Caricature

A caricature is a ludicrous exaggeration e.g Malvolio with his yellow crossed garters.  The exaggeration is over the top and there is often a clue in the character's name e.g. Sir Toby Belch is a drunk. 

As well as having a comic role the character can also be said to show a vice or a folly- so there's a moral in the character as well.

Discuss with students what a caracture is.  Provide them with a visual cue of modern examples of caricature.  Politicians are often caricatured so it should be possible to provide a caricature and a photograph.  Ask students what qualities a caricature has and what is the point of a modern caricature-there is usually an element of satire involved.

Ask them to identify the caricatured character in the play that they are studying.

Mind map or create a poster of the caricature.
Write a prose description of the character.
What is funny and why is it funny?
How does the caricature help us to understand the principle characters in the play and to the plot?
Is there a serious message behind the charicature?

Depending on the age of the students:
1) Draw and label the caricature with appropriate quotes - as though for a wanted poster.
2) Write an essay about the role of  XXX (the caricature) in the play.  Remind students to use PQD point, quote, development) or PEA (point, evidence, assessment).

Oxymoron- or opposites attract.

An oxymoron is a figure of speech where two opposites are drawn together in what looks like an impossible combination - e.g. heavy lightness or visible darkness.

Create a game of pelmanism containing opposites.  Players must match the opposite pairs. 

Having played the game ask students to use the pairs that they have won to create a sentence describing love or happiness.  Model and example first so that students understand how the imagery works.

Discuss why oxymorons work.

Either ask students to identify the oxymorons in the play that they are studying or provide them with the oxymorons and the references so that they can find them in the play.  Ask students on their own or in small groups to explain what the effect of the oxymoron is.

Dramatic Irony

Irony on its own is writing one thing but meaning another- sarcasm is irony that is intended to wound and it is usually exaggerated. 


Explain to students  what irony is.  Perhaps play the Alanis Morrisette song entitled 'Ironic.' 

Give students scenario cards and ask them to decide whether each scenario is ironic or not and to explain their answers.

Dramatic irony happens when the audience knows more than the characters and can there for see what is going to happen - this can be tragic or comic.  The future is concealed from the characters but not from the the audience.

Ask students to identify examples in pairs or small groups.  Answer the following questions:
1.  Why is it an example of dramatic irony?
2. How does the audience's knowledge add to enjoyment of the play?
3. How does the audience's knowledge add to its understanding of the characters?

Texting and communication.

Many of Shakespeare's plays rely upon miscommunication.  Ask students to create the texts that characters would have sent one another as events unfolded and ask them also to identify how the play they are studying would have had a different outcome if communication was better.

Students must identify key moments in the plot and select appropriate  and pithy quotes to use alongside their modern English.

Discuss during the feedback stage the importance of miscommunication as a plot device.

Invective and insults

Invective is a brief denunciation.  Shakespeare uses some wonderful language to insult his characters.

Ask students to identify some Shakespearean insults.  Then ask them to identify the features of the language or format that give the insults colour.  They may be similes, metaphors or a long list separated only by commas so that the speech races.

Shakespeare's Biography IV

Bring a range of non-fiction children's books into the classroom.  Ask students to make an analysis of the language, layout and imagery.  They can do this as a list, a poster or a mind map.

Now ask them to write Shakespeare's biography in a format appropriate for the 8-11 year old age group.

Shakespeare's Theatre

Ask students to research The Globe and also where else Shakespeare produced his plays. 

Depending on the age of your students:-
Ask them to design the set for the play that they are studying bearing in mind what The Globe was like.
and/or
Ask them to write a leaflet aimed at visitors coming to The Globe for the first time and who might be used to modern theatrical productions where there are many set changes.  The leaflet will have to explain a bit about the history and the culture in which Shakespeare's plays were first performed.  It should also contain quotes that Shakespeare has included so that the audience can visualise the scene for themselves without the aid of a set.

Ann Hathaway's Journal

Research Shakespeare's home life and the woman he married.  Write Ann's journal.  She stayed in Stratford while William was in London.

The missing years

Provide an extract from one of Shakespeare's biography's covering the missing years.  Complete a comprehension exercise- that's the what.

Discuss with the class where you think he might have been and why.

Create possible hypothesis cards by explaining that writers often write about things with which they are familiar.  Choose possible scenarios  from different plays and put these on a hand out or sort card activity.

