Students will demonstrate their understanding of their scene/monologue by translating their piece and researching any unfamiliar words or phrases.
MATERIALS NEEDED:
Shakespeare glossaries, dictionaries
Other Shakespearean resource books
Copies of the Assignment & Due Dates Sheet (dates listed were from when the unit was originally taught – leading up to the High School Shakespeare Competition in Utah) Assignments & Due Dates.Lesson 3
Give students time to continue searching for a piece. Each student will need a copy of their choice and be signed up.
Go through the Bringing Shakespeare to Life assignment sheet and due dates.
HOOK:
Journal write: Using your own piece, write down the following:
The action of the piece – what is happening in the piece?
The potential acting choices – what do you visualize in terms of actor’s tools?
Questions – what is unclear about the context of the piece, the language, acting choices, etc.?
Give your clean mono/scene to someone else (scene partners work together). Have them read through the piece and write down on the back of it:
The action of the piece – what is happening in the piece?
The potential acting choices – what do you visualize in terms of actor’s tools?
Questions – what is unclear about the context of the piece, the language, acting choices, etc.?
Get your piece back and read the response of your classmate. Go back to your journal and compare and contrast between what you have written down and what your classmate wrote. Are there things that you will need to focus on to clarify? Are there questions about language or context that you will need to research? Are there enough acting choice possibilities?
Have students come up and write down on the blackboard any of Shakespeare’s ancient words or phrases in their piece that they don’t know or understand or aren’t sure of. See if anyone else in the class can “solve” the puzzle on their own. Pull out resources to figure it out as needed.
Although the students have had prior Shakespeare translation, emphasize to them the importance of knowing exactly what the Old English language is in order to portray the characters and objectives appropriately. Explain to the students that they will be analyzing their scripts in several ways for their advanced performances. The three keys to performing Shakespeare that will be focused on in this unit is:
Know WHAT you are saying
Know WHY you are saying it
If you do the above in detail then… The HOW will care of itself
Have the students use the resources and such to translate their pieces so that they understand every word in the piece.
They should use the remaining time to either cut their piece or translate their piece or time their piece to be sure it is within the appropriate time limits.
ASSIGN:
Bring a clean copy of the performance piece (scene or monologue) TYPED.
ASSESSMENT:
Students can be assessed on their translations and journal response.
