JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: "Existential Blues" by Tom 'T-Bone' Stankus; "Meaning of Life" by Monty Python]
To be or not to be? (You can either answer the question, or you can practice by writing the soliloquy from memory.)
AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. To
3. Be
4. Or
5. Not
6. To
7. Be
HW: Comment to this post with your thoughts on these two questions: 1) What can we do to help those unfortunate individuals who haven't yet mastered the soliloquy, and 2) What is the most effective way to begin our study of Act III? So far we've used direct lecture, readers' theater, independent reading, transmedia/video... you can recommend one of these or suggest/invent something new.
The advice I have to other people for memorizing the poem is to have someone read you the lines and then repeat it back to them. And also watch videos on YouTube of actors saying it because it helps you piece the sentences together. This also helps with words you don't know how to say.
ReplyDeleteFor approaching act three I think groups of three of four that you assign and then read it. I feel like if everyone has a part and is reading it outloud it will help is understand what is going on. And then when we finish we can come together as a class and go over what we read and what we thought. As long as we all end on the same lines.
Well, a week ago you posed a question, "When should you begin studying for an exam?" The answer is when you know of it. Considering you told us a week ago to commence looking over the soliloquy, students should have done so. I recommend that those who haven't mastered it yet make flashcards and study, really hard.
ReplyDeleteI think the most effective way to begin Act III is to read it in class. That way if a question or reference pops up while we are reading, we can have a disscussion.
I have a question before I answer yours.
ReplyDeleteWas today through enough to the point where we can do the rest of the To Be Or Not To Be in videos so we don't have to spend another day on it in class?
To answer the first question, The students that haven't mastered the soliloquy need to watch and rewatch the Hamlet to be or not to be video over and over again and maybe just read the soliloquy in a non-memorizing manner. Rereading it like this may help it stick in the mind.
Question 2 time. Act III should be done the same way we did Act I. I felt that got through to me the most out of the two ways we have tried.
My advice to the people who haven't yet mastered the soliloquy is to definitely read it over and over. When I memorized it I'd read each line over and over until it was stuck in my head like a song would get stuck in my head.
ReplyDeleteFor starting Act III I think we should read it aloud in class so that we can talk as a whole group when we have questions.
I would say to people struggling with the soliloquy is that breaking it up into smaller parts, like every three or four lines, and memorizing it piece by piece and the combining them. Memorize the first peice, then the second peice then try pieces one and two until you got it all. As far as Act III reading and analyzing it in class helped me the most.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest the greatest advice i could give to those unfortunate souls struggling with the soliloquy is one, simple, thing...
ReplyDeleteSTUDY
Actually read and re-read lines repeatedly, out-loud recitation until you've memorized any lines or specific parts your are having difficulties with. It really is just a matter of time and effort that YOU must be willing to dedicate, problem is (At least my educated guess) most people haven't/wont allot proper time/effort and thus enterprises of great pitch and moment such as this suffer. To be or not to be prepared/diligent, that's the question here.
On the topic of Act III, all of the listed activities we have been engaging in should continue, if not increase in frequency/efficiency, but what i believe needs most improvement is knowing the story on the "granular level", quote by quote basis. How do we improve our granular understanding? To be honest i cant think of a better means aside from reading, reading, and re-reading crucial scenes etc. in class and out, but I'm not the most creative when it comes to study strategies :p
1.) I think watching some videos can help stick some of the lines in the mind. If you see someone reciting it, their image/ voice begins to get stuck in your head and helps reinforce the same lines you're trying to memorize so you can try doing that; although I just crammed like crazy to memorize the lines.
ReplyDelete2.) I already liked reading aloud in class, this way we also were on (literally) the same page; therefore, we could discuss anything openly and without any trouble. This is opposed to what we went through last week, that was hell. Some people were left to their own devices and tbh some people decided it was best to study the soliloquy, but I never got to it because I forgot and began memorizing last monday, because I wanted to study act II for the test on monday.
1) I memorized the soliloquy by rereading each line of the poem until, I had it memorized. I would recommend this method to anyone that hasn't memorized the poem yet.
ReplyDelete2) I think we should read Act 3 individually and then come into class to discuss things from the text that we thought was interesting or that we were confused with.
