Fri. Feb. 26, 2016: Merchant of Venice

Today, we read to the end of Act 3 Scene 1 and up to line 90 of Act 3, Scene 2 (page 137).

A term identified today was malapropism (see Launcelot and Gobbo's conversations with Bassanio).

Wed. Feb. 24, 2016: Merchant of Venice Continued

Today, we read up to the end of Act ii, Scene 5. We will start Act II, Scene 6 in the next class.

Mon. Feb. 22, 2016: Merchant of Venice Cont.

Today, we finished reading Act I of The Merchant of Venice and began reading Act II. We finished Act II, Scene 1.

Thurs. Feb. 11, 2016: Merchant of Venice Continued

Today, we finished reading Act 1, Scene 2 of The Merchant of Venice.

I also supplied students with additional notes on what punctuation means:

Colon indicates an intellectual shift (often heightened logic).

Semi colon means  an emotional shift (think of the semi colon as meaning "furthermore" with a passionate thrust).

Period means permission to leave the scene (a change in direction, either from the topic or the person or both).

Exclamation means more annunciation (vowel stress - impact)

Tues. Feb. 9, 2016: Merchant of Venice, Act One

Today, We began reading The Merhcnat of Venice. We got up to Act 1, Scene 1, page 15, line 135.

Today, we talked through the sonnet assignment that students were to do at home.
Students then went to the library and signed out the play The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare.

I put the following summary of the play on the board

Summary of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

This play is about a merchant (Antonio) who decides to help a friend (Bassanio) win a girl in marriage (Portia). Antonio acts as a co-signer on a loan.
A Jew (Shylock) who lends the money to Bassanio, HATES Antonio. They sign an agreement that if the loan is not paid on time, then Shylock gets to cut off a pound of Antonio's flesh.

I then explained some of the relationships between the characters in order to introduce some of the sub-plots.

For homework, the students are to read the following from their play text:

Getting Started (page 3)
Dramatis Personae (page 5)

Wed. Feb. 3, 2016: Introduction to Iambic Pentameter

Today, I gave a presentation explaining iambic pentameter. The students then did an activity where they analyzed a sonnet, which was actually the words to a popular song altered to meet sonnet expectations. I then assigned each student a lyric sonnet to analyse (break into syllables and sets and then summarized). I also am curious to see how many of the students can determine what the song is. This assignment is due on Friday.