Goals

The goals of this activity are for students to read and understand the characters and plot in "The Tempest," to relate the events of the play to their own lives and to analyze the power dynamics in the play.

 

Details

Duration: 120+ minutes

Assessments: Student reflections/journals, Student discussions, Performance/presentation (i.e. speech, play), Group work

Materials: Internet access, Projector, Character name tags, Class set of scripts of "The Tempest"

 

Description

The video project was the culmination of a 6-week long unit on colonialism and "The Tempest" About a month before we started, we took a small group of students to go see a live production of "The Tempest" that was being shown locally. This was an optional activity because it cost money and took place on a friday evening. Ideally, I would have liked to take all of the students on a field trip to a live version of the play in the middle of the unit, but the timing didn't work out.

To introduce the play, I showed the students a trailer for a film version of "The Tempest" by chaosfilms (see general resources) and asked them to predict what the play was going to be about. Then, I told the story of the Tempest using students to play the characters. I gave them nametags for each character and had them stand up and act out key moments in the story as I told it. I stopped the story right at the point where Prospero brings everyone together (the middle of Act V) and had the students predict what would happen in the end of the play.

Over the next two weeks, the students read the play out loud in both Performing Arts class and in Academic Literacy class. During this time, I would start each class with a freewrite that would help students connect the issues in that day's scene to their lives. We would share freewrites in various ways. Students would then volunteer to read various parts and we would read the scene out loud, unpacking and discussing as we went along.

For Act III, Sc.2, Act III Sc.3 and Act IV, Sc.1, students split up into three groups and did a jigsaw activity. Each group read one of the above scenes, translated it into their own language and did a presentation of the translated scene to the class. This activity took two 90 minute periods from start to finish. It gave the students some practice translating Shakespeare before they had to do it for the video project.

Tempest freewrites
A list of short freewrites that students did at the beginning of each class....
Download (24K)

Tempest jigsaw assessment
A simple rubric for assessing scene presentations...
Download (77K)

Tempest jigsaw directions
A planning sheet for students working in groups to complete an analysis and translation of a scene....
Download (49K)

Author Reflections

I think it worked out well to split the reading between the Academic Literacy class and the Performing Arts class. In this way we were able to read the play in about 2 weeks, which otherwise would have taken about 4 weeks. It was great taking students to see the live play. I wish the timing and logistics had worked out to take all the students to see the play. I think this would have enhanced their experience greatly.

Throughtout the reading of the play, many students got really into the play and started identifying with a certain character. The liked the suspense of my storytelling at the beginning of the unit and they were excited to fnd out what Prospero did at the end. This building of anticipation worked well to pique their interest.