Wednesday, January 29, 2014

We're English 10 Nerds and Loving It: January 29, 2014

PLC: Shortened Class

Focus: How can we get comfortable with Shakespeare?

3rd hour: During announcements, please post on today's blog the following two items:

  • When it comes to Shakespeare, what do you find the most challenging/frustrating?
  • What's one thing that's worked well in your past classes that have studied Shakespeare?


1. Warming up: One quick round of Scattegories and passing notes using vocabulary

2. "Translating" your notes into Shakespearean

3. Setting up your Midsummer Google folders and sharing them with me: kleclaire@lps.k12.co.us

Include your LAST NAME and the word "Midsummer" in your folder name.  For a gold star, make it sound Shakespearean.

Start two documents inside that folder:

a. "Ye Ole Daily Log": This is where you'll record all in-class work.
b. "Thou Doest Thine Homework": This is where you'll put all of your homework for this unit.
c. Make sure these two documents are inside your folder, and that this folder is shared with me.

4. Distributing the books and judging them by their covers

HW:
1. For MONDAY: Using the No Fear Shakespeare version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (which you can access on the class website or by clicking HERE), read Act 1, scene 1, lines 1-212.

In your "Thou Doest Thine Homework" document, please make a list of all characters you meet in Act 1, scene 1, and, as specifically as possible, tell what each character wants. Support each response with a quotation from the play (in the original Shakespearean). This will be worth 20 points in the Growth category because, yes, it's that important.

2. SAT List 11 vocabulary quiz on Friday; bring your memoir independent reading book to class.

83 comments:

  1. I don't like reading Shakespeare because its hard to understand the language. Also all the names and stuff gets confusing. I like it when we get in groups and work together and read together.

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  2. 1. I find the language challenging. I also do not like to read it out loud because the language is hard to speak and understand.
    2. I liked it when we could watch the movies of it at the end of the Shakespeare unit. I also like using small groups to make or understand a scene.

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  3. When it comes to Shakespeare, I find that attempting to act out the different scenes can be pretty challenging. Especially because the language is hard to understand

    In the past i've found that having the book with the modern day english translation helped the most.

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  4. Its challenging when we have to figure out what the text means.
    It works well when the teacher explained some of the confusing text.

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  5. What didn't go well
    I didn't understand some of the texture of writing really, it was confusing.
    What went well
    Explain out the text and getting into groups and reading.

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  6. The language and trying to understand it is the most challenging and frustrating, and when the teacher read part of it in class to help us understand what is going on and what they are saying.

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  7. The most frustrating thing about Shakespeare is that the stories he wrote have little or no relevance in today's society. Also the language is really annoying to read. One thing that went well was working in small groups to understand the story better

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  8. The most challenging part about Shakespeare is trying to understand the text. I don't really have a preference when it comes to the reading of Shakespeare.

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  9. 1) The most challenging part of Shakespeare is the complexity of the language but also trying to get into the story. It just always seemed bland.
    2) Discussing and summarizing certain parts to make it easier to understand.

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  10. Something that I find the most challenging about Shakespeare is the language that he uses. One that has worked well is the understanding of the story.

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  11. I didnt like how before we just blew through the book and no one got the language

    I liked when in middle school we all got the translated version next to the original which made it much easier to read

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  12. 1) The way it is written inst very fun to read, its very old and there is less we can relate too, and some of the activities in class are uninteresting.
    2) I like how in the past we read it out loud as a class, that made it easier to comprehend and we didn't have to do it at home.

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  13. The most frustrating thing with Shakespeare is how he uses language and it just makes no sense at all.
    Reading in class helps us understand.

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  15. I find that Shakespeare writing was very confusing and i Have no interest in reading the books he has written. Nothing goes well when I read his books for a class because i have no desire to read something that I have no interest in.

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  16. Last year when we did Romeo and Juliet it was frustrating because I didn't really get into the story and thought it was kinda boring.

    I liked how we had people play roles and read in that role

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  17. The think I find hardest about Shakespeare is truly understanding the lines. Just knowing the translation of the line is one thing, but knowing the lines where you can just say it in a conversation is true understanding. For me doing two different way of the Shakespeare works the best. The first way should be the lines in modern English. Then the same people should do the scene again in Shakespearean.

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  18. I feel when it comes to William, I find it much more simple to sit and translate each paragraph, so you can get a sense for how the language is spoken.

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  19. the most frustrating thing about Shakespeare would be acting out the parts. some things that went well would be the chapters arent has long

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  20. The language that we read is hard.
    When the teacher explains what is going on helps well.

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  21. When it comes to Shakespeare i actually enjoy it now. I used to not but it the fight to get my grade up last year I read Romeo and Juliet so many times. But after reading it a few times i began to understand it more and actually grew to appreciate it. Our class acted it out and i enjoyed watching it a lot but the environment of that class was different from this class and i don't think it would go as well in here.

