Last lesson of the term

Well, we made it this far!

Firstly, sincere apologies about the state of the marking!

This week I would normally have a grade talk with every student but we will start up with that after Christmas.

I will go through the writing pieces with you then.

This week I will give priority to marking the CAE reading test just to make sure that nobody is struggling with that.

Today we will try to round off our work on the Shakespeare play.

I want to talk about the language of Shakespeare and his use of literary devices to enrich his plays.
Figurative language- some of the devices Shakespeare uses to enrichen his plays

Your tasks for today are as follows:-

1. Work on the final exercise about "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" -to be sent digitally at the LATEST 15th January 2016
a final exercise on "Two Gentlemen of Verona".

2, Work on the three language exercises belonging to the Shakespeare Survival Kit- to be handed in on paper also by 15th January.
What did he say? Test your own knowledge of Shakespeare's words having read through the information about his language

Punny guy! The classic Shakespeare device for providing verbal humour (N.B. This is a pdf file!)

Plus the "Everything Old is New Again" exercise

Here is a good video clip to round off the play

3. Assessment
Here is a copy of the assessment for those who are missing in action!

Fill it in and send it to me. Those who are in class please do it on paper!

Spot the deliberate mistake! Ha! Ha!

4. One of the points raised in the assessment is the form of assessment or evaluation we do on this course.

I try to use Formative assessment.

For me it is very time consuming  (about 100 hours until now). That's ok as long as people are taking advantage of it and learning.

The alternative is more summative exercises:

For example many students have problems with using capital letters. Not even "I" is spelt with a capital by several students.
Here are some rules:

1. Capitalize the first word of every sentence.

This is the first time he used a snowboard.
Speech-recognition software is better than ever.

2. Capitalize the days of the week, names of months, and holidays.

He spoke on Monday and Tuesday.
During December and June he got his royalty checks.
At Christmas and Easter he took a break; during Thanksgiving and Labor Day, he relaxed.

3. Capitalize important words in a title (including the beginning and ending words).

For Whom the Bell Tolls
Fly Fishing for the Complete Idiot
A Day No Pigs Would Die

4. Capitalize proper nouns and proper adjectives such as nationalities, languages, geographic places, groups of people, and formal periods of time.

I studied history, French, math, and English in school.
The British and the Russians enjoyed studying about theRenaissance.
Three Japanese students took my class.
A boy from Arkansas got the lead.

5. Capitalize titles before a person’s name. Capitalize a title that takes the place of a person’s name unless the title is preceded by the wordmy (or another possessive pronoun like their, our, his, her, your).

	Capitalize	Do Not Capitalize
	President Clinton was here. Senator Miller walked in. Professor Rutter lectured. “Come, Mother, let’s go.” “Hey, Dad, let’s eat.”	The president was here. The senator walked in. The professor lectured. My mother is here. My dad is hungry.

6. Do not capitalize the seasons, and only capitalize directions (north, south, east, west) if they stand for a specific place.

I love winter and fall.
I don’t like spring and summer.
When I’m lost in the North Woods, I always go east.
The wind is blowing from the east.
I used to live in the East.

Here is an exercise

Now check your answers

Give yourself a score out of 18 ( ½ point off for 1 error in a sentence).

Which is better?

Classic Book Talks
I can say that the quality of the book talks up until now has never been higher.
The remaining people are:
Hannes
Simon Lundh
Clara
Jonas
Gustav W
Linnea 
Ulrika

We need to reschedule the times since I will be driving by son to the hospital on Wednesday.

The alternatives are:

Tuesday (tomorrow) 14.00- 15.30
Thursday (drop- in after consultation)

In any person cannot take one of these times then I will have one slot today at 8.50- 9.00.

Please comment on the blog when you will come.

Lucia oh dear!

Now the school has decided to celebrate Lucia on Friday..

So all of those who had planned to do their Classic book talk on Friday will have to do it either:

This Wednesday at 14.00 or next Wednesday at 14.00

Week 50
Name	Title of book	Author
Linn Calles	Pride and Prejudice	Jane Austen
Frida Deras	Robinson Crusoe	Daniel Defoe
Elin Bäckström	Sense and sensibility	Jane Austen
Hannes Wahlström	Frankenstein	Mary Shelley
Simon Lundh	Robinson Crusoe
Clara Linnaeus	Pride and Prejudice
Jonas Fändriks	The three Musketeers	Alexandre Dumas
Gustav Westerberg	The Hound of the Baskervilles	Arthur Conan Doyle
Lukas Nygårdh	The Trumpet of the Swan	E.B. White
Linus Holmberg	Robinson crusoe	Daniel Defoe

+ Linnea

+Ulrika

Here is a document to fill in

Today we will spend some time looking through the play and the way Shakespeare creates his comedy.

