Exam handout!

Here is the handout you received via email.

Tempest: Act 5

1. Check journals and vocab
2. Let's get down to business:

Discussion Questions

The Basics:
1.What does Prospero do before Ariel brings in Alonso and the others?
2. How does Prospero treat his prisoners as they awake? How do they respond? Specifically, how does he treat Sebastian and Antonio? How do they respond?
3. What are Ferdinand and Miranda doing when they appear? How is the game going?
4. How does Gonzalo interpret all that has happened?
5. How many ways can we understand Prospero's comment on Caliban? How does Caliban respond to what has happened to him?
6. What will happen next? What happens to Ariel?

Big Picture:
1. What does it mean to forgive?
2. What do you think of Prospero as the play closes?
3. What are we to think of Prospero's epilogue? What if this is Shakespeare's final farewell?

Tempest: Act 4, Sc 1

1. Check journals & books

Discussion Questions

What has Prospero agreed to at the beginning of the scene? What warning does he give to Ferdinand and Miranda?

What instructions does Prospero have for Ariel (4.1.35-38)?

What happens in the show (masque) that Prospero presents for Ferdinand and Miranda (4.1.60-139)? What is the subject of the show? Why is it appropriate?

Why does Prospero cut short the show? How do Ferdinand and Miranda respond to what happens (4.1.143-145)? How does Prospero explain the show and his actions (4.1.146-163)?

According to Ariel (4.1.171-184), what has happened to Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo since we last saw them? 

What does Prospero tell Ariel to prepare for Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo? What is Prospero's reaction to what Caliban has done (4.1.188-193)? Is his reaction justified?

What happens when Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo come to kill Prospero? How are they driven away?

How does Prospero respond to his successes (4.1.262-266)?

Tempest Act 3, Sc 3

1.  Check journals & vocab
2. Discussion questions: How does the apparition of the banquet affect Alonso and his entourage? How is the banquet used as a symbol? Why aren’t the men allowed to eat the food? Is this an effective moment for Ariel to accuse them of their sins?

Quiz time! You'll be fabulous.

Act 3, Sc 1 & 2

1. Sentence fun
2. Check vocab, books and journal

Free write
1. Thinking about 3.1, what is Shakespeare suggesting about the true nature of love?
2. Thinking about 3.2, why include this subplot that mirrors the conspiracy of the nobles?

Let's make a family tree.

Tempest: Act 2, Sc 2

1. Quiz
2.  Sentence
3. Check books, journal & vocab

Discussion
1. Is it surprising that Caliban willingly worships Stephano and desires to give him control of the island? If that’s true, then why did Caliban resent Prospero for usurping taking what he considers his own rightful claim to the island? What does this show about Caliban?

Drawing fun!

The Tempest: Act 2, Sc 1

1. Sentence fun

2. Check vocab & books & journal

3. Let's get playing & discussing

Discussion Questions
1. What type of person is Gonzalo? What was his role in the plot against Prospero? Does his behavior seem consistent with how he acts now?

2. Sebastian and Antonio ridicule Gonzalo. What does this tell us about their characters?

3. Antonio incites Sebastian to kill his brother and take the crown of Naples. Why? What does this tell us about Antonio’s motives? What does Sebastian’s response tell us about him? What could Shakespeare be saying about human nature?

4. Gonzalo's idea of a nation: the Utopia.

The Tempest: Act 1, Sc 2

1. Sentence fun
2. Check books & vocab
3. Discussion

Scene 2
1.What’s the history between Prospero & Antonio? How does Prospero assert his authority & his own truth? In what ways does this relationship express the theme of usurpation? (lines 36-168)

2.What’s the history between Prospero & Ariel? How does Prospero assert his authority? In what ways does this relationship express the theme of servant/master? (lines 189-299)

3. What’s the history between Prospero & Caliban? In what ways does Prospero assert his authority? How does this relationship express the idea of colonialism? (lines 307-373)

The Tempest: Act 1, Sc 1

1. Sentence fun
2. Check props
3. Introduce vocab
4. Let's get playing

Discussion Questions
Scene 1
In two groups, act out scene one. Note that the opening scene takes place on a ship at sea during a terrible storm. (Why is it significant that the play begins with a storm at sea?) How can the fury of the waves and wind be shown on stage? Be sure to address the following:
a. How do you perform the first stage direction?
b. How can actors' movements suggest a ship caught in a storm?
c. How might you convey the sense of fear & crisis? These are people who are desperately concerned to save their lives. Do they panic or are they well disciplined?
d. What simple props do you need to convey the scene.

