UNDERSTANDING SHAKESPEARE

1. UNDERSTANDING SHAKESPEARE By Lauren Rickman

2. LESSON PLAN • Grade 9 • Broken down into 5-7 60 minute lessons • Purpose – understanding and interpreting Shakespeare • Understanding similes, metaphors, and oxymorons • Elizabethan Pronouns and verbs • Choose a play/read play • Written Conversation • Translation • Prerequisites: Reading and Critical Thinking Skills

3. Why Shakespeare? • The majority of Shakespeare’s protagonists were adolescents • Relatable material: friendships, love, anger, heartbreak, angst, fights, jealousy, disagreements with parents, greed, family rivalries • There are certain characteristics to each character with which the student will be able to relate. Maybe they dislike their cousin or lost their best friend. • Shakespearean works can be connected to our modern lives.

4. COLLABORATIVE LEARNING • Students will be asked to select which play will have our focus for the lesson. They should be involved in the learning process • The students will be placed in groups of two for the lesson. Working in groups will help in the following ways: • Shakespeare can be hard to understand, working together they can help each other interpret the material. • Students with IEPs, learning disabilities, and English learners will be placed with more advanced students so they have extra assistance. • Students reading at a lower level will be placed with those at a higher reading level. • Increase the students’ ability to engage in collaborative learning in other classes and life. • Having them act out the plays, the students will learn how the language is to be spoken. Certain inflections and new vocabulary will be added to their repertoire.

5. What do you think it means?

6. SIMILE • Define: a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds usually formed with `like' or `as‘ • Examples in Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet - The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars. As daylight doth a lamp… Hamlet - Good Hamlet, cast thy knighted colour off,And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. http://en.allexperts.com/q/Shakespeare-3004/2013/1/similes-tragedy-hamlet.htm

7. METAPHOR • Define: A metaphor is a pattern equating two seemingly unlike objects. Metaphors are comparisons that show how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in one important way. • Examples: Romeo and Juliet – But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? *It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.  Hamlet - Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer*The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/metaphorlist.html

8. OXYMORON • Define: A combination of contradictory terms • Examples: Romeo and Juliet – Parting is such sweet sorrow O brawling love, O loving hate! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Hamlet - I must be cruel only to be kind. Have we—as ’twere with a defeated joy http://www.squidoo.com/shakespeare-oxymorons

9. Elizabethan Pronouns

10. ELIZABETHAN PRONOUNS • You as the subject of a clause becomes thou. Ex: Thou art a cheery fellow. • You as an object (direct, indirect, or object of preposition) becomes thee Ex: I will give thee an apple. • You (adjective) becomes thy Ex: Your hat or your heart becomes thy hat or thy heart *If the noun being described begins with a vowel, use thine Ex: Thine eyes, Thine ear • Yours (pronoun) becomes thine Ex: The book is yours becomes The book is thine. http://teachers.sduhsd.net/atickle/TeacherPages/Elizabethan%20Language.pdf

11. Elizabethan Verb Inflections

12. Elizabethan Verb Inflections • When using thou as the subject, the verb will end in ‘stor ‘est. Ex: Thou givest, thou grantest, thou takest • When using he/she/it as subject, the verb will end in ‘thor ‘eth Ex: He giveth, she taketh, love granteth • In a verb phrase, change only the first helping verb Ex: He is singing becomes He art singing • Do NOT change infinitives! Ex: To marry remains to marry • Nothing with I, we, or they as the subject changes http://teachers.sduhsd.net/atickle/TeacherPages/Elizabethan%20Language.pdf

13. OPEN DISCUSSION • What events lead to changes in the English language? How did they affect the language? • French, Latin, and Greek influences • wars/invasions • Immigration • Industrial Revolution • Inventions – telegraph, morse code, telephone, computers • The times – 1950s, 1960s, 1970s slang • Movies and Television • Globalization

