Hamlet - Day 20

For today's short class you have two tasks:

1. STAR testing. Please click on the link and spend time taking the reading test. Remember, even though it will not change your grade, I will be recording your growth in Infinite Campus. The goal of this testing is for me to better know how to help you improve your skills, and for both of us to track the results (at least as far as this test measures.
1. For your username, use the same name you are logging into the Chromebooks and computers with.  
2. Your password is your student ID number - but ONLY the number  - i.e. 120XXXX - if you are unable to gain access after TWO tries, please ask for help before trying a third time. 
3. You will be presented with two choices - select STAR Reading 
4. Sometimes, the system will request a “Monitor Password.” If this happens to you, the password is “admin” 
5. If you are presented with a list of teachers, please select “Rigler”
2. Skills and Habits reflection. This will complete your work for first quarter. If you do not finish it during class today, please take the time to do so tonight.

Hamlet - Day 19

For class on Thursday, you selected an 8-10 line passage from Hamlet - one you plan on using for your essay / project. It could be one you already have a lot to say about or one you have a general sense of and want to explore further.

We started by having a series of one-on-one conversations, rotating through different partners to discuss your chosen passage. After that, you continued to rotate through new partners, this time having a general brainstorming conversation about your essay / project. The goal was to find other sections of the text to interpret.

Lastly, we discussed several of these passages as a whole class. We worked our way through all five acts, revisiting parts of the play we hadn't discussed in nearly a month.

Hopefully you finished today with a solid sense of which parts of the play you'll use in your individual work!

Hamlet - Day 18

I've responded to your proposals - please look in turnitin.com to see them. If you have questions or would like to conference further with me, please let me know.

I'm changing the schedule for the next two weeks, including extending the due date for the Hamlet assignment. 

10-24 Proposals	10-25 NPR show	10-26 Discuss Act V	10-27 Discuss selected passages	10-28 (no class)
10-31 STAR test and work time	11-1 Work time	11-2 Work time	11-3 Hamlet paper or project due	11-4 (no class)

Tonight for homework please select a passage you are considering using in your paper / project. Just identify it and be prepared to share an initial observation / question about it.

Hamlet - Day 17 - Radio Show

Today we will spend the entire period listening to a radio broadcast about Hamlet. It is a fascinating and powerful story, and I think you will enjoy it and it will expand your understanding of the play.

• Here is a link to the broadcast.
• Here is a link the handout I shared at the start of class.

Hamlet - Day 16

Happy Monday!
For today, we will start by looking through the list of potential discussion questions I shared, and then I will give you time to complete this Hamlet assignment proposal form. Please submit it to me through turnitin.com by the end of the period.

Hamlet - Day 15

We'll work in groups today to examine Act V.  We will work together to create Grande Tableaux of the funeral in Act V, Scene 1, the sword fight in V.2, and the final scene. Each group will be assigned a character, and work to select a line, develop a pose, and determine the character's inner thoughts. In hearing from each group, we examined the relationships between characters, as well as how the characters and their relationships have evolved. We'll also generate a list of themes / topics relating to this act and the play overall.

Then, in an individual piece of writing, you'll spend 10 or so minutes writing a response to this question:

• Which of these characters, in which of these moments, best offers you a "window" into Hamlet? Which character do you personally connect with / disagree with, how so?

We'll then move to look at this list of questions as the starting point for our final discussion.

• Hamlet questions

At the end I'll share this proposal form with you - it is not due until Monday at the end of class, but I imagine many of you will want to complete it sooner.

• Hamlet essay / project proposal form

Hamlet - Day 14

Tuesday we watched the final section of the film in E114.
I hope you found the film to be helpful and engaging!

Hamlet - Day 13

Today we met in E114 to watch Act IV of the film.  We briefly discussed the role of the two female characters in the play, Ophelia and Gertrude, and how they are the focus of a lot of this act.  We also spoke about some more of the parallels in the play, including characters who lose their fathers and descend into madness, if in fact they do.

Be sure to complete your reading of the play for class tomorrow.

Also, check out your found poems from Act III, hanging around the classroom and posted here.

Hamlet - Day 12

Re-read Hamlet's soliloquy in IV.4 - name the different ideas / topics he covers and what he says about them.
Look back at his previous soliloquies:

• I.2.133-164 ("O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt")
• I.5.99-116 ("O all you host of heaven!")
• II.2.575-635 ("O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!")
• III.1.64-96 ("To be or not to be - that is the question")

Select lines corresponding to one of your chosen themes - at least two lines from each of the previous soliloquies. You're going to turn them into a found poem!

Hamlet - Day 11

Welcome back!
I hope you enjoyed your long weekend, whether it included being with family on the holiday, visiting colleges, catching up on sleep, or just doing whatever.
For the next two days we'll take a close look at the action in the play, focusing on the developments in Act IV. We'll focus on the link between thought and action, an issue Hamlet raises several times, as well as what those actions communicate to others, especially you, the audience.

We'll get into groups to examine these moments from recent scenes we've read:

• What do they say / do? What does it tell us about the character?

1. Gertrude speaking to Claudius at the start of IV.1
2. Claudius’s response to Gertrude’s news
3. Claudius’s plan for Hamlet (in IV.1)
4. Hamlet’s action at the start of III.4
5. Hamlet’s thoughts and actions in IV.2
6. Hamlet speaking with Claudius in IV.3
7. Hamlet’s soliloquy in IV.4

Hamlet - Day 10

For the first part of class you'll work with your group to examine four relationships and how they change (or don't) over the course of the first three acts of the play:

• Hamlet and Gertrude - I.2 / III.4
• Hamlet and Claudius - I.2 / III.2 & III.3
• Hamlet and Horatio - I.2 / III.2
• Hamlet and Ophelia - I.3 / II.1 / II.2 / III.1

Instead of discussing them or writing about them, you'll create a series of tableaux - silent freeze-frames to convey the feelings, attitudes, and motivations of the characters in these scenes. While two of you pose (create the tableau), other people in your group read the line(s).

I'll be taking pictures of these and posting them - both for fun and reference!

Be sure to take good notes during class  - keep track of these details!

For the second part of class, you'll be writing a short reflection on characters who appear in scenes 3 and 4 of Act III. It will be posted here by the end of the period.

Hamlet - Day 9

We spent the day in E114 watching Act III of the film version.

Here is a link to it.

I asked you to be sure to be caught up with the reading for tomorrow's group and writing activities.

Hamlet - Day 8

Happy Monday, aka Tuesday - and happy October!

Today we'll turn our attention to Hamlet's famous soliloquy in Act III, Scene 1. Even though these are some of the most famous lines ever written, our job is not to just pay respect to them but rather to explore them in terms of the ideas Hamlet raises, how he speaks of them, and how they potentially connect to some of our own concerns. The writing activity we did with them is called an "exploded imagery" - each of you selected a line or phrase and used it as a first line of a new piece of writing. We shared all of these out loud, inserting them into a read-through of the speech. Sound complicated? Cool? It sounded fantastic in class!

Hamlet - Day 7

Today (Thursday, Sep. 29th) we watched the next part of the film (Act II) in E114.

Here is a link to it.