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To Kill A Mockingbird

James Duckett

Grade: 9

The Tempest: A Modern Adaptation,Written for Film

Rationale

This unit plan is designed to be students’ first exposure to Shakespeare. As grade nine students, it is entirely possible that they have already, seen, or studied Shakespeare before, but it is more likely that they have never looked at Shakespeare within the confines of the classroom before. Recognizing that they are young, and probably have extremely short attention spans, it would be easy, and much more convenient to sit them in front of a television set, and have it teach them for six weeks. However, as this would not likely garner me a passing grade (and of course because I want to stimulate their minds) I have devised an overly-complicated, and very stimulating yet challenging unit. In an attempt to bring a Shakespeare play to the MTV generation without relying on the ’82 version on film starring Susan Sarandon and Molly Ringwald or another monstrosity, the students will write their own version of the modern film adaptation of the play. Much of the class time will be spent in groups, discussing how to write the modern adaptation of their act of the play. Other group time will be spent discussing various details of the filming and production of the movie. A placemat strategy will be used so that all the acts of the play will fit together somewhat. Students will also be required to keep a journal throughout the unit, writing entries on the scene read in class that day, or on the group work that was discussed, or on a question posed at the beginning of class that day.

In lieu of a final formal examination, the students will instead present to their classmates their screenplay, with brief explanations of the various elements each group member has focused on, with a rationale behind their course of action. Quizzes will be administered throughout the unit to assess basic comprehension of the plot (the quizzes are used to ensure that all students are following along in class, and understand the work the group is doing). Though this unit is geared towards The Tempest, it could easily be modified for any play or grade level.

Ideas

There are a ton of things you can do with Shakespeare. This unit focuses on one long drawn out activity, but it doesn’t have to be that way! Here are just a few of the many ideas that have come up this year:

  • Keep a journal as one of the characters in the play.
  • Act the play out! So obvious, it’s often forgotten. (You could try grading students both on their performance and the difficulty of the character they chose to perform as).
  • Write a review of the play, either at the Globe in Shakespeare’s day or at a local theatre today
  • Change the ending. Make it happy/sad/politically correct.
  • Write a Shakespeare-Modern English Dictionary/phrase guide.
  • Insult each other using Shakespearian vocabulary and insults.