Students should then generate hypotheses about what Shakespeare might have been doing and why and then vote on which is the best.

Discuss why people are interested in accounting for the missing years.

Shakespeare Biography III- postcard facts

Having created a timeline identify key topics with your students - health, politics, religion, social structure, love etc.

Provide students with a postcard sized piece of paper and ask them to fill it with the things that they find most important about Shakespeare's life and which they think are interesting.

Students, in pairs, are then to explain their post cards to one another.

The life of Shakespeare II

Shakespeare wrote about the topics that his audience were interested in.  His plays are part of his society and culture.

Create a time line for Shakespeare's life.  Ask students to fill in information about Shakespeare's society- pictures, facts etc.  They should use the Internet and the library.

Introducing Shakespeare

Provide students with information about Shakespeare.  Then complete an alphabox  exercise.  Essentially this is where there are 26 boxes on the board- one for each letter of the alphabet.  Students having completed their reading must then identify key words beginning with appropriate letters of the alphabet covering the life of Shakespeare.  This ensures that students summarise and use their own words rather than relying on cut and paste.

Tragic hero- the trial

Assign roles with prompt cards to help students to develop their role.  Each student plays a part.  It could be the characters or it could be the lawyers. You draw up the charge sheet. They all form the jury.

Hold the tragic hero's trial.  Students should draw on quotes from the text.
They should then decide whether the tragic hero is guilty as charged or whether there are mitigating factors.

Holding out for a hero- even a tragic one.

Collect a range of texts and text types which contain information or images of a hero.  Ask students to look at the assorted cues and prompts and to draw on their own understanding of what makes a hero.

Ask them to create a mind map of what makes a hero.

Now ask them to find examples of how the main character of  the play that they are studying fits the criteria that they have identified.  They should provide quotes.

If the play is a tragedy the next phase is to lead them to seeing that a tragic hero has one fatal flaw that leads to his eventual downfall- in the case of Macbeth it's ambition and in the case of Othello, jealousy. 

Low Comedy- in it for the laughs

Shakespeare uses low comedy to make the audience laugh and to contrast with dramatic scenes thereby heightening the drama.  The only problem is that the low comedy in Shakespeare's plays appealed to Shakespeare's audiences.

Ask students to rewrite a scene of low comedy that a modern audience would find funny- discuss first the various kinds of comedy and what make things funny or not.

Hyperbole overload

Hyperbole is a word that means emphasis on something by exaggeration e.g. I've got six trillion assignments to mark.  It can be used for serious or comic effect. 

Give students examples from everyday  language and ask them to think of some of their own.

Are there any examples of hyperbole in the play that your students are studying.  Give them six examples and ask them to vote on whether  the examples that you've given them use hypbole or not.  Voters must be prepared to say why the example is or isn't.

Shakespeare's Language- positives, negatives and implications

Shakespeare's language can be difficult for learners.  Carry out some research about Shakespeare's English e.g. there are many commonly used expressions in English that are first seen written down in one of Shakespeare's plays.  Write each fact down on an individual card.  Ask students to study an individual card on their own or in pairs.  They should now research, using the Internet and library to find out more about the fact that they have been given.

Once the research has been carried out create a PNI table.  One column contains the fact, students have to provide a positive assessment of the fact, a negative one and a view on the implication for their understanding of the language.  You should model an example before they start and ensure that you have allowed time to support learners to develop their PNI.  Allocation of fact cards also allows for differentiation.

Once students have fed back then the issue of Shakespeare's language can be opened up for wider discussion.

Stock characters

Many characters are not developed as fully as the principle characters.  These minor characters often exhibit particular traits with which we, the audience, are familiar e.g. the handsome prince, the jealous husband etc. 

Ask students to identify stock character types in general then ask them to identify stock characters in the play that they are studying.  Explain why they are stock characters.  Allocate 'stock character types' to small groups- ask them to create a mind map, poster or list of the kind of things that we expect of these stock types.  Talk about where else we see such characters (e.g. pantomime)  What is their role in the play?

Now ask students to break the conventions that we associate with these stock characters.  Choose one stock character from the play and write their story but it must have a twist so that they are no longer stock.  This is an opportunity to work on characterisation.