As time permits:
Scene 2
1. This scene opens with Miranda's compassion for the people caught in the tempest. Some productions show Prospero as a powerful magician; others, a quiet man. How would you stage the first sight of Prospero and Miranda to greatest dramatic effect?

The Frankenstein Research Project!

Our final piece of work on our favorite novel.

Remember to check the syllabus for the time-line and due date of this project. We will be working in the library all this week, so please meet there for class.

Frankenstein: The end =-(

1. Finish up debate!
2. Review sentence patterns thus far.

Discussion questions
1. What's the difference between regret & remorse?
2. In chapter 7, find ways in which Victor & the creature have become identical.
3. Who are we the reader meant to sympathize with?

Frankenstein, Vol 3, Chpts 4-6

1. Learn a new sentence!
2. Check books and vocab
3. The great debate!

Frankenstein: Vol. 3, Chpts 1-3

1. New Sentence
2. Check books and vocab whilst you free write: Must a person experience desperation to know the true meaning of joy? Must a person know hunger to really understand the concept of being full? In other words, must we experience opposite emotions to truly understand life?

Discussion Questions
1. Where does Victor travel in Chpts 1-2? In what way does the journey further develop Victor's character? Clerval's?
2. Close reading p. 168-169. Let's look at tone and mood
3. At the close of Chpt 2 Victor says, "I looked towards its completion with a tremulous and eager hope, which I dared not trust myself to question, but which was intermixed with obscure forebodings of evil, that made my heart sick in my bosom" (169). Remember that Victor is telling a story. Using only this passage, what does Victor want the listener/reader to think of him?
4. At the start of Chpt 3 the creature says, "Shall each man ... find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn" (172). Is the creature's argument a reasonable one? If so, in what way does this develop Victor's character and the creature's?

Frankenstein Vol. 2, Chpts 8-9

1. Sentence
2. Book & vocab review (while students are free writing)

Discussion Questions

1. Free write: "As I read, however, I applied much personally to my own feelings and condition. I found myself similar, yet at the same time strangely unlike to the beings concerning whom I read, and to whose conversation I was a listener. I sympathised with and partly understood them, but I was unformed in mind; I was dependent on none, and related to none" (131).

In what ways are you like the creature?

2. Now, let's look at Erikson and how the creature and Victor compare.Where are the two men on the scale of development? What are the effects of their knowledge?

3. Paradise Lost, Plutarch's Lives, Sorrow of Werter

Frankenstein: Vol. 2, Chpts 5-7

1. New sentence pattern! Yes, a new one.
2. Check books & vocab
3. Vocab review

Discussion questions
1. Themes (recurring idea in a novel): C block: outsider v insider, identity in the context of others, loneliness, loss, creature v creator, search for knowledge, weather's impact on mood, weather's impact on people, nature v nurture. F block: identity, self-knowledge, self-reflection, misfortune, search for knowledge, good v evil, fate v free will, divine power, family, heart v mind, nature's influence on man/society, curiosity, story-telling, appearance v reality, acceptance of self and society, depression , fall of man, nature v science, faith v science.
**How do these themes work on the level of the self? society? universe/world?

2. What is the most important thing the creature learns about mankind from the De Lacey family?(Let's learn SPA!) Follow-up: what are the outcomes of his learning?

Frankenstein Vol. 2, Chpts 1-4

1. Sentence review!
2. Check books and vocab
3. Review vocab

Discussion questions
1. At the close of chapter 1, in what ways has Victor changed? How does Shelley use Victor's fascination with nature to remind us of his actions against nature?
2. Close reading: p. 100 ("The ascent is precipitous, ...) — what is the tone of this paragraph? Is this Victor's way of expressing remorse for his actions?
3. "You accuse me of murder, and yet you would, with satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature. Oh, praise the eternal justice of man!" (103). Victor believes in an eye-for-an-eye. Is that justice or revenge?
4. How does the tone and language change from chapter three to chapter 4? What does this reveal about the creature's development?

NOTE: track the language of the creature. Pay close attention to when it is overtly negative and overtly positive. What's the correlation between his language and his sense of self? And the correlation between nature and Victor's sense of self.

