Why is Literature important ?

Good readers can understand the individual sentences and the organizational structure of a piece of writing. They can comprehend ideas, follow arguments, and detect implications. They know most of the words in the text already, but they can also determine the meaning of many of the unfamiliar words from the context - failing this, they can use their dictionary effectively to do so. In summary, good readers can extract from the writing what is important for the particular task they are employed in.

Why is reading so important?

Evidence suggests that children who read for enjoyment every day not only perform better in reading tests than those who don’t, but also develop a broader vocabulary, increased general knowledge and a better understanding of other cultures.

In fact, there’s evidence to suggest that reading for pleasure is more likely to determine whether a child does well at school than their social or economic background.

What difference could I make as a parent?

The short answer is: a lot! Parents are by far the most important educators in a child’s life and it’s never too young for a child to start, even if you’re only reading with your child for a few minutes a day.

Before they're born, babies learn to recognize their parents' voices. Reading to your baby from the time they're born gives them the comfort of your voice and increases their exposure to language.

Building vocabulary and understanding

Learning to read is about listening and understanding as well as working out print. Through hearing stories, children are exposed to a rich and wide vocabulary. This helps them build their own vocabulary and improve their understanding when they listen, which is vital as they start to read. It’s important for them to understand how stories work as well. Even if your child doesn’t understand every word, they’ll hear new sounds, words and phrases which they can then try out, copying what they have heard.

As children start to learn to read at school, you can play an important role in helping to keep them interested in books, finding out what interests them and helping them to find books that will be engaging and fun for them. Give time to helping them practice reading the books they will bring home from school.

Here you have 10 TIPS to build reading skills:

1 | Build habits at the moment of error, not at the moment of success.
The most critical moment in reading instruction is when a student gets something wrong. If the student continues practicing the skill incorrectly, he or she will build weaker habits. Intervene with a tar­geted question, such as “How does this part of the text help you understand this character?” Doing so allows master reading teachers to transform moments of error into opportunities for success, simultaneously preventing poor habits from taking root and building great ones in their place.

2 | Change how students talk about reading, and you’ll change how they think about it. If you think student-driven literary discussions should be reserved for high school and college classrooms, think again. Too often these activities don’t happen in elementary classrooms because we don’t expect our youngest readers to be capable of participating in them. But great discussion, like great reading, comes from building the right habits. If we intentionally train our ­students in the habits of great discussion—making eye contact with peers, prompting a peer to go deeper, building on what the previous speaker has said—they can conduct extraordinarily rich conversations among themselves. And when they drive the discussion, they learn far more rapidly and are more prepared to make their own way to the right conclusions about a text.

3 | Put great reading and great writing where they belong: hand in hand.
Just like adults, students use writing as a valuable tool for gathering their thoughts about a text and communicating their ideas to others. By leveraging this to your students’ advantage, you’ll develop their writing skills in tandem with their reading skills. For example, starting around second grade, students can prepare for a discussion about what they’re reading by answering a focus question in writing beforehand: “What is the author trying to teach us in this story? What specific lines or phrases from the text help to reveal that information?” Then, you can review written responses to get a better understanding of what guidance the students will need during the discussion.

4 | Use guided reading instruction to match the right skill and text with the right student at the right time.

To reach the new bar set by the Common Core, we’ll have to accelerate the rate at which we teach students the skills of reading. Our students, meanwhile, still need us to meet them where they are. Guided reading lets you do both. It gives students the chance to master skills and allows you the opportunity to address miscues in the moment. By providing this scaffolding and support, you’ll help students access complex texts—all while making sure they learn the skills they need at the pace they need.

5 | Make prompting normal.

How many open-ended questions do you ask of your students on any given day? “Open-ended prompting is so unusual in schools that when a teacher does it, the students normally change their answers, because they’re sure a ­teacher prompt can only mean they got the wrong answer,” says Molly Branson Thayer, director of literacy at Chicago’s Urban Education Institute. If our goal is rigorous discussions around reading, we can’t let this be the case. Students thrive when they expect to be ­prompted and when that prompting is targeted to help them problem-solve and articulate their thinking. (See “Universal Prompts” in sidebar for examples.)

