William Shakespeare’sA Midsummer Night’s Dream

Love’s Difficulty

Do you like music?

Do you like to laugh?

Have you ever had a crush on someone?

Are you a human being?

Then you love Shakespeare.

The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company

https://vimeo.com/160306647

Qualitative / Quantitative

• Meaning/Purpose: Very Complex

• Text Organization: Exceedingly Complex

Language Features

• Conventionality: Exceedingly Complex

• Vocabulary: Exceedingly Complex

• Sentence structure: Exceedingly Complex

Knowledge Demands

• Life experiences: Very Complex

• Cultural knowledge: Exceedingly Complex

1350L Range: 925L – 1385L Band Level: 6-12

Themes / Connections

• Themes:

– Love’s difficulty/Love

– Appearance and Reality

– Order and Disorder

– Magic

– Dreams

Symbols: Theseus and HippolytaThe love potionThe craftsmen’s playThe MoonAnimalsSeeing

Motifs:Contrast

Cross-Curricular Connections

• Theatre (duh)

• Dance & Music (come now, a roundel and a fairy song)

• Art (always)

• History (it’s Shakespeare!)

• Math (set design)

• Science (love potion, the brain and love)

• Anthropology of Language (…and really expensive clothing)

Middle School Art (Theatre) TEKS:

117.211 Knowledge and skills(1) Foundations: inquiry and understanding. The student develops concepts about self, human relationships, and the environment using elements of drama and conventions of theatre. The student is expected to:• (A) develop characterization based on sensory and emotional recall;• (B) expand body awareness and spatial perceptions using mime;• (C) respond to sounds, music, images, and the written word, incorporating movement;• (D) develop an understanding of the mechanisms of vocal production;• (E) identify theatrical vocabulary and terminology, including basic anatomy of theatre spaces; and• (F) identify the structure and form in examples of dramatic literature.

(2) Creative expression: performance. The student interprets characters using the voice and body expressively and creates dramatizations. The student is expected to:• (A) demonstrate safe use of the voice and body;• (B) imagine and clearly describe characters, their relationships, and their surroundings;• (C) select movements and dialogue to appropriately portray an imaginative character drawn from personal experience, cultural heritage, literature,

and history;• (D) dramatize literary selections and imitate life experiences through dramatic play;• (E) express emotions and ideas using interpretive movements and dialogue; and• (F) create environments, characters, and actions.

(3) Creative expression: production. The student applies design, directing, and theatre production concepts and skills. The student is expected to:• (A) create character, environment, action, and theme collaboratively through the safe use of props, costumes, and visual elements;• (B) create suitable environments for dramatizations;• (C) collaborate to plan brief dramatizations; and• (D) use technology in theatrical applications such as live theatre, video, and film.

(4) Historical and cultural relevance. The student relates theatre to history, society, and culture. The student is expected to:

• (A) demonstrate the role of theatre as a reflection of history, society, and culture through participation in dramatic activities; and• (B) explore the influences of theatre, film, television, and electronic media such as key developments, figures, and works in society.

(5) Critical evaluation and response. The student responds to and evaluates theatre and theatrical performances. The student is expected to:

• (A) identify and apply audience etiquette at all performances;• (B) develop simple oral and written observations about the visual, aural, oral, and kinetic aspects of theatrical performances such as informal

playmaking or formal theatre;• (C) identify production elements of theatre, film, television, and other media; and• (D) examine selected occupations in theatre such as director, stage manager, actor, designer, running crew, front of house, and educator.

8th Grade ELA TEKS:

Understanding and Analysis Across Genres (Vocab)

• 8.2(A) determine the meaning of grade-level academic English words derived from Latin, Greek, or other linguistic roots and affixes

• 8.2(B) use context (within a sentence and in larger sections of text) to determine or clarify the meaning of unfamiliar or ambiguous words

• or words with novel meanings

• 8.2(E) use a dictionary, a glossary, or a thesaurus (printed or electronic) to determine the meanings, syllabication, pronunciations, alternate word choices, and parts of speech of words

Understanding and Analysis of Literary Texts: Fiction, Poetry, and Drama

• 8.6(A) analyze linear plot developments (e.g., conflict, rising action, falling action, resolution, subplots) to determine whether and how conflicts are resolved

• 8.6(B) analyze how the central characters’ qualities influence the theme of a fictional work and resolution of the central conflict

• 8.4(A) compare and contrast the relationship between the purpose and characteristics of different poetic forms (e.g., epic poetry, lyric poetry)

• 8.5(A) analyze how different playwrights characterize their protagonists and antagonists through the dialogue and staging of their plays

Understanding and Analysis of Literary Texts: Across Literary Texts

• 8.8(A) explain the effect of similes and extended metaphors in literary text

Any TEKS for Writing 8.14 (A) – 8.21 (A)

Any TEKS for Listening and Speaking 8.26 – 8.28

Supporting Texts

Play:

• Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Videos:

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (video, 1999)

• Mandy Len Catron’s TED Talk: Falling in love is the easy part

• Helen Fisher’s TED Talk: The brain in love

Radio Show:

• NPR’s Modern Love

Articles:

• A Viagra Alternative to Serve by Candlelight by Sarah Kershaw

Books:• Fairies and Fairy Stories: A History by Diane

Purkiss• Why We Love by Helen Fisher • Field Guides to Fairies (or other children’s

books about fairies)

My suggested copy of the text: • No Fear Shakespeare from SparkNotes

KIPP Wheatley pre-planned pairs for 8th grade:• Shakespeare Set Free (Folger) by Peggy O’Brien • Stories from Shakespeare by Marchette Chute

A Viagra Alternative to

Serve by Candlelight by Sarah Kershaw

• Summary: This non-fiction article from the New York Times reports on foods that my have aphrodisiac effects.

