If you missed class on Wednesday, you missed a great conversation that provided a lot of insight into both The Merchant of Venice and the sonnets, some in particular, others in general.

There is no class on Thursday. You are to use the time to drop by my office with questions, work on your essay, annotations or whatever is needed, or to get started reading the next play, The Comedy of Errors. Friday is a drama club day and I'll be out of town, chaperoning my son's field trip, which just happens to mean I'll be skiing. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it. If you have questions on your paper, which is due Monday, stop by my office Thursday, or email me, or blog a question. Either way, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Bring your essay draft, a working draft as I indicated (rather than a "rough" draft you throw together the night before or morning of) in class. The draft should be the best you can do up until that point. We'll spend Monday's class reading and responding to the drafts. Bring the annotated essay you are working with as well. if you have any questions over the weekend, feel free to email me. I'm busy (skiing!) during the day Saturday, but will get back to you. If you haven't done so yet, finish Richard II. We'll look at the final act on Tuesday then move on to Hamlet (which you can start reading anytime.)

Friday's are now Drama Club Workdays so if you missed class today, contact your drama club mates and find out what the plans are for Friday. Also, a draft of your summary/response is due for evaluation Monday. Check here for more information on what's expected. This should parallel what was said in class on Wednesday of this week, but check with your classmates who were there.

Get caught up!

If you were in class today, you know all about this. If you missed class, this is news to you. Wednesday is a drama club planning day. Because I will be reading English 101 portfolios, drama troupes are to meet on their own and begin the planning process for their staging of the play of their choosing. The only restriction is it must be a play we don't examine as a class. That means no Merchant of Venice, Richard II, Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, King Lear or Othello. Class meets again on Thursday at which time we will finish an introduction to annotation and begin discussing Act I of Richard II.

But start reading Richard II and start considering whether you want to read and write about a sonnet (or sonnets as described in yesterday's post) or Merchant of Venice.

Class meets today, Wednesday. See you there.

No class today. Be reading Merchant of Venice, but no blogs yet. I'll be seeing you on Wednesday

I'm still pretty sick so check this space in the morning to see if there's going to be class. My plans are falling apart, but not so much that you want me to come in and spread my germs. I'll post a note by 8 at the latest.

In the meantime, if you haven't done so already, please post your sonnet so the rest of the class can read and admire them.

Class time Friday will be devoted to making recordings of the sonnets we have read. We have 50 minutes to read and record about 25 sonnets, which means two minutes to get each of them right and good, on average. That means practice, practice, practice reading your assigned sonnet several times over. Read the lines enjambed and not enjambed to see which reads best. Don't forget the caesura (that pause that occurs in the middle of some lines, not always punctuated). People who missed class on Thursday need to contact me with which poem they will read. We are focusing on those that were read and discussed in class.

Location: Library, basement. Go all the way to the back, through the metal detectors, through the double doors, and down the stairs.

Welcome to Introduction to Shakespeare. One of the first things you need to do is create an account by clicking on the "create new account" link to the left of this message. I'll go over how the site works, which is pretty simple. As you will see from reading the syllabus, which you should do, is that while we are going to engage in some reasonably serious study of Shakespeare, we are also going to have some fun by making podcasts and radio shows and putting on plays and doing a bit of acting on a regular basis. Drama is meant to be performed and to be watched, so we will be doing a bit of both.

Your first journal assignment is to write up an introduction of the person you interviewed in class. Shoot for a couple hundred words. Remember that this introduction should make a point about the person, something you want to make clear early on in the introduction. Then write up the introduction in a way that develops and supports the claim of the point you seek to make. The point might be that they are incredibly literate, daring, adventerous, serious or what have you. Tie all of the supporting details to that. Later you will be reading and responding to the introductions of yourself and some others, but wait to do that until I talk about how I expect you to respond to journals.