1)We can not really do much at this point but give support. What I saw today when people were presenting was that they knew the lines but nerves got the best of them. It probably could have been that they did not study well enough. I do think that saying it out loud to yourself is a lot easier then saying it to a group of people and on top of that being recorded. It does put a lot of pressure on an individual. My advice to people that have not yet mastered the soliloquy is first think to yourself, do I know this well enough or not? If no is the answer then study, study, and study some more. I would not over study though because that can backfire when you think you have it down but then draw a blank once the time comes. The second question is do I believe in myself? You have to be your own biggest fan. If you doubt yourself then that can ruin everything that you have done to prepare for this. Be confident and try not to stress about it so much. Everyone is nervous and everyone is worried about messing up at some point in the soliloquy. So relax! If you don’t end up doing as great as you wanted to or thought you would then do not beat yourself up over it. If you put in all that you could do then try to be happy with that. Yes, perfection is most likely what would have been the ideal outcome but it just doesn’t happen.
ReplyDelete2)The best and most effective way to begin in our study of Act III is to do it together as a class. I think that we seemed to have a good understanding when we would hear it read out loud and then talked about it afterwards to see what we thought of it.
1) We can help by trying to improve their memory because that's all this is. Memorization. It has nothing to do with actual understanding. There isn't much you can do for people with bad memories (such as myself), in the end all you can do is study it up until the last minute and hope that you remember the lines. If it were me I would rather quiz on understand rather than memorization, it never was really clear to me why we are graded on memorization. I thought we were here to learn, oh well. Just because you can't memorize 60 lines doesn't mean you don't know the play. Even though perfection is expected just try your best. We can't all excel in memorization. Just buckle down, recite what you can, and hope that when you are actually tested on your understanding it overshadows the pointless memorization.
ReplyDelete2) Reading it in class helps but in the end we need to study it on our own then discuss our understandings in class. Independent first then together as a class.
Your colleagues' comments reflect my original presentation on "why memorize"-- in addition to building your capacity to retain information, and in addition to being one of the very few activities in a high school English course no one can fake or shortcut, memorization forces the reader to spend more time with the text. Over multiple readings your understanding begins to change and you connect with the text on a different level. That is where true understanding begins.
DeleteI can see where memorization can be view as such but it just seems like a "one size fits all" approach to learning. There will always be cases where memorization of specific lines does not create a better understanding. There are always going to be students who just have poor memories or those who remember the words but none of the meaning. Understanding of text can be achieved without challenging a student's ability to memorize the specific wording of a passage.
DeleteI see your point. This goes to the heart of Open Source Learning; a quick review of these comments suggests that different people learn in different ways. At the same time, we have to balance the "user friendly" approach with the fact that each user has to extend him/herself, which is usually an uncomfortable experience. Curious to know how we can become fluent in anything (I'm thinking aerospace specs and equations, in your case) without studying deeply enough to remember. So, help: what do you suggest?
DeleteJust like in my Lit. Book (Brave New World), I wonder if creating 5 hours loops of the poem onto I-pods and then sleeping with a head set on would work...
DeleteWell my favored approach to judge the classes understanding is actually what you did on Monday to judge how we learned on our own last week. Questions were asked directly to students that challenged their understanding of the play/novel yet we did not exactly have to know it word for word, and when a discrepancy in understanding came up in understanding we would discuss it till the discrepancy was resolved. To me it seems like that discussions such as those will stick better in the mind and give us a more complete picture of the play/novel. Then again I'm no teacher (which reminds me, I need to ask you tomorrow about the process of becoming a teacher, please don't let me forget) so my idea might not fit into the class as well as I envision.
Delete1. I memorized the poem through writing and reading. I wrote the whole soliloquy once, and then I memorized all the lines. After that I wrote it over again one more time so that I wouldn't miss any minor details. Then I would just randomly recite it throughout the day. For example, I would be driving home and recite it a couple time. Just really random occasions in which I forced myself to recollect the soliloquy.
ReplyDelete2. I really liked how we did it in class. The way we read and discussed. Maybe if we read it at home a day beforehand and then came in and read it as a class together then it would be more effective because I find myself absorbing the information first hand in class, and I just feel like I need a day to initially absorb it and then go over it again so I already have an idea about the act/scene before we discuss
From personal experience I realized a way to help lies not with in giving others tips, or telling them how to better their memory. But rather telling them that it is okay to mess up. Telling them that this is apart of life and all in all it is but a lesson to help them help themselves. For who are we if we can not take responsibility for ourselves? This is another step on to growing older. Loosening the reigns on something that has no escape. So you are either forced to do it or not. Either way you are the one choosing your own beaten path. What you decide to do will be of your own doing. No one else to take credit or blame. End of story.
ReplyDeleteI actually really enjoy how we come across the play now. Reading then interpreting and discussing. Best!