6 | There is magic to effective prompting, but the magic is replicable.
Watch a master reading teacher prompt students, and you might wonder how anyone can come up with the right prompts so deftly. But you don’t have to. As much as your students can surprise you, it’s also possible to predict the errors they’ll make as they learn specific skills, and to plan prompts that will get them back on track. My book Great Habits, Great Readers includes prompting guides
that list the most effective prompts to respond to student errors when they struggle with particular skills. For example, if students struggle with a technical term in an informational text, you might ask, “How does this section add to the definition you’ve provided? What else does your definition need to have to be complete?”

7 | Be picky when you choose texts. 

Text level matters, but not all 400 Lexile level texts are created equally. Imagine that you have a group of students reading at 400L who are able to understand stories focused on one main character but they struggle holding on to multiple characters and their different points of view. To make sure your students practice this skill during your next guided reading lesson, you’ll need a 400L text with plenty of pri­mary characters—a text with only one protagonist wouldn’t be helpful. It’s just as critical to select a text that demands the right skills of your students as to select one at the right level.

8 | Don’t let the drive for evidence replace the need for the right evidence.
Citing text evidence is a crucial skill, one emphasized by the Common Core. Students won’t develop it, though, unless you require that they cite the right evidence to support their point. How can you make that happen? Go back to No. 1: Build habits at the moment of error. When you ask a

student for evidence, evaluate the quality of his or her response, and keep prompting until you get the right evidence. Hold to a high standard in that moment to give your students what they need, when they need it.

9 | To get the most out of read-alouds, leave the rocking-chair mentality behind.
When you picture a read-aloud, what comes to mind? A teacher reclining in a rocking chair, reading to enraptured students? The trouble with that image isn’t the rocking chair itself but the passive approach to read-aloud that it suggests: Sit back and read to your students, and meaningful enrichment will follow. That method can certainly get students excited about reading and model how fluent reading sounds, but when a read-aloud is leveraged intentionally, it can offer far more. Choose texts that require students to use the skills they need to learn. Ask questions that allow them to put those skills to practice. In doing so, you can transform a read-aloud into an invaluable opportunity to build reading habits, all while students savor the joy of being read to.

10 | To make sure students fall in love with reading, make sure they are reading.
Independent reading time is an essential component of any reading program: It’s a chance for students to put together everything they’ve learned in reading lessons and fly using their own wings. But it only works if they really do spend that time reading. Providing a rich class library, setting the expectation that students will read for the entire period, and holding them intellectually accountable for what they read will lock in their success as lifelong independent readers. An easy-to-implement tip: Get them to write about what they read, posing a targeted question to help unlock their comprehension.

Enjoy leave a comment if you a Literature , English o Teaching student !!! and if you are not you may also leave a comment!

HAMLET!!!!!!

Do you recognize this scene?

How about Hamlet?????

On a dark winter night, a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Discovered first by a pair of watchmen, then by the scholar Horatio, the ghost resembles the recently deceased King Hamlet, whose brother Claudius has inherited the throne and married the king’s widow, Queen Gertrude. When Horatio and the watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the son of Gertrude and the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him, declaring ominously that it is indeed his father’s spirit, and that he was murdered by none other than Claudius. Ordering Hamlet to seek revenge on the man who usurped his throne and married his wife, the ghost disappears with the dawn.

My favorite part of this play are the characters, why not letting me tell you about them?

Hamlet -  The Prince of Denmark, the title character, and the protagonist. About thirty years old at the start of the play, Hamlet is the son of Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, and the nephew of the present king, Claudius. Hamlet is melancholy, bitter, and cynical, full of hatred for his uncle’s scheming and disgust for his mother’s sexuality. A reflective and thoughtful young man who has studied at the University of Wittenberg, Hamlet is often indecisive and hesitant, but at other times prone to rash and impulsive acts.

