FEATS OF WISDOM!® #8

 

Epic Rap Battles of History: Shakespeare vs. Dr. Seuss

Taylor Swift- Love Story

CSI Las Vegas: Blood Drops (Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare Quote)

Reference to various quotes

Macbeth Notes: 1st Read Through

Act One:
•There are 3 creepy/ugly witches and they plan to meet up with Macbeth.
***The witches= foreshadowing
•A “sneak peek” of Macbeth’s character and personality is given through others’ opinions. Macbeth is courageous and isn’t afraid to kill someone very gruesomely.
•Macbeth and Banquo have an encounter with the witches. They tell him that he will be king. (but of course they don’t believe them)
•Then Ross and Angus come and tell Macbeth that the king has made him thane of Cawdor, as the former thane is to be executed for treason.
•Conflicts arise (foreshadow). Duncan wants his son Malcolm to be the heir to the throne, but Macbeth stands in between Malcolm and the crown.
***Lady Macbeth comes into the story. 1st impression- she’s crazy and greedy! She wants to do WHATEVER it takes to get Macbeth that crown. (Foreshadows more deaths to come)
•Duncan arrives to Macbeth’s castle and Lady Macbeth is being fake.
•Macbeth has a moment to himself and questions himself on the murder of Duncan. He is somewhat reasonable because he knows there will be consequences.
•Once again we see Lady Macbeth’s crazy side. After Macbeth decides not to kill Duncan, she is cunning/sly and convinces him to murder Duncan. (She’s the master mind with the idea)
Act Two:
•We see Macbeth’s mind going crazy. He has weird hallucinations and continues worrying about his soon to come bloody work. (He ends up killing Duncan)
•Lady Macbeth continually calls Macbeth a coward and gets angry.
•Macduff comes (still late in the night) to see the king; from there everyone sees what happened to the king.
***Lady Macbeth- was scandalous in order to seem appalled by what happened under her roof.
•Macduff tells Ross that Macbeth has been made king by the other lords. Then suspicions fall on Malcolm and Donalbain because they fled the scene (which was only for their own safety).
Act Three:
•Banquo he ponders about the witches prophecies and questions if the second is going to come true. Also they fear that the brothers are plotting against him and Macbeth, who is now king. (a lot of self questioning is seen throughout the characters)
•After everyone leave, Macbeth begins a soliloquy. He also wonders if the prophecy of Banquo’s son will come true. So what does Macbeth do to solve his problem?? He hires murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance. ***Killing streak has began!
•Their plan failed because the murders let Fleance escape. More foreshadowing when Banquo tells his son to get revenge.
***Macbeth’s conscious causes him to see Banquo’s ghost and he basically goes crazy and ruins the feast?
•Hecate The goddess of witchcraft scolds the witches for meddling. (she has different plans for Macbeth)
•Lennox and Macduff have an idea that Macbeth killed Banquo and Duncan!!
Act Four:
•Macbeth has a crazy encounter with the witches. This leads him to order Macduff’s capture and his family’s murder.
•The wife and son are killed after being told that Macduff fled. (they died thinking they were abandoned)
•We see Malcolm question Macduff’s loyalty, but then believes him. (smart kid?)
•After Ross tells Macduff the news of his children, Malcolm makes Macduff change his sadness to anger. With an army, they plan to go to war with Macbeth and kill him!! (Teams are building up)
Act Five:
•Lady Macbeth’s madness is seen once againillusions
•Macbeth prepares for the battle while trying to have his wife cured of her madness.
•After knowing his wife is dead, Macbeth remembers the prophecy and realizes he will die fighting.  this symbolizes his pride!
•Techniques are being discussed and Macbeth murders Lord Siward’s son!! Another murder!!
•Macduff is crazy looking for Macbeth to seek revenge! (all during the battle) The prophecy about Macduff was wrong so Macbeth freaks out?
•Macduff is found holding Macbeth’s head by Malcolm and Siward!!!
***So Malcolm didn’t kill Macbeth?!?!

