September 2012

This passage contains an extended metaphor which in turn contains one of the central themes of the play. By decoding the lines in detail, we can reveal one of Shakespeare’s big ideas. This was the 50 minutes passage of our class today. Tomorrow we will be exploring the metaphors in this piece and identifying how […]

George identified very quickly today that one of the central questions that is established right at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet is why did the two lovers kill themselves? This problem drives the audience’s interest. Without giving anything away, I suggested that one facet of this explanation lies in the timeframe of the events of […]

As a background to our Shakespeare study, we will be researching Shakespeare’s life and times. Attached is the division of this task, where each student takes responsibility for researching their chosen area: Within two weeks you must produce a fully-researched document (uploaded to your blog, equivalent in length to about 1 typed page) on your […]

What better way to begin Year 9 English than with the Bard himself? We are incredibly lucky to be able to walk the same streets as Shakespeare did and here at the London Nautical we don’t take this privilege lightly. We launched our Shakespeare study today by diving straight into his language and exploring intricacies […]

Today we explored the notion of rhythm in prose and spent some time galloping around the classroom in “Iambic Pentameter” to the Prologue from Romeo and Juliet. The boys then identified the syllable stresses in this short passage. Their work for homework (check embedded document) is to translate into their own words two lines from […]

To be finished for homework, everyone is writing an introductory letter. Suggestions for its content follow – and a copy of the letter I wrote to you during the lesson is also attached. Write me a letter: In it include the information you think I need to work well with you in English; you can […]