Teaching a Midsummer Night's Dream

I am terrible at blogging. Oh well, I won't dwell on it. I think most of what can be said about the Turner essay has been said. So, I'm going to move on into A Midsummer Night's Dream.

As I said in my introduction, I haven't read much Shakespeare. I could have taken a Shakespeare course in high school, but wasn't interested at the time. I give you this information because it is with this limited scope that I say that I would really like to teach a Midsummer Night's Dream when I become a teacher.

Maybe there are better plays (possibly) and there are for sure more serious ones, and in due time I will read all of them. But, I do know this after multiple readings of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I really enjoy it, and so I think teaching it would be fun.

I found a site that has a few unit plans for A Midsummer Night's Dream, and I find one in particular interesting. It is titled "I will hear that play" which is a lesson focused on the language of the play. Students focus on what they hear, not necessarily what they see.

Shakespeare can be frustrating, at least for me, because there is so little in terms of stage direction. It takes a little getting used to (and if anyone has some tricks for reading plays, I'd love to hear them. It takes me much longer to get a feel for a play than it does a novel). But, this lesson deals with what is being said, the sound of the language. The lesson calls for students to watch a scene from the film and discuss what they hear. I think this lesson is off to a good start, but then discusses the role of Foley artists in a play, which is not exactly what I would want to discuss when teaching Shakespeare, but that's what this teacher wanted to do.

I think though that this lesson is a good start, because it brings into focus the language of the play. To hear the words can work to some students' benefits (those who aren't as strong of readers, or learn better  by hearing). We've talked at length about the words that Shakespeare uses, and to hear them through an actor lends the work to a different form of appreciation.

I'm thinking about how I'd like to teach A Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as Shakespeare in general. I'm working on my own sort of unit plan for it. I'll share it at a later date. I don't know how many other teaching option students there are in this course, so bear with me strictly Lit people. I'll be writing a lot about this topic. "How would I teach this? How can this relate to the common core?" I think this has some merit though in a LIT course. After all, if you are going to teach something, you had best engage in it to your fullest potential.

I figured out what I want to memorize

Today in class, I opened up Essential Shakespeare to page 131 and, for whatever reason, the passage there struck me. It's at the bottom of the page. Maybe because we were talking in class about death and that passage has to do with death, but it connected with me. I kept stealing glances back at the passage as class went on. I read it to myself as I walked back to my truck, and then read it aloud when I got inside my vehicle. (Though, perhaps Dr. Sexson would have preferred I read it aloud as I walked through campus, as to "freak people out"!)

I sense a theme already in the class of people being struck by things they find accidentally. Some one opens 'Essential Shakespeare' to a page and finds a connection between that particular passage and what is being discussed in class. Another opens to a different page and finds words for something that had been troubling them. Perhaps it isn't so accidental. Perhaps if we keep our minds open to these sorts of chances, they are more likely to happen.

Or maybe we're all just really smart people. Either one works.

At any rate, I like this passage because it refers to death, which has come up a lot in the course already. Death is nothingness, yet it is what there is to talk about. So much history centers around the dead and most of what we do in life is to help us be remembered after we're dead. So, why not talk about it as King Richard II does?

For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;
All murder'd: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,

Who knows why we are struck by the passages that we are. Why some words seem to resonate within our souls, why some sayings connect with us so powerfully. Maybe by studying this passage more, I'll figure something out. Until then, this is what I want to memorize. 

Alan

Shakespeare the wordsmith

We discussed on Monday how Shakespeare "ratcheted up" the English language in his plays. He did not reflect how people spoke, yet lent his characters such a force of words that they have lasted through the centuries. I think this is in part to the words he invented, or brought into English from other languages. Like a painter mixing in new colors to get something just right, Shakespeare came up with new words to fit his thoughts. While he may not have been aware of it at the time, expanding the English vocabulary is one of his greatest legacies and one of the reasons Shakespeare has remained very relevant long after his hour upon the stage has passed.

What I found interesting in the Hugh's essay was how Shakespeare would introduce new words in his plays. He gave contextual clues as to their meaning so that the aristocracy and the uneducated alike could understand their meaning. Giving this power of language to the masses must have helped with his popularity. He helped level the playing field, at least from a vocabulary stand point, across the different classes in London.

It is something of a wonder for Shakespeare to have invented words and impacted the English language so, but also do it in a way that was accessible to all. Think of the new words that are invented today, or used to describe cutting edge technologies and the latest in thought. The density of the vocabulary probably keeps some people away from learning more about subjects that interest them. Why bother learning about string theory if you have to look up every other word. Shakespeare did not turn the laymen away, but instead invited them into the world of his plays.

Hello

Welcome to Alan Reads Shakespeare, a blog set-up for my Shakespeare class this semester (Spring, '13) at Montana State University. I'm excited for this class, as I've never really read a lot of Shakespeare (I can only recall reading Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream). More to come, obviously, but for now that's all I can think of to say.