Scribe: Wednesday, November 28th

Hello class!

Today was a good day. We started off the class however with no doughnuts...

Ms. Smith wants to remind everyone to look at their grade, the end of the semester is slowly creeping up on us!

We got very far in Hamlet today, almost to the end of Act 4, read the rest for homework.

Ophelia has gone mad. She cannot handle the new loss of her father and all of the problems with Hamelt and spends a lot of this part of the play in song. It has become a general opinion in both the fish bowls and from Sam today that the women, particulary Ophelia, are at a great loss. Ophelia drowns at the end of Act four as we find out from her borther Laertes.

Claudius sends Hamlet to England and tries to arrange amoung his return for Ophelia's brother Laertes to challenge him to a fencing match where he will poison the sword and kill Hamelt. Claudius is worried that Hamelet will hurt his family name.

Meanwhile Laertes is wondering why his father was buried so "hastely" and in part blames King Claudius for the murder of his father for not watching Hamelt more carefully with the knowledge of his madness.

Some questions are still unanswered that everyone would like to know.

When will Hamlet be able to avenge his father's death?

What will come of Hamelt after he returns?

I hope that someone brings doughnuts on friday it might just have to be me!
Have a great day everyone.

Hamlet Act 3 Fishbowl

Scribe for November 19, 2007

Homework over the break:
Read act 3 scenes 1-4
Prepare for the fishbowl
Continue blog conversation online
Work on the semester project

What we did in class:
We met in groups at the beginning of class for the semester projects
We watched the Hamlet movie for act 3 scenes 1-4

Things discussed and questions to ponder about act 3 scenes 1-4:
Where do Hamlet's friends loyalties lie?
There were many references in the movie to the Devil. Why do you think this is?
The beginning of act 3 has one of the most famous soliloquoys ever: "to be or not to be"
A nunnery can refer to a prostetution house
What was the two way mirror in the movie symbolic of?
The motif of spying is growing. What does this say of Hamlet's society?
What is important about Claudius wanting "light" during the play?
Hamlet doesn't kill Claudius during his confession because he wants him to go to hell
Hamlet attacks and goes after his mom even though his father's spirit told him to "leave her to heaven"

Blog Question From Fishbowl 2

What do you think Guildenstern and Rosencrantz will do in the end? Will they continue to be puppets for the King and Queen, or will they choose to be true friends and help Hamlet? What affect will their decision have on Hamlet?

SCRIBE FOR NOVEMBER 16, 2007.

Class started with the doughnuts that were sadly forgotten to be brought on Wednesday… It was a great way to start the day of fishbowling.

Mrs. Smith… thought the whole schedule thing was weird. (new kids, kids in different classes, just the whole thing)

Everyone got ready for the fishbowl
Inside Circle: Presenters, Discussers, and Three Open Seats
Outside Circle: Live-Blogging

Act Two Fishbowl… What was discussed?

Why were actors coming to Denmark?
Polonius
What is your impression of Polonius? (manipulated, power hungry)
Why doesn’t Polonius manipulate the king?
Is Laertes not responsible or is Polonius not trusting?
Does Laertes do anything to lose Polonius’ trust?
Ophelia
What is your impression of Ophelia? (impressionable, likes attention, dependent on others, likes to please)
Is she dependent on others?
What happen to her mother?
Hamlet {[coming into def. of tragic hero]} {[with questions about Fortinbras, Gertrude, and Claudius]}
Is he like Fortinbras? (father murdered, same age, getting control of country, revenge {Polonius- For country and Hamlet- Himself})
Is Hamlet more selfish that Fortinbras?
Why doesn’t Shakespeare make the connection between Fortinbras and Hamlet?
Do you think as the story goes there will be more connections between Fortinbras and Hamlet?
What are the differences between Fortinbras and Hamlet?
What is Shakespeare’s reasoning for the whole Fortinbras-Denmark drama?
Where is the whole thing with Fortinbras and Hamlet going?
What will happen if they come together as friends?
Does Hamlet not care about his reputation?
What’s going to happen if Claudius shows no reaction during the play?
What will Claudius’ reaction be if he finds out that Hamlet know what really happens? (make hamlet seem crazy, manipulate everyone else)
Do you see Gertrude as a weak person?
Many other things were said… More about the whole play thing, Hamlet’s madness, Gertrude’s weaknesses, and More Fortinbras and Hamlet drama.

