Common Place Book

Carson Gillions

Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Hamlet
Henry IV
Much Ado About Nothing
Othello
Richard III
The Tempest
Twelfth Night
Generic Activities and Lessons
Good Advice
Project Tools
Notes
Personal Reflection
Works Cited

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Hamlet

-Bring to the students attention to the limits imposed on special

effects at this time period and what it meant for the staging of the
ghost scene, including the fact that the globe theatre had no roof. Then
ask students to prepare a 30 second presentation of their ghostly
special effects for the next class.
-Students may use sound effects (Personal Thought: though
Cohen says

students may use prepared CDs in order to play

sound effects, I would opt to have students stage the ghost in pairs,
with one as the ghost and the other

creating special affects with

objects available to actors in the 1500s.)

-Students may use props and costumes
-Students must speak between one an ten words from the play
during their

presentation.

-The lights stay on

Three winners will be chosen by a class vote in the categories of
Scariest, Funniest, and Most Believable. (Cohen)

-In class watch the final scene of Hamlet together in video format, and
discuss how it differs from their own interpretation of the scene. What
did they expect to be played differently, how did the set design
compare to the one in your head? Who did you feel the most sympathy
for and was it changed in this production or not.
-Perhaps compare this then with a different scene.

-Have a group of students act out a scene or excerpt from the play as
they see fit, giving them the freedom of blocking, interpretation, etc.
(experienced actors work better for this project). The pose to the class
the question of, how can we modify this scene to produce a different
result, i.e. comedic effect, affecting the likeability of certain characters
and so on. Then ask the actors to implement these changes to
demonstrate how stage direction can drastically change a play.

-Ask half of the class to watch one recorded stage production of Hamlet
and the other half of the class another as homework. When they come
to class the next day, have them fill out a questionnaire with
interpretive questions about the play (I.E. How would you describe
Hamlets personality?). As a class then compare the two productions
and see how they were similar or different and what it meant as far as
themes and ideas.

-As students read, either as homework individually, or in class in

groups, have them map out characters relationships based solely on
textual evidence as the plot progresses. At the end of the novel have
groups or students compare their maps for continuity and accuracy,
leaving them with a study guide/character map.

Henry IV, Part One

Have students cast the roles of Henry, Hal, Falstaff, Hotspur, Lady
Percy, Mistress Quickly, Poins, Chief Justice, Pistol, Lancaster, and
Justice Shallow. Paying particular attention to Falstaff.
-Castings can be made from the pool of any famous (i.e.
household names)

actors or musicians (Personal addition:

politicians, public figures, anyone

who would be recognizable to the

majority of the class)

-Students must also have citations from the novel that support
their choices.
(Cohen)

-Rather than reading the play at home or as a class, have groups of

students stage each different scene and perform two or three per class
until finishing the play. The scenes will be student directed, no edits
may be made to the script, but all other choices are completely up to
the student. Students dont have to take an acting role, but everyone

must participate in some measurable way (I.e. costume designing,

working lights or a sound effects track, directing).1

-As a class, track Hal through the novel, noting his movements
between the tavern and the court as well as his image in the eyes of
the rest of the cast. Once the timeline has been mad, ask students to
interpret for themselves the point when Hal becomes a leader or that
marks a significant change in his character. Opposing views can be
debated and discussed, and the goal of the activity is to evoke the true
essence of Hal.

-Preferably with the help of a history teacher, at the end of the play
compare and contrast Shakespeares version of history, with an
academic account of the war of the roses. Discuss with the class what
motives Shakespeare may have had in shaping certain characters as
he did or modifying plot points.

-Ask students to draw a diagram of a particular character within the

play. The diagram should include both physical and mental attributes
important to the character and have textual citations backing up those
choices. To compensate for a lack of artistic ability in some students,
allow for students to work in pairs or groups. The activity should be

ended with a presentation for each character, and a discussion of why

they have been diagrammed as such.

Much Ado About Nothing

-Class debate- Have one or two proctors chosen from the class and
assign people to two sides of a debatable thesis within the chosen
work.
-The proctors may decide what will hold value when they are
deciding their

rulings

-Students are assigned to positions, not volunteer

-Create a playlist featuring a song for each character,

-or for plot/setting/leads
-or for each scene

Students should also have an added paragraph on why each song was
an appropriate choice

-In class and as groups, ask students to open the Mystery Envelope
distributed to them. The envelope will contain instructions as well as
reference scenes for an activity in which they are to plan a skit
revolving around the situation set up in the instructions, such as
Claudio and Heros divorce precedings or The court case of Hero vs.
Beatrice. The reference scenes should be selected so that the
students may be able to derive some trait within the characters that
would influence the plotline of the skit.1
-Bring in a bag of random props or costumes students may use
and look

through during their skit process and performance.

