ENGLISH 8

Turned in: Four final DEJs entries. Begin work on your final projects.

Finished Favorite Poem presentations.

We began watching Dead Poets Society: a film about an inspiring English teacher (!) in 1959 who challenges his students at an all-male prep school (think Hogwarts) to change their lives of conformity through poetry and literature. The film begins during an orientation gathering with a speech given by the stern Headmaster.

Main characters:
*Mr. Keating, English teacher
*Todd Anderson, lonely and painfully shy teenager
*Neil Perry,  an ambitious student, Todd’s roomate, but against his parent’s wishes, wants to be an actor

"We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are the noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” -- Dead Poets Society

Please use handout (questions) to help you through the movie. We will be seeing parts of it over the course of a week. If you are absent, you still have to fill out part of the forms.

HW: Weds., 4/25: Final “Your-Choice” CW assignments