IT WAS A LOVELY DAY PACKED FULL OF QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSIONS.
{[LOOK AT THE TWO BLOGS AROUND THIS ONE: ONE IS THE OUTSIDE CIRCLE DISCUSSION BY BLOGGING AND THE OTHER ONE IS THE QUESTION YOU HAVE TO ANSWER FOR HOMEWORK]}

HAVE A GOOD REST OF THE WEEKEND AND GET READY FOR SOME TURKEY EATING]}

Hamlet Act 2 Fishbowl

scribe for november 14, 2007

• First, she collected our take home quizzes over act 2, as well as handed back the ones from act 1.
• Second, and most important, SOMEONE FORGOT TO BRING DOUGHNUTS! Shame on you, everyone was very sad because of this.
• We got new seats.
• We watched video comparisons from two videos, one was the Mel Gibson version, and the other was Kenneth Brahna. ( I think that's how you spell his name)
• We got about ten minutes to meet with our groups and discuss or work on our final projects.
• Homework: Make sure that the presenters and discussores are ready to participate in the fishbowl which is on friday. Also to everyone, make sure that you have read act 2 in order to participate in the fishbowl. Continue convesation, and final semester projects.

Just depressing because of the whole doughnut issue.... :(

-Emilie D

Scribe for November 12, 2007

This is what we did on Monday Nov. 12.

Homework

• · Quiz on Act 2(due Wednesday)

• · Fishbowl for Act 2 on Friday

• · Continue questions and conversation on the blog online

• · Use blog for any questions you have about the reading in class

• · Semester project

In Class

· We started off by collecting the quizzes over Act 1 assigned over the weekend.

· Then we discussed our thoughts on how the fishbowl went last Friday.

o Included some very interesting, original comments

o Tips- presenters have better time management and try to have more of a broad spectrum on the questions rather than little details. Also less restating of previous comments in discussion.

· Next we started reading Act 2 of Hamlet and distributed the 10 parts of the Act.

Thoughts while reading

• · In the beginning Polonius is very interested in finding out what his son Laertes is doing. He indirectly wants Reynaldo to get information on what Laertes is doing.

• · Polonius is manipulative, and not very trustworthy.

• · Hamlet runs into the room where Ophelia is and grabs her and then leaves the room. He is trying to make Ophelia think that he is crazy. He knows that Polonius is her father and Polonius is very close to Claudius so he planned this accordingly. He can get away with more if everyone thinks he is crazy especially the King. So he thinks that through Ophelia he can accomplish this task.

• · P.115-117 includes an important monologue that should be read carefully.

Well that’s about all we did today. Donuts Wednesday!

Ponder this...

Hey everybody, sorry if this is kind of late, but here is the question that the presenters would like to ask you. I believe that Mrs. Smith would also like you to respond to this but let me confirm that...yep, that is correct.

After reading Act I and seeing all the emotions that Hamlet has experienced and all of the events that have occurred, why do you think that Hamlet didn't instantly rush off to revenge his father? What was holding him back?

Scribe for November 9th, 2007

Hello class! This is what happened on Friday, November 09, 2007.

HOMEWORK: Respond to blog question (except for presenters), continue conversation about Act I, take-home quiz, semester project.

Ms. Smith made a comment about bringing your own laptops to school because they have wireless now! If you don’t have one, then ask your parents for one this Christmas, Hanukkah, etc.

• We turned in our big purple books (for people who hadn’t yet).
• We also got our take-home quizzes.

This was our first Hamlet fishbowl day.

• The inside circle had presenters (Brooks, Joe, Sam, Michael, Kyle), discussers (Jackie, Leigh, Weems, Steven) with three open seats.
• The outside circle got laptops and live-blogged. (You can see it below. :] )
• You had to make five comments (relevant and insightful, not stupid). If you didn’t want to blog, then you had to participate in the fishbowl in the open seats.

Some topics discussed in the inside circle:

• Questions anyone had about the reading
• Major events that happened through out the act
• How the ghost could be foreshadowing events to come
• Will Hamlet tell anyone about the ghost?
• Elements of a tragic hero (Hamlet is past the innocence stage and now entering initiation, chaos is bound to happen or already happened. Could the stages be in different order for Hamlet?)
• Comparison between Denmark’s problems and Hamlet’s
• Hamlet’s revenge for his father (What does it mean? Why does he have to do it?)
• Catholic/Christian themes in Hamlet
• Claudius and Gertrude’s marriage (How does Hamlet feel about it?)
• Possible reasons for Claudius killing the king
• Predictions on what will happen in Act 2

That's it! HAVE A NICE WEEKEND!

Hamlet Act 1 Fishbowl

Scribe for November 2nd

Hey there again,
-Today we started class off by Collecting our locker tags that we did with our groups
- Next we turned in our big purple books so make sure to get that in so you don't have to carry it around.
- We also read Act 1 scene 1 and scene 2 in Hamlet so make sure to get caught up on that.
- Were starting a new thing where we posts questions on the Scribe blog for the day.
- Make sure your signed up for a day to present AND discuss during the fishbowls.
- The Hw. is to work on your semester project with your group, plan for the days you are either a discusser or a presenter during the fishbowl.
- That about does it for todays scribe have a good weekend everyone.

Scribe October 31

Not much to report
Mrs. Ritzdorf was our sub
We had to write an in-class essay that discussed four elements of the middle ages that are found in Canterbury Tales.
If you were absent make sure that you set up a time with Mrs. Smith to take the test.