Hamlet: A Play of Questions
An Integrated Unit for English 12
7 Weeks
Peter Hurley
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents _____________________________________________________________ 2
Unit Overview ________________________________________________________________ 3
Unit Objectives _______________________________________________________________ 4
Materials____________________________________________________________________ 6
Unit Outline__________________________________________________________________ 8
Student Calendar ____________________________________________________________ 11
Content Outline _____________________________________________________________ 13
Assessment and Evaluation Strategies/Requirements _______________________________ 14
Teaching Writing ____________________________________________________________ 15
Using Technology to Teach _____________________________________________________ 16
Multidisciplinary Approaches __________________________________________________ 17
Teaching for Diversity _________________________________________________________ 18
Reflection __________________________________________________________________ 19
Student Learning Plans _______________________________________________________ 22
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Unit Overview
This unit is designed for standard-level, English 12 students to work with Hamlet over a 7
week period. Many consider this play to be Shakespeare’s greatest work. Centuries of
scholarship have addressed it, and there it has been performed on the stage and screen
countless times. Despite the tremendous attentions this play has received, the questions the
play raises remain unanswered. Is Hamlet crazy? Is it ever appropriate to kill another person or
oneself? How does duty to one’s government family, or self influence a person’s decision
making? These are only a few of the questions that pervade the play, and they are the questions
that have drawn readers and theatergoers to this play for centuries. As an introduction to the
play, students will attempt to answer these questions and others in a dialogue continuum. We
will continue to return to these questions as the essential themes of the play and after working
through the play, engaging in various in-class reading strategies, students will reconsider these
questions. The unit will introduce the cultural context from which Shakespeare devised this
“play of questions,” and show how many of these questions are still pertinent. In this way, the
unit will show the essential power of Shakespeare to remain relevant across cultural borders.
There is a huge range of ability within these classes; there are some students who could
succeed in AP classes and there are others who have struggled to pass standard-level classes;
therefore, there will be many opportunities for students to realize assignments in different
ways, depending upon their unique ability level. A major assessment will be a creative project,
which they will complete in groups of two or three students. While they will submit an abstract
describing their project, this is a very open-ended assignment, giving them the freedom to
address the material in a way that interests them. Throughout the unit, I will model several
project ideas. Because this is not an advanced class, and the language of the text is very
difficult, all of the reading will be done in class however, students will read Act summaries in
preparation for in-class readings.
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Unit Objectives
12.1 The student will make a 5 to 10 minute formal oral presentation.
12.2 The student will evaluate formal presentations.
As a student-centered classroom, students will play a key role in the delivery of content
and assessment of the delivery. In addition to formal presentations, students will, every class,
orally present or support their own ideas in short conversational presentations. This is crucial to
maintaining a collaborative community of learners. As we work with the play, students will:
 Collaborate to organize and present an Act summary as part of the test review
 Assess student presentations
 Collaborate to organize and present formal oral presentation based on creative project
12.3) The student will read and analyze the development of British literature and literature of
other cultures.
In terms of the development of the literature in both the English language and of all the
world, there are few works that have had a greater impact than Hamlet. It is arguably the
greatest work of the greatest dramatist of all time, due in large part to its ability to speak to
humanity across various cultural contexts. In reading and analyzing Shakespeare's tour de force,
students will:
 Understand and contextualize Shakespearean tragedy within the Elizabethan social and
political culture.
 Explore how Hamlet is a “play of questions”
 Read and analyze Hamlet
 Use KWL strategies to activate prior knowledge, make predictions, further their
understanding of Hamlet.
12.4 The student will read and analyze a variety of informational materials, including
electronic resources.
12.5 The student will read and critique a variety of poetry.
There are countless works that have developed, knowingly or unknowingly, with the
influence of Hamlet. For centuries, scholars have made their careers with new and poignant
analyses of this play. Filmmakers and artists have adapted it in endless ways. Shakespeare’s
pervasive presence in Western culture is testament to his artistic power. As we work with the
text, students will:
 Compare and contrast critical analysis over the centuries since the play was written.