-As a class, fill out a plot line diagram of the entire play, then as
individuals or in groups, have students fill out individual plot line
diagrams for separate characters or pairs (such as Claudio and
Hero/Beatrice and Benedick,). If necessary precede the activity with a
discussion or warm up in which you define the terms exposition, rising
action, climax, falling action and resolution.

-Found Poetry: Students must write the poem Benedick tries to write
for Beatrice, using only lines from the play.

The poem must be a sonnet, and have iambic pentameter

-If the poem rhymes offer bonus points.3

Othello
-Using the program called Go Animate (See Project Tools), have
students animate a particular scene, as individuals or pairs so that in
the end you can watch the entire play in animation.
*Would require a school account for Go Animate and a tech savvy
person to

help demonstrate the process.

-Quote Circle- Ask students as they read to select and highlight quotes
or passages that stand out to them or seem remarkable in anyway.
Read these choices at random in a circle.
-Teaches students to notice the writing rather than just the story
and

enforces this lesson when others share their noticed lines.

-Ask students to identify as many plot holes within the play as they can
come up with and keep track of them on the board, then when the list
is compiled ask students why Shakespeare may have made the
decisions which let to them or left the plot holes there. Then flip it and
consider the plot holes from the audiences perspective. Would the
average audience member catch these holes? Do they disrupt the
legitimacy of the play? (Cohen)

-Have Students read aloud a passage from the play, and then ask them
to concentrate hard on details of the visual aspects: staging, costumes,
set design, blocking etc. Then ask students to describe (Person
addition: or draw if they are artistically inclined) their own imagined
image of the scene. Discuss these. Then present the students with an
artists rendering (found easily on the web) of the same scene. Discuss
things such as details based in the text vs. details based in creative
liberty, What has the artist made important in the scene, etc. There

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could also be a second professional artists rendering which you could

then compare to both the first artists, and the classes (Cohen).

-Iago and Richard III Jigsaw puzzle- Assign students evenly to either RIII
or Iago and give them the work sheet found below. Have them fill out
the first box alone, the second box with a group of people sharing the
character, the third box with a partner with the opposite character and
the fourth box as a class.

Richard III
-Divide students into groups and have each group read a different
Shakespearian play. Then, as a class, discuss what they have in

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common (I.E. what is in an act one? What are the themes?) and how
they differ.
-Could be modified to include only Histories/Tragedies/Comedies

-Have students pick out their 4 favorite insults from the play and bring
them to class, for the activity, One student must be standing until
another student insults him, then the insultee sits and the insulter
remains.
-Lines must be verbatim
-Lines must not be more than 10 words long
-Lines can not be repeated
The last person to deliver a unique insult is the winner and gets to
claim a prize.
(Cohen, 22)

-In pairs, have students look at the seduction of Lady Anne by Richard
III. have them read through it together and discuss reasons for why
Lady Anne may fall for Richards seduction. Then have them discuss
ways in which Richard furthers the persuasion. Finally have them look
at ways in which they might play the two parts so that the persuasion
is more believable. Have a few groups share their interpretations and
talk about what choices made for the most believable persuasion, and
what choices made for a more interesting persuasion.

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-Before reading the novel, discuss the origins of evil. Are people born
innately good or bad, or do they grow to be someone who does good or
bad things? (Perhaps read Hitlers First Photograph by Symborksa).
Ask students to consider as they read what might be Richards back
story, whether or not he has cause to be evil, or if he just naturally is.
Halfway through the novel as students to write the backstory,
explaining whether or not Richard was born evil or made to be.

-Take a sampling of important lines from the play and translate them
into a comprehensible modern day English, then place them randomly
in a column on paper adjacent to a column of the original
Shakespearian English and ask students to determine which lines go
together. It helps enforce important lines as well as to reveal meaning
to anyone who might not have understood it.

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The Tempest
-Blind Tea Party- Give each person a character from the novel in the
form of a card taped to their back or forehead, they then can ask each
classmate one content related question (i.e. not Am I Eric? Am I a
girl?) until they can figure out who they are.

