AP Lit: Solving the Hours, Peer Workshopping Synthesis, Dalloway Begins, Vampires & Music & More

Today we start Mrs. Dalloway.

We'll read in class to get a feel for Woolf's stream of consciousness style.  It is unique to most anything you will have been assigned in high school, though as contemporary of Fitzgerald you may find some similarities in language.  And since Woolf has been so tremendously influential, you may also find the roots of Laurie Halse Anderson and Markus Zusak in these pages.  

It is also the novel that inspired Cunningham to write The Hours.

Tonight read up to page 29.   Wednesday we will discuss and make sure folks are following the characters, plot, etc.

Speaking of The Hours, take a look at this trailer for the 2002 film.

And take a listen to the score by composer Phillip Glass, particularly "Morning Passages" and "Escape"

Think about how Glass' sounds reflect the ideas we've been been exploring class.  Why might he choose the sounds?  This instrumentation?  These musical arcs?  Might a little research uncover more?

Also, I recommend the fantastic documentary, Glassworks, which I believe is available on Netflix still.

This ties into your Critical Creativity blog post for the week.

PEER WORKSHOP the SYNTHESIS ESSAY 1

You'll have twenty minutes to work with a partner and get feedback on your current draft.  You'll submit your essay on Wednesday.

DESIGN CHALLENGE: SOLVE THE HOURS.

After this, we will continue designing for the characters of The Hours and run a design sprint featuring 8 Box, storyboarding, and feedback.

On Wednesday, we build.  Construct.

OUT OF CLASS WORK FOR THE WEEK.

Complete.  1st Submission Draft of Synthesis 1.

READ.
Mrs. Dalloway.  pg 3 - 29
How to Read Lit Chapter 3: Vampirism

BLOG.
Critical Creativity Challenge:  Scoring Dalloway.   Create an original score for pages 3 - 29 of Mrs. Dalloway using either live instrumentation, Garage Band, SoundTrap  Wolfram Tones, Beat Lab, or another online/digital music generator/creator.

Analytical Post:  Make a case for or against the presence of Foster's vampires in The Hours.  Use text evidence to support your assertions.

How to Post your Blog Posts on the Blog Tracker.  The blog tracker is in the AP Lit 2016 OUT folder.  You don't make a copy of this one.  You just edit it right there on the screen.

Here's a video to help you with posting the links.  You only need to worry about the first 3 minutes of the video.

AP Lit: Catching Up, Getting in Sync & Preparing for What Comes Next

Friday was a good day to take a breath, look at where we have been, how relatively little time we've spent together, and what is coming next on our horizon.

I also shared a story of how my dad and I destroyed a canoe in the middle of Kenduskeag Stream getting ready for a race.

(This isn't us.  This is just to give you a sense of what I avoided when we dumped above these falls.  Also, it happened several years before this.  At this point, I'm wondering why I've included this video at all.  Context.  I'm going with context.)




We did a brief review of the readings in AP Lit thus far.
Cunningham's The Hours
Foster's How to Read Lit Like a Professor Intro & Chapter 1.
Smith's "I Don't Miss It"
St. Vincent Millay's "First Fig"
as well as your own summer reading novels

We spent a little time with the PowerQuotes from Foster and connecting them to our summer reads.

I noted how Foster's first chapter functions much like a synthesis essay in his tone and approach.  It is worth revisiting as you shape your first synthesis.   Ask yourself the degree to which your essay feels like his.

We spent some time discussing the indie book project, an assignment that is due at the end of the quarter -- I've noticed a trend that so many teachers try to avoid due dates at the end of the quarter, we may actually be better served having this project due right near the end of the quarter.  Fancy that.

This led to a discussion of the protagonists in The Hours and I previewed this coming week's work which will include both a design challenge and a writer's workshop.

Here's What Was Due Friday

Read.  How to Read Lit Like a Professor Chapter 1.

Find. a POWER QUOTE.  One line from the text that you think captures the essence of the chapter.

Read.  The Hours. 173 - 195

Blog.

Start.  A Blog on Blogger for AP Lit.