 Compare and contrast film adaptations of the text.
 Compare and contrast visual representations (paintings, film, cartoons, poetry) of the
text.
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12.6) The student will read and critique dramatic selections from a variety of authors.
Shakespeare was a dramatist. His works were meant to be performed, not read. Whenever
possible, the instruction will require students to recognize the theatrical nature of the text.
Students will:
 Be able to identify the traditional forms and structures of the Shakespearean tragedy
and its relation to classical and medieval tragedies.
 Rewrite scenes and perform them for the class.
 Perform dramatic readings of the original language.
12.7 The student will develop expository and informational writings.
Daily journal writing will be an integral component of the unit. Each day, students will be
asked to reflect upon what they have learned in the text and explore ideas that we will cover in
the future readings and other explorations of the text. These journal prompts will often ask
them to bring the themes and issues from the text into their own lives, showing them the
universality of the play. There will also be a major time-writing activity towards the end of the
unit in which students will describe how their perspective has been affected by the play.
Students will:



Work with various writing modes, taking different audiences into account.
Develop an authorial style, allowing their own unique voice to shine in their responses.
Practice and perfect their mechanical skills.
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Materials
TEACHER RESOURCES
Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: the Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead, 1999.
Shakespeare, William, Ann Thompson, and Neil Taylor. Hamlet. London: Arden Shakespeare,
2006.
Shakespeare, William, and Sylvan Barnet. The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark with New
and Updated Critical Essays and a Revised Bibliography. New York: Signet Classic, 1998.
Milner, Joseph O'Beirne, and Lucy Floyd Morcock Milner. Bridging English. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
www.prezi.com
Inspiration graphic organizer software
STUDENT RESOURCES
Bacon, Francis. “On Revenge” 1625.
Burdett, Lois, and William Shakespeare. Hamlet for Kids. Toronto: Firefly, 2000.
Eliot, T. S. "Hamlet and His Problems." The Sacred Wood; Essays on Poetry and Criticism.
London: Methuen, 1964. Print.
Fforde, Jasper. Something Rotten. New York: Penguin, 2005.
Hamlet. Dir. Franco Zeffirelli. Perf. Mel Gibson. Warner Bros., 1990.
Hamlet. Dir. Michael Almereyda. Perf. Ethan Hawke. Miramax Films, 2000.
Hamlet: The Royal Shakespeare Company Production. Dir. Greg Doran. Perf. David Tennant,
Patrick Stewart. The Royal Shakespeare Company, 2009. Online.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Dir. Tom Stoppard. By Tom Stoppard. A Cinecom
Entertainment Group Release, 1990. DVD.
Shakespeare, William, and Sylvan Barnet. The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark with New
and Updated Critical Essays and a Revised Bibliography. New York: Signet Classic, 1998.
The Lion King. By Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff. Buena Vista Pictures, 1994. DVD.
www.edline.net; each student has access to this site, on which I will post assignments and
grades. It is also a useful tool for communicating with parents.
Journals (each student will maintain a journal in a spiral-bound notebook)
“Stories of Revenge” articles
Unit Organizer (includes instructional objectives, assignments, overview of the unit, and an
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attached student schedule)
“Student Dramatic Readings” sign-up sheet
Hamlet, No Fear Shakespeare
Shakespeare Lynch podcast performance of the text
TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES
www.webenglishteacher.com
 Teachers have uploaded ideas for several creative projects to assess student-learning.
