Explaining Character in Shakespeare

Activities

Classroom Meetings

Classroom meetings are the cornerstones of an Anti Bullying Program. Sitting down with students once a week for twenty to thirty minutes will provide a time and place for everyone to voice student concerns in a safe and welcoming environment. Topics for discussion can include:

• Bullying prevention
• Peer relations
• School safety and climate
• Respect for students and staff
• Student generated ideas

For your first meeting you will need space for students to sit in a circle so that everyone can see each other. This can be in chairs or on the rug. Introduce your students to the purpose of these class meetings and how this is different from other school subjects. Explain these occasions as follows: “Class meetings are a time when we can get to know each other better through discussion. We will learn about bullying and anti bullying. We will also learn how to problem solve as a way to prevent bullying in our school. During these meetings it is important for everyone to be heard, so as a class we will set some ground rules so that everyone can feel comfortable talking.”

Work with your class to come to an agreement on expectations and rules. Examples are:

1. We raise our hands when we want to talk.
2. Everyone has a right to be heard.
3. We let others speak without interrupting (within certain time limits).
4. Everyone has a right to pass.
5. We can disagree with being disagreeable or saying mean things; no put-downs.
6. When talking about bullying or other problems between students, we don’t mention names. (Students are told to speak to the teacher privately if they know bullying is going on in the classroom or playground.)

Discuss the rules with the students as each one is introduced and ask for examples from students for clarification. When you are finished write the rules on poster paper for use at each meeting

Introducing the Topic

The first question to present to the class is, “What is bullying?” Students will have a variety of answers. You may want to keep track on poster paper to refer to these later. Additional questions to consider are, “In what ways do students bully?” “Have you seen a bully?” “Have you been bullied?” “Have you witnessed someone being bullied, and if so did you want to stop it?” This should take at least ten minutes, as students will have a lot to say.

Defining the Characteristics of Bullying

Students need to understand the definition of bullying in simple terms so that they can reference it in later meetings. Here are three characteristics of bullying:

• Bullying is when someone says or does mean things to another person over and over. 
• Bullying is done on purpose.
• Bullying is when one person has power over another and that power is used to hurt the other person.

Students will have a lot of comments as each example is presented. A silent journaling time might benefit those students who feel shy about speaking in front of the group. After the characteristics have been introduced the meeting should close with a statement about the school wide stance on Anti Bullying. The next class meeting will introduce the Anti Bullying Pledge and other topics that have come up in the interim.

Shakespeare and The Globe

It’s hard, but not impossible for students to understand what it was like living some three hundred years ago. A brief glimpse into the life and times of William Shakespeare will help get students in the mood for the selections presented in the unit.

Shakespeare’s Schooldays

Around the age of four William Shakespeare would have begun his schooling in a “petty school”. This was a small private school where girls and boys learned to read. At age six the girls left school to learn at home and the boys continued in a local grammar school. School was taught six days a week for twelve hours at a time with a two-hour lunch break. The students were taught Latin. This was an important language to know at the time especially if you were planning on becoming a doctor, lawyer, teacher, or cleric. Little boys spent long hours on stools writing their lessons in “hornbooks” with quill pens. There were no tables so the books needed to be balanced on the pupils’ laps. Discipline was strictly enforced and the subjects taught were the works of ancient Roman authors like Seneca and the poet Ovid. The focus on these writings in Shakespeare’s childhood most likely influenced the writing of his plays.

The Theatre

There were no movie theatres in Shakespeare’s time. People enjoyed live music and theatrical performances. Many of these were held in big rooms and halls around the country. Later theatres were built that could hold larger audiences. The Globe was opened in mid 1599. It was built as a round structure (like the globe) where audiences sat on all sides. There were different tiers according to different prices. The “groundlings” stood on a dirt floor in front of the stage and were exposed to the elements. Then upward from that were the Gentlemen’s Rooms and the Lord’s Room. Audience capacity could reach up to 3,000. There were elaborate costumes bedazzled with jewels and fancy sets painted to look like whatever the script dictated. There was a trap door for sudden entrances and exits and a fly gallery for actors to descend from. Students will find it interesting to note that there were no female actors, only men. Young boys played the female parts and wore many layered costumes and make-up. By reading to your students from Eyewitness, Shakespeare, Rosen and Ingpen, Shakespeare. His Work & His World, and Aliki, William Shakespeare & The Globe you will be able to present your students with many images of the life and times of William Shakespeare.

The Language

William Shakespeare invented some 2,000 words. Many of these words we use today. Introducing your students to some of these vocabulary words will help familiarize them with the dialogue of the plays. The Chicago Shakespeare Theatre has provided a list of ten ways to:

Talk Like Shakespeare

1. Instead of you, say thou or thee.
2. Rhymed couplets are all the rage.
3. Servants are Sirrah, males of equal status are “Sir” among other terms, ladies are sometimes Mistress, and your friends are all called
4. Instead of cursing, try calling your tormenters jackanapes or canker-blossoms or poisonous bunch-back’d toads.
5. Don’t waste time saying, “it,” just use the letter “t” (‘tis,t’will, I’ll do’t).
6. Verse for lovers, prose for ruffians, songs for clowns—at least quite often.
7. When in doubt, add the letters “eth” to the end of verbs (he runneth, he trippeth, he falleth).
8. To add weight to your opinions, try starting them with methinks, mayhaps, in sooth, or
9. When wooing a lady: try comparing her to a summer’s day. If that fails, say “Get thee to a nunnery!”
10. When wooing lads: try dressing up like a man. If that fails, throw him in the Tower, banish his friends and claim the throne.

Students will have loads of laughs composing sentences with these phrases inserted into regular sentences. For more of a challenge you could have them write a short scene using the vocabulary and perform it in front of the class.

Guided Drawing of William Shakespeare

Using the cover drawing from the first folio of plays by William Shakespeare. The teacher will guide students through a portrait drawing. This can be done as a pencil sketch and later traced over with a fine point pen. Using an actual “quill” and ink (a feather with the end sliced into a point)can add an extra flair of authenticity. Draw your student’s attention to the hairstyle, collar, and fine facial features.

As a follow up activity have students make full figure drawings in the costumes typically worn in Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, and The Tempest. Use examples from the Internet to get the idea of color and texture.  These drawings can be done on drawing paper or cardstock and made into stick puppets by attaching a long craft stick to the back. The puppets can be painted with watercolors or drawn in marker or crayon.

Taking the lines written by the students from the previous activity and using them with the puppets would be very entertaining. It would also be possible to use them with a variety of available adaptations written for children that I cite in my Bibliography.