Sailing Towards the End: April 30, 2018

Focus: To what extent are we free on a "boat"?

1. Warming up with three good things

2. Talking about bedside stacks!

3. Finishing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with a focus on details and larger themes

As you watch: Find three details from today's performance (bits of dialogue, movements, symbols, etc.) and jot them down in your composition notebook, leaving lots of space in between them. 

If you need more focus, use today's focus question to guide your selection of details: To what extent are these characters free? To what extent are they confined? How do they respond to their freedom/confinement?

After you watch: Pose one or two good discussion questions about each detail.


HW:
1. Complete your bedside stack form if you did not do so in class.

2. Continue looking through your terms and vocabulary each night before beddy bye time.

R & G Are Not Dead...Yet: April 26, 2018

Focus: What control / agency do the characters have or lack over their universe?

Please print and turn in your culminating essay by 3:00 pm today.

1. Warming up with your own question game using yesterday's brainstorming

2. Reading the second half of Act II together with musical chairs

• Questions for final two rounds:

• What are R & G's thoughts on death?

• Why the play within a play within a play?

3. Thinking through the play artistically:

• Try illustrating the characters from each "world" in this play (R & G, the Hamlet characters, the tragedians/actors performing the dumbshow) in a way that demonstrates how much control the characters have over their worlds.

• For example, does one world exist inside another? Are they each subject to the same laws?

• If the illustration is throwing you off, try simply forming a scale, or a spectrum, of control, and consider where each character falls.

HW:
Take five minutes before you go to bed each night to flip through our first semester terms and our second semester academic vocabulary. That's it!

The Play Is the Thing: April 25, 2018

Focus: What control / agency do the characters have or lack over their universe?

1. Warming up a little Academic Vocabulary bingo: Sets 1, 2, and 3

2. Skimming the question game on pages 42 through 44 and select one question you think is central to this play so far

• Why does Stoppard have them play the question game?

3. Reading Act II together with musical chairs (after you finish responding to one of these questions, pose a question of your own for the next round)

• What imprisons the characters and how so? Do they have freedom?

• Is there logic/reason governing the world of R & G? Where are they seeking it? Do they find it?

• What are R & G's thoughts on death?

• Why the play within a play within a play?

HW:
Continue finalizing your culminating essay. You have about two days left, and there will not be time to revise. Make your final draft a true final draft, and one that you're proud of. Click HERE for the Wednesday night checklist.

Final draft due Thursday, April 26 by 3:00 pm.

We will have one more in-class editing day on Wednesday; aim to finish your rough draft by then.

Living Offstage: April 24, 2018

Focus: What does it mean to be offstage?

1. Warming up: Close reading a passage from yesterday

PLAYER: We keep to our usual stuff, more or less, only inside out.  We do on stage the things that are supposed to happen off.  Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit being an entrance somewhere else.  (28)

• In your lives, how would you define living "offstage" to living "onstage"?  In other words, when are you are offstage, and when are you onstage? For example, is your school life offstage or onstage, and why? Is there such a thing as "offstage"?

• What is the player revealing about his acting troupe's intentions?  Why is there integrity in this?

• What does he mean when he says that every exit is entrance somewhere else?

• How is this an example of metatheatre?  In other words, how is this a play about plays/theatre? CHALLENGE: Try to find one other line that's metatheatrical...

2. Enjoying the rest of Act 1 in R & G, the film version (start at 18ish minutes) with a big fat Venn diagram connecting this play to Waiting for Godot

3. Wrapping up by breaking down today's focus question in small groups:

• How are Rosencrantz's and Guildenstern's onstage lives (when they're in Hamlet) different from their offstage lives?

• Is being onstage more or less authentic than being offstage? Where do they have a greater sense of purpose? Where do they have more power?

HW:
Continue finalizing your culminating essay. You have about two days left, and there will not be time to revise. Make your final draft a true final draft, and one that you're proud of. Click HERE for the Wednesday night checklist.

Final draft due Thursday, April 26 by 3:00 pm.

We will have one more in-class editing day on Wednesday; aim to finish your rough draft by then.