Then afterwards we can look at some study questions and answers for the first three acts.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona - Study Questions and Answers

From Shakespeare Explained by Forrest Lunt. New York: Hearst's International Library. 

ACT I - SCENE I 

1. What does Shakespeare tell about the characters Proteus and Valentine, lines 63-68? 

Valentine is shown to be a man of action, generous, unemotional, true; Proteus is a man of reflection, selfish, emotional, false. 

2. Is this scene humorous? Why? 

Yes. See lines 20, 23-40, 70-158. The play upon words in the scene between Valentine and Proteus; the play upon words in the scene between Speed and Proteus; and Speed himself make the humor. 

SCENE II 

3. Compare the first 50 lines of this scene with The Merchant of Venice Act I, Scene ii, lines 37-140. 

Note the similarity in the speeches of Lucetta and Portia; Julia and Nerissa. 

4. What are your conclusions? 

That Shakespeare liked the scene in the earlier play and therefore developed the same situation when he wrote The Merchant of Venice. That Shakespeare used whatever he liked or whatever "took" more than once. 

SCENE III 

5. Why is this an important scene? 

Because it tells the audience that Proteus, the devotee of love, is to be separated from the woman he loves and, therefore, raises the questions, "How will he act?" "What will he do?" 

ACT II - SCENE I 

6. What shows you that Valentine's love for Silvia is genuine? 

Valentine's failure to see through Silvia's device (see lines 121-140) suggests that his love for her is genuine. 

SCENE II 

7. What is the reason for giving this short scene? 

In order to show Proteus and Julia together. After hearing his speech, lines 8-12, an audience would be further interested in the questions raised at the end of Act I, Scene iii. 

SCENE III 

8. What kind of humor is found in this scene? 

9. Do you enjoy it? 

Natural, homely nonsense. If one sees the clown leading his dog by a string onto the stage, the quibbling wit of the speeches will probably cause laughter. 

SCENE IV 

10. How does Thurio reveal his character, lines 10-42? 

By his speeches, especially lines 12, 20 and 30. In the first he shows jealousy; in the second, stupidity; in the third, anger. 

SCENE V 

11. Would comedy of this kind interest a modern audience? 

It would depend upon the way it was played. The words read probably seem uninteresting but the action which goes with the words on the stage would cause laughter. This scene shows the absolute necessity of visualizing a play. 



ACT III 

12. Which character is the more interesting, Valentine or Proteus? 

The answer will depend upon the reader; whether he is more interested in seeing treachery punished or honesty and love rewarded. Both are interesting. 

A short piece of the play from a Youtube clip from "Shakespeare in Love" 

Finally, when I disappear to have my online class in Spanish there is a final exercise on "Two Gentlemen of Verona".

It needs to be done by the start of the spring term.

CAE Reading and continuation with "Two Gentlemen"

Today we try our hand at a CAE reading test.

You have an hour and fifteen minutes to do it.

Afterwards continue working on "Two Gentlemen of Verona"

I have still only received the exercise about Act I from less than half the class.

Today please!!

On Friday the following will do their Classic book talks:

Week 49
Name	Title of book	Author
Mustafa Karim	alice in wonderland	Lewis Carroll
erik hansson	dracula
Simon Leek	Treasure Island	Robert Louis Stevenson
Gustav Andersson	The Wizard of Oz	L. Frank Baum
Jonathan Knutsson	The Wizard of Oz	L. Frank Baum
Ulrika Heikkinen	alice in wonderland	Lewis Carroll

Two Gentlemen of Verona and Classic book talks

As an introduction I just want to give you some clues about the questions for ACT I of Two Gentlemen of Verona.

I would like you to work in groups of three/four students and answer the questions. Send them as a document to the course webpage..

Here are some clues. One of the special characteristics of this play is the role of the servants. 
Speed, Lance and Lucetta are what we call "foils".

Here is a link about this:-
http://www.shmoop.com/gentlemen-of-verona/society-class-theme.html

What is a foil?

Foil

Definition: 

A foil is another character in a story who contrasts

 with the main character, usually to highlight one of 

their attributes or weaknesses.

Panthino has another role. He is the wise and faithful servant.

