Well, a mountain of ice snow landed in our area a few weeks ago and unfortunately disrupted our schedule...oh my! How tragic. Yes, it really was. Despite the snow and the glorious days off though, Hamlet was still waiting back at school for further discussion. Oh boy, I'll tell ya, the first day was a trial. I'm certain that most of us wanted to be hugging a pillow instead of determining the six key plot points in Hamlet, but we did it. I feel as if we made progress in our debate concerning the internal conflict and the issue of usurpation. Our plot points tended to focus on the events in the play that led Hamlet to his state of destruction and the battle that he experiences regarding God's power. The following week we tackled motifs and theme and I'm just glad the discussion is over. I don't know, should I refrain from such thoughts? Is this conversation going to continue in class? Huh?
Shakespeare's Hamlet is an entertaining mass of conflict. Within and outside of the book, but then again what would life be without an infuriating novel, play, etc. every now and then? Actually, most of Shakespeare's works force me to put on my thinking cap. But, moving on. Our reading and discussion of Hamlet reminds me of the sophomore biology project with cryptosporidium. Remember that monster? Yes well, recall that all the information was there in front of us and we had to write a gigantic paper. I'm not lying. It was gigantic. And just speaking for myself here, but I couldn't get myself to start that paper for a couple of days because I saw the dedication and sweat that would need to be put forth on it. And in a dramatic way, I didn't think I could survive to see the finished project. Only sophomore year, right? The first couple days I was a weak whining baby, but then I put on a brave face and slayed my fears, producing a fairly fantastic project, if I do say so myself. And now we have Hamlet. We've been dealing with this book for a good time now and there has been a lot of thought dedicated on it. When I first saw the number of pages we had to read through, I considered being sick for a time, but I had to tell myself I wasn't going to run from a book. I love books! I knew I could do it and I'm still doing it. Even though we still have the summary/analysis due at the end of the month, I will not shy away from it. I can do it because I'm pretty sure I've been through worse.
The collaborative review is a miracle. Reminder-I should get other people to write reviews for me all the time! Uh, just kidding. The effort all the classes have contributed to this review is evident in the number of pages...forty some odd? And I'm sure that when I begin my studying I will appreciate it's availability. Immensely. In conclusion, working together, as we all know, is a good thing. We were able to bounce ideas off of each other and delete the junk we thought was irrelevant. It will be interesting to read through this entire review because it will allow me to see how others have agreed on/interpreted the areas we've studied so far in a way that I have yet to.
Ludia,
ReplyDeleteThat cryptosporidium report was terrible. Though that may have been because I procrastinated like crazy and did it in two days. Maybe, maybe not. But I actually enjoyed the class discussions and thought that narrowing down the plot points to the six most important ones was fun. I weirdly enjoyed the struggle. Though I probably would have preferred to be with a pillow too. I agree that the Collaborative Review was really helpful, and I wish that other classes had something like that. It'd make studying for tests a lot easier, especially for finals. But fortunately we won't have to worry about finals anymore!
Ludia,
ReplyDeleteWow this is quite an information-filled post for such a short period of time to write on. I completely related to the whole sophomore cryptosporidium report parallel. Just like you, I procrastinated pretty good on that and I see how our Hamlet reading and discussion is similar to that. Unlike that project, I do actually like all the time we've spent on Hamlet. All of our discussions were very informative and helpful and they really helped me to understand the play as a whole. As far as the review, i completely agree. I loved that so much! Overall, great post!
Ludia,
ReplyDeleteI disagree completely! How could you possibly want to be home hugging a pillow when you could be having a lively debate about the six most important plot points in Hamlet!? I am astonished at you. Where is your AP Lit spirit?
Honestly, though, you were really happy they were over? Am I the only one who really enjoyed the Hamlet discussions? Huh. I'm legitimately surprised... How come? Were they just getting tiring? I thought they were actually really difficult, but so satisfying to get to delve so deep into such an interesting work and come out of it feeling like I *understand* something new. Personally, I love understanding as much as I can possibly get my hands on.
As for cryptosporidium, I can't say for certain that I had the same experience as you, as I took Biology freshman year and had to do a report on Cholera--ish--instead, but I feel the similarly about both that and Hamlet, although a little differently from it seems you do. I think Hamlet was considerably more difficult, but for both of them, I don't think the length is significant. For the Bio paper, yes it was a solid 10 pages long, but one had plenty about which to write, so it didn't end up feeling so long. As for Hamlet, while the actual discussions were incredibly interesting and difficult in many place for me, the Summary and Analysis is like that post. Daunting at first, but once you get into it, there's plenty to write about. And you did a great job on that--easily the best I've read, naturally including my own--so maybe that ended up being your experience as well.