Apartheid

 

Context of Shakespearean Drama

 In Shakespeare's time, royalty was a popular subject so Shakespeare often wrote about royalty in his plays to please his audience. When Shakespeare was born Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne then later in his life when she passed James I took over. Another topic Shakespeare would often write about was religion, specifically the Protestant/Catholic debate as England was often changing between protestant and catholic as new royals stepped up to the throne. Shakespeare’s religious beliefs are unknown but some people believe he was Protestant. During Shakespeare’s time, they spoke early modern English so Shakespeare’s plays can be difficult to understand to newer generations. Early modern English can be difficult to understand as it has old fashioned vocabulary and different spelling compared to now. Shakespeare had a big impact on the English language as he created words, quotes and phrases that are still used today.

The Renaissance was a time of new inventions and new ideas. Many artistic techniques were discovered and people found it to be a way of expressing themselves. Shakespeare found playwriting and acting to be his passion and during the time playwriting and poetry was a popular way of entertainment to the public. Plays were normally performed in theatres or playhouses, but they had to make their set easy to move so they could perform at other venues. Shakespeare was part of a play company called “Lord Chamberlain’s Men”, in 1599 they built their own theatre called “The Globe Theatre'' which was located on the banks of the river Thames. This was where Shakespeare would write his plays and perform them. Shakespeare had a wide range of audiences. The non wealthy people paid one penny to stand in the pit in front of the stage (they were called “groundlings”). If the groundlings weren’t amused with the performance then they would throw rotten fruit at the performers, so Shakespeare had to make his plays appeal to all his audience. The wealthy people could afford to sit in tiered wooden seating, they also could pay extra for cushions. Sometimes the wealthy paid even more to have a seat on the stage. The Globe Theatre officially closed in 1642 due to a parliamentary decree.

Not the Ninja Turtles

The ninja turtles were named after artists Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael. They were all Italian Renaissance artists from the 14th-16th century. Eastman and Laird who were the creators of the ninja turtles named the turtles after each of their favourite renaissance artists. We are learning about this to get a better knowledge about the renaissance period and Shakespeare's world. 

Power Project - week 1

This week was the first week of our new project, Power to the People. We are doing this project to research about power and present to people what we have learnt. I am in a group with Danielle, Tama and Joseph. Our main question for our project is "How much power could wind turbines in Otaki produce in a year?" 

1. What have you achieved/learned/found out? I have learnt about why wind turbines

2. How effectively have you used your time this week? I think I used time effectively.

3. How have you contributed to your group’s progress? Lots of researching and adding to our groups slideshow.

4. Glows: something that is going well in your project: We have all contributed something.

5. Grows: Something you need to work on: Staying on task, it is very boring research power for 2 hours straight when I have no passion for it.

6. What are the next steps for your project? More research and start making a model wind turbine.

'Night' by Elie Wiesel - Essay

Essay question -

Describe at least one important technique used in the text. 

Explain how the technique created an emotional response in you.

---

 In the Holocaust memoir 'Night' by Elie Wiesel, three events that impacted me emotionally was their first journey to Auschwitz in the cattle car, the man getting shot with his face in the soup and the hangings. The writer uses a range of language features including listing, metaphors and alliteration to describe his experiences in the concentration camps. His purpose of writing the book is to tell everybody what really happened during the Holocaust and share all the emotional experiences that he went through and prevent them from happening again.

The first event that emotionally impacted me was their first journey to Auschwitz in the cattle car. Their was eighty people crammed into one cattle car with very little air and no food or water. The author uses language features such as listing and repetition to capture how they felt in the cattle car. "The heat, the thirst, the stench, the lack of air were suffocating us." From this sentence you can picture their surroundings and how they may be feeling. This helped me create a clearer picture of the conditions they were in. When I read this I felt sorry for them. A hot enclosed space with barely any air would be unbearable. I think the Jews are very strong to survive those circumstances.

The second event that emotionally impacted me was during the air raid when the SS left the unattended soup in the kitchen. Everybody was terrified to give in and take the soup because they knew it was a death trap, but one man was so hungry that he was ready to risk his life for the soup. The author uses the technique of metaphors to share what the Jews are thinking and to make it clear what they think will happen in this situation. "In our minds, he was already dead." This made me feel sad because the Nazi's are such vile human beings the Jews instantly knew those soups would not be for free. It's horrible that the poor man was so hungry that he was willing to risk his life for a bowl of soup. I realised just how great fear can be, the fact everybody was starving but the fear was consuming them that it just wasn't enough.

The last event that impacted me emotionally was the hangings. Three prisoners were hung by the executioner because they had been found with weapons in their possession. The author used the language feature alliteration. "Long live liberty! My curse on Germany!" Even when they were on the verge of death they weren't afraid to dis the Nazi's and curse them for all their wrongs. Reading the hangings made me feel sad and disgusted. I felt extremely disturbed for the young boy who was hanging in between life and death for half an hour, because his body was so much lighter than the other two men he survived much longer. The way Elie wrote the hangings in such detail was quite unsettling.

'Night' has taught me a lot about the Jewish religion and the Holocaust which I think is an important part of history. Using techniques such as listing, metaphors, and alliteration Elie Wiesel showed me the events in a heightened way. It was interesting watching movies and reading books seeing different peoples perspectives of the Holocaust. I felt quite sad reading the events that the Jews had to go through and I could never imagine myself in their shoes. The Holocaust is an awful event and I hope history never repeats itself.

Elie Wiesel, Author of Night, Aged 12

Our English class is studying the memoir Night, by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. 

I worked in a group with Danielle to create an Empathy Map for Elie at this age.

Elie had four siblings. Hilda the eldest; then Bea; Elie was the third and only son; Tzipora was the youngest. His parents ran a store Hilda and Bea helped with the work. Elie's father was a cultured, unsentimental man. He rarely displayed his feelings not even to his own family.

The Jewish People and the Jewish Religion

We watched two videos about Judaism (the Jewish Religion) and the Jewish people. Some things I found out were there are 15 million people who are Jewish and Judaism is the 10th most popular religion. The Jewish people believe by definition that G-d is the single creator and animator of the world. He has no helpers, no children and no rivals.

One thing I thought was interesting was from sunset on Friday until nightfall on Saturday, it's the holiest day of the week. They leave their phones behind for 25 hours so they can experience the true spiritual power of Shabbat which is the Jewish day of rest.

I would like to find out more about their holidays and what they do to celebrate on these days. I would also like to learn more about their beliefs.