-Compare Prosperos epilogue from the end of the Tempest with

Bottoms epilogue from the end of Midsummer, introducing eventually
the possibility of this being Shakespeares goodbye more so than just
Prosperos. Do we read these as the characters words or the actors?
What do the epilogues say about the character/plot/pay in general?
How do they differ and why?

-Have students consider the character of Ariel and his role on the
island. Citing examples such as the cape that drops with his freedom at
the end as told by Professor Favila, and another production Ive seen in
which Ariel was just a puppet. Ask students to then create a costume
for Ariel, either in a physical representation or a design, backed up with
lines from the play to justify their choices.

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-Have students set up a Facebook profile for an assigned or chosen

character. They should include as much personal information as
obtainable from the script with reasoning for any information not
directly provided by the script. They must include a picture of the
character that can be of themselves, someone famous, or even a
drawing. Finally they must make ten posts chronicling for the
characters facebook friends the events within the play and their
feelings towards it.

-In groups of five, give students 15 minutes to plan a reasonable

method for producing a storm on stage, they may use their phones to
check for the availability of materials and tools at the time period, and
then must present their plan with a visual to the class. The class elects
the winning group with a vote after everyone has presented.
Afterwards discuss what might be plausible or realistic about the
various plans and what would be or would most likely be too difficult to
actually do.

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Twelfth Night
-Give a quiz asking students to put the major events of Act five into
order. Given that a group of college students couldnt do it, high
schoolers probably wont be able to either. Half way through the
allotted time announce that the quiz was a rouse and explain that it
was meant to demonstrate the complexity of the Act, which may have
seemed simple before, then unpack the scene action by action with a
timeline.

-Have two students present two different presentations of Antonio and

Sebastians exchange in which Antonio states I could not stay behind
you. My desire/ (more sharp than filed steel) did spur me fourth. The
first presentation should express that Antonio is clearly in love with
Sebastian, while the second should express that Antonio is only
platonically interested in Sebastian.

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-Note: Address the fact before hand that the first presentation
should not become a caricature of gay stereotypes, but simply acted
out as normally

would be between a heterosexual pair (Cohen).

-With permission from the school and the parents of students, view
select scenes from Shes the Man followed by the corresponding scene
from Twelfth Night, such as Violas arrival at Illyria or the big reveal in
the end of the novel. Note changes made in Shes the Man and decide
as a class whether or not the changes were a creative liberty or
necessary to updating the plot, as well as how the changes effect
themes and how they differ or align with the themes presented in
Twelfth Night.

-Before reading the play, give a class wide survey in which they are
asked to rate on a scale of 1-10 how reasonable certain actions are,
such as cross dressing, agreeing to marry someone youve just met
and other sketchy scenarios from the play. After finishing the unit, give
students the same survey and ask them why they have changed any
answers they did.

-Ask the class to reimagine the plot of Twelfth Night occurring in this
day and age, taking into consideration social media, internet, cell
phones etc. Then discuss the ways in which these modern vices would

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either help or harm Violas disguise. Would people be curious as to why

Cesario isnt on twitter? Or could they use technology to better
advance the disguise with modern day appliances? Follow up this
discussion with questions revolving around the timeless nature of
Shakespeare. Even though this particular scenario might not play out
realistically in our year, is there still something to take away from the
play?

Generic Activities and Lessons

-Assign a book talk, where by a certain point in the
quarter/semester/year students must share with their peers or the
class about a book they really love and try and convince others to read
it

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-If by the due date a student hasnt read a book they love, then it
is your

responsibility to find a book for them

-Trick Pop Quiz: Give a ridiculously hard quiz in order to demonstrate

how a topic or concept is actually harder than one may think.

Blind Date With a BookCover the outside of books with paper and then have students pick one
and they have to read it
-You can also write two or three words on the covers, or a random
or

enticing excerpt.

Good Advice
-Always tell your students what they will learn and then at the end
what they did learn

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-After a group or small group discussion, allow for a 20 minute writing

reflection or free write

Project Tools
-Go AnimateCan be used to create a video interpretation of a novel or scene
Must be subscribed to

-Time GliderCan be used to make timelines

Notes
1.

