Lesson Plan Grade 10-12 English Lesson Title: An Introduction to Shakespeares Hamlet Time Allotted: two class periods

of 50 minutes each Claire Rauser Materials: Smart board, mini laptops or iPads. Bridge in/ Pre - Assessment: (10 minutes) To start off my lesson, I will gain the students interest in learning about Hamlet and Shakespeare by offering them interesting bits of information about William Shakespeare as a man and as a playwright, as well as telling them the main elements of Hamlet such as lying, trickery, death, and love. I will make Hamlet relatable to them by comparing it to a modern day movie like the lion king. I will share with my students how I enjoyed studying Hamlet, and what I personally think about it. Then, I will find out what my students already know about Shakespeare and specifically, Hamlet. To act as a guide to me whether they know next to nothing or have an understanding. Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students should be able to: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Demonstrate a basic knowledge of William Shakespeare Discern at least one theme that is predominant in Hamlet Identify at least 3 of the main characters in Hamlet Recognize Shakespeares writing style of Iambic pentameter Understand and define a soliloquy

Participatory Learning (Activities): (65 minutes) I will show the students a power point presentation on William Shakespeare. Then I will offer the students a handout on the central themes in Hamlet. I will briefly describe each theme. I will show a power point on the elements of a soliloquy as well as show students a clip of Hamlets first soliloquy to serve as an example. I will show a slide briefly discussing iambic pentameter. To familiarize the students with the characters, I will form them into groups of three to five to work on a group learning/collaboration activity. In their groups, students will each be given a mini laptop or iPad, (depending on availability) to research one of the characters in Hamlet. Each group will together research one character. Students will organize their findings and create a character portrait of the certain character. They will then share with the class their findings and I (the teacher) will write their results on the

whiteboard for discussion. The information the students gathered, along with my contributions, will go towards them creating pamphlets with their group members of each character using a computer program such as Adobe or Word. Assessment: (20 minutes) To assess my students understanding of my lesson An Introduction to Shakespeares Hamlet, I will grade the pamphlets that they handed in. Next, using the smart board, the groups of students will take turns matching the characters descriptions with their names. In a similar fashion, the students will match the correct sentence of iambic pentameter with a picture of William Shakespeare. Finally, I will administer a brief quiz on William Shakespeare, the soliloquy, and predominant themes in Hamlet. Summary: (5 minutes) In the summary, I will recap the main points of the lesson and inform students what we will be working on next class. Lastly, I will assign any homework and address any housekeeping issues/questions. Rubric (for pamphlet)

Category Content Accuracy

Mechanics

Graphics

Sources

Excellent - 4 Good - 3 Fair - 2 All information Most of the There is a lack of is correct and information is information and thorough. The correct. the character is character is Character portrayed with accurately descriptions mistakes. portrayed. lacked detail. There are no There are a few There are grammatical small consistent errors. Proper grammatical grammatical sentences are errors. errors throughout used. the pamphlet. There is a good The balance of The balance of balance of text text and graphics text and graphics and graphics. is a little off. The is off and the Pamphlet is pamphlet is fairly pamphlet is not visually visually overly visually appealing appealing. appealing. At least three Three citations There are less citations are used are present but than three and are from a are lacking in sources and the variety of variety. There are citations are sources. All small errors in incorrect. sources are cited the citations. correctly.

Poor - 1 The little information that is included is incorrect and effortless. The pamphlet is full of sloppy grammatical errors. The balance of text and graphics and very poor; the pamphlet is not visually appealing at all. Hardly any effort was exerted to obtain sources and/or cite them.