Daniela Bianchi, Roman Darms
Fachdidaktik Englisch I
Hansjürg Perino
24th May 2012
Teaching The Tempest
Lesson Passage
Aims / Content
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Introduction
Help the students
realize how much
they know already
about Shakespeare
Create curiosity
about the play they
are about to read
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Create atmosphere,
give students a first
impression of the
play
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Master-slave
relationship
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Help student
understand how
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1
2
Materials / Media
required
Activity
Act I
Scene I
Act I
Scene I
Scene II

Pre-reading activity
o Mind map based on brainstorming
activities around the following questions
 List facts about the life of
Shakespeare
 List titles of as many Shakespearean
plays
 List words or phrases that come to
mind when you think of
Shakespearean language
 List facts about the 17th century
 Describe what you suspect The
Tempest is about by looking at the
title
Listening / Illustration
o Emphasize the opening stage direction
so students understand that the action
takes place on a ship at sea in a terrible
storm
o Show some illustrations for this scene
o Listen to the first scene
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Class discussion based on the following
questions
o How do the sailors relate to their
passengers?
o How do the sailors act in the fact of the
tempest?
o How does their behaviour compare to
the way the noble passengers act?
Reading activity
o Read the beginning of Act I Scene II
aloud in class
Homework

Act I
Scene I

Blackboard
The Tempest
Recorder or http://www.speak-thespeech.com/thetempestpage.htm
Illustrations of the scene

The Tempest

Act I
Scene II
Daniela Bianchi, Roman Darms
Fachdidaktik Englisch I
Hansjürg Perino
24th May 2012
o
Shakespeare varies
the dramatic tension
in the play
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
Master-slave
relationship
Colonialism
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3
Act I
Scene II
Have students compare the opening
scenes of Act I
 What do we learn about the
situation immediately?
 What do we learn about Prospero?
 How does the sudden change in
mood affect the reader / spectator
or the play?
Listening comprehension
o Audio file “Sea Venture”
www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=2776
o Why would anyone sail to Bermuda in
the 17th century?  slave-trade
Review and explain the concept of
colonialism and imperialism
Group discussion
o Each group of five students answers one
of the following questions by using
quotes from the text and presents the
answers to the class
 Why does Prospero assume that he
has the right to rule on the island?
 What rights do the native
inhabitants Ariel and Caliban
possess?
 Why do Prospero and Miranda insist
on using the word “slave”
repeatedly?
 What are the author’s views of
imperialism and colonialism?
 How do you interpret the names
given to the five characters
Prospero, Miranda, Caliban, Ariel
and Ferdinand?

The Tempest
Audio file “Sea Venture”
www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=2776

Act II
Scene I
Daniela Bianchi, Roman Darms
Fachdidaktik Englisch I
4
5
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Close-reading
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Help students
discover their own
interpretation of the
text and the
relationships
between the
characters
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Character analysis (1)
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Act II
Scene I
Act II
Scene II
Hansjürg Perino
24th May 2012
Iambic pentameter
o Explain that most of Shakespeare
language is written in this rhythm, but at
times he writes in prose or uses an
imperfect line, especially when two
characters are trying to figure out each
other’s motives and they need time to
pause and think
o Explain the concept of iambic
pentameter
o Have the class read a passage [II.i. 1-25}
chorally that follows perfect iambic
pentameter while clapping out the
rhythm
Imperfect lines
o Ask two students to read Antonio’s and
Sebastian’s lines in II.i.219-340 without
pausing on imperfect lines
o Ask two different students to read the
same passage taking noticeable pause
after saying the imperfect lines
o Ask the class what effect putting a long
pause after Sebastian’s “There’s
meaning in thy snores” (l. 244),
“Methinks I do” (l. 307) as well as “But
for your conscience?” (l. 316) has on the
conversation between Sebastian and
Antonio
 Does Sebastian need to be
convinced?
 How does the placement of pauses
help you to answer this question?
 Why are these three lines imperfect?
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
The Tempest
Blackboard

Act II
Scene II
Pair work
o Distribute sheets with the 11 main
character names; two students prepare a
characterization of one character and do
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
The Tempest
Pictures of characters
Mentimeter
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Act III
Scene I
Daniela Bianchi, Roman Darms
Fachdidaktik Englisch I
Hansjürg Perino
24th May 2012
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Love
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6
Act III
Scene I
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not tell their fellow students which
character they are working on
o Each group presents its character and
the others guess which character they
are representing
Class discussion
o Discuss the following questions in class
 Who is the most moral person in the
play and why?
 Is Prospero right in the way he treats
Caliban?
 Is Prospero right in the way he treats
his daughter?
 Make predication about how the
characters will act in the remainder
of the play
o Post pictures of each character on the
blackboard
o Use Mentimeter to assign the three
captions “good”, “bad” and “neutral” to
each character picture
Watch the youtube video clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u79Lvpji
aQo where Miranda and Ferdinand first
meet
Class discussion
o What do you know of romance in
Shakespeare’s plays?
Pair work
o Discuss the type of love between
Miranda and Ferdinand
o What does the name Miranda tell us
about the love relationship between
Ferdinand and his beloved?
Class discussion
o Discuss any changes to be made to the
captions assigned to the characters


