El Jefe says...

Tonight, read chapter three in ITOB. Also, complete the Lear research paper outline for tomorrow.

In class we took the vocab quiz. Then we discussed the first two chapters of the novel.

From Lear's Kingdom...

...to the Trujillo dictatorship. Finish reading chapters one and two in Butterflies for tomorrow. Also, study vocab for tomorrow and work on the outline that is due Friday.

Lear Paper, continued

Next Step: Outline

On Friday your outline is due. You should create a full sentence, alpha-numeric outline. (You should be very familiar with this since we last did an alpha-numeric outline in Decemeber.) A guide for this kind of outline can be found at the Purdue Online Writing Lab site.

Your outline should:
1. Have an MLA heading
2. Have a title--the same title as your paper (NOT a description of the assignment)
3. Be single spaced within major sections of the outline; double spaced between major sections.
4. Include textual evidence whenever possible. Cite this evidence by including the author's last name (or whatever comes first in the MLA citation) in a parenthetical note following the evidence.
5. Have an updated Works Cited attached at the back (you started one for class today).
6. Be typed and printed.
7. A hard copy of the outline is due in class on Friday, February 27th.

I'll be around Thursday before and after school to discuss these...

King Lear Vocab #2

Definitions:

baseness: the condition of lacking of human decency and higher values.
credulous: gullible
diffidence: distrust of one’s self, one’s abilities
diffuse: to disseminate
enmity: mutual hatred
forbearance: patience
kindle: to arouse an emotion; to spark a fire
lament: to express sorrow or regret; to mourn over
propinquity: nearness in place, relationship, or time
quench: to suppress; squelch
surfeit: excess
trifling: of little importance
knave: a servant
moiety: a portion or share
saucily: impertinent; insolent; disrespectful
abate: to reduce in amount, degree, or intensity
auspicious: marked by success; prosperous
miscreant: an evildoer; a villain
pawn: a pledge for the fulfillment of a promise
auricular: of or relating to the sense of hearing
scourged: afflicted with widespread suffering or devastation; chastised severely
motley: having much variety, color; attire of a jester
foppish: foolish
censure: expression of strong disapproval
fraught: filled with an element (like danger, fear)
couch (verb): to word in a certain manner
privy: made a participant in knowledge
pendulous: wavering; undecided
array: to set out for display
yeoman: an attendant or servant

Steps 3-5

Steps 3-5 of the research process are due tomorrow. This includes the following:

Examine, reject, and select individual resources. Select 3 articles of literary criticism and print or photocopy them: These might relate directly or indirectly to your topic. For instance, you might find valuable information in an article that is written about your topic, or in one that discusses the play in general. After you’ve determined that an article contains information that you would like to use in your paper, photocopy or print the article. The articles must be from library books or databases. Please see the library staff or me with questions about source material.

NOTE: YOU MUST BE SURE TO RECORD ALL CITATION INFORMATION FOR YOUR WORKS CITED LIST (See library website for guidelines and examples).

Find at least five, relevant quotes from the play: These should be quotes that present your topic in a significant way. Type and save these in a document and be sure to include the page number(s). In addition, write an explanation of how each quote is significant and helps you support your argument.

Select quotes from the articles: Select at least one quote from each critical article. Type the quotes and save them along with the author’s name and the number(s) of the page(s) on which they occur in the article. In addition, write a short explanation of how the quotes you have chosen help you to support your thesis.


According to the directions, this work should be typed--be sure to save it on your computer.

The Research

Today we read outside reading books and watched the end of the play. This weekend you should receive an email from blogger.com inviting you to be an author for your outside reading book blog. Please accept the invitation; then, you will be all set to complete the blog portion of the outside reading assignment.

Your main goal this weekend should be to sift through relevant critical articles, looking for information which will help support your tentative thesis (and in the process you will probably get information to help you craft and revise your final thesis statement).

**The previous post contains a link to the HennCo Library database page.

Looking Forward to Friday...

Bring your completed vocabulary cards and outside reading book to class tomorrow.

Today we shared tentative thesis statements, discussed the HennCo database, and watched a portion of Act 5. Although there is no specific article due tomorrow (the 3 articles are due next Tuesday), it would be an excellent idea to begin sifting through the information on JSTOR. Click here to visit the HennCo Library database page.

Hopefully, you copied this information down in class, but here are the due dates for the research paper:

2/24 Steps 3-5 (Research)
2/27 Paper Outline
3/3 Rough Draft
3/4 Final Draft

Analyzing Lear

Today we jigsawed the various articles about King Lear. Your job for tonight is to come up with a topic and tentative thesis statement. In other words, complete the cream sheet attached to the paper prompt and rubric.

Below are the possible ideas we came up with in class today (but there are certainly many, many more possibilities...):

Ideas to Explore
Truth in Lear
Recognition
Religion
Deceit vs. ending of play
Morality
Sight--insight and/or physical sight
Kent
Edgar's return
Lear's truth in madness
Lear's avoidance of love
the Fool
Lear's relationship with his daughters
Death
Lear vs. Gloucester
the role of women in Lear
deceit with love
changing one's destiny
Gloucester's relationship with sons
old-young
parents-children
government corruption
human nature
manipulation of fear

So Much to Do...

Today we took a quiz on Act 5. I briefly discussed the outside reading blogging requirement--please see the handout on Edline. We are taking the initial steps toward writing a literary analysis paper with critical support. Overall here is what you should be working on:

1. Review the outside reading blogging assignment. Step one: have a copy of your outside reading book in class on Friday.

