B - ... when you told me I had main character energy what with my Scottish accent and all.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is with the Pre-Romantics obsession with animals?

At first you had Mr. Hurtubise, and you were petrified

Thinking: "How could Ms. Ignacio leave you by his side?"

And after spending minutes

Thinking how I did you wrong...

You grew strong

And Mr. Hagen came along...

Just a little bit of play to see if you're actually keeping up with my blog posts!

You spend most of the class working on Burns's Scottish dialect poem, "To A Mouse" and prepared a dramatic reading, which we will hear next class!

READ: She Stoops to Conquer, Gray, Burns, Blake

NEXT CLASS: from reason to the sublime

F - ... when we talked about Oscar-worthy things before you did the not-so-Oscar-worthy tableau thing.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: Why is it important that we recognize when things are "out of joint"?

We discussed the "out of joint" connections from Yeats's "The Second Coming," Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Zhao's Hamnet (2026), and we discussed how the tensions between "cosmic chaos" and "earthly ruin" are important in literary work.

Learners tried to decipher and read aloud (with a Scottish Lowlands accent) Burns's "To A Mouse." Then, they worked together to create 5 scene tableaus with defining lines. Two groups presented; the other two groups will present next class.

READ: Of Mice and Men, "My Heart is the Earth" (see the links to the left)

NEXT CLASS: Nature

B - ... when you melted "away and made no noise," so I lived "the best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men" by myself.

No essential question. No learners. Nothing. Nada.

NEXT: Goldsmith (get ready!) and the pre-Romantics

F - ... when we got to the Roman Empire (is that still a thing?) of Zhao's film.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is the value of discovering the soul of a literary piece?

I asked learners to consider a shift when viewing the rest of Hamnet (2026) today; rather than observing,  I challenged learners to predict and connect (particulary with their experiences with Hamlet and "The Second Coming").

Learners shared some of their field notes from last class and added "Signs of Acceptance" as something to consider through today's screening.

POST: ... to the digital whiteboard, one "echo" from Shakespeare's Hamlet or Yeats's "The Second Coming" that you see/hear in Zhao's film Hamnet (2026) - either a line, an image, a motif, etc., and explain the echo.

READ: Of Mice and Men

NEXT CLASS: putting it together and extending. Life & Death / Hope & Despair

B - ... when you attempted a summary, but in 60 words AND in verse.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: Is it possible to simplify without sacrificing deeper meaning?

Learners used the period to "shrink" Golding's She Stoops To Conquer and their assigned piece from Gray or Burns or Blake into 60 "poetic" words. See the sample under "Class Links & Resources."

Ms. Van Elk collected the assignment and gave them to me - they're really great and so playful!

NEXT CLASS: Pre-Romantics

F - ... when you slayed at synthesis.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is the value in recognizing the echoes amongst literary and artistic genres?

I gave a quick "what to look for" for learners' "field notes" before continuing our screening of Cholé Zhao's film Hamnet (2026). I asked learners to pay attention to the denotative and connotative ways the film considers the Shakespeare's motifs in Hamlet and Yeats's images from "The Second Coming":

• unweeded garden
• trappings of woe
• widening gyre
• physicality of rotting
• poison (in the ear)
• mighty opposites
• what seems v. what is

Learners continued watching the film and took notes.

NEXT CLASS: from observation to prediction & connection, "the sould of an age"

B - ...when we got to the Early Romantics.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: Why is it important to notice the shift in literature at the end of the enlightenment?

Learners posted their Pope-like epigrams and Johnson-style dictionary definitions to the digital whiteboard and offered their reactions to each other.

We spoke briefly about the shift in thinking at the end of the enlightenment and I assigned poems by Gray and Blake:

• Anne & Aiesha - "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
• Sarah - "Introduction" from Songs of Innocence
• Alison - "The Lamb"
• Azza - "The Tiger"

READ:

• Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer
• Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
• Burns's "To A Mouse"
• Blake's "The Lamb" and "The Tiger"

NEXT CLASS: The Pre-Romantics