Wednesday September 26, 2012 (Matt Donohoe)

Today we read more of Beowulf and then took a comprehension quiz. We read 5-11.  Basically to sum up what happened in a short sentence it was about Beowulf's journey to defeat Grendel.

Homework: Make sure you read your Man-Booker to page 245 and do your poster work for your story.

Make sure your thoughts and prayers go out to Mrs Smith in a time of need.

Monday, September 24, 2012 (Savannah Anderson)

Today, we read turned in the Oedipus essay redoes, and had a quiz over Beowulf 1-4.

Homework: read Man Booker Prize, pg. 230, and work on presentation container.

Notes!

Things to listen for:
-characteristics of epic poems and epic heroes
-impressions of Beowulf, Hrothgar, and Grendel
-Anglo-Saxon ideals
-Good vs. evil
-literary elements

We read 5-11 for Beowulf, and talked about some of the characters. We were introduced to Grendel, the monster that swipes people and murders them. We were also introduced to Beowulf, and he is described as the strongest man that has ever walked the Earth. We were not able to watch the scenes in the movie, but are looking at watching them either Wednesday or Friday.

Scribage for Friday, September 21st, 2012

Danger Engberson

In Class:

     Today we began class by doing the following:

• Returning copies of Oedipus the King
• Meeting with Man Booker Prize partners for Independent Reading meeting 2
• Reviewing notes on Elements of Literature (pg. 2-19, 47)
• Taking group quiz (no more than 4 people per group) on reading
• Mrs. Smith allowed a few minutes for the "Gates of Heaven" to open (where you were permitted to use your book and the knowledge of other groups to find answers)
• Taking notes on Characteristics of Epic Heroes, in this case, Beowulf

Epic Hero Notes

• Larger-than-life character

Usually favored by or partially decended from dieties

Can't be beaten

Powerful because of supernatural influence

At one point goes on a literal or figurative decent into hell

Proud

Handsome, similar to Matthew McConaughey

Embodies the following: Host, Christianity/Paganism dynamic, loyalty

• Epic Poem

Long

Passed down verbally through song or chant

Supernatural influence on main character

Main character believes in gods/dieties

Told for entertainment, while simultaneously showing how humans overcome adversity through perseverance

Homework

• Read Beowulf pg. 1-4 in English book (quiz on monday)
• Man Booker Prize through page 215
• Oedipus Essay corrections due Monday, sept. 24th

p.s. Sorry for the late post, I was busy doing my hair for homecoming

<3 Danger

Skit Reviews

Sorry for the late post but my WiFi at home didn't feel like working last night but here are the

Reviews of modernization of oedipus skits

1st performance

To start the class the first group took on oedipus in a lord of the rings style with characters such as baby Oedipus, Aragon, Arwin, Shepard, Smeagol, and Samwise. almost all were wearing robes except drew who looked naked in my view which was strange for a class performance but he performed well with his with his well rehearsed Smeagol voice brought laughs to help the skit. With that the group also had a well fitting script that fit the story of Oedipus being sent to the mountain die with the lava filled mount doom. all in all the first group started the class nicely with a little comedy.

2nd performance

The second group moved further in time to the nerdy land of the big bang theory. With a cast playing the five main characters and the comic book guy too, the performance fit the big bang theory style well. The stage looked uncrowded as there was usually only 2 people at center stage at a time. There was some slight comedy added in, including a strip to switch characters that revealed some unpleasantly revealing, tight, red jeans. All in all the group performed well and fit the oedipus theme with some poor acting scenes of people dieing.

3rd performance

Oedipus is now Usain bolt, with all his pride and self greeve he thinks he is the best person out there, which he is in the 100 meter and 200 meter run, Usain or Oedipus feels need to use his strength and self glory to bring hope and pride to his country of Jamaica. In an interview he learns his competition is trying to beat him by the use of steroids, however he is 100% prepared and ready to win his races in the Olympics because of his perfection he sees in himself. With a good script to the story of Oedipus the group’s skit was good but less fun to watch than previous performances, no offense to them, but they had less comic scenes.