Read an in-depth analysis of Hamlet.

Claudius -  The King of Denmark, Hamlet’s uncle, and the play’s antagonist. The villain of the play, Claudius is a calculating, ambitious politician, driven by his sexual appetites and his lust for power, but he occasionally shows signs of guilt and human feeling—his love for Gertrude, for instance, seems sincere.

Read an in-depth analysis of Claudius.

Gertrude -  The Queen of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother, recently married to Claudius. Gertrude loves Hamlet deeply, but she is a shallow, weak woman who seeks affection and status more urgently than moral rectitude or truth.

Read an in-depth analysis of Gertrude.

Polonius -  The Lord Chamberlain of Claudius’s court, a pompous, conniving old man. Polonius is the father of Laertes and Ophelia.

Horatio -  Hamlet’s close friend, who studied with the prince at the university in Wittenberg. Horatio is loyal and helpful to Hamlet throughout the play. After Hamlet’s death, Horatio remains alive to tell Hamlet’s story.

Ophelia -  Polonius’s daughter, a beautiful young woman with whom Hamlet has been in love. Ophelia is a sweet and innocent young girl, who obeys her father and her brother, Laertes. Dependent on men to tell her how to behave, she gives in to Polonius’s schemes to spy on Hamlet. Even in her lapse into madness and death, she remains maidenly, singing songs about flowers and finally drowning in the river amid the flower garlands she had gathered.

Laertes -  Polonius’s son and Ophelia’s brother, a young man who spends much of the play in France. Passionate and quick to action, Laertes is clearly a foil for the reflective Hamlet.

Fortinbras -  The young Prince of Norway, whose father the king (also named Fortinbras) was killed by Hamlet’s father (also named Hamlet). Now Fortinbras wishes to attack Denmark to avenge his father’s honor, making him another foil for Prince Hamlet.

The Ghost -  The specter of Hamlet’s recently deceased father. The ghost, who claims to have been murdered by Claudius, calls upon Hamlet to avenge him. However, it is not entirely certain whether the ghost is what it appears to be, or whether it is something else. Hamlet speculates that the ghost might be a devil sent to deceive him and tempt him into murder, and the question of what the ghost is or where it comes from is never definitively resolved.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern -  Two slightly bumbling courtiers, former friends of Hamlet from Wittenberg, who are summoned by Claudius and Gertrude to discover the cause of Hamlet’s strange behavior.

Osric -  The foolish courtier who summons Hamlet to his duel with Laertes.

Voltimand and Cornelius -  Courtiers whom Claudius sends to Norway to persuade the king to prevent Fortinbras from attacking.

Marcellus and Bernardo -  The officers who first see the ghost walking the ramparts of Elsinore and who summon Horatio to witness it. Marcellus is present when Hamlet first encounters the ghost.

Francisco -  A soldier and guardsman at Elsinore.

Reynaldo -  Polonius’s servant, who is sent to France by Polonius to check up on and spy on Laertes.

Renaissance and Shakespiare

Dear all today I have to talk about the Rebirth of culture,  art, and literature in Italy , and the rest of Europe.

 The Renaissance was a rebirth of the human spirit, a rebirth of creativity.  While taking the classical past as its model, the Renaissance was one of the most creative periods in human history, comparable only to the Golden Age of Hellenic Athens in the fifth century before Christ.  Florence has often been called the Athens of the Renaissance because so many great artists were born or worked there.

When one age ends and another begins, there are cross currents.  The declining or Late Middle-Ages are usually dated from 1300 to 1500.  It should be noted that this time overlaps with the Renaissance.  The glass is either half empty or half full.  It depends on one’s perspective.

