Grades

Grades will be based on the following:
Tests and at home literary essays and projects: 40 percent
Classwork, quizzes, and homework: 60 percent
Total: 100 percent

How we'll work: For each book or literary work we read, you’ll be expected to read about 15 to 25 pages a night. In addition you will sometimes have homework in which you'll be asked to write brief responses or answer questions about your reading or topics for class discussion. In addition, you can expect that for each book or literary work, you'll some combination of an at-home essay, in-class essay and tests.

IMPORTANT: Grades are cumulative. That means the grades you make now count as much as the grades later in the semester. So it's important to work hard from the very beginning and not dig yourself into a hole in the first weeks of our class.

Welcome to English 2

Welcome to English 2. We will focus in this class on helping you to become more adept and skillful readers and writers. In reading you will be introduced to a variety of classic and modern works of high literary merit. You will add new vocabulary and develop your ability to interpret and analyze literature. In writing, you will hone your skills in writing a literary essay, sharpen your grammar skills and your understanding of how language and sentences work. You will become a skilled writer capable of expressing your thoughts concisely and creatively.

Weekend Reading!

Homework: Read Act 2, Scene 2 and then read Scene 3 to the line "Exeunt all but LeFeu and Parolles (toward the end of the scene).:

Scene 2 is quite brief, and simply involves a joking conversation between the Countess and the Clown. The Clown mocks the Court and its customs, and the Countess threatens to have him whipped. What is the Clown's critique of the Court?

Scene 3:
a) Begins with a conversation between Parolles and Le Feu, in which they get into an argument. It's a pretty dumb argument.
b) The rest of the scene (to the point where you're reading) is key: this involves the outcome of Helena's efforts to cure the King, and an important choice she makes. Make sure you understand what's happening here. It's critical.

Homework: Act 1, Scene 3

The scene is roughly divided in the following ways:
1) The Countess (the scene is set back in Rousillon) is talking with a clown -- remember our discussion of clowns in Shakespeare. The clown is asking permission to marry his love, Isbel. But what follows is a discussion about sex, marriage, and infidelity.
2) Next, the steward (a kind of administrator for the Countess who handles the business of her estate) tells the Countess something very important. Read this section carefully.
3) Helena then enters and speaks with the Countess. What do they talk about and what plan do they enter into? Again this is important.

All's Well That Ends Well

We'll be reading from an online text that MIT (the great university in Cambridge, Mass.) provides. Click here to find the text.

For tomorrow's class, read all of Scene 1. This scene breaks down roughly into:
1) a beginning section where we learn the basic situation of the play (We learn about who the COUNTESS of Rousillon is, and what her situation is, we learn about her son, BERTAM . We're also introduced to HELENA.
2) After BERTRAM and the COUNTESS leave, HELENA has an important soliloquy (a speech the actor makes to himself or herself on the stage -- it's as if we're hearing the character's thoughts). We learn something very important about HELENA.
3)Then a character named PAROLLES enters, and he and HELENA go through a long bantering conversation in which he tells her she shouldn't care about preserving her virginity, and she says she should. What arguments do both make?
4) There's then a section in which HELENA makes fun of PAROLLES' reputation as a soldier.
5) The scene ends with another brief soliloquy by HELENA.