TODAY IN CLASS
Brief discussion of homework; then the ballad assessment.

Many did not quite finish.

FOR TOMORROW
Finish this as homework.  I'll collect it at the start of class on Friday.

TODAY IN CLASS
We discussed "Get Up and Bar the Door" (224-225); it is a rare example of a humorous ballad (and nobody dies!).

Then students read pp. 216-217, material about ballads, their poetic form, and the use of dialect.

Finally, there were two hand-outs with variants of two additional ballads:  "The Twa Corbies" and "Lord Randal."

Here is the link to the material on ballads as well as the three anonymous ballads we've worked with so far this week:    Ballad Intro and 3 ballads

FOR TOMORROW
Re-read the two ballad hand-outs from class: use the second version of "The Twa Corbies" to help you understand the Scots dialect version.  For "Lord Randal," read both the short and long version. Then proceed with the specific tasks outlined below:

1) I mentioned in class that REPETITION is a feature of most ballads that the book discussion leaves out.  This repetition can occur in various ways--of a word, a phrase, or a whole line.  Sometimes the repetition will be of part of the phrase, with a slight change each time it occurs.
So, Task #1:  Give examples of each type of repetition.  You only need one example per type, but overall, select examples from at least THREE ballads (book, hand-outs, or a combination).

2) "Tragedy" is an oversimplification.  Ballads often involve love gone wrong (unrequited love or bad break-ups, betrayal, infidelity, etc.), other kinds of human betrayal or wrong-doing, or sometimes things beyond human control, like sudden disaster.
So, Task #2:

• For "The Twa Corbies," what details of the ballad shed light on how/why the knight might have been killed ("new slain")? 
• For "Lord Randal," how does the LONG version of the poem provide a better explanation of why the young man died?  

3) Sometimes ballads do a good job of characterizing; sometimes they do not.  

Task #3:  

• Consider the couple in "Get Up and Bar the Door."  At the beginning of the poem, do you sympathize more with the husband or the wife?  At the end of the poem, do you feel the same way about them, or have your sympathies shifted?  In what way?
• How does the long version of "Lord Randal" help to characterize him?  What personal traits can you identify?

You should write this material down; be ready for a very quick discussion tomorrow.  I'll be calling on people, and I expect you to be prepared with ideas and information.  I am not collecting it, however.

For the rest of the class period, you will do an assessment that will involve a ballad you have NOT read as well as one that we have; however, even for that one, you'll have a copy of the text.  It may not take you the entire time, so have something else to read or  work on if you finish early.

   

Beginning the Last Semester of Your Senior Year

MONDAY/TUESDAY in CLASS

"Robin Hood and the Three Squires"--pp. 220-223
Read; answer some questions for your own notes; discussion followed today.  Main message:  the story reveals social circumstances, Robin Hood's unfairness, and his daring (and law-breading) ways of helping people. BUT this ballad's surprise ending also shows a more vicious, sinister side of Robin Hood.

"Barbara Allan" --pp. 218-219
We focussed on the narrative gaps in the story, as well as the characters of the two individuals involved.  "Make my bed . . . Make it soft and narrow" is a ballad code word for coffin.

We began the set-up for "Get Up and Bar the Door" in 5th (not in 1st/2nd)

ON WEDNESDAY
We'll do "Get Up and Bar the Door" as well as two other ballads from hand-outs. Focus will be on pulling together features of ballads.  You'll read pp. 216-217, and use the ballads we've read to supply some additional ballad features that the book should have mentioned.

ON THURSDAY
An in-class ballad assessment; open note, asking you to read a ballad we did NOT work on in class to show what your understanding of a particular ballad and of ballad conventions.  There will also be a question related to versions of "Barbara Allan."

Final Exam

TEXTBOOK MATERIAL
Here is the link for our last literary work:
Le Morte d'Arthur

For all the previous work, I need to have you go back to the source; these are trickier to copy and paste than you might think.

SO--from the beginning

Introductory material for BOTH Anglo-Saxon and Medieval units:
Sept. 24--scroll down to the link that says "Anglo-Saxon Introduction." But GUESS WHAT--this is the link to the Anglo-Saxon AND Medieval introduction!!

