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Hamlet: Final Response

Choose a focus for your final response to Hamlet.

Synthesize alternative points of view, (include links to sources: your posts, STJ blogs, etc.).

Review your responses throughout our study:

• Thaw, resolve, adieu…
• Hamlet Getting Started 2
• Is Polonius a Good Father?
• Hamlet: Before Act 1 and 2
• Why read literature?

Writing tips:

• Outcome-Illustrating Verbs
• Voice and Structure(Student blog will win $10,000 Scholarship)
• Did I mention keep a keen focus?

Trackback.

PS: “To thine own rubric be true.”

November 9th is the “cut off” day for submission of my marks to the office.
Any assignment to be (re)submitted for grading must be “in my hand” before 2:00PM November 9th.

Tags: blog, Blogging Tips, English 30, Hamlet, keen focus, literature, resolve, rubric, scholarship, submission, thaw, verbs, writing tips
Posted in English 30

Thaw, resolve, adieu…(English 30)

Look for a category “Personal Psychology” in the sidebar at http://iblog.stjschool.org/snowflake/.

Pick and choose.

Trackback here.

Thanks, adieu.

Tags: Hamlet, iblog, personal psychology, resolve, sidebar, thaw
Posted in English 30

Hamlet Getting Started 2

Recall:

“refer to your responses to these questions and keep track of any changes in your opinions, or any surprises you find.”

Revisit your initial response to Hamlet: Getting Started. Include specific examples from the text to justify opinions you are forming; develop, rebuke, or refute your initial impressions. Synthesize ideas from outside the text to enhance the clarity of your argument. Use stronger verbs in topic sentences. Use transitions to move between ideas and examples, and avoid dropped quotes and the now overused blockquote.

Trackback. Thanks.

Tags: clarity, Hamlet, initial impressions, initial response, quotes, surprises, topic sentences, transitions, verbs
Posted in English 30

Is Polonius a Good Father?

1. Write about whether or not you think Polonius is a good father. In your post, explain which of his actions were right and which were wrong.
2. Create your own description of a good father.
3. Write a letter to Polonius offering him advice about ways in which he could become a better parent.

Trackback, svp.

Tags: advice, father, Hamlet, letter, offering, parent, Polonius
Posted in English 30

Hamlet: Before Act 1 and 2(English 30)

How do isolation and loneliness affect how we perceive ourselves?

Is Horatio a nihilist? A Christian existentialist? Something else? Does he reveal his “imperatives“? How does he respond when evidence challenges his “imperatives”?

Consider “Postulates 1-4.”

How do characters respond when evidence clearly contradicts their ideals?

While viewing/reading/blogging, keep the usual “Cornell” notes with pen and paper. Blog your response to textual issues arising from class discussion. Link your blog to online sources: wikis, etexts, guides, discussions, imdbs. Synthesize don’t plagiarize: hyperlink all sources. Refer to “Improve Your Critical Thinking” suggestions.

Refresh your skills by looking again at notes from our discussion on Bloom: Knowledge=>Comprehension==>Application==>
Analysis==>Synthesis==>Evaluation.

Ask for the “Strong Verbs” handout if you’ve misplaced yours.

PS: linguistic multi-taskers will excel.

Tags: bloom, christian existentialist, comprehension, cornell notes, critical thinking, Hamlet, imperatives, isolation, loneliness, nihilist, pen and paper, plagiarize, postulates, synthesis, taskers, textual issues, verbs
Posted in English 30

Hamlet: Getting Started

Hamlet raises many questions that you may recognize from your own life. Thinking about some of these issues will make your experience of the play more interesting and rewarding. Discuss some of the following questions in your blog or the forums. Record in your blog any ideas you find interesting or thought-provoking. When you begin to read and discuss the play, refer to your responses to these questions and keep track of any changes in your opinions, or any surprises you find.

1. We all have procrastinated about something important that we had to do, sometimes disappointing other people and often disappointing ourselves. Why do we procrastinate?
2. Most people have purposely “played the fool” at some time. Why do people do this? If a person for some reason plays the fool or pretends to be disturbed for a long time, do you think the person eventually can become truly disturbed?
3. Isolation and loneliness are feelings common to most people at one time or another. Sometimes external circumstances create this situation, and sometimes people deliberately withdraw from those around them. What can friends or relatives do when someone has purposely withdrawn and chosen to be alone with his or her problems?
4. Disillusion is a common experience of growing up. We find that people in the adult world whom we once idealized are less than ideal, and that situations we considered innocent are actually corrupt. How do young people encountering the “real world” for the first time handle these discoveries?
5. In Shakespeare’s time, insane people were regarded as sources of entertainment. What is our society’s attitude toward mental illness?
6. What is the difference between “taking revenge” and “getting justice”?
7. Privacy is highly valued in our society. How would you feel if you found out you were “under surveillance” at school, at your job, at home, or among friends because of some change in your behaviour?

