Romeo and Juliet film

Today when I am in Uppsala you are going to watch the Romeo and Juliet film starring Leonardo di Caprio and Claire Danes.

The film uses the language of the original play but make significant changes  to the train of events. 
Your  task will be to compare the two.

Good luck!

Don't forget to sign the attendance register!

See you on Monday to round off our Shakespeare studies.

Have a good week-end.

Romeo and Juliet Act V

So today we get to the end of the play.

Act V is filled of the tragedy of which the play bears the name...

We are going to read the play aloud and divide the roles up in class.

Do you notice anything about the scene structure?

Apart from the last scene of the play how long is the last act?

On Friday you will be watching the film. 

Henrik is in charge of the technology and a register to sign up your names will be on the teacher's desk.

The film will need to start at 7.55 in order to see it all by 9.50. So please TRY TO COME ON TIME.

Make sure the film and the register are reurned to my desk in Room 1212.

Have a good week!

Welcome to Tie-day Friday

The planner is now ready!------}
 This has been a short week because of the Monday which was school-free thanks to Saturday's "Open Day".

Thanks for Friday's analyses and Saturday's engaging presentations, music etc.

The decision as to what book must be decided today. The 2 candidates are:
"Letters from the Inside" and "Exodus".
We will put it to the vote.


Today we start off by listening to the final Shakespeare analyses. These will complete Act II and take us a little bit into Act III. 

The first assignment today is to read the summary of the rest of Act III and correct 11 errors. Miss Take has been up to her work again.

Here is the text

Scene III takes place inside Friar Laurence's cell. Romeo went there to hide after the killing of Benvolio and Tybalt. Romeo does not know what punishment the Prince gave and the Friar explains 
"Not body's death , but body's banishment"
 Romeo is relieved about this. The nurse comes in and is kind to Romeo. When he inquires if Juliet hates him for killing her cousin, she replies that she is weeping and crying out both names.
Romeo grabs a sword and wants to cut out from his body the part from the name of Montague resides. It is now Friar Laurence tells of his plan. Romeo will visit Juliet as planned that night then leave for Rome until things have died down and the Friar has explained about the secret marriage and can get the families to reconcile and get Romeo pardoned. The nurse gives Romeo a letter from Juliet.
Scene IV 
We are in the Capulet house where Paris wants an answer to his suit to marry Juliet. It is Monday night. Lord Capulet agrees to the plans and without consulting Juliet agrees that they will be married the same week on Friday. Lord Capulet goes off to tell Juliet the good news.
Scene V
Romeo and Juliet have spent the night together and now Romeo must leave because they hear the nightingale sing. Ironically Juliet has a vision that the next time they meet he will be dead in a tomb.Lady Capulet comes in and gives Juliet the news about the wedding. She makes an excuse for her appearance that she has cried over Tybalt's death. Her mother explains that someone will kill Romeo in Mantua with a dagger. 
When Capulet comes in his wife explains that Juliet will not marry Paris and he gets angry with her and threatens to kick her out. Juliet asks her mother for help and she is very sympathetic. The scene finishes that Juliet will go to Friar Laurence to get help or take her life. Please mail me your answers

Now in groups of 3/4 students answer the study questions for Act IV.
Here they are:
 1. Why is Paris at Friar Laurence's cell?

2. What reason does Paris give the Friar for the hasty marriage?

3. How long will the sleeping potion take effect?

4. Where will Juliet be put after her family thinks she is dead?

5. Who will be waiting in the tomb when Juliet awakes?

6. Who is supervising the preparations for the wedding?

7. What change does Lord capulet make in the wedding plans?

8. If the potion does not word, what does Juliet plan to do?

9. What vision gives her the strength to go ahead and drink the potion?

10. How will Romeo be informed about the plans?


While you are answering these questions I will be having grade talks with the students in question.

Next Wednesday there will be an opportunity at 14.15 for those who missed the Cambridge Reading Test to give it a try.