Im not certain about the practicality of this assignment. I

conceived the idea when thinking about different ways in which one
could involve the class in the reading of the play, and I always loved

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the opportunity to act in school, so I thought most other people might

enjoy it as well. The project relies on each individual group of students
doing a just and appropriate performance of their scene, as well as
interpreting the script correctly. I believe in theory this project could be
great but perhaps it needs to be tested in the real world before being
introduced into the classroom.
When thinking about actually doing this project in real life I have
a number of concerns that would need to be dealt with first. Things
such as making sure each group understands their scene and has an
accurate reading, having enough groups to perform the entire play or
perhaps just key scenes, the ineffective (or perhaps just lazy) acting
abilities of some teenagers, and the amount of work that this is asking
students to do. As an actor, I had little trouble remembering entire
plays worth of lines, but I dont know that I could reasonably ask
everyone in the class to memorize an entire scenes worth of lines. I
believe if this were to be a project it would have to be an entire quarter
long project, which does open up doors however.
If this activity was done over the course of an entire 2-3 months
it would give plenty of time for rehearsal, and could be made into a
bigger deal than perhaps just a classroom activity. The play could be
performed for other classes or even for parents, students would have
plenty of time to direct, block, rehearse and memorize lines, and it
would be enough time that it wouldnt require students to sacrifice

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their personal lives or extra-curriculars in order to participate. My main

goal with this assignment is to get students invested in an active
reading of a play, since this is probably an experience many high
schoolers wont have had yet.
Either way this project/activity has ironing out and test-driving to
be done, but I would love to implement an activity like this in my
classroom some day. In my experience the best way to learn a book or
a play, is to be in it, so that you have so much exposure to it you cant
help but be an expert. This would also give students who might not
make it into the school plays a chance to shine, and students who are
too shy have the option to work behind the scenes. I think its a good
project in theory, but theres only one way to find out if thats right.

2.

This activity comes from two classmates who implemented it in

their lesson plan for Much Ado About Nothing. Their version was
slightly different from the one in my commonplace book however. In
the classroom, the pair placed students in groups and gave each group
a prepackaged envelope containing; instructions, a scenario, and an
excerpt from the play. While I believe most other group did pretty well
with the activity, my groups envelope was terribly disjoint. Between
the three of us we could not find a connection between our excerpt and
our prompt, nor were we certain on what was really expected of our
skit.

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About half way through the allotted time one of the pair tried to
help our group and ironed out some of the problems that were just the
result of some awkward wording, but the issue remained we were far
behind and still couldnt relate our two components, so we quickly
threw together a skit based on the prompt, ignoring the excerpt all
together. It went ok, but I didnt quite take away anything from the
experience, and it was kind of embarrassing performing a half-assed
skit.
The rest of the class had well thought out and funny skits;
whether or not they were inspired by their excerpts I dont know. Either
way they seemed to skirt the issues my group had meaning perhaps it
was simply one bad envelope in the group that we were misfortunate
enough to receive. However, it is a blessing in disguised as we learned
how crucial well written out instructions are, particularly with an
activity of this complexity. I would not implement this activity in my
classroom without first testing the instructions out on a peer or friend,
and would be certain to only implement it if I felt truly comfortable with
all of my prompt-excerpt correlations.
3.

I came up with the project by combining two different

assignments I saw at the last day of class. The first was an assignment
asking that the student write the poem for Benedick from Much Ado
About Nothing and the second asked the student to create a found
poem. A found poem is a poem made by highlighting or deleting words

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out of a text so that the poem is your phrasing, but another authors
words. At first glance however, neither of these projects seemed too
intensive or effective enough to be worth while, so I asked myself, how
could I make these activities better? Mash them together!
I decided to complicate this assignment further by adding the
stipulation that they cant pick and choose words or parts of phrases,
but they must use entire lines to create their poem. I think this activity
would be a really nice way of tying the two different projects together.
It brings the creativity of the found poem and writing a poem, with the
relevance to the script embedded in the subject of the poem.
This project could also lead to some really interesting in class
discussions and reflections. The class would discuss what was easy
about
4.

This activity was actually spurned from a total miscalculation by

my teaching assignment partner, Ian and me. Our goal was for the quiz
to serve as an easy reminder for students who had read the play, and
to reveal anyone who didnt do the reading. Unfortunately in the
classroom, things didnt quite pan out that way. We discovered that our
quiz, which asked students to put in order 12 different plot points from
Act V of Twelfth Night, was much more complicated than we thought.
The quiz taught me the exact same lesson I hope to impart to my
students; sometimes what may seem like a simple concept, or straight
forward timeline, is actually much more complicated when confronted.

