English II: Julius Caesar Speeches and Memorization Tips

To hear the speeches, select the links below:

Cassius: Two Stories

Brutus: The Serpent's Egg

Antony: Funeral Oration

(To download for MP3-player use: right click link, choose "save link/target as".)



MEMORIZATION TIPS

1. Use flash cards. Divide the speech into logical sections. Put the beginnings of sections on one side and the remainder of the lines on the other.


2. Draw a series of pictures that represent your speech or your lines. Remember picture stories from preschool? Be very creative and think of a picture story to go along with your lines. After you've created your picture story, go back and say your lines as you look at the pictures.


3. Say your lines in front of a mirror and move your face or your arms a special way to emphasize specific words or passages.


4. Write out your lines. The act of writing the words provides very strong reinforcement.


5. Carry your script or speech with you at all times and read the full text when you get a chance to get a strong emotional "feel" for it.


6. Get to know your character. Understand why you say and do what you do.


7. Act out your lines as you say them, even if this is an unemotional speech. You can exaggerate your words with dramatic gestures. Of course, you may not want to do this during your actual speech, but you will be thinking about it.


8. Record your lines with exaggerated vocal expressions. You may even want to yell your words. Exaggerations leave big imprints in your brain. Carry your recorder with you and listen to it as often as you can.

Audio Files copyright Caedmon Shakespeare, 1996. Academic Fair Use for student analysis. Do not reproduce or distribute these files.

Memorization tips via about.com

Othello Acts I-III Test Preview

You should know the following for tomorrow's quiz on the first three Acts of Shakespeare's Othello:

Scenes

• Act I, scene ii
• Act III, scene iii

Literary Terms

• Allusion
• Anaphora
• Apostrophe
• Parallelism
• Soliloquy
• Synecdoche

Mythological Characters

• Janus

Tone/Mood

• Disinterested
• Magnanimous
• Objective
• Paradoxical
• Partial

Vocabulary

• Contradict
• Gullibility
• Oratorical

Pre-AP: Literary Devices in Othello

Find examples of each of the following literary devices in the text of Othello. Quote the entire sentence it appears in. Cite the speaker and reference for each (either the traditional II.i.37 or the contemporary 2.1.37).

For example, if the literary device was Tactile Imagery, you might select the following line:

Othello: No, my heart is turned to stone: I strike it and it hurts my hand. (IV.i,179-180)

If you do not cite the speaker and the act, scene, and line numbers, you will not receive credit for your work.

The List:

• Adage/Aphorism/Axiom
• Alliteration
• Allusion
• Apostrophe (NOT the punctuation; this is the direct addressing of a personified idea or a person not present)
• Flashback
• Foreshadowing
• Irony
• Metaphor
• Oxymoron/Paradox (pick one and use it properly)
• Personification
• Pun
• Simile

You may use the same quote more than once if the literary devices are present in different parts of the quote. For instance if a simile contains alliteration, you may use the quote for one or the other, but not both; on the other hand, if the simile appears at the beginning of the quote and alliteration elsewhere, you may use the full quote twice.

Googling or visiting Yahoo Answers (or other web source) will not lead to success. Do the work. There are plenty of examples of each literary device in the play. Find them.

Free Othello Text/Audio

There are several versions of the text available free from Project Gutenberg. (Julius Caesar, too.) Please make sure you download a "by William Shakespeare" edition.

There is also a free recording from LibriVox. (Julius Caesar audio.) Note: the free audio recordings aren't great. Check Learn Out Loud for discount-price options. (There are 99-cent options at the iTunes store, but I suspect it's the LibriVox recording; let me know if you download it and it's not.)

If you come across any other free (or low-cost) resources, please leave a message in the comments section.

English II: Julius Caesar Meaningful Sentences

Download and print the worksheet handed out in class.

Complete meaningful sentences for all 15 vocabulary words.

Select three (3) vocabulary words and on separate sheets of paper illustrate your meaningful sentence for that word. Write your meaningful sentence at the bottom of the page large enough to be read from 10-15 feet away.

Remember:

• a meaningful sentence is made up of two independent sentences combined with a semicolon (;)


• the first sentence includes a vocabulary word


• the second sentence contains the definition of that vocabulary word


• the first word of the second sentence is not capitalized


• you should underline the vocabulary word and its definition

For instance, if the vocabulary word was:

Triumvirate (n): a government of three officers or magistrates functioning jointly.

a meaningful sentence would be:

The triumvirate met in the Senate twice a month; Julius Caesar and the two other co-rulers of Rome listened to the petitions of the people and then conferred and made decisions to benefit the country.

Pre-AP: IWA #5

Choose one of the following prompts:

Compare and contrast the traitors Iago and Brutus. Pay attention not only to what they say about themselves and others, but to the trustworthiness of what others say about them, as well. Ultimately conclude whether Iago or Brutus (or both) were justified in their actions against the title character of their respective plays. Focus
on the literary devices (simile, metaphor, etc.) Shakespeare uses, not just plot summary—diction may be addressed, but it must be discussed in terms of tone/mood rather than simple vocabulary; no more than a third of your IWA may focus on diction.

(Alternatively, you may enter the Ayn Rand/Anthem essay contest. Deadline March 20 (the day you return from Spring Break.)

Tips to success:

Extensive plot summary will result in a REDO grade (no points), not a REVISE (85 points). Look at diction, metaphor, imagery, etc., and how the author’s use of these techniques contributes to meaning.

Remember that only REVISE and ACCEPTED essays will be taken for a grade, so submit your IWA early, rather than at the last minute to ensure that your essay will count!

*** More than 5 careless spelling mistakes and 10 careless punctuation errors will result in a REDO grade***

All essays must be typed and adhere to the MLA formatting requirements (see below). All essays must be submitted with the draft in the LEFT pocket (inside front cover) of a 2-pocket portfolio folder. Failure to meet these minimum requirements will result in the draft being returned to the student unevaluated and with no score recorded.

• Type your paper on a computer and print it out on standard, white 8.5 x 11-inch paper.


• Double-space the text of your paper (paragraph settings). Use Times New Roman (Garamond if you're “fancy”); the font size should be 12 pt. (font settings).


• Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks.


• Set the margins of your document to 1" on all sides.


• Indent the first line of paragraphs one half-inch from the left margin. MLA recommends that you use the Tab key as opposed to pushing the Space Bar five times, or set your paragraphs to indent the first line 0.5". Do not skip a line (i.e., leave a blank line) between paragraphs.

Drop-Dead Deadline: Friday, April 8, 2011.
(If no work is received by 3/25, a "Missing" grade (counts as a 0) will be entered into the grade book; some work may receive a temporary "Incomplete" grade (no effect on grade), but that will be replaced with a "Missing" on 4/1.)

Iago's Web

Place the following character names in a circle extending to near the edges of your paper.

• Brabantio
• Cassio
• Desdemona
• The Duke
• Emelia
• Othello
• Roderigo

Draw lines citing the relationship between the characters prior to Iago’s campaign of manipulation.

Then place Iago somewhere within the web you’ve made and in a different color, list the relationships he has with the characters and how his involvement has tainted the other characters’ relationships.

Here's an example of a "web in progress." (Note: this is only the beginning of a web. There are many more "before" relationships to be shown, as well as many "afters.")