Starting Over

I’m back.  The past year in my teaching career was one of the craziest yet mainly because I had a child.  She is completely wonderful, fabulous, lovely, and just perfect in every way.  Here she is:

I will be honest and tell you that being pregnant first semester and then a new mom second semester (I wasn’t out of the classroom long because my maternity leave was over Christmas break) did not combine to make 2010-2011 the most productive year of teaching.  That doesn’t mean I didn’t do my best everyday; it means more that I just plain don’t remember a lot about last year because I was tired, swollen, stressed, and then tired, stressed, and sleep-deprived.  But my little girl is here, and like many have said to me, being a mommy is my most important job right now.

Add to this mix a big move for my family.  My husband was accepted to a teacher-training program and so at the end of the school year I left the school at which I had been teaching for five years.  Just today, they removed my class website.  It hurt.  I had built such strong bonds and relationships with my coworkers that I was devastated when I really knew I had to leave.  I was in tears for the last week of school, and it was all I could do to hold myself together as I handed my keys to my principal.  I will miss them all so much; words can’t describe how much I will miss them.

Luckily I did get a job at a new school, and what a gig it is.  I will be teaching AP Literature, Honors English IV, and Speech and Debate at a wonderful school in Winston-Salem.  It’s really one of the best jobs in the area.  I got other offers, but really wanted to be at this school in order to challenge myself professionally.  I knew this was the next step for me.

And right now, I’m really nervous.  I don’t really know anyone, and I don’t have any freshmen or standard classes.  For the last five years, I’ve been a teacher of both freshmen and seniors.  I’ve taught standard and inclusion freshmen.  It’s been so fun to put books in their hands like Hatchet, Cirque Du Freak, etc.  But I’m in a position now where I am responsible for preparing seniors for the rigors of college.  I’m nervous but really excited.  I tend to get anxious about my job all the time; I think that’s ok because it means that I do care about what I do and how good of a job I do.  But I can’t let these nerves get the best of me.

I was comforted when I read these tweets from my hero, Jim Burke on #engchat last night:

I realized as I read this that we are all always improving.  While Jim Burke is the hero to many of us English teachers, he, too, was once in our shoes, nervous about teaching AP Literature.  And look where he is now.  Look what he’s done.  I’m not going to be the next Jim Burke or anything, but I know that when I’ve been teaching as long as he has and when I have had the chance to learn that much that I’ll be telling stories of my first years.  I’ll talk to someone about how scary it was to be at a new school but how it worked out in the end.

So, it’s time.  School’s almost back in session.  My husband’s summer classes are over, so I’m free to go out and work in the daytime.  Tomorrow I’m taking my Teacher’s Daybook to a cafe along with my textbooks and computer.  I’m filling out my personal and professional goals for the year and I am giving this year my best.  Every single day matters to me.  There are so many beautiful poems, stories and novels for my students and me to read.  I can’t wait to spread out some clean paper and begin the work of piecing together my course.  Choosing poems.  Thinking of new activities.  Borrowing ideas from the amazing minds I know on Twitter and the EC Ning.  I’m excited about the possibilities this year brings for me and for all of us.  No matter what happens in the media or the government or in any school district, I know what amazing dedicated educators are out there because I read their tweets and blogs daily.  We’ve got a long way to go–who doesn’t.  Students need to work harder; teachers must always improve practice.  But I have hope at this time of the year for all of us. We are doing the good work of this world by educating kids.

I’m going to go finish Beauty Queens right now and giggle a bit before bed.  Here’s to the New School Year!

Tags: back to school, being a parent, collagues, doing your best, expectations, heroes, nerves, planning, relationships

Back to School…Soon

Well, I had a kid!  My daughter was born on December 21, 2010, and my husband and I couldn’t be happier.  All has gone well.  We’ve adjusted to having a new family member, and sadly, my time here at home with her is coming quickly to an end.  I have two weeks left before I head back into my classroom.  I’ve got these next two weeks full of visits and appointments, too…because there won’t be as much time once I am back for me to do these things.

