HAMLET, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and SHAKESPEARE UNIT

Mini-Projects and Reactions to Shakespeare:

Part 1: Act by Act; step by step…

ACT 1: Social Media influenced (aka short attention span influenced—haha): A quick way to generate a discussion of Act 1 in Hamlet.

Act 1 is read by Monday, Nov. 28th. Short attention span discussion generator due Thursday, Dec. 1

ACT 2 For ACT 2, create a character map of all the characters you’ve met up to that point (which is really most of them!) Write a one or two-word commentary (or more) about their character. Draw connections to characters with one or two comments as well. Change this and make it grow as needed as you go further into the play.

Reading Act 2 is due Friday, Dec. 2nd. Character Map due Monday, Dec. 5th.

ACT 3:For Act 3: create a summary of the act and how it connects to the action in Acts 1 and 2 so far. Make sure to list at least 3 to 4 quotations from Act 1 – 3 that you found really important…

Reading of Act 3, Due Monday, Summary of Act 3 and deeper discussion of acts 1 – 3 due Thursday, Dec. 8th!(Creating a short story together as a class is happening on Tuesday, Dec. 6th)ACT 4:When you Act 4 (or the entire play), create an analysis essay –journal style, really---bout anything you find to be important, interesting, or unique…for example, is Hamlet a feminist play? Is it a statement on the fears of the British about what will happen when Elizabeth dies and leaves the monarchy without an heir? Is it about Shakespeare’s own grief process? Is it just a play stolen from historical sources and Petrarch? OR..anything else you want to write about---that’s just a few little ideas.

Reading Act 4: Due Friday, Dec. 9th. ACT 4’s analytical journal “essay” due Thursday, Dec. 15 th.

ACT 5:Complete reading by Thursday, Dec. 15th. When you finish the play in its entirety, create an “English-teacher fun” project to share with the class. A few suggestions follow, but anything you come up with will be AMAZING! You will probably have better ideas than the ones I’ve brainstormed below….feel free to do what you think will be fun and interesting!!!!

1. Essay Option: Write a POLISHED 5+ page paper where you analyze one of the following:

a. How and why did Shakespeare write for Queen Elizabeth and later King James and others members of the aristocracy? What evidence do we have of Shakespeare’s writing for patronage?

b. Do an analysis of how 21st Century ideas still ring true in Shakespearean plays

c. Compare and contrast modernized versions of Shakespearean plays with their originals: Such as Twelfth Night = She’s the man, Taming of the Shrew = Ten Things I hate about you, Othello = O, The Lion King = Hamlet, etc….

d. Research and write about Queen Elizabeth, Henry VIII, etc. and compare with the plays.e. Watch the new-ish film (2011 or 2012?) over whether or not Shakespeare wrote his own plays. Research more about this.

Write an informed essay with your opinion about the film and the validity of the theory.2. Creative Writing Options:

a. Write your own modernized rendition of one of the Shakespearean scenes or plays.

b. Write an imagining of the life of Shakespeare

or someone in Elizabethan era. c. Write the epilogue or prequel to Hamlet or a

scene from another character’s perspective…d. Make a soundtrack for Hamlete. Write a parody like we see from Shel

Silverstein3. Creative Interpretation of Shakespeare options:

a. Make an illustrated Hamlet comic strip or children’s book.

b. Make your own Hamlet movie cast, soundtrack, and/or movie poster. c. Create music, poetry, lyrics, pottery, etc inspired by Shakespearean writing.d. Do response poetry to Shakespearean sonnets or plays. It can be modernized

HAMLET “FUN” project Due Monday, January 2nd!

P.S. No major works for Hamlet because we are killin’ it with these act by act analysis

In class projects.

1. Creation of Shakespearean insults2. Creations of a parody of a soliquy such as the “To Be or Not to Be” parodies or Shel Silverstein’s Hamlet or “The

Dick and Jane Hamlet.” See also, Reductionary Shakespeare Company….3. This is getting us ready for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by the way. We will read some of this play in

class and some at home…we will discuss the play and Hamlet using the questions game and we will have a discussion where coin tosses will be relevant…just because its zany…

Part 3: Literary Criticism, because we are supposed to mirror college classes and trust me, college classes aren’t all about 40 minute timed writings…. Oh, but if only they were, you will think during your junior year during finals week when you have taken 18 credit hours as an English major and have 5 giant essays due that week---oh, no—wait, that was Ms. Bondurant… ;-) TIMELINE and due dates to be announced.

1. Reading another play by Shakespeare and watching one performed. (Students vote!)

2. We will learn all the different literary criticism strategies and use these to enhance our understanding of literary analysis, which we can also use to write our AP response papers but will revisit in writing analytical papers in high school and college, hopefully. (Note-taking and formal writing)

3. Create a lit crit analysis formal essay in computer lab…go through entire writing process!

Part 4: What’s next?

1. New play in class and with video clips and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at home (or vice versa—vote). 2. Practicing multiple choice prompts with Elizabethan era and/or Shakespeare excerpts and/or poetry.3. Writing alone and in groups AP prose or poetry prompts with excerpts from Shakespeare or other Elizabethan

era authors.4. Writing question 3 prompts with Shakespearean plays or Stoppard’s Rosencrantz… as your text…5. Do your major works to at least 1 of these 2 works…but if you choose to do both—the extra credit fairies, will

come down while you are sleeping and put extra points in the gradebook…(This will be funnier if we chose to read Midsummer’s Night Dream…ha!)