FEATS OF WISDOM!® #2

Senior Citizen Reading

FEATS OF WISDOM!® #4

FEATS OF WISDOM!® #5

Lit. Anal. #3 Of Mice and Men

**Section One:
Setting: California. Goes from a beautiful riverbed to working at a ranch.
Characters: George- small, feisty, and caring. Lennie- large and awkward. Has mental disability.
Friendship: This is seen a lot throughout the book. George cares a lot for Lennie and protects him. (tough love)
George: he sometimes gets frustrated with Lennie because he’s so slow and just doesn’t get things fast.
Foreshadowing!! ---George tells Lennie to come back to the riverbed if any problems come up.
**Section Two:
Candy: An old handyman who they now work with. He owns a very old dog who the other men want to kill.
First impressions: Most of the first impressions in the novel aren’t good. The boss is intimidating and threatens George not to try to pull anything.
Curley: Boss’ son; very aggressive, ex-boxer. He already starts picking on Lennie.
Slim: Another worker; very important and respected man
**Section Three:
Friendships: Once again it is seen with George and Lennie. George started taking care of Lennie after Lennie’s Aunt Clara died.
Ups and Downs: They finally convinced Candy to kill his dog, meanwhile Lennie gets a puppy from Slim.
Foreshadowing: Curley’s wife symbolizes trouble soon to come.
Innocence: After Curley and Lennie fight and Lennie breaks Curley’s hand, all Lennie worries about is not being able to pet the rabbits.
**Section Four:
Crooks: a new friend that Lennie makes; he too works on the ranch. They begin to talk about life and their dream land.
Trouble: Curley’s wife enters and begins complaining about her husband and life. Crooks tells her to leave and she threatens to have him lynched. (racism)
**Section Five:
Puppy: Lennie forgets his strength once again and kills the puppy. He tries hiding it in the hay.
Softness: Lennie loves touching soft things. When Curley’s wife enters, he begins touching her hair. He grabs it to hard and she begins to panic. Suddenly he realizes he broke her neck.
George: He finds out and freaks out. Realizes that the idea of having his own land was a lie, but he started believe it himself. (A mob forms to kill Lennie)
**Section Six:
Proud: Lennie is proud of himself for remembering to go to the riverbed.
Depressing: George shows up first and finds Lennie. He tricks him into thinking they leaving to their beautiful land. Once Lennie turns around, George shoots him in the back of the head Everyone else comes and George sadly says that Lennie began fighting so he had to shoot him.

Macbeth History Notes!

Site #1:
•Tone: (dark play) sinister and evil
•Written 1606 when James I was king. He symbolized the union of Scottish and English
•1st – Macbeth killed his predecessor Duncan I. 2nd – Duncan’s son, Malcolm killed Macbeth (Macbeth ruled for 17yrs.)
•Of the 14 kings, 10 were murdered.
•Shakespeare made changes to the truth to add drama.
Site #2:
•Very gruesome, “not for family entertainment.” Tons of murders, twisted minds, witches, devil, and evil.
•Shakespeare wrote remix of Macbeth to clear Banquo, King James’ reputation.
•The play takes place during the war time. (this adds to drama and kings’ strategizing)
•Lulach was killed by Malcolm who later married his wife, Margaret, and took his kid.
•Three witches= connection to Greeks and myths
•The word evil is used a lot, but to refer to bad deeds and habits.
Site #4:
•Shakespeare used “Holinshed’s Chronicle of the History of England and Scotland” for info.
Site #5:
•Sources that contributed to Shakespeare’s’ Macbeth: Holinshed’s chronicles, Scotorum Historial, Discovery of witchcraft and Daemonologic.
•Three Purposes are: dramatic purpose, thematic purpose, and political purpose.
•The changes and structure/ style that Shakespeare adds, causes the different purposes.

