Sophomore Text:

Julius Caesar: by William Shakespeare

The standard Shakespeare for 10th grade English deserves a place in my classroom.  I have a tremendous amount of respect for Shakespeare's work, and I believe that the classroom applications of his plays are nearly limitless.  Beyond that, I am very interested in Roman culture and the Latin language.  This is the sort of unit that lends itself to some very creative and memorable assignments that should keep both the students and the teacher entertained!  The play speaks for itself, but feel free to see how I might approach it by clicking on the lesson plans below.

Click the names of the strategies to open a new page with a more lengthy description.

Pre-reading Strategy: K-W-L

This activity will activate the students knowledge about Rome, Caesar and Shakespeare by having them make up a chart of what they Know, what they Want to know, and eventually what they Learned.  This is an opportunity for students to showboat a little, as well as let me know what they want to get out of the text.  We will work in medium-sized groups of five or six for this project, and then come together at the end of class to compile a larger whole-class chart.  These groups will also form reading/acting groups later on in the unit.

During-reading Strategy: Bookmarks

This activity will provide each student the chance to both organize the characters and plot events in the play, as well as record any new or interesting words/language that they come across.  Each student will be given a bookmark to be used during our reading.  These will contain the page numbers and schedule for the homework readings, lists of names and blanks to fill in with character details and affiliations, and a blank spot to place important plot details.  The back of the bookmark will have spots to put new vocabulary words and confusing and/or interesting passages.  This bookmark will foster ownership of the story, encourage meaning-making, and add a little structure.  I will offer the incentive that they can use this bookmark to aid them during any tests or quizzes in the unit.

Post-reading Strategy: Acting Groups

This activity will be introduced at the beginning of the unit, so no-one is taken by surprise.  Throughout the play, I will show the students short film clips of individual scenes from the play performed by different troupes, and showcasing divergent interpretations of the story.  For each week, I will give one group the chance to act out a scene of their choice from the completed readings, and encourage them to change the setting or time-period as they see fit.  They will be graded according to how well they maintain the spirit of the original scene, not necessarily accuracy to the lines as written.  I want the students to see that Shakespeare is famous in part because of the way in which his works are continually reinterpreted and reinvigorated.

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