Flipping a Coin: April 23, 2018

Focus: Why is Tom Stoppard interested in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

1. Warming up with three good things and the flip of a coin:

a. Take a coin and flip it in the air 20 times. Record how many times it comes up heads, and how many times it comes up tails. Interpret/explain the results.

b. Now, imagine that you take a quarter (a normal quarter) and flip it in the air twenty times. If it were to come up heads each time, would you be surprised? Why or why not? In your opinion, is the world generally an orderly or a disorderly place?

c. How would Samuel Beckett explain the imaginary phenomenon above?

2. Speeding up:
If time allows, (re)introducing yourselves to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern via two Hamlet clips

Act 2, scene 2 (58:10)
Act 3, scene 2 (2:00:30)

Here's what you need to know about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Hamlet...

• In Hamlet, they are minor characters and spend the vast majority of the play offstage.

• They're supposed to be Hamlet's friends, but they're really being used to spy on him.

• Near the end of the play, they ride on a boat from Denmark to England with Hamlet; they have sealed orders from King Claudius to the King of England, requesting that the King of England kill Hamlet.

• Hamlet, however, changes the note so that the orders are to kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, which the King of England carries out when they arrive in England.

• The action in the two bullet points above all takes place offstage in Hamlet and is merely reported by Fortinbras at the end of the play.

3. Acting out the beginning of Act One in R&G Are Dead

• Pre-reading: What's the significance of the title?

As we read, keep a log in your composition book of this play's use of extended metaphors:

• Where do you see elements of Absurdism/Existentialism?
• What connections to Waiting for Godot are you noticing?

4. Wrapping up: What do we know about these two characters, and why might Tom Stoppard have chosen them for his play?

HW:
Continue drafting your culminating essay. You have a little over three days left, and there will not be time to revise. Make your final draft a true final draft, and one that you're proud of. Click HERE for the Wednesday night checklist.

Final draft due Thursday, April 26 by 3:00 pm.

We will have one more in-class editing day on Wednesday; aim to finish your rough draft by then.

The Play Is the Thing: April 20, 2018

Focus: What background information do we need to understand R & G are dead?

1. Warming up: So what do you already know about Hamlet? A crossword challenge for you!

2. Watching the first Act of Hamlet and taking a few notes on the basics:

• Who/what/when/where? In other words, who are the main characters, what do they do, when does the play take place, and where are they?

• What are the central conflicts on the rise in Act 1?

• A tricky question: Where are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for most of the play?

Also, feel free to fill in the blank squares on your crossword as you watch.

HW:
Continue drafting your culminating essay. You have a little over one week left, and there will not be time to revise. Make your final draft a true final draft, and one that you're proud of.

Final draft due Thursday, April 26 by 3:00 pm.

The Final Thursday Workshop: April 19, 2018

Focus: How can workshopping help us improve our poetry timed writings?

1. Warming up with another Walk Down Memory Lane: Terms, Weeks 13-18

2. Synthesizing the poems by focusing on tiny details:

• With a partner, make a quick t-chart (or Venn diagram, or whatever spacial entity inspires you) in which you list words/phrases from the Dickinson poem that have a direct correlation, either through similarity or contrast, with words and phrases from the Frost poem

3. Discussing the poems separately and together in terms of...

• Moments (imagery, diction, punctuation, etc) 
• Movements (shifts, patterns, shapes)
• Multiple meanings (tone and theme)

4. Browsing the rubric and sample essays; applying feedback to our own essays

HW:
1. Continue drafting your culminating essay. You have a little over one week left, and there will not be time to revise. Make your final draft a true final draft, and one that you're proud of.

Final draft due Thursday, April 26 by 3:00 pm.

2. Friday will be a fast & furious recap of Shakespeare's Hamlet. If you are absent tomorrow, please use the blog to review Hamlet on your own.

The Final Timed Writing: April 18, 2018

Focus: How can writing help us analyze and synthesize poetry?

1. Warming up with ideas about how to synthesize two poems

Organize by idea, not by poem. In other words, both poems should be in each body paragraph.

Structure Ideas:

• One body paragraph on a significant similarity, and one body paragraph on a significant contrast
• One body paragraph comparing/contrasting the speakers in each poem, and one body paragraph comparing/contrasting the imagery, metaphors, etc. 
• One body paragraph on the "problem" established each poem, and one body paragraph on the "solution" (or lack thereof) in each poem.

Other Reminders:

• Use your intro to set up the poems' dramatic situations.
• Use literary language in your close readings (imagery, metaphor, symbol, alliteration, anaphora, etc).
• Use active voice, and have fun with your verbs!

