HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! 10/31/11

Took the Act 1 Test for Hamlet

Watched two scenes in two if the Hamlet movies

-Hamlet (Kevith Branagh) speaks of his mother marrying too early and of his sorrow for his father. We skip to the ghost scene when the spirit tells Hamlet that it is his father. They plan to take revenge for Claudio killing his father. Then Hamlets father tells of how he was killed while asleep in his garden. Claudio came and put poison in his ear.

Second movie comparison between the ghost scene in both movies.

-Upon the top of his castle, Hamlet (Mel Gibson), sees his father’s spirit. There are almost no differences besides the setting and the face that this movie skipped lines in the middle so it was shorter. Both versions of the scene show the relationship from father to son being very strong.

Started reading act two

October 28, 2011

Homework: Answer Act 1 blog question, review for Act 1 quiz.

Blog response needs to be a well written. Everyone except the presenters needs to answer the blog.

Today we did our first fishbowl, Act 1.

Everyone in the outside circle did a live blog, while the inside circle discussed.

Mrs. Smith WILL NOT give points for poor comments in the outside circle ex. (I agree with Connor or Connor good question)

Presenter’s questions

1. What hero traits do you see in Hamlet so far?

2. Do we see a tragic flaw that Hamlet possesses?

3. Claudius offers Hamlet the love of a father, is the real or fake?

4. Does the ghost of Hamlets father pose something more than just a ghost? Is there something else behind the ghost?

5. Will Hamlet act in the same manner as Martin Luther in breaking away from the norm?

6. Is there any significance linked to the number three in the story?

7. Can the story of Hamlet be linked to Lovely Bones?

Act 1 Presenters' Big Question for the Class!

How is Hamlet relevant to to today’s teens based on what we have seen so far? Think about his relationships with his family members and his feelings regarding his life and future plans...

Hamlet Act 1

Wednesday Oct 26, 2011 SCRIBE

Good morning Class! Good morning Ms. Smith!

Thanks Drew for the donuts!

We all walked into class this morning bundled in our winter clothes and with our hair slightly dampened from the fresh snow. Today was the peak of winter. HURRAY!

We finish reading through act 1 today (we started on page 21) we will have the fishbowl on Friday and have a quiz on Monday.

If you are feeling behind or slightly confused I recommend using a modernized text of Hamlet. I personally like it because it makes Shakespeare enjoyable (or more enjoyable! Who couldn’t love Shakespeare already!) Here is the link…

http://nfs.sparknotes.com/hamlet/

Click on the link and it will give you an option of all the acts by their scenes. Just click on them and get caught up. If for some reason this link doesn't work (I am technically challenged) then go to sparknotes.com and go to the top where it says no fear Shakespeare, then click on Hamlet. Then you can click on any act or scene. It is quite dandy, if I must say so myself.

9 QUESTIONS MS. SMITH TOLD US TO KNOW!!!!…. HINT: YOU SHOULD KNOW THESE ANSWERS TO PREPARE FOR THE FISHBOWL/ QUIZ!

1. What are some impressions of Hamlet Claudius and Gertrude? What are there actions and reactions to each other?

2. What are Hamlets feelings about life and suicide? Hint… he reveals that 2 times within act 1?

3 What do we know of hamlet and Ophelia’s relationship?

4. What is the hypocrisy we see in Polonius?

5. What is Polonius’s advice that he gives Laertes?

6. What is the ghost’s message to hamlet specifically?

7. What do we see are Shakespeare’s feelings towards women? Hint. He doesn’t show much respect for the ladies…

8. What’s the deal with Norway and f Fortinbras?

9. What is Hamlet's plan to Claudius?

October 21, 2011

Hello all! I'm quite impressed by the last two posts, but regret to say to you that this post will not be that detailed. I unfortunately (but really fortunately) had to leave for a college visit (CSU!) during the middle of class but I will do my best to help you all out.

We began the day with a lovely welcome from Sean's donuts because we raised $65 dollars on Wednesday for the Food drive! Don't forget about the sweet deal Mrs. Smith proposed. We get the biggest breakfast feast you've ever seen if we raise $300 by Wednesday, October 26th.

Smith then gave us a much needed gift of no homework over the weekend.

Then we proceeded to check in our Canterbury Tales books and check out our Hamlet books. Don't worry if you didn't have your books or if you weren't there, we're doing it again on Monday.

Then we were off to our presentations.

Presentation order to my best knowledge:

1)Connor Mc
2)Dani H
3)Conor M
4)Sam M
5)Anna Q
6)Andrew

This is where I left...

7)Alexa
8)Sean
9)Maddie
10)Jere W

I'm not quite sure what happened after this. So I'm gonna say it was probably the most fun and exciting time of anyone's life. And it happened so convieniently right after I left the class.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

• Bring money to give to Sean for the canned food drive by the end of next Wednesday. If our class brings over $150 Sean will bring us donuts. If the class raises over $300 Sean will bring us donuts and Smith will bring us a “feast”.

Dani G: The Gathering

• Container: Coffin because there are many deaths throughout the book
• Motifs: Watch represents time is a curse on everyone in the book. Shot glass because the people in the book would turn to alcohol as a getaway for they’re problems.
• Journal Entry: Neugen gets caught molesting his best friend’s grand children.