(You may repurpose an old blog on Blogger for this purpose, too. I'd love to see your past work.)

Critical Creativity Post. Discuss your Oreo challenge.  Explain your intentions.

Analytical Post.   Discuss how the power quote you uncovered in How to Read Lit Chapter 1 relates to your summer reading texts.

Due.  Friday.  9.23.2016.

Here's the Out of School Work for Monday 9.26.2016 to Friday 9.30.2016

Finish.  The Hours.
Due. Tuesday, 9.27.2016
Be prepared to do some intense work with the text in-class.

Read. How to Read Lit Like a Professor
Chapter 2. Acts of Communion.
Creative Blog Challenge.  5 Course Meal. Design a metaphorical dinner menu for a dinner party at which Laura, Virginia, and Clarissa are the guests.
Part a. Use the names, flavors and ingredients of the various courses to demonstrate and understanding of the characters' journeys over the distance of the novel.
Some things to consider:
What might be served as appetizers? The main course? Dessert?
Part b. Put your design and media skills to work and create the menu itself in Google Docs, Google Drawings, hand craft it with your artistic abilities or otherwise.
Part c. Name the restaurant in which you will be serving this meal with part of a PowerQuote
from Foster Chapter 2.
For extra super bonus impress the pants off Mr. Ryder credit, actually create the meal in part or in full.  Take pictures or video.  Put it on your blog.
Due. Friday. 9.30.2016

Write.  Working Draft of Complete Synthesis Essay.
Due. Tuesday. 9.27.2016.
We will be workshopping these in class because . . .

Write.  2nd Working Draft of Complete Synthesis Essay
Due. Thursday. 9.29.2016.
We will be doing another workshop on Thursday because . . .

Write.  1st Submission Draft of Complete Synthesis Essay
Due. Monday. 10.3.2016.

Anticipate a short story or selection of poetry to read for Monday as well.
I will assign these on Thursday, 9.29.2016.  I haven't yet decided exactly what.  Next week, (10.3.2016 - 10.7.2016) we'll start off October with Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.  
I want to start it in class though.

AP Lit: Hours of Oreos & Introduction to Synthesis Thinking

30 Circles.

We started with designer Bob McKim's 30 Circles exercise.  Two minutes.  Transform thirty circles as many ways as you can.  We'll be revisiting this exercise a number of times over the next several weeks.

Oreo Challenge.

From there we explored our maker carts in the classroom (Discovery Phase) and used our empathy maps from our readings of the The Hours thus far, to tackle the following design challenge: How might we represent the three protagonists of The Hours via an Oreo cookie in 15 minutes?

These are photos from the process.

You'll be posting discussions of your designs and the intentions behind them as your first creative blog post of the year. 

We discussed the intentions of each design, shared and collaborated, we "yes and-ed" the heck outta each other, and ultimately decided we had three fantastic prototypes.

Synthesis Thinking.

We ended class with a brief introduction to synthesis thinking vs analytical thinking.  The sketchnotes on this post are designed to help you distinguish the two.

Three key points to the sketchnote:

1) Synthesis constructs a truth.  Analysis dismantles a truth.

2) Synthesis aligns to art.   Analysis aligns to science.

3) You need to analysis to develop a synthesis.  You need synthesis to give you reason for analysis.

For Wednesday, write just the introduction and thesis statement of your first synthesis essay.
Creative Constraints for Synthesis Essay 1.

1. Must draw on evidence from at least one of your summer readings.

2. Must draw on evidence from at least one of the texts we have explored together so far this year: "I Don't Miss It,"  The Hours, and How to Read Lit.

Out of Class Work.

Read.  The Hours. 140 - 172

Due. Wednesday. 9.21.2016

Looking Ahead: 173-195 for Friday.  Finish the book for next Tuesday.

Read.  How to Read Lit Like a Professor Chapter 1.

Find. a POWER QUOTE.  One line from the text that you think captures the essence of the chapter.

Due. Friday.  9.23.2016.

Write.

Synthesis Essay 1. JUST introduction & thesis statement.

Due. Wednesday. 9.21.2016.