Oct. 16:  General background for Beowulf (useful review)

Dec. 2:  General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (review the specific pilgrims listed on your study guide)

Dec. 11:  "The Pardoner's Tale"

Dec. 15:  "The Wife of Bath's Tale"

Of course, you have all of your Gawain material on hand=outs (packets 1-4)

STUDY GUIDES and ESSAY QUESTIONS PREP
Use the hand-outs you received on Friday.

Clarification of instructions for the multi-paragraph essay:  It is like the single paragraph response above in that I will put TWO choices on the test, and you will need to select one.  That means you need to prepare at least two questions to be sure that you don't plan for the very one I leave out.

Some people may choose to prepare all three, but that is not necessary so long as you are satisfied with both of the ones you DO prepare and can live with just having one of the two on your actual test.

HAVE WITH YOU FOR THE TEST

• A pencil for the GradeCam portion (heavy solid pencil marks seem to work best)
• A blue or black pen for writing your paragraph and essay.
• Paper, because you will receive the questions on a half-sheet.  I won't supply blank paper for you to write on.
• ****And your prepared half-sheet of notes/quotes!

Wednesday in class:
Quiz over "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"--Objective section and an applied writing section in which students were to provide evidence of virtues from the code of chivalry using their hand-out text copies of the poem.
But--many people did not finish.

SO--TODAY IN CLASS
Students had the opportunity to finish their work (many were very close), and there was a new hand-out--a set of questions on Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.
The copy I gave to 1st period skipped a couple of questions--but the "corrected" copy introduced a different problem.  We went back to the first version, and tomorrow I'll give you the missing question directly.

2nd and 5th received proper corrected copies.

Everyone--if you started on these pretty late in the period because you were finishing the quiz, you need to make sure to get them underway tonight.  I am expecting solid, well-supported responses, based on your looking closely at the appropriate sections of the text.  See Tuesday's post for the link.

During class tomorrow I'll be giving you information about the final exam, but you will have about 25-30 minutes to work on the questions.  THEY ARE DUE AT THE END OF THE PERIOD.

If you were absent today and need a copy of the questions, here is the link:
Le Morte d'Arthur Questions
 

Tomorrow:  Quiz over Sir Gawain and the Green Knight--no background on this (either for the poem itself, the writer, or the medieval context) EXCEPT that it does represent the genre of a "medieval romance."

There will be a section short-answer and multiple choice questions which you'll do and then turn in--then an open book section (using all four of your hand-out packets) section for some longer responses.

TODAY IN CLASS
Students received an "recycled"  medieval quiz to use as a study guide for the Medieval Period; use it  it together with your earlier study guide that focussed more on Chaucer.

There was also time to begin reading the selection from "Le Morte d'Arthur" by Sir Thomas Malory.  Be sure that you read the intro material on p. 246, the paragraph about conflict on p. 247 (though we emphasized in class that the first sentence misleadingly suggests that medieval romance is the only genre of literature that features conflict as part of plot--nearly all plots involve conflict!).

FOR TOMORROW
Yes, the quiz, but if you read, kept up, and listened in class you should need only light review.

You should plan to spend some additional time (30 minutes or so) to continue and hopefully finish the story:
Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur

You can fill out the medieval quiz-as-study-guide any time over the next couple of days. Start on p. 28 of the following link for the Medieval Unit.
Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Unit Introductions

ON Wednesday--there will be a quiz over Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  One component will be objective (not long--probably 15-20 questions), and the other will involve some open book writing. In this case, of course, "open book" means the packets you have received for this poem.

By now everyone should have four total packets for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:
Packet #1--received on Dec. 19, the Friday before break
Packets #2, #3, and #4--received last week
Also--the insert for Packet #3 containing the missing stanzas.

FRIDAY IN CLASS
Students received the very important insert, and we read/discussed it thoroughly, covering all the questions posed in last Thursday's post as well as looking closely at the language of how Gawain negotiated the tricky line between preserving his purity, not wronging his host, and not insulting the lady.  We looked closely at the gift he rejected as well as what he accepted, and why.

TODAY IN CLASS
Discussed Packet #4--Gawain's New Year's Day visit to the Green Chapel, and its aftermath.

FOR TOMORROW

• Be reviewing for Wednesday's quiz.
• Locate the medieval study guide you did for points (showed me, but did not hand in).  Hopefully this sheet is right in your notes/notebook, but possibly stashed at home where you keep stuff you think you don't need.  

Tomorrow when you come to class, you'll actually need to get out your textbooks!

