King Arthur Restaged

One option for the creative assignment in Reading Period 3 was to read about the 19th century photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, and the illustrator Gustave Dore, and study the photographs and drawings that illustrated Tennyson's collection of poetry, Idylls of the King. The assignment then asked that students create an illustration of their own, or recreate a photograph. Here are the results.

The death of Elaine:

Photo by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1860s

Petra with an assist from Jayson

Here are some interpretations of the excerpt from Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Mallory, when Arthur gets his sword Excalibur: 

Illustration by Alfred Kappes, 1880

Rachael

Sarah and Carrie collaboration.

Martina with charcoal.

Gerry with Lego.

Benny with Zelda sword.

Sarah utilizing weather conditions.

Jasper portraying Arthur wearing a paper crown, pulling a Nerf sword out of a sink full of water, while sporting a booty tooch with duckface.

My students make me so happy.

Summer History

To get geared up for British Literature, we're going to catch up a bit with British History, during the period between the Romans and the Norman Conquest. This assignment, do be done over three weeks, involves approximately 100 pages in The Story of Britain by Rebecca Fraser, and approximately 100 questions, each corresponding to a page number. Here are the three assignments, linked to the question sets, and the due dates:

The Romans
p 1-30

Due Friday, Aug 19, 7pm

The Anglo-Saxons Ethelbert of Kent to the Viking Invasions

p 31-56

Due Friday, Aug 26, 7pm

The Anglo-Saxons Alfred the Great to the Battle of Hastings (865-1066)
p 57-92

Due Friday, Sept 2, 7pm

Remember, if you get stuck, that the number of the question corresponds with the page number! You'll find your answer there. 

On Friday, Sept 2, you'll be officially in your first reading period for the term, and from there on, we'll be sometimes reading a section of The Story of Britain and sometimes doing another historical assignment. The work we do in this class, combined with our research essay in fall semester, and last year's historical studies, or augmented by some extra work (videos, books, etc) to be determined by your parents, will count as a history credit as well as a literature credit. 

Submit your answers by copying and pasting into an email to me the questions themselves and also your answers. 

My Adorable Students

The Bennet Family Portraits

In response to the "Art Connection" assignment for reading period 17, students created the following portraits:

And as a bonus, here's the map Hannah created to show the locations in the book:

Welcome

Hello Parents!

We are less than three weeks from the start of class, and there are a few arrangements that we need to take care of before we begin.

1. Buy the textbook. We will be using Adventures in Literature, Pegasus Edition. There are many copies available used on Amazon at the link provided.

2. Sign your child up for Google+ and email me a link to the profile. When I have a link to a profile I can invite him or her to be a member of our Google+ Community for the class. Only students and I will be members of this community -- parents may look over shoulders or communicate with me via email.

3. Log your child in to QuizStar with his or her login and password as instructed in my email or on the Google+ Community.

4. Read through the pages of this blog at the links above and email me with any questions.

Class begins on July 31. Parents are my co-teachers. Each student will have an individual page with grades and record-keeping that only he or she and his or her parent and I can see. This should appear in your Google Drive -- please let me know if you cannot find it. If your student needs to miss a week because of travel, camp, illness, or just a particularly busy week, he or she will get an automatic A on the weekly assignments for that reading period. The parents will be the judge of when this is necessary, but I would advise giving no more than 4 during the 20 weeks of the semester. Let me know if there are extenuating circumstances and let me know in advance if possible when weeks will be missed.

Love,
LYDIA