Good luck!

Shakespeare analysis and grade talks

Today we continue where we left off last time with the Shakespeare one-page analysis.

Anton and Erik took us through the scene where Mercutio and Benvolio are taunting and looking for Romeo. If it were today, Shakespeare would probably make Mercutio a rap or hiphop artist. He has the similar in-your-face, no-holds-barred language.

 Then we analysed the famous "balcony scene" which has some of Shakespeare's most famous quotes about love.

We start today with Marina who  will analyse p.62 in the middle of the balcony scene and then continue with Emma and Simon who lead us into the scene between Romeo and his confessor Friar Laurence. After that we will analyse the  scene where Mercutio and Benvolio finally catch up with Romeo and give him a hard time. Then we have the scene between Juliet and her nurse and finally in Act II the "wedding" scene.
Johan will then lead us into the famous fight scene where Romeo is finally banished from Verona.

At the end of the lesson today we will get you to continue to read the rest of Act III while I speak to those who missed the  grade talk last Friday.

We will begin with Jonathan S and Jessika followed by those who weren't present at the lesson.

 

Shakespeare analysis

Thank you for your assessments, planners and Christmas interviews.

Sorry we didn't complete all the individual talks about grades.

We will complete these on Friday after the Shakespeare analysis.

Today we begin with the first ten people:

Anton Andersson               p. 57
Eric Andersson                  p. 58
Kalle Andersson                p. 59
Efecan Ayan                      p. 60
Daniel Bergfors                 p. 61
Marina Bjelica                   p. 62
Anna Dahlberg                  p. 63
Linnea Ekström                 p. 64
Emma Enoksson                p. 65
Simon Eriksson                  p.66

The analysis is based on the following points

1. Characters

Which characters are speaking in your text? In what form do they express themselves? (Rhyming verse, blank verse or prose)

2. Story/plot

What happens in your text? Explain in your own words.

3. Language

Are there any examples of the following:-

Puns

Metaphors

Similes

Alliteration

Paradox/Oxymorons?

Other devices- Personification, allusion etc.

4. Quotes Any famous or memorable quotes in your passage?

Some have already sent their documents to me. If you haven't done so then please do it!

Welcome back!

Welcome back to school and to the second half of the English course.

As you remember we ran out of time before Christmas and are a bit behind in the schedule as originally planned. By now we should have completed "Romeo and Juliet" but as you will see we have a couple of weeks of study left to do it justice.

 Today I want to talk to you individually about your grades from the autumn term. I have made a document for each of you which we will look at during the lesson and I will email it to you afterwards.

As you can see the oral presentation is still not graded. This is because I had a computer crash during the holidays and only now have I got the films working again.

While on the subject I wonder how many are prepared to do their Shakespeare page summary today?

Well, thankfully, we will begin with this on Monday and complete it next Friday- no excuses!

There are three graded assignments for "Romeo and Juliet":
1. The page analysis
2. Final questions (see the attached document at the end of today's blog)
3. Comparison of the film and play (see preliminary planner)

Today I want you to begin by doing an interview with a classmate about his/her Christmas holiday. Record it on your laptop and mail it to me.

Call the file: name_name_christmas where the FIRST name is the INTERVIWER and the SECOND name the person who is INTERVIEWED.

After that I want you to get into groups of 4-5 students and do an assessment and a preliminary planner.

You will find copies of the relevant documents on the teacher's desk.

Here they are in digital form:-
1. Free assessment
2. Preliminary planner

The other important decision is our choice of modern novel. There are four candidates. They are:
  John Marsden  Letters from the Inside
  Jodi Picoult      My sister's keeper
  Julie Bertagna  Exodus
  John Green      Looking for Alaska

There is a copy of them on the teacher's desk. Find out a little about the books and vote for the book of your choice individually.
Write the result on the assessment.

Finally here are the Shakespeare questions in document form.

If you have time over at the end of the lesson then please work on your Shakespeare.