Activity Two – Shakespeare Diary for Students
Shakespeare Diary Activity
By Theresa Wilson, Warren Hills Regional School District, Washington, New Jersey
Lesson Focus:
The goal of this assignment is to get students to interact with and analyze the situations of Shakespearean characters. The student will select a character and follow that character’s development and decision-making closely throughout the play.
Objective:
The students will create a diary for the character they select, describing the narrative of that character, filling in missing information and showing a thorough explanation of the character’s thoughts and actions. Although Macbeth is specifically mentioned in the excerpt of the interview, this activity may be used for any play; it may be especially useful as a transitional activity for the student to perform a scene as the character upon which the diary entries are based.
Alignment with Common Core Standards:
English Language Arts 6-12: Reading Literature
6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
RL.11-12.6. Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
RL.11-12.10. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.
CommonCore: English Language Arts 6-12: Writing
3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
W.11-12.3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
W.11-12.3a. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation and its significance, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.
W.11-12.3b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
W.11-12.3c. Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole and build toward a particular tone and outcome (e.g., a sense of mystery, suspense, growth, or resolution).
W.11-12.3d Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
Range of Writing
10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
W.11-12.10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes.
Materials/Resources:
- Copies of Student Handout, instructing students how to approach writing their diary assignment.
- Excerpt from Arin Arbus’s interview from Shakespeare Central.org (time signature: 00:01:57 – 00:05:23)
- Rubric for grading
Grade Levels: 6-12
Proceedure:
As Arin Arbus explains in her analysis (excerpted below), Shakespeare’s power lies partially in the fact that he could make characters in extraordinary situations relatable to ordinary people. The student will select a character and follow that character’s development and decision-making closely throughout the play. The students will then create a diary for that character which describes the narrative of that character, filling in missing information and demonstrating a thorough explanation of the character’s thoughts and actions. Although Macbeth is specifically mentioned in the interview excerpt, this activity may be used for any play; it may be especially useful as a transitional activity for the student to perform a scene as the character upon which the diary entries are based.
Either read or play the audio of the following segment of an interview with Arin Arbus, by way of introduction:
Excerpt from Shakespeare Central Interview: Arin Arbus (Artistic Director, Theater for a New Audience)
The Power of Shakespeare/Relevance
00:01:57 AA: Well, for me, you start – or I start with the – with the words. And – and you – I guess I feel like you – I have to feel a deep connection to something in the play. And I have to feel like I understand it, or understand something about it. I mean, it’s not possible to understand everything about the play – ever, probably – but you know, part of the process is – is making discoveries.
00:02:54 But one needs to come in with a – with a strong feeling, or a strong affinity for the material, which for me, I guess there are sort of two things in the play that – that I am very interested in, or that I connect to – connected to immediately, when I – you know, looking through different Shakespeare plays a year ago trying to figure out what to do next – or which one to do next.
00:03:42 And I think – I think what is so complex about Macbeth is – is that Shakespeare has made this character who is a deeply moral man. He has an incredible ethical sense and is – and is remarkably articulate and poetic about that – that ethical sense. And yet he does horrendous things and he’s capable of frightening brutality. And that’s an interesting – that’s an interesting combination to me.
00:04:46 And it’s a combination – you know, a man capable of terrifying brutality who is also deeply moral, I feel like that’s a – there is something very truthful in that contradiction – that seeming contradiction. And there is something that I recognize there in my experience of life.
00:05:20 SR: [Not recorded.]
00:05:23 AA: Well, I guess I’ve – I’ve seen that in people and that’s something that’s confusing. I mean, it’s – I don’t know if I want to go too far down this road, but you know, it’s certainly something – it’s something that Shakespeare observed in the world and it’s something that I’ve certainly observed and, you know, and I – even in the work in prison I find that contradiction in those men who are there.
After the students have listened to the interview excerpt, transition into a discussion of the universality of Shakespearian characters. Consider integrating the following questions into a class discussion:
- How can we understand a character that was created four hundred year ago?
- What has changed about the human experience over time? What has remained the same?
- How might Shakespeare give the audience insight into the feelings and inner thoughts of characters, both minor and major?
Using the responses to these questions, guide students to an understanding of how the problems, fears, and situations of many of Shakespeare’s characters are still relatable to us today. The setting may have changed but the basic human condition has not. Encourage students to put themselves in the shoes of one of the characters. Proceed into an introduction to the assignment. Grade diaries using the rubric provided. Point totals and grade ranges were intentionally left vague to accommodate different grading scales
STUDENT HANDOUT
Shakespearian Diary Project
Goal: You will be creating a diary for one of Shakespeare’s characters, following that character’s emotional responses and decision making throughout the play.
Step One: After listening to the Arin Arbus interview, think about how one might sympathize with or try to understand a person who comes from a different time or place. Shakespeare is considered timeless in part because people from different times and cultures can understand his characters. Select a character that you will follow closely throughout the play. It may be a minor or major character; you will still be doing the same number of journal entries.
Step Two: Make note when reading the play when meaningful or interesting happen to or in the presence of the character you have selected.
Step Three: Think about what you know about the personality and situation of the character. How would he or she react to a situation what decision does he or she make? How might the character have arrived at that decision? Consult the rubric before beginning the assignment to make sure you are fulfilling all of the requirements at the exemplary level.
Step Four: Create a diary from the perspective of the character you selected. The diary should have at least five detailed entries with each entry being a page to a page and half in length. The entries should create a narrative in which you examine your character in depth and create a point of view in which that character is able to express his or her side of events.