TODAY IN CLASS

More details later--but if you were there, and got both the final hand-out as well as the missing page from the previous packet--all you need is the list of things to focus on in the newest hand-out.  Here's the list I shared briefly at the end of class:

·        Details of setting (effect)

·        What happens (x 3)

·        “Green Knight’s” explanation for each step of the “what happens” actions

·        What Gawain is told about his character; what further hospitality the Green Knight offers at the end.

·        How Gawain responds to that offer; the aftermath (what we’re told about his future)

First, Wednesday's missing post:

• During class on Wednesday, we went over the "five fives" of the pentacle on Gawain's shield. We looked at the larger meanings of the simple stuff (faultless in his five senses, the five fingers that never failed him), and made sure that students understood the scope of the five virtues listed as specifically applying to Gawain:  bounty,  brotherhood, courtesy, a clean heart, and compassion.  
• Students also worked in small groups to make sure they had covered the categories and specific challenges of all the obstacles that Gawain encountered on his journey. It because obvious that the journey shares much with any quest that is both a geographical journey as well as a test of one's character and/or other traits.  You can also recognize elements of "the hero's journey" in Gawain (though the Joseph Campbell description came many centuries later!).
• Then students received Packet #3 in class, and the assignment was simply to read it carefully for Thursday.

TODAY IN CLASS
First, a very short reading check quiz with four fairly easy questions and one somewhat harder one.

I filled in a bit more detail about the transition between Gawain's arrive at the lord's castle (Stanza 38) and the new section (since Gawain has said he doesn't want to go out hunting, the lord proposes a exchange: at night, each man will give the other  whatever he has won during the day).

After numbering off into three groups, students looked at one of the episodes between Gawain and the lord's wife.  There was then time to discuss the findings for that episode with others in that same group (in pairs or threes).  For tomorrow, everyone should look closely at each of the two episodes you did not examine during class, using the same set of questions:

1. Where is Gawain as the host’s wife begins to speak to him?

2.  How does she embarrass him/put him on the spot? Give at least 2 specific examples.

3.  Locate what you think is the MOST POLITE thing he says to her.  Look for a place where he is having to reject her/put her off, but he can’t be insulting to her.  What does he say to maintain courtesy to a lady?

4. What does he ultimately accept from her? 

5.  What does he give the host that evening?

I do not plan to go over all of these points in detail; our greater purpose is to discuss how this section of the text builds on the "test" of Gawain.  He experienced one set of challenges during the journey between Arthur's court and the Lord's castle; during this section, he is facing a different sort of test.

TODAY IN CLASS
New packet covering the time between the departure of the headless Green Knight on New Year's Eve and Gawain's arrival at a castle on Christmas Eve nearly twelve months later.

Students got started (or close to finished) with their own depiction of a pentacle and the specific "five fives" associated with it.  The important carry-over, of course, will be to Gawain's character--that is, why this particular insignia on the shield is so appropriate for him.  We'll compare its tenets to his behavior as the story progresses.

FOR TOMORROW:
1) Complete the labelled pentacle (you are essentially making a graphic organizer for stanzas 27/28)
2) Finish reading Packet #2, and write brief notes in the wide right margin keeping track of the various obstacles Gawain encounters in his journey.  Consider everything--weather, terrain, things/people/animals, or any other aspect of his surroundings or personal circumstances.

Happy New Year!!

TODAY IN CLASS
We recapped the content of the first few stanzas of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," which we had read aloud in class on Friday (Dec. 19).
Miscellaneous things we mentioned along the way:

• "bob and wheel": the term for the 19-line stanzas (15 long, 4 short )
• Sir Gawain's most famous strengths:  purity and the degree of his courtesy
• this story is set up as a quest--or, yes, a "hero's journey," but that concept was not formalized with all its many parts until much much later.  Still, the traditional quest is where most of Joseph Campbell's ideas came from.

Then, students read the rest of the first part, with instructions to do three things:

1) Briefly note the essential content of each stanza in the margin.

2) Mark examples of colors OTHER than green.

3) Mark words/phrases you don't understand (or aren't sure about).

Be sure to hang on to this packet, which by now should have your name on it and be labeled "Packet 1."  (There will be three.)

FOR TOMORROW

No homework, actually, mostly due to teacher-fail on getting the next packet to the copy room on that last day before break!