The Translations

After finishing our look at The Iliad (well, at least in second hour), it becomes more clear that the voice of the translator (or the modern day scop) influences how we the audience judge the characters and their trials and tribulations. Take, our lovely Hector, the fawn, the one who should be a blip on the radar of Homer's works. In our translator's hands, we see him as just, humble, the man who should be victor on a morally basis alone. I find translations quite fascinating as how they impact our interpretations. Ergo (I almost put "hence," but I know Abby would be disappointed in me), we will have other opportunities to look at multiple translations throughout the course.

2: We actually finished everything on the agenda today! And, you now know why I am quite bothered by people who categorize Shakespeare as Old English! Today was the completion of vocab experts, which means review and quiz are forthcoming this week. We then finished our Gilgamesh groups, looking at epic similes and motifs floating through the forests of Humbaba's guard. Last, we delved into The Iliad, prompting my babbling at the beginning of this post. For homework, you have "The Wife's Lament" to close read (there are versions of this online, but we will be focusing on the translation that I gave you in class) and Chapters 1-4 of Grendel. You will definitely see a vacillation in voice with his telling of the tale.

6: We finished our vocab experts for unit 3 and our Beowulf discussion before jumping into Gilgamesh analysis, which we almost completed. For tomorrow, you will need to prep The Iliad excerpt in your textbook and chapters 1-4 of Grendel.

Heroes and Monsters Part II

2: After vocab experts, we finished up our Beowulf interaction with the post-battle Beowulf hubris and the harrowing journey to Mama Grendel for another fight that will be hyperbolized into a tall tale like his antics in the sea. Next, we turned to Gilgamesh, starting our discussion by analyzing the protagonist, his buddy, and his unfortunate victim, the tree-loving, "just doing his job" Humbaba. We will finish up our discussion of Gilgamesh and move into The Iliad selection from your textbook during next class. If you missed out on the Gilgamesh discussion from today, then be prepared to bring up something on Monday.

6: Since our class was in multiple locations today, we had a moratorium on epic literature. We will resume on Monday - and will be doing a lot of reading and analysis next week to catch up a bit.

Who is the Monster?

Even though we should be qualifying Grendel as the most monstrous figure in Beowulf, the descendant of Cain has a more sympathetic portrayal in our translation. Who becomes the monster? Perhaps many of you would place Beowulf in that category with his penchant of bragging, tall tales, gratuitous violence, and obsession with blood, gore, and glory.

Next time around we will finish up the remaining portions of Bewoulf, look at Life in 999, and analyze Gilgamesh.

Don't forget your essay is due by 2:30 p.m. on Friday - whether you are in class or not.

Peer Evaluating with the 6

The entire hour was dedicated to peer evaluating your free response essays under the new 1-6 scoring system. Now that you have feedback, you have the option of composing a second draft or maintaining its current structure. In either case, a draft of your free response essay is due by 2:30 p.m. on Friday.

Hello, 6

After vocab experts, we moved to a new realm of grading, where the 9 no longer exists, where the 6 is a combination of 3 components: the thesis (technical), the evidence/explanation (technical/artistic), the sophistication (artistic). We will put this into practice tomorrow with your free response first draft essay!

For the block day, you have a textbook now! And with that big green book, you will read all about our new buddies, the Anglo Saxons, on pages 4-17 and jot down notes regarding culture and history. Then, you will read all about your new hero, Beowulf, on pages 18-38 and take notes regarding what you notice for analysis.

A Real 9

For our last foray into 9 grading, we read the rangefinders for the free response prompt and found out how important the setting and its historical, cultural, and social meanings are to an upper-level response (and don't forget to name-drop those lit elements).

With such impressive examples, that means only one thing on the horizon: writing your own free response prompt! Yes!

Here are the rules & regulations:

• Write an essay responding to the exact same prompt from the rangefinders. (That prompt is gold and can fit just about any text.)
• This shall be handwritten and considered a take-home "sort of timed" prompt.
• Do not have the book/play/text with you as you write (you can't cite anyway). You are welcome to review your text prior to writing, though.
• While you don't have to exactly time this essay, go for one hour or less in the writing process.
• Bring in essay for Tuesday's class for our peer evaluation -- with the new 1-6 system.

Meanwhile, second hour copied down vocab unit 3 to begin on Monday, and second hour started vocab experts for vocab unit 3.

And since we were talking about the environment, climate change, the lack of bird population, here are links to an NBC News story on how scientists in Iceland are attempting to circumvent carbon from complete contamination of the atmosphere Iceland Scientists and the concern of the Nightingale population moving towards endangerment, which would devastate my Keatsy The Nightingale. 

Speaking of my beloved Keatsy, yesterday was the 200th anniversary of his "Ode to Autumn," which Cora and I celebrated by reading outside. The majority of his works were composed and he met Fanny in 1819, so this 200 anniversary year is quite a magical one. 

The Free Response

We are wrapping up our 1-9 evaluation system and moving into the 1-6 scoring range for future essays, or unknown territory! At least we are all in this together!

2: We finished - yes, finished - the Chopin presentations! We shared our first book card! We overviewed the free response essay by looking at a prompt and having a set of rangefinders to evaluate for Friday's class.

6: Same as above, but we also copied down Vocab Unit 3, so we can start that on Friday as well.