There are some useful activities that I may incorporate into my own lessons.
www.edline.net
 Each student has access to this site, on which I will post assignments and grades. It is
also a useful tool for communicating with parents.
www.shakespearehelp.com
 This website has compiled a huge array of useful links to Youtube.com videos that I will
cite in the student resources.
www.pleasval.k12.ia.us/highschool/teachers/larewe/NEH Hamlet/index.htm
 Created by teachers at the National Endowment of the Humanities, this site has several
compilations of interdisciplinary materials that I have cited in the student resources
above.
www.youtube.com
 There are many clips from various Shakespeare productions that I may use to address
different adaptations of Hamlet.
www.prezi.com
 This is a great website for designing interesting and engaging presentations. Students
will enjoy the attractive animation and it will give them something different than
Powerpoint.
http://domo.goanimate.com/create
 This is a digital animation platform that will be provided to students as a creative project
opportunity. This is a tool that I will model for them in describing the staging of Act I,
scene i.
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Unit Outline
 Day One (2/21, 2/22)
 Begin KWL (15 mins)
 Moral Absolutes Activity (25 mins)
 Shakespeare in the Classroom film (50 mins)
 *Assignment: Moral Absolutes writing activity due next class
 Day Two (2/23, 2/24)
 Journal—Stories of Revenge (20 mins)
 Syllabus review and Unit overview (20 mins)
 “Play of Questions” Prezi (30 mins)
 “Hamlet in Quotations” (20 mins)
 Shakespeare lives on in his quotations
 *Assignment: read Act I summary and complete reading guide
 Day Three (2/25, 2/28)
 Journals (20 mins)
 Act I Vocab. Log (10 mins)
 Small-group Act I questions (20 mins)
 Report to whole class (10 mins)
 Domo animation of Act I, scene i (10 mins)
 Interrupted reading/discussion of Act 1 using podcast (20 mins)
 Day Four (3/1, 3/2)
 Creative Project group work (20 mins)
 Complete report to whole class (10 mins)
 Student Dramatic Readings (10 mins)
 Interrupted reading/discussion scenes (50 mins)
 *Assignment: read Act II summary
 Day Five (3/3, 3/4)
 Journals (20 mins)
 Act II Vocab. Log (10 mins)
 Something Rotten excerpt and discussion (30 mins)
 Interrupted reading/discussion notes of selected scenes (40 mins)
 **Creative Project abstract due next class
 Day Six (3/7, 3/8)
 Journals (20 mins)
 Interrupted reading/discussion notes of selected scenes (30 mins)
 Hamlet Children’s Book (30 mins)
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 **Reading Quiz on Acts I-II next class
 Day Seven (3/9, 3/10)
 Journals (20 mins)
 Reading Quiz, Acts I-II (30 mins)
 Act III Vocab. Log (10 mins)
 Student Dramatic Readings (30 mins)
 *Assignment: read Act III summary
 Day Eight (3/11, 3/14)
 Journals—The Simpsons’ Hamlet (25 mins)
 Interrupted reading/discussion (30 mins)
 “To be or not to be” film versions Venn diagram activity (35 mins)
 Day Nine (3/15, 3/16)
 Journals (20 mins)
 Act III questions (30 mins)
 Interrupted reading/discussion of Act III (40 mins)
 *Will be in computer lab next class working on creative projects
 *Assignment: read Act IV summary
 Day Ten (3/17, 3/18)
 Journals (20 mins)
 Act IV Vocab. Log (10 mins)
 Creative Project group work (60 mins)
 Day Eleven (3/21, 3/22)
 Journals (20 mins)
 Small-group Act IV questions (20 mins)
 Whole-class review of questions (10 mins)
 Interrupted reading/discussion notes with RSC film (40 mins)
 ***Reading Quiz on Acts III-IV next class
 Day Twelve (3/23, 3/24)
 Reading Quiz on Acts III-IV (30 mins)
 Act V reading guide (30 mins)
 Interrupted Reading/Discussion with RSC film (30 mins)
 ***Assignment: Journals and KWL due next class.
 Day Thirteen (3/25, 3/28)
 Journals (20 mins)
 Interrupted reading/discussion notes with RSC film (50 mins)