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  22. One thing that is challenging in more ways than one is Shakespeare's vocabulary. He has a vast array of words like a sort of arsenal that he adds into all his plays for a more dramatic and medieval type of talk. I believe one thing that has worked well in Shakespeare was his ability to recreate such tragic events in explicit detail, thus the intricate study of his work today.

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  23. the hardest part was understanding the text
    the thing that was good was when the teacher would explain it to us

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  24. What frustrates me about Shakespeare is how they make us over look the play or in other words over analyse the piece. Shakespeare wrote his plays to entertain, there are messages or a deeper meaning to a lot of it, but when we look at every single page, it makes it boring to read. We should all have our personal opinions on what it means and not stop constantly. I like finding the deeper meaning on my own and going into groups and just having fun, but I don't like it when teachers take it to serious.

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  25. The language, plot, and acting out scenes all frustrate me. I can't say anything went well in the sense that I actually liked it, but keeping up with the chapters was pretty easy

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  26. His language is just really hard and annoying.

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  27. 1) a. The grammar. Drives me nuts. Yeah, I know, back then it was proper but now it makes zero sense and angers me.
    b. confusing.
    2) Uuuuhhhhh reading it twice. Maybe. Otherwise nothing.

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  28. I find staying interested the most challenging
    Acting out the book helped me stay interested

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  29. I find shakespeare challenging because it is so hard to follow because of the vocabulary he uses
    We used the translating book which made it really easy.

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  30. I think it is just difficult to understand what they are saying and how it relates to the plot. In my past classes we have watched the movie, the teacher has helped us understand what is happening by explaining it to us after each act, and when I was in the play, I had the No Fear Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet and it helped me understand what they were saying at that moment.

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  31. The language is hard. One thing that worked was having multiple people read or reading in small groups.

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  32. Nothing really frustrates me about shakespeare. In the past, what has worked was having quizzes ever chapter

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  33. 1. His language
    2. We read it together

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  34. When it comes to Shakespeare What is most difficult is understanding the text. What helped was acting it out so we could understand.

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  35. When it comes to Shakespeare, I find the language the most challenging to understand. Reading the book in class and discussing it has helped the most. I find it easier to understand when we talk about it as a whole.

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  36. 1. The most challenging thing is having to read for so many different characters.

    2. Reading as a class and having assigned characters to read for

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  37. I find that I don't really like to read all that much, but other than that, I like Shakespeare.
    In my previous class we watched the movie as well

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  38. The thing that frustrates me in shakespeare was the language. In the past what worked was reading in class

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  39. I think it is often hard to understand some of their sayings. Getting in groups to talk about what is going on helps a lot.

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  40. The language.
    Reading in small groups.

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  41. Staying interested and sometimes the language that makes it challenging
    Acting out the book and try to make connections with some of the words

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  42. 1) The challenging thing for reading Shakespare is the wording. Also they take so long just to say one thing.
    2) Sometimes working with a friend made it really easy, also when the teacher goes through it with us.

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  44. I find Shakespeare's work another language to me and I have a hard time understanding what he's trying to say. I have used No Fear Shakespeare when I have read his books and that really helped me understand.

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  45. What I find most challenging is the language that Shakespeare use, some words are very long and are not used any more so I am unfamiliar with them.

    One thing that has worked well when I studied Shakespeare was going a little slower than normal, also watching videos about Shakespeare and the piece we were reading.

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  47. When it comes to Shakespeare, I find the way the books are written makes them very frustrating to read. The language is hard to understand. One thing that worked well when I have studied Shakespeare in the past was watching the movie. It helped me understand the book better.

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  48. I think the most difficult thing about doing Shakespeare is that you first have to translate his writing into more modern words. What has worked well in the past is getting into small groups and working through some of the tougher sections of his plays.

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  49. The old English is difficult to read sometimes, but when we did summaries of each chapter of Romeo and Juliet as a class, it really helped me understand the book.

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  50. The thing that is challenging/frustrating about Shakespeare was the comprehending the language. The thing that worked well was that my teacher read some of the book and talking about the meaning of that sentence and then kept reading.

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  51. It's boring, uninteresting, and incomprehensible.

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  52. Its hardest for me to understand the old English. It helped when we went over each chapter and did summaries.

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  53. I think that the language he uses is really difficult to understand. In my past classes I liked when we got into small groups and "translated" the section into modern English.

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  54. The thing I find most challenging in Shakespeare is the language that he uses, which makes it hard to understand. In my past classes we acted out the scenes in small groups which was really fun to do.

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  55. I think the most difficult thing is the old English language he uses. I like when the class acts out the play.

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  56. I don't really have trouble with Shakespeare because I've been in a Shakespeare class for like a semester and a half now and all we do is go with language and understanding him.
    I really like working and performing in small groups for the different acts, that's what we do in the actual Shakespeare class anyways.

