Adapting Literature

Sample Lesson: Day One, Researching

I'll start this lesson by introducing the outline for our research paper (located below and found in the "Strategies" section of this document). Each student will get a copy of the outline and as I introduce the expectations, they'll take notes. Students can choose to take notes in their notebooks and/or directly on the outline. The outline is brief so that the instruction can be differentiated. Some students need this and can't work without it, some students need this to get started and to learn how to focus, and some will digest it and toss it aside. It is my job to manage their potential. We'll spend about twenty minutes clarifying the expectation for each paragraph. Students can ask questions as I delineate.

Paragraph one, I'll explain to students, is the introductory paragraph in which I want students to provide some kind of summary of Othello. They might provide a chronological synopsis, they might provide commentary, they might focus on literary elements from the play, or get creative. The minimum expectation is a summary and I want it to be a transition into their ideas about adaptation. They'll have a definition in their notes. They should discuss how Shakespeare is adapted and how he adapted stories to write his plays. They should touch on Othello and O and "Hecatommithi." I would be impressed if they discussed the phenomenon of adaptation and they could research this a bit to do so. Minimally, they'll need to use their prior knowledge from the previous lessons. The last sentence will be their thesis (a guide is provided in the outline).

In paragraph two, I'm looking for students to make connections between Othello and O. If they've done a decent job in Paragraph One (P1), this second paragraph should be a good transition. I want them to move from a broad view of the film as an adaptation into something specific like an act or scene. They can start by simply comparing and contrasting the play with the film, but I want more than a broad overview. They need to find one particular part of the film and discuss it as an adaptation of the play. Students will need guidance, but I want them to really think about, and make connection between, Othello and O.

For P3, students will be conducting research about another adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello (besides O). In this paragraph, I want students to go beyond the provided text. They need to find an adaptation of Othello and give reasons for its existence. At minimum, students should find an adaptation, director, year, country, and something about its properties of adaptation. For example, there is a made-for-TV movie adaptation in which the situation is that of a police department's politics, and the Othello character is promoted to police commissioner. Students should be able to speculate about this as a promising idea for a director. The idea is to have students digging deeper into their research about people, places, and things that influence an adaptation they've discovered.

I give students two class periods to gather the research. Some students will need less time and can begin writing, others will need the entire time, and some will stay after school. At first, students can use the Internet and have free-range. I want them to explore the "junk" that they find. Some students will be on the right track in no time while others will need help. Depending on the number of students who need help, I'll either have the ones that found something show the others what they did, or I'll give one-on-one help to those in need. They'll get approximately 65 minutes on the first day and almost the entire period the second day for researching. Because the instruction is differentiated, students will be working at an independent pace and some will begin typing before others. I make deadlines for each stage of the process; after day two of researching, all students will be expected to show their researched materials before they start writing.

Paragraph One/Introductory Paragraph:

1. A brief synopsis/summary of Shakespeare's Othello
2. Definition of adaptation
3. Example Thesis: The themes and story line in Shakespeare's Othello are so predominantly universal that they lend to adaptations in film, including Tim Blake Nelson's O and . . . (students find a second adaptation to complete the thesis¹⁹).

Paragraph Two/Tim Blake Nelson's O:

1. Connect Shakespeare's Othello to O
2. Discuss this adaptation and why it works
3. Pick an act or scene from the play and connect it to a portion of the film

Paragraph Three/Researched Adaptation:

1. Find an adaptation of Othello
2. Discuss the adaptation and why it seems like a promising idea
3. What is it about the time, place, direction, characters, outside influences, etc. that make this relevant to Othello?

Paragraph Four/ Conclusion/Relate Othello to Self

1. How do the themes in Othello relate to your high school/your life? Provide examples.
2. If you made an adaptation of Othello, where might it take place and why?

Lesson Timetable: 90 Minutes

• 25 minutes: outline description
• 65 minutes: researching with teacher guidance