English 11S - Lord of the Flies Paper

Consider the following question: How does William Golding use symbols to enhance the themes and character development in Lord of the Flies?

Over February vacation, pick a symbol and five quotations that relate the symbol to either a theme of the novel or one character's development in the book.

Hamlet Viewing Thursday!!!

CANCELLED!!! CANCELLED!!!

Elliott J. has reserved space at the First Parish Church in Gorham to view the Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet from 4:30-8:30 p.m. (new time!) on Thursday, February 15! Many thanks to Elliott for doing this and I hope some of you can take advantage of this opportunity. Elliott tells me there will be a projector and everything, and maybe even some 3-D glasses. Crazy.

Due to the weather, this viewing will not take place. To review, I suggest you check out the Simpsons version of Hamlet on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=JAMVD-roQYU.

Please send me an email if I can be helpful at all before your exam tomorrow.

AP Lit: Hamlet Assessment Friday and Extra Credit Opportunity

On Friday, February 16, I will treat you to a typical college-level Shakespeare assessment. It will consist of two basic sections:

• Speaker Identification. You will be presented with twenty quotations from the play. You need to correctly identify the speakers and spell their names correctly. Even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Even Hamlet. This section is worth 40 points.
• From those twenty quotations, you need to select two quotations to write short analyses about. The short analysis should consist of addressing this general question: what is the significance of this quotation to the work as a whole? To go about doing so, it would be a good idea to:
  -Formulate a response to the question that will serve as a thesis, or a point you’re trying to articulate.
  - Pay close attention to the elements of the quotation that support this point. In terms of close reading, we are again concerned with tone, diction, syntax, perspective, and the placement within the plot of the play.
  

All of you math majors out there will quickly ascertain that this section is worth 60 points, to give us a nice, round 100 point assessment.

This exam is closed-book. It is also closed-sparknote.

Extra Credit

For those of you who have been hankering to rock a diorama, mobile, or interpretive dance, here’s your time to shine. What I’m looking for is an original, creative presentation of your understanding of Shakespeare. Here are some ideas:

- Write and perform an original song from Hamlet’s perspective, or another character from the play. A friend of mine once had her students write blues songs for Hamlet and Ophelia.
- Make a CD as a soundtrack to this play. Include liner notes to explain why the songs you selected are included and why they appear in their order. Your soundtrack should match the progress of the play. In other words, it might be inappropriate to have “Werewolves of London” playing during the “To be or not to be” soliloquy.
- Create a graphic novel version of one scene of Hamlet. You can do this yourself or by using software. Although this should be obvious, you should not select a scene that is only two pages in the play.
- Write and record an episode of The Daily Show reporting on the events of Hamlet. Can you imagine the field day Jon Stewart would have with this?
- Write a response to either Sonnet 130 or Sonnet 138 from the mistress’ perspective in sonnet form. I would imagine the mistress in Sonnet 130 would have some things to say about her lover’s own attractiveness or the ‘touching’ valentine she received.
- Write a soliloquy for Ophelia before she commits suicide.
- Create a visual representation (a poster, mobile) of one of the themes of the play. Include pictures as well as quotations from the play.
- Write and perform (in class or on video) a parody of Hamlet. If you’ve been cursing me every night for making you read this play, here’s your chance to really skewer it.

This is but a beginning. I trust that you are all MUCH more creative than I am, so you can push it from here. If you are going to do this, you must have the project ready to go on Monday, February 26, and you have to let me know that you’re doing it by Friday, February 16.

This extra credit is worth a 100% on a 30 point assignment. That will probably help your grade with 1 or 2 points on the quarter.