Analysing the Weird Sisters

Posted on August 1st, 2008 by by tmarch

Mrs. Krieger’s class (with Mr. March and Mrs. Maronese) will use the beginning scenes from three versions of Macbeth to compare and contrast the choices directors make in staging their interpretations of a play.

We will use this handout as a starting point and the videos available on the Oxley College server.  To access or download the three videos (and other rich resources), look for the “English - Year 10 ” folder on the desktop of a school computer. Open the folder and double-click the “Click_me.htm” file.  You can now click the blue arrows for the first three scenes.

3 sisters

Analysing Macbeth’s death

Posted on July 28th, 2008 by by graham

View carefully the 3 clips of Macbeth’s death from the Polanski, Nunn and Wright versions.

(Note: the three preceding links open a very small 3 - 5mg version of each film.  To access larger versions, log-on to a school computer and open the “Year 10 English” folder, open the “videos” sub-folder and open or download these three files: nunn_macbeths_death.mov, polanski_macbeths_death.mov, wright_macbeths_death.mov).

Compare/contrast the sequences in terms of the following criteria:

  • Perspective – relating to character
  • Knowing background circumstances
  • Personality – essentially a good or bad person?
  • Motives – reason for doing something
  • How others influence the character?
  • Language (“lexical chain” – groups of ideas) – the words the character says: words, how it is spoken (ambition, blood)
  • Settings – dark/light, day/night, geographical & temporal choices, architecture, weather, use of space
  • Structure – alterations to space (open and closed spaces, length of scenes), metaphor to camera angles, etc.
  • Costumes – light/dark / colour, how they are worn, uniform,
  • Actions –
  • Characterisation – how the character is portrayed
  • How the characters relate to each other – dynamics, time in scenes with with whom, how important to developing the plot
  • Music and sound effects – harmony/disharmony,
  • Props – realistic/representational

After you have analysed the sequences, rank each in terms of how heroic or how villainous Macbeth is. It might be useful to place them on a spectrum from hero at one end, to terrorist/villain at the other.

What is a Terrorist?

Posted on June 10th, 2008 by by tmarch

Definitions of Terrorists

Timothy McVeigh

Possible Questions

1) Where was McVeigh in 1991?

2) What was inside the rental trucked parked outside the Murrah Building?

3) How did McVeigh support himself before the bombing?

4) What were Ruby Ridge and Waco and what impact did they have on McVeigh?

5) What happened to McVeigh in June, 2001?

The Black Panthers

Possible Questions

1) What were some of the most important of the 10 Points in the Panther’s program?
2) What were the reasons for the arrests of Black Panthers in 1967?
3) Are the Black Panthers and Nat Turner’s rebellions mostly similar or different? In what important ways?
4) By the end of 1969, how many children every day were fed through the efforts of the Black Panthers?
5) What happened to Fred Hampton in 1969? How many shots were fired and by whom?
6) What is the source for most of the references used by the KKK to argue for racial separation?
7) How did the Black Panthers’ see Democracy in America? Do you think this is reasonable and logical? Explain.

Task: So what is a terrorist?

Mindmap or list all the characteristics of a terrorist.” If you can show relationships among the qualities, that’s even better.

What is an Anarchist?

Posted on June 10th, 2008 by by tmarch

Guy Fawkes

Che Guevara

Anarchism

Task: So what is an anarchist?

Mindmap or list all the characteristics of an “anarchist.” If you can show relationships among the qualities, that’s even better.

V for Vendetta

Posted on April 11th, 2008 by by tmarch

novelThe Novel

The Film

How to write a good feature article…

Posted on March 18th, 2008 by by krieger

Your chosen directer will, no doubt, have done many interesting and entertaining things in his/her life and career. Your feature article will, of course, be informative.

However, a really great feature article should also be interesting and entertaining.