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.