To why we should memorize. I think it has a similar reason too why we have high school at all. Half of the classes we take we will never use again in our job or when we're doing our college major. It's preparing us to work hard consistently and push through the times when we just want to stop. Work is not going to be fun for most people and the ability to work hard on a schedule is gained through practice.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone can memorize. I don't think certain people just lack the ability to remember words (not a doctor though). I do think some people can do it more naturally then others but at the end of the day It comes down to how much work you put into it and how you do your work.
1. I found that after I started understanding the lines I was memorizing I could actually remember it easier because I had made a mental image or connection to those words. I'm no longer just memorizing words I'm remembering emotions and actions.
Repetition is the main advice I can give though. You need to say it to the point where it's muscle memory. Like learning an instrument or a sport you can't be thinking about every action (or word) you do. It needs to come naturally.
I noticed while reciting to day that I had almost no idea what I was saying because I was nervous and was thinking about the audience instead of the poem. But I had said it so many times at home that it just came out of my mouth with little thought involved.
2.I think just reading it at home and using other sources to figure the play would work. Then the next day we would come to class and we could answer each others questions and Dr. Preston could correct us or add to our points. I guess just like a sacratic seminar.
1. I think Alex gives some really good advice. Our entire class was very tense today so it all kind of fell apart. I would say the best way to memorize the poem would be to figure out what it means. I feel like I'm repeating none sense do it has been very hard for me to memorize. What is a bare bodkin? I haven't a clue. From the context it sounds like an object we hold silently?? When we memorized "The Laughing Heart" we had already studied its meaning. I only had to read it once to memorize it because I'd already gone through and analyzed it line by line. I feel like we should have been given the memorization after we studied Act 3. It's like those annoying standardized tests they give you before each unit in US History class we had a test before we had seen the material.
ReplyDelete2. For Act 3 I really liked the way we studied in class last week. Michelle Alex Mackenzie Pablo and I would read a few pages at home them go over them the next day in class page by page to make sure we understood everything. It worked way better than if we had been reading the book in class where I tune out because I'm frustrated with trying to keep some one else's reading pace and not being able to ask questions.
1. Well, there are countless ways to help these guys. I prefer memorizing line by line. I start by reading the line multiple times out loud, then trying to recite them without looking at the text. Once I think that I can confidently say it without looking, I add it to the rest of the lines I've memorized and see if I can remember it along with all the other parts. If I don't succeed, I keep reciting until I get it near perfect 3 or 4 times in a row. Listening to audio or to other people's recitals is also helpful sometimes, even though they might have a different rhythm to reciting it than myself.
ReplyDelete2. I do enjoy the reading out loud, then stopping to discuss the passages that we've read. This is like the spoken version of how I take my notes, by reading for awhile, then going back and comprehending what I just read. :) Sarah G, Ubi, Michelle, and Jackie did a good job of directing this while you were gone.
1) Well the most we can do now is hope that they look on people's blogs and listen to the advice that they have to give. My advice is to try writing it down a couple of times and also listening to it a couple of times, instead of just straight up memorizing it. This really helps and may help different people because different people absorb information differently.
ReplyDelete2)Reading out aloud is a pretty helpful way for me to learn. Perhaps after a couple paragraphs, we could stop and go over what we have just read so that people can retain the information better.
1) I think the best way to master something is by practicing and practicing and practicing. Some fail to do so and the results are a bit devastating. Memorization is not fun. Trying to memorize something the night before is even less fun. Time should be invested into learning something well enough to be able to recite it fluently. It's really all it takes.
ReplyDelete2) I think reading in class would work. If students don't understand what is read in class then they can go home and try to understand it. If they still fail to grasp the main points of the reading then they can come in to class the following day with questions.
I feel like the only way that really works for me is to repeatedly recite it. Each time I add a line or two and then start from the beginning again. It also helps me if I picture what I studied from. ( My journal entry) and I can visualize what comes next sort of. (If that makes sense) Repetition is the only way I can remember it.
ReplyDelete1. What can we do to help those unfortunate individuals who haven't yet mastered the soliloquy?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion too many people are just simply memorizing each word instead of each statement Hamlet makes. The key to memorizing the material is understanding it.
2. I struggle to suggest reading Act 3 in class considering how many people didn't know the material after last weeks experiment. Maybe a more intense reviewing of the individual sections is needed between every important action is needed.
Reading the poem before bed helped me and breaking it up into four equal sized pieces.
ReplyDeleteIndependent reading is my cup o' tea, more people should give it a go and if they're still confused ask others for help
1. The approach I normally take is read a couple lines and try memorizing those until I have it down then I move onto a few more lines until I have the poem down. It has worked for me in the past, but by reading other students responses I like some of their ideas more then my owns. I always wanted to take a different approach of learning some new material so I am going to take the opportunity to memorize the soliloquy in segments. I want to become as fluent with the soliloquy as much as possible.
