Items tagged "Shakespeare"
3 Courses, 4 Units, 12 Lesson Plans, and 13 Resources tagged "Shakespeare" for Drama Teachers.
Courses
PD COURSE
Friendly Shakespeare
by Todd Espeland
Friendly Shakespeare teaches a simple and effective method of script analysis for Shakespeare. It uses punctuation and keywords in the text to help students understand the characters' needs, make specific acting choices, and get them on their feet immediately.
This is not dry, sitting in a classroom discussion. It’s physicalizing the text, focusing on the character’s needs and tactics (something every drama student should know full well) and bringing Shakespeare to life.
At the end of the class you will be able to demystify Shakespeare's text and understand how to help your actors make clear, active and emotionally connected choices in Shakespeare's plays.
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PD COURSE
Shakespeare's Toolkit
by Todd Espeland
Todd Espeland has the experience to know that having more tools in your toolbox makes you a better actor. This is especially important when teaching students how to approach Shakespeare. They need help breaking through the language barrier and into the character’s needs and into the character’s thoughts.
The tools that you’ll receive in this course will do just that. The course looks at scansion as a tool for breaking down Shakespeare’s verse, the importance of end of lines, and caesura. Caesura is an inner-line pause which is a lot of fun to play with and really, helps us provide insight to the character’s thoughts and into their needs.
The course provides numerous examples and handouts, and culminates in a performance assignment to use with your students.
PD COURSE
Practical Approaches to Shakespeare in the Drama Classroom
by Julie Hartley
Shakespeare is one of the greatest resources a drama teacher can have: scenes packed with action; opportunities to explore comedy and physical theatre; rich themes and characters to act as springboards for devised theatre; the chance to work with our language at its finest and – most importantly – ideas that relate directly to the experiences and preoccupations of students.
Yet Shakespeare isn’t easy. The language can seem dense, and finding a way in can be tough – especially for drama teachers who have not themselves studied Shakespeare. That’s the goal of this course – to help teachers find a way in.
This course presents teachers with as many ways in to the exploration of Shakespeare as possible. Action scenes, themes, characters, different theatre styles, and devised theatre projects. Students will be armed with the tools they need to begin individually exploring monologues, or working together on scenes.
Units
UNIT
Shakespeare Performance
by Anna Porter
In this unit by Anna Porter, students are introduced to the works of Shakespeare and explore how to bring a character to life in a monologue performance. Students are also introduced to the tools to help them unlock meaning in Shakespeare’s text. Through this eleven lesson series, students will participate in class discussions, activities and performance. Assessment tools include informal assessment, submission of textual analysis work and a final performance.
UNIT
Unlocking Shakespeare's Text
by Anna Porter
Shakespeare’s text holds valuable tools that students can use to unlock and understand meaning. In this unit by Anna Porter, students explore how to use the tools of research, context, textual analysis, imagery and punctuation to help them unlock meaning in Shakespeare’s text. This unit is created for an Intermediate to Advanced drama class with a basic background in plot structure and acting technique.
Through this five lesson series, students will use journals, participate in class discussions, activities and performance to explore the tools used to unlock a text. Assessment tools include informal assessment as well as a final group presentation and performance.
UNIT
Performing Shakespeare
by Matt Webster
In this unit, students are introduced to a series of lesson plans that explore non-traditional approaches to performing the works of William Shakespeare. By the end of the unit students will be exposed to a unique set of tools they can utilize as the foundations for analyzing, staging and performing a scene from Shakespeare’s canon. Students will then rehearse and perform a two-person Shakespearean scene.
UNIT
A Midsummer Night's Dream
by Drama Teacher Academy
Shakespeare is sometimes avoided in the drama classroom because not only do the students not want to take on the language difficulties but neither do the teachers. Monologue and scenework becomes more challenging and a lot of times, students falter in their blocking action and character development because they are so challenged. How do we give students the opportunity to rehearse and present Shakespearean text as they would modern text?
In this play study unit, students will read a Shakespeare play while learning specific tools and techniques in order to stage text from that play. And more often than not, these techniques are ones that they have already used with other plays. It’s all about reframing Shakespeare so that students enjoy the experience of bringing the characters and stories to life.
Lesson Plans
LESSON PLAN
Shakespeare: Finding Emotion and Action in Text
by Anna Porter
Students will understand how to uncover the directorial clues that Shakespeare left in his work by doing a textual analysis.
They will explore Emotional Outbursts, Action words, and Emotion words through a structured color coding analysis of a Shakespeare monologue.
LESSON PLAN
Character Development in the Shakespearean Monologue
by Lindsay Price
To demonstrate how modern character development exercises apply to Shakespearean characters.
Students apply exercises to a character from Shakespeare by examining at the character’s foreground and background, answering character questions, and creating the character’s physicality. This will demystify the process of preparing a Shakespearean monologue and give students the tools they need to prepare a monologue on their own.
LESSON PLAN
Shakespearean Language: Match the Quotes
by Lindsay Price
Students will identify unfamiliar words on a page of Shakespeare quotes, translate those quotes into modern English, and act out the quotes to identify character/play clues. Students will then complete a quotes assignment and reflection. Plus! Bonus assignment.
LESSON PLAN
Acting Shakespeare Style
by Lindsay Price
Students will perform a modern scene the same way that Shakespearean actors performed text. They will compare and contrast the experience to preparing a scene for class.
LESSON PLAN
Jabberwocky
by Karen Loftus
Beware the the Jabberwock! Not really, it’s actually a wonderful poem to use with students to get them to use their imaginations, rely on context clues, and explore word sounds and basic imagery. In this exercise, students will analyze a stanza from Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll in order to create a performance based on that analysis. This exercise is a great springboard into approaching Shakespeare.
