Michelle Friedman

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.7: Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

For the rest of the standards—I list them in the PA/CC format.

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Title: Writing Dialogue for Graphic Novels

Subject: This lesson could be for English students in general, but it was also written for English Language Learners who have exited the ESL classroom--but who still need to be monitored.

Grade: 12

Background of the problem:

A student from Syria at my old school district was enrolled in a regular-English class outside the ESL classroom where she had to read William Shakespeare. Shakesepeare’s language can be difficult for any student, but for an English Language Learner (ELL)—reading Shakespeare’s plays can prove to be a dramatic event of epic proportions! Many times working with ELLs includes teaching and learning, but it also includes emotional support. The female student was extremely upset she could not understand Shakespeare, and she said she felt like a failure. Conflict of the problem elevated while she argued loudly with a male student from Japan who did not lend his support to her problem. I calmed the female student down and told her she could learn Shakespeare if she broke down the scenes into reader responses that we could discuss. The female student eventually calmed down, and I was able to work with her on scenes from Shakespeare. In his article “Defining Identities Through Multiliteracies: EL Teens Narrate Their Immigration Experiences as Graphic Stories”, author R.L. Danzak, points out that reading graphic novels and then creating graphic novel panels can help ELLs to advance “their confidence in their language and literacy abilities” (p. 196). Therefore, getting ELLs to understand Shakespeare through reading and writing dialogue about the play in a graphic-novel format can for some students be an interesting and a useful way to get students to improve reading comprehension through a lesson that allows students to use visual-literacy skills.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

PA/CC.1.2.11–12.A

“Determine and analyze the relationship between two or more central ideas of a text, including the development and interaction of the central ideas; provide an objective summary of the text”.

PA/CC.1.2.11–12.G

“Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem”.

PA/CC.1.4.11–12.O

“Use narrative techniques such as dialogue, description, reflection, multiple plotlines, and pacing to develop experiences, events,and/or characters; use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, settings, and/or characters”.

Materials:

Copy of the movie A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare.

Copies of the graphic novel A Midsummer Night’s Dream (based on the play by William Shakespeare).

Handouts of a scene from the graphic novel A Midsummer Night’s Dream (based on the play by William Shakepeare).

Handouts of a scene with the dialogue that has been deleted from the graphic novel A Midsummer Night’s Dream (based on the play by William Shakespeare).

Procedures:

Quick write: Do you remember a time in your life when you wanted to be friendly with someone, but you did not know if the friendship would work out or not (if the friendship was real—or imaginary—like a dream)?

Discuss the quick writes.

Students will then watch an excerpt from the movie A Midsummer Night’s Dream to get a visual idea of what is happening in a particular scene.

What just happened in the scene? Do you think the relationship between the characters is real, or do you think their relationship will not last by the end of the play?

Then students will read a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream aloud in class. At this point—the two characters seem to have a true relationship, but the relationship will be tested during the rest of the story, and it is unclear if their relationship will last by the end of the play or not.

Pre-reading:

Students will watch a film excerpt from the movie A Midsummer Night’s Dream originally written by William Shakespeare.

Students will then read an excerpt from the Graphic Novel A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Students will predict if the characters will remain true to each other or not or if their relationship is just a dream.

During-reading:

Then students will read a scene from the play and have a reader response class discussion about an important scene in the play.

What do you predict will happen to the characters?

Is it possible they will stay loyal to each other—or will their relationship end?

After-reading activities:

The students will re-write the scene. They would have needed to read and understand the scene on some level to write the dialogue, and the students would need to write sentences of dialogue.

Closure:

What do you think is happening in the scene between the characters? Do you think they are speaking the truth to each other?

This lesson should get students interested and engaged in the story, and it will encourage them to want to read the entire graphic novel to find out what happens to the characters—do the characters stay true to each other and in love with each other at the end of the story or not?

This should get students ready to read the actual play A Midsummer Night’s Dream as written entirely by William Shakespeare. If students can become engaged and interested in reading the graphic novel—then this can help to motivate them to read the actual play and can give students more confidence since they can more easily understand and possibly enjoy reading the graphic-novel version first and then creating dialogue for selected scenes.

Today—we only have time to work on one scene, but for a future lesson—students can work on re-writing additional scenes in the graphic novel—as they continue to read the graphic novel and discover what is really happening in the story-is it all real or just a dream—or both?!

The ELL student at my old school district had so much trouble reading Shakespeare’s plays, and by reading a graphic novel about the play first—this can help the student’s reading comprehension and enjoyment of the story so the experience for the student does not turn into a Shakespearean tragedy!

Assessment:

I will assess the students’ ability to read the scene; discuss the scene; and make predictions about the scene; and then completion of the dialogue in the scene will be assessed. Participation points will be awarded for completion. I can also assess the written dialogue and look at grammar and spelling. Full credit can be awarded for good grammar and spelling, but a point or two can be deducted for poor grammar and spelling (unless a student wants to work on editing and revision—then full points can be awarded).

Assignment:

Read the rest of the graphic novel A Midsummer Night’s Dream based on the play written by William Shakespeare.