Genre One -- WikiHow Article

Here is the link to my WikiHow article teaching the eight steps to engage students in a play:

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-the-Entire-Class-Engaged-in-Reading-a-Play

And here is the link to my original version with some edits added by a stranger:

http://www.wikihow.com/index.php?title=Get-the-Entire-Class-Engaged-in-Reading-a-Play&diff=0&oldid=16042403

Genre Two -- Letter to Parents

Joanna Meyer

3^rd Period Language Arts

8^th Grade Language Arts

Shakalake Middle School

Dear Parent or Guardian,

            Hello, my name is Joanna Meyer and I am your son/daughter’s eighth grade Language Arts teacher and head of Shakalake’s Language Arts department.   I have been teaching for eight years, and have been in my current position for the past four.  I graduated in ’13 from LaGrange College with double bachelor’s degrees in English and theatre performance, before going on to receive my MAT in English from the University of Georgia.   I have been performing and directing plays for the last fourteen years.

            As an educator, I feel that each and every student I teach has the power to succeed, and that it is my job to give them the tools that unlock this power.  I believe that the best way to engage children in a lesson is to relate the material to something they already know and are comfortable with.  The text must matter to them.  They must be shown how even work from thousands of years ago can still be relevant to their lives here in the twenty first century.

            As you may know, we are beginning a drama unit on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in Language Arts class.  The students have begun reading the play in class, and we are currently on the second act.  In an effort to further engage students and to help them make sense  of the complex language involved, the Language Arts department has decided to have students perform an abridged version of the play.  Robert G. Young, author of “Dear Mr. Roberts: Please Teach Shakespeare in Middle School” explains that a performance-based approach to teaching the plays of Shakespeare has been shown to be a positive experience for students, and ultimately raising their test scores.

I have found that this fosters student understanding of character nuances and encourages confidence.  In addition, this activity will call for a close reading of the text, allowing the students to more easily dissect the heightened language found in Shakespearean dialogue.

            Auditions and rehearsals will take place during class time, with the final production occurring in four weeks, on February 13^th at 11:25 a.m.  We are currently looking for volunteers to aid in costume construction, program printing, and set building.  If you are interested in helping, please email me at jmeyer@shakalakemiddle.edu  and let me know in what areas you are comfortable working.

Thank you for your help,

Joanna Meyer

Language Arts Department Head

Shakalake Middle School

Genre Three -- Model Translations

"A Midsummer Night’s Dream"

Monologue from Act 1 Scene 1

Shakespearean English:

HELENA

How happy some o'er other some can be!

Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.

But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;

He will not know what all but he do know:

And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,

So I, admiring of his qualities:

Things base and vile, folding no quantity,

Love can transpose to form and dignity:

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;

And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:

Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;

Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:

And therefore is Love said to be a child,

Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.

As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,

So the boy Love is perjured every where:

For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,

He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;

And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,

So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.

I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:

Then to the wood will he to-morrow night

Pursue her; and for this intelligence

If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:

But herein mean I to enrich my pain,

To have his sight thither and back again.

Modern English:

HELENA

Some people just get all of the happiness! 

Everybody in Athens thinks we are equally pretty! 

But who cares? Demetrius doesn’t agree;

He is the only person who doesn’t see it:

And while he is so obsessed with Hermia’s beauty here I am so obsessed with him.

Even the ugliest, meanest things become beautiful if you love the person.

Love is not based on sight, but based on the soul.

That’s why Cupid is shown to be blind in paintings.

Cupid has no sense of good judgement.

He can fly, but he is blind.  He scrambles around so quickly and restlessly just like a child, always making mistakes.  He is just like a child cheating at games, Cupid is naughty in everything he does

Because before Demetrius discovered Hermia he swore to me that he loved me and would never love anyone else ever again!  But as soon as he saw Hermia all of these promises crumbled into nothing.

I know! I will go warn him that Hermia and Lysander are going to run away!  This way, he will go chasing after her.  I can follow him and this way I can hang around him even more!  The hurt this might cause me is worth it just to be able to look at him!

  

Monologue From Act 2 Scene 1

Shakespearean English:

PUCK

Thou speak'st aright;

I am that merry wanderer of the night.

I jest to Oberon and make him smile

When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,

Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:

And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,

In very likeness of a roasted crab,

And when she drinks, against her lips I bob

And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.

The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,

Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;

Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,

And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;

And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,

And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear

A merrier hour was never wasted there.

But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.

Modern English:  

PUCK

That’s right!

I am that creeping nighttime walker that you are talking about.

I joke to Oberon to make him laugh and smile by teasing fat horses. I trick them by neighing like a female pony:

And sometime I hide in old women’s soup bowls and bob just like a crab, so that when she takes a sip I bump her lips so that the liquid spills all down her wrinkly neck!