ReplyDelete2. I like so far how we are reading the scenes then discussing it after. I also get a MUCH more understanding when I watch the videos of each scene we just read. I'm a visual leaner and I always love having a visual for anything new. I also read the scenes on my own and try to understand it myself, which helps me.
1) What can we do to help those unfortunate individuals who haven't yet mastered the soliloquy?
ReplyDeleteTo accomplish this we should pair up and have our partner try and recite it while the other is reading along with the soliloquy and can correct them if needed. Other than that I don't think we can help them besides encouragement; memorization is best accomplished by yourself (for me it is at least).
2) What is the most effective way to begin our study of Act III? So far we've used direct lecture, readers' theater, independent reading, transmedia/video... you can recommend one of these or suggest/invent something new.
I personally like the theatre idea but whatever we choose I think it's important to record the class period because If you're absent a lot (like me) you miss out greatly on class discussions and explanations. Being physically present in the class during these readings is directly related to our understanding of hamlet.
1) Songs get stuck in your mind, so I think hearing "To be or not to be" over and over again in a song would be really helpful. Here's a http thing for one version of the song, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fd3_IVNJE0
ReplyDelete2) I really liked reading it in small groups together and then asking each other questions. I get more out of it, and there's more time for everyone to ask their questions.
1) What can we do to help those unfortunate individuals who haven't yet mastered the soliloquy?
ReplyDelete1) I think for the people who havent memorized the full poem including me should split the poem into different sections by paragraph, and memorize each section at a time.
2) What is the most effective way to begin our study of Act III?
2) I think the best way to study for Act 3 is to review it in class. having Dr.Preston to help us out and dissect each scene helps alot and is a huge difference from reading it by yourself or with colleagues.
To help memorize this soliloquy (which we probably should have addressed before)I think it would help to understand what was being said. In addition, writing it in prose format so you know where the statement is going will help.
ReplyDeleteReading in little groups during class and going over the section after a bit was really effective for my understanding of Act 2. I think it helped everybody else in my group a lot too, because we understood almost all of it.
1) What can we do to help those unfortunate individuals who haven't yet mastered the soliloquy?
ReplyDeleteWhat I usually do to help me memorize is repetition. I read the lines then I keep on repeating the line until I have the part memorized. I break it down into equal parts then I combined them. I also making connections to help remember the lines.
2) What is the most effective way to begin our study of Act III?
I think that we should continue with what we did with act 1 and act II. I was very helpful because we were able to discuss anything that we had a question on as well as being able to ask Dr Preston to help clarify it. Another thing that can help could be after reading it we should get into groups and do an assignment on it like having to reenact it because it is a good method to help remember and understand what happened .
To help the other students, including myself, I would suggest to them the importance of such task. I think most students see the memorization as a trivial assignment and don't bother with it for that reason. As far as studying Act III, I prefer direct lecture. I feel it is the best way for us to learn the material because you are telling us what you want us to get from the reading and not letting us use our own judgement. But that is just my opinion.
ReplyDelete1.) I think that those People that havent mastered the poem havent done their homework. They should make flash cards or memorize the speech by lines until they memorize it.
ReplyDelete2.) We should read act 3 in class and instead of sitting down and reading it, those reading should go up in front of the class. For example if Hamlet Is talking to Someone, those two People reading should talk to eachother while reading the scene. I think we would understand it better.
In order to help those students struggling with the soliloquy, I would suggest having some kind of discussion during class next time to allow other people to share their memorization techniques. Yes I understand that by answering these questions we can help those struggling students, but I believe that by incorporating this in the classroom it almost guarantees that a student cannot make up a lousy excuse.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Matt. I believe that by splitting up into groups, we as students will benefit greatly from the thoughts of others. However I think that it would be best if Dr. Preston surveyed the room every once in a while to make certain everyone is working at the highest level.
1)What can we do to help those unfortunate individuals who haven't yet mastered the soliloquy？
ReplyDeleteI memorized the soliloquy by break it down and memorize it line by line. Also, Dulce and I tried to act out the important words in each line to help our memorization. It does help and it is fun to practice with friends.
2)What is the most effective way to begin our study of Act III?
I think the most effective way to learn Act III is to read it in class; and the group discussion on those questions is very helpful too.
1) I would tell those people who haven't memorized it to watch people recite the soliloquy and follow along with the soliloquy on a separate sheet of paper. Do this over and over.
