October 31, 2005

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Mr. Bernier has requested that you not wear costumes today; please adhere to his request. I do plan to wear my classy Old Navy Halloween T-Shirt, but I will leave my Mr. Spock ears at home.

Advanced Placement Literature: Hamlet Redux. At this point, we are getting ready to vault headfirst into the train wreck that is Act V. Any predictions? Anyone starting to really FEEL the power of the diction and syntax of Modern English? Anyone want to take a crack at Original Pronunciation?

Gifted English IV: Macbeth begins today--I have some supplementary material to give you, and content vocabulary from the first three acts (words that still have resonance today and may help some of you raise the SAT verbal score just a smidge.) Some of the essential questions that emerge from studies of this tragedy revolve around the nature of ethics and ambition--and we need to see that Macbeth, while set in 1050 A.D. Scotland, still has political capital today.

Gifted English II: Satire and Horror and Everything in Between. Our first AofD Project will be for the Rhode Island recluse H.P. Lovecraft, and then we will seamlessly segue into the works of Edgar Allan Poe while you much on Halloweeny treats. But no costumes.