Four Humours

Medieval medicine identified four main humours in the human body- phlegm, choler, blood and bile.  If these were not in balance or one was more dominant than another then the individual's personality was affected- phlegmatic, choleric, sanguine or melancholic.  Shakespeare often uses imagery related to these four humours to describe his characters.  A Shakespearean audience would have known exactly what this meant.

You can either give students a presentation where they have to take notes, or a presentation followed by a cloze exercise.  Then they must research their new found knowledge using the Internet.  You can divide the class into four so that each group has to research one of the humours.  They should then produce a poster summing up all the information for their 'humour'.  Share information.

Now diagnose the main characters in the play.  Model one through a whole class activity.  Then ask students to select a character to diagnose.

Discuss the way our understanding of medicine and mood has changed and discuss also what kinds of imagery Shakespeare would use if he was writing today so that learners can begin to see how Shakespeare's imagery is not something that was designed to be academic but which was designed to be immediately understood by his audience.

Exposition - writing a prequel

An exposition is when the scene is set at the beginning of a play.  There weren't opportunities for expensive sets so the scene had to be set in the audience's mind at the start of the play.  Another reason for exposition is to provide some back plot so that the audience can understand the relationship between the characters that has led to the point where they are viewing events.

Ask students to create mind maps or posters in small groups identifying exposition.  Encourage them to quote from the play as well as to explain.  Help them to identify themes and images that recur.

When they have produced their mind map/poster and fed back they should write the prequel.  It can either be prose or dialogue.

Dialogue to direct speech.

Create a cartoon of a short dialogue between two characters.  Students should have this as a handout.

Now create a 'clothes line' activity  for a short dialogue where the words are available as printed strips.  You will also need all the punctuation marks.  Model to students how the speech bubbles in cartoons are reduced to punctuation marks in direct speech.

The next step is to provide students with a page of direct speech.  Ask them to identify some of the rules for the use of direct speech. Give them cues and prompts.  Generate a list of rules.  Check the rules against the page of direct speech to make sure that the rule holds true.

Now ask students to find the cartoon dialogue in their texts and to continue the dialogue as direct speech.  Remind them that they should include adjectives to describe the way that the characters are speaking and to show how they feel.

Manga dialogue- direct speech stage 1

Teach students to use direct speech correctly by showing them why speech marks are important.  Begin with a cartoon.  Ask them to identify how different kinds of speech bubble represent different kinds of speech e.g. thought etc.

Now discuss the way in which dialogue adds to the images but that the speech contained is only key to adding meaning to the visuals.

Divide the play up into scenes.  Allocate scenes or selected scenes to individuals, pairs or small groups.  They must choose the key dialogue from their scene and then create a cartoon to show the events of that scene.

When all the cartoons are finished they can be displayed as a frieze around the room.

Ask students to discuss how the combination of pictures and words is different to just dialogue.  Discuss also the fact that Shakespeare's plays were not meant to be read from a book but to be watched.

Twists, turns and deus ex machina

Deus ex machina literally means 'god out of a machine'.  In Greek drama a god was sometimes lowered onto the stage to change the way the plot was developing.  The term is used today to describe an unlikely twist in the plot or an improbable coincidence.

Ask students to work in pairs to identify any examples of deus ex machina.  Discuss the effect of these events on the plot and on the way that the students interact with the play and its characters.

Now ask students to create a deus ex machina of their own that will change the ending of the play that they are studying.  These should be developed and typed up.  Once this has been done the deus ex machina are redistributed at random around the students or they could be drawn from a bag.  Students must then write the ending that they have drawn trying so far as possible to keep true to the characters as they understand them.

Atmosphere Forecast.

Atmosphere means the mood of the play.  Atmosphere is built up during the play.

For example the prevailing atmosphere in Macbeth is of evil and violence.

Ask students to pick the three quotes that they think best creates atmosphere in the play that they are studying.  Ask them to write these quotes down on post it notes or on sheets of paper than can then be displayed at the front in the order in which they appear in the play- so a time line is useful.

Now ask them to think of synonyms to describe the atmosphere- they might find a thesarus useful.  Then ask them to match one of their synonyms to one of the quotes on the board.

Give students an 'atmosphere forecast sheet' showing the timeline of the play.  Explain that a weather forecast predicts the coming week through graphics- you could model what the graphics on a weather forecast mean with illustrations- and through words.  Ask students to show the changing atmosphere of the play through graphics, images and words.  If you have access to ICT then they could download images.