Workshopping Draft.

Blog.

Start.  A Blog on Blogger for AP Lit.

(You may repurpose an old blog on Blogger for this purpose, too. I'd love to see your past work.)

Critical Creativity Post. Discuss your Oreo challenge.  Explain your intentions.

Analytical Post.   Discuss how the power quote you uncovered in How to Read Lit Chapter 1 relates to your summer reading texts.

Due.  Friday.  9.23.2016.

AP Lit 4B: Literary 3x3 Throwdown: True Grit & Synthesis Essay Workshop

Literary 3x3 Throwdown: True Grit

On Monday we started with a Literary 3x3 Throwdown over Portis' True Grit.  We used our 3x3 decks from our readings thus far and then uncovered the first 113 pages of True Grit by laying out one card at a time until meaning revealed itself.

Here's that it looked like.

Synthesis Essay Workshop

From there we workshopped our synthesis drafts.  They are excellent exploratory drafts and another working draft is expected in class on Wednesday.

We also discussed blogging and this week's creative challenge: soundtracking True Grit.

Show the Learning.

Read & Annotate.  Complete True Grit 

Due. Tues. 9.29.15

Blog. 3+ Posts.

Creative Blog Post of the Week. Soundtrack True Grit.  How might we use music media to design a soundtrack of three or more songs for True Grit?  Include a rationale for each song include and embed the playlist on your blog as well.

Due. Friday. 9.25.15

Design.  Working Draft.  Synthesis Essay #1

Next Draft Due for Workshopping.  Wednesday, 9.23.15

AP Lit 3G: True Grit, Blogging & Synthesis Thinking Introduced

True Grit.

Today, we discussed Mattie Ross and how Portis develops her voice in the opening chapters of True Grit.  We identified key lines and discussed them at length.  As a result, we got a little bit behind on our in-class work with Literary 3x3s.  (I will likely leave instructions on what to do while I'm gone as I think you can a) handle it and b) can easily share with me record of your experimenting on Wednesday.) 

Blogging.

Blogging Rubric 2015.
You will be keeping a blog throughout the year on Blogger using your school Gmail account. I've embedded and linked the rubric for blogging here.

What content should you include?  Each week you can expect a creative challenge related to our current focus.  The other two-plus entries may come from day to day work you are doing for class, from creative expression, from general reflections.  After the first week, you should be looking to connect to at least one other thinker in the AP Lit ranks, linking to an idea that inspires you to respond. There are several intentions to the blog:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the readings, viewings, and listenings from class
• Connect and reflect upon one another's ideas
• Reach beyond the walls of our classroom to share our thinking and benefit from other perspectives
• Create a record of learning, illustrating your growth over the space of your senior year

Synthesis Essay.

Writing a synthesis is unlike writing an analytical essay.  Rather than trying to break apart a piece of literature and explain how it works, you instead are trying to connect the dots between multiple works to use as evidence of your thinking -- proving that the big idea assertion you make in your thesis, your greater understanding/observation/truth about the world is held up and evident beyond your opinion.


When working on  your synthesis essays, keep these structural and contextual ideas in mind.

Also Mr. Ryder's feedback shorthand...

Synthesis Essay Rubric 2015 

Show the Learning.

Read & Annotate.  True Grit to Page 113

Due. Tues. 9.22.15

Blog. 3+ Posts.

Creative Blog Post of the Week. Create a 5 Card Flickr in the Voice of Mattie Ross. How might you employ the same techniques as Portis to develop her voice in your work?

Due. Friday. 9.18.15
Design.  Working Draft.  Synthesis Essay #1
Due for Workshopping.  Tuesday, 9.22.15

If you have time . . . 
Turn your Literary 3x3s into Index Card Decks. 

AP Lit: Rose, Bud, Thorn & Synthesis Essays

Today we'll be doing just as last Friday's class did.

We'll be using the Rose/Bud/Thorn DT strategy to explore first, the food court, and then, our synthesis essays.

You  can see some of what the other section came up with here.

