We continued watching Romeo and Juliet in class today. We discussed an AP-style set of questions about a passage from the play, as well as a handout on sonnets with a homework assignment:

Please write your own Shakespearean sonnet. It must:

1. follow the line pattern and rhyme scheme of Shakespearean sonnets.
2. be in iambic pentameter.
3. be interesting, funny, or amusing.
4. be illustrated.
5. be typed.

This will be due at the start of class on Friday. Please come to class to pick up hard copies of handouts.

Today in class, we continued reading Romeo and Juliet as we acted out the famous fight scene between Mercutio, Tybalt, and Romeo. Next, we watched that portion from the film version.

In class today, we acted out the famous balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet! Afterwards, students took their vocabulary quiz. I want to encourage you all to keep studying your words (remember, Vocabulary.com can help you practice) so that you will be ready for the final.

We’ve been watching PSAs in class for the past two days. I’ve seen some really amazing ones, and I hope their producers will let me post them on the website!

We talked in most classes about a very exciting project to close up the end of the year. You will be writing scripts based on the works we have read in class this year. If you film it, you are eligible for 10 points of extra credit on a major grade, which should be worth a lot! Here is that project assignment page. Pre-AP English 1 Script Project If you would like, you can talk with a group this weekend and get started working. We’ll show these on our very last day of school together!

Finally, please make sure that you are ready for your vocabulary quiz on Monday (no new words; over all of the words we have covered this semester; remember that you can study using Vocabulary.com!).

Mr.Casteel, whom you know from our trips to the library this year, is Bellaire’s nomination for Teacher of the Year. Vote for him here if you would like to see him recognized. 

We took our Romeo and Juliet vocabulary quiz today, and then viewed a portion of the R&J film, which we’ll read later.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Please be ready for a pop quiz over grammar some time this week. Here is what you need to study:

• the subjunctive mood
• subjects and predicates
o predicate nominatives
o predicate adjectives
• direct and indirect objects
o transitive and intransitive verbs
o different kinds of direct objects (nouns, pronouns, infinitives, gerunds, and noun clauses)
o “lie” vs. “lay”
o indirect objects versus prepositional phrases

I would highly recommend that you study tonight!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT #2: There will be no new vocabulary list this week. Instead, your quiz next Monday will be over all of the words we have had throughout the semester. Under the vocabulary section of the website I have posted two links to Vocabulary.com lists that you can use to study and practice. Please take advantage of those!

Today in class, we performed Act 1, Scene 1 from Romeo and Juliet, and then watched the film. Here’s a link to the electronic text of Romeo and Juliet if you need to catch up on reading at home.

Today in class, we discussed the first Romeo and Juliet vocabulary list (under the vocab section). Then we went over direct and indirect objects using this PowerPoint: Direct Objects, Indirect Objects, and Damaged Disney Princesses

Homework was to finish the direct and indirect objects notes and practice – if you were absent, please come get a hard copy from the wall of papers in class.

Today in class, students read an excerpt from a book about the world of Shakespeare: A Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England

You had two options for digesting this information.

The dull, boring option:

• Read the excerpt from A Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England on literature and theatre.
• Create a multi-level outline in Microsoft word that describes what literature and theatre were like.
• I will grade you on how well you capture big ideas and significant details.

The fun, creative option(!):

• Read the excerpt from A Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England on literature and theatre.
• Create a full page comic strip that illustrates something about the theatre in Shakespeare’s time. Include lots of relevant details in the background.
• I will grade you on how well you capture big ideas through the medium of visual art.

Whichever medium you choose, it’s due tomorrow at the start of class.

Today in class we finished the last part of Miss Representation and discussed how the media and society can impact our ideas about gender. We took our logical fallacies quiz – if you missed it, you must come make it up on Friday during lunch to prevent the grade from turning into a zero.

Your Miss Representation viewing guides are due tomorrow, so if there’s anything you didn’t catch, please visit the link I posted a few days ago and finish your assignment.