Thur Jan 25

I'm currently sitting in the library at BR, I'll be leaving at about 11:30am

Wed Jan 24

This is Part C of the Exam Practice question post ... but ... this is a tough thing to study for as students in high school.

It's a quote that you have to somehow relate to one of the novels we studied this semester.

an example might be "A thing is neither bad nor good but thinking makes it so." -Hamlet.

How might you channel that into Frankenstein? into Dorian Gray? Into Hamlet?

Tues Jan 23

Part B English 3U sample problem:

For the following sight passage, respond in proper paragraph form, and include the following: 

• The text and author included in a topic sentence.
• The speaker and the character(s) being addressed.
• The context of the passage.
• Two main elements of significance (character development, themes, literary devices etc.), with specific references from the passage to support your claims.
• A thoughtful concluding sentence. 

“After the murder of Clerval I returned to Switzerland, heart-broken and overcome. I pitied Frankenstein; my pity amounted to horror; I abhorred myself. But when I discovered that he, the author at once of my existence and of its unspeakable torments, dared to hope for happiness, that while he accumulated wretchedness and despair upon me he sought his own enjoyment in feelings and passions from the indulgence of which I was for ever barred, then impotent envy and bitter indignation filled me with an insatiable thirst for vengeance. I recollected my threat and resolved that it should be accomplished. I knew that I was preparing for myself a deadly torture, but I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse which I detested yet could not disobey."

Monday Jan 22

So ... in order to help us get ready for the exam ... here is a sample of a question from the exam:

20 Marks (10 marks Thinking; 10 marks Communication)

For the following sight passage, respond in proper paragraph form, and include the following: 

• The text and author included in a topic sentence.
• The speaker and the character(s) being addressed.
• The context of the passage.
• Two main elements of significance (character development, themes, literary devices etc.), with specific references from the passage to support your claims.
• A thoughtful concluding sentence. 

Here is the quote:

That can I;
At least, the whisper goes so. Our last King,
Whose image even but now appear’d to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick’d on by a most emulate pride,
Dar’d to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet,
For so this side of our known world esteem’d him,
Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal’d compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,
Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
Which he stood seiz’d of, to the conqueror;
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our King; which had return’d
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
Had he been vanquisher; as by the same cov’nant
And carriage of the article design’d,
His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle, hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark’d up a list of lawless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprise
That hath a stomach in’t; which is no other,
As it doth well appear unto our state,
But to recover of us by strong hand
And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
So by his father lost. And this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations,
The source of this our watch, and the chief head
Of this post-haste and rummage in the land.

Friday Jan 19

Today we chatted with every student about what was owed if anything.

We also finished the novel.

whew!

Thursday Jan 18

So we did a bit of an exam review for next week today.

The slides are all here.

And I'll post them on the right, too.

In any case, we also got to page 188 in the Picture of Dorian Gray and got questions 26, 27 and 28.

Wed Jan 17

We got back to Picture of Dorian Gray today.

It'll be a part of the exam if memory serves. I'll check that and the missing assignments from students over the next few days.

We got to page 180 in the text.

Go us!