Presentations #2: The Middle Ages

History of Literature: The Middle Ages

Monday       Oct 3rd: Middle ages clothing and architecture

Tuesday      Oct 4th: Middle ages traditions and food

Monday       Oct 10th: Middle ages law, punishment and role of women

For the presentations, you will work in the same groups but different subjects.

These will be the following way:

A) Anglo Saxon clothing and architecture ---> Middle ages traditions and food

B) Anglo Saxon traditions and food -----> Middle ages law, punishment and role of women

C) Anglo Saxon law, punishment and role of women ---> Middle ages clothing and architecture

Everything else remains the same

1. BE CREATIVE!

2. Bring a report.

    2.1 It should be 3 to 5 pages long

    2.2 NO PLAGIARISM WILL BE ACCEPTED: this means you have to write it yourself. (Read the documents you find, then retell everything as in a story. Any assistance you may need, I am available!)

    2.3 It needs a cover page.

    2.4 Write the references in APA format.

    2.5 You can include images at the end.

    2.6 Include an introduction; there is no need for a conclusion though.

3. Everybody should have a clear role in the presentation that I can notice.

4. Do an interactive, interesting presentation. Be as descriptive as possible; try to give your classmates a vivid description so that they can imagine living during the time.

5. Use visual aid (it can be a Power Point presentation, posters, copies, pamphlets, etc.)

6. The presentations will be evaluated individually. The grade for the report and the visual aids is collective.

I share with you the rubric which will be used to evaluate the presentations:

Test

Greetings!

As you all know, we are having a test on Monday. The test will be about what we have learned so far, more especifically:
1. Art
2. Literature
3. Literature as an art
4. The importance of literature
5. Literary genres
6. The AngloSaxon timeline
7. Beowulf

Now, when it comes to Beowulf, I want you to reread the story and reflect on the following:
1. Good v. Evil
2. Heroes: Epic heroes and heroes in modern times. What is heroic?
3. What is important to the warriors in the time of Beowulf?
4. Christian values and influences in Beowulf.
These were discussed in class last Tuesday and Wednesday, September 20-21.

In the test, the most important thing is that you are able to support your opinion with the text!

New Project: Beowulf FanArt

Greetings my dear students!

For those who went to class this past week (Sept 19 to Sept 21) this is not news, just the detailed information of what we already discussed in class. For those who missed class, pay close attention.

The test grade (35%) has been divided into 4 parts

Timeline-                          5%

Essay-                               5%

This Project-                   10%

Test Monday Sept 26th- 15%

TOTAL:                         35%

This means that there is a project you must present. That is what will be explained in detail in this post.

Beowulf FanArt

First of all, the purpose of this activity is for you to show me that you understood the story, the characters and the themes. You have 4 options, you must only choose one:

1. Newspaper:
Create a newspaper outlining the major events in Beowulf. Write articles and include appropriate pictures/images (by hand or computer-drawn, even cut from magazines). Include typical newspaper features to represent several important moments in Beowulf. Some of the features you can include are the comic section, classifieds, the editorial, the cover, the advertisments, the obituaries, and, of course, the news. Include at least 4 of these. With your newspaper, I should be able to see that you know the story details, main happenings and characters. There is not a determined length for the newspaper, as long as it is thorough. (DO NOT only tell the three fights!) 6 pages should be more than enough.

Sample:

2. Scrapbook:
Compile a scrapbook based on Beowulf. Write captions explaining each item included, which should be items that the characters might have saved or that identify the characters. You can make it as if it were Beowulf's scrapbook if he had kept one throughout his life. Just like in the newspaper, include all the major events of the story, everything that could have been meaningful to Beowulf. Have quotes and memorabilia to give a view into the insight of the characters; you may even have writings from different characters.

Sample:

  

3. Collage
Create a collage of images and quotations from Beowulf that somehow demonstrate the book's theme and message. Include an explanation for the collage (like a piece of art has a short paragraph on it's side to explain it). The images and quotes have to be meaningful and representative of the story and the events of the story. They can be of places, people, things, etc. It can be the size of a poster.

Sample:

4. Comic Book
Beowulf is a story that lends itself well to an action/adventure comic book. Create one based on it. For this one, choose only one battle or major event and cover it in detail. Show me how well you understood the event you are representing.