LESSON PLAN
Shakespeare Tableaux
by Karen Loftus
Sometimes it’s less intimidating for students to approach Shakespeare’s language with a goal in mind. In this exercise students are given a line from a Shakespeare play out of context and asked to create a scene using three tableaux that tell a story. By approaching the language with an active goal in mind, students delve deeper into the language’s meaning and take control of the story.
LESSON PLAN
Emergency Lesson Plan: Fallen Phrase Puzzle - Shakepeare Quotes
by Lindsay Price
In this ELP, students complete a Fallen Phrase Puzzle using Shakespeare quotes.
LESSON PLAN
Shakespeare Setting and Soundscape
by Lisa Houston
In Elizabethan times, audiences at the Globe had to use their powers of imagination and listening to envision the worlds of Shakespeare’s plays. Today, modern audiences are treated to elaborate depictions of Shakespeare’s settings with expensive sets, lighting, projections, and sound. This lesson will test your students’ creative collaboration. They will design a set and soundscape in obstacle course form for one of Shakespeare’s plays using found objects, sounds, and actions.
LESSON PLAN
Emergency Lesson Plan: Compare and Contrast (Shakespeare)
by Lindsay Price
In this ELP, students will read and discuss a scene from the Shakespeare Play Much Ado About Nothing and a modern adaptation of that text - Much Ado High School by Lindsay Price.
LESSON PLAN
Shakepeare's Words: Iambic Pentameter
by Kerry Hishon
The objective of the lesson is for students to learn what iambic pentameter is and to have the opportunity to create their own monologues using iambic pentameter. This lesson is a useful complement towards studying classical works by playwrights such as William Shakespeare.
LESSON PLAN
Compare and Contrast: "To Be or Not To Be" on Film
by Lindsay Price
In this lesson plan, students will compare four different film versions of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark using the same scene: Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech. How do the four versions tackle the same text? Film is a visual medium – what visuals do they use to tell the story? Do they cut or adapt any of the text? Students will discuss their findings and write a Reflection.
A slide deck is provided as part of the materials for this lesson.
Attachments
LESSON PLAN
Close Reading: Shakespeare
by Lindsay Price
Close reading is a text-dependent analysis tool that allows students to read a text for in-depth comprehension. Students focus on the text to understand what’s being said, how it’s being said, and why. This tool can be an excellent method for getting students to connect to Shakespeare. Where students take a left turn with understanding Shakespeare is that they can’t see past the language. They can’t see using the same tools analyzing a Shakespeare play as they would a modern play. So use close reading to break the language down, move past it, and treat Shakespeare like a modern
text.
Resources
RESOURCE
Character Development: Shakespeare
It's easy to ignore character development in a Shakespeare monologue. There's so many other things to think about! But it's doubly important to pay attention to your character – the character is what makes your monologue come to life. Learn how to make Shakespeare character come to life.
RESOURCE
A Midsummer Night's Dream Character Warm-up
Use this exercise in the early days of rehearsal or even as part of your audition process. It allows students to get into the physical side of a character without having to worry about hitting the “thees” and “thous.” This works well with any Shakespeare play.
RESOURCE
Drama Teacher Tune-Up 2
Our second Drama Teacher Tune Up!
We look at including mask work in the classroom, Shakespeare, Close Reading, and Classroom Management..
Attachments
RESOURCE
Acting in Shakespeare and Classical Plays
This one page handout is a great guide for students to keep in mind when performing the Bard and other classical works.
RESOURCE
Shakespeare Insults Exercise
If you want students to get comfortable with Shakespeare’s language, use insults. The objective of this exercise is to get students to use their voice and body as they practice words outside their natural normal vocabulary. To understand the statement: “Words do not mean what they mean, words mean what you intend them to mean.”
RESOURCE
Shakespeare Exercise: Physicalizing the Punctuation
Use this exercise with the Shakespeare you are studying (or the included monologue) to answer the question: how can punctuation give clues an actor can use to help act the scene?
RESOURCE
Shakespeare Exercise: Tomb Scene
This exercise encourages students to examine the language of a scene for clues on character action. Shakespeare often tells actors exactly what to “do.”
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One Question and Rubric: Shakespeare
The format is simple. One question, one answer, and a rubric all on the same sheet. Use these answers as exit slips, as a follow up written assignment after a class discussion, or as a mid-unit check in. Covers Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, The Tempest, Othello, Macbeth, and The Taming of the Shrew.
RESOURCE
Romeo and Juliet: Tic Tac Toe
Complete three of nine projects on Romeo and Juliet to make a tic-tac-toe! Includes a rubric for assessment.
RESOURCE
A Midsummer Night's Dream Tic Tac Toe
Complete three of nine projects on A Midsummer Night's Dream to make a tic-tac-toe! Includes a rubric for assessment.
RESOURCE
Compare and Contrast (Shakepeare)
In this Compare and Contrast Exercise students will read a scene in its original form, read an modern adaptation, and then compare and contrast the two. What are the similarities and differences?
RESOURCE
RESOURCE
Shakespeare and Race Resource
During Shakespearean times, the roles William Shakespeare wrote were played by white men and performed for a typically white audience. Nowadays, Shakespearean plays are being modernized as companies put on productions that utilize color-conscious casting. Color-conscious casting specifically takes into consideration an actor’s skin color and ethnicity. And you can go further to include consideration of an actor’s gender, shape, mobility, etc.
Through this resource students will be able to:
• Explore what it means to have BIPOC actors perform Shakespeare.
• Analyze and perform Shakespearean texts as they look at the stories through a color-conscious lens.
• Critically think about how we can adapt Shakespeare to reflect today’s society.
With this resource, students will be able to take ownership of the text and use Shakespeare to tell the stories they want to tell.
