A New Focus in the Home Stretch

Please excuse the idiomatic allusion to baseball. Ahem. This week I need you to write three reading blogs for your Toni Morrison books by Monday. By Thursday I need to see at least one. We'll discuss them in class.

Also, don't forget our "The Tempest" performances are for April 18th, in the afternoon. Remember it will be outdoors.

The Tempest Is Here!

Yes, by pure chance (or because of relevance), ¨The Tempest¨ has come to Bogotá. Here´s an opportunity to enjoy the show as it is meant to be enjoyed. Such extracurricular efforts should be rewarded.

Performances and Exams and Wizardry

Okay - not wizardry, per se, but this week we'll be having an exam (question 2 modified from Reality Hunger) and a brief multiple choice passage (block 8 on Wednesday, everyone else on Friday).

In addition, we have tentatively scheduled our afterschool performance for April 18th. I'll present you with a rubric next week, but essentially I'll be looking for a clear rhetorical objective. Much like the play within a play in Hamlet, or even that of A Midsummer Night's Dream, you must have a purpose for your performance. We'll be talking more about this specifically this week.

Test

No, this is just a test. That is a test in the other sense of the word. Let´s test our test skills.

Try this.

Reality Bites

This Wednesday bring to class a draft of your reality project - in whatever form that may be.

For Friday read chapters K,M and N. Focus on memoir and essay - both generally short genres we've discussed. Then take a look at this article published in The Guardian. Connect them to each other.


By Tuesday have read Chapter O,P and Q. Give three examples of antithetical statements. Consider this: how is the nature of "reality" paradoxical?

The Reality Project

Make something real. It's that simple. Make something with text that is real. We have to believe that you did this, or someone else did, or that this really happened or could happen.

Here's the catch: it can't be real. You have to use other texts - that is nothing that is your own - to make it happen.

Topics will be assigned at random. You will then have to convince us of this topic. Make it real. No specified length, no format, no restrictions. Just make us believe.

This reality-based project will be due in class March 21st. 

Copy, Cats

This week I'd like you first, to listen to the audio commentary I left and respond to it on your blog.

Read Chapters G, H and I. Choose one fragment from each chapter that you strongly agree with. Interpret it and then explain why you believe it's true. Afterwards respond to a classmate that you disagree with about a fragment. Do this by Thursday.

Read Chapter L and make a visual collage with the words from the chapter and images. You may either post this on your blog, or bring it in. Try to actually change Shields' intentions.

In addition, you'll want to begin rehearsing or practicing your scenes from The Tempest.