14. TEXT USED(Depending on Play Chosen) • Romeo And Juliet by William Shakespeare • Romeo and Juliet (1997) film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes – a modern take on a seamless classic. Allows students to see Elizabethan language used in the modern world, may aid in understanding context • Taylor Swift’s Love Story is not accurate • Movie Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S6IJWilpx4 • Romeo and Juliet Rap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0H8OS37gWQ

15. TEXT USED(DEPENDING ON PLAY CHOSEN) • Hamlet by William Shakespeare • Hamlet (1990) film starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close. Students may use these films as a reference during the lessons. It helps to see the words acted out on screen so that one may interpret certain phrases by body language and inflection. • Movie Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42xIiUrraxw • Scenes from Renaissance Man (1994) In this film, Danny DeVito is teaching Shakespeare to a group of army recruits who are considered to be below average intelligence by the Army. This movie is helpful because the teacher breaks down the language and helps the students understand what Shakespeare is trying to convey in Hamlet. Hamlet Rap from Renaissance Man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owW4paF6lSQ • PBS http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/educators/performance/lessonplan.html -- This website contains valuable information about this lesson. Worksheets are provided to learn about odd Elizabethan phrases. Videos from ‘In Search of Shakespeare’ allow the students to hear how the words are to be spoken.

16. COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS • Shakespeare never meant for his plays to be published. His First Folio was not published until 7 years after his death. • His plays are boring, dull. The beauty of Shakespeare is that everything he wrote is open to interpretation. Your opinion and views of the play will never be wrong! What the play makes you feel about the characters and their world is what matters. • He wrote for mass appeal. He wanted his plays to be entertaining. He incorporated numerous themes into every play so that any person that read them would take something away from his work. • Excellent website for discussion on Shakespearean misunderstandings: http://bigthink.com/videos/common-misunderstandings-of-shakespeare http://suite101.com/article/three-things-to-remember-when-reading-shakespeares-plays-a274863

17. WHICH PLAY DO YOU CHOOSE?

18. The New Slang • Language Arts students have been learning about language and new vocabulary since they began their matriculation. Over the years, the English language has developed in such a way that entire conversation can be had using only slang words and phrases. • How does this relate to Shakespeare? The students can approach the use of Elizabethan language as new slang to use with their friends. • Students know that when someone says ‘it’s crunk in here’ it means that it is really crowded, noisy, or crazy. • These same students can also learn that when Queen Gertrude says to Hamlet, ‘let thine eye look like a friend upon Denmark’ she is telling Hamlet do not look at me as though you hate me. • They will know that when Mercutio tells Romeo, ‘you shall find me a grave man’ he means that he is dying.  

19. WRITTEN CONVERSATION • The students will work in groups to write down a conversation that they will then translate to Elizabethan English. • Rules: • No talking, writing only! • Each student will write 5 sentences • First student will write a sentence and second student will respond to the sentence, continuing until 10 total sentences are written EXAMPLE: Are you going to watch TV today? Yes, my favorite show is coming on. What show is your favorite? I really like Big Bang Theory, etc.

20. TRANSLATION • After the groups are comfortable with translating modern English to Elizabethan English, they will choose a passage from the play to translate. • The chosen passage must contain at least 10 lines. It can be a soliloquy or a conversation. • The groups will present their translations to the class. • The class will then work together to determine which soliloquy or conversation the group translated.

21. Assessments • Asking students for examples of similes, metaphors, and oxymorons • Presenting Written Conversations to class • Open discussion about what the students believe the text means • Translation from modern English to Elizabethan English and vice versa • Working together to determine the part of play that was chosen for translation

22. Modifications/Accommodations • Certain students may have difficulty expressing what they want to write on paper. I would allow these students to meet with me and talk to me about what they think the passage means. Sometimes an oral discussion is much better for these students. You know they know the material, they just have a hard time expressing it in paragraph form. I would allow the student to tell me what they think it means, then I would ask them to write down what they are telling me. This will allow the student to build confidence in their writing/ language skills. • Gifted students – after translating a soliloquy or conversation, the gifted students may be asked to translate a famous speech into Elizabethan English (IE. Gettysburg Address, I Have a Dream, JFK’s inaugural address)