Monday, 12/2 - Back to Denmark

• P&P

• GUM
• Henry VIII’s rule was bold and bloody, he increased England’s strength; and ensured its security by building up the Royal Navy. But those close to the king paid a high price, not least of whom were his six wives who endured the following fates, divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.

  

  Super quirky Hamlet

  
  

• HW reminders

• Continue with Hamlet 

HW: 

1. (Tues) Sight Words Quiz 2 (right hand column) - but any of the words from quiz 1 are fair game! 
2. (Wed) J9 - see journal link to the right 

Block, 11/21, 22 - Sonnets and such

• P&P 

• Today we will spend some time looking at a very popular poetic form, the form you have all been demanding that I teach. I have heard your pleas and pleases, and after today I want to hear your "thank yous." Thus I give you a premature "you're welcome" to this blundering in the index to the book and volume of . . . the sonnet.  

• Dig this sonnet flave for a bit: go to Focus and open the document entitled "The Sonnet" and read through the first two pages together. Now let's be sure you copy down and define the literary terms on the blog that you will need to know to study the sonnet. Define the terms below and discuss Shakespearean sonnet form using Sonnet 18 on the document you've opened.  
• Sonnet (what is its etymology?)
• Petrarchan (Italian)
• Shakespearean (English)
• quatrain
• octave
• couplet
• volta (the "turn")
• iambic pentameter 

• Here are poetic feet you ought to know 

• Let's get back into Hamlet

HW: Go and give thanks for all God has showered upon you. Enjoy vacation! But for those who want to plan ahead, please see the following:

1. Sight Words quiz 2 - right-hand column of handout on Focus (Quiz on the Tuesday we return from vacation)
2. J9 (due Wed we return)

Wednesday, 11/19 - The serpent . . . now wears the crown

• P&P

• GUM        

In a fit of remorse, Hamlet's fathers' ghost laments his demise, 
          "Thus was I sleeping by a brother's hand
          Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched,
          cut off, even in the blossoms of my sin,
          . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
          No reck'ning made, but sent to my account
          with all my imperfections on my head" (1.5.81-86). 

Late King Hamlet's Ghost

• Check J8

• Continue Hamlet 

HW: Study your sight words, especially the right column.

Tuesday, 11/19 - Frailty, thy name is woman, WO-MAN! Whoa-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-MAN!

"Mummy, man has always misunderstood that great mystery--Woeman."

• P&P

• GUM - Please treat the following quote as if you were including it in a THICE (Take-Home-in-Class Essay). Hamlet is the speaker here, so please provide an appropriate signal phrase:

"These (appearances of mourning) indeed "seem,"
For they are actions that a man might play;
But I have that within which passes show,
These but the trappings and the suits of woe." (1.2.86-89)

HW: J8 (Wed)

Monday, 11/18 - I will enter into his courts . . . wearing black

Hamlet, anyone? Anyone, Hamlet? Hamlet. Hamlet. Omelet.

• P&P

• Sight Words Quiz 1 - When you finish, please begin J8 below.

• "Hamlet . . . stands alone supreme in varied excellence. Ambition, murder, resistless fate, filial love, the love of woman, revenge, the power of conscience, paternal solicitude, infinite jest: what a volume is this!" - Henry Coppee (President of Lehigh University - 1873)

HW:  J8 - Hamlet, Act 1 (due Wednesday)

Read Leithart (pgs. 120-129) and answer the following questions (Remember that Leithart is the PDF posted on Focus that you used to do J6):

1. What dramatic and thematic purposes does Fortinbras, the young prince of Norway, serve? 
2. Contrast the late King Hamlet (the ghost) with Claudius (his brother and present King of Denmark).
3. What is significant (and ironic) about fathers, particularly about most of the fathers in this drama?
4. How does Shakespeare develop the theme that appearances sometimes mask reality (cite two examples)?
5.  What is the purpose of Shakespeare's "ghosts"?
6. Discuss the important question concerning the "nature" of the ghost (where it comes from) and how we know. 
7. How was King Hamlet killed? What imagery does the ghost use to describe his death, and why is this (biblically) significant?  