Joe: The Siege of Krishnapur

• Container: Cannon because in the book a cannon was used a lot during the siege.
• Motifs: Cross because the English are trying to force Christianity on the Indians. Chapati, the Indians made it, and it was the first sign of troubles early on in the book.
• Journal Entry: Shows how the Collector is showing his scientific outlook.

Jaden: The Remains of the Day

• Container: A briefcase, because the main character is simple and wants to go about his life doing as he’s told.
• Motifs: A picture of the English countryside because he’s on a road trip around England and he mentions a lot how beautiful the countryside is. Photo album; Steven looks back through his life and realizes all that he did wrong.
• Journal Entry: Steven talking to his father before he dies. Early in the book Steven has a problem with sarcasm and when his dad is dying he makes jokes about it.

Ngoc: The God of Small Things

• Container: An egg because the twins are the same egg.
• Motifs: A watch because in the book, as a child she has a watch that’s painted to a certain time, and she wants a new watch that actually tells time. A photo album; in the book it talks about a lot of memories.
• Journal Entry: How they react to death, shows how close the twins are. It means that twins are like the same people because they can connect to each other.

Mitchell: The Ghost Road

• Container: A skull because the book is about the human mind, a doctor who treat shell shocked patients from WWI
• Motifs: Time/Clock is used right before someone is about to die the moon sets, also how the time left in life is ticking. An eye is shown in the book as someone’s true emotions.
• Journal Entry: When structure is lost in society, people tend to go chaotic.

Molly: The English Patient

• Container: First aid box because the book is about a burn victim and a nurse who takes care of him.
• Motifs: Desert is where the English patient lived and he liked to be in the desert caused he mapped it, he was a very dry man like the desert, and he also has a lot of secrets. A mirror represents their identity.
• Journal Entry: All the positives don’t matter anymore because he is dying.

We’ll finish the rest of the presentations Friday.

October 17, 2011

Homework:

• Scribe and Booker Prize Presentation!

Important Information!

• Starting hopefully Friday or Monday , we will be reading Hamlet
• Hamlet will be a fishbowl and mini quiz type of unit! So talk a lot!!
• Fishbowls will be like most fishbowls you have had at Arapahoe but the outside group will be blogging if they do not choose to be part of the inner circle.
• We will also be watching important scenes with 3 different versions of Hamlet and discuss the variations in them.
• We have signed up for presentation and discussion times for Hamlet fishbowl so if you have not done so please talk to Mrs. Smith! (By the way Mrs. Smith is the one who brought fish bowls to Arapahoe!! J)

Presentation:

· Jack: “Hotel Du Lac”

o Container- A simple hotel with a balcony with a picture of the lake on one side

o Heart: An organ that pumps blood through the body, pumps love through out

o Lake: A body of water, mirror

o Passage: Shows that she was a romantics and give you a reason why she was at the hotel

· Kylie: “The God Of Small Things”

o Coffin with a picture of India and clock

o Moth: bug, It represented what Rahel when she wanted to say her thoughts

o Pickle jar: preservation kind of idea

o Part of the cast list in India so what they did didn’t matter in society so they did whatever since no one cared anyways

· Ben:

o America: A boy

o Finger traps: get in to mess they can’t get out but they think they can

o Bottle: Emotion in the town are bottle up

o Moths: People of America, lights: technology, They get distracted from the direction they actually suppose to go because of technology

· Katie: “The Sea, The Sea”

o Book: Wave and sand

o Watch: shows waste of time

o Leveler: the main character goes from good guy then after kidnapping his girlfriend, a bad guy.

o Gave you what kind of view you were suppose to have when you look at the book

· Drew: “Hotel Du Lac”

o Pencil: An escape from the real world

o Book: Give the main character a head ache

o She ran away from marriage, No one in the hotel understood love, at the end it just ends up she pretty much lives with

· Jeff:

o Coffin:

o Faith: blame god for his wife’s death

o Light: hope that there was something out there even if god isn’t

o He starts to remember everything that happens in his life. Makes you wonder if he was dying.

· Olivia: “The Elected Member”

o Box: prisoner of his own mind, confine to the house where the sister took care

o White:

o Shows how everyone blames everyone else for everything

· Ryan: “The Siege of Krishnapur”

o Coffin: outside is dark because it isn’t safe, inside is

o Cross: faith and Christianity is a re-occurring theme

o Chemistry: because they are heading towards the new way of life

o Outside Christianity it is a lot darker while inside of it, it is much safer

· Kinsey: “Schindler’s Ark”

o Urn: Represent death

o Road pave head stones: death, disrespect

o Gold ring: the book came full circle, bond that would last forever

o Not caring for the war then realizes then he end up thinking about being a hero

· Katy: “Disgrace”

o Farm: Live with his daughter on her farm

o Lord Byron: a famous poet, what to be like lord

o Dog: the dog end up all gone

Presentation Order for Wednesday October 19 (WE MAY NOT GET THROUGH ALL BUT BE PREPARED!):

1. Dani Grogan

2. Finlay Banford

3. Cory

4. Joe

5. Jaden

6. Ngoc Nguyen

7. Mitchell Bo

8. Dani Harris

9. Molly Beans

10. Connor M

11. Sam M

12. Connor Mac

13. Anna

14. Andrew