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In the classroom we tried to first walk around the room and check on
students, get a feel of how things were going and give them pointers
or hints. While there were a few points that most of the class were able
to pin down, by the end of three minutes most students had fewer than
five answers. So, we turned the entire thing around in the moment,
and told the class this was intentional, and that it was simply a building
block to showing them why it is necessary to work through and unpack
something like Act V.
We then invited the class to stop working on the quiz and go
through it together. Unfortunately we didnt think to ask for the class to
try and answer first because of our fear of using too much time, so we
simply listed the answers, and then presented the timeline. Looking
back this was the least successful way to have done this. Option One
would be to nix the timeline and allow for the class to work through the
quiz together in the time allotted for both parts, and Option Two is to
project the timeline while going over the answers, so as to satisfy
multiple learning styles.
In the end this quiz was an accidental total success. Our peers
complimented us on it which confirmed for us that it was in fact
successful, and it taught a valuable lesson to both the students and the
teachers. I could very well see how this activity would also be valuable
in a number of other scenarios, such as applying it to other books, or
simply using it to knock down a class of know-it-alls. (I havent done

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any actual education classes, so Im not certain if thats a good idea or

not, but I think it could be effective.)

Personal Reflection

Whenever I tell people about my post graduation plans, they tell me

oh, I can totally see you being the best teacher! and things of that
nature. But being human, I never really believed it, until this course
helped me to realize I may actually have a knack for this. Of course I

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have a long way to go but from the teaching presentation I learned a

lot about my own teaching abilities.
As far as my strengths go, Ive learned that Im really good in the
heat of the moment. During our lesson there were two particular
moments which were totally unplanned, but which worked out
marvelously. The first was when we distributed a quiz that was much
too difficult for our real class of college students, let alone our
hypothetical class of tenth graders, which I have already detailed in
the Notes section of this book. Through that experience in which I
flipped a failing activity on its head and managed to salvage the
situation, I realized that Im quick on my feet when it comes to problem
solving in the classroom. It was like I went on auto-pilot and simply
found myself working through the quiz with students or improving an
admittance that the quiz was intentionally to difficult, which was a total
lie but Id never reveal that to my students. The other moment was
when we were asking students to list traits they found within the novel
associated with certain characters, and, again without thinking about
it, I decided to create a visual on the black board, listing what everyone
said and eventually going on to circling certain key words which
popped out, which was again met with praise by my classmates. Both
of these realizations really give me hope for the future as one of my
biggest fears was that I would crash and burn at the first hiccup, or be
completely redundant and waste my time.

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However, it was absolutely not all-smooth sailing. Ive learned

that lesson planning is definitely one of my weaknesses. Ian and I
didnt really have any ideas when we first met to plan our lesson, so
we spent a long time just kicking around ideas without realizing what
we wanted to do, and it wasnt until about halfway through our actual
lesson plan that we did in fact figure it out. We ended up deciding to
improvise most of the actual content of the lesson, with a basic
timeline and some guiding questions, but we had no concrete points to
make or facts to share written down anywhere. It worked out to our
advantage, but if Im being honest, it was mostly thanks to Ian, who
had pretty well spoken insight on the play. My biggest issue is
speaking. Ive been acting since I was twelve and have never been
nervous belting out songs in front of hundreds of people, but put me in
a room of twenty English majors and I become the most self-conscious
person in the world, fearing that anything I say is going to sound
idiotic. And in a chain reaction, those nerves then make it difficult for
me to form intelligent thoughts so I trip over words or often times cant
find the right phrasing or words to say what I want. So there is
obviously a lot for me to work on in my next three years of education
work (and hopefully many, many years after).
My teaching assignment was another win for me from this class. I
got to come up with a creative project, and implemented some things
Ive learned from another reading/teaching class Ive been taking this

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semester. However, I learned later on that the assignment could be

improved. For instance when I went to exchange my assignment with
Ian, I instantly noticed playful pictures of Shakespeare and theatre
masks, which at first I thought were juvenile, but then I remembered
being in high school and hating anything that didnt have pictures
because it was instantly less interesting, so I went home and added
pictures to mine. Upon the presentation of Ians completed project, I
realized there could be an entire second component to the project in
the form of a creative presentation. The project was to translate one
scene from a Shakespearian play in to a modern day language and
setting, however I was expecting the format to be a stapled packet. Ian
showed up with a big beautiful book that showcased both his
translation as well as the original script. It reminded me that projects
can always be made better by adding a little creativity.

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Works Cited

Cohen,RalphAlan.ShakesFearandHowtoCureIt:AHandbookfor
TeachingShakespeare.Clayton,DE:PrestwickHouse,2006.Print.

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