Unit 4: The Renaissance

The Renaissance

• Texts 
• Brit Lit - Historical Eras (Google Classroom or "GC")
• Nails
• What was the Renaissance and how and why was it birthed?
• Who were the major figures of the Renaissance (in Italy and England)
• What were some of historical events that brought about England's golden age?

The Sonnet

• Texts 
• See "Handouts: The Sonnet" (Google Classroom)
• Poetic Feet
• Nails
• What is classic Shakespearean (English) Sonnet structure and how does it differ from Petrarchan (Italian)?
• Lit Terms 
• Sonnet (what is its etymology?)
• Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet
• Shakespearean (English) Sonnet
• quatrain
• octave
• heroic couplet
• volta (the "turn")
• iambic pentameter 

Tragedy, Shakespeare, and Hamlet

• Texts
• Leithart (GC)
• Hamlet (class copy)
• Shakespearean Archaic Sight Words (GC)
• No Fear Shakespeare (dual language version)
• Hamlet Journals (Leithart) Questions
• Nails
• How does Greek tragedy differ from Elizabethan (Shakespearean?)
• Who are the principal characters in Hamlet, and what are their relationships with each other?
• What makes a drama a tragedy and a protagonist a tragic hero?
• How does Shakespeare use characters and scenes to mirror each other and develop particular themes?
• How does Shakespeare use Biblical types and allusions to enlarge the meaning of Hamlet?

Block, 11/14 & 15 - "This bodes some strange eruption to our state"

Sir Thomas More

• P&P

• GUM
• Sir Thomas More [1477–1435] and Desiderius Erasmus [1466–1536] had much in common, they both loved life, laughter, and classical learning, additionally they both were dedicated churchmen, though they were impatient with some of the Churches corrupt practices at that time and engaged in satirizing it's many faults.

• Copy down the two new nails

• Discuss J7

• Read Hamlet

HW: Study for Sight Words quiz (Mon). Document is on Focus. The quiz will cover only the left column of words. 

Extended Chapel Schedule

Wednesday, 11/13 - Hamlette

Erasmus of Rotterdam (Hans Holbein, 1523)

• P&P

• GUM
• Renaissance humanists found no essential conflicts between the teachings of the Church, and those of an ancient Roman moralist like Cicero. They sought instead to harmonize these two great sources of wisdom; the Bible and the classics. Their aim was to use the classics to strengthen not discredit Christianity.

• Continue Hamlet. 

HW: 

1. (block) J7 - Read the assigned pages of the PDF on Focus (entitled "Shakespeare - Leithart Journals"), and answer the questions posted on the blog. See the link on the right column entitled "Journals (2013-14).
   
2. (Mon) Sight words quiz  

Tuesday, 11/12 - Something Strange Is Afoot in Denmark . . . and Rotten at the Circle K

Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel

• P&P

• GUM
• Lying on his back on a scaffold Michelangelo painted: the Creation the Fall Noah’s flood and other Biblical and mythological subjects. His bright heroic figures, show individual human beings who are noble, and capable of perfection. This optimistic, view of human nature was also expressed by many other Renaissance painters and writers. 

• Copy down new nail.

• Let us begin Hamlet.

HW: 

1. J7 (due block)
2. Sight Words Quiz (next Mon)

Veterens Day Schedule

First 8:10 8:55 45 minutes

Second 9:00 9:45 45 minutes

Assembly 9:55 10:30 35 minutes (All HS students will head for gym to attend the assembly)

Break 10:30 10:40 10 minutes

Third 10:40 11:25 45 minutes

Fourth 11:30 12:15 45 minutes

Lunch 12:15 12:50 35minutes

Fifth 12:55 1:40 45 minutes

Sixth 1:45 2:30 45 minutes

Seventh 2:35 3:20 45 minutes

Monday, 11/11 - Intro to Tragedy and Hamlet

• P&P

• GUM
• The term renaissance itself is a French word meaning rebirth it refers particularly to renewed interest in classical learning which means the writings of ancient Greece and Rome it's slogan was ad fontes which means back to the font.

