Mystery
What is dramatic irony?
Dramatic irony happens when the audience knows something that the character doesn’t.
What genre is A Midsummer Night's Dream?
Bonus: An extra 100 points if you can define ACE and clearly state the MLA in-text citation format.
Bonus round 2: Another extra 200 points if you call tell me the entire in-text citation format that we HAVEN'T yet covered in class. And tell me how you should cite Shakespearean texts.
Comedy
Bonus: The text states, "Blah...blah..blah" (_).
Bonus round 2: The text states, "Blah...blah...blah" (Author's last name _).
Shakespeare wrote, "Blah...blah...blah" (1.2.34-35).
Change the following sentence into active voice:
The homework was completed by the students.
The students completed the homework.
Identify a theme from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Your theme must be longer than 10 words. If you say, "Actions have consequences" your team will immediately lose, I will place your seat in the corner facing the wall, and I will paste your name in the behavior tracker every day for the rest of the year.
Teacher's Judgement
Define mood and tone.
Tone is the author’s attitude toward the subject or audience, revealed through word choice, style, and voice (for example: sarcastic, serious, playful, or critical).
Mood is the feeling or emotional atmosphere a text creates for the reader (for example: tense, gloomy, hopeful, or joyful).
Hermia loves Lysander.
Helena loves Demetrius.
1. Change the following sentence into passive voice:
The chef prepares the meal every evening.
2. Change the following sentence into active voice:
The song was sung by the choir.
1. The meal is prepared by the chef every evening.
2. The choir sang the song.
What are the standard conventions of a comedy (especially in Shakespearean comedies)?
Mistaken identities, wordplay, puns, happy endings, romance, sight gags, slapstick, etc.
When making an inference, what should you rely on?
Textual clues, prior knowledge, critical thinking skills, and being able to "read between the lines" when it comes to character actions and dialogue.
Identify an example of dramatic irony that applies to the following characters (you cannot use the same example for more than one character, even if multiple characters are involved in the scenario).
Bottom
Puck (Robin Goodfellow)
Hermia
Helena
Bottom: Donkey head/Titania love potion
Puck (Robin Goodfellow): Squeezed the love potion into the wrong Athenian's eyes
Hermia: Is unaware that Helena betrayed her trust and told Demetrius that she plans to elope with Lysander.
Helena: Is unaware that Lysander and Demetrius are under the trance of the love potion
1. What is a pun?
2. Which sentence below contains a pun? Explain why.
a) The dog ran across the yard.
b) I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger... then it hit me.
c) She read a book in the library.
d) The sun set behind the hills.
1. A pun is a figure of speech that creates humor or wordplay by using a word (or words) that have more than one meaning or that sound like another word, so both meanings are suggested at the same time.
2. The answer is B. "Then it hit me" has the meaning of the baseball literally hitting them, and the meaning of them understanding why it was getting bigger.
Identify the figurative language terms in the passage below:
Certain the bridge was perfectly safe, he stepped forward unaware that the crowd already knew it would collapse, while the groaning planks beneath him whispered warnings he was about to learn too late.
Dramatic irony, Personification
Identify the figurative language terms in the passage below:
My diet started like a breeze, but it hit a fork in the road, clung to me like a drowned man, and became a sinking ship.
Pun, simile, and metaphor
What can you infer about Egeus based on his monologue? What can be inferred about parental expectation in Athens based on the monologue?
Egeus' monologue in Act 1, Scene 1:
Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her.
Stand forth, Lysander. And my gracious Duke,
This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child.
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
And interchanged love-tokens with my child:
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung
With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
And stol’n the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gauds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats (messengers
Of strong prevailment in unharden’d youth):
With cunning hast thou filch’d my daughter’s heart,
Turn’d her obedience, which is due to me,
To stubborn harshness. And, my gracious Duke,
Be it so she will not here, before your Grace,
Consent to marry with Demetrius,
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens:
As she is mine, I may dispose of her;
Egeus is controlling, restricts his daughter's freedom, doesn't believe in true love, overbearing, respects authority and rule of law, and is strict.
Athenian parents have traditional values for their time and are authoritarian in respect to how they treat their daughters.
Identify the prefix and/or suffix and explain its meaning:
1. Rewrite
2. Unkind
3. Careless
1. Prefix: re- (again)
2. Prefix: un- (not)
3. Suffix: -less (without)
Identify the figurative language terms in the passage below:
Smiling as the meeting spiraled into chaos, she called the mess “a brilliant plan,” while it spread like wildfire, a runaway train of bad ideas, wrapped neatly in the sweet agony of a successful failure.
Simile, Metaphor, Oxymoron, and Verbal Irony
Identify the figurative language terms in the passage below:
She was convinced her plan was a golden ladder to success. She strode forward with bold, beautiful, bouncing confidence, while the audience already knew it was doomed to fail. The walls whispered and wheezed as if begging her to stop.
Summarize all the important plot points, character interactions, and subtext in A Midsummer Night's Dream. You must do this under 2 minutes. If you miss something essential to the play, the other team will receive 1 opportunity to steal the points.
Teacher's Judgement
Identify the prefix and/or suffix and explain its meaning:
1. Preview
2. Disagree
3. Teacher
4. Fearless
5. Overheat
1. Prefix: pre- (before)
2. Prefix: dis- (not/opposite of)
3. Suffix: -er (a person who does an action)
4. Suffix: -less (without)
5. Prefix: over- (too much/excessively)
Based on the tone of the passage, what is the author suggesting about stealing goods that have no practical value and are used only for entertainment, simply because someone wants them?
John had always known Marcus as the kind of person everyone trusted. Marcus was truly a paragon of society, always helping those in need. Marcus followed rules because they mattered, not because anyone was watching. John tried to live that way too, but things started to slide when his work hours were cut, his bills stacked up, and his patience ran out faster than his money. He did not turn cruel or reckless; he just got tired. Tired enough that when he saw a PlayStation 5 sitting unattended near a store exit, he stole it. Not as a plan or a statement, just a quiet, determined choice made to find some solace in the world.
He told Marcus the next day, expecting a rebuke or expressed disappointment. Marcus listened, nodded, and said he understood. “You are a good person,” he said, full of empathy. “You deserved that Playstation 5.”
John waited for the correction, the advice, the discipline. It never came. For the first time in a long while, he felt like he could breathe, because if Marcus said it was alright, then it meant things were truly okay. Things were looking up, and he felt comfortable enough to return to the store and steal once more.
Stealing is sometimes justified or okay!
Yes, this is a "bad" message for a story. But you shouldn't have a predetermined assumption that every story is going to have the most basic moral compass.