Gifted English II: Tomorrow will be our last scheduled CMC Reading Day. There will be a check-reading test next Thursday, October 29, which is six days longer a reading deadline than I had originally anticipated. I have character lists to help you if you are having trouble distinguishing between various French persons. Bring your novel and a beverage.
Today, though, is another matter entirely.
Grammar activity (!) followed by more Icarian fun in the form of a response paragraph.
Reminders: Mastery Test for the 120 Terms is Thursday; bring a pencil. It is multiple-guess. And for those of you who tend to leave things lying around in 313: You are ultimately responsible for your textbooks, and so far this year I have collected two dozen or so books from other classes, two very expensive calculators, a cell phone, two iPods, and some expensive make-up compacts from Dior and Chanel. I am glad that you are of a socio-economic class to have such things, but as a fairly materialistic person myself I find myself baffled that you would leave things lying about so cavalierly. Please, please, check your pockets and bags before you leave the classroom--I cannot be responsible for such finery.
APeeps: Further transitional pieces between Mac and Ham, with lecture/discussion thrown in for good measure. Tomorrow is a practice MC session for the AP exam, since we are a teeny bit behind schedule on that (but stunningly ahead of schedule in other ways, so yay) so bring a pencil and your brain. All will be well. Things to contemplate regarding the two tragedies: One is a fallen hero, much in the Aristotilean mode, and the other is a relatively good, if indecisive, man beset by a corrupt universe. Harold Bloom once stated that in writing Hamlet Shakespeare created "the human being," and I often wonder if Hamlet is the beginning of modern literature as we know it now.
Hamlet is certainly someone with whom we can identify, if only for specific qualities. I wouldn't date him. But then, again, I have a celebrity crush on Sam Waterston (the eyebrows are just so expressive) so there is no accounting for taste, eh? I think many of you will find Hamlet appealing in an emo-boy, Death Cab for Cutie kind of way. Or you will want to smack him upside the head. Regardless, the language Shakespeare allows this character to utilize is filled with insight, puns, and ridiculous brainy-ness. Enjoy it for what it is. Oh, and bring a pencil tomorrow. And watch Law and Order at some point and see if you don't find Waterston's eyebrow management somewhat entertaining.