2. Complete the vocabulary cards for Friday (assignment on Edline).

3. IF YOU DON'T ALREADY HAVE ONE, GET A HENNEPIN COUNTY LIBRARY CARD!!

4. Read & annotate the critical article that you received in class today.

If you were absent today, please complete the following before tomorrow:

Go to:
The Hennepin County Library database page

Scroll down until you get to JSTOR.

Type in your library card barcode.

Search for the following article: Time, Place, and Politics in “King Lear” by W.W. Greg.

Read and annotate the article.


Will will jigsaw and discuss the articles tomorrow in class.

The Actors Studio

We witnessed some amazing acting in class today...Lars and Austin, Kshitij and Linnea, Hailey and Reed, Connor and Sarah. The performances were outstanding, especially considering that groups had just 10 minutes to prepare. In 5th hour we definitely saw a variety of staging/performance choices. I found two clips of this scene made by students on Youtube:



and



The questions that we didn't get to in 4th hour, and that you need to respond to on your notebook page entitled, "Staging Lear," are:

•Some critics argue that this scene shouldn’t be a part of any staging, because it can make a serious scene almost absurd (theater of the absurd). Do you agree or disagree?
•Can the audience appreciate the play without seeing this scene? Why or why not?

Homework: Read/annotate Act 5 for Tuesday.

I Am Woman!

Today we talked about strong women (and listened to a little Helen Reddy). The Lear sisters are feuding like never before. Cordelia is leading the French Army, while her sisters are both vying for Edmund.

Read (and annotate) the rest of Act 4 to see what develops...

My Eyes! My Eyes!

Poor Gloucester. First, he's deceived by his unnatural son, and now he loses his eyes...

Today we took the vocab quiz and then worked on discussing the end of Act 3 in small groups.

Homework: Read/Annotate Act 4, Scenes 1-4

The Battle Rages On...

The Lear raps were excellent today. You did great things with language to create clever and insightful poems/raps. Unfortunately, no clear winner was determined in hour 4. In fact, Anna (with bongo back-up) and John (with accompanying beat) each received 10 votes for top rapper. So, there will certainly have to be some kind of face-off (fishbowl style, no doubt) tomorrow. Also, we will need to hear from absent rappers Colin and Rohini. In 5th hour, Jimmer came prepared (as usual) with a piece that reminded us of one Kanye West. Connor also proved himself to be a worthy wordsmith. Tomorrow we need to hear from the following rappers: Molly, Michaela, Margaret, Greta, and Ellen.

Homework: Finish reading (and annotating) Act 3; vocab quiz tomorrow.

Act 3

Friday in class: took quiz, completed questions from acts 1-2.

Homework: finish rap; prep for RAP BATTLE; read act 3, scenes 1-4; study vocab.

King Lear, Act 2 continued...again

Today I checked annotations. Then we discussed the reading and finished the theme analysis activity from yesterday. Groups broke up and formed new groups to share the theme statements and evidence that the original groups found. We also discussed the rap assignment that is due Monday. We ran out of time to discuss vocab. Here are definitions for your words:


felicitate: to make happy or delightful
opulent: wealthy, affluent, abundant
preeminence: superiority to all others
derides: scoffs at; mocks; ridicules
amities: friendships
maledictions: curses
entreaty: a plea; an earnest request
upbraids: scolds harshly; reproaches
gall: a bitter, irritated feeling
debauched: morally corrupted
dotage: senility
clamorous: loudly; noisily
ruffian: rowdy individual
peruse: to read or examine
obscured: made difficult to see
penury: extreme poverty
vouchsafe: to grant in a condescending manner
superfluous: beyond what is needed or required
impetuous: violent, hasty, rash, impulsive
engendered: to cause, to produce, to create
contentious: quarrelsome; stirring controversy
vexes: discomforts, distresses
defile: to make dirty, to desecrate, to pollute
bedlam: a place or scene of wild and mad uproar; an extremely confusing scene
wanton: immoral, lewd
presages: foreshadows of a future event
impertinency: rudeness
disdain: intense dislike; to treat with scorn or contempt or reject as unworthy
hamartia: error of judgment
dramatic irony: audience knows something characters do not

Homework: Read and annotate Act 2, Scene 4; Rap due Monday.

King Lear, Act 2 continued

Today we took a quiz on Act 2, Scene 1. Then we worked on textual evidence of major themes in Lear. For tomorrow, your homework is to read AND ANNOTATE scenes 2 and 3 from act 2. If you need to print a copy of the scenes to annotate, here is the link.

King Lear, Act 2

Today in class we discussed descriptions of the fool. The fool bubble maps and vocabulary cards were collected. We read--and if you were absent, you should read--How to Mark a Book by Mortimer Adler.

The homework for tonight is to read Act 2, Scene 1, and annotate as you are reading. If you have a copy of your own book, you may complete the annotations in your own book. If you do not have your own copy, please print out this version and annotate it.

**You must have an annotated text in class tomorrow in order to take the quiz--even if your absence was the result of choir.

The Fool

1. Please create a bubble map for the Fool.
Include at least 5 adjectives
Must include textual support
Quotes should be written out
Include proper citation
Do on a separate, clean sheet of paper (not your notebook)

2. Vocabulary cards are due tomorrow.

We are going to work on annotating Shakespeare's text tomorrow.