I make the most serious of aunts, telling the saddest tale, think that there is a three-legged stool sitting there but when she goes to sit down I snatch the stool away, making her fall and cry out, coughing!  Then everybody around her holds their sides and laughs and has a great time of making fun of her.  Those are the best times.

Hey, look out! Here comes Oberon.

Monologue from Act 2 Scene 2

Shakespearean English:

HERMIA

[Awaking] Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best

To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!

Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!

Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:

Methought a serpent eat my heart away,

And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.

Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!

What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?

Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;

Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.

No? then I well perceive you all not nigh

Either death or you I'll find immediately.

Modern English:

HERMIA

[Waking] Help me, Lysander, help me! Do your best to get this snake off of my chest!  Oh my, what a scare! What a dream I just had!  Lysander, look at how I am shaking in fear:  I thought a snake was eating my heart away, and you sat smiling at what he was doing!  Lysander! What, are you gone?  Lysander, lord!  What, can’t you hear me?  Gone?  Not a sound, gone without telling me?  Please, speak to me if you can hear me, speak! Please, for love’s sake!  I’m so scared that I’m about to faint! No?  Then I guess you aren’t close by.  Either death or you I’ll find immediately.

Process Paper

Readers/Writers Process Paper

I decided to conduct my Readers/Writers project on the following question: “What are the ways to engage the WHOLE class when reading a play?” While this was my original topic, I chose to narrow it down to mostly focus on Shakespeare’s plays as my work progressed. This topic is particularly important to me because of my background and career aspirations. I believe that Shakespearean plays are critically important staples in the world of literature due to the relevance and timeless appeal of their stories, coupled with the fact that his plays have greatly influenced countless works of literature and even pop culture.


While working on the multiple unusual genres that comprise this project, it was important to me that the audience was very different for each one. In fact, I attempted to make each genre as unique as possible from the other two. I feel that I have achieved this, as one is directed at fellow teachers, one at parents, and the final at students.


I first created a “WikiHow” article that shares eight steps for teachers looking to engage their class in reading a play. I used “Hamlet” as the example text for this. The only frustrating thing about this genre that I did not realize as I was creating it is that anyone can and will change what you have written. For instance, one of the edits to my page by a random stranger involved removing the word “found” in the phrase “found poem.” Of course, this completely changes the meaning of the term. I considered changing it back, but as time went on more and more changes were made and it is virtually impossible to keep up with them all. Nonetheless, the link I have included to my WikiHow article links to my original draft and displays some of the edits a stranger has made to it.


The next genre that I made is in the form of a letter to parents from the teacher. In the letter, I take some time to introduce myself and my teaching philosophy, before delving in to what our Shakespeare unit is going to entail. I conclude the obviously-angled letter by asking for volunteers to help with our production. Besides just asking for help, I believe that it is important for parents to have to opportunity to understand the relevance of a piece of literature that some might perceive as antiquated. Even more importantly, I believe that parents/guardians need to be onboard to some extent when you are taking on a project as massive as a mini production of a Shakespeare play. It is crucially important to explain to parents why such an activity would be useful and not a waste of class time.


My final genre might weirdly be considered the most unusual as a choice of “genre.” I am choosing to call this genre “model piece.” It is designed to have an audience of my students. This piece I created would serve as a model text for when my students take monologues from the Shakespeare play at hand and attempt to translate the language into the modern vernacular. I realize that many of my students might say to me, “But Ms. Meyer! Don’t you know that they have No Fear Shakespeare for this?? Why would I spend time doing this myself when I can just look up the translation online or in that book?” Well, my answer to that would be this: Don’t just go jumping in to the No Fear Shakespeare book. Try it yourself first with at least a small section of text, and then, later, see how close you came. You will probably surprise yourself, and you just might have done a better job than the cheat sheet!


As for my research, I feel that I included a very broad range of resource types ranging from personal interview to journal article to lesson plan. I was amazed and comforted to find how many resources are available to teachers. I was also encouraged to see that many of my own assumptions about the teaching of plays in English class were supported by the resources I found. In fact, more than once I found myself making an inference and then backtracking to see if I could find someone more experienced than be that supported it. More often than not, I could.


I am looking quite forward to implementing many of these ideas into my own classroom in my student teaching of plays. However, I do not in any way think that these methods should be limited to the teaching of plays, exclusively. Many methods, such as acting out scenes and rewriting monologues can also be applied to works of fiction such as novels and short stories to encourage better understanding. In the end, this project taught me a lot more than just how to get students excited about plays. It taught me how to get students excited about reading.

Note: Compiling the project was not really that inspired. I wanted to put it into an online, accessible space while avoiding simply emailing it to my professor.

