Double, Double, Toil, and Trouble...

This week we will really get into the heart of the story of Macbeth. I also want to say that I feel like you all are doing a pretty good job of "getting it" even before I explain passages. Do you find that this is one of the easier plays you have read? Do you think it's just having gotten more comfortable with Shakespeare that makes it easier? It is, after all, Shakespearean play number four or five (if you were in World Studies)...

Here is our schedule for the week.

Monday, 1/23
Grade aloud the multiple choice homework
Macbeth Act III, while tracing your word

Tuesday, 1/24
Macbeth Act III, tracing word

Wednesday, 1/25
Macbeth III (?) and IV

Thursday, 1/26
TT-Group 1
Work on multiple choice- Group 2

Friday, 1/27
Macbeth Act IV

Macbeth Act II Activity

In previous years, I have done the following activity over Lady Macbeth after Act II of Macbeth. I thought you might want to do a piece of this activity on the blog as one of your optional comments. I could see some of you getting into this...

You can link here to read the lyrics to Alanis Morissette's song "Wake Up". What is the speaker's attitude in this song? Does this seem to be more like Macbeth or Lady Macbeth's viewpoint in Acts I and II? Look at the first two lines and line eight. What is the speaker expressing in these lines about the person to whom she is referring? Rewrite the song (or any portion of the song) as if Lady Macbeth is talking to Macbeth. Keep in mind the states of mind of both characters at this point in the play.

Below is an example:
You want power but only if it's morally taken.
You like to think but only if someone else thinks for you.
No reason that you should be in dismay
No excuse for you not to do the deed today
Cause it's easy to be scared
So much easier than being brave
And if your chance comes and passes by, it shall never come back to you
You like prophecies to be fulfilled but only if you don't play your part
You sulk... and you think...just go do it
There's an obvious attraction
To the choice that risks your chance to be king
There's an obvious coward that I
could not make you finish tonight
Cause it's easy to be scared
So much easier than being brave
And if your chance comes and passes by, it shall never come back to you
To you to you to you to you and to you alone...
There's no jewels, no crown, no bravery anymore
There's a little boy cowering in a corner
Which the sight he cannot bear
There's a bold and proud little girl
Going to commit the act
But it's easy to be scared
So much easier than being brave
And if your chance comes and passes by, it shall never come back to you
To you, to you
Go on kill him go on just do it
Go on kill him go on just do it
Go on get it done before someone sees you
Go on kill him go on just do it
Just do it.

"Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair"

Happy MLK Day week! I have so many favorite quotes of his, but one of the best is "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." I think that's a good model to base your life on. There are so many times in life that the easier option by far, the safer option, even, is to remain silent. From the most basic example of one person picking on another or jokes that seem harmless but are actually very offensive to the extreme of a country slaughtering its own citizens or children being abused by those who should protect them, silence is not acceptable. Be that person, even if you are standing alone. We are reading Macbeth, and this play contains a very clear example of the effects of silence. We are not to the end, and so can't see the full ramifications yet (and I don't want to spoil it), but as with most murders of a king, it is not going to end well. Macbeth, as you saw on Friday, decided that he should not do it, that he should let nature take its course. Lady Macbeth manipulated and bullied him into it. When it mattered, Macbeth kept silent. He let her push and bully and insult and get her way, rather than speaking up for what he knew to be right, even if he too felt the temptation to kill. Learn from literature, learn from history, learn from heroes like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Speak up and speak out. Be a hero to those around you who need a voice or a hand or a heart...

[Sermon over.]

This week, we are going to be doing vocab and reading Macbeth. I love how the play develops and am anxious for you to read and discuss it. So far, I feel like you guys aren't feeling Macbeth that much, and that makes me sad. I think that having the Shakespearean plays SO spread out due to the modified schedule makes it harder. Anyway, here is this week's schedule:

Tuesday, 1/17
Unit 6 Vocabulary: abject, agnostic, complicity, derelict, diatribe, effigy, equity, inane, indictment, indubitable, intermittent, moot, motif, neophyte, perspicacity, plenary, surveillance, sylvan, testy, travesty
Macbeth Act II
Wednesday, 1/18
Macbeth Act II
Thursday, 1/19
Macbeth work-Group 1
TT- Group 2
Friday, 1/20
Vocabulary Unit 6 Quiz
STUDY

I'm Baaaaaack!!!!!!!!!