Top Three Blog Choices

My favorite three blogs are those that follow:

Jessica Parra- jpdrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com
Tatiana Alvarez- tarhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com
Jessica Manriquez- jmrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com

The Bluest Eye Remix video

Literature Analysis Notes (The Bluest Eye)

Prologue:
“We had dropped our seeds in our won little plot of black dirt just as Pecola’s father had dropped his seeds in his own plot of black dirt.”
Chapter One
•Love: A constant presence throughout the novel. The MacTeer Family truly cares for each other (shown with their actions). They also take in Henry as a helper and help Pecola.
•Sherley Temple: Symbol of hatred and jealousy. Pecola really wants to have those blue eyes and blonde hair.
•“How do you get someone to love you?” Pecola begins growing up both physically and mentally and questions life.
Chapter Two
•Pecola’s father is out of jail and they move into a pretty horrible apartment. The furniture description is a symbol of how she feels about life(everything is pointless).
Chapter Three
•Discrimination: They believe they are ugly because they are black. Pecola really wants blue eyes because she feels that with them, she will be respected and happy.
•Pecola constantly questions what beauty is.
Chapter Four
•New girl named Maureen represents the discrimination. The boys stop beating Pecola only because they see Maureen (with blue eyes) standing there.
•Maureen insults the girls saying they are ugly because they are black.
Chapter Six
•Henry touches Frieda’s breast. The family almost kills him once they find out.
Chapter Seven/Eight
•Tells of the childhood of Mr. and Mrs. Breedlove. They had tough childhoods and grew up to do some bad things.
Mr. Breedlove even beat and raped women.
Chapter Nine
•We see that it is very difficult to trust anyone.
•Soaphead Church is an “honored” man until they find out that he is a pedophile!
•Pecola begins to imagine that she has colored eyes. (innocence of a child is shown)
Chapter Ten
•Hope is an important message found in this chapter. The girls, Claudia and Frieda, work towards getting a bike even though a lot has happened to them.
•Misfortunes: Pecola is pregnant because of her father! (Cholly leave)
Chapter Eleven
•Pecola begins to have internal problems. She questions herself and her “imaginary friend” says that she liked having sex with her father.
Symbolism and Literary Techniques:
•Marigold Seeds- The hope of Pecola’s baby being healthy
•Verbatim- the sequence, punctuation changes, titles of the chapters

Literature Analysis Mind Map

http://www.mindmeister.com/148673400#

No More Structure!!

Socratic Seminar Notes
Internet:
•Media has connected people all over the world
•All answers can be found and there are many sources and facts to any question.
Break the Habit:
•We all need to think for ourselves and figure out the best way to break the habits
•Having a structures “class” takes away that imaginative stage and thinking. (we forget how to be creative)
•Many can’t even be on their own (ex: our class Journals)
•In order to move on, we must break the habits.
New Approach:
•Look at the bright side of things that will make you love what you are doing.
•*Everything you do, even if you love it, requires work and commitment.
•Be fearless in the sense that you might fear the answer, but can still deal with it.

Paragraphs
1) Throughout life we learn various concepts that we either choose to carry with us or ignore completely. Some of the concepts which I grasped in today’s Socratic seminar and yesterday’s video and article have changed my perspective of learning new things. After reading the article, I found that having a structured routine and rules has somewhat of a bad impact on our imagination and creativity. At a moment when grades don’t matter, it’s important to have that creative mind set in order to go beyond the limits and really exceed the minimum that most expect from you.
2) These concepts can be applied to many hurdles in our life. One hurdle in specific is the upcoming AP test. With these new concepts, I can enhance my strategies on how to better prepare myself for the exam. I plan to go beyond the normal studying habits of just sitting down and reading a book. I have learned that by working with others and hearing others’ opinions, I learn better and think critically.
3) Many believe that the answer to everything is the internet, and I somewhat agree with them. The internet is so powerful that we are able to not only share information with people around the world, but can also communicate with them and share videos and photos (Skype, facebook, etc). These concepts can be used in a large number of ways. Already by sharing new information on the internet that isn’t part of the schools’ curriculum, is different from the norm. We shouldn’t waste the power of the network by simply going on the ordinary “Wikipedia,” we should explore the entire network and see all the information that is simply at the grasp of our fingers.