A part of me is really depressed that I have to go back.  Not because I don’t love my job – I do love my job – but it’s going to be really hard to leave my little girl.  I do have wonderful people caring for her, so I know I won’t worry about her during the day.  It’s still just hard.  I’ve spent everyday (almost every moment) with her since she was born, and it’s going to be really weird being away from her for eight or more hours each day.  I am also nervous about getting back into the routine of teaching with less sleep and more home responsibilities.  Luckily, I am not too worried.  I know I’ll make it.  Things will work out, and I will adjust.  It might be hard at first, but it’ll be fine.

One interesting thing about my six week maternity leave is that I actually didn’t miss many actual teaching days because of Christmas break and a huge snow storm!  We had lots of snow here in the mountains over the holidays and early January – so exams were pushed back and the kids haven’t even been in school to miss me!  I have a great sub who will be taking care of these next two weeks, but by the time I get back, I will be joining my new students on the third day of the new second semester.  So really, it’s cool because I will still start a fresh semester with new ideas and goals.

As I wrap up my time here at home, I will be thinking these next two weeks about my goals for this semester.  One great thing about teaching on a 90 minute 90 day block is that you get to start the school year over twice each year.  We all love to reflect so much – my teaching schedule allows me to set goals and start fresh right now.  I have tons of ideas for teaching.  I also know that I will be thinking about ways to be more efficient with my time because unlike years past – now when I come home, I have a child to care for in addition to my wonderful husband and cat!  So here’s to two more weeks with my little baby and the wonderful opportunity to think about my goals for 2011.  I hope all my teaching friends out there are doing well this January after having a break.  I’ll be joining you back in the classroom soon!

Tags: back to school, family, goals, roles

Adding a New Role

my giant notebook of maternity lesson plans

I feel so weird because one of my goals for this year was to blog more.  I still reflect all the time – formally in writing and just in my head – but as far as working in this space – it just hasn’t happened this year.  I’ve mainly been getting ready to welcome my daughter into the world.  She is due in mid December and I have had a very different teaching experience.  This semester I started the school year at 5 months pregnant and am now teaching my last few weeks at 9 months – and needless to say it’s been quite an experience.  Here are just a few of the things I’ve been thinking about as the semester has gone by and a few things that are on my mind as I know I will be heading back to work a short six weeks after our little girl arrives.

#1 – Energy is different. I am a very energetic teacher – sometimes the kids look at me like “Is this woman for real?” But energy had gone down hill since the beginning of school.  For most of the semester I was pretty good – but it’s just lately that I really haven’t been able to be myself.  It’s weird.  I mean I want to get up and run around the classroom and wave my arms and be my crazy self – but I just can’t.  I still am communicating my enthusiasm – just not in quite the wild way I used to.  The good news is that even though I know I’ll be sleep deprived and a whole different kind of exhausted later after the baby, I know I’ll be able to move around and not have to deal with the physical tiredness of pregnancy.

#2 – I’ve been relying on my “old faithful” lesson plans. I used to work on new lessons a lot outside of school hours, but I find that that time has been taken up afters school by my need to rest and get stuff ready for baby.  I just haven’t created as much new content as usual.  Again, this frustrates me because it’s now have I have taught/been for the last six years of my career, but it’s what I’ve had to do to make things easy on myself.  I tried more new stuff at the beginning and did create some new lit circle stuff for my AP class (and honestly – every day has been new in there because it’s my first time teaching it) but not as much as I would have liked.  I think I will get back to this next semester some and definitely next school year.  But I just have to remind myself that my lessons are good whether they’re the last year’s plans or not.  I feel that the kids have still gotten good instruction – just not the latest and greatest.