Sample:

Due Date: Tuesday, October 4th
Individual
You are always welcome to make any questions.
DO NOT keep your concerns to yourself!

Beowulf and the Anglo saxons

Greetings my dear students,

I have found a couple of videos for you to have a better idea of both Beowulf and the Anglo Saxon period in Britain. The first one is a clip of the Beowulf movie of 2007. It is from the fight of Beowulf with Grendel. The second one is a clip of a History Channel show about Beowulf. These should help you have a better idea of how the time was during the Anglo Saxons, as well as get to see one of the adaptations of the epic poem.

I hope you enjoy them. ;)

The Anglo Saxon Period Presentations

History of Literature: The Anglo Saxons

Tuesday       Sept 6th: Anglo Saxon clothing and architecture

Wednesday  Sept 7th: Anglo Saxon traditions and food

Thursday     Sept 8th: Anglo Saxon law, punhisment and role of women

For the presentations:

1. BE CREATIVE!

2. Bring a report.

    2.1 It should be 3 to 5 pages long

    2.2 NO PLAGIARISM WILL BE ACCEPTED: this means you have to write it yourself. (Read the documents you find, then retell everything as in a story. Any assistance you may need, I am available!)

    2.3 It needs a cover page.

    2.4 Write the references in APA format.

    2.5 You can include images at the end.

    2.6 Include an introduction; there is no need for a conclusion though.

3. Everybody should have a clear role in the presentation that I can notice.

4. Do an interactive, interesting presentation. Be as descriptive as possible; try to give your classmates a vivid description so that they can imagine living during the time.

5. Use visual aid (it can be a Power Point presentation, posters, copies, pamphlets, etc.)

6. The presentations will be evaluated individually. The grade for the report and the visual aids is collective.

I share with you the rubric which will be used to evaluate the presentations:

Debate: Does literature follow rules?

Greetings!

We had a wonderful activity this week in which we discussed this topic. You were assigned a side (literature following rules v. literature breaking rules) and had to defend it.

I want to take a moment to congratulate you for defending your positions so fervently! I was pleasantly surprised by how many interesting arguments you had and by how seriously you took it! I hope you keep working this hard and caring so much about the class. That way, we will get very far ;)

The following assignment will be our way of tying loose ends and giving a closure to the debate. I have done some research and found a few articles I think will give you a different point of view on the topic.
I want you to write a one-page essay on your thoughts after reading these articles. What to consider before writing your essay?

1) Use correct grammar, punctuation and capitalization (they will be evaluated).
2) Read it to pick up any mistakes and make the corrections.
3) Choose one main idea to express your opinion. If you try to cover too many points, the essay will not be as effective (and will be harder to write).
4) You can always contact me for assistance or clarifying any doubts or concerns.
5) Format: 12pt; Times New Roman; 2 line spacing
6) Due Date: The week of Sept 12th

HOWEVER, before turning in the essay, you must do an outline for your essay which will be checked the previous week. Use the following structure as a basis. This should allow to have a well organized, coherent essay.

Essay Outline
Making an outline for an essay
Top 10 authors who ignored basic rules of punctuation

These Famous Authors Made It Okay To Commit Grammar No-No’s

Share your thoughts!

I encourage you all to share what you think of the readings we have done so far (The Story of an Hour, The Canterville Ghost, Ballata 5, To Fanny). Explain why you think they fall in the category (type of literature) that they are in, which one you liked better, and what you understand from each category from the characteristics these texts have.

PD: Please, make sure your comment follows grammar, punctuation and syntax rules. If there is something you don't know, a quick research can help you get it clarified and write a well-written comment. You can verify using wordreference or linguee.

Feel free to answer to your classmates's comments! I would love to see your interactions over here!

Presentation on Literary Genres and Forms

Dear students:

Now you have access to the slides on Literary Genres and Literary Forms.

Enjoy

The Importance of Historicism and Context in Literature

Literature is part of our cultural heritage, and that can enrich everyone's lives in many ways. Literary works can be entertaining, beautiful, funny, tragic, informative or meaningful. They take us beyond the limited experience of our lives to show us the lives of others, giving us experiences we may not face in our own lives. It leads us intellectually and emotionally, and deepens our understanding of our history, society and our individual lives. This connection between people and literature works both ways: as literature affects people, people affect literature. History plays a fundamental role in shaping literature: every novel, play or poem one reads is influenced by the political context in which it is written, the people that the author knows and the wider society that frames the entire work. How can we even consider reading literature without understanding the work through its historical context?

