Students will demonstrate their beginning of the mastery of the Shakespearean language techniques of vocal levels, punctuation, word coloring, and rhythm by performing their monologues memorized.
Materials Needed:
– computer or paper to take individualized notes – quiz for each student
Quiz: (15 minutes)
Right after taking role, without letting students have time to sit around and discuss, immediately have students separate their chairs, pull out a pencil and something to write on, hand out the quizzes. Finished quizzes can be set on the chair at the front of the classroom.
Once quizzes are finished, have students push their chairs back and make a space in the middle so the teacher can see without heads in the way for previews.
Warm-up: (5 minutes)
Have students stand up in a circle. Start with vocal levels—have students count up 1 to 10 matching the vocal volume with the number they are saying. Punctuation—Shout out a punctuation mark and have students gut reaction respond physically and vocally without using real words to the stated punctuation. Word coloring—Say a word—love. Color it gritty, low, and slow
Previews: (Rest of class time)
Remind students that their upmost respect is expected while other students are performing. Participation points will immediately be docked off their grade if they are on their phones or talking during performances. All you have to do in order to get full points is perform memorized. If you bring up your script, or call for lines more than 3 times, you will receive a 50% on your preview—the same grade as if you come in before school memorized later this week to perform for me. Remember, the more memorized you are, the better your acting will be, therefore the more notes I can give you to help before your final performance. There are 7 different areas you will be graded on in your final—your introduction (which I will explain next class), climaxes and vocal levels, word coloring, phrasing, objectives and subtext, improvement from your preview, and presentation.
While students are performing, take notes on which areas of the final rubric the student needs to work on the most.
