Here are some of the questions that you came up with. I’ve posted my thoughts on some of the comprehension (or factual) questions and left the interpretive and evaluative questions for you to consider.
Now that we are done going through the play, it is our turn to act out the play. Students will sign up to perform a scene from the play. The goal of our performance is to create meaning of Shakespeare’s words and subtext through intentional emphasis when reading, blocking of actors, and physical actions.
We will perform these scenes on Friday and Monday in chronological order.
For those of you who would like a unique experience this summer, go check out a public performance of a Shakespeare play. The atmosphere is laid back (take your friends and family for a picnic and entertainment).
I’ve linked to all of the local performances here:
http://www.diigo.com/list/mgillingham/shakespeare-in-the-park
Dress appropriately (no sandals or skirts) and meet in the cafeteria for a workshop on stage combat from the Seattle Shakespeare Company.
We watched 2.1 in class and then acted out lines 2.2.41-71 using four different subtexts. Groups were tasked with determing the blocking (physical spacing), actions, tone, and emphasis in order to communicate assigned subtexts for these lines. We then performed in class in order to see how minor alterations can affect what is communicated in a scene.
Yesterday we did a close reading of a speech by Titania. We looked at the images, smells, sounds, alliteration, assonance, repetition, and metaphors that Shakespeare weaves together to evoke a scene in our minds.
Today we read excerpts from scene one where we placed different emphasis on words. We call this the subtext: what is really being communicated by the words. We tried having a student read Oberon’s plan in an angry manner and again in a joking manner. We read the exchange between Demetrius and Helena with varying degrees of annoyance and anger (Demetrius) and eagerness and desperation (Helena).
My apologies for not updating the site this week. Here’s a quick recap of where we are at with the play:
We have read selected lines from Act 1, Scenes 1 and 2. We watched the first act on DVD. During our work with Act 1, we worked on the following skills:
- How to stage (block) a scene
- How to read lines
- How to understand thee and thou
We started reading Act 2, Scene 1 today as we worked on finding the rhythm in Shakespeare’s language. We talked about how a character’s status impacts not only their vocabulary, but also whether they get to speak with a rhythm or a rhyme. We went over:
- Tetrameter (4 beats per line)
- Pentameter (5 beats per line)
- Prose (no organized beats)
- Trochee (DUM da)
- Iamb (da DUM)
- Couplet (two sequential lines that rhyme)
We’ll keep working with Act 2, Scene 1 next week.
We finished watching some videos that look at why we still devote time and energy on Shakespeare’s plays and what life was like back then.
Students were asked to read a short handout out on the Elizabethan era as homework.
I then provided a basic overview of the play’s characters and plot.
Finally, we started reading Act 1, Scene 2. As a class we made some decisions about the characters’ personalities and, therefore, how we shoud read the lines.
Over the past two days we’ve been discussing what we know about Shakespeare and what we wnt to know about Shakespeare. Today we watched a video about why Shakespeare still matters. Tomorrow we’ll begin to dig into A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
This unit is experiential. We will be acting, reading, watching, listening, staging, and experiencing the play in class. It is not something that can be recreated at home. It is very important that you be in class everyday to get the most out of this unit. If you are absent, you will need to arrange a time to meet with me to go over what you missed.
I believe that your greatest gains as a writer come when you have the chance to take the time to process for yourself your performance as a writer. Throughout your career in school and beyond, the only consistent evaluator of your writing is you. Therefore, it is essential that you stop to take a moment to really think about what you do well, what areas you improved in, and what areas you might want to work on.
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