Roland Barthes, in The Death of the Author, acknowledges that an author is always a product of his time: the author 'can only imitate a gesture that is always anterior, never original'. Historicism argues that literature is a product of its age and the meaning of a text can only be discovered by fitting it around other discourses from the same period. The author writes only what he or she has learnt from that particular time in history, and the messages their work conveys are inextricably linked to the society in which it is written. Literature tells us about contextual society, widening what literature is: while formalists judge strict literary work on its aesthetic value, historicism results in literary and non-literary texts being given equal weight, unbiased and aware of all aspects surrounding a work. Consequently, Darwinian pieces on evolution may be compared alongside Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in order to gain a deeper understanding of the Victorian age.

One can gain a much wider and deeper understanding through looking at a piece from a historicist perspective. Although this may leave a little less room for interpretation, contextual exploration allows one to comprehend certain ideas that may not have been clear if one did not consider the time in which the text was written. For example, how can we fully read, examine and appreciate Orwell's works, such as Animal Farm and 1984, without considering the extreme political events that shaped twentieth-century society and Orwell's ideology? The allegory of Animal Farm is rendered pointless without considering Russia before and during the Stalin era, and any reading of 1984 is enhanced by an understanding of the politics of Europe and Orwell's personal experiences in Spain. Similarly, the feminist socialist writer Caroyl Churchill’s work feels somewhat irrelevant without the context of the Thatcher years. It was undoubtedly a successful exploration of the time, however, by formalist standards, we should disregard it as bad literature as it has lost relevance in needing its contextual setting to be understood.

In great writing from the past we find ancestors, and we not only see the country and the people as they were, but we also soak up the climate of the times through the language, characters, tones and settings. Chaucer is a brilliant social commentator, and his works provide one of the reliable sources of knowledge of medieval society that we have. Through it, we learn a lot about the estates in medieval society. If we were to read The Canterbury Tales from a purely formalist viewpoint, we would disregard this rich source of art and knowledge.

Literature allows us to understand the political, cultural and philosophical movements and ideas that dominated particular cultures at a particular times. In Shelley's Frankenstein, for example, we learn about the trepidation concerning man's overreaching ambition and the battle between science and nature that dominated Victorian Britain. This alone should prove that context is imperative in determining the meaning of a literary text. When one ignores context, one many completely disregard a particular influence or aspect of the text and consequently the true sense of the piece will be missed. It is possible to develop meaning from literature without context, but context can still be used on the same piece to create a different outcome. It is important to explore context, but not necessarily vital.

CONTEXT OF COMPOSITION

If writers are influenced by their context, then we will have to learn more about these contexts in order to understand their texts. Writers can be influenced by the times in which they live, the place in which they write or the families from which they come. These factors contribute to what we call the 'context of composition'.

Knowing more about the context of composition will make you read a text differently. You may be looking for evidence to support any hypotheses you have about the author. For example, if you knew that Franz Kafka had a difficult relationship with his father, this will influence your interpretation of The Metamorphosis.


Taken from: http://www.thinkib.net/englishalanglit/page/11054/context-of-composition

Characteristics

Greetings my fellow readers!

Remember last week's readings? The Story of an Hour, by Kate Chopin and The Canterville Ghost, by Oscar Wilde.
1. Can you recognize any of the characteristics for a short story in "The Story of an Hour"? Please, do list them.
 2. Mention what characteristics of novels you noticed in the abstract of "The Canterville Ghost".
3. Share a bit of your opinion on both stories ;)

Literary Forms (assignment #2)

Greetings again!

For the subject of literary forms, please watch the following video and take notes. You will be receiving a document on your emails to answer based on this content. Additional research is encouraged.

Welcome to our blog!

Greetings dear students!

Welcome to the blog for our class, Introduction to English Literature! This tool will prove useful for discussing the material and reading assignments, sharing interesting content and, in general, working in the class.



To start out web interaction, I want to encourage you to share your thoughts on this quote about teaching and reading in the comments section. I am sure you all have learned, at some point of other, about B.F. Skinner, but if you haven't, just click on his name up here and have a read.