This will lead to a synthesis essay workshop to help us with this last week for revisions.  (Pinning Frankenstein revisions can come in next week because not everyone has them back yet.)

HOMEWORK.

Blog: Graded blogs are done for the quarter.
Revise/make up/enhance

Read: T.S. Eliot's Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Due: Friday, Oct 24th.

Check AP Lit Due Dates doc.

AP Lit 3B: Rose Bud Thorn & Synthesis Essay Revision

On Friday, we're going to try something a little different.

We're going to use the Rose/Bud/Thorn strategy -- we use it in design thinking all the time -- to open up opportunities and problem solving with our synthesis essay revisions.

It should make for some interesting thinking.

HOMEWORK.

Revise.  Catch up.  Breathe.

Check the AP Lit Major Due Dates Schedule.

AP Lit 3B: Frankenstein & Synthesis

CLOSE READING.
Today we'll focus our energies on close readings of Frankenstein and then an exploration of Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias."

We'll use GoSoapbox as a back channel for our discussion.  Check your email for the access code.

We'll follow this with another essay workshop and time to connect to one another on the blogs, show you how to turn in your blog posts on our new tracking tool.

When working on  your synthesis essays, keep these structural and contextual ideas in mind.

Also Mr. Ryder's feedback shorthand...

HOMEWORK.

Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Creative Post:  Casting Call.  Cast a high quality new film version of Frankenstein.  Justify your choices.

Compose: Synthesis #1

Submit: First Submission Draft
Due: Wednesday, Oct 1
Note: Submit as Google Doc; Place in AP Lit IN folder

AP Lit 4G: Synthesis Thinking Introduced

Today we start  looking at synthesis thinking and what that means in AP Lit this year.

We will use a comparison matrix to look at three samples: two former student papers and the first chapter of Foster's How to Read Lit Like a Professor.  

We will see what this reveals to us about the nature of synthesis thinking.


And then we will talk  briefly about Frankenstein, our first novel of the year.

HOMEWORK
Due: Annotations on How to Read Lit Chap 1
Turn In?: Yes.

Read & Annotate: Frankenstein (introduction and the letters)
Due: Thursday, 9/18

Pre-Write & Compose: Intro & thesis statement for 1st Synthesis
Due: Thursday, 9/18 for workshopping

Gather: Design Kits (Optional yet Encouraged)
Due: ASAP (See Mr. Ryder if a struggle)

AP Lit 3B: Intro to Synthesis Thinking

Today we started looking at synthesis thinking and what that means in AP Lit this year.

We used a comparison matrix to look at three samples: two former student papers and the first chapter of Foster's How to Read Lit Like a Professor.  

The intention was to reveal, through comparison, the qualities of a synthesis essay.  And I think we were largely successful in so doing -- dealing with bigger ideas and truths that can be proven through evidence, pulling in ideas from disparate sources and experiences, and moving from analysis of taking apart into synthesis of putting ideas together.

And voice.  Personality.  A balance of the colloquial and conversational with the learned academic.  These are the qualities of a synthesis essay.

And then we talked briefly about Frankenstein, our first novel of the year.

HOMEWORK
Due: Annotations on How to Read Lit Chap 1
Turn In?: Yes.
Due: Annotations and 3x3 of "Miss Rosie"
Turn In?: No. Hold on.

Read & Annotate: Frankenstein (introduction and the letters)
Due: Wednesday, 9/17

Pre-Write & Compose: Intro & thesis statement for 1st Synthesis
Due: Wednesday, 9/17 for workshopping

Gather: Design Kits (Optional yet Encouraged)
Due: ASAP (See Mr. Ryder if a struggle)

AP Lit 2B/3B: Embedding Text Evidence & Building Power Guides

We focused our energy today on uncovering understandings about embedding effective text evidence.

We took a rather non-traditional approach to this work, reading through a number of sources for highlights and insights and then creating our own . . .

POWER GUIDES.

A power guide includes the key takeaways from the sources as well as examples of those takeaways in practice.  What's important about those examples?  They must be your own!

Here are some pics of the various approaches folks took to solving this challenge so far.

