We’ve started doing those activities at the beginning of
class again. I’m not a huge fan of the ones we’re doing now (we have to
describe pictures using certain moods), mainly because of the time it takes to
get through them. I guess the point of these warm-ups is to get used to being
able to work with tone. We practiced identifying the tone of a passage at the
start of the year, then we learned about the differences between different
tones (and what words are tone words) and how to apply them in a sentence, and
now we’re writing whole paragraphs. It can just take a while to get the whole
class to ideate together and to agree on what to write, especially when we have
to keep that whole “form follows function” thing in mind – and it’s a lot
harder for some moods than for others. (I know we can work in small groups, but
as long as we’re not working individually, it’s more fun to work as a class.)
Reading Shakespeare is a lot different than reading other plays. In The American Dream and Death of a Salesman, we knew what was going on, but had to work to find the hidden meanings. Now, we don’t always understand the language the first time, and it can be a chore to find the obvious meaning in all of Shakespeare’s language. But once you solve the puzzle, it’s a pretty rewarding experience, and Ms. Holmes has been helping us talk through some of the more confusing parts. Personally, the fact that Hamlet has action is enough of a redeeming quality (especially in comparison to the other two plays) that I’m willing to overlook how difficult the language can be.
Reading Shakespeare is a lot different than reading other plays. In The American Dream and Death of a Salesman, we knew what was going on, but had to work to find the hidden meanings. Now, we don’t always understand the language the first time, and it can be a chore to find the obvious meaning in all of Shakespeare’s language. But once you solve the puzzle, it’s a pretty rewarding experience, and Ms. Holmes has been helping us talk through some of the more confusing parts. Personally, the fact that Hamlet has action is enough of a redeeming quality (especially in comparison to the other two plays) that I’m willing to overlook how difficult the language can be.
Watching Hamlet is a lot of fun, and – let’s be
honest – it kills time. It’s also very useful, because it can be hard to
picture Shakespeare’s plays after just reading the scripts, especially because
Shakespeare never included many details apart from lines. Seeing Hamlet
staged by actors who have studied it extensively allows us to see certain
events unfold more clearly and reveals certain aspects of themes or alternative
interpretations that were not apparent before. Getting to see multiple versions
of it also prevents us from being influenced too heavily by one interpretation,
since we spent a lot of class time talking about the multiple interpretations
of different aspects of the play (and we had a forum assignment just about
Ophelia) and how there isn’t necessarily a correct one.
I just hope Holmes lets us watch the entire David Tennant version.
I just hope Holmes lets us watch the entire David Tennant version.
Due to Hamlet, we haven’t done much else in class for a while
(other than the warm-ups). We did that forum assignment on the Chapter 5
poetry, but we didn’t actually read much general information on poetry in the
book. It seemed more like a chance for us to work on identifying themes and
tying different works of literature together.
This is very thorough! I totally agree with your opinion of the tone exercises! Especially with my class it can take up to almost half of the hour to make our paragraph. Clearly, Holmes doesn't just make us do this to waste class time, so why do you think she finds it so important that we have so much time to do it? I really like how you talk about the action of the play making up for the difficulty in the language, I completely agree! I found the action was the real reason that I could get through reading it and watching it and watching it... Just imagine if there was no action! How boring?! The only thing that I might add to this post is a little bit more information on the forums that we have done. For me, these were really helpful to my understanding of Hamlet and literature as a whole and would add a whole new dimension to your post.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the tone exercises. In our class people tend to joke around and not focus on the assignment, which makes it take a long time, and then it ends up not being very good. I also think it may be more productive to do tone practice the opposite way--we should get a passage and have to figure out its tone and possibly draw a picture of what is being described. Learning to write with a certain tone and use the tools that authors use certainly helps us learn to analyze tone, but I don't think it is as effective as actually doing the analysis. I also agree with what you said about Hamlet. I enjoyed it much more than the other plays we read because it stands on its own as an interesting story, as well as having many levels of meaning. The other plays we read had mediocre plots at best, and they served mainly to communicate a single message.
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