Lit. Anal. The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison)

1)The novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is split into four sections: Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer. The novel is about a nine year old girl named Claudia and her ten year old sister, Frieda. These girls live in Ohio with their parents. The novel takes place in the end of the Great Depression. The MacTeers family take in a man named Henry and a young girl named Pecola. Throughout the novel we see that Pecola is an interesting girl. She is obsessed with having blue eyes and blonde hair like “Sherley Temple.” Pecola is a troubled character because of the people around her and her inner conflicts. She is constantly being told that she is ugly and black. The novel describes the childhood of both Claudia’s parents. It was rough and both were mistreated. One day Pecola is raped by Cholly (the father) and becomes pregnant. Of course Pecola is the one who is beaten because they blame her for the incident. Unlike the rest of the neighborhood, Claudia and Frieda want Pecola’s baby to live. They sacrifice the money they have been saving for a bicycle and plant marigold seeds. They believe that if the flowers live, so will Pecola’s baby. The flowers refuse to bloom, and Pecola’s baby dies when it is born prematurely. Cholly, who rapes Pecola a second time and then runs away, dies in a workhouse. Pecola goes mad, believing that her cherished wish has been fulfilled and that she has the bluest eyes.
2)The theme of this novel is universal. It is seen versus being seen. Pecola dreams of having blue eyes and she believes that the reason for experiencing cruelty is because of how she is seen. In her mind, if she weren’t ugly, then people wouldn’t be doing ugly things to her or around her. The connection between how one is seen and what one sees has a uniquely tragic outcome for her.
3)Toni Morrison takes in interesting approach on this novel. She uses first person point-of-view in order to create a personal connection for the readers while they read. Morrison’s tone is melancholy. Throughout the novel we see nothing good coming out of every incidents, but yet all the characters cope with the misfortunes one way or another.
•“I don’t know why she would. All he did was get drunk and beat her.”
•“Although his income was small, he had no taste for luxury.”
• “Finally rigid with constipation, he boarded the bus to Macon.”
4)Toni Morrison used several literary elements in order to convey a specific theme and tone. Some of the literary techniques which I observed that strengthened my understanding of the theme and my sense of the tone were: foreshadowing, verbatim, diction, imagery, and dialect. These techniques helped create this powerful, unforgettable novel. For example the foreshadowing lets us know of terrible things to come and the dialect helps the reader connect with the wide variety of characters.
•“I reckon I knows a lying nigger when I sees one, but jest in case one of them mammies is really dyin’ and wants to see her little old smoke before she meets her maker, I gone do it.”---Dialect
•“It was such a small and simple gesture, but it filled him then with a wondering softness.”---Foreshadowing
•“She can rub the smooth fur and feel the unresisting flesh underneath.”---Imagery

Dropping Knowledge

Video Notes:
Some of the many questions found around the world are about poverty, globalization, history, energy, genocide, and many more topics.
•*Even though everyone is different, we have the same problems.
•Important Question: How do you perceive the world around you?
•Bianca Jagger stated that we need the internet to talk to each other and to learn and understand each others’ culture.
Important Quotes:
•Ceasar L. McDowell—“Every effort to change the world starts with people asking question.”
•Jonathan Granoff—“Some brands are governments.”
Personal Questions:
•What caused so many different beliefs, values, and morals to develop around the world in the first place?
•Who were the people chosen for the “100 Questions?”


“The serious Need for Play”---Article
What benefits does “free-play” have?
•Crucial: helps cope with stress and develops cognitive skills
•Learn to share and make decisions for themselves
•Communication skills are grasped and language improvement
•Reliefs stress and anxiety.
•Makes them smarter and builds creativity
When there are no rules, the child uses their imagination and creativity and uses more regions in the brain. They try new activities and roles.
Personal Questions:
•On the animal testing, would the results have changed if it were a different animal besides a rat?
•Playing makes children smarter, but in what way?
Important Quotes:
•Elkind—“Curiosity, imagination and creativity are like muscles: if you don’t use them, you lose them.”
•Pellis—“A child who has had a rich exposure to social play experiences is more likely to become an adult who can manage unpredictable social situations.”