2. Composing your final timed writing (and it's a two-for-one!)

HW:
1. Continue drafting your culminating essay. You have a little over one week left, and there will not be time to revise. Make your final draft a true final draft, and one that you're proud of.

Final draft due Thursday, April 26 by 3:00 pm.

2. Thursday will be our final Thursday workshop. Friday will be a fast & furious recap of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Drafting the Culminating Essay: April 17, 2018

Focus: What do we understand better/differently when we synthesize texts?

1. Warming up with a helpful (I hope) article on Waiting for Godot

2. Offering you a mini lesson on structuring this thing

• Define before you defend.

• Use questions to form your outlines.

• Make sure you have at least two "texts" for each part of your outline (organize by PATTERN, not by work).

3. Giving you time to peruse the samples, ask questions, work on your draft, and offer peer feedback

4. Wrapping up with a three-minute masterpiece video


HW:
1. Continue drafting your culminating essay. You have a little over one week left, and there will not be time to revise. Make your final draft a true final draft, and one that you're proud of.

Final draft due Thursday, April 26 by 3:00 pm.

2. THIS WEDNESDAY will be your final "Tuesday" writing. Thursday will be our final Thursday workshop. Friday will be a fast & furious recap of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

What Are We Here For? April 16, 2018

Focus: What are we here for? That is the question.

1. Warming up with three good things and an article from The Onion

2. Finishing the play and drawing some larger conclusions: Do Foster's ideas work with this play?

"Every Trip Is a Quest"
A quester?
A place to go?
A stated reason to go there?
Challenges and trials en route?
A real reason to go there?

"Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion"
"...breaking bread together is an act of sharing and peace, since if you're breaking bread you're not breaking heads." (8)

"...writing a meal scene is so difficult, and so inherently uninteresting, that there really needs to be some compelling reason to include one in the story. And that reason has to do with how characters are getting along. Or not getting along." (8)

"Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?"

"Here it is: there's only one story. There, I said it and I can't very well take it back. There is only one story. Ever. One. It's always been going on and it's everywhere around us and every story you've ever read or heard or watched is part of it."

"More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence"

"Violence is one of the most personal and even intimate acts between human beings, but it can also be cultural and societal in its implications...that punch in the nose may be a metaphor." (88)

"Geography Matters..."

"First, think about what there is down low or up high. Low: swamps, crowds, fog, darkness, fields, heat, unpleasantness, people, life, death. High: snow, ice, purity, thin air, clear views, isolation, life, death." (173)

"He's Blind for a Reason, You Know?"

Remember your old friend, Oedipus? And his frenemy, Tieresias?

"Every move, every statement by or about that character has to accommodate the lack of sight; every other character has to notice, or behave differently, if only in subtle ways...Clearly the author wants to emphasize other levels of sight and blindness beyond the physical." (202)

"Is He Serious? And Other Ironies"

"Now hear this: irony trumps everything." (235)

What ingrained expectations do we have of the characters and symbols in this play, and how does Beckett deny us the satisfaction of applying our expectations to these symbols (thus making them ironic)?

3. Wrapping up with a very important video

HW:
1. Continue drafting your culminating essay. TOMORROW will be a workshop day, and you want to have at least three pages of draft complete by then.

Final draft due Thursday, April 26 by 3:00 pm.

2. THIS WEDNESDAY will be your final "Tuesday" writing.

They Do Not Move: April 13, 2018

Focus: What does the ending reveal about the themes of Beckett's play?

1. Warming up with Walk Down Memory Lane #2: Literary Terms, Weeks 7-12

• Review and Apply: Look through your Literary Terms from Weeks 7-12, which are largely sound devices. Apply as many as you can to "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."

• Find Complex Patterns: The sound devices suggest that the woods are ______ but also ______. What might the woods serve as a metaphor for?

• Address Theme and Tone: Look at the end rhyme. How does its pattern reflect the movement (and the stopping) of the speaker? How does sound create meaning in this poem?

2. Enjoying a 10-minute Silent Socratic on yesterday's blog questions

3. Finishing Waiting for Godot

4. Wrapping up: Revisiting the final page and the title in small groups

• Close reading: Which details on the final page seem the most important? Why might they be significant?