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. But, Ms. Bondurant—when is this all due?

See the proposed deadlines I placed on Part 1, but really, I don’t know yet…. We will work step by step through the process and the due dates will come at reasonable times as we work through the plays. It depends on when we actually get through the poetry unit and when we reach the milestones in discussion to take the next step…don’t worry—this is a unit—not something to be completed in a weekend! I might be crazy, but I try to not be cruel.

2. Why are we doing these silly extra things? How will it help my AP Lit Exam score?

Well, I hope you aren’t just obsessed with the score, but studies show that by understanding the texts better and how to do broad range literary critiques, you will do better on timed assessments than if we only taught to the test—which would also be BORING and not intellectually stimulating for ANY OF US!

3. Is this the entire unit?

Nope…there are still some fun surprises thanks to YouTube, old video tapes, and whatever you want to bring to the discussion!

4. What’s your goal with all of this?

Well, that you might actually walk away loving or at least liking or not hating Shakespeare (for those of you whom do not already adore The Bard). Also, that we become even more comfortable with ourselves as literary critics and our ability to dig deep into text. Today Hamlet, tomorrow, Jon Stewart, the next day, John Oliver and Trevor Noah, for example…

Here is the end of the PROSE UNIT copy and pasted from that assignment’s handout so that it is a reminder of that assignment. It is due Tuesday, Dec. 6th!

FROM OTHER HANDOUT! Let your creative side shine.

Extra credit for trying to do NaNoWriMo: 25 points. 40 points if you make it to 50,000 words.

THE SHORT STORY CREATIVE ASSESSMENT WILL BE DUE 1 WEEK AFTER THE COMPLETION OF OUR SHORT STORY PRESENTATIONS, TEACHING US THE ELEMENTS OF PROSE! This is pretty much homework based.

OPTIONS for Short Story Creative Assessment Options (100 points) Sharing prior to Thanksgiving break:

1. Write a series of either 6-word, text, or flash fictions. Use a common theme, location, character, concept, etc. so that the series connects like the vignettes in novels such as Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven or films like Crash. There is a new trend in tweetable fictions as well.

2. Writers like Jack Keroack, Norman Mailler, Kirk Vonnegut, Sylvia Plath, J.D. Salinger, etc. used stories from their own lives as the basis for “fiction.” Vonnegut swerved far far away from realism and “truth” but Keroack often only barely changed the names to protect the innocent and the guilty in his stories… Create your own “nonfictional” fiction.

3. Create a children’s or young adult short story. If creating a child’s story where it is appropriate to do so, illustrate the story.

4. Write a story that is inspired by stories or novels read in class. 5. Create a comic book based off your own creative writing or one of the stories we read in class.

OR Thematic OPTIONS:

1. Write a parody of an idea, concept, story, political movement ect. In our society or a literary work. Be able to identify your use of humor.

2. Write a societal or political satire.3. Write a farce. 4. Write a response fiction: Examples: Wild Sargaso Sea is a

prequel to Jane Eyre. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a response to Hamlet.

5. Write a story inspired by a specific era of literature.6. Write a narrative poem7. Write a play or a skit

8. Other???(TANGENT: The cartoon could also be Ms. Bondurant shopping at a bookstore with Josie. Bondurant is obviously the one on the right. Haha)

CALENDAR of in class activities:

Monday, Nov. 28th: Short Story presentations Tuesday, Nov. 29th: Prose and Poetry prompts Thursday, Dec. 1: Q3 prompt; Share Act 1 flash analysis Friday, Dec. 2: MC Practice Monday, Dec. 5th: Shakespeare background info; Hamlet background info, Characters and scenes viewed to see

differing directorial choices. Tuesday, Dec. 6th: Create short story together as a class. Discuss all the elements of

prose we just used accidentally or on purpose. More Hamlet scenes viewed. Thursday, Dec. 8th: Writing together: Small groups from a text by Shakespeare used as a

poetry prompt. Friday, Dec. 9th: Discussion of Hamlet, Acts 1 – 4. In depth. Be prepared with questions

to ask peers, character map, and at least 3 quotes you find noteworthy for discussion

Monday, Dec. 12th: MC Practice from Shakespearean text—VOTE next play and should we read Ros & Guil or that play at home/the other in class??? Parodies of Shakespeare-look together and laugh (hopefully) and now create either alone or in small groups your own Hamlet parodies.

Tuesday, Dec. 13th: Sharing Short story/prose creative projects. Sharing parodies of Hamlet. Creative fun day! If time, start holiday parodies.

Thursday, Dec. 15th: Discussion of 5th Act of Hamlet. Receive Ros and Guil, other play, and next book (Crime and Punishment; Invisible Man; or existentialist novel or novella-vote!)

Friday, Dec. 16th: Creation of holiday and winter parodies in class and share. Video clips about Shakespeare, Hamlet, and Tom Stoppard if time.

When return: Literary criticism. Discussion of play read over break. Questions game. Have a lovely holiday!!!!!!