Shakespeare and Human Character

Strategies

For this unit, embedded in a larger study of ancient Rome, and ultimately of world history, pre-teaching is very important. Students will draw on prior knowledge, analysis, and evaluation to build connections to the parallel world of Shakespeare's Roman plays. I want every student to be successful and master the objectives; therefore, we will lay the groundwork from the beginning of the year.

I will present the overriding theme of leadership during our first social studies class. Students will begin with a short journaling assignment on the meaning of leadership and what qualities a good leader possesses. Using Socratic seminar method, students will refine their definitions of positive and negative leadership qualities. I will record their ideas on chart paper and tape it to the wall for future revisions and/or additions. This will act as a reference sheet for us throughout the year. During the next two weeks, we will work on a geography unit, concentrating on political maps. Students will break into groups to investigate continents and the countries on them, along the way learning about the different forms of government and discussing what type of leadership is best suited to each one. In seminar, the students will develop a rubric for good leadership. They will use it to assess the performances of various leaders, past and present, throughout the year. Essentially my goal is that the students be able to articulate and come to consensus on the qualities of good leadership. For example, the ideal leader could demonstrate a well-articulated vision that is communicated and understood by those around; self-confidence; ability to delegate and utilize the talents of the team; competence and common sense; ability to make and take responsibility for decisions; integrity; respect for others; ability to influence others. All of these and more are possibilities for the fundamental definition of this person.

The framework for all the instruction will be a system called 4MAT, introduced to me by a fourth-grade colleague. This method promotes connections between different disciplines and learning styles by moving through different lessons and activities that utilize both sides of the brain while engaging different learning styles. Howard Gardner and other researchers have demonstrated the effectiveness of identifying and teaching to the multiple intelligences. Addressing the wide range of learning styles and needs of our students has become increasingly important in the age of video games, television, and iPods. Integrated thematic teaching offers multiple approaches that help ensure a child grasps concepts and learns necessary skills. This is an especially effective approach for special needs and struggling students, a category that seems to increase yearly. Using drama, movement, and flexible groupings can make learning more accessible to these challenged students. Because our incoming sixth graders have an abnormally high percentage of identified learning disabled and other students with low academic skills, these approaches will be beneficial in the upcoming school year.

Socratic seminars, similar to the widespread "Accountable Talk" program out of the University of Pittsburgh, will be an underlying element throughout the year. A less regimented format, Socratic seminars have many things in common with accountable, or productive, talk. There is the same emphasis on thinking deeply, providing rationales, and active listening. Socratic seminars, though, date back to the ancient Greeks. They enjoyed a revival of interest during the 1980's as a complement to Mortimer Adler's Paideia Proposal for school reform. ^{1 3} This model of structured dialogue develops critical thinking skills, self-esteem, and comprehension through what Lynda Tredway calls "cooperative inquiry." ^{1 4} Typically a Socratic seminar begins with a common text that has been read before the group gathers. The facilitator poses thought-provoking questions designed to stimulate discussion. Through conversation and debate, students work through the writing to establish meaning, consider the ideas of others, and learn to support their own ideas from the text they are reading. They learn to analyze and synthesize information and to evaluate moral and ethical questions about complex personal and societal issues. The role of the seminar leader is that of "the guide on the side": providing seminal questions, paraphrasing when necessary, modeling respect, and sharing expectations for cooperative dialogue. Students do not instantaneously form a circle and begin courteous and meaningful conversations. It is a skill that must be taught and practiced. But the rewards are many and significant. According to Tredway, teachers who have participated in research projects (both qualitative and anecdotal) report that Socratic seminars promote "metacognition, conflict resolution and interest in learning." ^{1 5} Because I will be developing students' skills in the art of discussion from the beginning of the school year, they should be comfortable and competent with the process by the time we get to Rome.

The background knowledge developed during the year will be the foundation upon which the present curriculum unit is built. As part of the scope and sequence of the social studies curriculum, the students will be introduced to the section on ancient Rome, with special attention being paid to government - the time of the Republic through the Empire. Knowledge of the actual history is crucial for later discussions of the contrasts and similarities in Shakespeare's vision of events. They will also be familiar with thinking of compare and contrast because, in our study of Greece, I will have set the stage for looking at the parallels of Rome and Alexandria by studying those of Sparta and Athens.

As we study the history of Rome, students will create a timeline on colored butcher paper that is displayed in the hallway. In a small group setting, they will research important historical personages, writing a one-page summary. They will then draw their assigned person on tag board. The drawing will be cut out and put in the appropriate place on the timeline with the summary. This timeline will serve to place the Shakespearean characters in context.