 KWL Completion/Overview
 **Assignment: bring your moral absolutes writing activity to class next time!
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 Day Fourteen (3/29, 3/30)
 Moral Absolutes Timed Writing (30 mins)
 Exam Review (60 mins)
 Day Fifteen (3/31, 4/1)
 Exam (90 mins)
 Objective Multiple Choice/Quotation Short Answer (60 min)
 Essay (30 min)
 Day Sixteen (4/11, 4/12)
 Creative Projects presented (90 mins)
 Day Seventeen (4/13, 4/14)
 Creative Projects presented (90 mins)
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Student Calendar
Hamlet Unit Calendar
Class Number/Date
Instructional Focus
 Day 1
 1A—2/21
 1B—2/22
 Introduction to Shakespeare
and Hamlet
 Day 2
 1A—2/23
 1B—2/24
 Introduction (continued)
 Unit Overview
 “Play of Questions”
Presentation
 Day 3
 1A—2/25
 1B—2/28
 Day 4
 1A—3/1
 1B—3/2
 Day 5
 1A—3/3
 1B—3/4
 Day 6
 1A—3/7
 1B—3/8
 Day 7
 1A—3/9
 1B—3/10
 Day 8
 1A—3/11
 1B—3/14
 Day 9
 1A—3/15
 1B—3/16
 Day 10
 1A—3/17
 1B—3/18
 Day 11
 1A—3/21
 1B—3/22
 Vocab. Log #1
 Act I reading and discussion
Assignments and
Readings Due
Moral Absolutes writing activity
due
Read Act I summary
 Creative Project group work
 Act I reading and discussion
continued
 Vocab Log #2
 Act II reading and discussion
 Dramatic Performances
 Act II reading and discussion
continued
 Reading Quiz #1
 Dramatic Performances
 Vocab Log #3
 Act III reading and discussion
 Film adaptations
 Act III reading and discussion
continued
 Vocab Log #4
 Creative Project Group Work
 ***Class will meet in
computer lab.
 Act IV reading and discussion
Read Act II summary
Creative Project abstract due
Reading Quiz #1
Read Act III summary
Read Act IV summary
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 Day 12
 1A—3/23
 1B—3/24
 Day 13
 1A—3/25
 1B—3/28
 Day 14
 1A—3/29
 1B—3/30
 Day 15
 1A—3/31
 1B—4/1
 SPRING BREAK
 Day 16
 1A—4/11
 1B—4/12
 Day 17
 1A—4/13
 1B—4/14
 Reading Quiz #2
 Act V (film)
 Act V reading and discussion
Reading Quiz #2
Journal Notebooks and KWL Due
 Timed Writing
 Exam Review
 Hamlet Test
 SPRING BREAK
 Creative Project
Presentations (Day 1)
 Creative Project
Presentations (Day 2)
Hamlet Test
 SPRING BREAK
Creative Projects Due
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Content Outline
Shakespeare’s World
 Political unrest in the waning years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign
 Honor culture
 Intended audience
 Staging (The Globe, Elizabethan/Jacobean court)
 The Chamberlains’s Men
 Renaissance
 Elizabethan Humanism
Themes and Ideas
 Unanswerable questions creating thematic ambiguity
 Identity
 Depiction of women
 Insanity
 Duty (to family, to honor culture)
 Death
 Misogyny (Freudian Oedipal Complex)
 Revenge/Justice
 Playing/theatricality
 Modernization of Shakespeare (film, literature, art, drama)
Influential Persons
 Harold Bloom
 Sigmund Freud
 Francis Bacon
 Seneca the Younger
Other Essential Terms and Knowledge
 Senecan revenge play
 Shakespearean tragedy
 Tragic hero
 Tragic flaw
 Fool/Clown
 Blank verse
 Soliloquy
 Aside
 Monologue
 Motif
 Pun
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Assessment and Evaluation Strategies/Requirements
Before beginning a unit on this massive text, I have to know where my students are.