There is a video that appears very interesting and appropriate to the illustration of the period:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhd-uwFonog

Rosalind is one of Shakespeare's most beloved heroines. She is far more intelligent than anyone else in “As You Like It”, and she has a spunky nature that enchants those who meet her. Harold Bloom states that Rosalind is "first in poise of all Shakespearian characters," and that she "is also his most triumphant, both in her own fate and in what she brings about for others"3. Rosalind dresses and acts like a man who then proceeds to act like a woman. This dual layer of disguise allows her to experience Orlando's love without any of the risk of a male/female courtship. She guides Orlando in the ways in which she would like to be wooed so that he will make no missteps when she comes to him as herself. Like Rosalind, Elizabeth adopted a male image as a means of protection. In order to intimidate visitors to her Privy Chamber, Elizabeth would stage "herself before the imposing image of her father that dominated Holbein's great wall painting of the Tudor dynasty"4. This "disguise" helped to protect her against those who would claim she was an ineffective leader because she was a woman. She also negated her perceived inferiority by "employing rhetorical strategies of identification with her father"5. Elizabeth stated that though she was a woman, she had courage as great as her father ever had. By defeminizing herself Elizabeth adopted her father's presence and "strove to make the greatness of her personage appear proportional to the greatness of her state"6. Another female character who protects herself by adopting a male persona is Viola. Shakespeare used disguises in many of his plays, but the one that best pairs with “As You Like It is Twelfth Night”.

Here you have the comment !!! What do you think?

The Pardoner's Tale is one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Initial commnets:

Chaucer presents the Pardoner in a particular
light, and being a religious figure, this allows him to make a general
statement about religion at the time. Chaucer’s view of the Pardoner
as a character, and also as something to epitomize religion at the
time, is evident from his use of vocabulary, his style, and by using
strong imagery and description. In this way, Chaucer builds the
character of the Pardoner as someone who is ironically deceptive and
driven by his own selfish motives.

A key theme that runs throughout the Pardoner’s Prologue is religion,
and as the Pardoner’s proper role is to act as an intercessor between
those who wish to repent and God himself, it is appropriate that
Chaucer uses a great deal of religious lexis. There are many examples
of this all through the text, such as when he mentions that the
Pardoner carries Belles of popes and cardinals’ or official
documents’ signed by popes and cardinals. 

                      The Pardoner´s Tale

A walking man carrying a big wooden cross into a classroom must be a nice picture to look at. My friend and classmate Eugene and I did this funny redo of one the Canterbury Tales: The Pardoner´s and we actually had a lot of fun making it and performing it first of all we used two differetn tech resources 1st Power Pont indespensable tool for any Collegue student and 2nd Sketchtoy Eu´s favourite tool online and free to make alternative presentations.


Here you have some notes that might get you interested in the Canterbury tales if you haven´t already gotten caught up into its web:

Once upon a time there were three young men who lived in Belgium who liked to live on the wild side. They partied, gambled, visited brothels, and went to bars where they stuffed themselves with food and wine and danced all night and day to the music of harps and lutes and guitars. They lived gluttonous lives of sin, worshipping the ways of the devil. They cursed and swore like sailors and would tear the blessed Lord’s body to pieces with their foul language and by using His name in vain, (as if the Jews hadn’t already done enough damage when they’d had him killed). They encouraged each other to sin and would sit around and laugh at all the horrible things they did. And then the thin and shapely dancing girls and the young girls selling fruit and the singers with their harps and the whores and women selling sweets would come over to them to seduce them and encourage them to sin—which is so easy for gluttons to do anyway. Just look in the Bible for all those instances when wine and drunkenness led to sin.








The Pardoner then explains to the pilgrims the methods he uses in preaching. His text is always "Radix malorum est cupidatis" ("Love of money is the root of all evil"). Always employing an array of documents and objects, he constantly announces that he can do nothing for the really bad sinners and invites the good people forward to buy his relics and, thus, absolve themselves from sins. Then he stands in the pulpit and preaches very rapidly about the sin of avarice so as to intimidate the members into donating money.


He repeats that his theme is always "Money is the root of all evil" because, with this text, he can denounce the very vice that he practices: greed. And even though he is guilty of the same sins he preaches against, he can still make other people repent. The Pardoner admits that he likes money, rich food, and fine living. And even if he is not a moral man, he can tell a good moral tale, which follows.