• Rationale: This article connects to the themes of love’s difficulty, appearance vs. reality, and marriage. In act three, scene one, Titania bequests that the fairies feed Bottom an assortment of pleasurable foods. Food and feasts also mark the celebration of the lovers’ marriages.

Why We Love by Helen Fisher

• Summary: The non-fiction book, Why We Love, contains a chapter with a focus on the concept and chemistry of love potions.

• Rationale: Love potions are a central symbol in the play and this reading would allow students to delve deeper into that symbol. This reading could also be used in tandem, or separate from, Helen Fisher’s TED Talk, The brain in love.

Fairies and Fairy Stories: A History by Diane Purkiss

• Summary: The non-fiction book, Fairies and Fairy Stories: A History shows, they have far more wicked origins as troublemakers, child snatchers, seducers, and changelings, representing society's deepest fears and desires regarding birth, sex, and death. From these dangerous beings of ancient myths and medieval folklore to the sanitized "wingy thingies" of Shakespeare and the Victorians, and even modern myths of alien abduction, this is a riveting chronicle of the need to believe in fairies.

• Rationale: Magic is a central theme throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream and students unfamiliar with creatures of Shakespeare, including Puck, a main character, would benefit from a selection from this text.

Mandy Len Catron’s TED Talk: Falling in

love is the easy part

• Summary: Mandy Len Carton proves that you can fall in love with anyone just by asking him/her 36 questions. This TED Talk explores the questions: What is real love? Does love last? What is the difference between falling in love and staying in love?

• Rationale: The tangled four lovers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream become infatuated, obsessed, confused, enamored, and baffled by their own emotions of love and the emotions of the other characters. The questions: what is real love, does love last, and what is the difference between falling in love and staying in love, certainly apply. Another relationship to explore with this TED Talk is that of Oberon, Titania, and the “ass.” Even Puck’s monologues that examine love can be used in tandem with this supporting text.

Helen Fisher’s TED Talk: The brain in

love

• Summary: Helen Fisher explores, literally, the brain in love through MRI scans. She begs the question: why do we (people) want love so much that we are willing to die for it?

• Rationale: This is an excellent TED Talk to show a visual representation of the intangible concept of “love.” Students would easily be able to make cross-curricular connections with science and math. Students could explore the relationships in A Midsummer Night’s Dream while making real-world connections to the theme of “love’s difficulty.”

NPR’s Modern Love

• Summary: Modern Love is a podcast based on weekly reader-written-and-submitted essays to The New York Times. The essays are often read by famous actors/actresses or personalities.

• Rationale: There are a great variety of podcasts on Modern Love that explore the theme of “love’s difficulty” and which students would find humorous or relatable.

• WARNING: Listen to the Modern Love podcast of choice carefully and in its entirety (not all Modern Love podcasts are appropriate for students).

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

• Summary: Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families.

• Rationale: Under the theme of “love’s difficulty” –Romeo and Juliet is certainly relevant. Besides the obvious thematic connections, utilizing another work by Shakespeare can assist students in looking closely at Shakespeare’s style, language, pentameter, humor, wit, and relevance in the history of the English language.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (video, 1999)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQD6O3ApAr4&t=4s

• Summary: William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream -adapted by Michael Hoffman for Hollywood.

• Rationale: For ELL’s, students with disabilities, struggling readers, or new learners of Shakespeare, a film adaptation of the play is excellent support. Seeing the characters, hearing the rhythm and intonation of the language, and feeling the emotion behind the words can allow A Midsummer Night’s Dream to “click” for students.

Stories from Shakespeare by

Marchette Chute

• Summary: Marchette Chute retells thirty-six First Folio plays and “seeks to provide the modern reader with essential insight into Shakespeare's narrative genius, clarifying the intricacies of plot and sharply delineating a host of characters, major and minor alike” (Amazon book review).

• Rationale: Another superior resource for learners new to Shakespeare, Chute’s book can be used similarly to No Fear Shakespeare from Sparknotes – serving as a modern English “translation” of the major characters, plot events, and intricacies of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Teaching Tool from KIPP Wheatly

Shakespeare Set Free (Folger)by Peggy O’Brien

• Summary: This is a supporting text for you, the teacher, not for the students. The book examines and suggests how to teach Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Exit Ticket

Thumbs up or thumbs down:

Would you use A Midsummer Night’s Dream as an anchor text?

References

• A Midsummer Night's Dream. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Midsummer_Night's_Dream

• Books come to life with this engaging collection of resources. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2017, from https://www.teachingbooks.net/

• Expeditionary Learning: Grade 8: Module 2B: Unit 2: Lesson 2 Analyzing Character and Theme: Tracking Control in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2017, from file:///Users/amandachiara/Downloads/8m2b.2l2.pdf

• SparkNotes: A Midsummer Night's Dream. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2017, from http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/study.html

• Teaching Shakespeare WIth the New York Times. (2010, August 2). Retrieved February 7, 2017, from https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/teaching-shakespeare-with-the-new-york-times/?_r=0#dream