4th performance

Oedipus returns to high school, the group went a different style when choosing characters, instead of choosing them based off something else, they played as themselves, which worked well. For the story, a rumor was spread that Brendan stole Trevors headphones, Tristan said its a rumor and tries to protect Brenden. Trevor and Brendan get into a fight about them, Trevor believes brenden has his headphones but Tristin and Colton back up Brenden against Trevor. Most people don’t find interest in other people stealing someones headphones but this group seemed to make it work well.

5th performance

This group performed a talk show, called “whos your momma”. in the show a messenger brings news to Jocasta and Oedipus that Oedipus’s dad is dead but  actually he wasn’t Oedipus’s dad at all, then later, they are told his real dad left him on mountain top but she gave him to polybus, at this point Jocasta felt sick and left the show. before Oedipus could find the truth about his dad the talk show ended and left the audience waiting for more. The group did well and told the story from Oedipus in a good way.

6th performance
The last group took Oedipus on in a zombie fashion. with some comically said repeating saying from the guard and some brain eating tendencies, the performance had some comically added parts. A flaw in acting is that Oedipus’s back was turned toward the audience during some short portions of the skit. The story told fit the requirements toward Oedipus, but a flaw in the idea is that Jocasta, a zombie, killed herself and zombies are already dead so how could she of been able to kill herself. Other than that the performance was good and the group did well.

September 17, 2012

Happy Monday!

Today was the first day of Homecoming week, Western day! Yeeeeeha!

In class:

• We turned in our College Essays
• We got our Oedipus In-Class Essays back
• They weren't as beautiful as Smith had hoped, so if you want to redo your essay, talk to her as soon as you can.  
• For information about how to improve your essay, go to  https://docs.google.com/presentation/pub?id=1a1cEPN8t7YrgkxItUo5BBaPewQ5Ci4FgQwnURJbBVlE&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000#slide=id.g1ddd7753_0_0
• We got our Elements of Literature textbooks today
• Write your name in the inside cover
• We worked on our Oedipus Modernization projects

Homework: 

• Read your Man-Booker Prize books. You should be on page 190
• Read "Middle Ages" pages 2-19, 47
• You can copy the necessary pages from the Elements of Literature book, if you aren't a fan of huge books.
• Think about: Roles of Various groups influencing culture? Women's roles? Wyrd? Bards and scoops? Role of the church? King Alfred? Role of monasteries?
• Finish the Modernizing Oedipus Project. It is to be performed Wednesday in class
• There will be a quiz over the "Middle Ages" reading on Friday

September 14, 2012

HOMEWORK: Read Booker Prize-160. make sure you are annotating the book and writing down motifs and specific quotes from your book. College essay final draft due Monday. Work on the Modernize Oedipus performance- will be preformed on Wednesday, no excuses!!!


TODAY IN CLASS:

• we selected groups on no more than 5 to work on the modernizing of Oedipus project.
• Make sure you and your group choose one of the following portions of Oedipus to modernize. No more than two groups can do the same scene.
• their are two main prompts to choose from. A) the prequel, the group will be modernizing the first events that occur in Oedipus's life prior to our meeting him. The major events occurred in this, part I of his prequel include, but are certainly not limited to, hi birth, his families realization of his prophecy, his alleged death, and his adoption into his family in Corinth. B) The Prequel part II. your group will be modernizing the latter portions of his life before our meeting him. These events include the realization of his prophecy, his fleeing of Corinth, his encounter with the sphinx, and his becoming king of Thebes. 
• All the information can be found in our gold packet titled Modernizing Oedipus the king!!!

PLC Wednesday, September 12th

Homework:

• Modernize Oedipus assignment
• College essay rewrite due Monday
• Read man booker prize to page 145

• For most of the period we spent time peer editing each others essays (we had at least two separate people’s input)

•     If you want Mrs. Smith to look over and help edit your essay even more, you can try to schedule a meeting with her on an off hour but her freshman classes already have meetings with her so you can try your best!

• To end class Mrs. Smith went over our new assignment; Modernizing Oedipus the King

    *We will get in groups of 5 on Friday and present this project on Monday (start brainstorming ideas!)