Hamlet is complex and sophisticated text, but it is also incredibly prevalent in Western culture;
students may enter my classroom with significant prior knowledge of the play. I have to know
what students already know if I am going to know where to take the unit. On the first day of the
unit, I will begin with a KWL. The open-ended questions in this assessment strategy allow me to
see the specific content knowledge students enter the unit with, but they also allow me to see
student interests. The activity becomes a qualitative study of my classroom. Another element
of this qualitative study is a moral absolutes activity in which students are confronted with
certain moral absolutes, stating whether or not they agree or disagree. Then, they select one of
the absolutes and expound upon their “agree” or “disagree” in a written response. This
assignment shows the students’ level of moral reasoning. Without these assessments, I would
blindly develop my instruction and assessment.
However, once I know where my students are, I have to take them somewhere. There
are three, end-of-unit assessments that assess what my students have learned during the unit.
The first is a timed-writing assignment; students reflect upon the moral absolutes writing
assignment they completed on the first day of the unit. As students read, view, and perform
Hamlet, they will encounter challenges and affirmations of their perspective. This writing
assignment is designed to see if they can reflect upon these reading experiences and determine
whether or not their perspective has changed. This assignment aligns with SOL 12.3 and 7,
asking students to be close readers and to apply those readings to expository writings. A second
end-of-unit assessment is a unit test. In short answer questions, students will have to recognize
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the speaker and significance of certain quotations, and through multiple choice questions
students will have to recall classroom reading and discussions. This aligns with SOL 12.3, 4, 5,
and 6. There will also be an essay section, in which students have to unpack two of the five
unanswerable questions of the play. This assessment aligns with SOL 12.3, 5, and 7. The third
end-of-unit assessment will be a creative project. This project asks students to extend the text
in a way similar to the authors, musician, filmmakers and artists we’ve seen during the unit.
Because of the universal questions Hamlet raises and leaves unanswered, it has become
infinitely adaptable. The students are to collaborate to create a new text (visual, auditory, or
some combination of both). A 5-10 minute presentation will be required. This assessment
aligns with SOL 12.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
During the unit, there will be several assessments of student learning. Students will
maintain a journal in which they will respond to daily warm-up activities. These will be graded
for completion; however, I will randomly choose three to grade for content. This assessment
aligns with SOL 12.7 and, depending upon the journal, 12.3, 4, 5, and 6. There will be two
reading quizzes, assessing students’ reading comprehension of Acts I-IV (Act V will be assessed
on the unit test). Once again, in short answer questions students will have to recognize the
speaker and significance of certain quotations, and through multiple choice questions students
will have to recall classroom reading and discussions. There will also be daily classwork
assessments, aligning with various SOL objectives and certain unit objectives.
Teaching Writing
Each class will begin with a journal-writing activity. Some of these journal writing
activities will ask students to address certain thematic issues in the text, considering them in
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light of a contemporary cultural context. Others will be light-hearted in nature, simply
improving the students’ writing fluency and engaging them in the community of learners. At
the beginning of the unit, I will assign a writing activity which will serve as a diagnostic essay. I
will not grade it for mechanical and stylistic errors, but I will correct these errors and write notes
to the student letting them know where they struggle. If I notice many students with the same
issue, I will address it with whole-class instruction. They are seniors, so I will address
mechanical issues as needed. In my notes, I will provide the student with a list of things they
should work on throughout the unit. At the end of the unit, when I assign the timed-writing
activity, I will assess the development of their writing, assessing their content, style and
mechanics. For their creative project, they are required to submit an abstract and a written
description of their final project. I will assess the final writing project based on mechanics, style,
and content.