#3 – I must balance time and my roles differently. This idea is more one that’s started to creep in and I know will be important after the baby comes.  I fell off the face of the earth as far as my blog and twitter…it was ok – I mean I didn’t feel guilty – but a part of me did miss it.  I recently hopped back on Twitter and have liked the info I’ve gotten.  I marvel at some of the Twitter Mom/Teachers that I follow – I hope that I can balance like them once I add this new role to my list of roles.  I think I can do it, though.  I must put my role as mom and wife first for now and do my best as teacher.  As Jim Burke says about the Teacher’s Daybook roles- these roles change everyday.  Sometimes I will need to put school first.  Other times school will take a way back seat to the needs of my family.  I might need to put husband before kids one day.  I might need to put myself at the top of my list.  I think that being aware of the different roles you play is the most important step.  Knowing that you are many things to many people helps.  Knowing that it’s ok to balance these different is good.  I have done better this year about accepting that I cannot do everything as perfectly as I want, but I still do my best.

#4 – I’ll be a new kind of teacher soon. Thinking about becoming and parent and teaching has helped me get really excited about the fact that I will be another kind of teacher – a teacher to my sweet little girl.  I am so excited about being a good teacher to her and helping her learn about her world and the people in it.  My love for literature will be a big part of her education here at home.  I’ve been teaching Hamlet and Heart of Darkness, but I’m super pumped about The Very Hungry Caterpillar!  I know my baby will be welcomed into a literacy rich home and I just can’t wait to share stories with her, and take her to the library, and help her learn how to read.

Well the adventure begins soon.  I’m almost done with my maternity lesson plans.  I’ve gone way too crazy getting them all together.  But that’s just me – I can’t help it.  I figure if the sub doesn’t use something, that’ll just be good for me because I use it when I get back.  Planning to be out for six weeks has given me insight into how my classroom works (as I’ve had to articulate this to the sub and explain how my classroom “works”).  It’s also helped me with long term planning.  I think what I’ve learned and done with long term planning will help me next semester.  It’s made me see that I can actually really sketch a good 6 week plan.  I know it’ll change, but there’s tons of comfort knowing that you’re prepared – and even more when you are over-prepared.  I hope to be back in the next weeks and then next year when I’m back in the classroom.  Good to reflect on what’s been going on this semester though.

Tags: balance, goals, lesson planning, reflection, roles

Oprah

I just watched the end of the Oprah show, and I feel weird.  While I am glad that Oprah is tackling education as an important issue, but it just makes me upset the more I always hear about how terrible public schools and public school teachers are.

When I think about all the work that happens on the EC Ning and all the work I do and all the amazing things/teachers/lessons I’ve witnessed in my six year career, I just can’t agree with everything I hear.  Plus, I hear about teachers “staying at work until 11 each night” and stories like that…and I just feel guilty.  I’ve put in tons of hours since I started.  It makes me feel guilty that I’m choosing to have a family this year and that I might not be at school all hours of the night….I just get so confused about it all.

I feel like I plan good lessons.  Not every day in my class is perfect, but I do my best each day.  I always try to improve.  I feel like if Bill Gates or John Legend or Oprah came into my room they’d probably toss me to the curb w/ all the other terrible public school teachers.  I’m not superman, but I do my best, keep up with instructional ideas, and reflect on my practice daily – and yet I just feel like crap when I see all this stuff on TV.  Maybe this is an issue that has more to do with my confidence than with the real issues at hand.  I just hate all the negativity.

So do you just get over it all and hold your head high that you are doing your best no matter what “they” say out there?  I guess.  That’s what I am going to do – it’s just that there’s a little guilt still in the back of my mind.

Classroom Library – Helping Students Choose Books

As we all head back to school, I’ve seen lots of posts from teachers and librarians who are getting their school and classroom collections back together.  I love organizing and cleaning up my classroom library this year.  I also follow many YA book blogs and have talked with people online about how I put books in my room and whether or not I recommend them to students.

One thought that has been on my mind this week is about making students smart choosers of books.  I teach high school.  I have everything from an inclusion ninth grade English class to honors seniors and AP literature.  I’ve got and want to have books in my room that appeal to all my students.  So I have lots in my room that a middle school teacher might not have, but I don’t keep stuff out because it might not be good for a freshman.  I need to have books in my room that appeal to my 18 year olds heading to college as well as my incoming ninth graders.  My library contains books I’ve read and books I’ve not read.  If I haven’t read a book, I don’t just throw it on the shelves, I always research it online, read reviews, and preview it myself.  Most of the time this is enough for me.  Students will let you know if a book is good or bad, too.