HOMEWORK

Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: Use Colourlovers.com  to create a custom palette of at least three colors relating to meaning in Frankenstein.  You will need to name the palette and each color within it.  Be certain to choose purposeful names and push your self to go beyond the concrete.  (Concrete:  "blue sky" because the sky was blue.)
Due: March 7

Complete: Synthesis #3
Due: Mar 7

AP Lit 3G: On-Demand & Synthesis Thinking

So we'll open with a test prep session: writing prompt.

You'll be given a poem and a writing prompt and fifteen minutes to complete
a) Pre-Writing
b) Thesis Statement
c) 1st Body Paragraph

That's it.

We'll then workshop your pieces and approaches.  See if we can find trends and strategies that seem to be lending themselves to more confident thinking.

From there, we'll spend some time brainstorming our next synthesis pieces by digging into "How to Read Lit Like a Professor" and the Joyce decks you've built.  We'll try to uncover some ideas and big thinking that could produce an epic synthesis.

Well I wanted us to end our work today with Hamlet, as I'd like us to make some progress these next two weeks.  I think Prince Hamlet and Victor Frankenstein could have some fascinating conversations.  Instead we got talking about 3-D printing and other cool things I'm hoping to make part of your senior year before it's all said and done.

HOMEWORK

Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: Casting Call. Frankenstein. Please. Please. Please. Can we have a good one? Please.
Due: Feb 28

Write: Frankliners: 1st Submission
Due: Tues/Wed., Feb 25/26
Note: Be certain to put a clean "1st submission" draft in your Google Drive IN folder

Read: Frankenstein
Due: Thr/Fri. Feb 27/28
Prepare: To discuss & explore at length! 

Think & Design: Synthesis #3
Prepare: Thesis Statement & Map
Thesis & Map Due: Thr/Fr. Feb 27/28

Study: MUGS Comprehensive 1-3 Quiz
Prepare: Retakes & Comprehensive Quiz
Due: Thr/Fri Feb 27/28

AP Lit 2B/3B: Test Prep & Hamlet & Synthesis Thinking

Welcome back from vacation.  

The hard way.

Yup.  We've got a little ground to make up with the weather messing with us.

So we'll open with a test prep session: writing prompt.

You'll be given a poem and a writing prompt and fifteen minutes to complete
a) Pre-Writing
b) Thesis Statement
c) 1st Body Paragraph

That's it.

We'll then workshop your pieces and approaches.  See if we can find trends and strategies that seem to be lending themselves to more confident thinking.

From there, we'll spend some time brainstorming our next synthesis pieces by digging into "How to Read Lit Like a Professor" and the Joyce decks you've built.  We'll try to uncover some ideas and big thinking that could produce an epic synthesis.

We'll end our work today with Hamlet, as I'd like us to make some progress these next two weeks.  I think Prince Hamlet and Victor Frankenstein could have some fascinating conversations.

HOMEWORK

Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: Casting Call. Frankenstein. Please. Please. Please. Can we have a good one? Please.
Due: Feb 28

Write: Frankliners: 1st Submission
Due: Tues/Wed., Feb 25/26
Note: Be certain to put a clean "1st submission" draft in your Google Drive IN folder

Read: Frankenstein
Due: Thr/Fri. Feb 27/28
Prepare: To discuss & explore at length! 

Think & Design: Synthesis #3
Prepare: Thesis Statement & Map
Thesis & Map Due: Thr/Fr. Feb 27/28

Study: MUGS Comprehensive 1-3 Quiz
Prepare: Retakes & Comprehensive Quiz
Due: Thr/Fri Feb 27/28

AP Lit 2B/3B: Poetry as Design - Empathy Stage & More!

We're working our way through the design thinking process, which can seem like a long time before tangible products are in hand.  By following this process, however, we better ensure that which we make achieves our intended goals.

Remember, we are using the DEEP Design Thinking Process.

Last week, discovery.  Today, empathy.

We started by calibrating ourselves to last week's work and making sure we share a common goal within each class.

Note the sumo-esque qualities of the earlier goal set.  It felt powerful and big, but lumbering.

