English teachers, like myself, find immense joy in teaching novels and plays. Some of my most cherished teaching moments have been introducing a Shakespeare play. Today, I am excited to share some engaging and fun ideas I used while teaching Much Ado About Nothing.
One of the first techniques I use when teaching a new play or novel is to provide background information and introduce the author. Rather than diving into a story, I like gauging students’ knowledge. I loved starting with a scenario and telling my class how much they would like Much Ado based on this scenario. I chose a student in our class who enjoyed being the center of attention. I will call him Noah.
The Scenario
“Imagine that Noah used to like Megan in the 3rd grade. They walked home together, were in the same group table, and even exchanged notes several times.”
“But then in 4th grade, Noah moved on. He didn’t really talk to Megan when he saw her, and he even ignored her once in the lunch line.”
“Fast forward to today, and whenever they see each other, they hate each other.” (Hate is a strong word, haha).
“Well, one day, Noah and Megan’s besties (David and Nora) happened to be hanging out with each other” (I use students in the class).
“Didn’t Megan use to like Noah? And didn’t Noah used to like Megan?”
“Yeah, they did!” they both exclaim.
“Well, let’s play an experiment on them!”
So, David and Nora tell Megan and Noah that they happened to hear them talking about them, how cute each is, and that they wish they had a class together, etc.
The next day, Noah happens to see Megan, and he smiles at her. She smiles back! Megan wonders if what Nora said is true, and Noah wonders if what David said is true.
Does she like me because she is so rude to me most of the time? thinks Noah.
And Megan has the same thoughts.
Well, this is just like Much Ado About Nothing! I tell the class.
They love it!!
It is fun to put a Shakespeare play into context for them, just like Hollywood has done for us many times with updated movies based on Shakespeare plays.
My other favorite ideas come from the book The Reading/Writing Connection: Strategies for Teaching and Learning in the Secondary Classroom.
I found that students had trouble remembering who was who in this play. They would confuse Don Pedro with Don John, so my first assignment was to make a trifold.
Trifold
- Pass out a list of all the characters.
- I reviewed each character, gave a little background, and even said, “Good guy” or “Bad Guy.”
- Students picked three characters and made a tri-fold brochure using words and pictures to remind themselves of the three characters they chose.
Students find joy in expressing their understanding through drawing in an English class. It’s a refreshing break from the usual reading and writing tasks. I always strive to incorporate all four types of learning: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile, to keep the learning experience diverse and engaging.
Open Mind
Another fun assignment is the Open Mind.
The object of this assignment is for students to get into the minds of the characters they are studying.
- Choose a character or assign a character to the students.
- Ask students to analyze the character. How has that character evolved throughout the story?
- Draw and use words about that character.
This last assignment is a Close Reading. Students gain a new understanding when dissecting every sentence and paragraph of a text. Close reading requires many skills, including analytical and critical thinking, information retention, comprehension, identifying literary devices, inferring hidden meaning(s), and new vocabulary.
Close Reading Example from Much Ado
These are a few of the assignments I used while teaching Much Ado About Nothing. It is the teacher’s responsibility to help students identify the themes, plot, characterization, and big ideas in a novel. Excellent assignments can help! For instance, the Close Reading assignment helps students understand the text better by dissecting every sentence and paragraph, honing their analytical and critical thinking skills.
Sorry for the long post, but these are some of the things I am passionate about. These examples are from past student’s. Have you used some of these techniques? What are some of your favorites? What is one of your favorite novels to teach or which Shakespeare plays have you taught and enjoyed?