One thing we talk about in my classes on the first week is the fact that there are tons of books in the room and that all of them might not be for every student.  Kids write about their favorite writers or genres.  I book talk the most popular books.  But we also discuss the fact that they are the best judgea.  If  book is too hard, try another.  If you read and you like a book but then it’s just got too much cursing or it’s too violent for your taste, put it down.  I want them to be happy with their choices and feel free to make their own decisions.  When they go to the public library or the bookstore, this is how they will choose.  They’ll have all the options in front of them and they’ll have to preview the book and see if it’s for them.

Most of my students seem very happy with their first book choices of the year so far.  I’ve got two or three that aren’t quite sure and so I’ll work with them next week to help them find something they love.

Tags: self-selected reading, young adult books

Teaching Beowulf – Beginnings and Background

Back to school in British Literature means beginning with the best story ever–Beowulf!!  Of course I’ve borrowed, changed, and gotten much of this from others, but teachers share – so here’s this year’s plan.

What was life like back then??  Before we get into the actual poem, I like to set up the scene a bit.  I explain a bit of history about the island that will become England and who comes in and out of the picture at the beginning.  Then we read a bit from Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead .  The First Contact with the Northmen describes the men and what they are like.  It’s totally disgusting but really helps paint a vivid picture of life at this  time.  We read that and discuss what details stick out.  We then talk about what we know about the culture from the chapter and synthesize the info.  We decide what they valued based on the chapter.

In Eaters of the Dead, the narrator says their language sounded ugly.  What did they sound like?  I want kids to hear what Old English really sounds like next.  They often think that Shakespeare is “old” English – which it’s not.  So I pull up a quick and cool time line and we listen to the first lines of Beowulf.  I point out that we can actually see and hear alliteration even though we can’t understand a thing.  I teach them the first two lines of Beowulf and we recite those often in our most burly bardy voices.

Next we look at some riddles for fun to get the students used to identifying the alliterative verse, kennings, and caesuras that are in Beowulf.  The riddles are short and fun.  They’re complicated though.  I created this next lesson and sheet based on the EDSITEment lesson.  We learn and take quick notes on the three terms.  Then we read and work through a riddle as a class, pointing out the poetic devices and of course, trying to solve the riddle.  Then students work on completing the Anglo-Saxon Riddles Computer Assignment with a partner.  The teams then write a riddle of their own.  We share the riddles and praise good stuff that we hear – especially beautiful and clever alliterative verse and creative kennings.

Finally, in order to get back into the spirit of Beowulf, students play Viking Quest I tell them to play carefully and read all directions carefully because the highest score in the class gets a prize!  Once the kids have been Vikings for a little while, they’re ready to jump in to Beowulf!

Back to School Clean Up – Classroom Library

one shelf of the many

It’s back to school time for many of us.  I live in the mountains of NC and we only get a few days at the beginning of the year to get ready because we save up a lot of our teacher workdays for later in the year when it might snow.  I usually go in before the scheduled workdays, but honestly, this year I couldn’t.  It was too insanely hot, and I wasn’t interested in overheating and sweating to death–especially with a little one on the way.

organized crates - three great female authors

I’ve been back for two days now.  We had our big faculty meeting and it was pretty good.  I think our faculty is ready for a great year.  We have new school improvement goals and good back to school attitudes.  I’ve spent most of my time cleaning everything up.  I’ve been in a big de-cluttering mood at school and at home; I want things simple.  Exciting but simple.  I made some changes to my classroom library, so I really spent lots of time cleaning up and organizing the area.  I’m very happy with it and I hope it is inviting for the students.

face-outs of new books and popular titles

previous students' book recommendation posters

the big picture

I planned a lot last week at Barnes and Noble.  I just work really well there at the big tables.  I’ve still got tons of work to do this weekend, and our students start Tuesday of next week, but you know–it’ll get done.  I’m beginning my seventh year of teaching this year.  I used to get really nervous and really stressed out, but now I feel like I’m actually relaxing some.  I’m not slacking by any means; I still am working on new courses and new units and planning appropriate growth goals for myself.  But I’ve got some distance and perspective at this point in my career that I haven’t felt before.  I guess knowing that I’m starting my family this year has impacted that, too.  Overall, I am really excited about this year.  I have seniors, freshmen, and AP Lit.  It’s going to be a fun ride.