The team members luchadored their thinking and narrowed it into a nimble, powerful, explosive set.

The four elements at the bottom will serve as the concrete entry points for creating
poetry and designs that achieve the end goal.

Period 2B: To motivate and inspire students w/ "You Can Do It" Encouraging Michal philosophy
Period 3B: To encourage self-expression

From there we completed one of Standford's d.School empathy map exercises described in detail here with examples.

Here's what that work looked like:

These notes and ideas will go up in more detail on Tuesday.

Ultimately, they will inform the poetry and design pieces we create.

HOMEWORK

Blog: 3+ Posts

NOTE: 2 Req'd Posts 

1 Req'd Hamlet: Act II.  Branagh. The guy directed Thor.  Check out his Hamlet. And your Drive. Thoughts?

2nd Req'd: Post Your Suggested Means/Proposal/Prototype of Collecting Evidence of Thinking & Writing Processes as well as your thoughts on what the end products should look like to be most useful in demonstrating your understanding as well as being useful in the future.

Due: Friday, December 20

Watch:

Clips of Branagh Hamlet posted and shared for Act II in your Google Drive.

Reflect on Blog w/ Analysis/Thoughts on Versions

Due: Friday, December 20

Design:

Poetry as Design Project (create one poem, create visual interpretation of a found poem)

2 Products Total

1 must be a design interpretation of a found poem/lyric

1 must be connected to the collaborative goal

From there:

1 may be an original poem

1 may be a personal piece

Both may be connected to your goal

Friday:

Graded Class Discussion

1st Semester In Review Including But Not Limited To:

* Big Take Aways?

* Where Are the Gaps?

* What Is Working?

* What Could Help Things Work Even Better?

Not going to be in class?  Put these ideas on . . .  your blog!  Record them!  (This is a listen/speaking assessment after all.)

Due: End of 1st Week of January (we may want to think about an installation/publication the 2nd week of January)

Think ahead: 

Revisions of Synthesis Essay

Indie Book Project Due at Top of Q3

AP Lit: 2B/3B A Mushy Day of Mush & An Apology

Monday had a plan.  And  . . . it did not play out as intended in either class.  Here's what would have happened in a more perfect world.

Get inspired for 10 minutes by perusing the items on the inspiration shelf.
Go for a swim through the Mt. Blue Campus, taking in observations and then applying them to a reading of Cheever's "The Swimmer."
Read and discuss Hamlet.
Peer workshop synthesis essay #2 (3B only)

Instead . . . well . . . other things happened in each.  And I set a rather crap tone to carry us into our Turkey Day break.  This is a public apology for that.  We have had a really great fall from my p.o.v. and a confluence of factors came along this morning to disrupt that greatness.  My frustration cup runneth over and I looked for blame rather than solutions.  NOT the best way to go.

One thing I love about these three classes is that each has its own identity.  Today, I disrupted both classes with ill-considered min-rants.  They came from a place of truth, but not a place of empathy and thus, they were unfair.

Moving forward.  I will blog.  Daily. And if the blog is not up when you come to class, you will have time to work, discuss, DO, while I get the blog up.   No blog, no class.  It's a reasonable expectation.

Moving forward.  Please read.  I try very hard not to overwhelm with too much work at a time.  (Sometimes I fail at this.) And the penalties for lateness are minimal in AP Lit. As a result, I know that class work for other classes can sometimes take precedent.  I'm asking everyone to be amplify the cognizance around this: If I can't be confident that the class has read, I can't be confident in planning meaningful experiences around the reading.  And that means I make gross, lame, classes.  We haven't had many of those I don't think -- at least it hasn't felt that way to me.  So . . .

Putting this on the blog in hopes that it will increase my own accountability in these regards.

Mr. Ryder

Homework
Blog: NONE!  Take the week to catch up on past entries or just plain chill.  And if you want to blog, I will read it!  Blogs continue to be a source of inspiration for me.  So much good stuff.  If you haven't read through your classmates' thoughts yet, do so post haste!

Synthesis Essay 2: Due Tuesday, November 26th.  Google Drive that sucker.

