Friday, January 15, 2010

Homework Reminder for MLK Jr. Weekend



Hi folks - hope you enjoyed Fun Friday and learned definitions for vocabulary words that will appear on the final exam. Nice to see your creative juices flowing, and who knew that rubber gloves and pipe cleaners could create so much fun?

I digress. Here is the homework due for Tuesday, January 19th:

1. Come to class with 4 PIEs. Look at the directions and model PIE on the assignment sheet. In the E of your PIE you should be able to explain how or why the literary device contributes to theme, character, or mood.
2. Read Act 3, Scene 1 - look for literary devices as you read. Consider how the device contributes to the telling of the story.
3. Complete the close reading of Titania's speech (the pink sheet). This assignment is copied below.
4. Be prepared for a reading quiz.

To read or view Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream Speech. Click Here. Learn more about the man whose contributions to civil rights should mean more to you than simply a day off from school :). See you on Tuesday.

Titania:

Set your heart at rest:
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votaress of my order:
And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,
Full often hath she gossip’d by my side;
And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands,
Marking the embarked traders on the flood;
When we have laugh’d to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;
Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait
Following,--her womb then rich with my young squire,--
Would imitate, and sail upon the land,
To fetch me trifles, and return again,
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
And for her sake do I rear up her boy;
And for her sake I will not part with him.

A close, detailed reading of Titania’s speech helps us examine Shakespeare’s use of language to create a particular effect. Examine the following aspects of the speech:


Images. Circle the images in the speech—places where Titania’s language paints a picture in your mind. What can you say about these images? Is there a pattern, a theme? Are the pictures peaceful or violent, hot or cool? What are the most memorable mental pictures produced in this passage? Make notes in the margin.

Metaphors. Underline the metaphors you find in the speech—places in which one thing is described in terms of another (“to see the sails conceive/and grow big-bellied with the wanton wind”).

Smells. Look for words that evoke smells and put a box around them. Write “smells” in the margin by each example.

Sounds. Look for words the evoke sounds and put parentheses around them. Write “sounds” in the margin by each example.

Repeated phrases. Look for phrases that are repeated in the speech.

Alliteration. Look for repeated consonant sounds and underline the sound being repeated.

Assonance. Look for repeated vowel sounds and underline the sound being repeated.

Repeated words. Look for words that are used frequently throughout the speech and put a box around these words.


How would you describe the overall mood or tone of the piece? Does the mood change? If so, where?



What do you make of the switch to one-syllable words in the last two lines?



What is the overall effect of the piece, and how do all of the elements listed above help to create and achieve this effect?

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