I hope we were able to watch this in class today. However, if we were unable, I would like you to take 6 minutes (1 minute to listen and watch; 5 minutes to respond) to this clip.
Students Practice their Fluency with Some Shakespeare!
UPDATED on 7-8-2010: This is an optional assignment.
It's great to see the power of Shakespeare's words coming from the mouths of urban students. I felt a strong connection to this because this year students from my after school program put on a production of Romeo & Juliet. This video reminded me of how far my students came from the very first time they picked up the script.
ReplyDeleteOops, perhaps that wasn't 5 minutes. I'll just continue then. Its seems apparent that the words hold more meaning for some of the students. Many of them seem very emphatic as they state those ancient phrases. It made me wonder whether those students have a stronger grasp of what the words mean; or have they just chosen to put their own meaning behind the words. How much instruction did they receive before they began to interpret the old English?
ReplyDeleteI liked that many of the speakers delivered their lines with understated yet powerful emotion. Was this video a culmination of a longer study of Hamlet? How much analysis of the text had the students conducted before delivering these lines? Based on their delivery, most seem quite comfortable with the words they are speaking but I am curious about the underlying instruction involved with the project. Also, were some of the speakers teachers? If so, I appreciate that they chose to model for their students by participating directly with them in the finished product.
ReplyDeleteThank you Erik and Ayesha. I am not sure about the background of the video. I don't know the teacher or the students. I found it when doing other searches of clips for this class.
ReplyDeleteBut I do know this. For the first time this year, I taught in a traditional team taught English class. (For the last three years, I have taught a remedial Reading course for students that are 3 to years behind in reading. This class is given in ADDITION to the regular English course, and, thus, I don't follow the traditional English curriculum in my school.) We read Romeo and Juliet together. There were a couple of students who really struggle with fluency in the room. They chose to read a lot of parts aloud. Their fluency FLEW through the roof. It was really neat to see.
I'd love to see what others have to say.
I immediately liked that the students had their own interpretation of the piece. I believe all of Shakespeare should be taught in the read-aloud format. His work can be very enjoyable for kids once the language is decoded for them. The students with the more dramatic readings are a great example; they definitely understand Hamlet's state of mind in the soliloquy and have a little more fun with the text as a result.
ReplyDeleteAs a student, I loved read-aloud portions of class. The text was more understandable and it was a great way to strengthen speech, vocabulary and perspective skills. Plus my teacher decoded all the dirty jokes in Romeo and Juliet for us, so that helped.
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