Using Technology to Teach
At the outset of the unit, I show my students that I am committed to implementing
technology in my classroom. Technology offers educational resources and discussion tools that
were never available in past classrooms. If a brainstorm entails students calling out ideas and
the teacher writing them on the board, polleverywhere.com is a brain-tornado. It is a free,
online polling forum. I can set up limited response or open-text polls and project them onto the
screen at the front of the room. Using a simple phone number and poll code, students submit
their responses. With polleverywhere.com, I can involve every student in my classroom
instantly. They will feel they are getting away with murder as they pull out their cell phones,
completely forgetting that they are taking part in a brainstorming activity. For students who are
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not comfortable speaking-up in class, it encourages them to share their ideas without feeling
uncomfortable.
With the plethora of resources on the internet, it is easy to design interdisciplinary
lessons. I can find stories of revenge by simply typing “revenge” into Google News. I can find
multiple renditions of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy with a quick Youtube.com search.
A Google image search can unveil countless cartoons and paintings based on Hamlet. ITunes
has an enormous selection of podcast productions of Hamlet for free; as students work with the
difficult language, professionally developed podcasts are an invaluable asset in the classroom.
Another source of professional productions is pbs.org, where I found the complete Royal
Shakespeare Company’s production of Hamlet, starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart.
Technology provides a limitless source of enrichment for the classroom, and I have used all of
the tools listed here to enrich the instruction in my classroom.
Multidisciplinary Approaches
Because Shakespeare’s tour de force has influenced so much of our culture over the past
few centuries, there are numerous interdisciplinary strategies found in any study of Hamlet.
The unanswerable questions discussed in my unit have been explored by painters, filmmakers,
poets, and cartoonists. As discussed in other sections, these can be used as what George
Hillocks calls “gateway activities” (quoted in Milner and Milner, 123) to get into Hamlet. While
the language of Hamlet can be defeating, implementing any of these texts will allow students to
“enter” the more challenging text. In addition to adaptations, the study of Hamlet lends to a
study of politics: when the play opens, the essential conflict is between Denmark and Norway,
and many see Hamlet’s conflict with Claudius as a parallel of society’s conflict with a tyrannical
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leader. History also plays a pivotal role in the study of Hamlet; Shakespeare wrote the play
during a tumultuous time in British history—with the impending death of Queen Elizabeth, the
future of the throne remained unclear. Psychology is another discipline which has affected the
study of Hamlet. Whether or not Hamlet has what Freud describes as an “Oedipus complex” is
an evocative question and will definitely spark the interest of students who are bored by the
complex language.
Teaching for Diversity
My unit includes many opportunities for people of various intelligences to engage the
content. Through layered instruction, students are able to engage the material on their own, in
their own unique way, then in small groups, and finally in teacher- or student-led whole-class
instruction. This layered approach allows the organic exchange of ideas between students.
Another way to allow students of varying interests and background to appreciate the text is
through an interdisciplinary approach. As discussed in the previous section, there are many
different disciplines that influence and have been influenced by the study of Hamlet.
Implementing any of these interdisciplinary approaches will allow for someone of a different
intelligence to engage the content. For instance, someone with interpersonal intelligence may
be intrigued by the political side to Hamlet, while someone with intrapersonal intelligence may
wish to focus on the psychological analysis of character in Hamlet.
Shakespeare’s depiction of women is also an element of diversity that I will address in
my unit. His depiction of the “frailty” of women in Gertrude and Ophelia is striking and should
lead to an interesting discussion of gender: Could there ever be a female Hamlet? Why is it that
the only empathetic, sane, powerful women in Shakespeare are cross-dressers? This would
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allow every student in the classroom to appreciate an element of diversity via a textual analysis
of Hamlet.
There is only one student with an IEP in my classes. He has a reading comprehension
deficiency. For this deficiency, he receives several adaptations. Excluding preferential seating, all
of his adaptations are “when requested by the student.” When he asks for them, he receives a
copy of class notes, small group testing (with a paraeducator), and extra time on assignments.
He receives no modifications and is still on-track for an Advanced Studies Diploma, so he is still a
high-achieving student, despite his deficiency.
