European Studies: 10/28

Due Monday: Act 2 Journal (see assignment below) and 6 new entries in your theme chart from Act 2.

Journal: Act 2
1. What did the servant see and hear?
Imagine that you are one of Macbeth’s servants at Inverness. You have watched Macbeth’s behaviour since he returned from the wars, and overheard snatches of what he and Lady Macbeth said. Write a letter home to tell what you know. Minimum ¾ page.

Read Act 2, Scene 4 yourself. Use notes in your text to figure out the meanings if you’re not sure…otherwise, use the context to figure out the meaning as clearly as you can. Answer the following questions:
List three examples of unnatural acts described by Ross and the old man which mirror the unnatural act of murdering the king.
Which theme do the above examples connect to? Explain.
Who does Macduff says “did this more than bloody deed”?
Ross asks Macduff, “What good could they pretend?” He means, how could they benefit from Duncan’s death. Macduff answers, “They were suborned.” What does he mean by this?
Who is being suspected of getting the two servants to murder the king? Why are they suspected?
What does Ross mean when he says, “’Gainst nature still.”?
What has happened to Macbeth?
Find out all you can about Scone and Iona (Colmkill). What might these two places symbolize, based on the historical information you find out?
Where do Macduff and Ross say they will go?

American Studies: Poe Day (Halloween)

To prepare for Poe Day on Monday, October 31st, read Poe's biography in your lit book, pages 260-261, then read The Fall of the House of Usher, pp. 264-279 and answer the following questions:
1. How would you describe the Ushers as a family? List a couple quotes here.
2. What is Roderick Usher like himself?
3. How is the house seen by the narrator? By Roderick Usher? What do you think the house might symbolize or represent?
4. To what extent has Roderick Usher's environment become a symbolic representation of his own morbid mindset?
5. HOw is the ending a classic scene of Gothic horror?
6. To have one's dreams come true is ordinarily supposed to be a desirable thing. Is it a desirable thing for Roderick Usher?
7. What is the doom on the House of Usher? Why does the story "work" as a tale of terror?

Due Tuesday, Nov. 1: be finished with Chapter 12 of Huck Finn and be ready for a quiz.
Next Vocab (List 3)...Friday Nov. 4.

American Studies: 10/27

Today we had a quiz on Chapters 2-5 of Huck Finn, corrected the grammar worksheet and practiced grammar.
Tomorrow: Grammar quiz and discussion of Chs. 1-5

By Tuesday: Read through Chapter 12

American Studies: 10/26

Read Huck Finn through Chapter 5 by tomorrow. You will have a quiz on the chapters tomorrow. While you are reading, you need to be making a list of characters and of settings/places and keeping notes on them. If you have your own copy of the book, you should be annotating the reading; if you don't have your own copy, use post-its to make notes in the margins and mark important passages, or keep a reading journal, noting down important ideas, thoughts, questions as you read.

European Studies: Mon. and Tues.

Monday: I stamped the homework on Scene 7; then we went over the Scene together and discussed it. For the quiz, students needed to be prepared to find examples of "fair is foul and fair" in Act I; they needed to be able to identify, for six important passages, who said them, who they were said to, and what was happening in the play when they were said; they needed to know what dramatic irony was and be able to find an example of it. Add 6 entries to theme chart.
Tuesday: Act I Quiz. Make-ups must be completed by next Monday. Pronoun-Antecedent agreement sheet was stamped and gone over. Pronoun Use reference sheet was handed out...keep for future reference. Plot Notes handout was given out...students are required to fill in the sections corresponding with "Exposition," which correlates to Act I.