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.