Woo hoo here we go!

My first blog entry about our Shakespeare conquest and I am ALREADY apologizing! SHEESH! We had our fab-o Meet the Mentor night. We wanted to hand out something to get the kids exciting about. We (aka Nikki) came up with a fun poem and I stuck them on some tic tacs with some Shakespeare trivia. Then I placed the date and time class was at etc...HOWEVER when we got to the meet your mentor night, we learn that the information was WRONG!! AAAHHH!! So I'm feeling a little FOOLISH!! :-) So, dispite what the tic tacs say, the first day of class IS

August 20th at 12:30pm.

The book needed for the class is Cliff Notes Complete for King Lear. It is not available locally, so if you would like to purchase it on your own, it will need to be ordered online.

If you missed the handout summarizing the class, here is what is said:

Learning how to read and understand Shakespeare is just the beginning! In Shakespeare Conquest we learn different skills and abilities that will give us building blocks needed for a liberal education.

There are only two requirements for the class.
They are that the scholar read the assigned reading and to discuss it with the class.

There are also two main challenges in the class. Both of these are optional. The first is a race. This is a race for the scholars to read, listen to, or watch 17 Shakespeare’s plays. There is a prize for the first scholar to finish and a prize for everyone else that finishes the challenge. The other challenge is the Ten Step Conquest. There are ten different assignments for the scholars to finish in class and at home. The prize for completing the Ten Step Conquest will be a significant prize in the spring. Trust us, the scholars WILL NOT want to miss it! One of the steps in the conquest is to be involved in the spring production of a Shakespeare play. During the second semester this will be the focus of the class. The first half of the semester we will develop acting and speaking skills and the second half we will perform a play.

The best thing parents can do to help their scholars in this class is to jump into Shakespeare right along the scholar. Become excited with them as they learn and grow through Shakespeare.

Please feel free to post any questions or email me at: btasutton @ gmail dot com--without the spaces and a dot of course ;-)

Bonita Sutton