"I hate Shakespeare!"
"What's the point?"
"Why don't we just watch the video?"
Students don't seem to like Shakespeare. This comes as no surprise, of course, but it's amazing to see thirty-one seniors regress to an eighth-grade maturity level when they are faced with unraveling the words of ol' Billy the Bard. They whine. They squirm. They make excuses. Worst of all, they shut down... and as a result, they fail to get anything out of what could be a nice little linguistic exploration, and they fail my test. Nineteen of my thirty-one seniors failed my first real assessment, and that's scary. Here's the breakdown:
A 1
B 6
C 0
D 5
F 19
I gave them 10 quotes from Act I and asked them to identify the speaker (1pt.); identify to whom he/she is speaking (1 pt.); and explain the context of the speech (2 pts.).
Here's the setup:
Day 1. The class was given a four-page plot synopsis. I gave them background on Shakespeare and historical information on Macbeth.
Day 2. We went over the plot thoroughly for one class period after they were supposed to have read it. I explained to them that yes, Shakespeare is extremely difficult, and that we learn the plot because it provides a framework within which we can tackle the language.
Day 3. They took a plot summary quiz which consisted of 21 fill-in-the-blank, who-did-and-said-what-to-whom. Most of them scored in the B to A range.
Day 4. We read Act I, scenes 1 & 2 together in class, analyzing as we read. I got them to dig for meaning most of the time, and I explained things that they probably wouldn't have been able to decipher.
Day 5. Continued through scenes 2 & 3 the same way.
Day 6. They jigsawed scenes 4-6 with guiding questions to focus their reading.
Day 7. We went over scene 7 together, and then reviewed the entire act. I even read them four of the ten passages and told them that these would be on the test!
Clearly, I got through to some of them, because the Bs and the A were well written and showed deep comprehension. I should also point out that my MT is teaching the same thing, gave the same test, and only slightly better results. Today (after going over the answers and giving them "the talk"), I showed them most of Act I on DVD (the Polanski version) I'm going to show them through ACT II on Monday before we start actually reading ACT II. Hopefully, this will give them a visual reference on which to hang the words.
I just need to find something to spice it up.
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3 comments:
Maybe you could have the students act parts of the scenes out. Or you could chose one student to be each character, and you be the director. Then direct your student readers/actors through the scene. I think a huge part of teaching Shakespeare is just decoding the language and visualizing what is happening in the scene.
This is just an idea that popped into my head as I was reading your dilemma.
Showing them the video to sort of preview the reading seems like it would help. Hopefully having some kind of face or images to connect meaning or feelings to would help them to understand which characters could say different things. I'm teaching Shakespeare too, and it seems that when students can actually see the way characters behave they are more likely to understand emotions/motivations.
Having students practice the actual process of translating might also come in handy. If students can get a chance to practice this skill and some different tips or strategies for translating, they might be feel a little less intimidated by the quotes. Some of these strategies can be as simple as looking for key words with some kind of emotional or motivational charge.
In terms of spicing it up, hopefully seeing more of the film will help students out. Acting scenes out or writing modernized scenes might also help. When you start referring to the theme of ambition, maybe comparing MacBeth to Tony Montana from Scarface will arouse some extra interest. Not sure if your kids are a Scarface-type crowd, though. Good luck.
Thanks, both of you!
yeah... They enjoyed the film version, and I think it will help them with their next test, but it really comes down to finding a way to get them excited about language. They responded positively to my enthusiasm about it today, but it was more about "hey, our teacher is kinda wacky about Shakespeare". Amused? Yes. Engaged? Sort of.
They don't respond very well to picking parts and reading it out loud to the whole class. All they want to do is plow through it. Look for meaning? Pffft!
One of my bigger assessments for this unit will be having them act out scenes. They did an adaptation with Antigone last semester, so I think I'll just have them do this one straight.
Scarface, huh? Might be worth checking out.
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