The Tempest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u79LvpjiaQo

Act III
Scene II + III
Daniela Bianchi, Roman Darms
Fachdidaktik Englisch I

7
Acting
Hansjürg Perino
24th May 2012

Act III
Scene II
Scene III
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Justice
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8
Act III
Scene II
Scene III
Acting
o Divide the students into five groups
o Give each group scripts of an edited
version of I,ii; II,i; II,ii; III,i; III,iii
o Apart from the group which is assigned
III,iii, each group pantomimes the scene
o The group which is assigned III,iii has to
perform the scene with words
o Ask the other students to quietly write
down which scene their fellow students
performed, what the performing group
did well and what they might have
missed
Class discussion
o Have the students read their comments
about the other groups’ performances
Class discussion
o Discuss any changes to be made to the
captions assigned to the characters


The Tempest
Edited version of Act I Scene II; Act II Scene I;
Act II Scene II; Act III Scene I and Act III Scene III

Act III
Scene III
Problem situation
o Present the class with the problem
situation (below)
o Have students write responses to the
problem situations and then share their
reactions in pairs
Class discussion
o Split the class into a revenge and a
forgiving group
o Lead a whole class discussion asking the
students to take a stand about the way
they would act in the situation: take
revenge or be forgiving
o Additional questions
 Is Prospero justified in doing what he
does to get his duke-ship back?
 Does Alonso deserve to be
thwarted?
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
The Tempest
Handout with problem situation
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Act IV
Daniela Bianchi, Roman Darms
Fachdidaktik Englisch I
Hansjürg Perino
24th May 2012
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9
Reader-response

Act IV
Scene I
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Is Caliban justified in seeking his
master’s life?

Why does Prospero use Ariel to
transmit his message?
Class discussion
o Discuss any changes to be made to the
captions assigned to the characters
Group work
o Invite groups of five students to express
their reactions to the reading and the
ideas of the play by explaining the
following four quotes

“All thy vexations were but my trials
of thy love, and thou hast strangely
stood the text.” (IV, i, 5-7)
 “Do not give dalliance too much the
rein; the strongest oaths are straw
to th’ fire i’ th’ blood.” (IV, i, 51-53)
 “We are such stuff as dreams are
made on, and our little life is
rounded with a sleep.” (IV, i, 156157)
 “A devil, a born devil, on whose
nature nurture can never stick; on
whom my pains, humanely taken,
all, all lost, quite lost! And as with
age his body uglier grows, so his
mind cankers.” (IV, i, 188-192)
Class discussion
o Each group presents its results to the
rest of the class
Class discussion
o Discuss any changes to be made to the
captions assigned to the characters

The Tempest

Act IV
Daniela Bianchi, Roman Darms
Fachdidaktik Englisch I

10
Writing activity
Act IV
Scene I
Hansjürg Perino
24th May 2012
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Character analysis (2)
Character
development
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11
Act V
Scene I
Message in the bottle
o Ask students to choose one of the
shipwrecked characters on the island
and write a rescue message from the
point of view of that character dealing
with his/her experiences on the island
and pleading for rescue
Class discussion
o Ask for volunteers to share their work
with the class
Class discussion
o Discuss any changes to be made to the
captions assigned to the characters

The Tempest

Act V
Pair work
o Students work in pairs and analyse the
validity of their predictions made in
lesson 5 about how the characters will
act in the remainder of the play
Class discussion
o Introduce notion of ‘flat’ and ‘round’
characters
 Use Mentimeter to reassign the
three captions “good”, “bad” and
“neutral” to each character picture
 Discuss how the captions assigned to
the different characters changed in
the course of the play
 Which characters undergo a
development?  round characters
 How does moral behaviour of a
character related to his/her social
status?


The Tempest
Mentimeter

Epilogue
Daniela Bianchi, Roman Darms
Fachdidaktik Englisch I

Mise-en-abyme
Hansjürg Perino
24th May 2012


12
Epilogue
Introduce the notion of mise-en-abyme
o Show the class the picture “Las Meninas”
by Velázquez to explain the concept of
mise-en-abyme (below)
Class discussion
o Can The Tempest be read as an allegory
about creativity, in which Prospero and
his magic work are metaphors for
Shakespeare and his art
o Is Prospero a stand-in for the
playwright?
o Give reasons why Prospero forgives the
wrongdoers at the end of the play?
o How do you understand the fact that The
Tempest is believed to be Shakespeare’s
last play?
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
The Tempest
Picture (below)

Test
Daniela Bianchi, Roman Darms
Fachdidaktik Englisch I
Hansjürg Perino
24th May 2012
Problem Situation
"You have been elected President of the Student Council during the last election, but your brother betrays you. Because you are very involved with your studies, you allow your
brother, who is Vice-President of the Student Council, to take over most of your duties.
He seems to enjoy the work, and this allows you to be free to really get into your multimedia and English classes. But you also enjoy the status of being President, and you make
sure that the work of the Council is being done. However, early in the Spring semester, your brother engineers your downfall. He goes to the faculty advisor with whom he is
friendly and enlists his help in deposing you. At a Council meeting, the advisor charges you with dereliction of duty and kicks you out of office. He installs your brother as President.
Hurt and aggrieved, you withdraw within yourself to reflect on what has happened to you.
Through reflection, meditation, and study of the classics, you develop powers that you did not know you had before. Also, you discover that an audio tape you had been using to
record environmental noise for your multimedia class somehow picked up the conversation of your brother and the advisor when they plotted to force you out. When the activity
bus breaks down on a field trip that the Council officers and the advisor are taking, you offer the two a ride to get help. They are stunned when you put the tape in your tape
player and play back their conversation to them. You have them in your power. Now you have a choice. Do you go for vengeance, get the advisor fired and your brother publicly
dishonored and maybe suspended from school? Or do you go for mercy, forgive your brother and the advisor; have the advisor reinstate you as president and your brother as
vicepresident? What would have to happen before you could feel merciful to your brother?"