October 11th Period 4

Ms. Smith started off our class period by collecting our college essays if students still needed to turn them in. We then received our in class Life of Pi essays; if students need to re-write their essays Smith will be going over how to re-do them the Monday after our long weekend. After our discussion on essays we broke up into groups of 3 or 4 and took our act I quiz on Hamlet. As soon as we were all done with our quiz we moved back to our assigned seats and watched both the Mel Gibson and the Kenneth Branagh versions of act I scene 4 of Hamlet. In each version we discussed the differences in each ghost and in each of Hamlet's reaction to the ghost of his father. The Mel Gibson version of the ghost was vulnerable and very emotional when talking to his son, and after he vanished Hamlet sits there and cries. Where in the Kenneth Branagh version the ghost is shown as a scary, vengeful spirit that instills fear in Hamlet and creates a jittery, more excited response from Hamlet about avenging his father's death. Class ended here and we will watch Olivier's version on Monday.
Homework: Prepare for fishbowl on act I and share a syllabus with Smith ONLY IF you are the presenters. Also work on revising Life of Pi essay.

Have a great weekend!

-Hannah Eddy

Friday Period 1 (10-11-13)

The day started of with the usual greeting from Ms. Smith.
We jumped right into it with Ms. Smith saying that today we would be doing ghosts & quizzes. The class split off into groups of three's and four's and the quiz on act 1 was handed out. The quiz took up most of the period and after handing it in we moved on to watching the other two movies ghost scenes. We were instructed to look for differences in the movies. On Wednesday we watched the older movie scene, with the ghost hidden behind a cloud of smoke and speaking eerily. The first scene we watched today was the Mel Gibson ghost scene. The differences the class found in this one compared to the first were:

• Ghost seems more remorseful
• Ghost is NOT in battle armor
• It is a more personal, fatherly scene

We then proceeded to watch the most accurate film, but ran out of time to even start the discussion. From what I saw:

• The scene was higher stress
• It gave a sense of urgency
• The ghost of the king WAS in battle armor
• All the lines from the actual story seemed to be used
• Scene took place in the forest

The homework for today was to prepare for the fishbowl. The presenters need to make and share a syllabus with each other and Ms. Smith and come prepared on Monday. The agenda for the day can be found here.

-Calvin Lewis 

Wednesday, October 9, 2013 - Period 4

• Today in class, we finished Act 1 of Hamlet. 
• We looked at the family tree of Polonius, the father of Laertes and Ophelia. While talking about Polonius' family, we also discussed the father/son and father/daughter relationships that Polonius has. Polonius treats Laertes like a human being, giving him good advice for his travels to France; when Polonius talks to Ophelia about Hamlet, he talks down to her and tells her that she needs to stop giving her body to Hamlet.
• We furthered our discussion from Monday about Hamlet's desire to die. After his soliloquy where he states that he would commit suicide if not for suicide being a sin, Hamlet also compares his life to a pin, saying it is worth no more than "a pin's fee" (1.4 ln 67). The class decided that if it were not for God, Hamlet would no longer be living.
• We find out how King Hamlet died. He was murdered by Claudius, his brother, while napping. The ghost of King Hamlet tells young Hamlet to seek revenge on Claudius, but warns him to leave his mother to Heaven. After the ghost tells Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus enter to hear the story. The ghost then makes all three boys swear to not tell anybody what had happened.
• For Friday
• We should review Act 1 of Hamlet for the quiz on Friday. There will be quotes that we have to analyze, so be sure to pay attention to who said what and why the quotes were said. It will be a partner quiz.
• The remaining college essays are all due on Friday, regardless of if you made it to your conference with Mrs. Smith or not.
• The fishbowl group for Act 1 should continue to prepare for their fishbowl, which will happen on Monday.
• If you have not yet turned in your Life of Pi book, be sure to bring it in on Friday.

