Monthly Archives: February 2015

2/27/2015 – A

by

We watched a video in class today! A VIDEO!  It was about peasants in the Middle Ages. It was funny, but in a weird sort of way. It had a peasant fart on a noble! And they had to boil everything they are back then that came out of the ground because they used human excrement (poop) as fertilizer. Yum.

Then we did what I called inverse clustering on the video. I let you all work with partners to generate ideas.

Then, we watched another video over Monks and did another inverse cluster over this video.

2/24/15 – B

by

Today we just worked on the Othello chart.

character chartHere is a brief explanation of each column:

  • Relationship – what is his/her role and relationship to the other characters.
  • Strength – what does this character do well
  • Weakness – what is this character’s downfall
  • Defining moment – What is the moment when we get to see this character’s TRUE colors – who she/he REALLY is.
  • Essential question – What is the one MOST important question to ask the character.
  • Symbol – draw a quick symbol that represents an aspect of that character’s personality, role, or importance.

Here is a sample chart you can look at for a different book:

sample character chart

Then, we finished the Othello haikus.

Easy!

2/24/2015 – A

by

Today, we read the Pardoner and Summoner and finished the Prologue! Hooray!

We have some LOVELY singers in class – Garrett and Daniel sang an almost perfect duet, while in second block, poor Louis was left all lone, so I had to go drag Adrian from another classroom to sing with him.

We worked on the Cheat Sheet afterwards, and I gave you the Narrator and the Host for the Cheat Sheet

Host narrator

2/19/2015 – A

by

We reviewed the Middle Ages Spiders from yesterday (I’m missing A LOT of these!).

We also filled in the blanks on the Canterbury Tales Skeleton Outline. Make sure you save this for the final exam!

We started reading the Canterbury Tales Prologue today. I sent you all a Word copy of the text with my notes on it. Today, we read up to the Knight.

Then, we started the Cheat Sheet. For each character, you will list at least ten adjectives that describe the character. You can use Chaucer’s words, my words, or your own words. Give the most significant quote for the character. Find an image that represents him/her and replace the hang gliding pig with what you found.

knight cheat sheetWe will work on this a little bit each day, so use your time wisely!

 

2/18/2015 – A

by

I am not sure when I will get back from my appointment this morning, so I am leaving all instructions here.

Today, we started out doing Middle Aged Spiders. This is simply just a collection of graphic organizers based off of the Middle Ages history in BB.

spider

Go to Canterbury Tales and download or print Middle Ages Background for Spider. Print nine (9) Spider Maps. Do front and back. Save a tree.

Spider

Print it OneNote. Skim sections to look for the FOUR MOST IMPORTANT words from each section. Scroll down to see the section titles. Then, write down one short sentence explaining why it’s so important.

spider2

Honestly, I found it easiest to highlight the most important words as I read – it helped me when I was choosing words and writing about them.

highlightingIf you need help, here is a list of important words from each section that you can use if you need help. Remember, you have to choose the four most important words. Don’t keep repeating the same word or idea.

Feudalism

  • hierarchy
  • vassal
  • chivalry
  • social codes

Chivalry

  • social codes
  • rules of warfare
  • idealized attitude
  • courtly love

Women

  • political rights
  • social status
  • subservient
  • temporary powers

New City Classes

  • Feudal System/City Classes
  • Population
  • Merchant class
  • People’s Art

Crusades

  • Series of wars
  • Christians versus Muslims
  • Jerusalem/Holy Land
  • Benefits

Thomas Becket

  • murder/assassination
  • backlash
  • cultural unity
  • martyr

100 Years War

  • national consciousness
  • yeoman
  • landowners
  • feudalism/chivalry

Magna Carta

  • democracy
  • aristocrats
  • church
  • law

Black Death

  • rats
  • population
  • labor shortage
  • freedom

During the last ten minutes, we talked about the French Scavenger Hunt. If you go to BB, you can see there is an extra credit spot. You can turn these in up until the day of the final exam.

2/17/2015 – B

by

We read Othello Act 2 today. We had about 30-40 minutes to work on haikus today.

Iago said he wished that Cassio’s fingers were enema tubes. Here are few pictures of enemas and enemas tubes.

enema1 enema2 enema3Word of the day: misogynist – a woman hater. Iago isn’t necessarily gay, he just doesn’t like or respect women. He especially thinks that they aren’t faithful. All women are “flirts” and adulteresses. His wife Emilia is a woman, so therefore she is an adulterer.

 

2/17/2015 – A

by

Today was a pretty simple day. We just wrote our values essay over the values in Anglo-Saxon life and the values in modern day American life.

We used the pre-writing from yesterday and the text structures to help us organize our thoughts.

text structures for anglo saxon values

I also reminded you that there were LOTS of resources in the Values Essay folder in Beowulf, including a list of suggested ways to start an essay (including examples).

If you need help, I can jump on your computer and give you English teacher advice. This is the only day in class that we will have devoted to this, so if you want English teacher help from me, get it either today or after school.

This will be due on Friday.

a8e7783cdde6ea7636e9542d0979ffe2

2/16/2015 – B

by

setting

Today, we read Othello Act 1. If you missed today, please don’t just read the summary – read the actual play. It’s pretty easy, I promise!

The play starts out in Venice:

venice

Some words we talked about today:

vocabularyMoor

soliloquy

misogynist

misanthrope

misandry

 

 

We started the Othello Haikus:
haikusIf you need help, go to BB – there are links on how to write a haiku and a webpage with summaries. Focus on the summary rather than sentences.

 

 

 

nicknames

You can use nicknames for characters as well.

WE should have PLENTY of time to work on this tomorrow. Act 2 goes by QUICKLY!

This is a Wordle of Iago’s conversation with Roderigo at the end of Act1.3. You can see quite clearly why he hangs out with Rodergio. 😛

I’ve never been more useful to you than I will be now. Here’s what you’ll do. Sell all your assets and your land, and turn it into cash. Desdemona can’t continue loving the Moor any more than he can continue loving her. She fell in love with him very suddenly, and they’ll break up just as suddenly. Moors are moody people.—So sell your lands and raise a lot of cash. What seems sweet to him now will soon turn bitter. She’ll dump Othello for a younger man. When she’s had enough of the Moor’s body, she’ll realize her mistake. She’ll need to have a new lover. She’ll have to have it. So have your money ready. If you want to go to hell, there are better ways to do it than killing yourself. Raise all the money you can. I can get the better of religion and a few flimsy vows between a misguided barbarian and a depraved Venetian girl. You’ll get to sleep with her—just put together some money. And to hell with drowning yourself! That’s completely beside the point. If you’re ready to die, you can risk death by committing crimes in an attempt to get the woman you want. Don’t just give up on her and drown yourself.

 

You can trust me. Go now and get cash. I told you before, and I’ll tell you again and again: I hate the Moor. I’m devoted to my cause of hating him, just as devoted as you are to yours. So let’s join forces and get revenge. If you seduce Desdemona and make a fool out of him, it’ll be fun for both of us. Many things may happen. Go get money. We’ll speak again tomorrow. Goodbye.

 

Go then, goodbye. Put a lot of cash together.

  iago talking to rod