per line, like so:
da DA da DA da DA da DA da DA
A Shakespearean sonnet also has a particular rhyme scheme, like so:
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
To get some practice in this style we will write sonnets of our own! But instead of using Shakespearean language, you can choose any topic you would like to write about. Make it as silly and nonsensical as you want!! You can make up an entire poem of your own, or find a preexisting sonnet and replace the words with some of your own as long as it follows the rules of a Shakespearean sonnet, and the rules of our blog posting. If you revise an existing sonnet, more than half of the poem must be your own words and you must post the original work along with your revisions. You don't have to use poems from Romeo and Juliet, or even from Shakespeare, but they must be in the Shakespearean style! Please post your sonnets here so your classmates can read and comment on your work. (once again, when responding please follow the blog rules!) Happy rhyming!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
