Lesson Plans (3 hours per class)

Day  1            Teacher:__________________

Unit/Strand Title: Drama Unit - William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Lesson Title: Shakespeare, His Period and his Drama

Learning Expectations

Understand the historical background of Shakespearean drama. Recognize tragedy as a dramatic genre. Learn the importance of Elizabethan "Great Chain of Being" and preoccupation with dichotomy of Order/Chaos for understanding Shakespearean tragedy.

Delivery Strategies (mark with 'X', lesson specifics)

Lecture	Pocket Lab	Internet Lab Animation
Overhead PowerPoint Note	Group Discussion	Group Activity
Worksheet	Problem Solving	Audio Video Analysis

Assessment and/or Evaluation Strategies (mark with 'X')

Oral Questions	Test/Quiz	Written Submission
Presentation	Class Participation

Comments:

• A critical lesson, introducing major themes in Shakespearean tragedy to students.
• An emphasis upon making Shakespeare, his time and its concerns, relevant to the students.

Resources/Materials:

E.M.W. Tillyard, The Elizabethan World Picture

Timing	Lesson Delivery Specifics
45 min	Discussion of the historical background of Shakespeare's drama, and of Hamlet: the reign of Elizabeth I; the Renaissance, and the rise of new speculation about the world, religion etc.; the fear of political instability and revolt at home, linked with the fear of foreign invasion (Spanish Armada 1588).
45 min	Introduce concepts of "Great Chain of Being" and "Cosmic Order" in the Elizabethan world view. Disorder in the political realm reflected in the metaphysical. "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." (Hamlet. I.iv.90). This model explains both the spiritual/political context of Hamlet as well as the impetus behind the need to take action to restore political and spiritual order.
45 min	What is tragedy? Brief reference to Greek and Roman tragedy. Some basic concepts (e.g., catharsis). Emphasize that Shakespeare's tragedy - while similar in ways to ancient tragedy - is very different. While there is still the tragic hero (Hamlet), the role of a "tragic flaw" (in Hamlet's case, his inaction) is debatable. Shakespearean tragedy, as is evident in Hamlet, is more complex and multifaceted than ancient tragedy.
45 min	Make Shakespearean context relevant to students' experience. Oral questions about what is feared in our own time (e.g., people arrested for use of word "bomb" or "gun" at airport check-in counters); what do students see as signs of 21st century preoccupation with order/chaos in the mass media (news as well as movies/TV dramas). This is an important learning in this lesson: students should try to imagine themselves in the place of a Shakespearean audience to appreciate the complex significance of Hamlet (for example, how the appearance of the Ghost would be a very disturbing symbol of cosmic/political chaos that needed remedy).

---

Day  2            Teacher:__________________

Unit/Strand Title: Drama Unit - William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Lesson Title: Shakespearean Tragedy

Learning Expectations

Identify what is Shakespearean tragedy. Understand the topic of "revenge tragedy" and its primary characteristics. Learn the social and political significance of "revenge tragedy" in Elizabethan times.

Delivery Strategies (mark with 'X', lesson specifics)

Lecture	Pocket Lab	Internet Lab Animation
Overhead PowerPoint Note	Group Discussion	Group Activity
Worksheet	Problem Solving	Audio Video Analysis

Assessment and/or Evaluation Strategies (mark with 'X')

Oral Questions	Test/Quiz	Written Submission
Presentation	Class Participation

Comments:

• Specific background on Shakespearean tragedy, and the genre of "revenge tragedy" to which Hamlet belongs.

