agenda W/Th May 17/18: review KR, M and poetry terms

learning goal: what overlaps (large or small) exist between Shakespeare’s play and Hosseini’s novel?  what insights emerge from this comparison–insights about either work, about literature in general, or about life and the human condition?

exercises TBA–based on elements of fiction, and this trio of story-aspects (conflict, resolution, revelation)

with a side order of poetry and poet’s tools

agenda T/W May 9/10: reading (or Poetry Day)

See the (updated) agenda for F/M May 5/8.

In short, during this T/W class, A block reads while H & E blocks study free verse.

agenda F/M May 5/8: Poetry Day, free verse (or reading)

special announcement: Friday’s A block used this agenda, but Monday’s H and E blocks did not because of people taking the AP Bio exam.  Instead, these groups read in our novel, which is what A block will do in Tuesday’s class.

learning goal: What is free verse?  What are its advantages over other kinds of verse?

for your Poetry Folder Table of Contents: Pinsky, Frost, Williams; free verse, meter, rhyme, lyric poetry

Free Verse. May 2017

conversation with police outside a Moscow courthouse (April 2012)

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2013/10/free-verse-was-doubly-forbidden-kirill-medvedev-provokes-on-behalf-of-pussy-riot/

Robert Pinsky on “sonic harmony”—i.e., chime without rhyme

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2010/10/wild-and-rhyme-free-verse/

full Pinsky essay at slate.com (how can unrhymed poetry please the ear?)

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/poem/2010/10/keener_sounds.html

“Mending Wall” by Robert Frost (blank verse)

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44266

“An Old Man’s Winter Night” by Robert Frost (blank verse)

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/old-mans-winter-night

“To Waken an Old Lady” by William Carlos Williams (free verse)

http://www.phys.unm.edu/~tw/fas/yits/archive/williams_towakenanoldlady.html

“A Plea for Free Verse” by Y.F. Swain

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=17509

Free Verse—a definition

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/glossary-terms/detail/free-verse

agenda T/W Mar 28/9: Hell-gate in MACBETH

learning goal: how does the porter scene reflect life-and-death issues of Shakespeare’s day?

website portal / seaport / porter of hell-gate

explanation of equivocation / historical context /public-private tension

a bit of film / historical interpretation

 

agenda F/M Mar 24/7: private and public MACBETH

learning goal: what can ambiguous statements from a character reveal about that person’s core?

exercise-series based on this question: TBA

agenda M/T Mar 20/1: Poetry Day–meter, stressed and unstressed

learning goal: What meter do the word sisters usually use in Macbeth?  What effect(s) does this regular rhythm create?  How do these effects contribute to themes in the overall play?

make review sheet for Act 3

create conscience-meter template for Act 2–on other side of Act 1 conscience meter; enter info in one row

 

witches’ meter: analyze Shakespeare’s witches, Blake’s “The Tyger,” Frost’s “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” (choral rdg); create (based on 10-20 ll. in Act 2); present (choral rdg)

agenda Th/F Mar 16/17: conscience meter

learning goal: what is a conscience? in watching or listening to a person, what evidence shows, or suggests, a conscience?

distribution and drawing of the conscience meters: demo and follow-up (Act 1)

considering the notes sheet from the previous class (people were asked to complete the Act Two portion): how should we use the right-hand rectangles?

reading time

agenda Th/F Mar 2/3:wyrd sisters

learning goal: what do Banquo’s and Macbeth’s reactions to the three wyrd sisters reveal about their different characters?

review first two scenes in Macbeth (record outline in journal)

begin scene 3 exercise

if time allows, make journal entry that responds to today’s learning goal; if not, make this entry before next class

HW: using Shakespeare in Bits (SIB), finish reading Act One

agenda Th/F Feb 9/10: next letter step

learning goal: how best to arrange ideas in a letter to an author

 

strategies and tactics of effective letters

whole-class discussion of basic principles

feedback given in working groups

time to read novel, or begin drafting letter (due by start of class M/T Feb 13/14)

agenda F/M Feb 3/6: Poetry Day; Rumi, Hafez, Habib; sounds

learning goal: what views of the world do these three Islamic poets share?

time to share, work further on, today’s ghazals

preview exercise for today’s handout poems

handouts for Poetry Folder

observe, consider these poems

create a start of your own poem–based on insight from one of these poets