Shakespeare Again!!!!

It's time to delve into the depths of Shakespeare once more. Hamlet (in my opinion) is the single play that no high school student should leave high school without reading. It's got highs and lows, murder and intrigue, lost love, and madness. It was a blockbuster ahead of it's time. It is also a key piece to gearing up for the AP exam in May. If you think about it, there are many movies based on the play. If you've seen The Lion King, then you've seen the Disney version of Hamlet. We of course, will be looking at it on a deeper level than Disney did, but you can see many of the themes. You will be reading the play and answering questions before we discuss the play in class, so I would keep up with the reading and not fall behind. It is not fun to do a complete act the night before it is due. I can't wait to see what you all have to say about it as we read through it.

Life for the Next Month or So!

Your Dracula projects were awesome!!!! I knew you guys were creative, but you really blew me away with it. Now that we are done with the presentation fun, we are going to get into one of the most important pieces of literature every written (in my opinion at least) Hamlet. This one piece will help you immensely on the AP exam in May. It is a piece that covers the gambit of literary elements and themes. While we are thoroughly enjoying some Shakespeare, you will also be reading an outside piece for your literature circles. I'm really excited about the three books that you get to choose from. Not only is something different from what we normally do, you can easily apply many of the themes to the modern times that we live in. Happy reading. I can't wait to see what you guys do with both Hamlet and the literature circle books.

Dracula Projects

By now your groups should have begun your projects for Dracula. These are themes unique to Dracula, which we have been discussing since we began the novel. Your groups should have a basic idea of how you are going to go about completing the projects and what you want them to be. I strongly encourage creativity in this assignment. The more creativity you use the better. Think outside the box for your presentation. Even if you decided to do a power point presentation, be creative in how you deliver the presentation. I am not only looking at how well you understand and can present the theme within Dracula, but also at how creative you can be. I am so excited about these presentations. We will start them on February 8th, 2012. 

Are You Sure He Meant That?

There have been numerous times over my teaching career that I have heard the same question over and over again. "Since the author is dead, how do we know that he really meant that?" This is a legitimate question, especially when we study authors that have been dead for hundreds of years. Fortunately you are lucky enough to live in a time when we have records of interviews given by authors and if we are lucky  they hold on to their rough drafts for future generations to study. This is the case with Dracula. Bram Stoker kept copious notes while writing Dracula, which he did not throw away.  The manuscript was lost for about a hundred years, but when it was found, it was a gold mine. We found out that he did a lot of research before he started the book, and that he made many revisions before publishing. We can look at this work and see exactly what he meant through his own notes and the research that he did. We find out that Dracula was not the original name he wanted to give to his vampire. He was originally going to call him Count Vampyr; however, when he was researching the legends of vampires he found out that the word Dracula meant devil. He liked this much better and changed his characters name. For once, we can safely say that "he did mean that" because we have his notes.

Let's Get the Ball Rolling!

I hope you all had a great two weeks off. I know I did. We are going to jump right in and get this busy semester started. You will find that you will be super busy. I figured that I would give you a run down of what we are going to cover this semester. We are going to start with Gothic literature. We will be discussing the elements within short stories, poetry, and the novel Dracula. You need to buy that this week. You will also write a paper over Dracula and complete a group project. After Dracula we will jump right into Hamlet, and then finish off the year with Lord of the Rings and your Senior Legacy. Throughout the semester we will also be working on preparing you for the AP exam and working on other short stories and poetry. Every Friday you will either be completing a timed write or an AP reading quiz. When we get closer to the AP exam, we will have an AP boot camp. I can't tell you how excited I am for this semester.