AP Human Geography FRQs

Lexi Burrows
Staff Reporter

          English I classes are learning about Shakespeare for the next eight weeks. Students are learning old English and will be reading many plays written by Shakespeare.

After learning about sonnets, students were assigned to write their own.

A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines using any number of formal rhyme schemes, and use ten syllables per line according to Dictionary.com. Writing a sonnet typically follows the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. For some students sonnets can be very difficult to write.

Students from Mrs. Henry’s English I classes will be turning in their sonnets on Tuesday, leading them into reading Shakespeare's plays and acting them out in class.

Reading Shakespeare’s writing can feel like one is reading a different language. Old English is a highly inflected language with a largely Germanic vocabulary, which is much different than the modern day English.

“There will be many pieces of this unit that will be difficult for students, the most difficult being the Shakespearean language,” said Haley Henry, an English I teacher. There will be a lot of information taught in what seems to be a long time but it will go by quickly.

“This unit will require students to be resilient with their reading, use close reading skills, context clues and at times reread multiple times in order to make sense of all that takes place. Although it will be difficult, we will have a lot of fun with the unit. We act out and draw out scenes, watch two movie versions and compare and contrast those with the play itself and more,” said Henry.

After this unit is over, student will be able to understand Shakespeare's language and how to write sonnets.