Little Buddy Project Update, Curious Incident update

Last day we went to CPE and each gr. 12 was assigned a gr. 3 or 2 buddy.

Using what we learned about children's literature, students must  now create a story.

1/2 page of writing is due Tuesday morning.  It can be a summary of the story, the story itself, or bulleted ideas of the story.

We will make a return visit this Tuesday afternoon, 2pm departure.

The book itself will be dueMonday June 13th.


Students are continuing to read the Curious Incident novel.  A worksheet pp.74-115 was handed out and will be due at the end of the long block next week.

New novel: Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

Today we learned about Autism Spectrum Disorder and Asperger's Syndrome.

We began the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.  Students were asked to read up to and including p. 32 for tomorrow's class.

Hamlet Mini Project and overview of Little Buddy Project

I gave an overview of our children's literature project.  It begins with an initial visit on May 26th.

Then we began to work on our Hamlet mini-projects -- these will be due at the beginning of class on Friday.

Ambiguity Paragraph

We discussed the concept of ambiguity (and a similar term, ambivalence).

We then listened to Peter Gabriel's song "Family Snapshot".

In class assignment:  In a paragraph of about 100 words discuss the ambiguity in the song "Family Snapshot."

This was handed in at the end of class.

If students finished up early, they worked on their Hamlet mini-projects that

Freud's Psycho-sexual stages of development and Hamlet

We finished Hamlet today by watching the Mel Gibson version.
Students learned about Freudian psychology and his Psycho sexual stages of development.  This helped explain the freudian interpretation in the movie we watched.

Students began their final Hamlet mini-projects.  Although a project sheet was given to some students, students were encouraged to create their very own final projects.

This project will be due at the middle of next week.

Tanzania and Act 3 scene 1

We began by reviewing the theme of deception in Hamlet.

We listened to a half-hour talk from Daniel Blackie on his philanthropy in Tanzania.

Then we read Act 3 scene 1 (most of it).
Bennet will read this next day and we'll examine the To Be or Not to be speech.

Hamlet

Today we worked through the Act 1 discussion questions (in groups and then as a whole class).
We learned the definition of what an anachronism is and how Shakespeare had anachronisms in his writing.

We reviewed my interpretation of Hamlet as a resolute character (Hamlet is a man of action, I argue, while most scholars believe he is a man of inaction).

Then students read a handout entitled On Fools, Jesters, and Madmen and completed the following three questions AND handed them in for marks in class:

Answer the following questions thoughtfully and articulately

1.     What activity was “considered fun” during Shakespearean times?

2.     What was an “analogue” to modern television? Explain what this means?

3.     Hamlet says he will put “an antic disposition” on.  Explain how this benefits Hamlet.

Then we read all of Act 2.