Reflection
It seems like ages ago when I sat down with Mr. Ellis to discuss the major text for my
unit. When I learned that I would be working with Hamlet, I wasn’t quite sure what to think. I
knew that it was incredibly complex, providing an infinite source of teachable content
knowledge, but I had no idea where to begin. How am I, as a novice teacher, supposed to
whittle-down two centuries of scholarship to a 7-week unit? It was a daunting task, but with
the help of Mr. Ellis, I soon developed an overarching critical perspective from which I could
develop my unit: “a play of questions.”
Slowly, I began amassing objectives that I wanted to achieve, beginning with the SOL
objectives and expanding those to include my unit objectives. As I developed objectives, I
would simultaneously develop my content outline. It became a wonderfully recursive process.
As Dr. Moore has described in our methods course, culminating projects such as these do not
develop linearly. While the project was initially designed to have us turn in drafts of various
elements of our unit throughout the semester, this would not have been conducive to my
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process. I would slowly add to my materials, objectives, and content outline as my planning
progressed.
I developed many of the materials used in my unit with the help of Mr. Ellis and Dr.
Moore. Dr. Moore provided the Ten-Minute Hamlet, which is a wonderful introductory tool to
introduce students to the plot and the idea that Shakespeare lives on in his quotations. Dr.
Moore’s instruction in the methods and Literature for Adolescents courses was also essential. I
found myself constantly searching for various “gateway activities” to facilitate student learning.
His emphasis on visual literacy also made an impact on my planning; a young adult novel,
children’s book, and several visual texts (paintings and cartoons) made their way into my unit.
Mr. Ellis provided the Act summaries and helped develop the pacing of the unit. For instance,
Mr. Ellis was the first to tell me that I should plan on doing all of the reading in class, and that it
should take approximately two periods per act. These were crucial pieces of information as I
began to plan my unit. My peers were integral in the planning process. For instance, as I was
developing my moral absolute dialogue continuum, I consulted Sara Balsamo before selecting
the precise wording for each item. Morganne Tinsley proved to be a useful resource as I
planned to implement the Ten-Minute Hamlet, because she had used in a lesson earlier this
semester. Another tool that was essential in my planning was our textbook, Bridging English. It
provided several research-based activities for drama and Shakespeare lessons. I found my
“Human Slideshows” and children’s book activities in Bridging English.
As we have designed lessons in for our various practica experiences, we have learned the
importance of detailed planning. We learned that we had to have every second of our lessons
outlined if we are to provide the most fruitful educational experience for our students. In
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developing this unit, I’ve learned the grand scale that I have to apply those skills. It is a
tremendous amount of work. I never thought that I would be doing more work outside than
inside the classroom. Providing engaging classroom experiences is hard work. In this process, I
have learned that I need to plan early and often. Also, being an effective collaborator is a crucial
element of successful instruction. Effective collaborating means more than working to teach
the same group of students; it means contributing to each other’s repertoire of educational
knowledge and skills. Some of my favorite times in our methods course are when we share our
practicum experiences. We can only spend so much time in the classroom, and we are limited
to one classroom; however, when we return to the methods course, each of us brings our
experiences with us, contributing to the collective experience of the whole class. Collaborating
is a way to experience and learn exponentially more.
It is good that I have realized the ways I need to learn, because there is so much more I
need to experience and understand. Firstly, I need to develop more efficient planning skills.
This is an incredibly long and detailed process; I can’t imagine doing it while also teaching
classes; however, it is a skill that I need to develop. Secondly, I need to develop and
understanding of assessments, particularly open-ended, creative projects. How do I assess
assignments that allow so much freedom? I realize that we will probably cover this in our
assessment course, but it is something that troubles me. In this unit I included a creative
project, because, philosophically speaking, I believe in allowing students to engage the content
in a way that interests them. But I’m unsure how to practically implement this idea. I want to
improve my ability to design open-ended projects that demonstrate specific knowledge and skill
sets.
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Student Learning Plans