Introducing Shakespeare (Ms. L-P)

So, I tried an activity from Folger’s Shakespeare website on Monday and Tuesday in order to meet my objective for the week: SWBAT read and annotate Shakespearean language in order to summarize it. This week we were starting Othello, but I wanted my students to practice finding meaning in Shakespeare’s language even when they struggled with it. So, here is the activity they did in groups with sonnets 40, 57, 61, 87 :

Activity Description:

1) Read the Shakespearean sonnet that your group has been assigned by reading one line at a time out loud round-robin style (each person takes a turn and it goes around the group). As you read, point out any words that are unclear to you; as a group, figure out what the sonnet is attempting to say about either JEALOUSY or PASSION.

2) Present your sonnet to the class as a series of at least 3 tableaus (these are frozen images in which the people use their bodies to wordlessly act out the imagery of the sonnet). Students should be sure to choose images that reflect the sonnet's attitude toward passion or jealousy. While your group is acting out the tableaus one student will read the sonnet. Everyone must participate! Make sure to rehearse your tableau before presenting!

In one class, this went rather well – the groups followed directions by reading it aloud and then going back to find specific lines that they did understand, or at least understood part of. In this class I heard students asking other students what they thought something meant, and trying out ideas with each other in an attempt to find places that talked about Jealously or Passion. In the other class it was pretty disastrous, mostly because students refused to get into their randomly assigned groups and when they were in their group they wanted to jump right to step 2.

If I were to do this again, I would

a) Make sure to do it in one period only – we lost some serious momentum on the second day.

b) Give more instructions on reading through the sonnet once and then, independently, going back and highlighting parts that you could feel emotions in the words, and then explaining them independently in the margins. This could have been done before the students go into groups.

Keeping in mind that my point was to familiarize them with the language and to build some confidence, I would be fine if the students don’t end up with a super deep understanding of the sonnet. But I also liked this activity because I saw how it could be tweaked in different ways.