Introduction and Rationale
One enters the room and feels the excitement. Thirty-three adolescents are sitting at desks arranged in small groups of four or five. Each is armed with books, post-it notes, highlighters, and pencils. Walking around the groups, one hears each of them speaking in English, taking turns to talk about the text that they have been reading. These English Language Learners (ELLs) are motivated and excited about what they are discussing. One sees their arms moving around, fingers pointing to parts of the book, and hears their voices as they get louder and louder trying to convince their group members that their opinion or idea is correct, that what they think matters. I walk around and stop at one group. I overhear Brenda, an ELL who has been in the United States for three and a half years, state, "Impossible, NO WAY this relationship is for real." Jose asks why. Brenda replies, "Three days, PLEASE, no way Romeo and Juliet met, fell in love, got married, and killed themselves in only three days. It does not happen that way." Imagine the pride and wonder I feel as their teacher. I think, "They get it, they really get it." What do they get? Shakespeare, can you imagine? My ELLs are reading, understanding, and discussing a revered author who is still feared by many students and adults alike!
Since my students stay within our program for more than one year, over two-thirds of the students in my 2008 - 2009 English Language Arts (ELA) class will remain with me in the upcoming academic year. These students had the benefit of being introduced to Shakespeare and his work this past school year. Together, we followed the unit I had created in the 2008 Yale National Initiative's Seminar, Race and Gender in Shakespeare. This unit, English Language Learners (ELLs) Investigate the Identity of Shakespeare and His Characters, exposed students to an author study of Shakespeare and a discussion of a few of his plays, including Romeo and Juliet. As a whole class, we read a comic strip, a children's version of the story, and then excerpts from the original play. This process was important as it scaffolded the English language for these students, who are currently reading between the second and fifth grade level in English, giving them the support structure necessary to comprehend the text, going from comic strip format with few words and many illustrations to the Shakespearean language of the original plays. Building upon our prior experience, this year students will be able to take what we have learned and apply it to the new information that we will acquire in the proposed unit, giving them a strong foundation for comprehending Shakespeare's works as well as the art of characterization.
Our focus will be on how students must be able to analyze characters in literature. According to state standards, students must be able to demonstrate an overall understanding of a story's elements including: plot, setting, and characters. In this unit, students will be required to analyze some of the most famous and complex characters in three of Shakespeare's plays - Hamlet, Julius Caesar, and King Lear. Analyzing characters and the role they play in developing a story's plot helps students better understand the stories they read. An analysis should involve a detailed examination of all aspects of the character, including but not limited to: traits, features, and motivation. Traits are considered to be words that can describe the persona - who is the character; a description of what he or she is like. Features are physical attributes: large, short, hairy, or muscular, among others. Motivation indicates why someone does what they do - what is responsible for their actions.
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