When the students have been exposed to the background information, I will bring in Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra and introduce the objectives of the unit to the students. I will write the names of the six main characters we will examine on the board - Julius Caesar, Antony, Brutus, Cassius, Octavius, and Cleopatra - and ask what they all might have in common and what the students think we will be doing next. This exercise helps the children sort through the information they have learned and make connections and predictions. I will explain that we will compare and contrast the leaders they "know" from history and the characters they will meet through Shakespeare's plays, reminding the children of our leadership rubric. We will also discuss the differences in text structure between a nonfiction text (we will be using a juvenile biography of Julius Caesar) and a play, focusing on the elements and conventions of a script, which may be unfamiliar to students. On the overhead projector, we will compare a paragraph from Ellen Galford's recent children's biography Julius Caesar: The Boy Who Conquered an Empire with a scene from the play involving him. Students will use a Venn diagram graphic organizer to visually demonstrate the similarities and differences.

In this context, we will also review strategies that good readers use to increase reading comprehension and how they can be used in reading the plays. Renowned reading specialists like Debbie Miller (Reading With Meaning), Ellin Oliver Keene (Mosaic of Thought), and Stephanie Harvey (Strategies That Work) advocate approaches that will assist students in accessing meaning in Shakespeare's work. Here are some ways students can use these strategies in this unit:

1. Making connections to oneself, other text, or to the world: Compare your knowledge of Roman history to Julius Caesar or fighting over an empire to the war in Iraq.
2. Predicting what will happen next: Will Antony or Octavius win the battle of Actium and why do you think so?
3. Questioning: Why did Cassius need Brutus on the conspiracy team?
4. Inferring: What can you tell about Caesar as a ruler from Antony's speech?
5. Visualizing: Close your eyes and think about Antony's speech to the mob. What do you see? Hear?
6. Summarizing: What was the gist of Brutus' speech in the orchard?

Reminding students of these strategies will set them up for a more successful experience.

Getting to know William Shakespeare will be our next undertaking. To activate prior knowledge, we will start with a large K-W-L chart, a graphic organizer which helps children understand what they already know and record what they have learned. Students write down what they already know about Shakespeare (K) and what they want to know (W). Then we start the information session. Pauline Nelson's Starting with Shakespeare has a wonderfully informative and entertaining "biography ladder" that I will use with the students. The four steps build on each other: "The Bard's Bare-Bones Bio", "Better Bio", "Best Bio", and "The Bard's Beefy Bio - Second Helpings!" I will divide the class into groups of varying size, and each group will present the biographical information assigned to them to the class. After the groups share, we will go back to the chart to record what we have learned (L). A brief summary of Elizabethan theater will complete this knowledge set.

My students will need multiple approaches and scaffolding during this unit. I will start them out with a synopsis of the plot, one per day. Using Shakespeare for Beginners, I will read the story, stopping to write the characters on chart paper as we go. To help the children keep the characters straight, I will use different colors for different factions; for example, in Julius Caesar all the conspirators could be red (fittingly) while Antony and Octavius and crew can be blue. The charts will remain posted for the entire unit so that children have resources to help with comprehension. Once the children are secure in the storyline, we will move on to the selected text.

For my purposes, students will not be reading the entire plays. Excerpts will be chosen for their relevance to the concept of leadership and will be listed in an appendix. An example would be the opening lines in Antony and Cleopatra:

    Nay, but this dotage of our general's
    O'erflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes
    That o'er the files and musters of the war
    Have glowed like plated Mars, now bend, now turn
    The office and devotion of their view
    Upon a tawny front. His captain's heart,
    Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
    The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper
    And is become the bellows and the fan
    To cool a gypsy's lust.
    Philo: Act One, Scene One, 1 - 10
  

Apart from pausing over key speeches, however, I will summarize the intervening action for the children as we move through the plays to ensure the continuity of understanding.

I will use a variety of resources to introduce the text, including manga (also known as graphic editions - a sort of comic book format) and child-friendly versions of Shakespeare (No Fear and others). Graphic novels and manga appeal to both children and teens and are especially effective in encouraging struggling readers, especially boys and ELL, to read; pictures help readers decipher meaning by giving contextual clues. These appealing books "require the reader to be actively engaged in the process of decoding and comprehending a range of literary devices, including narrative structure, metaphor and symbolism, point of view, the use of puns and alliteration, intertextuality, and inference." ^{1 6} No Fear Shakespeare editions have the original text on the left page with a modern "translation" on the right page, making it easy for students to understand (students can also access No Fear Shakespeare online at http://nfs.sparknotes.com/). Film clips of the two plays will be used as we study specific scenes. Not only will this deepen the comprehension of the material for a variety of learning styles, it will also model dramatic presentation and give a visual backdrop to help children understand the setting. Students will focus on use of body language, inflection, and sets to provide insights into the characters.

Elements of drama will be discussed as a prelude to a culminating theater/film project at the end of the unit. We will talk about the purpose of a script - to perform for people who are not reading the text. How does an actor get the message across to the audience? Before the students get the text, I will model reading a script, first with no emphasis and stopping at the end of each line, and then using phrasing and expression. Students will report their reactions and emotional responses as listeners. They will also discuss how their understanding of the text increases with the dramatic reading.

Text selections will be assigned for homework so that students will all be familiar with the material when they come to class. When they come into the room, there will be a "Do Now", a short journaling activity, on the board. They will sit down and write in their journals (anticipatory set). The journaling will be related to their reading and will serve to focus the top

ic of the Socratic seminar.