Sources for Readers/Writers Project

How Can We Get the Entire Class Engaged in Reading a Play

Sources for Readers/Writers Project

1) Fantastic Website. This site lists several plays and provides lesson plans, activities, and engagement opportunities for student in grades 6-12 students.  In short, it provides ways to make drama “fun.”

http://www.webenglishteacher.com/drama5.html

2) Interview with Margarita Moldovan, executive director of local theater and previously middle school English teacher:w

q) How would you describe your approach?  Are you student-centered and a responsive teacher?  Are you more teacher-directed?  How does that help/hurt your work with other teachers?

a) This question is interesting because I used to be very teacher centered - sort of Socratic, but still pouring info into their minds. After I earned my MAT (yes, me, too) my style became more student focused. Even with planning, I often look for the sensitive areas of the class - what fires them up - in order to choose activities for them. I try to give them the time they need to learn various aspects of the issue. I am at leisure at the theater, since we work at the pace I choose, but it would have caused a lot of trouble working with other teachers because in schools, they must cover so much at a time without regard to what the students find interesting and worthy of further study. Holding back classes to learn more deeply is not ok when working with groups of teachers. There is a protocol to follow and it feels to them as though you are sabotaging their progress. 

q) What does your planning process look like for a lesson/unit?

a) Planning units is one of my favorite things! I start with the outcomes, then look at my old plans and notes from them. Then I scour the internet for other ways of teaching the lessons. I typically find some things that I can fuse together - color units with properties of light, for example - then I make a new lesson from all of that. Don't discount old text books! They are often useful for helping organize a unit. I always incorporate visual art as well!

q) How do you handle the students who "hate plays?"

a) Students hate plays because they have been poorly taught. Period. If they do not want to read, I give them something to do, such as plan a set, prop or costume plot. Some students are not performers, and they need a way into the literature. 

q)   How do you help students visualize the action of a play when they are reading it?

a) The very first thing I do is have them perform some part of the play, so they understand how the meaning changes when it is given form. This usually sets them on fire to learn what the rest of the show means. The street brawl in Romeo & Juliet is a great place to start!

q) Do you have your students read the play aloud?  Watch it?  Read it for homework?

a) I don't like them to watch it because it takes away from their own interpretation. I like to have them act out, with direction, small portions, and then have them read it and bring in director's notes.

--Interview conducted via email, 1/1/14

3) Youtube clip of Nelson Middle School’s production of Romeo and Juliet via all of the middle school’s 8^th grade classes working together with a guest artist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9KwgnX4ru8

4) Excellent site that provides scaffolding for how to write a letter home to parents as an educator:

 http://teaching.wonderhowto.com/how-to/write-letter-from-teachers-parents-0119813/

5) Scholarly article from “The English Journal.”  Encourages teachers not to be afraid to teach Shakespeare at the middle school level.  With appropriate direction, they can handle it.

http://www.jstor.org.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/stable/10.2307/40503286?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=teaching&searchText=shakespeare&searchText=in&searchText=middle&searchText=school&searchText=english&searchText=class&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dteaching%2Bshakespeare%2Bin%2Bmiddle%2Bschool%2Benglish%2Bclass%26amp%3Bprq%3Dteaching%2Bshakespeare%2Bin%2Benglish%2Bclass%26amp%3Bso%3Drel%26amp%3Bhp%3D25%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff

6) Website explaining methods of introducing ESL speakers to Shakespeare.  I found this useful because it suggested having ESL students translate the difficult language into modern English as a fun, engaging activity.  This made me think that the same techniques might be applied to help struggling native English speakers, as well, to understand the heightened language.

http://www.njcu.edu/CILL/vol7/heyden.html

7)A curriculum guide for “Romeo and Juliet”… suggests students translate key scenes into modern English.  This also supports the idea of having students translate the text into modern English.

http://pages.simonandschuster.com/images/ckfinder/26/pdfs/Folger%20Curriculum%20Guides/Guides-Apr2012/Folger_RomeoandJuliet.pdf

8) “Hamlet” lesson plan by Courtney Andersen builds on pop culture.  The lesson plan links “The Lion King” to “Hamlet” to show students how older texts can influence modern works.  I had already known about the “Hamlet”/”The Lion King” connection, but to see it again addressed within the context of an English classroom was encouraging.

http://www.uvm.edu/~canders9/tlklesson.pdf

9) This website explains that Shakespeare is meant to be performed.  It is best understood this way, because this is how it was originally intended to be seen.  It was only written down to freeze it, not for it to live that way.

http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/educators/performance/indepth.html

10) This is a collection of monologues from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

http://www.shakespeare-monologues.org/plays/13

11) The full text of the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/midsummer/full.html