English III Agenda: Week of April 28 through May 2
Monday, 4/28 and Tuesday, 4/29
IRLA: (Twenty minutes only!) Log on to a netbook and go to my site:
www.rcsdk12.org/east/tassey and navigate through “Useful Links” to the Hamlet Sparknotes.
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/
Your goal during independent reading today and tomorrow is to finish reading all of the
information available about the play, beginning with the section entitled “Context,” through
“Themes, Motifs and Symbols,” and the entire summary of the play (not the analysis). When
you get to the section of the summary that encompasses your assigned pages, begin reading the
text from the play alongside the summary. At that point you will probably want to access “No
Fear Shakespeare” on the site to help you completely understand the dialogue in your section.
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/hamlet/
Objectives—you will be able to:
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Answer basic questions about Shakespeare, his life and the era in which he wrote.
Understand and recount the plot of the play.
Identify the characters by name and function in the play.
Identify major motifs and themes in the play.
Interpret the actions of the major characters to form partial characterizations of them.
Form a complete, fluent understanding of the pages assigned to you in the context of the
entire play.
(If you cannot log on, you have a hard copy of the summary.)
For those of you who are done with the summaries, you may select a partner and practice
your sections of the play or begin reading the scene analyses or explore this fantastic site:
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/faq/hamletfaq.html. Those of you who cannot finish
the summaries of the scenes by Wednesday MUST work on these at home.
Work Period Monday and Tuesday: Our objective for today and tomorrow is to understand how
Shakespeare uses punctuation to help clarify meaning. We will use a selection from your
individually assigned pages during a punctuation workshop, which I will model for you first.
(Handout on how to use punctuation to read Shakespeare)
Wrap-up Each Day: What questions do you have about the play and how to read it so far? What
difficulties are you encountering?
Wednesday, 4/30
Today we will begin reading the entire play, from start to finish, with just a minimal amount of
time for discussion and interpretation. The analysis and discussion will take place before and
during our viewing of the film next week. At that point, our objectives will be far more
sophisticated and you will be given a choice of focus questions to use for a written critical
analysis of some aspect of the play. Among these focus questions are:
1. Is Hamlet really mad in this play, or is merely pretending to be mad? (Find lines that
support your answer.)
2. A foil is a character who is like the protagonist in some respects but who has contrasting
qualities that "reflect" or illuminate the traits of the main character. Who are Hamlet's
foils, and in what ways do their characters shed light on his?
3. Based on what you've seen in III.iv, do you think Gertrude knew about the murder of her
husband? (Find lines that support your answer.)
4. Conflict is essential to drama. Show that Hamlet presents both an outward and inward
conflict.
5. How important is the general setting of Denmark to the overall play? Is it integral or
backdrop?
6. Compare and contrast the characters of Hamlet and Horatio. How alike or dislike are
they?