1. We began the class today with two students acting out a scene we read through yesterday. (Yesterday, the students were near dead-like so they would not try acting it out. Today, they had a bit more life in them!)
2. We continued with the reading and have learned that Claudius feels remore and guilt over his actions of killing his brother and admitted, to himself only, that he did it out of greed over his brother’s wife, Gertrude. We also understand that Hamlet feels like life is nothing but then admits all he is doing it putting off his act.
3. We noticed several usable quotes for the essay they may have to write so we wrote them on the board for students to add them to their list of quotes.

1. We began the class with students writing down some quotes that I had put on the board. I showed them how exactly to reference Shakespeare quotes (very much like poetry) and explained that they should be watching for lines as we read that say something striking about the Human Experience, or Human Existance, the theme of this unit. The quotes written on the board were examples of quotes they could consider using for their departmental.
2. We continued listening/reading along with the cd as Hamlet begins his “mad” acting to trap the King into some kind of confession.

1. We began the class with returned assignments. There were a handful to be given back.
2. We continued listening to the cd reading of Hamlet.  It does a great job with the inflection in the voices of the actors and also the music sets the mood well in the background.  We will continue tomorrow with Act I sc iv.

1. We began the class with returned assignments. There were a handful to be given back.
2. We continued listening to the cd reading of Hamlet.  It does a great job with the inflection in the voices of the actors and also the music sets the mood well in the background.  We will continue tomorrow with Act I sc iv.

1. We started off today’s class with a question, posed to one student. Andrew K, you have a dilema! Your best friend, Kale, has just come to you, at the party you’re enjoying, to tell you that your girlfriend, the one you’ve loved and been with for two years, Chelbie, was over in the corner with another guy! Chris Noll, of all people! You don’t believe it but Kale is adament that he saw the two of them making out!
You are in shock, but you talk to Chelbie about it and ask her, “What’s up with this!?!?” Poor Chelbie is at a loss because she swears she hasn’t talked to Chris, hasn’t seen him, and certainly wasn’t fooling around with him. “Why would Kale make up his garbage,” she cries. She reminds Andrew of how much she loves him, to which he absolutely believes. He never really could believe she’d make out with Chris, but why would Kale approach him and tell him that?
What does Andrew do? Does he take any action, or does he mull over the situation, put off making any changes to either relationship, because he doesn’t trust himself to make the right decision? Maybe, he thinks, if he does nothing, nothing with have to change, things can stay as they are. Then it’s like nothing really happened.
Except Kale has been a little “touchy” wondering why Andrew hasn’t dumped this girl yet. “Dude, you know what she did to you! Why is she still around?!”
But Andrew has no real response, other than he’s not sure.
Chelbie, too, is getting more annoyed. “This guy is trying to cause problems! Why would you still be his friend? He told you lies about me! If you love me, you’d trust me and lose him!”
Things are getting tense for poor Andrew. He does not know what to do. Act, and he could make the wrong decision, put everything off, and maybe nothing has to change. Except it is already. Things cannot go back to the trusting world he used to know. Nope, now he’s suspicious of everything, mistrusting of everyone, and acting jumpy with every moment. Poor Andrew is only putting off the inevitable.

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Students laughed at this little story but they carefully mulled over the potential agony of the moment. What would you do, in Andrew’s place? Both people you trust dearly, yet one of them must be mistaken or toying with you.
Hamlet was in a similar situation, except it wasn’t a friend that told him something and a girlfriend that denied it. It was his dead father’s Ghost that told Hamlet that he was murdered, a murder most foul, and that it was Hamlet’s own uncle, brother to his dead father, who did the deed!!

Hamlet isn’t sure whether to trust this ghost though. Everyone knows ghosts tell you slight truths to lead you to your death, they play with your fate, and they cannot be trusted. But what if this is true? Hamlet spends the whole play putting off his decision until he is absolutely forced to act, and through his delay he causes the deaths of almost all the rest of the characters of the play.

It is a crazy story! Intruiging and absolutely one of the most detailed and vivid stories to read. How do you make your decisions, and how much do you doubt yourself when you do? You have to decide which post-secondary school to go to. Hamlet had to decide whether to Kill his Uncle, and fear that it would lead him to eternal hell!! Don’t YOU have it easy. lol
2. Students were handed out play books, they read through a typed sheet of information to know before beginning the play, and then we read along as the Audio CD wonderfully acted out the play for us in our mind’s imagination.

1. Youtube can be an incredible resource. (It can also tempt you into wasting hours on end, but I digress!) There are several clips on youtube highlighting famous parts of Hamlet, some of his more famous soliloques and such, but it also shows different interpretations of the play. One movie version featuring Kenneth Branagh had some dramatic scenes showing Hamlet’s torture in his situation, while the Mel Gibson version is more true to the costumes and scenery one would imagine from a Shakespeare play. You have to take a moment, though, to watch the Arnold Schwartzenegger version. Yes, even the grate Austrian has played Hamlet on the screen. It is good to get the sense that there is no “ONE” way to interpret Hamlet or any of Shakespeare’s works.
2. The students seemed to enjoy (or tolerate, hard to say) a modern version of the play produced and posted on Youtube as a school project. It is very professionally filmed, though. It is humorous, modern in that it intertwines modern dialogue in with actually lines from the play, and puts a current-day spin on the surroundings. It was good to give the students some background to the play.

See some of the video clips below…

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1. Students started today with their narrative essays handed back.
2. They were given a handout that introduces the play of Hamlet. We read through the traditions and culture of Elizabethan drama, which is the style of drama that existed when Shakespeare wrote his plays. We looked at the diarama that Mrs. Seifert’s class made last year of the Globe Theatre and also discussed the eight parts that make a character a tragic figure.
3. Students copied out a character concept map that I drew on the board introducing each of the characters of the play and how they were all connected together. The characters with red hearts beside them are good, noble characters with caring qualities. The others are all foul players in the tragic events that come to be. It was also pointed out that two men are seeking revenge for the death of their fathers: Fortenbras and Hamlet. With two men seeking the same goal, we are able to compare how effective they are in that goal.
4. We moved into the projector room to look at some popular culture takes on Shakespeare themes. Some beleive Shakespeare is like the Coca Cola of Literature, it is everywhere and a huge part of pop culture. Shakespeare’s saying are on beer shirts, in the Simpsons, in your music lyrics, alluded to in music videos and movies.. it is simply everywhere. So, we watched a few Hamlet clips on youtube. Enjoy!

See the clips below…

Continue reading

1. [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/cDYXwfZxJto" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]Students finished watching the movie today. They seemed to be quite engrossed in the efforts of the animals to fight for their freedom. One person said today that when we were reading the novel, the moment when the pigs came out of the farmhouse, walking on two legs, she got tingles down her spine. That’s a sign of a great story.
2. Some who were missing yesterday were upset that they’ll have missed part of the movie. Lucky for you, the whole movie is on youtube with the animated version. It’s like an old Disney movie. How’s that for homework?

Here’s the first of the 8 videos on youtube.

1. Students have worked very hard and with great focus lately so they were given the movie for Animal Farm to watch. We discussed it before hand and the agreement was made that they can watch the video that goes with the novel as long as…. they trust me and work With me as we begin Hamlet next week. It is a good version of the movie.

See below to watch a portion of a different version of Animal Farm…

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