Work Week

Students turned in essay final drafts and then had the remainder of the period to work on Lear projects. The rest of the week will be devoted to work time in class.
Presentations begin with act 1 on Monday 3/1

The Lear Project Begins

After a short quiz-like activity to start the day, we spent the rest of the day introducing the King Lear projects, breaking into groups and choosing acts.

Wrapping Up Edmund

Today we talked a bit about essays and reading all of King Lear over break. then we spent the remainder of the day dissecting Edmund's soliloquy.
Have a great break!

Enter Edmund

Today we finished reading 1.1 aloud and then spent some time reading and annotating Edmund's soliloquy at the start of scene 2.

Shakespeare and Lear

Today we talked a bit about Shakespeare and more specifically about King Lear. After some introduction, we began to read the play aloud in class.
The optional essay drop box is now open.

Essay Response

Today we spent the period responding in writing to student essays. Students who were absent are responsible for getting essay responses one their own.
Bring King Lear tomorrow.

Beloved Pressure

Today I collected study guides and we had the pressure comp for Beloved.  
Essay rough drafts should be in class tomorrow.

Wrapping Up Beloved

Students had 1/2 the period to finish the stream of consciousness work from yesterday. For the rest of the period, we discussed the questions; then I collected them.

It was not a story to pass on...

Today we wrapped up and turned in the Beloved discussion questions and spent the rest of the period looking at the stream of consciousness sections specifically. The questions are below and were done in class.
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Beloved Stream of Consciousness Analysis
Reread the four SOC sections in “Book Two,” doing the following:

1. What appears to be Sethe’s primary preoccupation in her SOC section (the first)? 
2. What appears to be Denver’s primary preoccupation in her SOC section (the second)?
3. As we did with “Flies,” chart Beloved’s section (the third) according to patterns you identify in the piece as you read. You should start with an annotation of the passage, then categorize images and make lists. Finally, looking at your lists, what conclusions can you draw about Beloved and her role in the novel?
4. The fourth and final section incorporates all three voices. To what end? Why does Morrison repeat “You are mine,” or some variation of this phrase, so many times in the section?

More Beloved Discussion

Today we began with a quotation warm-up and talked about it for much of the period. We spent what time we had left on the discussion questions from yesterday. (Well not in period 2. In period 2, we spent the rest of the period talking about Senior Class Night scripts. You owe me Nikki.)

New Due Dates:

• Beloved PC & SG 2/8
• Bring King Lear to class 2/10

Dearly Beloved...

Today we circled up and spent the period discussing the Beloved questions from yesterday.

The Beloved discussion begins

We began the day with a quick quiz and spent the rest of the period on the discussion questions below. They should be completed for HW. We will discuss them tomorrow.
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Beloved Discussion Questions
1) Trace the shifting character of the house over the course of the novel. How does setting reflect plot (and/or theme) in this case?

• “124 was spiteful” (3).
• “124 was loud” (169).
• “…she neither saw the prints nor heard the voices that ringed 124 like a noose” (183).
• “124 was quiet” (239).
• “Unloaded, 124 is just another weathered house needing repair” (264).
• “Something is missing from 124” (270).

2) Compare Stamp’s conversation with Paul D (235, the final lines of “Book Two”) and Denver’s remembered conversation with Baby Suggs (244, five or so pages into “Book Three,” right after a conversation between Baby and Sethe). What advice does each seem to give? How does their advice fit in with the overall message of Morrison’s novel?
3) Near the end of the novel, Paul D claims he wants to “put his story next to [Sethe’s]” (273), yet on the next page, the narrator tells us that “It was not a story to pass on” (274). Are these statements contradictory? What does Morrison seem to be saying about the past and the future?
4) Who or what is Beloved? Defend your answer. More importantly, what purpose does she serve in the novel?
5) Clearly, one theme of this novel is the search for self. Paul D struggles to explain for himself what the whites—“the definers” (190)—called his manhood, and Sethe struggles to find her own identity as a “free” woman. What resolution, if any, have the characters come to at the end of the novel?