Shakespeare in Your Classroom
It can be as simple as...
reader’s theatre
performing for a partner class
Or as elaborate as...
a full school production
Take Away Package
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Script for Hamlet
Intro lesson for Hamlet
Rubrics
Compliments & Insults
Idioms
Wiki address
http://ugdsblearningfair.wikispaces.com
Understanding
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Character
Plot
Themes
Setting
*Need to be understood before the script is read
or the play is acted.
Introducing the Play
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Hype it up!
Hook em!
Have props on hand
You don’t have to be an actor to do this... as
you will see.
Visual Timeline
Timeline – outlines main events in plot
Use tableaux to visually represent the plot and
reinforce understanding
Tableau – review and model key elements of
effective tableau for students (different levels,
focal point, facial expression, frozen)
Digital Timeline
Press Conference / Hot Seat
• “We hear that there is going to be a duel
tomorrow”
• Strange things have been going on at the
castle, the Press Secretary will be holding a
conference tomorrow to answer some of the
public’s questions
• Gertrude, King Claudius, Hamlet, Ophelia,
Polonius, Laertes
Press Conference / Hot Seat Characters
• Hot seat characters are interviewed in a press
conference environment
• Purpose: Discover the motivation of the
characters
• Improvise in role
• Rotate kids so that everyone has a chance to
participate
Press Conference / Hotseat Gallery
• Audience each take a role as a member of the press
• Each ‘press’ designs their own logo / name etc.
• Students think of 3 questions to ask each of the
characters
i.e., "Did you really love Ophelia?"
"How did you feel when you killed Polonius?"
• Teacher is mediator
• Culminating Task : Write a newspaper article about
what they learned during the press conference
Comic Strip Scenes
Epitaph Writing
• Examine Shakespeare’s epitaph
• the epitaph on William Shakespeare's tombstone says:
Good friend for Jesus sake forebear
Too dig the dust enclosed heare
Blessed by man spares her stones
And crust he moves my bones.
• Choose a character to write an epitaph for
Shakespearean Language - Idioms
Literal meaning
• Illustrate
• Prompt
– “I think this idiom means...”
Figurative meaning
• Illustrate
• Research to discover
meaning
• Explain in own words
• Use in a new sentence
Compliments and Insults
• Develop compliments and insults like
Shakespeare’s language
• Improvise a conversation between pairs
• “Primary Students Perform Shakespeare”
Writing Like Shakespeare
• Thee, thy, thine, thou, shall and art lesson
Modern:
Your eyes are like stars, your skin is like porcelain, and I will love you
forever. If you are with me, then my rod and staff will comfort me.
Translation:
Thine eyes are like stars, thy skin is like porcelain and I will love thee
forever. If thou art with me, then my rod and my staff shall comfort
me.
• Writing letters in role to pen pals
• Writing letters in role to another character
• Writing letters of advice (column)
Top 10 Shook up Shakespeare
• Hamlet & The Lion King
• Romeo and Juliet & West Side Story
• Taming of the Shrew & 10 Things I hate about
you & Kiss Me Kate
• O & Othello
• Hamlet & Ashboy
• Twelfth Night & She’s the Man
Other Activities
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Scrapbook – portfolios
Research history of Shakespeare’s time
Song writing (‘Oor Hamlet)
Songs to match the scenes
Words that are still used today, words that
may have been created from his play
Mental Imagery - Visualization
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Setting
Mood
Preparing to understand script
“Tapping in” activity
Text Features of a Script
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Character :
Italics
Parentheses (stage directions)
Scene summaries
Teaching the Script
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Read it first to assist with pronunciation
Vocabulary discussions
Reader’s theatre slant
Stop and dissect the script as you go
Review summary
Scene by scene – read first, put script down,
improvise scene
Extensions
• Create a movie poster
• Create a trailer
• Blog in character – Such Tweet Sorrow
(twitter)
• Add in ‘deleted scenes’ using ideas from off
stage scenes (i.e., Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
are dead)
How Can You Perform?
• Each student has one specific role, or
• Each role has many students playing it, or
• ½ and ½ splitting roles
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Perform for your own class, or
Perform for other classes in school, or
Perform for another class doing the same play, or
Large school production (Rafe Esquith)
Links and Online Resources
• In Search of Shakespeare
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Shakespeare in the Elementary Classroom
The Hobart Shakespeareans
Internet Shakespeare Editions
Open Source Shakespeare
Such Tweet Sorrow – an experiment in Shakespeare and Twitter
Lois Burdett – author of Shakespeare Can Be Fun! Scripts for kids
(Mabeth for kids, Hamlet for kids, A MND for kids etc.)
• Folger Shakespeare Library – Online Resources for teachers
• Primary School Students put Shakespeare on Screen – news article
from the London Times – talks about procedure and production
Quick Tips
Shakespeare for Elementary Students
Be fearless! Your kids are.
Elementary school students are not yet worried about what they don't know. Interest
them in Shakespeare now, before they become convinced that reading him is "hard."
Start with the Stories.
Shakespeare adaptations for children have been around almost as long as Shakespeare's
plays. Read these stories aloud to your students or provide them with copies for
individual reading. Many of these books have gorgeous illustrations.
Shakespeare inspires.
Read Shakespeare's stories to children and watch their imaginations take off. Provide
them with plenty of art supplies and see where their imaginations take them.
Play with the language.
Shakespeare wrote plays, not novels, and his language is full of short passages that are
fun to act out or play with. Many of Shakespeare's plays contained songs - start with
those.
Start small.
You don't need to study an entire play with your students. Begin with a particularly
exciting scene-one with lots of action.
Be prepared.
The more comfortable you are with the material, the more comfortable the students will
be. But don't worry if you are not a Shakespeare scholar. You and your students can
discover the works together.
Connect it to your students' lives.
Begin a study of a Shakespeare play with a few improvisational activities. Ask the
students, "How would you feel if... you woke up as a donkey... you liked a boy/girl whose
parents fought with your parents... you found yourself shipwrecked on a strange island...
etc.?"
Keep it moving.
At the elementary level, it's important to keep the learning active. Make sure students
are up on their feet speaking Shakespeare's words and acting out his scenes.
Create a safe environment for performance.
When your kids are ready to perform scenes, go over audience etiquette. Ask students
what makes a good audience (listening, applauding after a performance, being respectful
of actors, etc.).
Stress the qualities of a good actor.
Tell students that they need to be seen and heard when on stage.
Character Gauntlet