27 April: Julius Caesar Day 1

Late papers, folders, PowerPoint handouts, and note cards were turned in.

Students identified qualities of
- a good leader
- a bad leader
- a good friend
- a bad friend

Practice with Shakespeare's Language: Paraphrasing

• Students read Hamlet's "Alas, Poor Yorick" speech, watched the scene from the Mel Gibson version of Hamlet (see below), watched the Animaniac's performance (see below), and paraphrased the speech.
• HOMEWORK: Students will read and paraphrased Puck's speech from the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream. They can watch the youtube video of the Animaniacs performing the speech.

Act I Vocabulary definitions:
1.Construe: interpret
2.Cogitations: thoughts
3.Accoutered: dressed for battle, in armor
4.Entreat: to ask earnestly; beg; implore
5.Fain: gladly
6.Mettle: courage, fortitude; quality of character; disposition
7.Prodigies: portentous sign or event; omens
8.Portentous: evil, ominous; foreshadowing something evil

Act I Notes (students filled in blanks on a handout)

• Anachronism – historically, something is out of chronological order (ex: in the play, a clock strikes. The play is set more than 2000 years ago when clocks didn’t exist)
• Lupercalia - A fertility festival in ancient Rome, celebrated on February 15 in honor of the pastoral god Lupercus.
  - Julius Caesar begins on this day.
  - But the next day is the Ides of March. This is why we don’t read the play as a history. Shakespeare squeezes months into days.
• Themes in Julius Caesar (copied into notes)
  -Friendship
  -Leadership
  -Betrayal
  -Ambition
  -Superstition & fate

Students received handouts for Act I. These included detailed study questions for all scened and separate handouts for each scene.

• Act I, Scene i handout: read the definition of "pun" and identify which of the 7 sentences at the bottom are puns.
• Basic background for scene i:
  **The play opens as Julius Caesar is returning to Rome after defeating Pompey.
  **He used to be friends with Pompey. They used to rule together with Crassus, the first triumvirate. ***First triumvirate = Caesar, Pompey, Crassus
  **Marullus and Flavius are tribunes (police officers). They are angry with the people for cheering for Caesar.

Students read Act I, scenes 1 and 2 aloud in class.

HOMEWORK: Complete worksheet pages 2 & 3 (for Act I, Scenes i & ii)
Define Act II vocabulary words using a dictionary or dictionary.com. Links to workd on dictionary.com can be found here: http://woodliffenglish10.blogspot.com/

Animaniacs A Midsummer Night's Dream

Mel Gibson's version of Hamlet Poor Yorick scene

Animaniacs Hamlet