1. Students were divided up today for blogging. Those who have several blog posts and are comfortable with the process were free to work in the mainlab, while others stayed in our classroom lab to be close so I could help them login / create posts. They worked fairly well.
2. There is a new complication with adding videos to the blogs – the yellow circle with the letter A that is the tool to add videos has disappeared from the program. I tried to make it clear that students can include their videos, for now, as a link (link to the video) but this does not mean they do not still have to include a link to a document, blog, article or whatever written information they choose to link it to.
3. Tomorrow, there will be one more blog class. Hopefully, you’ll be putting finishing touches on it and adding your comments on peer blogs. Your end-of-unit test will be on Friday, remember.

See, everyone’s doing it!

1. Today, we began the class with a one-question quiz to see who, of all our group, is sharp enough to pick up the truth! The question was “Do we have evidence enough, based only on the dialogue of the play, to decide whether Claudius is guilty?” We all suspect and have discussed whether he is guilty of the murder of his brother, the (now) Ghost, but is there evidence from what he or others say that proves it?
   The responses were varied but a few smarties clarified with their answers that we have evidence that Claudius is guilty … of something… but we do not have specific proof that his guilty conscience is over a murder, but could instead possibly be his guilt over his new marriage.
2. We got right back into the play, starting right at the part where the Play King and Queen have their dialogue while the others watch. The audio we have of this does just a phenomenal job of creating the tension and outbreaks necessary for this part of the play. It all comes down to this…
3. We have discussed (and reviewed today) that an Elizabethan play has a different plot structure than other stories or plays. While those others draw out the story more before coming to a strong climax and finding things resolved in the end, this type of play creates the climax or highest point of tension in the middle of the play, making for a very long-winded end to everything. In our play, though, since it is a tragedy, we know things come to drastic ends for everyone.
4. We’ll finish Act III tomorrow, go through the questions along with that Act, and possibly watch a portion of this Act before moving on. Remember, blogs are due for marking on Friday.

Here’s a good version of the Mousetrap to watch.

1. We reviewed our last class together, the end where Hamlet reveals quite clearly that he doubts the ghost can be trusted and plans the task of finding proof of Claudius’s guilt. We reviewed the questions for Act II and then got into Act III.
2. I reviewed with the students the plot structure of this type of play, an Elizabethan play. Whereas in a story, the climax or highest point of tension may come near the end of the story and then resolves itself quickly, in this type of play the climax or great tension comes in the middle of the play and things unwind painfully slow throughout the long end. In this Act, Act III, Hamlet, our tragic character, does something (what exactly… we will see) but that something absolutely SEALS HIS FATE and the end is inevitable for him.
3. We read through to the part of Act III sc ii just where the players are about to act out Hamlet’s extra scene. It gets very good tomorrow! I’m looking forward to it.
4. Blogs are due on Friday, as well, so keep pushing through them. They’re looking really great and I’m pleased to see so many get to the point where they’re reading each other’s now. The hope in doing these journal projects this way was that, being published like this, they may be read. I hope you’re enjoying it.

1. Students have been progressing through the stages of essay writing. Today was their final period of class time to work on their essay. The due date will be next Tuesday, April 29. They will have to hand in all stages of their writing including planning, essay outline, essay draft, proof of editing, and the final good copy.
2. Tomorrow we will read a few more poems / a story related to our sub-theme of Judging and Misjudging Others. This will be the end of our unit and they will have an exam to finish things up on Friday. They were made aware of the test yesterday and today I clarified for them that the test will include a more in-depth look at the novel study, the play we read titled “The Hangashore”, our review of essays, thesis writing, and integrating references into our writing, along with the few poems we take up on Wednesday.
3. Thursday the students will have blog time for class. They were asked to not come to class unprepared for that. They will have time to type our their entries but having them pre-written or brainstormed prior to coming will help them get through their entries much quicker. Some students have left this entirely to the end. That’s unfortunate. And for the others who have been faithful and continuing, I’m pleased to see the interest you’ve taken in your blog and the creative and thoughtful work you’ve put into it.

1. Students were given another copy of the checklist and told they would have to hand it in on Friday (their extended due date). It is their own personal checklist so they can see how much of the assignment they have completed.
2. Anyone who has been blogging already and completed a few posts were welcome to go work in the mainlab for today’s class. Those who had yet to begin a blog post or get into it had to stay and work in the classroom on the computers so they were in one area where I could help them all with questions. Some of these blogs are so creatively developed with unique perspectives on the topics. I’m really enjoying seeing them now that the students have all had some time to get it started. They’re not so bare now!

Check out some of their blogs – linked from the right-hand side of this blog.

1. Students began an assignment last Thursday (our last class) that practiced including references from literature to support their topic in their own sentence. There were eight questions. They had to finish this before continuing on with their essay writing.
2. Once done, they took their essay outline and were to begin writing their draft. They’ll get tomorrow’s class to continue with this.
3. Friday we will be having an end of unit exam. We have had a midterm already but this final exam ends the unit on Equality. We will look at Decisions in our next unit.
4. The blogs were due for marking on Wednesday but I’ll leave it until Friday so they get a few days extension. They will have class time on Thursday to work on their blogs more.

1. There were three “nagging questions” written on the board for students to write out. There are big questions students are asked to consider as they follow along with the play and they’ll eventually have to make up their mind on what answer they think the literature supports. Should Hamlet trust the Ghost? Is Gertrude guilty of adultery and murder? Is Hamlet pretending madness at Ophelia’s or faking already?
2. We got right back into the reading and got quite far today. We read along with the text as the audio version was played. At the portion where we had just ended before the bell, Hamlet gives a clear message to the audience that he cannot be sure the Ghost should be trusted, because sometimes “devils” will appear and tempt men to their fates through familiar characters. Shakespeare means to imply that Hamlet waits for proof of his job – of revenge. Has he at all procrastinated, at this point? You decide. The “play within the play” is in our next scene and is one of the most popular parts of all Shakespeare plays.

Here is Kenneth Branagh’s version of Hamlet – the scene we read through today in class. His version is well-liked, but the Mel Gibson one, I’m afraid, is the more popular.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/jy6c4fpZyDw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

1. We missed our class today because the whole school went out to divide and conquer any litter problems left after the winter snow had melted. We’ll finish that Integrating References/Support for Sentences on Monday.

1. Students have recently reviewed some of the aspects of Essay Writing, such as the importance of brainstorming, choosing three topics for the essay’s content, the proper organization of that essay and how to formulate a proper thesis statement. They began the outline or draft for their literary essay yesterday, but before they get too far into the writing of their paragraphs, I wanted to review or teach how to add supporting evidence to your own writing. This is a task that many people struggle with so hopefully we can ward off these problems in their essay as they continue soon.
2. We looked through a handout through the projector. There were do’s and don’ts, some examples of integrating references and then eight questions for them to try. (Things were a little unsettling for them because I didn’t have the pages copied for them before class, so we lost a bit of time because of that.) For the assignment, though, students were given a handout with photocopied pages from the novel, Of Mice and Men. For each question, there was a page given that had references somewhere on that page that suited the sentence topic. Their task was to find a phrase or sentence from that part of the novel to integrate into their sentence on that topic, thereby practicing the job of integrating references into writing. They got a good start, but we’ll likely review and move on in our next class together.

   Here’s the handout – page numbers may differ, depending on which version of the novel you have. integrating-references-into-your-writing.doc