Happy Birthday-ish to Bill the Bard
Yesterday (Wednesday) and today (Thursday) in class, in celebration of Shakespeare's 450th birthday-ish (there is some uncertainty regarding his actual date of emergence from the womb--we'll just go with the 23rd for sake of its convenience) we wrote for 4 minutes and 50 seconds on your observations about the speeches in Julius Caesar: first period hit this yesterday with observations about Brutus's speech, second period, today, with observations about Mark Antony's speech.
And here's the deal: we checked out some clips from the inimitable Stephen Colbert, who, like Mark Antony, gives a speech that begins with a tone of diffidence (respect), yet ends with a sense of derision (mocking). Mark Antony states in the beginning that Brutus is honorable and can thus be trusted. But he then uses repetition to build an evidence-based case against this claim, so that by the end of the speech, everyone sees that M.A. implies that Brutus is anything but honorable.
And yet, it would appear from later data that M.A. is an opportunist. He may even be guilty of the very thing that Brutus uses for his justification to slay Caesar: vaulting ambition. Your job is to be able to use the text to support, defend or qualify this assessment.
Where then does this leave Brutus? Is here sincere? Is he gullible? Is he naive? Is he disingenuous? And what does Brutus's speech, filled with heavy-handed rhetorical questions, relying chiefly on his personal credibility, and rendered in petty prose--what does this speech tell us about Brutus's position? Is it possible to refer to Brutus with a George W. in front of his name? If so, why? If not, why not?
This is the stuff of our preAP class. Oh, and my 1954 baseball glove. That too.
And here's the deal: we checked out some clips from the inimitable Stephen Colbert, who, like Mark Antony, gives a speech that begins with a tone of diffidence (respect), yet ends with a sense of derision (mocking). Mark Antony states in the beginning that Brutus is honorable and can thus be trusted. But he then uses repetition to build an evidence-based case against this claim, so that by the end of the speech, everyone sees that M.A. implies that Brutus is anything but honorable.
And yet, it would appear from later data that M.A. is an opportunist. He may even be guilty of the very thing that Brutus uses for his justification to slay Caesar: vaulting ambition. Your job is to be able to use the text to support, defend or qualify this assessment.
Where then does this leave Brutus? Is here sincere? Is he gullible? Is he naive? Is he disingenuous? And what does Brutus's speech, filled with heavy-handed rhetorical questions, relying chiefly on his personal credibility, and rendered in petty prose--what does this speech tell us about Brutus's position? Is it possible to refer to Brutus with a George W. in front of his name? If so, why? If not, why not?
This is the stuff of our preAP class. Oh, and my 1954 baseball glove. That too.
Colbert seemingly Mark Antonys (yes, I verbed that) Brutus. Interestingly enough, Colbert leaves out references to GW's Ground Zero speech seen here (although he does refer mockingly to the occasion--not the speech--as a powerful photo opportunity):
Hmmm. I wonder why?
HOMEWORK
Prepare ye the way for our discussion. It will be on Friday after our vocabulary quiz on list 9.
Also,
here's the text I sent out on Wednesday regarding achieve3k (to those who emailed me by 3:00 p.m., or shortly thereafter):
Hi STUDENT,
Here's your username and password for achieve3000.com
username and password
username.name password123
You need to complete the level-set and then 3 articles (this includes the opening poll, the article, and an activity for each article).
You also need to score a 75% or higher for the article to count. You may take as many as you would like to get to the 75% mark for three.
All 3 due by 3:30 pm on Friday...
REMEMBER THAT YOU ALSO HAVE A VOCABULARY QUIZ ON FRIDAY THAT COVERS SAT WORDS - WEEK 9.
HOMEWORK
Prepare ye the way for our discussion. It will be on Friday after our vocabulary quiz on list 9.
Also,
here's the text I sent out on Wednesday regarding achieve3k (to those who emailed me by 3:00 p.m., or shortly thereafter):
Hi STUDENT,
Here's your username and password for achieve3000.com
username and password
username.name password123
You need to complete the level-set and then 3 articles (this includes the opening poll, the article, and an activity for each article).
You also need to score a 75% or higher for the article to count. You may take as many as you would like to get to the 75% mark for three.
All 3 due by 3:30 pm on Friday...
REMEMBER THAT YOU ALSO HAVE A VOCABULARY QUIZ ON FRIDAY THAT COVERS SAT WORDS - WEEK 9.