Having thought about this wide variety of topics, you are ready to explore Hamlet.

Tags: adult world, attitude, blog, discoveries, English 30, external circumstances, feelings, fool, Hamlet, isolation, job, loneliness, long time, mental illness, real world, relatives, shakespeare, surprises, surveillance, taking revenge
Posted in English 30

After Act 5 (English 30)

Respond to one of the following:

1. Do you think Rosencrantz and Guildenstern deserved to be put to death? What alternatives might Hamlet have taken? Examine Hamlet’s reasoning and consider whether you think Hamlet was seeking justice or revenge?
2. Why does Horatio tell Hamlet he will lose the contest? Why is Horatio correct?
3. Throughout most of the play Hamlet has seemed unwilling to do what he knows he must do. Is it only in the final scene that Hamlet seems fully willing to accept his destiny? What do you think has caused this change in Hamlet?
4. Death is personified twice in the final scene: a police officer(by Hamlet) and a hunter(by Fortinbras). Why has Shakespeare chosen these two particular occupations. What other jobs could death, as a person, perform?

Tags: change, English, Final, form, Hamlet, job, reason, Respond, shakespeare, use
Posted in English 30

I wish to dwell on Ophelia (Eng. 30)

Many scholars discuss the significance of Ophelia only as far as she impacts the development of the character of Hamlet. I hate that. Ophelia is far more important than the 5 scenes in which she appears. The tragedy of Ophelia deserves more considered attention. Write about the life and death of Ophelia. Write about the effect others have had on Ophelia. What makes her unique, distinctive? What ideals does she hold? What are her doubts and fears? What brings her joy, inspiration, fulfillment?

Hazlitt says, “Ophelia is a character almost too exquisitely touching to be dwelt upon.”

Dwell on her I say, dwell now.

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Tags: doubts, fears, fulfillment, Hamlet, idea, Ideals, inspiration, Man, shakespeare, significance
Posted in English 30

An Interpretation of Hamlet

(30-1) For hundreds of years, scholars have written about problems of interpreting this play. Complete any of the following statements and develop your thoughts in an entry in your blog. Trackback, SVP.

• What puzzles me most about Hamlet’s behaviour is . . .
• I don’t understand why Shakespeare included (didn’t include) . . .
• My first impression of _________ has changed because . . .
• I’m not sure whether . . .
• There seems to be a contradiction . . .

(30-2) In your blog, write about a time when, under pressure, you acted in a way that surprised you.

Tags: blog, change, diction, Hamlet, interpretation, shakespeare, State, use
Posted in English 30

Hamlet: After Act 1 and 2(English 30)

1. (30-1)”I know not seems.” In I, ii, 76, Hamlet claims that his grief is real, not just a show. Make a chart of all the occasions in this act when there is a difference between the way a character seems to be and the way he or she really is. Draw up a chart with the following headings: 
   • The Character
   • The Situation
   • The Appearance
   • The Reality
   • The reason for Hiding the Truth

   Fill in your ideas about the characters’ behaviour and compare your chart with those of other students.

2. (30-2)Consider whether or not you think Polonius is a good father. Explain which of his actions were right and which were wrong. Create your own description of a good father. Write a letter to Polonius offering him advice about ways he could become a better parent.

Tags: advice, difference, English, Explain, father, Hamlet, idea, letter, offering, parent, Polonius, reality, reason, right, wit
Posted in English 30

English 30 Hamlet Act 2 Done?

Before the weekend let’s be done Act 2, write whatever you need in your blogs, moderate at least three comments from anyone on your posts, help others by cross-posting comments as well.

I need to have Assessment data before the long weekend for EVERYONE! Grumble, I have only three sheets from last week, jeesh!

I will enter zeros if no data is received.

out.

D. S.

Tags: blog, English, Hamlet
Posted in English 30

Hamlet next for English 30

Grade 12s. I must have your data from the first two/three blog assignments ASAP.

Have a look in your Dashboard==>Plugins. Freely restrict/limit access to your blog by activating plugins, especially the capatchas.

Tags: blog, dashboard, English, English 30, English 30 Film Study, Hamlet, Limit
Posted in English 30