DECEMBER

https://www.thoughtco.com/thanksgiving-for-esl-students-history-and-quiz-4427790
http://www.onestopenglish.com/teenagers/topic-based-materials/webquests/webquest-thanksgiving/553190.article

MY SUNDAY MOVIE - ROMEO&JULIET

https://fsharetv.co/movie/romeo-&-juliet-episode-1-tt1645131

ANALYSING SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS

Shakespeare’s sonnets are some of the most fascinating and influential poems written in English. First published in 1609, in a small quarto edition (roughly the size of a modern paperback), almost nothing is known about the poems’ composition. Read more here.

All the sonnets are provided here, with descriptive commentary attached to each one, giving explanations of difficult and unfamiliar words and phrases, and with a full analysis of any special problems of interpretation which arise.

ROMEO AND JULIET AT ROME'S GLOBE THEATRE LAST OCTOBER

Theatre helps us travel back in time.  Read here.

COMPOUND NOUNS AND POSSESSIVE 'S

NOVEMBER

SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS

The Sonnets are Shakespeare's most popular works, and a few of them, such as Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer's day),  Sonnet 73 (That time of year thou mayst in me behold) and Sonnet 116 (Let me not to the marriage of true minds),  have become the most widely-read poems in all of English literature. Here you will find the text of each Shakespearean sonnet with commentary for most.

The English language owes a great debt to Shakespeare. He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original. Read more here.

https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/list-of-words-and-phrases-shakespeare-invented.html

https://www.litcharts.com/blog/words-shakespeare-invented/
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160422-spot-the-real-shakespeare-words

THE HISTORY OF IRELAND

Here  you can discover the history of Ireland as well as its own distinctive Gaelic culture.  

THE ELEMENTS OF DRAMA

A play is a form of literature written intentionally for theatrical performance. Most of the parts in a play are dialogues between characters intended to be performed by actors and actresses to move the story along. 

There are six main elements of drama which serve as the basis of producing a successful play.  Altogether, they provide a building block by which dramatic works can be analyzed and evaluated. By knowing and using the elements of drama, the skills needed in creating a successful performance, as well as the skills required to analyze a drama, could be developed. 

The followings are the elements of drama and their brief description:

Plot  

Referring to the basic storyline of the play, the plot is the structure of a play which tells what happens as the story goes on. The plot structure can be divided into six stages: 

• The exposition is simply an introductory part that provides the background information needed to properly understand the story. 
• The inciting incident, or conflict, is the event that sets the action of the play in motion. It is what gets the story going. 
• The rising action is a series of events, including complications and discoveries which create the dramatic climax of a plot.
• The climax is the turning point, or the peak, of a plot which holds an utmost emotional intensity of the play. 
• The falling action is a series of events following the climax that leads to the solution of the conflicts.
• The denouement serves as the conclusion of the plot in which the conflicts are resolved. It is the ending scene of the drama. 

Character

Characters are the people, or sometimes animals, who are portrayed by the actors and actresses in the play. They are one of the main components that move the action of the play forward. Characters can be categorized into three types according to the roles they play. The main character of the play is known as the protagonist. The antagonist is the character who opposes the protagonist. The other characters are called the secondary characters. They may have a major part or a minor involvement in the drama.

Setting

The setting is the place, together with other conditions, such as time and the environment, involved in which the events occur. The setting can be presented through the visual elements which deal with the scenes, costumes and special effects used in it. The setting can also be enhanced by using  sound effects and music.

Theme

The theme refers to the message that is intended to be expressed through the story. In other word, it is the main idea or the lesson to be learned from the play. 

Genre

Genre is the type of play. The examples of genre in which the play can be classified include tragedy, comedy, romantic, mystery, and historical play.  

Audience

Audience is a group of people who watch the play. Audience can be said to be the most important element of drama to be considered about, since it is the audience that determine whether the play is successful or not. Also, many playwrights write the plot of the play with a great concern regarding to their groups of audience rather than their own interests. 

Here you can find my previous post about the basic elements of drama.

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE - THE CHAIN OF BEING

The Chain of Being or scala naturæ is a classical conception of the metaphysical order of the universe in which all beings from the most basic up to the very highest and most perfect being are hierarchically linked to form one interconnected whole. Read more here.

THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII - 4^C LINGUISTICO

Henry VIII, king of England (1509–47) presided over the beginnings of the English Renaissance and the English Reformation. His six wives were, successively, Catherine of Aragon (the mother of the future queen Mary I), Anne Boleyn (the mother of the future queen Elizabeth I), Jane Seymour (the mother of Henry’s successor, Edward VI), Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr.  

Everyone recognises his portrait: a fat, larger-than-life individual, wearing clothes set with jewels and sporting a neat red beard. This is Henry in later life: in his youth he was handsome and athletic, the most eligible prince in Europe.  Henry was also a complex man: intelligent, boisterous, flamboyant, extravagant. Athletic, musical, a poet. Ruthless, arrogant, passionate. Henry’s driving desire for a male heir was to lead him to divorce two wives and have two wives beheaded: it led to religious revolution and the creation of the Church of England, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Reformation.

The decisions that Henry VIII made during his reign were to shape modern Britain. Read here. 

BACK-TO-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

Lots of activities for the first days of school and ideas for all year as well as tons of grammar and vocabulary exercises here and here.

SEPTEMBER

"September days have the warmth of summer in their briefer hours, but in their lengthening evenings a prophetic breath of autumn. The cricket chirps in the noontide, making the most of what remains of his brief life. The bumblebee is busy among the clover blossoms of the aftermath, and their shrill and dreamy hum hold the outdoor world above the voices of the song birds, now silent or departed."

Rowland E. Robinson