Scribe Post for August 29, 2008

Today in class we:

• got back our 2nd college essay and the idea sheet we turned in
• turned in our 3rd and final college essay
• got to act out Oedipus. It featured: Casey Holmes as Oedipus, Eric Boten as the priest, lauren leonard as Creon, Kim Christiansen as the chorus, Irene Lahana as the Chorus Leader, and Shelli Marr as Teiresias.

Today was treated as a college course. We just kept going unless someone had a question

Notes:

• Plays from this period had minimal sets and characters. Everything had significance
• Many motifs, themes, and tragic hero qualities
• Set was simple and boring
• King was above the priests or above worshipping. Kings above worshipping, kings above gods, sophocles did this on purpose
• Plague in Thebes, 2nd plague. First from sphinx and citizens believe Oedipus will save them again. Thebes not a good place to live.
  
• They talk so much because they are introducing the plot and have to explain everything to the audience.
  
• Oedipus is full of himself. It's all about "I". ALso digs himself into a hole. Basically says, " If I would've been there I would've solved this problem but I wasn't so I will now"
• Dramatic Irony- He fights for Lauis as if he was his own father. Feels he has a connection with Lauis with children from the same line...awkward
• Oedipus has asked to see Teiresias twice but he refuses because he is a blind proohet and knows what Oedipus has done.
• Tragic Hero Characteristics- comes from wealth, has pride and arrogance (will be his downfall). He is so committed to cause he is setting himself up for failure.
• Oedipus intimidates Teiresias
• Dramatic form of writing
• 
  

Homework:
sign up for college essay conference
Read Oedipus through Pg 35. FInd 3 examples of dramatic irony, 3 adjectives with examples to describe Oedipus' character.

Something to Ponder:
Oedipus has 4 children with his mother. What does that make them? His siblings, his children, or his half-borthers and sisters and children?

First Donut Day!!

Donuts and orange juice!!! Thanks Eric!! Taylor had a golf tournament so thanks to him in spirit!

“Incest, it’s a game the whole family can play!!”

Notes From Last Class Project
Oedipus Rex:
· Written by Sophocles
· 2nd written but 1st in series
· Focuses on Troy and Thebes
· Epic Cycle 4 lost epics about Thebes’ misfortunes
· Sophocles’ treats the Oedipus myth with much narrower forcus
· Setting
o Takes place in thebes
o Mostly set in the royal palace (one setting for whole play)
· Oedipus sends Creaon to Oracle of Delphi
· Laius is murdered and Oedipus is driven to find the murderer
· Tiresias blames Oedipus, who is killed his father and married his mother, and so he found out about his real parentage.
· Jocosta- mother and wife- hangs herself in embarrasment, and Oepipus
· Oedipus gouges out his eyes. L
· Themes
o Fate- we determine our fate by past actions/decisions
o Divine Law- Importance of prophesies, “self-fufilling”
o Self discovery/Oirgin
o Sight/ Blindness
o Destiny vs. Free Will
· The prohecy was much more complicated than the whole story, and the prophecy eventually came true
· Oedipus solved the Sphinxes’ riddle, so as a reward he was crowned king and given his mother (the queen) after he killed his father.

OMG!!

Cornith Thebes
Polybus – Merope Laius – Jacosta (- Oedipus)
Oedipus Lauis and Oedipus meet Oedipus (Jacosta’s bro Creon)
Oedipus kills his father
Solves the sphinx’s riddle
Another plague comes so he sends Creon to talk to the Oracle of Delphi, and he told Creon, who told Oedipus that all they needed to do was to find who murdered Laius. They find out it was Oedipus and everything explodes.

“Donut it UP!!!”

We passed out Oedipus Rex books.

Homework:
· Read Oedipus (first 15 pages)
o Find three examples of dramatic irony
§ What does the audience know that the characters don’t?
· Write next college essay
o Who am I??
o Avoid any clichés

August 25, 2008 Scribe!!!!

Late Start WED

HW :

*Class expectation sheets by wed

*College Essay: How have you been impacted by your parents/others? Typed, double spaced, size 12 font, 1 ½ pages long

Today in class:

*We presented our Oedipus presentation

*Greek Theatre
o The stage was amphitheater design. To help amplify the actor’s voice
o All actors were males, they even played female roles
o Masks were big and had bright colors so audience could see also amplified voices
o Comedies
o Tragedies/Dramas
o Greek song and dance
o We learned a Greek dance!!!!!

*Tragedy
o Definition: The imitating of an action that has serious implications, is complete, and possesses magnitude; by mans of language which has been made sensuously attractive, with parts; enacted by the persons themselves and not presented through narrative; though a course of pity and fear completing the purification of tragic acts which have those emotional characteristics.
o Downfall of a noble hero.
o Any even t with a sad and unfortunate outcome.
o Examples of Tragedy: Titanic, Hamlet, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, The Movie Crash, 9/11

*Greek Tragedy
o A story with a sadder or more unfortunate outcome.
o Main character is usually some sort of hero.
o Created to honor Dionysus, goats were sacrificed to Dionysus.
o Performed in late march and early April
o It was the form or three play writes
o 3 unities: Time, Place, Action
o Characteristics of a tragic hero: Position, Tragic Flaw, Reversal, Recognition

*Tragic Hero
o Usually a hero with a flaw or a bad trait that brings them down later in the story
o Someone they love gets in the way of there battle or journey and that brings them down too.
o Examples: Oedipus Rex, Batman, Spiderman, Hercules, Firefighters, Soldiers, etc.

