We analyzed the poem “Snowbound” for literary elements and explained its Romantic ideas.

Then we read and analyzed an excerpt of Margaret Fuller’s Women of the Nineteenth Century for transcendentalist ideas.

Tuesday we tested-not so bad considering!

Wednesday was another test day-this time the PSAT!

Thursday we introduced the ideas of the Gothics!  What fun!  I love some Poe!  We watched an interesting video introduced to me by a colleague “The Psychology of Evil” by Phillip Zimbardo. I will preface this video with the fact that we blacked the board during the pictures of the Abu Ghraib prison.  They are disturbing, and unnecessary for the point to be made to high school students. If you choose to watch, know he gives you the warning before he shows the pictures.

Then, after we discussed how the Gothic writers sought out the psychological weakness of humanity, we looked at how Chillingworth was this character for Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter.  We watched a 1941 version of “The Tale Tell Heart” and picked out Gothic elements from the film.  Monday we will conclude this discussion with a seminar on The Scarlet Letter and a discussion of Poe’s poetry.

Finally our Fantastic Friday included a FORMAL assessment of our blogging abilities.  We watched a TEDTalk given by J.K. Rowlings to the 2008 graduating class of Harvard University about the “Fringe Benefits of Failing” and wrote award-winning blogs for our midterm assessment!  Check out what the students did with this speech.  She is so inspirational!

Finally, our PBLS are coming along.  Students will be posting their stories to an Edmodo classroom to receive feedback from the UAE counterparts-very exciting stuff!