• Framework: Look back to the first page (my favorite trick). Has anything shifted? What does comparing the first and final pages reveal about the play's themes?

• Title / Themes / Tone: Revisit the title. What is the nature of waiting in this play? Why are they waiting for Godot (what are they hoping for)? Why doesn't Beckett allow Godot to show up? What does this play suggest about human existence?

HW:
1. Continue drafting your culminating essay. Next TUESDAY will be a workshop day, and you want to have at least three pages of draft complete by then.

Final draft due Thursday, April 24 by 3:00 pm.

2. NEXT WEDNESDAY will be your final "Tuesday" writing.

Lucky? April 12

Focus: What is the purpose of Lucky's character?

1. Warming up with Walk Down Memory Lane #1: Literary Terms, Weeks 1-6

2. Viewing a performance of Lucky's speech and entertaining few questions about Lucky

• How is Lucky "lucky"?  In other words, how is his suffering less than that of Didi and Gogo?
• To what extent is his name ironic? Or, how is he suffering more than Didi and Gogo are?
• Offering you a little more background on Theatre of the Absurd.
• Find one specific detail that we know about Lucky (the rope, the baggage, his movements, his speech, his relationship to Pozzo, etc.) and connect it to the Theatre of the Absurd.

From shmoop: "At least Lucky can see the rope around his neck. Vladimir and Estragon can’t."

3. Acting out Waiting for Godot, end of Act 1 and beginning of Act 2

4. Posting a Socratic-style question on today's blog in relation to the focus questions and/or Absurdism

HW:
1. Continue drafting your culminating essay. Next TUESDAY will be a workshop day, and you want to have at least three pages of draft complete by then.

Final draft due Thursday, April 24 by 3:00 pm.

2. NEXT WEDNESDAY will be your final "Tuesday" writing.

The Myth of Sisyphus: April 11, 2018

Focus: How is life sisyphean?

Shortened Class

1. Warming up: Are you an existentialist?

• High velocity writing on a few existentialist quotations: background on existentialism

2. Reading Albert Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus"

As we read, mark up your text in search of the following:

• What is the existentialist hero?
• What is the nature of his struggle?
• What makes him tragic?
• What makes him happy?
• What is the nature of his freedom?

Post-reading discussion questions:

• How are Vladimir and Estragon like Sisyphus? 
• How are they different? How does the absurd hero differ from the existentialist hero?

3. Considering yourself an existential hero (or not)

• What does your mountain consist of? What about your boulder?  Your endless sky?

• What makes you pause at the top, and what do you think of?

• What makes you pause at the bottom, and what do you think of?

• What compels you to push the boulder up the hill once again?

OR

• Go back to Monday's blog and add to the discussion by incorporating some of the background we considered today.

HW:
Continue drafting your culminating essay. Next Wednesday will be a workshop day, and you want to have at least three pages of draft complete by then. If you e-mailed me/Google shared with me your outline, you should have feedback waiting for you on the document.

Final draft due Thursday, April 24 by 3:00 pm.

Still Waiting: April 9, 2018

Focus: What are they waiting for?

1. Warming up with three good things

2. Watching brief film clip echoing Friday's performance

• Find one passage (dialogue or stage directions) from what we've read that connects to one of the focus questions.

• Pose a Socratic-style question on that passage on our class blog.

3. Acting out more of Act 1 in Waiting for Godot 

4. Wrapping up with a reply to someone else's blog post

HW:
If you have not yet e-mailed me your culminating essay outline, please do so today.

If you have completed your outline, start composing your essay (final draft due April 24).

We're Waiting: April 6, 2018

Focus: What does it mean to wait?

1. Warming up with "I Am Waiting"

• MMM approach: What strikes you about this poem?

• What does it mean to wait? Does it make you powerful? Vulnerable? Hopeless? Hopeful?

• What are you waiting for?

2. Building a little background knowledge on the Theatre of the Absurd by scanning the play:

• What do you notice about the setting?
• What do you notice about the characters?
• What do you notice about the dialogue?
• Offering you a little more background on the Theatre of the Absurd and Absurdist protagonists

3. Starting to act out Waiting for Godot with focus questions

4. Wrapping up with your first Godot post

HW:
1. Continue working on your outline with the goal of completing it and either e-mailing it to me by the end of the week or coming in for a conference. Click here for the culminating essay timeline.