Panthino is Antonio's sensible servant.  Panthino acts as a sounding board and dispenser of advice to his master, Antonio. In Act 1, Scene 3, Panthino advises Antonio to send Proteus abroad with all the other noblemen's sons:

'Twere good, I think, your lordship sent him thither.
There shall he practise tilts and tournaments,
Hear sweet discourse, converse with noblemen,
And be in eye of every exercise
Worthy his youth and nobleness of birth. (1.3.30-34)

Here, Panthino gives voice to the idea that young noblemen should travel abroad and hang out with other men of noble "birth" as a way to round out one's education. The question is, does Proteus actually learn anything in Milan?

Puns
Check out the document I put on last Friday's blog
Here it is

There are more than 5 examples of puns. Here are 5 of them

boot/to boot/boots (p. 4. lines 26-27)

circumstance/circumstance  (p. 4 lines 36-37)

laced mutton/mutton  (p.6 lines 94-95)

pound/pound/ pound (p.6 lines 101-104)


post/post (p.7 line 149)


The other questions should be easier to answer...!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now here is the first graded exercise for Two Gentlemen of 

Verona

It is about Act 2 and 3 and should be sent in by Friday week 50.

The rest of today's lesson you need to continue to read the play

Here  is the document

Good luck!

CAE Listening

Today we are going to try our hand at a CAE Listening test.

The test I have chosen is somehow easy compared to the present-day test but it gives you an idea of the linguistic level.

This Friday we will be begin the classic book talks according to the list:

Name	Title of book	Author
Johan Erkers	The three musketeers	Alexandre Dumas
Sophia Tillas Engberg	Sense and Sensibility	Jane Austen
Sana Al-Salih	Christmas Stories	Charles Dickens
Johanna Målarbo	Oliver Twist	Charles Dickens
Linnea Carlsson	Pride and prejudice	Jane Austen
Zandrina Modin	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Alice Through The Loooking Glass
Markus West	The lost world	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Gustaf Grane Elisson	Uncle Tom's cabin	Harriet Beecher Stowe
Daniel Öhrn	Robinson Cruesoe	Daniel Defoe

By Friday please complete and bring along the answers for Act I of "The Two Gentlemen of Verona"

Here are the study questions for Act I

Scene 1

1.     How does the play begin ?

2.     Which characters are on stage?

3.     What are they discussing ?

4.     What is Valentine about to do?

5.     Who is Speed? Why do you think he is called the way he is ?

Scene 2

1.     Who is Julia ?

2.     What is her relationship to Lucetta?

3.     In what ways this scene “comic”?

4.     Who is Julia in love with?

Scene 3

1.     In all these scenes, there is a master/mistress and servant? Who is the servant here?

2.     Panthino is not like Lucetta and Speed. Why?

3.     Proteus gets tricked by his own lies. Can you explain how?

4.     What is the relationship between Antonio and Proteus?

5.     Give examples of 5 puns (plays on words) from the First Act of the Play

Introducing Shakespeare

Before we start:

1. The writer's course is finished!

I should have 4 pieces of work.

Some people have not turned in ONE piece yet!

2. The next three Fridays are for the Classic book talks. Sign up!
Please fill in the sheet which is here 

3. On Monday we will try out  a Cambridge Listening Test 


Today we finally get to start studying our Shakespeare play- a comedy entitled "Two Gentlemen of Verona"

We will use a Shakespeare Survival Kit which should be completed by the time we finish the play.

We will start off by getting a copy of the play from Björn.
Then there will be a video about Shakespeare's life.

Fill in some information for each heading on the document (available on paper)


General information about Shakespeare:-
Here is a link document to help you



After that we will begin studying the language and looking at the compendium.
Here are some of the documents:

General 

Words  -Some basic information about Shakespeare's language

Common Shakespeare terms- more general language information 

Figurative language- some of the devices Shakespeare uses to enrichen his plays

What did he say? Test your own knowledge of Shakespeare's words having read through the information about his language

Punny guy! The classic Shakespeare device for providing verbal humour (N.B. This is a pdf file!)

