Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 08.01.05

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Objectives
  3. Strategies
  4. The Shakespeare characters
  5. History of Portraits
  6. Tudor Portraits
  7. Shakespearean Art
  8. Classroom Activities
  9. Bibliography
  10. Notes

To See or Not to See? A Visual Approach to Identity in Shakespeare

Kimberly Kellog Towne

Published September 2008

Tools for this Unit:

Objectives

I want to facilitate students applying their reading strategies, which they will be concurrently using in English class, to an art project. I will be asking them to use their visual skills in combination with making inferences about characters to create a visual portrait image. The focus of the unit will be on identity and how identity is communicated visually. We will examine how identity is communicated in Tudor portraits and then have the students use the same techniques as Tudor artists to create their own "portrait" of a Shakespearean character.

By teaching this unit, I also hope to inspire in my students an openness to Shakespeare: the beauty of the language, the wonderfully complex stories and characters, the historical context, and the pageantry of the period. And, as they will be encountering Shakespeare again on the high school level, I hope to build a platform for them so when they are academically paired again with Shakespeare, they embrace the opportunity with enthusiasm.

I teach in an inner-city middle school, which also has an International Baccalaureate program. The IB program functions as a school within a school and serves the gifted students for the school system. I teach half time in the regular school program and half time in the IB program. In 8th grade, the IB students can pick either a music class or art class. The 8th grade art class is a year long honors class, which counts as high school credit. In the IB program, there is a focus on interdisciplinary teaching. The 8th grade English teacher does a unit on Romeo and Juliet. I have always wanted to do a unit that would integrate my art class with the English teacher's unit. Since she does her Shakespeare unit in the beginning of the year, at a time when I am doing a unit on self-portraits, this unit will integrate the two concepts.

The two overarching themes for this class are drawing from observation and looking at art in terms of the context in which it was created. This unit is designed to integrate both of these themes/goals. The studio production will be a drawing from observation. We will also be exploring the history of portraiture, Tudor portraits in particular, and the unique type of art known as Shakespearean art (art inspired by Shakespeare), all through the lens of the time period in which they were created. Ultimately, the students will be able to go from the "vocabulary" of the written play to the "vocabulary" of image, by applying the same skills of closely analyzing the character in a play and closely analyzing Tudor portraits and then applying the information acquired from both of these to their own image.

I want them to learn how identity is conveyed, both by writers and artists. They will be exposed to the complex characters of Shakespeare and how he developed those characters so the reader could understand the character's actions and reactions. They will also be exposed to the development of portraiture, and how artists contemporary to Shakespeare were also creating "documents" showing identity. This in turn will enable them to begin to be able to read portraits for their complex, deeper meanings. They will then be able to create a portrait designed to convey characteristics of the subject.

The state standards that will be covered are:

AI.7 The student will use a variety of subject matter and symbols to express ideas in works of art.

AI.6 The student will produce works of art that demonstrate an understanding of two-dimensional art media.

AI.15 The student will identify features of a work of art, including media, subject matter, and formal choices, that influence meaning.

AI.18 The student will identify and examine symbols in works of art and discuss possible reasons for their use.

In addition to the required objectives, I also want the students to be able to use facial proportions and the use of tints and shades to create a sense of 3D.

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