Frankenstein: Vol 1, Chpts 5-6

1. Sentence time! Last one before we review the different ones we've learned.
2. Check books and annotations
3. Review vocab words
4. Architecture handout
5. Review denotation and connotation

Discussion questions
1. Who is at fault for William's death? Is anyone other than the murderer responsible for what happened?
2. In chapter 7, what statement suggests that Victor views the creature as part of himself?
3. In what ways does Victor's guilt affect his health? What is Shelley's purpose in this recurring plot device?

Frankenstein: Vol. 1, Chpts 4-6

1. Let's learn a new sentence!
2. Check books and vocab
3. Review vocab
4. Free write for five minutes: Looking at the passage on p. 54 ("Learn from me ... than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.) In what ways does Victor's  warning relate to all mankind?
5. Review architecture handout.

Discussion questions

• In what ways does Shelley display Victor's hubris? Look particularly at teh contrast in Victor's desire to conquer nature yet ignore its beauty.

• Chpt. 5: Close reading of passage on pp. 58-59. Lesson on connotation (an idea or feeling that a word invokes in a person in addition to its literal/primary meaning) and denotation (the literal/primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests). Step 1: read passage out lout. Step 2: read silently and circle/underline all words with negative connotations/denotations. Big question: hat kind of tone is Shelley trying to create around the the Creature's creation and creator?

Frankenstein: Vol. 1 Chpts 1-3

1. A new sentence!
2. Check book
3. Check and review vocabulary


Discussion
1. In what ways does Victor's statement that "the world was to me a secret which I desired to divine" (38) serve as characterization? What is characterization?

2. In what ways do Henry & Victor differ? Why might Shelley be setting them up as foils? (**A character in a work whose behavior and values contrast with those of another character in order to highlight the distinctive temperament of that character (usually the protagonist)) (Bedford St Martins Press).

3. In what way does Shelley characterize Elizabeth when she writes "the saintly soul (who) shone like a shrine-dedicated lamp in our peaceful home?" (39). What role does this characterization set for Elizabeth?
4. Is Victor's fascination with the Philosopher's Stone an admirable one? Look closely at the passage on page 42: "Under the guidance of my new preceptors, I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life; but the latter soon obtained my undivided attention. Wealth was an inferior object; but what glory would attend the discovery, if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!" What is Hubris?
5. What does Victor's search for a like-minded thinker tell us about human nature? Why might Shelley have portrayed this characteristic in both Victor and Robert?

Frankenstein: The Letters

1. Let's learn a new sentence pattern! You love the semi-colon!
2. Check books
3. Check and review vocab
4. Some background.

• Who was Mary Shelley? What is this Frankenstein we speak of?
• Some major themes we'll see: fate vs free will, personal responsibility, loneliness, nature, family,  knowledge (it's power and the acquisition of), and science. This is not an all-inclusive list, but these ideas will pop up quite often.
• What is epistemology? How does it play a role in the text thus far? In the future?

Discussion questions: use text evidence to support your claims

1. What is Walton's attitude toward his quest?

2. Why do you think Walton feels lonely even though he is on board a ship with a full crew?

3. Why do you think Walton is attracted to the stranger?

4. What details suggest that both Walton and the stranger are willing to make big sacrifices in the search for knowledge?

5. How are these two men alike? different?

6. Why do you think Shelley chose to lead into the stranger's story by starting with a frame story about Robert?

Day 1 fun: Where I'm From

Poems, poems and more poems.

1. Pick a favorite line from your poem (make it a complete thought or image or description) and put it on the board. This is the start of Chalk Talk.
2. After all comments are on the board, respond to four lines with constructive feedback. What is constructive feedback? Let's define that. Debrief the comments.
3. What's for homework for Tuesday? What does annotate mean? What's this about vocab? All questions answered as we dive into Frankenstein! Check out the essential documents for the syllabus and the vocab sheets.
4. Any questions or worries or anything, send me an email, stop by my office, or otherwise get in touch with me.

Welcome & Where I'm From

Welcome & introductions

1. The Blog and all its glory
2. Essential documents: course information, syllabus, goals, etc
3. Name game: Interview someone you do not know for six minutes. Really listen and take notes. Organize your notes into a short presentation about your partner.

Let's get reading and writing

1. The poem to inspire your own writing.
2. Let's take a listen.
3. Discussion: Is there anything you aren't familiar with? Is there anything you notice in the poem? What kinds of things does Lyon list or describe? What kinds of details does she remember about her past?
4. Brainstorm: free write for 5 minutes about people, places and things that define who you are.
1. Let's turn those ideas into metaphors and similes.

Homework

1. Check syllabus on blog.