Category Archives: Drama

Bring Shakespeare to Old Time Radio–Common Core Standard 9

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Scott

Most students are probably not aware that copyright protection laws are relatively new, so they might be surprised to learn just how many famous authors like Shakespeare borrowed and adapted others’ ideas. They should already know (I hope) that Stephanie Meyer’s books aren’t entirely original vampire stories, but they probably don’t know how many earlier “versions” of Romeo and Juliet you can find. Common Core Standard 9.  Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare). Although there are many authors who treat themes and topics from earlier works in their own, Shakespeare is one of the easiest to approach with students simply because one can find more information online about him than nearly any other author.  If you are lucky … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Classical Literature, Common Core Standards, Drama, Lesson Plans, Shakespeare, Technology Integration, World Literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Internet Archive: One Very Big Collection of Multimedia

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Scott

The Internet Archive is a huge, well…archive.  Basically, it’s a collection of images, video, music, audio recordings, and texts.  Once you explore this massive digital library though, you’ll see that it’s hard to get your head around just how much is collected here.  For example, the audio section includes an archive of millions of recordings of everything from an audio version of The Quran to radio talk show recordings.  The music section includes live music recordings from the Grateful Dead and millions of others.  The text section, called the “Open Library,” includes millions of documents from textbooks to novels and poetry collections.  The Internet Archive‘s creators call it “a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.”  And best of all…it’s free. One of my favorite features at the Internet Archive is the “Way Back Machine” where you can plug in a web address and see … Continue reading →

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Put Your Students in the Shoes of an Aspiring Playwright

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Scott

I know I’ve written a lot about Shakespeare resources on the web here but every time I Google Shakespeare or the title of one of his plays, I find something new and cool (and yeah, I’m a little obsessed with teaching Shakespeare lately but really I’m determined to make it fun and relevant for my students every year).  This time I stumbled across a sweet game produced by PBS called the “Playwright Game” and it is part of PBS’ “In Search of Shakespeare” site which complements the televised series of the same name.  With this simple, “choose your own adventure” role play game, students can learn a lot not only about Shakespeare but also about his contemporaries. The premise of the game is that you are a 16th Century Londoner who is responding to an advertisement for “one writer of plays needed for gainful employment in a major theatre…no experience … Continue reading →

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Add Some Spirit to your “Boorish” Shakespeare Plans

Posted on February 6, 2011 by Scott

If you are looking for engaging, easy-to-adopt (or adapt) Shakespeare lesson plans, one of the best resources online for anything Shakespeare is the Folger library.  I’m deep in the first act of Romeo and Juliet with my students right now, so I’ve been spending a lot of time browsing the net for new stuff.  One of the problems with Shakespeare online is that there is just so much out there.  I recently searched “Shakespeare Lesson Plans” on Google and got 693,000 results.  And so much of it is the same old material.  Where do you start?  I get a headache thinking about it.  But at the same time, I can’t help but feel after ten years that some of my Shakespeare stuff is getting, well, “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable” (sorry, couldn’t help quoting Hamlet there).  If you haven’t bookmarked the Folger Library site yet, you should.  Liven up your … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Drama, Lesson Plans, Poetry, Reading, Shakespeare, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

LitTunes Blends Pop Music and the Classics

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Scott

One of my favorite lessons as a freshman in high school was when my English teacher sent us home to find music to accompany the oral reading of the mythological story of Orpheus. She sent us home to search for the perfect song to play during his decent into the Underworld in search of his wife.  We brought in our cassette tapes the next day and were very excited to share AC/DC, Ozzie Osborne, and Motley Crue with Mrs. Rentz (I’m sure she was thrilled).  She let each of us in turn play a song selection on an old tape player and the class read the scene repeatedly until we all came to a consensus on whose selection most suited the scene’s mood.  I don’t remember many things about 9th grade English, but this I recall clearly—I thought it was so cool that my “old” teacher showed an interest in … Continue reading →

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Free E-Books at Read Print

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Scott

Today I was searching for electronic texts that I could use for my classes’ midterm exams (I’m going to give a completely online exam this year), and I stumbled across a substantial, well-organized collection of literature at Read Print.  Read Print offers thousands of electronic texts available in the public domain (free of copyright)—more than 8,000 books and about 3,500 authors.  In addition to hundreds of fiction titles, they also have essays, poetry, short stories, and plays. The site is both well-organized and searchable which makes finding the right text easy and fast.  Many of the authors’ sections contain a short biography, and the site also includes a large selection of quotes from authors that might be useful in Power Points and other publications. Read Print was rated one of Time Magazine’s top 50 websites in 2010, and they have been featured on BBC World, CNN, and in USA Today.  … Continue reading →

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The Shakespeare Pages

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Scott

In my last post I mentioned a project I have been working on.  It’s more-or-less done now so I thought I would write briefly about it here.  I hope to develop it more, but as they say, it’s never done, just due.  I developed this project for a Visual Literacies class I just finished at Northern Arizona University (online).  The Shakespeare Pages Project is a website designed for high school or middle school English students.  Its purpose is first to convince students that Shakespeare is not as boring or as hard to understand as they might think.  The pages of the site are designed to not only persuade but also to engage teenagers’ curiosity.  The project’s purpose is also to teach students about Shakespeare’s time, Elizabethan culture, the Globe Theater, and about the social class differences that divided citizens of 17th Century England.  The site is designed to integrate technology … Continue reading →

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Interactive Salem Witch Trials

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Scott

If you teach Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Elizabeth George Speare’s The Witch of Blackbird Pond, or any other Witch Trials literature, you must check out the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria interactive website at National Geographic.  It is an outstanding example of the interactive learning opportunities found on the Internet.  If you are a history teacher looking for a great activity that explores the Salem Witch trials, this is an invaluable bookmark for you as well.  Using a “choose your own adventure” approach, the multimedia activity draws students into history by having them “virtually” face many of the impossible situations and decisions that people faced during the 17th century when witchcraft hysteria had a grip on the New England colonies, particularly Salem, Massachusetts.  Click here to see a quick demonstration. A short narrative introduces the visitor to the event that served as the catalyst: a young girl mysteriously falling sick.  At this … Continue reading →

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Interactive Shakespeare: A Really Cool, Totally Free Digital Textbook

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Scott

November 23, 2010 It’s not hard to find Shakespeare resources on the internet.  In fact, in a way it’s too easy, so teachers are often left to sift through thousands of bland websites in search of a unique and useful one.  When I searched “Shakespeare Lesson Plans” on Google today, it garnered me more than 400,000 results.  It’s hard to know where to start.  But then I came across one that I think is especially remarkable, one that exemplifies everything I think of when I consider the term “interactive” in language arts.  The Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project (CASP) Interactive Folio and Study Guide: Romeo and Juliet is one of the finest interactive resources I’ve come across in my search for truly interactive language arts resources.   This is how CASP describes it on their site: “The Interactive Folio and Study Guide is the result of two years of research and … Continue reading →

Posted in Drama, Shakespeare | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments