Gifted and Talented Education
English
Stage 5: Year 10
Who is Hamlet?
Written by Suzanne Brown
Willoughby Girls High School
GAT Unit
Curriculum K-12
1
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2006
Context
Willoughby Girls High School is a comprehensive girls’ school with 822 students. Students
of non-English speaking background make up approximately 60% of the school
population.
The school conducts an external examination in English, Mathematics and Science for the
incoming Year 7 gifted and talented class. A more challenging program is taught to this
class.
The English faculty selects one to two groups in Years 8-10. Besides studying more
complex texts, these students are encouraged, as are students in the mixed-ability
classes, to enter a range of internal and external writing, public speaking and debating
competitions. The extension classes are also taken on an additional enrichment excursion.
For example, the Year 8 group has been involved in a film editing workshop.
Based on a highly complex text, this unit is designed specifically for gifted and talented
students of English. It challenges these students to respond to intellectual and moral
issues commensurate with their affective level of development. Such topics are generally
presented to students in Stage 6. Application of Passow’s three criteria for evaluating the
appropriateness of a program for gifted students (NSW Department of Education and
Training, 2004, p. 22) confirms that this unit is not a program that all Stage 5 students
would be able to undertake successfully.
Schools are expected to have many resources to support the study of Hamlet. Therefore
an exhaustive list of resources is not included in this unit. Schools should also give
students support and opportunities to develop research skills in preparation for advanced
study in Stage 6.
Teachers need to note that currently Revenge tragedy is an elective in HSC English
Extension Course 1, Module A: Genre. In addition, Hamlet is a text for Module A:
Comparative study of texts and context, Elective 1: Transformations: Shakespeare and
drama in the English (Advanced) course. As such, Hamlet is not studied for the HSC as a
Revenge tragedy text. Nonetheless, in teaching this unit with gifted and talented students,
teachers are expected to abide by the spirit of the two previously mentioned courses.
Focus: Who is Hamlet?
Preamble
The character of Hamlet is open to various interpretations depending on the reader’s
context and values. Students will undertake an investigation into Hamlet’s character
according to: how he presents himself, his interaction with others, and critical viewpoints.
Students will be encouraged to develop their own ‘reading’ of Hamlet based on their study.
GAT Unit
Curriculum K-12
2
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2006
Table 1: Teaching and learning strategies
Syllabus outcomes
Quality teaching
Assessment
Teaching and learning strategies
Interspersed throughout the
Significance
unit, a student:
•
Participation and
performance 5%
•
•
1.
responds to and
composes sophisticated
and sustained texts for
understanding,
interpretation, critical
analysis and pleasure
4. selects and uses
language forms and
features, and structures
of texts according to
different purposes,
audiences and contexts,
and describes and
explains their effects on
meaning
6. experiments with different
ways of imaginatively and
interpretively
transforming experience,
information and ideas
into texts
7. thinks critically and
interpretively using
information, ideas and
increasingly complex
arguments to respond to
GAT Unit
and
compose texts in a
Curriculum K-12
•
•
Background
knowledge
Knowledge
integration
Narrative
•
Book mark 10%
Quality learning
environment
•
•
•
Director’s notes 10%
Explicit quality
criteria
High expectations
•
•
Group work 5%
•
Intellectual quality
Performance 10%
•
•
•
Feature article 10%
•
•
•
Deep knowledge
Deep
understanding
Problematic
knowledge
Higher-order
thinking
Substantive
communication
Quality learning
environment
•
•
Common assessment:
Shakespeare
appropriation –
Monologue 30%
•
3
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2006
Explain the focus of the unit
Discuss the term ‘tragedy’; investigate and
present conventions of Shakespearean
tragedy/revenge tragedy
Discuss Hamlet ‘trivia’ based on students’
general knowledge. Pool ideas
Library – research facts about Hamlet. In
groups use information to compose an
acrostic or other form poem and perform for
the class
Read prose version of the play.
View Zeffirelli’s 1990 film Hamlet; read
review, clarify plot and characters
Introduce ‘mini sagas’; students write two
from the perspective of two different
characters about Hamlet
Investigate how Hamlet presents himself
through his soliloquies. Whole class analysis
and individual exploration of
context/ideas/emotions/language/insight into
character
Create director’s notes based on one
soliloquy
Second part of investigation – Hamlet’s
interaction with others. Groups examine
passages and report back to the class.
Present a ‘moved reading’ of one of the
passages
Introduce critical theory along with tragedy,
feminism and psychoanalysis. An article
written by one critic, read and analysed
range of contexts
11. uses, reflects on,
assesses and adapts
their individual and
collaborative skills for
learning with increasing
independence and
effectiveness
GAT Unit
Curriculum K-12
•
Students self
regulation
•
•
4
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2006
Groups choose a critical viewpoint and
perform a five-minute version of the play
from this perspective
Based on their own reading and that of
Hamlet himself, other characters and
“experts”, students compose a feature article
for the Denmark Herald, entitled “Who was
Hamlet?”
Tragedy
Task
Establishing prior knowledge
Students:
•
individually write down their definition of tragedy
•
in groups compare definitions
•
compose a group definition.
Class discusses these definitions before introducing the information below.
What information can now be added to these definitions?
In addition to resources already available in schools, teachers may find Composing and
responding in English: Stage 5 (Anderson & Anderson, 2002) useful support documentation
for this task.
Background information
The essential principles of tragedy were established by the Greek philosopher Aristotle
(384-322 BC) in his work The poetics. From Aristotle to the Elizabethans, tragedy
developed and may be summarily described as follows:
•
Aristotle writes that tragedy should succeed in 'arousing pity and fear in such
a way as to accomplish a catharsis (i.e. purgation) of such emotions (Royal
Shakespeare Company, 2004b)
•
tragedy… refers to any narrative writing in which the protagonist suffers
disaster after a serious and significant struggle, but faces his downfall in
such a way as to attain heroic stature (Pooley et al., 1968)
•
tragedy is a story of exceptional calamity leading to the death of a man in
high estate (Weller, 2001)
•
tragedies are tales of harshness and injustice. All of Shakespeare's
tragedies have a tragic hero, or 'protagonist' who is put into a situation of
conflict which he must resolve. A combination of bad luck and misjudgement
lead to the hero's death (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2004b)
•
they [tragedies] chart the downfall of a hero, whose own death leads to the
downfall of others…All of Shakespeare's tragic heroes have a flawed nature
or blind spot that leads to their downfall (Royal Shakespeare Company,
2004b).
Thus tragedy may be seen as the story of a noble hero with whom the audience must
identify. Because he is only human, the protagonist contributes to his fate as a result of his
own mistakes or failings. Faced with comparable circumstances we fear a similar fate for
ourselves. By the end of the play the tragic hero comes to some understanding of his error
and accepts responsibility for his doom. The realisation and acceptance of his fate brings
him back to the state of spiritual nobility he had at the beginning of the play.
As you read Hamlet, it is important for you to decide what his flaw(s) may or may not be.
Read your summary of the play. What does this summary indicate they may be? Research
and analyse what other critics have attributed Hamlet’s fate to. Student engagement in
problematic
knowledge may be demonstrated 5through participation in a debate, on these
GAT Unit
Curriculum K-12
© State of New South Wales through the
opinions.
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2006
Hamlet: A revenge tragedy
Task
Establishing prior knowledge
1 Write down your definition of revenge.
2 Compare it with other definitions in your group. Compose a definition which
includes the best ideas from each person’s research.
Using the Internet, library resources and class discussion, investigate key features of
revenge tragedy plays.
Gifted students may be further extended in this investigation by exploring the comparisons
between Shakespearean (Elizabethan) revenge tragedies, the Japanese Kabuki play
Kanadehon Chushingura and the Tokugawa revenge ethic (EDSITEment, 2002a).
