Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Short Wednesday! Such fun. I will be staying after school for over an hour for the express purpose of helping seniors with college essays and letters of recommendation. Get in line and bring a snack for yourself.

APees: You have a quiz on Act IV today, complete with bonus question and menacing laughter from your instructor. Mwahahahaha. Afterwards--Macpapering the world!

Advance Notice to APees: If you wish to have your own copy of Hamlet for writing, scribbling, etc., then go ahead and order a copy from www.amazon.com or a local bookstore. You have the play in its entirety in your NINETY-FIVE DOLLAR ANTHOLOGY and I have some paperback copies for use with stickynotes, but if you prefer to write in your own margins, get a copy now so you won't panic in a week or two.

Gifted English II: After yesterday's Timed Writing Fun Seminar, we're diving back into the wreck (so to speak) with Percy Shelley as our AofD and a TP-CASTT analysis of "Ozymandias," which will serve as our thematic bridge between the ancient Greek world and our mini-unit on the literature of the Bible.*


*Clarification point for parents or students reading this: We are studying the literature of the Bible strictly from the perspective of literary analysis and for historicity, not from a theological standpoint. Understanding certain Biblical characters and themes will aid in deconstructing much of British and American literature, and understanding the allusions in classical literature can only help students reach new levels of comprehension and analysis. The College Board strongly recommends some Biblical backgrounds in preparation for both AP Language and Literature, which is why I incorporate such information into a pre-AP/Gifted class.

For full disclosure: I do volunteer for the Diocese of Orlando, through St. James Catholic Cathedral, and I am a religious person. HOWEVER, nothing in my curriculum involves proselytizing one religious viewpoint over another, and I will be sharing selections from various Bibles (New International Version, KJV, etc.) as approved by the State of Florida's benchmark recommendations. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me, but please rest assured that I've been teaching this unit for years and have yet to convert anyone to Catholicism through it. Really. :-)