Wednesday, February 10, 2010

TODAY IN CLASS
Homework study guides from yesterday were collected--be sure to turn yours in tomorrow if you were absent today. (Don't wait for me to ask you about it!)

I asked students to share (in writing) what they knew about Hamlet.  The most widespread answers boiled down to "not much." That's OK.  But I spent the next 30 minutes or so trying to set up a background that offered some simple structure:
  • a basic knowledge of three separate families and their respective situations,
  • the idea that there will be ways in which (despite some very extreme differences) the conflicts and concerns of various individuals are relevant to what people still feel today,
  • and the fact that even though it's dramatic "poetry," Shakespeare is most concerned with human emotions and interactions
We will start the actual play on Thursday.  No homework tonight.

No comments:

Post a Comment