Background information
Revenge tragedy is a genre of plays popular in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. One of
the earliest was The Spanish tragedy (1589) by Thomas Kyd (1558-1594).
“Revenge tragedy usually concerns an individual faced with the duty of revenge in
a society where the law is unreliable and within the control of the powerful and
protected.” (Board of Studies, 2003, p. 27).
Common features of revenge tragedies include:
•
ghosts
•
a hero's quest for vengeance
•
scenes of real or feigned insanity
•
scenes in graveyards, severed limbs, carnage and mutilation
•
a corpse-strewn stage
•
the restoration of order after chaos.
(Royal Shakespeare Company, 2004b)
GAT Unit
Curriculum K-12
6
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2006
HAMLET
Mini sagas
The mini saga is a recent invention that has become popular through competitions run by
the Telegraph newspaper and broadcast by the BBC. At the height of public interest, tens of
thousands of stories were submitted from every age group and walk of life.
What is a mini saga? The name is a deliberate irony because ‘saga’ is an old Norse word
for a historical story of the kind told in Norway and Iceland in the Middle Ages. Stories were
often long and complicated because they spanned the history of several generations. A mini
saga is precisely fifty words long; into that small space a story, not an anecdote, has to be
shoe-horned. The title is often crucial in directing the reader’s attention to the point of the
story, and so titles can be up to fifteen words long.
It is remarkable how little information seems to be needed for our imagination to go to work,
fill the gaps and make sense of what we are offered. Writers of mini sagas, in particular, rely
on the reader’s imagination to complete the story. A good mini saga stays in the mind long
after it has been read, leaving a curious sense of being complete yet suggesting a lot more.
Mini sagas can be spread out on the page either as ordinary prose or split into several lines,
like free-verse poems, to give a different effect.
Information available on the following sites was current on 21 September 2005:
Arthur’s seat: Mini saga competition,
http://arthursseat.blogs.com/arthurs_seat/2005/03/mini_saga_conte.html
How to write mini sagas: An easy guide
http://www.youngwriters.co.uk/mini_saga/how_to_write_mini_sagas.htm
Target English, Semester 3, 2002: 50 Word Mini Sagas,
http://users.aber.ac.uk/jpm/minisagas1.html
Write a mini saga, http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/magazine/magazine_mini_sagas.html
GAT Unit
Curriculum K-12
7
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2006
Hamlet as seen through his soliloquies
Look carefully at the five soliloquies studied in class and your written responses to each
one.
Consider:
•
what each one reveals about Hamlet’s personality
•
if he grows/develops over the course of the play and if so, how?
•
whether he is a likeable protagonist.
Task:
You are the director of a new stage or film production of the play. It is your first meeting with
the cast. In an informal discussion, explain to the cast what the audience learns about
Hamlet through his soliloquies (be specific). Choose one of the five, and indicate to the
actor playing Hamlet, how he should ‘bring it to life’. Again, be specific and refer to lines,
words etc.
The Royal Shakespeare web sites provide video interviews with directors and actors that
students may find useful in completing this task.
GAT Unit
Curriculum K-12
8
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2006
Hamlet’s interaction with others
Another way of gaining insight into Hamlet’s character is to examine his interactions with
others, e.g. what others say about him and what he says about them.
Working in small groups (3, 4 or 5):
•
read and discuss the extracts allocated to you in terms of what each reveals
about Hamlet’s character
•
record your findings in your book
•
present findings to the class as well as a ‘moved reading’ of one of the
extracts.
