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Julius Caesar:
by Shakespeare
Pre-reading
Strategy: K-W-L
Starting off the text with a group project, students
will form up with four or five other students that they
will continue to work with off and on throughout the
unit, getting comfortable enough with each other that
they can act later. This initial activity will
focus on getting the students to think about what
they've already picked up about Roman culture, and the
life of Julius Caesar himself, as well as give them some
purpose or direction. The groups will be asked to
fill out the first two columns of a chart (see blank
below) with three column headings: What I Know,
What I Want to Know, and What I Learned
(hence, K-W-L). The first column gives them a
chance to tell me what they already have a handle on and
what they're working with. The second will
naturally follow from the first, as some people in the
group will generate questions based on the conversations
that they're having. These questions will give
them a reason to read the text. Each group and
each student will be reading the text looking for one or
more thing that they want to get out of it. We
will come back to these sheets later, periodically
checking in to see what they're learning and filling out
the last column as we go.
This is part ice-breaker, part culture study, and part
showing-off activity for those students who have
invested lots of History Channel time or are simply
history buffs. We will also talk about
Shakespeare, as many of the students will have read
Romeo and Juliet the previous year.
These are the questions that will help them to organize
their thinking and jog their memory. On the real
handout, I will leave ample room to answer the questions
on the page.
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What I Know... |
What I Want to Know... |
What I Learned... |
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...about Julius Caesar's life
and death. What did he look like?
What was he famous for? Why do we still
pay so much attention to him?
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...about Julius Caesar's life and death. |
...about Julius
Caesar's life and death. |
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about Roman government. What sort of
government did they have? Was it a
democracy, monarchy or other form of government?
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...
about Roman government. |
... about Roman
government. |
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...about Roman culture. What was their
religion like? Who were the most important
people in the society? What sorts of
clothing, music, or art did they like?
What language did they speak?
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...about Roman culture. |
...about Roman
culture. |
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...about William Shakespeare. When was he
writing (what time period) and where? Did
he invent this story? What are some other
plays that he is famous for?
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...about William Shakespeare. |
...about William
Shakespeare. |
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...about this play. Do you know any famous
lines or quotations from this play? Have
you ever seen a movie or stage production of it?
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...about this play. |
...about this
play. |
Click the link below to see a formal
lesson plan for this activity. The document is
available in either Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word
formats.
K-W-L Lesson Plan
or [MS
Word]
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Literacy
Philosophy