I plan to post this year mostly about just what I am doing in class.  Handouts, lessons, ideas, and the like.  Well, it’s been a long day of work so tonight I am going to settle in with my review copy of Nancy Werlin’s new book, Extraordinary and chill out.  Thanks for stopping by.

Tags: back to school, organization, self-selected reading, young adult books

Why I Can’t Go to NCTE

I was thrilled when I found out that I was invited to NCTE to participate in a panel discussion with fellow educators.  I’d gotten connected with people through Twitter and the Ning, and I was going to get to go to NCTE!  There aren’t many reasons why I would back out or miss this – but one good one came up:  I’m having a baby (our first child) and will be starting my ninth month when the conference begins.  So there it is – no NCTE for me this year because I will be getting ready to welcome my little one into the world (and probably will be frantically making sure all my sub plans are in order…not looking forward to that!)

My husband and I are really excited.  Now that school time is getting near, I started to think about how teaching will be different once I become a Mommy.  I have taught for six full years and given all that I have of myself to my job.  I’ve stayed late; I’ve graded and planned for entire weekends; I feel I’ve been pretty dedicated.  But I wonder how it will be different.  Will teaching be harder (especially at first!)?  Will I care in different ways now?  Will I feel more stress because of more responsibilities at home?  Less stress because I am coming home to my beautiful baby?  How will I balance life and work differently now?

Even though I have many questions like this running through my head, one thing I do know is that I will do my best each day, and that is all I can do.  If I give what I can – then I have done my best.  I know it will be different, but I am excited.  I’m still taking on new things this year, and I still have goals that I will work on all year.  I plan to continue to grow and reflect just as I always have, but it’s neat to know that who I am will be new this year as I add the new role of Mom to my list.  I’m still sad I can’t go be with all you wonderful teacher’s, but I am making it a goal to get to NCTE next year or soon after that.

I’m interested in hearing about teaching/parenting from anyone who’s stopping by and has experience.  So many of the people I follow online are amazing professionals and parents – I love seeing such dedication to career and family at the same time.  I hope to be able to do the same.  Everyone tells me that becoming a parent is the most amazing journey ever.

That’s it – the big news.  I am reading Crime and Punishment this week and beginning my planning for the new school year.  I plan to be here on the blog more regularly all year.  Happy back-to-school for everyone!

P. S. – It’s a girl!

Teaching Macbeth – Skits and Witches

Megan's group reads their scenario.

So back to teaching Macbeth.  Last blog, I talked about the quote card activity I use to introduce the play.  Today I’d like to share two other activities that I do to start off our study of the play.

Part 1:  Skits

Before we ever jump into the text, I use a skit activity to get students interested.  This activity is in the Shakespeare Set Free book and has been a hit every time I have used it.  I have done this activity before the quote cards and then I’ve also done it after; you can use it either time.

I got three scenarios from the book.  These scenarios are based on some of the major plot lines of Macbeth.  These aren’t the exact scenarios word for word, but you’ll get the idea.

Jose's group comes up with outcomes to their scenario.

Scenario #1 A man sees a way to get ahead at his job.  He doesn’t really know if he cares, but his wife is a killer at heart and wants him to  get ahead quick.  Her philosophy, “Just do it.”  His philosophy, “Maybe tomorrow.”

Scenario#2 Two friends are walking home from school and they meet a guy who offers them the one thing they want:  a date with a special someone, a ticket to a concert, a new car…  The problem – there’s only one item and both friends want it.

Scenario #3 A bunch of friends gather for a party.  They eat, have ice cream, and then decide to take a nap.  They wake to the screams of one of the guests who says that his money is gone.

