Before we read the play Hamlet, you’re going to study about the play Hamlet. (Say wha?) Yes, you’re going to use the World Wide Web and do some digging and learn the secrets of Shakespeare’s most famous play, Hamlet. Shakespeare even taunts readers/viewers of the play with a famous line that dares them to “Pluck out the mystery” (3, ii). There’s one overriding question related to this play. Let’s see if you can discover it.
As you come across great resources to help explore this text, share them and I’ll add them to our collection here.
You can click on the images to open them in their respective websites.
The human experience is more alike than not alike. That means we can read literature about character experiences that are wildly different from our own and still relate to them, even if they’re from centuries ago.
The focus of this section is on the qualities of being human, both positive and negative. There are numerous words you can look to in picking out a specific quality of being, like the list below.
You can also listen to an audio recording of the story narrated. This one (video below) uses good inflection for emotion and pronunciation; if you speed it up slightly, it’s more natural to listen to and won’t take the full 58 minutes listed on the video screen. Here’s the video with the right speed setting:
Alternate Audio Recording of “What Men Live By” Read by Me (Waldner)
Pt 1 (29 minutes)
Pt 2 (17 minutes)
Photo Analysis Website:Photo Contest World Archive (several years to choose from) Disclaimer Note: When selecting your pictures, understand these are published photos on a public website. There are several that are shocking and some may be inappropriate for school. Do your best to filter and select appropriate images.
Understanding Types of Irony in Writing: Situational, Verbal, and Dramatic.
The following video clip from The Shawshank Redemption includes an example of Verbal Irony. See if you can recognize it from the clip and image that follows.
Audio Recording Version #1 read aloud in class w student comments
“The Pardoner’s Tale” – pt 1
“The Pardoner’s Tale” – pt 2 read aloud in class
Version #2 Read alone by me (Waldner) without interruption (24 minutes)
Compose/Create Option: “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” Song comparison
This still from the lyrics/video makes clear the focus of this section’s literature – “we’re all the same” ultimately.
Background on Chaucer (optional)
Our next text to study is written by Geoffrey Chaucer who lived from 1343 – 1400 in the Middle Ages. Consider once again the potential of a text written in a time with a completely different culture and way of living to be still studied and applied to our way of life and values over 600 years later.
This text, “The Pardoner’s Tale” is only one portion of a much larger text called The Cantebury Tales.
It includes a number of sub-section texts. The premise of the story is that a number of travellers are together and each takes a turn telling a story that relates to their life or values. This is the story of a Pardoner, a man of the church who goes around and sells “pardons from God” to believers. This was before a time when most people, peasants included, would have been educated and able to read, so their belief in the Church came only from what the religious men told of them. No one was relieved of their sins by talking to God directly through prayer – instead they would pay a price to a Pardoner and have their sins cleansed.
This is a translated version – from Old English to Modern English.
You might enjoy watching this animated version of “The Pardoner’s Tale”, but my emphatic request is that you wait until after you’ve read/studied the text to view this.
You lucky few used to contribute work examples to a personal blog a few years ago, so you have the benefit of a collection of your work being available to review. You’re going to take some time today to read some of your previous writing samples and reflect on whether you feel you’ve grown in confidence or abilities with your written work.
Once you have finished your Parody Assignment of the famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy, you have a bit of background research to complete. There are two videos and one website for you to watch, but before you begin…
you must use a new sheet of paper and at the top write out your Purpose for Viewing / Reading the following websites. Remember that we have employed many Before, During, and After strategies in your ELA class, so predict and establish what your Purpose is for viewing.
Once you’ve established that, you can view the first of two videos. It is titled Shakespeare is Everywhere – it is a TEDxTalk video taped in Vancouver. You should jot notes to summarize some of the main points included in the video. It is just over 16 minutes long.
Next, there’s another TEDxTalk video relating Shakespeare’s connection / similarity to Hip Hop. It is of a similar length as the last one.
If you finish both of those in the span of the class period, you can do an online search of common phrases that originated from Shakespeare. We use his language everyday and are typically quite unaware of it.
We’ll discuss these videos tomorrow in class. Have fun!
Students watched the end of the video for Macbeth. As it played on, I paused it at times to discuss or elaborate on certain events, like the question “Why did Hamlet say ‘The rest if silent'”?
We are finished the play, students have accumulated some great quotes from the play to reference for their exam and we will look at those quotes and others on Monday in our preperations.
Remember, our theme in studying Hamlet in this unit was “Doubt and Fear”, that it is a common human experience, regardless of time in history or class of man.
Students discussed what had previously happened in our last reading and were reminded that Act III in Shakespeare plays seals the fate of the tragic character. Up to the key event in Act III, Hamlet was so concerned with his fate, whether he’d end up in heaven or hell and it was this question that caused him to delay so long. Once he had accidentally killed Polonius, an innocent man, Hamlet realized he was damned to hell already so he might as well continue on with his quest for vengeance, except he goes in such a round-about way of doing it. Once Act III is finished, it is clear that Hamlet is destined to become a fully tragic figure.
We read and discussed all of Act IV together. We also wrote a few found quotes from the reading on the board and talked about how they could apply to our unit theme if used in their essay on the departmental.
Students have been asking and quick to remind me that each class gets one ‘free class’ at the end of the year. With several students missing today, the kids took advantage of it and went out to play ball. Some kids worked in the library or classroom on their History assignment. Either way, they had a good afternoon.
Students continued watching the Mel Gibson version of the movie. They were to watch for the portion where the Play is within the play. This is where Hamlet finally sees guilt on the face of the King and thinks he has his proof to carry forward with his plan of revenge.
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Enjoy the Simpson's version of Hamlet, too, just for fun.