I have decided to restart ye olde blog this semester with my AP and English IV classes. Here you will find schedules, awesome student work, and sometimes extra activities and thought-provoking information. I have told you already, but I am thrilled to death to have another semester with you all. 2nd period was such a bright spot in my day last semester and I expect that it will be the same this semester, though certainly shadowed with the knowledge that you are all LEAVING me in May. (If you will note, on the right side of the blog, there is a countdown clock to graduation. Please know that your joy is far greater than mine as this clock winds down...) :) Seriously, though, last semester of senior year... it has to feel great! I am proud of each and every one of you.

This week begins Unit 3, Complications of Culture. As you know from yesterday's seminar, the essential questions are:
How does one's perspective shape or alter truth?
In a culture where we are bombarded with other people and other things trying to define us, how do we make decisions for ourselves?
How is who we want to be as revealing as who we are and how we are perceived by others?
The major works for this unit will include Heart of Darkness, Macbeth, Sir Gawaine, Arthurian legends, and Metaphysical/Carpe Diem Poetry.
We are starting Macbeth this week, and I can't wait to teach it to you and hear your discussions. It is not as deep as Hamlet, in my opinion, but it is really very incredibly exciting and it contains one of Shakespeare's greatest villains and one of his few strong female characters (at least in the tragedies we read in our curriculum).

This week's schedule:

Monday- Introductory Seminar to Macbeth (ambition, situational ethics)

Tuesday- Persuasive Prompt (part of schoolwide initiative)

Wednesday- Act I

Thursday- TT for Group 1, Macbeth for Group 2

Friday- Act I
JOURNALS DUE

Macbeth Act II

In previous years, I have done the following activity over Lady Macbeth after Act II of Macbeth. I thought you might want to do a piece of this activity on the blog as one of your optional comments. I could see some of you getting into this...

You can link here to read the lyrics to Alanis Morissette's song "Wake Up". What is the speaker's attitude in this song? Does this seem to be more like Macbeth or Lady Macbeth's viewpoint in Acts I and II? Look at the first two lines and line eight. What is the speaker expressing in these lines about the person to whom she is referring? Rewrite the song (or any portion of the song) as if Lady Macbeth is talking to Macbeth. Keep in mind the states of mind of both characters at this point in the play.

Below is an example:
You want power but only if it's morally taken.
You like to think but only if someone else thinks for you.
No reason that you should be in dismay
No excuse for you not to do the deed today
Cause it's easy to be scared
So much easier than being brave
And if your chance comes and passes by, it shall never come back to you
You like prophecies to be fulfilled but only if you don't play your part
You sulk... and you think...just go do it
There's an obvious attraction
To the choice that risks your chance to be king
There's an obvious coward that I
could not make you finish tonight
Cause it's easy to be scared
So much easier than being brave
And if your chance comes and passes by, it shall never come back to you
To you to you to you to you and to you alone...
There's no jewels, no crown, no bravery anymore
There's a little boy cowering in a corner
Which the sight he cannot bear
There's a bold and proud little girl
Going to commit the act
But it's easy to be scared
So much easier than being brave
And if your chance comes and passes by, it shall never come back to you
To you, to you
Go on kill him go on just do it
Go on kill him go on just do it
Go on get it done before someone sees you
Go on kill him go on just do it
Just do it.

Back and Better than Ever.

What is that light filtering through the clouds and trees? The blogs are BACK!

After a LOOOOOONG bloggy hiatus, my class blogs are back... and better than ever before. We are going to finish the semester with a bang, interacting virtually with each other and having some enrichment stuff on here, some extra credit, some commentary, some planning... It's going to be GREEEAAATTT!!!!! :)

Sorry.

I am calling it a wash. This blog this semester has been an utter failure. My fault. Sometimes when you are doing (way!) too much, some things have to go. Unfortunately for the blog, this is what went this semester. It's not you all, it's me. :) Sorry.

However, while we're saying goodbye, let me say that this semester with you has been wonderful. I have so enjoyed your energy and enthusiasm (at least most of the time)! You are all genuinely nice people and I am so grateful to have spent your last semester of high school with you. For those I have taught in the past, either in English II, English II Honors, or Holocaust Lit (or more than one of those!), it is one of my greatest joys as a teacher to get to teach kids several times. I love to see the ways you have grown up and matured over time. For those I met for the first time this semester, it is because of you that I love to teach AP English. I have told a few of you already, it always saddens me a little when amazing kids graduate and I never got to teach them. This class gave me an opportunity to meet more of you and for that I am grateful. I wish all of you the best, both in your immediate future and in your distant future. You will succeed in college and in life and I am happy to have been a small part of your past. Now go, and find your Personal Legend! :) Love you!!!

Mrs. Davis