This weeks power point

Monday 10-7 Period 1

In class-
Today we turned in anything that was not formerly turned into Mrs. Smith.
We then discussed what we pulled away from the first clip of the movie we watched on Friday. The main ideas we pulled from this clip was that the apparition was in the form of an old king. We then watched two more clips. The second was from a movie that had not followed the original play very well. In this we pulled away that there was another man that took power instead of Hamlet. The third movie clip was the most useful. We discovered that there was tension between Hamlet and his uncle because his uncle had taken power and married Hamlet's mother.

Next, we read the actual play. We found that everything we discussed from the movie clips were in the play. We read past the movie clips where we discovered the true root of the tension between Hamlet and his uncle. We also read through Hamlet's first monologue where we discussed the fact that there is a hate for his uncle and Hamlet also seems to be a man of inaction.

Homework: Finish any meeting that were missed with Mrs. Smith. Prepare for the first Fishbowl on Act 1.

Mrs. Smith's Agenda can be found here

Monday 10/07 Per 4

Main Idea/Summary:

• We began Hamlet today. Mrs. Smith stressed the importance of reviewing the text for our quizzes (the first of which will be Friday). Also while we read, we kept our guiding questions in mind: "Who are we? Men of action or men of inaction? Revenge or compassion?" 
• We read/acted out Hamlet from the start to the beginning of Hamlet's first soliloquy which is on page 29 of the school copy or to the line "O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,"
• Note the parallels between Hamlet's and Fortinbra's lives (juxtaposition):
• Fathers murdered
• What's rightfully theirs was taken away (throne/land)
• Both have uncles, both named after father

Details(And specific help with reading):

• First we discussed the movie that we watched on friday (the old black and white version) with the guards changing shift on the castle wall and the ghost that appeared in the likeness of King Hamlet.
• Then we watched clips of the other two versions to see different interpretations:
1. King Hamlet has just died, and his wife (Gertrude), his son ("young" Hamlet), and the King's brother/Hamlet's uncle (Claudius) stand in a tomb weeping over the grave. Claudius has become King even though Hamlet should have, and Claudius tells Hamlet to think of him as a father. We can see though that both Hamlet and Gertrude are suspicious of Claudius. The next scene, it is day and Claudius announces that he has married Gerturde.
2. Francisco (a guard) is patrolling the castle gate when Bernardo, Horatio, and Marcellus come to relieve him of his post and to see the ghost that has been appearing the last two nights. When the ghost appears, the men take it as a bad omen. We also see workers making weapons, and learn that the country (Denmark) is getting ready for war with Norway.

•  Finally we chose roles and acted out Hamlet
• Setting: Elsinore Castle, Christmas time
• Preparing for war with Norway: King Hamlet (deceased) killed King Fortinbras of Norway and took his lands. Now his son, also named Fortinbras, wants revenge and is planning to attack Claudius, the new king of Denmark.
• Claudius publicly admonishes Hamlet, and sends two people to go talk the the uncle of King Fortinbras to talk him out of attacking them.

Wednesday the 2nd was the first day Mrs. Smith is back!!!

Today we got computers and kept working on our Life of Pi in class essay which is now due FRIDAY because of the PLC day.  You need to bring in an outline and your final copy.

HW:

Finish Final Life of Pi essay and outline for Friday.

And enjoy the rest of  AHS HOMECOMING WEEK!

Today Mrs. Smith is BACK!! Woop woop! (she was unhappy with our enthusiasm)

We dove right into what our homework is for FRIDAY!

HOMEWORK:
-Final copy of college essay
-Final copy of Life of Pi essay, with your outline PRINTED OUT!
-Also if you want to get your own copy of Hamlet, get that by Friday!

Afterwards we began writing our Life of Pi essays in class.

The sound of keyboards being typed upon was prominent in the classroom, as Mrs. Smith made her way around the classroom answering a multitude of questions.

Eventually the bell rang and we all went on to enjoy our Wacky Tacky, PLC, wednesday!