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Melody Morgan

Playing A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Grade: Nine
Subject: English
Unit Length: Twelve 80-minute lessons

Rationale:

Studying William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a wonderful opportunity for students to explore the dramatic medium. It’s also a chance to introduce discussion about universal themes that are already present in adolescents’ lives: attraction, love, friendship, magic and myth, and parent/child relationships.

There were three main considerations I kept in mind while designing this unit. The first, most practical, consideration is that there are not enough copies of the play for all the students involved in this unit. This restriction means that students will not be able to read parts of the play as homework; everything that I want the students to cover in the play must actually be read (or watched) in class time. Class time is a precious commodity, however, and since reading the entire play as a class would take too much valuable time, I have decided to not cover the whole play as a class. Although I would ideally love to read it all, time is of the essence. So, instead, we will watch one movie adaptation (directed by Michael Hoffman) for a holistic view of the play; read some of the play as a class for in-depth examinations of particular scenes; and divide some of the play between groups, who will present their assigned parts to the rest of the class. In this way, although no one student will read the entire play, each student will be presented with at least two interpretations of almost every scene.

The second consideration is that drama should be studied in its true form: drama. In other words, I want to get out of our desks as we explore A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and interact with the play in a way that reflects its nature. By approaching the play as just one example of dramatic writing, I hope to introduce the students to the enjoyment that can be had while watching and participating in theatre. In keeping with this, most of the activities we will be doing involve performance (although students can rest assured that “acting” will only represent one aspect of these performances). In addition, for several reasons, all the performances will be videotaped. This will encourage the students to treat the performances seriously (and will therefore aid in classroom management). It will also provide students with a recording of their progress (and can provide great entertainment at the end of the unit, if there is time to view it). Lastly, it can be used as part of their final evaluation (see The Power of The Producer, Appendix A).

Hope guides the third, and last, consideration. This will be the first encounter with Shakespeare for most students; it will not, however, be the last. Therefore, I want to make this introduction to the Bard as enjoyable and non-threatening as possible, so that they walk out of this class with the (correct) belief that Shakespeare is worthy of the attention piled on him by English teachers all over the world. This may seem like a small goal, but I believe that in the long run, students will benefit more from this unit—and any other—if they truly take pleasure in doing it.

With all this in mind, here we go…