English+Department

May 5, 2009 The **Language Arts Literacy** standard adds a focus on the use of digital technologies in reading, writing, listening, speaking and viewing. It also incorporates world literature to develop students’ cross-cultural perspectives of authors and audiences from other regions of the world. "New Jersey’s business community expects high school graduates who possess the communication, problem-solving and technology skills necessary to help their companies prosper and grow in a competitive economy,” the Commissioner said. “Infusing 21st century skills into existing curriculum standards is the cornerstone to transforming New Jersey’s high schools into institutions that better prepare students to meet real-world expectations.”

Language Arts Literacy //Learning to read, write, speak, listen, and view critically, strategically and creatively enables students to discover personal and shared meaning throughout their lives. //**Standard 3.1 Reading**  All students will understand and apply the knowledge of sounds, letters, and words in written English to become independent and fluent readers and will read a variety of materials and texts with fluency and comprehension. || The ability to read a variety of texts requires independence, comprehension and fluency. || . **Concepts About Print** * How does understanding a text’s structure help me better understand its meaning? ||  # Understanding of a text’s features, structures, and characteristics facilitate the reader’s ability to make meaning of the text. || . **Phonological Awareness** * How are sounds represented by letters? ||  # Letters and letter combinations represent sounds. || . **Decoding and Word Recognition** * How do I figure out a word I do not know? ||  # Readers use language structure and context clues to identify the intended meaning of words and phrases as they are used in text. || . **Fluency** * How does fluency affect comprehension? ||  # Fluent readers group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read. || . **Reading Strategies (before, during, and after reading)** <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;">* What do readers do when they do not understand everything in a text? || <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;"> # Good readers employ strategies to help them understand text. Strategic readers can develop, select, and apply strategies to enhance their comprehension. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;">. **Vocabulary and Concept Development** <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;">* Why do readers need to pay attention to a writer’s choice of words? || <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;"> # Words powerfully affect meaning. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;">. **Comprehension Skills and Response to Text** <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;">* How do readers construct meaning from text? || <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;"> # Good readers compare, infer, synthesize, and make connections (text to text, text to world, text to self) to make text personally relevant and useful. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;">. **Inquiry and Research** <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;">* Why conduct research? || <span style="font-family: Arial,Arial;"> # Researchers gather and critique information from different sources for specific purposes. ||
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April 6, 2009
 * Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream **

// “Lord, What fools these mortals be!” Puck (Act III, Scene ii) //
 * // A Midsummer Night’s Dream //** is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and most beloved

comedies. It combines the names and places of ancient Athens with the costumes and mores of Elizabethan England. It is divided into two worlds (the real and the fantasy). The real world is the world of love frustrated, two young women forced into marriages with the wrong men. The four young people decide to flee Athens and seek their loves in freedom beyond the forest. However, the forest is the world of fantasy, ruled by Queen Titania and King Oberon. One source describes it this way: “ Hermia and her lover Lysander decide to escape through the forest at night. Hermia informs her friend Helena, but Helena has recently been rejected by Demetrius and decides to win back his favour by revealing the plan to him. Demetrius, followed doggedly by Helena, chases Hermia. Hermia and Lysander, believing themselves safely out of reach, sleep in the woods.

April 3, 2009 Shakespeare

** Macbeth ** Shakespeare wrote the play, **//Macbeth//**, for the new king of England. James I was already king of Scotland when Elizabeth I died without an heir. The next in line for the throne was Mary Stuart, the Queen of the Scots, son. Since Mary was Elizabeth’s cousin but had been beheaded by her years ago for fomenting rebellion, a horseman was given Elizabeth’s ring and rode hard to Scotland to give it to James. Thus James Stuart of Scotland became James I of England.

Shakespeare wanted to get into the good graces of the new king so he wrote a play making one of James’ ancestors the hero of the story. King James also liked witches and the supernatural so Shakespeare included these elements into the play. (King James also had a tongue that was too big for his mouth, but I guess Shakespeare thought it unwise to highlight this.) Because the play, **//Macbeth,//** is an unusual play because the character of Macbeth, the main character, is not really a hero but an cruel anti-hero, saying the word “Macbeth” in any theatre in the world today is bad luck. Actors when in a theatre refer to this play as “the Scottish play.” April 2, 2009 Shakespeare

**// Romeo and Juliet //**


 * // Romeo and Juliet //** is one of William Shakespeare’s most known plays. Taught in almost every Freshmen class in the country, it is the tragic story of two teenage lovers from opposing families. Taken from the Greek myth of “Pyramus and Thysbe”, both he and the French playwright, Rostand, wrote plays using the story of teen love and family conflict. Rostand’s play, written over 100 years later, called **//Les Romantiques//** became the inspiration for the longest running musical in NY, **//The Fantasticks.//** Shakespeare’s play, **//Romeo and Juliet//** became the inspiration for another American musical, **//West Side//** **//Story.//**

Shakespeare was barely eighteen years old himself when he was compelled to marry a woman 8 years his senior, his pregnant girlfriend, Anne Hathaway.

Everybody is familiar with the lines from the balcony scene “But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?”