ReplyDelete2) I think it would be cool if we split up into groups and we all had a certain characters lines to recite.
For memorizing the soliloquy I would say the thing that helps the most is if you are in a quiet spot and just read the lines over an over trying to keep a picture in your head of the words. After a while it should because nice and easy to remember.
ReplyDeleteI think that for reading act 3 we should do part of it in class and have part where we read on our own but then go over what we should have read just to make sense of it all.
My advice on memorizing the soliloquy would be breaking it down into lines of four and REPETION. For ActIII I think we should all read it in class together because as we read we can stop for discussion and we will all be on point to what is going on in the play.
ReplyDeleteI suggest Breaking the soliloquy into sections (as many as you would like and then number them in order. Then memorize them at random. (ie, 6, 1, 3, 10...) then once you have all the sections memorized. Just say them in the order that u initially ordered them.
ReplyDeleteI think that a good way to really learn the play would be to act out the scenes as written, but allow us to put our own creative twist on how the scene is portrayed. We can't use the dialogue written in the original play though, we would have to turn Shakespeare's words into modern english.
Speaking as a student yet to master the soliloquy, I am at a loss.
ReplyDeleteAs for act three,I vote we catch the lion king then read the act out loud and compare the two! I will not give up on The Lion King!
I have no idea how to master this thing.. i just sucka t memorizing things.
ReplyDeletei think we should look at other sources of interpretations of hamlet and after we read it compare it with our interpretation and see how it goes? but not sparknotes.
Admittedly, I messed up on the final lines while reciting the soliloquy, so I can hardly say I've "mastered" it. I'll attribute it to pressure though, and assume that my personal studying technique was generally sound. I split the soliloquy roughly into quarters. I would memorize individual quarters in two quarter blocks. First I read through quarter 1 until I had it memorized, then I did the same for quarter 2. If I messed up in either 1 or 2, I would start again at 1. Once I had 2 memorized, I moved on to the next block. I would start my recital on quarter 2 to save time, then restart there if I messed up in either quarter 2 or 3. I did the same for quarters 3 and 4, then reviewed the whole thing. This description makes it sound a lot more complicated than it was, it's really pretty straightforward. As a class, I think the best way to help others (without devoting too much in-class time) would be to direct them to these comments, if they haven't seen them already. There's some good strategies here!
ReplyDeleteI found that video was the best way for me to understand the play. Given that Hamlet was originally a visual production, there's a lot that is lost when simply reading the text. Movies get a bad reputation in school for being "easy days", but I think in this case it would actually be a valid educational tool. Even having a video's audio in the background while reading along helps tremendously.
I believe that one of the more helpful ways to master the soliloquy is to write the soliloquy out by hand. Even though it may take a few minutes it does help you remember the soliloquy a little better because people have an easier time remembering what they have written down rather than something typed up on a screen. I also recommend trying to memorizing the poem 2 or 3 lines at a time, granted it will take a while but if you constantly repeat the poem to yourself, you'll eventually come to a point where you can easily say a good portion of the soliloquy with ease.
ReplyDeleteAs far as understanding Act III, well what has really been working for me is the combination of working with a group to read through and discuss the scenes and then rewriting it into my own rendition. Yes it takes a lot of time, but I think that since I'm having to work with the information of the play and manipulate each detail so that it fits in the play, I have a better understanding of it and have been having an easier time reading it.
1)As for me, I am really weak on memorizing stuff. And if it is shakespeare, it gets worst. I have not figured out what the whole soliloguy is about yet, so the best way for me to memorize them is to understand them.
ReplyDelete2)I like how we do in the class. Reading them together and parts to parts, we talk about it. It helps me alot to understand them better. I cannot read his play all by myself because I just can't understand them.
I suggest trying to write it over and over, and the more times u write it, try to write more and more of it by memories, repeating it to urself as you write. Act 3 should have a lot of collaboration about key parts in the play, discussing the ideas and thoughts of foreshadow with 20 other minds in the room will definitely add to experience.
ReplyDelete1) For me, I believe repeating the soliloquy by reciting it to others is the best way to master it. Also, by using an accent, can make the poem more fun, and memorable.(But also embarrassing to say in public)
ReplyDelete2) The most effective way to begin the study of Act III is watching the videos after reading the act, because the videos help you understand the feelings of the characters. Also, collaborating with our classmates, and get their point of views on what's happening. What is the most effective way to begin our study of Act III?
1. Listening to myself recite the soliloquy on my ipod helped me a lot.
ReplyDelete2. I feel the most effective way to study Act III is to collaborate and share our interpretations of the play with others, the more thinkers the better.