Resources/Materials:

E.M.W. Tillyard, The Elizabethan World Picture

Timing	Lesson Delivery Specifics
60 min	What is Shakespearean tragedy? Discuss the general characteristics of Shakespearean tragedy: (1) Each tragedy possesses one central tragic protagonist; (2) each tragic protagonist is frustrated and denied in his ambitions (love, revenge, desire for power); (3) each protagonist, and many of the other characters, including many innocents, die in the course of the protagonist attempting to achieve his ambition; (4) rejection of cosmic justice, with the conclusion often not being just (Othello and Desdemona dead, Iago alive; Romeo and Juliet dead; Hamlet dead; in King Lear, almost everyone dead). Thus, Shakespearean tragedy is often about a fundamental reality of life: that life is often not fair or just, even when some form of order is restored it may be the order of the dead.
30 min	Introduce the genre of "revenge tragedy". Reference concepts of "Great Chain of Being" and "Cosmic Order" introduced in Lesson on Day 1. Discuss "revenge tragedy" as a sub-set of Elizabethan tragedy (i.e., not all Shakespearean tragedies are "revenge tragedies" . . . although Hamlet clearly is).
60 min	Examine primary characteristics of revenge tragedy: 1) A secret murder, usually of a benign ruler by a bad one; 2) a period of disguise, intrigue, or plotting, in which the avenger plots, with a slowly rising body count; 3) a descent into either real or feigned madness by the avenger or one of the auxiliary characters; 4) an eruption of general violence at the end, and a catastrophe that decimates the cast, including the avenger.
30 min	Discuss co-existing views of revenge in Elizabethan times: revenge as a source of unwanted disorder (reference Romeo and Juliet) in endless cycles of revenge - this is the political justification for why, in revenge tragedy, the avenger must also die (a cycle of revenge among the aristocracy risked civil dissension and civil war, as in Romeo and Juliet; revenge as blasphemy against God ("Vengeance is mine, said the Lord") - this is a religious justification for why, in revenge tragedy, the avenger must also die; revenge as justice in an unjust world.

---

Day  3.            Teacher:__________________

Unit/Strand Title: Drama Unit - William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Lesson Title: Hamlet Act I - Improvisational Pairs

Learning Expectations

Explore the young characters and their concerns in Hamlet: Laertes and Ophelia. See the play and the drama through their youthful perspectives (focusing on issues like young love, bad relationships, peer pressures).

Delivery Strategies (mark with 'X', lesson specifics)

Lecture	Pocket Lab	Internet Lab Animation
Overhead PowerPoint Note	Group Discussion	Group Activity
Worksheet	Problem Solving	Audio Video Analysis

Assessment and/or Evaluation Strategies (mark with 'X')

Oral Questions	Test/Quiz	Written Submission
Presentation	Class Participation

Comments:

• This lesson will focus on making the experience of the young characters in the play relevant to the students.
• Improvisational pairs will allow students to get a sense of drama and its potential as a live experience.

Resources/Materials:

3 Scenarios for Improvisational Pairs: Male-Female (Laertes/Ophelia); Father-Son (Polonius-Laertes); Father-Daughter (Polonius/Ophelia).

Timing	Lesson Delivery Specifics
60 min	Introduce the "advice" scenes in Act One, with the interactions between Polonius, Laertes, and Ophelia. Note how these scenes are about power, and the acceptance of power, of the older over the younger, male over female. Then break the class into pairs, and explain that each will be required to improvise a brief exchange of advice depending upon which of the 3 Scenarios they receive: (1) Polonius/Laertes; (2) Polonius/Ophelia; (3) Laertes/Ophelia. Advise the students that they are not to "play" the characters but the character types. Distribute the Scenarios evenly, and allow student pairs a few minutes to prepare their improvs of how they would think each scenario should be developed. (Emphasize that the important thing here is not acting ability but imagination. Do they see the younger / female members accepting or rebelling the advice? What variations can they introduce to these exchanges?
60 min	Presentation of each pair's improvs.
60 min	Discussion of the improvs and learnings from them. Address issues such as heavy-handed parenting (Polonius' orders to his son to study hard, not "party" etc.), sexism (Ophelia being ordered to be "modest" by both her father and her brother), and rebellion (how would the students react were they in the places of Laertes and Ophelia). There should be two emphases here: (1) Making the characters and their experiences relevant to students' lives as young men and women; and (2) leading them to the realization of how different the character of Hamlet is to his peers. Hamlet does not blindly accept older parental authority - whether Claudius, his mother, or the Ghost - but is always questioning.