Category Archives: Honors IV

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms

The following RSA Animate video illustrates the points that the speaker, Sir Ken Robinson, makes about our education traditions in this country and the long-term effects that have caused him to call for a new view of education. When you watch the following video, respond to these questions:

1.  What is the main problem that the presenter claims/proposes is an issue within America?

2.  What are two credible sources that the presenter uses to support his claims?

3.  What is one issue that you find that the presenter may be too ambiguous about?

4.  Does he offer a distinct and specific solution or does he just present the issue?

After completing the video and questions, reflect on the information. Respond in about a half-page. Consider where/when you agree with Sir Ken, how his ideas apply to your educational experience, and what you think we ought to do to address his points.

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Thug Notes Introduction

In June 2013, Thug Notes produced its first video to YouTube. Thug Notes introduces classic works of literature with a hip-hop twist. Creators Jared Bauer and Jacob Salamon write the scripts with actor/comedian Greg Edwards hosting each episode as Sparky Sweets, PhD. The aim is to summarize and analyze classic works of literature with a hip-hop twist.

Here’s an example of the Thug Notes style applied to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. I’ll post the Thug Notes version of each work they cover that we read in class, but be warned! Salty language and adult themes ahead. Proceed with caution.

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Word Crimes

Listen to Weird Al, darlings. Much wisdom lurks amidst the sarcasm.

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Thug Notes: Brave New World

Orgy porgy, soma, and centrifugal bumblepuppy? That’s life in the World State streets. Salty language and adult themes ahead. Proceed with caution.

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Spelling Counts

tongs

This is why English teachers are so picky. Be glad.

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Earnest Review Questions

jackalgyTo prepare for your test on The Importance of Being Earnest, answer the following questions. You do not have to copy the questions, but you should prepare good answers.

We are also focusing on the humor of the play. You should select five lines from your assigned act. Copy the line and explain why it is funny. Wilde may be using one of the hallmarks of satire (Exaggeration, Reversal, Incongruity, or Parody), or he could be using wordplay. Select your act based on your birthday:

Act I: January – April
Act II: May-August
Act III: September – December

The Importance of Being Earnest

1. John Worthing uses two names. List the two names and tell where he uses each one.
2. Explain how Gwendolyn, Algernon, and Lady Bracknell are related.
3. Name the main reason Lady Bracknell refuses to let Mr. Worthing marry Gwendolyn.
4. How did John Worthing acquire his name and his wealth?
5. Algernon has also created a false identity. Name that person and explain why Algy has created him.
6. TRUE OR FALSE: Gwendolyn has “Ernest” tattooed on her behind.
7. Explain how John Worthing and Cecily Cardew are related.
8. What does John Worthing say has happened to Ernest?
9. How does Algernon gain access to the Manor House?
10. What do Cecily and Gwendolyn discover about their marriage plans?
11. What do John Worthing and Algernon plan to do to get around their name problem?
12. What prompts Lady Bracknell to accept Cecily as a proper bride for Algernon?
13. What is the big mistake Miss Prism made as a young woman?
14. Which couples are together at the end of the play? (Proper names, please.)
15. Explain the pun that ends the play.

An online text of the play may be found here.

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Johnson’s Updated Dictionary 2014

johnsonAfter our study of Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, we decided to apply our knowledge of satire and create some definitions of our own. Here are some especially good examples of modern additions to the Dictionary:

booty -the largest inanimate object that has the power to control a man’s mind.

cheerleading– throwing people and ourselves in the air, but still not considered a sport.

credit card – a magical plastic card that makes teenagers feel all-powerful and omniscient, all while secretly depriving said teens of money not yet attained.

Florida – a state enslaved by and dependent on a mouse and oranges.

gangster – a teenage male who still lives with his mother.

hair – something to be removed unless it’s on a head or part of an eyebrow.

headphones -the amazing wire that brings music to your ears but breaks at the drop of a dime.

hello – to approach a female with sexual intentions.

Instagram – the place where everyone who owns a camera is either a model or a photographer.

marriage – a reason to have a party a few years (or weeks) before you break up. Ex: Kim Kardashian.

moded – things are not going your way; to get burned.

Oscar – an award given to great actors, but not Leonardo DiCaprio.

rabbit – an animal so adorable it makes even the strongest, manliest men to act like squealing little girls.

spray tan – a spray that tricks girls into thinking they look tan but actually turns them into Oompa Loompas.

swag-males using the power of style and fashion in order to impress females.

textbook – a heavy and expensive object you receive on the first day of class and open only twice throughout the year: midterm and final exam.

unbeweaveable – describes a girl’s crazy hairstyle involving fake hair and wild colors.

vegan – a person who protests the murder of animals but eats their only food supply.

women – can’t live with ’em, can’t eat without ’em.

YOLO – excuse used to do something incredibly stupid.

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#Macbeth

hashtag

Our combination of Macbeth and social media resulted in a number of humorous hashtags. What other ones can you think of for the play and its characters?

BANQUO
#backstabbers
#deadandgone
#ghostswag

DUNCAN’S GUARDS
#drunk
#whaaaat

FLEANCE
#IbelieveIcanfly

MACDUFF
#teamMacduff
#bringitMacbeth
#thisjustgotreal
#moded

MACBETH
#Iseedeadpeople
#Iseedaggerstoo
#invincible
#prophecies
#tooturnt
#demwitchesdoe

MALCOLM
#Daddyno
#hewasntready

LADY MACBETH
#wherethegoodmenat
#unsexme
#youneedJesus
#Macbae
#teamnosleep
#moded

WITCHES
#doubledouble
#apparitionsbrah

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Macbeth Act V Quotations

DIRECTIONS: For each quotation, list the speaker, the person being spoken to, and the meaning of the line in the context of the scene.

If you were absent on Friday, February 28, complete either the odd or even number quotations.

1.
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!…Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?

2.
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.

3.
Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,
Profit again should hardly draw me here.

4.
Let every soldier hew him down a bough
And bear’t before him. Thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host, and make discovery
Err in report of us.

5.
Out, out, brief candle!

6.
Tyrant, show thy face!
If thou be’st slain and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.

7.
Turn, hell-hound, turn!

8.
Despair thy charm,
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripped.

9.
Lay on, Macduff,
And damned be him that first cries “Hold, enough!”

10.
Hail, King I for so thou art; behold, where stands
Th’ usurper’s cursed head. The time is free.

Macbeth fights Macduff, scene from the 1971 Roman Polanski film

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Macbeth Act IV Quotations

DIRECTIONS: For each quotation, list the speaker, the person being spoken to, and the meaning of the line in the context of the scene.

If you were absent on Wednesday, February 26, complete either the odd or even number quotations.

1.
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

2.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.

3.
Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff;
Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.

4.
Laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.

5.
Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him

6.
Horrible sight! Now I see ’tis true;
For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me
And points at them for his.

7.
Wisdom? To leave his wife, to leave his babes,
His mansion and his titles, in a place
From whence himself does fly? He loves us not;

8.
He has killed me, mother.  Run away, I pray you!

9.
My first false speaking
Was this upon myself. What I am truly,
Is thine and my poor country’s to command…

10.
All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?

Johann Heinrich Füssli, “Macbeth consulting the Vision of the Armed Head,” before 1825.

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