I paste these scenarios (usually I double it and do two of each) onto some note cards.  I split my students into groups.  Each group reads the scenario on the card.  They come up with 3 possible outcomes for each scenario.  They make notes and describe these outcomes on the back of the note card.  Then, they choose one outcome and create a skit for it.  We share these skits.  They’re usually very fun/funny.  It’s cool to see how different groups deal with the same scenarios.

Madelyn, Jesus, Deandra, and Casey rehearse their skit.

After sharing the skits, I let students know that these are plot lines that they will see in the play.  They can be on the lookout for these scenarios in the play as they read.

Seth's group performs their skit for the class.

These skits are a safe/fun way to get students up on their feet performing in front of each other.  I need to gain my students’ trust as we study Shakespeare.  I need to create a safe, fun environment in which students feel comfortable getting up in front of each other.  It takes guts to get up and perform Shakespeare, so I like to use these simple skits as a warm up/confidence builder.

Part 2:  Meet the Witches

After doing the skits, we dive into the play.  I took the suggestion from Shakespeare Set Free and began teaching the play with Act 1 Scene 3 instead of the beginning.  It’s good to start here for many reasons.  First, the witches are cool and creepy.  It’s fun to look at the description on them, “you should be women, yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so….”  Second, it sets up and gets the prophecies out there for the students.

Our three "witches" read 1.3 in "costume."

The kids have just been up on their feet for the skits, so I ask any excited students to volunteer to perform the scene.  I print up scripts for the witches, Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and and Angus.  I have the scripts pre-highlighted and ready to go.  I have a junky prop-box with scarves, robes, plastic swords, beads, and just household junk.  We dress up our witches and give our soldiers some toy swords.  The students who are actors are “directed” by the rest of the class.  We read a few lines and talk about what it all means.  We use clues from the text  to decide how the characters should act/move/sound on stage.  The student directors give directions to the actors.  We run the scene several times.  With this particular scene we often act in out in two ways: one with Banquo/Macbeth acting scared of the witches and the second reading with Macbeth and Banquo bullying the witches.

Madelyn as Macbeth controls laughter as she reads her lines and tries to bully the witches into talking more.

From this point, we understand some of the major plot lines.  We know about the prophecies and we make a little checklist:

__x__ Thane of Glamis

__x__ Thane of Cawdor

__x__ King hereafter….

We’re set up to see what will happen with this list….

These activities are fun and get the students up on their feet performing Shakespeare.

Tags: lessons, literature, shakespeare

Teaching Macbeth – Quote Card Introduction

I LOVE to teach Shakespeare. Really.  I’ve been able to teach Shakespeare from my first days as a student teacher, and I still love it now, six years later.  I love the beauty of the language and also how relevant Shakespeare’s ideas are today.  Also, Shakespeare is written to be loud and funny and dramatic.  It’s a great way to get the students out of their desks and on their feet.

I’ve taught Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet so far in my career.  I am ready to branch out to other plays, but am really happy that I’ve gotten the chance to teach and re-teach these plays often.  I hope to post some of my Macbeth lessons over the next few days to share with you some of the activities that I do.

Introducing Macbeth

I attended a Folger Shakespeare mini-institute two years ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  I would still love to attend the four week institute in the future!  This one week workshop was fabulous, though.  I learned so much.  We got to discuss and talk about nerdy Shakespeare-lover stuff as well as learn very practical strategies to use in our classrooms.  Most of my Shakespeare lessons come from what I learned at this workshop and from the Shakespeare Set Free books.  I learned this first activity at the workshop.  The handouts for the quote cards/summary are by Paul Stevenson.  He was kind enough to share with me, and I share with you how I use these handouts.

Quote Cards

1.  Get quote cards made

This activity is a fun way to get kids to play with and enjoy Shakespeare’s language without feeling overwhelmed by staring at too many words on the page.  What you need is the list of quotes from the play.  Here are the Macbeth Quote Cards Cut each quote apart from the rest and tape it onto a note card.

