Two things happened at the start of today's class that thrilled me to pieces:
1. A student shared a poem she had written and talked about a new literary term she's discovered (synesthesia)
2. A student brought in a long excerpt from Jack London's Call of the Wild. She found it in John Krakouer's Into the Wild, and wanted to share an example of descriptive, imagery-laden language.
Then, as if the day could get any better, we had a wonderful discussion around our Poetry Friday poem. I actually stumbled upon this poem while looking for a selection for freshmen. I read it and thought instantly of the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia. The poem is called "Medusa Cement" and it's by Alise Alousi. After copying down the poem, we had a great discussion about males and females and relationships and needing social interaction rather than physical interaction. It was great! And, one student even pointed out the author's choice to capitalize the "s" in "She" and keep the "i" lower case. Good observation.
After this exciting conversation, we plowed right through 1.2 of Hamlet. In this scene, Claudius monologues about to a gathering of important characters. Hamlet is obviously upset at his new "uncledaddy" (our term) for replacing his father. Mostly, though, we felt like he was more upset at his mother for allowing uncledaddy to marry her so quickly. We talked about Claudius' request that Hamlet not go back to school and Hamlet's agreement to not go back to school. We decided that this was probably related to the adage "keep your friends close but your enemies closer".
Also, several passed in homework, which was to bring in a completed job application. If you forgot yours, please have it to me for Monday.
