We are currently working on editing our pieces for our script. In our group, we have decided that each group member individually look at their own parts and see what it is they feel should stay or go in the scenes assigned to them, so that afterward we could all go over the script together and try and edit it even more. It is not an easy task. Part of that reason is because our group gets distracted by things so easily and therefore cannot concentrate on the work that is put in front of us. Maybe it is because it is a group of friends, maybe it is because we all have such strong personalities that we sometimes collide, maybe I am too bossy or dominant, maybe there are 1,001 other reasons to explain it. All I know is that we have work to do and we don’t have a lot of time to do it, so we need to get on top of our game.
Another problem that we are currently confronting is that our group cannot seem to figure out our method of presentation. The response is due…. Yesterday… and yet we still cannot figure it out. I as captain want it something that everyone else will be comfortable with, because I know that some people do not feel comfortable up in front of a lot of people, but I cant even come up with an idea that will suit everyone, and I don’t want to just do it the traditional way because it just seems, well, cliché. Only thing is that no one seems to be giving feedback, and I don’t want us to say don’t care what it is we choose to do now, and then go up in front of the class and only give 50 or 60% because some of us decided we didn’t want to act it out like everyone else in the end. If we all choose as a group then I figure no one can complain about this or that not being what they wanted to do, so hopefully we can pull it together.
Although it seems like my group is facing a few difficulties, I do have a lot of confidence in us. I know that everyone in the end will pull together and get it done, I just don’t want to have to wait until the end to see that happen. I mean, I have seen it in those instances when we are not being distracted and I read a line out loud and we have to analyze it as a group to decide whether or not it should be in our script. Everyone has an interpretation of each line, and everyone begins to learn more and more Shakespeare’s play on words and which ones are crucial to our plots and which ones just take up 4 lines to say ‘that handkerchief is special’ (or something along the lines). So that really makes me happy that although we don’t notice as it happens but we are learning as we go through this arduous, exasperating, protracted process.

This is pretty much the beginning of our process to do our final benchmark for English. Right off the bat I felt that it would be an interesting yet, somewhat challenging task, not so much for the work in itself, but the collaboration to get the work done. I have a group of four and was chosen leader (not my choice) so I am trying my best to make sure my group is doing all that we should be, while at the same time also keeping myself on track as well. So far though, it seems like everyone has been on track and doing the work that they need to do. We are all keeping up with our lines and not much complaining has happened… yet.
One thing that is difficult in this project is finding the perfect lines that will capture, not only the plot of the story, but the idea of our theme as well which is revenge. The thing is that when it comes to revenge Iago is one who is definitely out for it in the book, however, we as a group do not want to solely focus on Iago because there are numerous characters who take revenge out on someone throughout the book, one way or another. For example, Othello takes revenge out on Desdemona for cheating on him, falsely, but revenge none-the-less. Another person is Emilia who takes revenge out on Iago for all the wicked and heinous crimes that he hath committed by exposing the truth about him to Gratiano and everyone else, etcetera. So, I am currently trying to portray that in our script without overdoing it and throwing a million ideas into a 7-minute presentation, and that is one of the problems that my group is facing as a whole.
A thing that we have all learned though is the beauty of www.nfs.sparknotes.com. It allows us to go check lines from the play if we do not fully understand them. However, this project is allowing me to go through the book again and understand Shakespeare’s wording and vocabulary now, because when I first began reading the book I had absolutely no clue as to what was occurring in the book, but as I went through it I began to understand it piece by piece. Then, with all of our class discussions and our analyzing it has helped me so that now when I go back into my sections I can reread the lines and because I understand the plot better, it allows me to also understand the dialogue better as well. It has really helped me learn my Shakespeare.

I wonder if Shakespeare had any idea that 4,000 years after he wrote Hamlet, students would still be reading his play and finding it engaging. Like the Oddesey, the story of Hamlet has incredible vitality. It's ability to resonate with people so many years after its time shows how little human beings have changed, and makes us wonder what current texts will have the same longetivity.

When I began Hamlet, I expected it to be interesting- but not very engaging. I didn't expect to be reading ahead of the assigned pages. But despite the unfamiliar language, I find it relatively fast reading.

So we, english 9 orange, have been reading Hamlet for a bit. It's quite interesting despite the difficult language. To help with understand the text, we each have a Hamlet audio playlist for listening, and we've been watching the movie in class. The movie has been helping the most. Unfortunately almost daily we take a quiz regarding what we were to read the night before. The quiz has about 3-4 quotes from the text, and asks us to translate the text into modern language, and then explain its significants. These quizzes haven't been adding anything to my learning nor have been enriching the text, in fact I find the book less enjoyable to read when I know I'm going to be tested on the matter the following day. In the end, I'll just be glad to be finished with Shakespeare.

 That in and of itself is basically all English class has been for the past few weeks. Reading Hamlet, talking about Hamlet, watching the movie Hamlet and taking quizzes on Hamlet. I wonder what'll we be doing next. I hope it'll be more enjoyable than this. For some reason, and I'm not the only one who thinks like this, reading a book for school, no matter what the book is, is so much less enjoyable than reading the same book on your own time. Its the idea of being forced to do something, anything, that takes so much away from reading and enjoying a book. 

-Aidan 

Iago is a really great character! I enjoy his sarcasm and his deceitfulness towards all the other characters.

I think he has intelligence and can manipulate many of the unsuspecting characters with out as much wit

as Iago. I enjoy this reading experience much more than our other books because of the eccentric characters

and i also find the lust that everyone shows toward Desdemona intriguing because it makes her like a prize for everyone to obtain.