Much Ado About Nothing

Conquering Shakespeare called for a plan!  Contrary to popular belief, not all my Shakespeare students were eager to begin our study.  I knew that we needed to prepare them for success.  After many hours reading and browsing those who know Shakespeare better than I, I had a course of action.  We will approach each of our eight plays in the following way.  First, we will read a children's version of the play.  This will introduce the story and characters in a "friendly" manner.  Next we will watch a movie version.  Shakespeare was an entertainer.  The words were made to be performed.  Then we will tackle the Bard head on.  By the time we are reading Shakespeare, it will be familiar and not scary or intimidating.  That is the plan!  

I decided to start us off with the comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.  A comedy would be a fun start, light and happy (unlike the dark tragedies we will be delving into later).  Also, quite a few of the kids are already familiar with the movie version.  They were assigned the children's version (Lamb's or Nesbit is always good) to read and then we met for our first meeting to watch the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson version of Much Ado About Nothing.  How fun!  

After watching the movie, we had a small activity that summed up the play in 15 minutes.  The Folger Shakespeare Library's A 15 Minute Much Ado had a narrator reading a summary that was interspersed with quotes from the play.  The kids were supposed to read and dramatize the quotes when it was their turn.   We all had some fun with this.

 

 Calleigh, Skyeler, Riley, Elizabeth, Tori, and Aly

All in all it was a great start to our new study.  Those of you familiar with our Jane Austen Lit Study from last year will remember that for each book there was a blog project assigned.  We will be doing the same with Shakespeare.  Each play will give the kids the opportunity to get creative with Shakespeare.  I look forward to seeing what cool ideas they come up with this year.

~Angel