Hamlet and Gertrude
Hamlet and Ophelia
I:ii,
III:iv,
III:iv,
III: iv,
III: iv,
III: iv,
III:i,
III:ii,
II:i,
V:i,
lines 68 – 120
lines 8 – 22
lines 38 – 53
lines 88 – 107
lines 130 – 182
lines 182 – 202
lines 90 – 155
lines 99 – 135
lines 75 – 118
lines 209 – 260
Hamlet and Claudius
Hamlet and Horatio
II:ii,
III:i,
III:i,
III:iii,
IV:iii,
IV:vii,
V:ii,
I:ii,
lines 169 – 254
I:iv, lines 62 – 81
I:iv, lines 121 – 180
III:ii, lines 43 – 79
III:ii, lines 246 – 264
V:ii, lines 62 – 79
V:ii, lines 311 – 340
lines 1 – 18
lines 1 – 28
lines 156 – 169
lines 1 – 26
lines 16 – 65
lines 127 – 161
lines 291 – 306
Hamlet and Polonius
Hamlet and Laertes
I:iii,
II:ii,
II:ii,
III:i,
III:iv,
I:iii, lines 5 – 44
IV:v, lines 206 – 212
IV:vii, lines 127 – 147
V:i, lines 213 – 230
V:ii, lines 198 – 310
GAT Unit
Curriculum K-12
lines 101 – 135
lines 129 – 149
lines 170 – 211
lines 170 – 181
lines 31 – 33
9
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2006
HAMLET
CLASS/HOME ASSIGNMENT
Representing – Transforming – Writing
Task one
In a group, select one of the critical readings discussed in class. Devise a five-minute
version of Hamlet, making use of this critical viewpoint.
Task two
Using your class notes, personal impressions and feature article model, compose a feature
article for the Denmark Weekend Herald entitled ‘Who was the Prince of Denmark?’
GAT Unit
Curriculum K-12
10
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2006
References
Board of Studies NSW. (2003). English: Stage 6: Prescriptions: Areas of study electives and
texts, retrieved 21 September 2005, from
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/eng_stg6_prescrpt_040
7.pdf
EDSITEment. (2002a). Hamlet and the Elizabethan revenge ethic in text and film.
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=395
NSW Department of Education and Training. (2004). Policy and implementation strategies
for the education of gifted and talented students: Support package: Curriculum
differentiation. Sydney.
Passow, A. H. (1982). Differentiated curricula for the gifted and talented. Committee Report
to the National/State Leadership Training Institute on the Gifted and Talented.
Ventura Co., CA: Office of the Superintendent of Schools.
Pooley, R. C., Anderson, G. K., Farmer, P. & Thornton, H. (1968). England in literature.
Glenview, ILL: Scott, Foresman and Company.
RSC Royal Shakespeare Company. (2004a). Exploring Shakespeare: Hamlet and Macbeth,
retrieved 21 September 2005, from
http://www.rsc.org.uk/learning/hamletandmacbeth/keyidea/hamletkeyidea.htm
RSC Royal Shakespeare Company.(2004b). Hamlet, retrieved 21 September 2005, from
http://www.rsc.org.uk/hamlet/tragedy/tragedies.html
Weller, P. (2001). A. C. Bradley’s Shakespearean tragedy, retrieved 21 September 2005,
from http://www.clicknotes.com/bradley/welcome.html
Resources
Anderson, M. & Anderson, K. (2002). Composing & responding in English. South Yarra:
Macmillan.
The following is a very small sample of the online resources available on 21 September
2005:
Econnect Communication. (2002). Top tips for writing feature articles.
http://www.econnect.com.au/pdf/quicktips/writing_features.pdf
EDSITEment. (2002b). Hamlet meets Chushingura: Traditions of the revenge tragedy.
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=396
Feature articles. http://www.teachwriting.com/FeatureArticles.htm
GT world. (2005). http://gtworld.org/
Johnston, I. (2001). Introductory lecture on Shakespeare's Hamlet.
http://www.mala.bc.ca/%7Ejohnstoi/eng366/lectures/hamlet.htm
GAT Unit
Curriculum K-12
11
© State of New South Wales through the
NSW Department of Education and Training, 2006