Here ia an extra resource from about.com( http://specials.about.com/service/newsletters/shakespeare/3d5479d1d00001ad8c000fac.htm )which I can recommend

Two Gentlemen of Verona
Here is a document to get you going with the language



Here are the study questions for Act I

Scene 1

1.     How does the play begin ?

2.     Which characters are on stage?

3.     What are they discussing ?

4.     What is Valentine about to do?

5.     Who is Speed? Why do you think he is called the way he is ?

To help you here is a short summary of this first scene in the play

Act I, scene i

Summary

The Two Gentlemen of Verona opens on a street in Verona as Valentine bids an emotional farewell to his dearest friend, Proteus. Valentine explains to Proteus that he must leave Verona for Milan because he believes that young gentlemen remain simple if they do not venture out to see the world. Proteus responds that his passion for Julia keeps him at home in Verona. Valentine chides Proteus for being so consumed with love, and hints that Proteus' devotion to love will ultimately make him a fool. Proteus promises to pray for his friend, and Valentine departs. Proteus muses that Valentine has set out to find honor, and that Valentine honors his friends by becoming more dignified himself. With melancholy in his voice, Proteus notes that he has abandoned his friends, his studies, and his rational thoughts, all for his love of Julia.

Proteus' mournful thoughts are interrupted by the entrance of Speed, Valentine's punning page. After a long, silly discussion about whether Speed is a sheep and Valentine a shepherd, Proteus asks Speed if he has delivered Proteus' love letter to Julia. More punning ensues, until Speed finally confesses that while he did indeed deliver the letter, he could discern no particular response from Julia since she simply nodded her head when she received the letter. Speed notes that Julia did not tip him for delivering the letter, from which he infers that Julia will be hard and withholding toward Proteus' as well. Proteus angrily sends Speed after Valentine's ship, worrying himself over Julia's cold reception to his love letter. 

Scene 2

1.     Who is Julia ?

2.     What is her relationship to Lucetta?

3.     Why is this scene “comic”?

4.     Who is Julia in love with?

Scene 3

1.     In all these scenes, there is a master/mistress and servant? Who is the servant here?

2.     Panthino is not like Lucetta and Speed. Why?

3.     Proteus gets tricked by his own lies. Can you explain how?

4.     What is the relationship between Antonio and Proteus?

5.     Give examples of 5 puns (plays on words) from the First Act of the Play

We shall go through Act I next Friday (on the blog). By then you should know the answers!

End of the writing road- Translation

This time it is a translation.

First some general info:-
Today we have reached the end of our writing course.

To recapitulate 

We have talked about the general characteristics of writing:

• How it stands "outside" time
• How it requires a structure
• How it is governed by many rules and constraints such as:

1.  Grammar
2.   Spelling
3.   Syntax
4.   Register 
5.   Paragraphing

We have looked at a five-paragraph-essay as a simple building block of writing.

Then we have tried our hand at formal and informal English.

Today we finish off with the skill of translation.

I will start off by distributing and going through a handout with you.
Here it is.

Translation involves transferring the meaning from one language to another as faithfully and accurately as possible.

It is not the same as paraphrasing or summarising in another language.
It is a very useful skill.

If we look just at Leksand and its municipality we can see many areas where translation is needed.

• Business (international companies)
• Twinning arrangements (Uganda-Leksand)
• Tourism

Then we have all the media uses:-

• Music/Song
• Instructions
• web sites

It is claimed that on an average University course in Sweden 70% of course literature is written in English.
So the uses are endless.

Nowadays it is possible to use eletronic tools to assist in translation.

If you use google translate "It's raining cats and dogs" it no longer says:
"Det regnar hundar och katter" but if you put in
"How are you going to worm your way out of this?" the result is just as bizarre!
Try  "He turned up like the bad penny!" and see what you get!
Or why not even "Give us a break!"
The problem of producing a good translation is not only to be accurate but also to get the right "feel" conveyed by the original text.

Here is your translation task. Easy? Probably not!


This is one of the harder things to do well!

The handout takes you through the most important things

1. Accuracy- That does not mean "word for word"
otherwise you get
"Have it so good" (ha det så bra) and
"Shoot yourself" (sköt dig (själv))

2. Terminology
The translation is about skiing. What words (terms) specific to that area will you need?

3. Language and style
The original is somewhat informal. Your version needs to be the same"

4. Country standards
What do you do with the miles in the text?

5. Text formatting
We are more careful in English about paragraphing than in Swedish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good luck!!

FINALLY

Now let's turn to next week.
I have seriously revised the time-table.

Monday- No lesson because of the "utvecklingssamtal"

Friday- Introduction to Shakespeare


We also have the classic book talks.
10 people will do their talks with me on Friday week 48 and10 on the following  Friday and the remaining people the week after that(week 50). 

Please fill in the sheet which is here 

• Your name
• Author's name
• Title of book
• Week  48/  49 / 50