"How can playing with a question create a learning experience?"
Playing with a question can create a learning experience in many ways. I personally believe that by doing that, your mind creates various questions related to it that you eventually find answers for. Playing with just one question can lead to many more questions and answers that you never knew you had.

More Remixes!!

Sparta Remix!!!

Poem Analysis

Sonnet 69
1)The narrator is the speaker and he is confessing his love and thinks of them as one.
2)The poem is in sonnet structure. (2 quatrains, 2 trios)
3)The theme is love and unity.
4)Grammar: 2 continuous sentences.
5)Imagery: “Without the light you carry in your hand, golden..”
6)Uses old English diction.
7)The tone is hopeful and love-stricken.
8)Uses imagery, metaphors, and repetition of the word “without”
9)The language is old English and it flows. (has a certain beat)
The Lamb
1)The lamb not knowing who made it
2)Structure: every 2 lines rhyme
3)Theme: knowing ones origins
4)Grammar: old English
5)Images: the lamb
6)Diction: simple/understandable
7)Tone: curious
8)Literary Techniques: personification (the lamb) and repetition

Sonnet 89
1)First Person (man/women)
2)Structure: 4 stanzas; 4 verses, 4 verses, 3 verses, 3 verses
3)Theme: love
4)Grammar: modern writing
5)Images: the hands passing over them, walking on the sand, travel through your hair
6)Diction: die, love, want
7)Tone: hopeful
8)Literary Techniques: Imagery

REMIX!

Never Jump To Conclusions!!
Poetry Elements:
DrAmAtIc sItUAtIOn: Who da Speaker? What circumstances is he/her in?
StrUcture: Transitions! (DIVISION)
Theme: What’s the meaning or point of this?
Grammar and Meaning: Word Order
Figures of Speech/Images: Sensory objects and what’s their purpose??
Diction: Important words!
Tone: The author’s feelings towards audience, characters, etc..
Literary Techniques: Ex: hyperbole, repetition, etc..
Language: Structural Flow! (prosody)

REMIX: 2 combine or edit something in order to make something new!
HOW TO CREATE?!?
Copy....Transform...& Combine

Literature Analysis: "Black Boy"

1) The novel “Black Boy,” by Richard Wright is about a young boy, also the protagonist and author, named Richard Wright. This novel is about his life as an African American growing up in the South. Richard has to overcome many obstacles both personal and universal. Not only does Richard have to grow up surrounded by racism and discrimination, but he also has to deal with the problems rising between his family members. His father abandoned them and since that moment, Richard became use to the feeling of hunger. His grandmother and aunt made his life very difficult as well. Their strict religious beliefs made his education impossible to reach. The older he became, the more the family worried about his questioning of life. Eventually Richard left the house in search for a better life and to achieve his dream. We see Richard become more and more interested in becoming a writer. He manages to get many jobs and begins reading many books and articles. The one thing that we see always running through Richard’s mind is the confusion on racism.
2) The novel presents a large number of themes. I think the main theme is “the mysterious diffusion of power between whites and blacks.”
3) The author’s tone in this novel is melancholy and serious. He talks about all the misfortunes that he has had to face in his life all throughout the novel. Some examples are: “The meaning of life comes only from a –struggle with meaningless pain,” “I knew what was wrong with me, but I could not correct it,” and “Fear drowned out grief and that night we packed clothes and dishes and loaded them into a farmer’s wagon.”
4) Richard Wright’s writing was very appealing to me. It quickly caught my attention because he is straightforward and very detailed. Richard also used a variety of literary techniques. The most helpful ones were foreshadowing, analogy, dialect, diction, and personification. He foreshadows events by describing his goals and he also includes the Great Depression and WWII.
*”They’ll kill you if you go there! Whites folks say they’ll kill all his kinsfolks!”--- Dialect
* “As time separated me from the experience, I could feel no hate for the men who had driven me from the job.”---Personification
*”I was living in a culture and not a civilization and I could learn how that culture worked only by living with it.”---Diction