Friday, January 25, 2013

Multitasking - Not for the Weak of Heart

I think it's safe to say that there's rarely a dull moment during our classtime, whether it's random stories about my kids and students' lives or listening to British actors read a play.  And a recent lesson was no exception.

We'd been working on breaking down Shakespeare's langauge to get a better handle on it and after doing the omissions and sentence structure work, next up was the poetic meter analysis.  I know, sounds pretty awful - scansion is the technical term - but with the help of childhood songs and an A. A. Milne poem, we were eventually reading lines from A Midsummer Night's Dream with surprisingly good rhythm. 

I wasn't sure how this was going to go, either, as I was typing up the lines from the play to project for the kids to read.  Ask them to a) stand up, b) read unfamiliar words, and c) stomp feet seemed like a lot to ask.  Sure would have been easier to hit play and listen to the audio recording, check for understanding, and move on.  But I was determined not to play it safe, especially since I'd learned most of this technical stuff about Shakespeare's writing is brand new for the kids.  So, I took a deep breath and worked through the activity. 

There were only a few questioning looks as I asked kids to *gasp* stand up and then move away from their desks.  We did the Milne poem reading to get a feel for the rhythm and rhyme, then I popped up the first of the Shakespeare segments.  Kids were asked to read aloud the words, in unison as much as possible.  So after a couple of do-overs and my keeping pace, that was successful.  Next up was stomping a foot on the indicated syllables while reading out loud.  A few more re-starts were needed, but I was impressed with how fast they caught on.  And everyone was moving mouths, saying words, and stamping a foot.  Awesome!  Music to my ears! 

There was another passage to read the same way, then we looked at the technical aspects - tetrameter vs pentameter and iambic syllables.  So for a quick introduction, it went well and I'm thankful no one booed me off the stage.  On to the memorization passage...

22 comments:

  1. I'm glad we actually get up and do stuff in this class. All our other classes are quiet and all we do is sit in our chair and read.

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  2. It is good to stand up and get the blood pumping every once in a while.

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  3. This was confusing, but fun. I enjoy getting up and doing things in class. It is something we don't get to do in most classes.

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  4. I was probably the worst person to keep rhythm, but overall it was nice to get up in class be active during a lesson. It would be nice to do this more often in class.

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  5. Our little activity for tetrameter vs. pentameter was quite difficult! However, it was nice to do something different in class. As seniors in high-school, you would think we would be able to read in unison and keep a beat up, but did I realize different that day!

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  6. I was a little confused by the request to rise from seat to sing and stomp. But i understood its purpose after we were asked to proceed in unison. Shakespearian sentence structure has always been difficult to read, but as time passed it became easier to comprehend. I stumble still when his words are not complete. The slang used in his time period is rather intriguing. But the stomping help our brains read the sentence in a measure, just like reading music.

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  7. I enjoyed doing this exercise. I thought that it was a good way for us to learn how Shakespeare sets up his words. A little difficult to all get on the same beat but it was fun!

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  8. I enjoyed the exercise. I thought it was a good way to teach us how Shakespeare writes his sentences. I felt it was much better than sitting in desks trying to learn it all on our own.

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  9. I didn't mind doing this exercise. I could some what keep the beat. It was fun to do in class.

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  10. A Midsummer Nights Dream is actually easy for me to read, compared to reading Hamlet last year. The exercise we did in class helped me to understand the play better too.

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  11. I thought that this activity was, actually, pretty fun and amusing. I think that we should do activities like this more often to keep the whole class involved and have a bit of fun.

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  12. it was weird at first but turned out kinda fun.

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  13. I actually find myself trying to figure out which format Shakespeare is using as we read different parts of the play, so the exercise definately helped!!

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  14. I liked the fact that we connected rhythm to Shakespeare to understand how to read it a little better

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  15. It sounded like a fun activity to do as a class and a good way to connect with the rhythm in Shakespeare. We use this method at the Elementary for pronouncing words :)

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  16. I agree with aurora but I still don't understand shakespeare that well. I guess I'm not that big of a fan of his plays.

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  17. The exercise helped me recognize the rhythm in the way that Shakespeare wrote.

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  18. It's nice to stand up and get out of our seat once in a while.

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  19. I personally liked the activity but it took the class a couple times to get every on to pertcipate.

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  20. This activity was fun, at first I thought to myself “oh my, this is going to be boring!” but towards the end I found myself laughing at what a challenge it actually was! I enjoyed it!

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  21. Understanding the rhythm of Shakespeare isn't easy to do. Stomping our feet to the beat of the words helped me understand how it is read. The flow of Shakespeare changes the meaning of the entire sentence. The harder thing, for me, to grasp is how it is said rather what is being said. I have noticed that I understand the story’s much more now that I have an idea of the pattern Shakespeare writes in.

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  22. I think this activity was fun and different from most things we do in class! I liked the way that once we started to stomp our feet most of the voices got quieter and quieter, I found it humorous. it was a neat activity to do, and it would be pretty cool if we could do more active activities :)

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