[LM_NET] TAR: HS Shakespeare

[M L <rylor4@GMAIL.COM>]

Thank you to everyone who shared! I can't wait to show my teacher the great
(and numerous) responses!
Original:

I have a high school teacher who will be doing a unit on Shakespeare. She’d
like to introduce the unit using picture books. I have one on Romeo and
Juliet but it is still quite long. The students are high school but many are
on lower reading/learning levels so she is looking for fun activities/books
to engage them before diving head long into a play.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I’ll post a hit.

TIA

Michelle



Responses:



Bruce Coville has done several Shakespeare books with various illustrators.
They are beautiful picture books. You may want to take a look at some of
these.



Something rotten: a Horatio Wilkes mystery / Alan Gratz is based on
Shakespeare's play Hamlet.



Movie: "O" with Mekhi Phifer and Julia Stiles

This movie is rated R so definitely for high school. I saw this title in
Reel adventures: the savvy teens' guide to great movies by John LeKich, but
can't specifically say if it is appropriate to view in a school or library
setting.
Also, Othello: a novel / Julius Lester



Enter Three Witches: a story of Macbeth by Caroline Cooney   Novelist says
grades 8-12



I also saw a new book by Lisa Klein at the bookstore this weekend -
MacBeth's Daughter.



This book is really good - I just reviewed it for SLJ.  Has anyone mentioned
Suzanne Harper's book The Juliet Club (which refers to Henry V and other
Shakespeare plays, as well as Romeo and Juliet)?



Bruce Coville has re-written many of the Shakespeare stories into picture
books.  They are still a little long, as picture books go, but are a good
bit easier to understand than the real thing!




Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty by Jody Gehman (Speak 2009) is a
reworking of Much Ado About Nothing.



Check out the Perma-bound 2009-10 High/Lo Catalog (or on
website)---Shakespeare Made Easy  RL 7.  Has teacher's guide, thinking
activities, and quiz.  Complete original text is laid out side by side with
modern translation.

AND

Saddleback Classics and Saddleback Illustrated Classics, RL 3.6 and 5,
respectively are also listed in the Perma-bound catalog.  You may be able to
view samples of these at www.sdlback.com

There is also Shakespeare for Young People---abridged versions with
summaries of deleted passages.



I think there are Graphic versions of Shakespeare plays too.  Try Capstone
or an Amazon search...



I've often used variations on this exercise where the students hurl
Shakespearean insults at each other.  It can be a lot of fun and gets them
using the language in a low-stakes, nonthreatening way.

http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/dryfoo/Funny-pages/shakespeare-insult-kit.html



If you're still looking for books for your high school list, think about Mal
Peet's new novel Exposure, a terrific reimagining of Othello.



There's a new one out called simply "Hamlet" by John Marsden.



Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty is a retelling of Much Ado About Nothing
(more appropriate for high schoolers).



Try the following site: http://www.folger.edu/edulesplanarch.cfm



We had a workshop with people from Folger that was WONDERFUL. Teaching
Shakespeare is supposed to be fun and hands-on.



I know that you said the English teacher wants to do a lesson plan on Romeo
and Juliet, but I was thinking that perhaps since these are lower reading
level students, she could combine the lesson using both video and
reading.  Sometimes
it helps these students if they can actually "see" the play, while reading
it.  Having my bachelors in English, I personally believe that Shakespeare's
plays were meant to be seen.  However, since reading the plays are mandatory
for school standards, maybe she can go the comedies route with "Much A Do
About Nothing" or the standard "Hamlet" has many video versions.  It is
beneficial for the students to read a bit of the play then watch the same
part they had just read.  Sometimes this gets them interested and they see
Shakespeare in a new light.



Are you familiar with the series "Shakespeare Can be Fun?"  It's a
publication by Firefly books.  They are Shakespeare scripts written for
younger kids.



When I taught Romeo and Juliet, I showed West Side Story at the end of the
unit.  Perhaps she could introduce the themes of R&J in a modern setting by
showing the musical first.  There's lots of literature out there featuring
the "star crossed lovers" syndrome.  Even the Twilight series deals with
that theme a little bit. She could discuss the longer works of fiction
rather than actually reading them. As for picture books, I'm not sure.



I also did a pretty extensive project with it.  I'm attaching copies of my
project description and rubric.  Some of the items in the portfolio are
pretty tough (I have them write an English sonnet), so it might not work
with lower level kids, but some stuff is pretty fun and basic (character
awards and whatnot).   The kids usually enjoyed it despite the fact that it
was a lot of work.  If you’d like to give her my email, I can send her more
of my stuff (I have a ton!)



I like the series, Shakespeare Can Be Fun, by Burdett, Lois.  The reading
level is 6.1 within 64 pages.  Many of Shakespeare's plays are represented.



Bruce Coville has done several of Shakespeare's plays, including Romeo and
Juliet in a prose, 40 page picture book format. Several publishers have come
out with graphic novel Shakespeare. And Gareth Hinds recently came out with
King Lear in graphic novel format.



Aliki has a book on Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre.  (That might actually
be its name, though I am not certain.)  It would be ideal, I think.  There
is also a collection of six of Shakespeare's plays rendered in picture-book
version (all in one book), though for the life of me I can't recall the
title or who did it.  That might be Aliki also.



A perfect fit may well be the comic-book style, graphic condensations by
Marcia Williams.  She preserved whenever possible "Shakespeare's own words"
for her presentations. -- adapted to a length and simplicity suitable for
older elementary or middle school students while retaining the complex plots
and characterizations so familiar to readers of Shakespeare. The six stories
offer readers a taste of the comic and the tragic, and will provide the
incentive to tackle the plays themselves at the high school level under
proper adult guidance.



Tales from Shakespeare:

Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, The Winter's Tale, Julius Caesar,
Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Tempest



More Tales from Shakespeare

AS YOU LIKE IT, KING LEAR, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA,
TWELFTH NIGHT, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, and RICHARD III



There was a lovely Mary Chalmers illus book of verses I used for a
children's program- over 20 years ago...



This is a subject dear to my heart, and I require some of these titles for
my graduate students because so many of them have NO exposure to Shakespeare
to go to. If I were empress, I would make Rosen's books required for every
student and every teacher in the US. PLEASE let them see a play on film!
Shakespeare was meant to be heard and seen, not read.



Michael Rosen, Shakespeare: His Work and His World



Michael Rosen, reteller, Illus by Jane Ray. Shakespeare´s Romeo and Juliet



Manga Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, Illus by Sonia Leong, text adaptor
Richard Appignanesi, Amulet/Abrams 2007.



Bravo, Mr William Shakespeare, by Marcia Williams



Romeo + Juliet http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117509/

Romeo and Juliet http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063518/

Midsummer Night´s Dream http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140379/

Henry V http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097499/



I would recommend:

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE & THE GLOBE by Aliki

SHAKESPEARE FOR KIDS — HIS LIFE AND TIMES:  12 ACTIVITIES by Colleen Aagesen

BARD OF AVON by Diane Stanley



There are some good graphic novels of his plays.



You could introduce Romeo and Juliet with a clip from West Side Story. If
you show the fight scene, students usually get hooked.  Or, if she rather,
she could read from the play of West Side Story.  There are some good
pictures in the deluxe edition of the DVD.

Hope this helps!



This is probably not what the teacher is looking for, but I like this site
because it has lesson plans and many of these builders.



Shakespeare Speaks http://www.informationliteracy.org/builder/view/185/417


-- 
Michelle Levy
School Library Media Specialist
Eton Academy
Birmingham, MI
rylor4@gmail.com (home)
mlevy@etonacademy.org (work)

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