Shakespeare Unit Days 3 - 4 : In which I am given a strange eruption to my state.

So after two days of introductory activities,  we really started with Shakespeare on Wednesday of last week.  The lesson setup for the first day centers around Act I:i:1-80. I give the students copies of the first 80 lines with all stage directions removed.  We first read the scene round Robin,  and they circle any words they don't know.  We go through all the words,  then reread the scene again,  still round Robin.  Then we discuss the scene and characters,  who are they,  what are they doing,  what is the setting, etc. Finally I ask for volunteers to put the scene on its feet,  and the rest of the class acts as directors. It is so important to me for the students to be comfortable and confident in this first scene that we take two full days to work on it.  It is the first opportunity I get to make sure they feel comfortable and interested,  and to let them see that it is okay for them to feel confused and to ask a lot of questions.   They answer a series of nine questions about the scene for homework,  and the next day we really act the scene. 

For those who may not be familiar with the first scene of Hamlet, the play opens outside of the castle walls at midnight.  The guard is about to change.  Francisco has been on guard all evening,  a quiet watch,  and he is being relieved of duty by Barnardo and Marcellus. For the past few evenings,  the guards have reported a strange apparition that looks much like the recently deceased King Hamlet. Horatio,  a scholar and best friend of Prince Hamlet, has been very skeptical of these reports,  so Marcellus has invited him to come see for himself.  The Ghost appears,  and Horatio attempts to speak with it.  It refuses,  but leaves us all to ponder the import of Horatio's last lines,  "...in the gross and scope of my opinion,/ This bodes some strange eruption to our state. "

I bring in some simple costumes,  put an accurate background on the Activboard, turn off the lights,  and really try to set up the scene accurately.  The one thing we don't spend a lot of setup time on are the students doing the acting.  After the first run-through of the scene,  I divide the class into groups and assign one student actor per group.  The groups then serve as "acting coaches" for the individual actors. The groups get five minutes to coach their actor in how to best do their part,  and then we do a final,  recorded version of the scene.  By this time,  the student actors have read the scene at least five times,  and their delivery becomes a lot more natural.  Almost always,  the "Magic" of Shakespeare starts to kick in,  and students are more excited and confident,  they want to know what's going to happen,  and they feel better about the whole thing.  It takes a long time to complete the lesson this way,  but in the long run,  the payoff is immense. 

This approach is from the "Shakespeare Set Free" series from the Folger Library, which is absolutely fantastic.  The last section of each lesson has a reflection for the instructor called "How did it go? "  I love to go through the questions for my classes and evaluate how it did go.  In this, the first lesson,  the questions are simple: " Were students involved in the text?  Did they argue about the right way to stage the scene?  Did they make suggestions based on the textual clues?  If so,  they are listening to Shakespeare' s language and learning about the people in Hamlet."  The answers,  this year,  are a resounding "YES". Even students who normally don't have a lot to contribute to class discussion were asking questions and offering suggestions,  especially in the student actor small groups. 

The one question that, for me, stuck out this year,  came from a wonderful student in my third period class,  who asked a relatively innocuous question as we were going through the vocabulary of the scene after the first run-through.  She wondered,  "Mrs. J, are you gonna get really mad at us if we have a lot of questions?  Cause this seems really hard. " My reply, or course, was in the negative,  but it made me nervous,  so I replied,  "Do I normally get mad at you for asking questions?" It was her response to this that, in Hamlet's words, must give me pause.  She said,  "Oh no,  you always do a good job of explaining so I don't have that many questions.  But there are a lot of teachers who get really angry if you have a lot of questions.  And sometimes I do,  if the stuff is really hard.  Shakespeare seems really hard.  I don't want to be afraid of asking questions."

Is it really in the best interests of the students to challenge them with difficult material,  and then to be angry with them if they have questions?  I tried to reiterate to them that I WANT them to ask questions,  that they SHOULD have questions,  and to never feel bad about having to ask them! This is especially important when,  and I'll admit this, the level of this text is a good 2 grade levels above most of them. I would never want to say anything bad about my colleagues in education (and by this I mean ALL teachers,  in ALL schools), but how did this happen?  Why is this good student,  who works hard and tries her best to understand and succeed at the tasks we give her, afraid to ask questions?

The answer to this, indeed,  should give us pause.