2.  Get kids up and out of classroom.  Read cards once.

I take students out to the commons area so we can have room to work.  We all stand in a circle, facing each other.  Next I hand each student a note card.  I tell students not to share but just to look at the card and read it to themselves.  Once each student has a card.  I take my place in the circle and tell them that on the command “go!” they are all to read their cards aloud at the same time…it’s a big mess of noise.  “One, two, three, go!” And they all read.

3.  What Did You Read?

After students have read through the cards, I ask them to identify weird words they don’t know.  I ask them to identify and share any “Shakespeare-y” words they encountered (thee, thine, ‘t, ‘tis, etc….)  We talk about what those words mean and get a quick feel for the strange words.

4.  Mill and Seethe #1 – Sharing Your Quote

Now we move.  I model this first with a volunteer and then the students all do it.  I ask students to mill and seethe about the space, wandering at a slow, steady pace about the room.  When they encounter a classmate, they stop, look at the classmate and each student reads his/her card to the other.  Then the move on until they meet another classmate.  These classmates share quotes.  Each student keeps the same card and reads his/her quote to as many classmates as he/she can before I call time.  When they’ve had some time, I call them back to the circle for round 2.

5.  Mill and Seethe #2 – Trade Quotes

This round we do exactly the same thing except we switch cards with the classmate that we meet with.  During this round, students will  get many different quotes and get to read many different lines from the play.  Some kids will not want to give up their quotes (think Romeo and Juliet:  “Give me my longsword, ho!” or Macbeth “Unsex me here…”) but they’ll have to.  I call students back to the circle for round 3.

6.  Dramatic Voices and Gestures

At this point, I talk to students about how on stage, Shakespearean actors can’t just stand around and be boring.  They must bring the words to life, and they do so with their voices and their bodies.  I count to three and have the students all read their lines at the same time, trying to add a more dramatic voice.  Some kids take this to the extreme, while others have to give a lot of effort, but since they are all doing it at the same time, no one feels too silly.  We note how the volume went up when we used these fun voices.  After that, we add a gesture.  It can be literal or non-literal, it doesn’t matter.  I demonstrate and model my quote with my dramatic voice and gesture.  I then give the students a moment with a partner to come up with a voice and gesture for the quotes they have.  Once they’ve done this, I count and give them three practice rounds with everyone speaking his/her line, doing the voice and gesture at the same time.  I encourage them on the last practice round to be as dramatic as they can.

7.  Mill and Seethe #3 – Performing Quotes for Classmates

For this round each student keeps his/her card.  As they mill and seethe this time, they move about the room and when they meet a classmate, they perform their quotes with voices and gestures.  I let them go for a few minutes and then call them back to the circle.

8.  Final Performance

After this we all perform our quote with voice/gesture for the class.  You can do this from the circle, or you can have half of the class sit and be the “audience” while the other half “acts” in front of them.  Each student does his/her performance.  We clap once (like literally one single clap) in between each student’s quote.  This helps keep all class members focused.  After each student goes, we all cheer and applaud each other and head back to class.

9.  So, What Do We Know?

After this activity (takes about 30 – 40 minutes if you do all steps as outlined here) we go back to the classroom and discuss what we learned.  We do a quick brainstorm and discuss what we know about the play based on the quotes we heard.  Here’s our quick list from class.

10.  The Whole Story

A final activity you can do now is to read a summary of the play with the quotes in it.  Here’s the summary with quote cards for Macbeth.  I read the story and the students read their quotes when I call on their numbers.  This reading gives the students a brief summary of the plot and helps them see/hear the quotes in context.

At the end of this, I often ask students who can say his/her line from memory.   Many of them can recite their lines.  This shows students that they can tackle Shakespeare!  They’ve already memorized some!  They can keep the summary in their notebooks and the quotes in their minds.  As you read the play you will hear students say, “Hey, that was my quote!”  This activity is fun and helps give student ownership of the play before they even begin.  They’ll be ready to read and they won’t be intimidated because they already know and have memorized some of the lines.

Tags: lessons, literature, shakespeare