• Please go to Focus and get both new documents to help our foray into the realm of "The Bard": 

• Hamlet - Leithart Journals 
• Shakespearean High Frequency Archaic Sight Words (what a mouthful). 

Blinded by tragic vision

J7 - Intro to Tragedy and Hamlet

Read Leithart (document posted on Focus) pages 111-120 and answer the following questions:

Introduction: Tragedy (111-113)

1. According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, what makes a drama a tragedy?
2. What kind of protagonist is generally required for a successful tragedy and why? 3. List several of the ways that Shakespearean tragedy differs from Sophoclean (or Greek) tragedy.
4. Given that the shape of Hamlet is a "Fall story," what types of characters, events, and ideas ought we to be looking for as we read?

Introduction: Hamlet (115-120)

5. Why is Hamlet such a popular drama?
6. What are two of the minor textual problems in Hamlet? What is one major problem?
7. Give two examples of the way Hamlet shows signs of compositional unity.
8. Cite two reasons why Leithart considers Hamlet a drama that condemns the revenge ethic.
9. Rather than viewing Hamlet as having "contradictions" and "loose ends," Leithart suggests that Shakespeare was making what profound observation?
10. How is Hamlet healthy reading for those who live in an age "dominated by scientific idolatry"? 

HW: 

1. J7 (due block)
2. Shakespearean Sight Words Quiz (next Mon) - be ready for the first half, the left-hand column. 

Block, 11/7 & 8 - Shakespeare & Co.

Medieval torture device? Only for the uneducated ; )

• P&P

• GUM
• Historical periods the Middle Ages the Renaissance the Romantic period are historians inventions useful labels for complex phenomena.

• Today we  meet an author whom many high school students consider a secondary teacher's medieval torture device. Not so. Shakespeare is a Renaissance author . . . so there. 

• Sonnet 116

• Read, take notes on, and discuss "Intro to the Renaissance" (please see PDF on Focus entitled "Brit Lit - Historical Eras").

HW: Finish taking notes on "Intro to the Renaissance" and "The King James Bible" (Basically read through page 48 of the PDF that is on Focus).

Wednesday, 11/6 - Middle Ages Quiz

• P&P

• Take the two-part quiz
• When you finish the scantron section, turn in your scantron and class copy
• Snag the second part of the test 
• Turn that in
• Be quiet and write a poem (no iPads; it's an experiment)

HW: stock up on loose-leaf, college-ruled binder paper. Tomorrow we begin the Renaissance period with an overview of the period. Huzzah!

Tuesday, 11/5 - Prepare For Thy Quiz

Medieval Cosmology - The Ptolemaic universe from Andrew Borde's
The First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge, 1542. (www.luminarium.org)

• P&P

• GUM 
• At his most characteristic medieval man was not a dreamer nor a wanderer he was an organizer a codifier a builder of systems. Distinction, definition and tabulation were his delight though full of turbulent activities, he was equally full of the impulse to formalize them.

Study Guide - Middle Ages Quiz

1. The Middle Ages - overview 
1. Nails (specifically the lit terms below)
1. code of chivalry
2. feudalism
3. courtly love
4. medieval romance 
5. irony
6. satire
7. frame narrative
2. Lit Terms - you are still responsible for the ones from the Anglo-Saxon period, too.
3. Vocab - Latin Roots Lesson 2
4. Literature - with the following works of "art," be ready to discuss how each one treats courtly love, the code of chivalry, feudal structure, etc.
1. A Knight's Tale (with Heath Ledger)
2. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (see Focus for document) - this one is the medieval romance
3. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
1. The General Prologue  - You should know something about all the characters we covered
2. "The Pardoner's Tale"
3. "The Wife of Bath's Tale"