Now if you want to make a trip to your religious subconciousness here you another fun fact about the Canterbury Tales:

Nothing like Glotting in your mind about past , present or possible futures SINS !!!!

The 7 Deadly or Capital Sins are not found in a list, per se, in the Bible, but rather are part of Church Tradition, dating back to the early Church and especially St. John Cassian and St. Gregory the Great. These sins are considered deadly or capital (from the Latin word for head; caput). In the Bible, there are examples of lists of sins, such as Proverbs 6:16-19 and Galatians 5:19-21, however, these are not specifically the 7 Deadly sins of pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth (acedia), as they are enumerated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1866. At various points in the Bible, all 7 of these sins are proscribed. Traditionally, the Church has also provided virtues that counteract these deadly sins. They are humility (vs. pride), generosity (vs. avarice), love/charity (vs. envy), kindness (vs. wrath), self-control/chastity (lust), temperance (vs. gluttony), and zeal (vs. sloth).

Beowulf Class´ forum ONE

Initial comments:

I believe that one can easily discern three levels on which Beowulf can be profitably read: the heroic character of Beowulf, the nature of leadership and, hence, of the politics of the society, and the forces to which humans were subjected. I also believe that most of these levels are apparent from the beginning of the work. There are a few points of background which one should understand to appreciate some of the nuances of the speeches and to make some of the action understandable. Most of what follows is my own interpretation, and it is not necessarily definitive.

Analysis:

Beowulf , written in Old English sometime before the tenth century A.D., describes the adventures of a great Scandinavian warrior of the sixth century.A rich fabric of fact and fancy, Beowulf is the oldest surviving epic in British literature. Beowulf exists in only one manuscript. This copy survived both the wholesale destruction of religious artifacts during the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII and a disastrous fire which destroyed the library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571-1631). The poem still bears the scars of the fire, visible at the upper left corner of the photograph. The Beowulf manuscript is now housed in the British Library, London.

The most evident and important allusion to Christianity is the God “Figure” which is magnificent almighty and protective his servants on Earth.

 We see the dichotomies of pride vs. humility and sacrifice vs. selfishness evident in Christian philosophy.

The story Beowulf repeatedly acknowledges God as his protector. When Beowulf relates his battle with Grendel's mother, he states that "The fight would have ended straightaway if God had not guarded me". Further exemplified by the powerfully stated "most often He has guided the man without friends", there is a sense of mystical protection permeating all of Beowulf’s actions, however, there is also a strong sense that God's protection must be earned; a warrior must first be true to his values, courage, honesty, pride, and humility and only then will he earn God's protection.  

For me the place where a story takes place is very important!!!! 

Here you have some:

The Cave

The cave where Grendel and his mother hide from the world is symbolic of their lives as outcasts. Hidden beneath a treacherous mere in the middle of a dark, forbidding swamp, the cave allows them a degree of safety and privacy in a world that they view as hostile. They certainly are not welcome at Heorot, and they know it.

2                                                           Heorot Hall, Mead-Halls

In the translation of Beowulf that we've used, King Hrothgar's mead-hall is called Heorot, which is its name in Old English. Translated into modern English, "Heorot" means "hart," which is a male deer or a stag. Hrothgar's lavish, wealthy hall – where his warriors gather to drink and feast and where he holds court – is named for this proud, majestic animal. Of course, deer aren't just any kind of animal – they're prey animals, hunted by men and other predators. Perhaps this is a little hint to us that Hrothgar's hall is destined to be attacked, again and again, by the local man-eating demon, Grendel. 

3                                                                        The Sea

Water is the element around which most of the Beowulf narrative revolves. It is necessary at this point to examine its function in order to later grasp the relationship between Grendel’s mother and the mere. Other than the mere, water is mainly represented by the sea, the opposing element to the ordered landscape surrounding Heorot. It follows that water’s main function within the narrative is that of chaos.