a) What do you know about Hamlet, the "Melancholy Dane"?
I actually don't know much about Hamlet at all. I've heard the name plenty of times, but really never wondered what it was about. I know it's a Shakespeare tragedy, and had some crazy family issues. Other than that, nothing.
b) What do you know about Shakespeare?
He was an English poet who wrote a lot of plays, usually tragedy and with a lot of twists, turns, romanticisms, and deceit. Lived in the 1500's.
c) Why do so many students involuntarily frown when they hear the name "Shakespeare"?
Years of doing generic bookwork on Shakespeare's stories, learning irrelevant dates and characters to study last minute for a test on material they won't remember in 2 weeks mostly. Honestly though, I've enjoyed both major Shakespeare projects we've had to do so far. The Romeo & Juliet project was fun because we got to make a film about it, and Byrne explained Julius Caesar in an interesting way. That said, the vocab and related homework assignments were not as interesting.
d) What can we do to make studying this play an amazing experience we'll never forget?
make it versatile! While making a film was fun, watching 30 some half-assed last minute Romeo & Juliets was not fun. If everyone had their own type of way to show they learned the material, it'd make it much more interesting. Just off the top of my head I could think of music (written songs or mix CDs and a paper explaining them or something), movie, live play, art, or many other things I haven't thought of. I think that would be a way to make it something everyone can participate in, and have a good time doing it.
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