Monday, January 26 - Friday, January 31

Friday
To make a set of flashcards for the exam use this link to Quizlet, then use the "print" option in the menu bar near the top of the screen. We finished viewing the RSC video for Romeo and Juliet. Next we took a look at the SparkNotes animated version of R&J. We next looked at Romeo's final monologue just before he takes his life. He is speaking to Juliet who he believes to be dead. To process this challenging speech, I broke it into chunks and had everyone draw as I read. The understanding that resulted was clear to me through your drawings and the summarizing that accompanied the drawings. Monday is our last class together.  : (
Thursday
We completed our look at irony and the short story Act of God. Next we reviewed point of view and characterization. At the end of the block we returned to Romeo and Juliet and looked at a parody version from the Reduced Shakespeare Company.
Wednesday
Rather than doing more with Romeo and Juliet, I opted to read a short story today. Before we did that, we reviewed the three different types of irony: dramatic, situational and verbal. Prior to reading the story we discussed what we thought the term "An Act of God" means as well as the term miracle and divine intervention. Tomorrow we will discuss the story and review short story terminology.
Tuesday
Progress reports and graded assignments were handed out today. We finished up the Thomas poem at the beginning of class. Next we turned our attention to the Prologue of Romeo and Juliet. We did a choral reading of the Prologue and then looked at it in terms of a poem. Several people noticed that it is a sonnet. Tomorrow we will carry on with a little more from the Bard.
Monday
We spent the first half of the class looking at a poem from an old provincial exam and answering the multiple choice questions in pairs. Afterwards we discussed strategies for writing multiple choice tests. Next we listen to a recording of Dylan Thomas reading his poem Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night. To process the poem, we moved around the classroom from station to station looking at the poem in terms of its: title, sounds, figurative language, diction, word order, form, setting, speaker and symbols. We will review the class findings on these tomorrow and come up with a central idea and them for the poem.