Hamlet:  We will pause until we have read in class up to where we have read outside of class.  We will be calibrated when we are back from Turkey Day.

AP Lit 2B/3B: Hamlet 1.2 and Synthesis #2 Workshopping

How to Read Lit Like a Prof

We will start with a quick How to Read Lit Like a Professor warm up to help us with our workshop.

1. Get a stack of index cards from the white design tools cabinet.  
2. Everyone gets two blank cards.
3. Find two sentences from the chapters that seem to be of particular value or resonance for you.
4. Put the sentences on the cards (one sentence for each). 
5. Next . . . put the cards together as a deck and shuffle them.
6. As a class draw a single card. 
7. Imagine that sentence is the thesis statement for a synthesis essay.  
8. Work as a class to brainstorm the evidence that could prove that thesis. Fast.  Super fast.  Quick on our feet thinking.

Workshop

We will also take time to review our effective feedback criteria using a Quizlet collection of our feedback from the book projects.

We will use this to calibrate ourselves before looking at one or two class papers and provide some effective feedback through Google docs.

Hamlet

We will read 1.2 aloud and learn more of this castle and it's goings on.

Homework

Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Creative Post:
Allusion-Palooza. Shakespeare's work can be incredibly dense, in part because it is built upon most every idea that came before it.  Historical, Biblical, and mythological references abound.  Now it's your turn. Craft a monologue or soliloquy (take the time to research the distinction) of around 20 lines or so in which the character expresses an inability to take action or a lack of confidence in decision making.

Pack it full with as many allusions as possible -- they may be classical or modern -- the intention here is to explore how allusion can inform a text and tune your thinking to Shakespeare's strategy.

Due: Friday, November 21

Read: Hamlet, 1.3 (Click for Folger edition online; download PDF from them for handwritten markups)
Due: Thursday, Nov 21

Next Draft: Synthesis #2

Source material is anything you've read for class by assignment or choice
2nd Workshop Draft Due: Thursday., November 21st
Submission Draft Due: Tuesday, November 26th

AP Lit 2B/3B & 3G: Hamlet Begins

AP Lit 2/B, 3/B & 3G: Hamlet Begins

This is the work we did on Thursday and Friday, November 14 and 15, 2013.

We focused on energy primarily on Hamlet, starting with an little trust exercise involving closing our eyes and moving across the room.  (Periods 2B & 3B had a full class experience with this.)

We read Hamlet 1.1 aloud, with some side coaching on delivery.  It worked out well.  We then did a close reading of the scene, with particular attention to Horatio around line 125, the ways in which Shakespeare folded in dichotomies of faith and spirituality, historical and Biblical allusions, and foreshadows the entire play within the space of a few words.  In 3B, we even went so far as to look at the the connections between Brutus and Judas.  And we pointed toward How to Read Literature Like a Professor Chapter 5 and how true that seems to be in just this one sampling of Horatio's dialogue.

In the coming week, we will spend further time with How to Read Lit Like a Professor, using it to inform our synthesis work as well as our analysis of Hamlet. 

Lastly, note the new synthesis essay is due for workshopping next week.  Plan wisely.  Start some pre-planning now and document, document, document your process.  You will want it all for your big self-analysis project in the spring.

Homework

Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Creative Post:
Write a brief dialogue in which two characters reveal exactly how they feel about a third, not-present character, without ever using the phrasing, "I don't like ... " or "I really appreciate ____" etc.  This is an opportunity to practice showing vs. telling while also gaining perspective on the challenge facing a playwright that doesn't want to bore audiences with exposition.
Due: Friday, November 15

Read: Hamlet, 1.2 (Click for Folger edition online; download PDF from them for handwritten markups)
Due: Monday/Tuesday, November 18 & 19

Read & Annotate: How to Read Lit Like a Professor, Chapter 6: Shakespeare

Due: Monday/Tuesday, November 18 & 19
Write: Synthesis #2
Source material is anything you've read for class by assignment or choice
Workshop Draft Due: Tuesday, November 19 and Wed., November 20th
Submission Draft Due: Tuesday, November 26th