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Why Teach and Perform Shakespeare?
Learning from the Bard


Philip Levien , San Marcos High School
Santa Barbara, CA

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Standards

Because I'm simultaneously teaching English, Drama and ELD, I go back to the frameworks which were in place when I was getting my credential.  And in language arts, you’re supposed to teach reading, writing, speaking and listening.  We obviously cover all of those. 

For the California High School Visual and Performing Arts Standards, the Sheltered Theater Production addresses all five categories: Artistic Perception; Aesthetic Valuing; Creative Expression; Historical and Cultural Context; and Connections, Relationships, Applications.

For the California High School English and Language Arts Standards , we address

Reading

  • 1.0 Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
  • 3.0 Literary Response and Analysis
    • 3.1 Articulate the relationship between the expressed purposes and the characteristics of different forms of dramatic literature (e.g., comedy, tragedy, drama, dramatic monologue).
    • 3.3 Analyze interactions between main and subordinate characters in a literary text (e.g., internal and external conflicts, motivations, relationships, influences) and explain the way those interactions affect the plot.
    • 3.4 Determine characters' traits by what the characters say about themselves in narration, dialogue, dramatic monologue, and soliloquy
    • 3.8 Interpret and evaluate the impact of ambiguities, subtleties, contradictions, ironies, and incongruities in a text.
    • 3.9 Explain how voice, persona, and the choice of a narrator affect characterization and the tone, plot, and credibility of a text.
    • 3.10 Identify and describe the function of dialogue, scene designs, soliloquies, asides, and character foils in dramatic literature

Writing

  • 2.0 Writing Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)
    • 2.1 Write biographical or autobiographical narratives or short stories:
      • a. Relate a sequence of events and communicate the significance of the events to the audience.
        b. Locate scenes and incidents in specific places.
        c. Describe with concrete sensory details the sights, sounds, and smells of a scene and the specific actions, movements, gestures, and feelings of the characters; use interior monologue to depict the characters' feelings.
        d. Pace the presentation of actions to accommodate changes in time and mood.
        e. Make effective use of descriptions of appearance, images, shifting perspectives, and sensory details.
    • 2.2 Write responses to literature:
      • a. Demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of the significant ideas of literary works.
        b. Support important ideas and viewpoints through accurate and detailed references to the text or to other works.
        c. Demonstrate awareness of the author's use of stylistic devices and an appreciation of the effects created.
        d. Identify and assess the impact of perceived ambiguities, nuances, and complexities within the text

Written and Oral Language Conventions

  • 1.4 Produce legible work that shows accurate spelling and correct use of the conventions of punctuation and capitalization.
  • 1.5 Reflect appropriate manuscript requirements, including title page presentation, pagination, spacing and margins, and integration of source and support material (e.g., in-text citation, use of direct quotations, paraphrasing) with appropriate citations.

Listening and Speaking

  • 1.7 Use props, visual aids, graphs, and electronic media to enhance the appeal and accuracy of presentations.
  • 1.9 Analyze the occasion and the interests of the audience and choose effective verbal and nonverbal techniques (e.g., voice, gestures, eye contact) for presentations.
  • 1.10 Analyze historically significant speeches (e.g., Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address," Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream") to find the rhetorical devices and features that make them memorable.
  • 1.11 Assess how language and delivery affect the mood and tone of the oral communication and make an impact on the audience.
  • 1.12 Evaluate the clarity, quality, effectiveness, and general coherence of a speaker's important points, arguments, evidence, organization of ideas, delivery, diction, and syntax.
  • 2.4 Deliver oral responses to literature:
    a. Advance a judgment demonstrating a comprehensive grasp of the significant ideas of works or passages (i.e., make and support warranted assertions about the text).
    b. Support important ideas and viewpoints through accurate and detailed references to the text or to other works.
    c. Demonstrate awareness of the author's use of stylistic devices and an appreciation of the effects created.
    d. Identify and assess the impact of perceived ambiguities, nuances, and complexities within the text.
 


The work on this website includes ethnographic video documentation recorded by Richard Nardi and ChunXia Wang, and was supported in part by the Center for Teaching for Social Justice at U.C. Santa Barbara.

Site last updated February 21, 2006