Aug 22

Mrs. Smith is a competitive runner.
Drew hates the feeling of cardboard.
Sara is afraid of fish.
Molly is related to Joan of Arc
Kaitlan has had 3 concussions
Patrick is afraid of heights
Kim is crazy
Adrian is a vegetarian
Jessie is bilingual and a dual citizen (South Korea). His dad was in the army and hooked up with his mom in South Korea. Also, his dad is going back to Iraq in two weeks. Jessie goes back to South Korea about every 2 years and has been to 6 different schools in about 6 years. A very interesting guy
Lauren doesn’t like cotton balls
Eric is terrified by snakes
Taylor (Girl)plans on being a shark biologist when she grows up
Kendra is terrified of the dark
Molly is deathly afraid of fish eggs, but doesn’t mind fish
Sarah E has been a dancer for 12 years
Taylor (Boy) plays a lot of golf and today is his birthday
Casey has a batman lego collection and today is his birthday as well
Irene is a youth director for the American cancer society
Eric hates the word swell
Mackenzie hates the sound of brushing her teeth
Lauren is voting for McCain and her dog bit her this summer
Rick is a catch and release fly fisherman
Anna is undefeated at disney scene it
Katie has an ancestor that tried to kill the pope
Haley can’t sign her last name in cursive
Shelli is 50% Swedish
Katie hates the sound of people blowing their nose

Apparently the best thing ever in writing is visualthesaurus.com so maybe check that out sometime.

When getting teacher recommendations: Thank the teacher (hand written notes, gift certificates)
Give the teacher plenty of time
Don’t use two teachers from the same subject.

We chose groups and each group was assigned a category on Oedipus’ background.

HW: Scribe, Oedipus material, parent email

Scribe Post for August 20, 2008

Welcome to English Lit!
Today we met Ms. Smith, she's pretty awesome. We went over the seating chart and also signed up for scribe dates. Scribing is when one person takes notes on what we went over during the day and posts them on the class blog for the people who were absent.
Ideas/Suggestions for the Scribe Post:

• Post:
• any homework
• any notes during the day
  
• Main Points of any discussion
• In class work
• upcoming test dates
• any changes (Put in Bold writing)
• Information for tests
• upcoming important dates
• who is the next scribe
• It should be posted by 9pm that night
• You can include something fun (ex. jokes, games, videos, pictures, etc.). Be appropriate

We also signed up for...DONUT DAYS! Every Wednesday of the semester someone is signed up to bring donuts or another treat to class because we do have english during 4th hour and the treats will make everyone happier. She handed out 3 college essay papers for us to read and that will help us with our homework. Ms. Smith told us what to expect for the semester. We will be reading Oedipus first. This is one of Ms. Smith's favorite books but it annoys her how stupid Oedipus is. If you would like to buy your own copy of the book please have it by Friday. Next will be Beowulf. If we're lucky or bribe her we may be able to watch the movie. After that The Canterbury Tales. Both Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales are in the big class book so she suggests that we just copy the pages so we don't have to lug a huge book around. Last we are reading Hamlet which is Ms. Smith's favorite to teach. Yes, we get to watch movies. Our final is Inquiry based, meaning that we will be working on a main question all semester. The question is, "What is a Hero?" To end the first class we all got assigned to our laptops and set up blogger accounts and were given a chance to start on our blog responses.

HOMEWORK:

• For Friday: Go to Ms. Smith's webpage and print out Class Expectations. Get it signed and bring it back. Have your parents e-mail Ms. Smith (asmith@lps.k12.co.us) and also e-mail her from your account. If you don't already have a Blogger account please set one up (Blogger.com). For a display name please use First name, Last initial then graduation date. Have your school supplies. This is a laptop class so you can get a mouse and USB drive if you want. Blog response to "This is NOT education as usual". Write your College Essay. It can't be longer that one and a half pages, size 12 font, double-spaced, with your name and title at the top. This College essay is about a crossroads in your life. To clarify, a time in your life where you ever had a really hard decision that you had to make. Read your college essay handouts and find one idea that you read that stuck out to you and type it on a piece of paper. Make it big enough to read but also make it pretty.

Now a picture of the conquering hero of the Olympics:
Look at those abs.

This is NOT Education as Usual

Guess what? You are seniors! Because you are so learned in your ways and I can't teach you anything you don't already know ( I am being facetious- look up this word if you don't know what it means), I want you to think about what you want your last year of high school to look like. THINK BIG!

What do you hope to get out of this class?
What do you want to learn?
What do grades mean to you?How do you learn best?
What activities have you previously done in other classes that have been meaningful or interesting to you?