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  57. The hardest part about shakespear is the vocabulary he uses and the old english language with tis,thee, here yee, etc.

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  58. The hardest part of Shakespeare for me is the language and reading it. Things that have worked is acting it out, something that hasn't worked is just sitting and reading it.

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  59. The language was confusing at first but I get used to it. I like acting the scenes in class.

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  60. Shakespearean language is really confusing and makes me become lost in the story. Class discussions helps me a lot and i understand much more for our discussions than the book.

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  61. The language is the most difficult thing about Shakespeare for me although I do enjoy acting something's out.

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  62. The way that he writes and the vocabulary he uses sometimes makes it feel as though he is speaking a different language. Class discussions and using sparknotes translations helps me to understand what is going on much better.

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  63. I find it challenging to write/annotate whilst reading the book because of all of the subtle complexities and subtleties in the text. I personally love smaller groups with people that I will not be uncomfortable talking about my ideas with.

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  64. I think his language is weird and teachers often rush us with understanding what is happening. Something that has worked well is talking about each chapter before moving on, and sparknotes.

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  65. When reading Shakespeare I have a little trouble understanding some of the language. Also one thing that worked well in the classroom last time I read Shakespeare was the class had to act the scenes out. It was fun and helped comprehension of the book a lot more.

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  66. The language used is hard to understand. It helps when we are given a good idea of the setting. Also going over each chapter as a class to understand it better.

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  67. I think that the most difficult part about Shakespeare is the dialogue and language. It is really hard to read out loud or silent and actually comprehend it. I liked when in class, people would act it out when reading it.

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  68. The thing that has been the most frustrating is the language and the hard core grammar. This also has no connection to anything I would think of. The only thing that is helpful is reading it aloud in class otherwise, there isn't anything that has worked to my knowledge.

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  69. The Old English was really difficult to understand. I liked the story line but reading it was really hard. When we were reading it last year my teacher would gives us references to help us translate the old English and worksheets to help us understand the story more. We would also have discussions in class which would me help gain a better understand.

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  70. The language and the use of the old English was the most challenging part of reading Shakespeare.

    What worked well in my previous classes was dissecting the reading and explaining what they meant along with sometimes acting them out.

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  71. I don't really like reading Shakespeare sometimes because his books are written in old English and that can be confusing. I really like all of the creative stuff we do like act out the play while reading Shakespeare.

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  72. I think the thing that I found most challenging and frustrating about Shakespeare was the lack of visual connection I had with the book. I liked it most when we would watch plays and movies that related to the text we were reading because it made things less confusing and a little more personable. That also goes with what went well, when we had those few times of watching scenes and clips of the text it made it easier, and more enjoyable because you weren't confused and you saw the text on a visual level.

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  73. I think the hardest thing for me about Shakespeare, is the language that he writes in, and translating it into modern English. What works well for me is translating his writing into modern English as a class or in small groups.

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  74. What I don't like most about Shakespeare stories is that they are very serious but I also don't feel very connected to the stories. Of all his stories, I've only read Romeo and Juliet completely but the story seemed boring and unrealistic.
    Something that worked well when I read Romeo and Juliet in class was to have each person in the story be assigned to a person in class, if only for that day, and it could be a big class project.

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  75. The part about Shakespeare that I find most challenging or frustrating is the way it is written or the language. It is hard to translate into the way we are use to speaking or writing, and I feel like I get bored easily when I don't understand exactly what the writing means.
    One thing I liked while reading Shakespeare was last year during English 9 with Mrs. Lee we were in groups and each got to perform a skit of a scene, which was made the reading easier to digest and understand.

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  76. i think the language is difficult but when we get into small groups and translate it or the teacher tells us the main point, i like it much better.

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  77. 1. I find the language to be the hardest part about Shakespeare, I feel acting out the scenes is a waste of time and has importance understanding the book.
    2. I enjoy having class discussions about the book.

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  78. When reading Shakespeare last year I had a hard time understanding the content. I understood what they were saying but I didn't really know the meaning behind it. One thing that I really liked was reading in class and watching the movies it helped me understand the book a lot more.

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  79. Reenacting parts of the play helped a lot.

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  80. I find the language Shakespeare uses can be very difficult to read. In previous classes we went through before reading a certain section and talked about what would happen to make it easier to understand.

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  81. It as hard to read and interpret.
    It as good when we got in groups and were able to read it together.

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  82. I find the language used at the time rather difficult to understand. The plot is a great work of art but the language used in that time is hard to understand.
    Reading as a group worked well in other English classes.

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  83. I find the most difficult thing when reading Shakespeare is some of the vocabulary. When I have read Shakespeare in the past is popcorn reading and describing the words that seem difficult.

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