Sunday, June 22, 2014

Satire

***All Hamlet material has been moved to the Hamlet resource page.  
The quiz is at the bottom.  Make sure you click to submit. ***


Okay,  while I'm building a wealth of resources regarding maths, sciences, and the mechanics of WWII there is still the topic of satire to explore.

Several of the books you chose to look over this summer were actually satire and that's the reason that they were on the banned books listings. They criticized the government and the aspects of society that the majority of people cling to help them make sense of the society that they live in.  Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Gulliver's Travels, and even Mice and Men.  The hidden meanings and observations were found to be offensive, but they did have strong links to the truth and the way people really felt about the world they were living in.

This week:

Tuesday we will be watching Dead Poet's Society together.  I will bring popcorn. 

For the rest of the week...Due by Sunday.
  1. Read Satire-Stuff you HAVE to Know and then "A Modest Proposal"...use this for help. No shame :)  
  2. On the left, there are funny movies on Netfilx that are considered to be fine examples of satire.  They're all funny.  Have fun.  Watch all or one, but let me know which ones you choose.
  3. On the right, Read:  "None of the Above.  None."  and "High School Perfection"  please comment on both of them and discuss how they compare to your daily life at school.
  4. Explore the other books online.  Comment on why or why not you would like to read them and then pick one to actually read.  I will find you a fun version to watch, listen to, or to read.
  5. Begin thinking about how you'd like to prove you understand satire...be it a quiz, an art project, or teaching me something...you could pick your own satire and teach me why you think it is funny and what it is satirizing. 

Mattew's Request...

Matthew, there is a hidden satire element to Alice and Wonderland that might make you smile.  Have a look at...


  

Friday, June 20, 2014

Hamlet: Week Two

Evening Guys.

I'm on my way up to the apartment to work on the last bit of Hamlet and to answer your questions. There is a quiz on the Hamlet resource page. I need your answers by Monday at noon. I will get comments back to you ASAP. Monday we will start reading about satire, it is essential for understanding both Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels) and Mark Twain (Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn). I will post links this weekend to the reading material. Satire can be simply wicked :) But you need the tools to unlock the comedy.

 I'm actually really enjoying interacting with the two of you. Educational research indicates strongly that kids that completely 'turn off' for the summer can lose up to two months of critical thinking and high level reasoning skills. This is particularly applicable to the smarter students. If they're not challenged constantly with interesting material then the lower level skills are too heavily relied upon when they start school again in the Autumn Term. It's really cool your Mom recognizes that you two are too smart to be "thought free" for the whole summer. Don't think of this as tutoring, but more of a high level book club. Please come to me with questions, ideas, or thoughts on checking your understanding. You're both very different boys and you should both be getting different things from the texts we're reading.

 MS