2. Brief vocabulary assessment on Sets 6, 7, and 8 next Wednesday.

3. The end of 12 weeks is TODAY. All make-up work / revised work from the last 6 weeks is due by then. If you wish to revise your critical review or poetry essay, you must conference with me this week.

Thursday Workshop: April 5, 2018

Focus: How can writing workshop help us improve our timed writing skills?

1. Warming up with a sample Q3 essay

• What do you think the prompt was?
• If you were this person's teacher, what feedback would you give to help him/her?
• What score do you think person received?

2. Identifying your personal goals on the Q3 rubric: Underline the two or three specific sentences on the rubric where you feel you need the most help/feedback.

3. Workshopping your essays in groups of two or three

Round 1: Read through with no comments

Round 2: Intensive focus on self-identified areas of need

* * * Taking a quick break to empower your verbs. * * *

* * * Switch partners: Find someone who has NOT read your book. * * *

Round 3: Editing for style and mechanics

4. Wrapping up with a quick exit ticket on timed writings

HW:
1. Continue working on your outline with the goal of completing it and either e-mailing it to me by the end of the week or coming in for a conference. Click here for the culminating essay timeline.

2. Start hunting for other artifacts you might want to use in your essay...childhood artwork? Diary entries? Letters to Santa? Photos?

3. The end of 12 weeks is Friday, April 6 (the Friday after spring break). All make-up work / revised work from the last 6 weeks is due by then. If you wish to revise your critical review or poetry essay, you must conference with me this week.

Finding the Underlying Structure: April 4, 2018

Focus: How do we structure a lengthy, complex essay?

Shortened class due to lengthened Tribe

1. Warming up with each other's blogging brilliance

• Which book(s) from A.P. Literature will likely make an appearance in your culminating essay?

• Scroll through each other's Big Question Blogs and read others' posts on your book(s). Leave comments on any blogs that are helpful. You can also steal a line or two, but you will need to cite that person as a source.

2. Scrolling through your own brainstorming and color coding any possible patterns.

• Click HERE for Chase's sample brainstorming and color coding.

If you're not finding any patterns, or if you're only finding one or two, you need to keep brainstorming.

3. Using your patterns to form your outline

• Click HERE for Kyle's sample outline.

HW:
1. Continue working on your outline with the goal of completing it and either e-mailing it to me by the end of the week or coming in for a conference. Click here for the culminating essay timeline.

2. Start hunting for other artifacts you might want to use in your essay...childhood artwork? Diary entries? Letters to Santa? Photos?

3. The end of 12 weeks is Friday, April 6 (the Friday after spring break). All make-up work / revised work from the last 6 weeks is due by then. If you wish to revise your critical review or poetry essay, you must conference with me this week.

Writing About Your British Book Club Novels: April 3, 2018

Focus: What can we understand better or differently through the process of writing?

1. Warming up with a recap on Q3 timed writings and an enforced brainstorming on your novel

2. Bustin' a move: Composing a timed writing on your British Book Club novel

HW:
1. If you have not yet finished your Big Question Blog (say, because you were watching basketball or something), take care of that tonight. 

2. Continue working on your culminating essay prompt and book list. FINISH YOUR BRAINSTORMING BEFORE CLASS ON WEDNESDAY. We will form outlines in class on Wed.

3. The end of 12 weeks is Friday, April 6 (the Friday after spring break). All make-up work / revised work from the last 6 weeks is due by then. If you wish to revise your critical review or poetry essay, you must conference with me this week.

Big and Small: April 2, 2018

Focus: What are the most significant details from our British novels, and what larger picture do they create?

1. Warming up with three good things

2. Reviewing your novels in groups with prep sheets (we did this for East of Eden back in the day and will do these for Beloved and Invisible Man right before the test)

3. Reflecting on your British novels individually with your Big Question Blogs

HW:
1. Finish your Big Question Blog before tomorrow.

2. Continue working on your culminating essay prompt and book list. FINISH YOUR BRAINSTORMING BEFORE CLASS ON WEDNESDAY. We will form outlines in class on Wed.

3. The end of 12 weeks is Friday, April 6 (the Friday after spring break). All make-up work / revised work from the last 6 weeks is due by then. If you wish to revise your critical review or poetry essay, you must conference with me this week.