21st Century Shakespeare- from Leigh Kelner

Name: 21st Century Shakespeare

Grade Level: 9th – 12th grade

Time: 3 class periods (two for preparation and one day for presenting)

Materials: If the students want to use props or costumes, they will have to bring them in.

Rationale: This post reading activity will help the students summarize, evaluate, comprehend, and think critically about the material that they have recently completed reading. It will help create a sense of closure and this activity will personalize the text for them since they are in control of the final product. It will help them apply the hard text of Shakespeare and apply it to their life in this day and age.

Procedure: After completing a Shakespearian play, the students will be split up into groups of 5 or 6. By now, the play will have been discussed and worked through in-depth as a class, so the students should already have a good grasp of the plot, main ideas, themes, characters, and concepts. Now, they will be responsible for breaking down the play, identifying which significant themes, concepts, and ideas they want to focus on, and re-create the play into a modern day version. Each group will be given one scene and must re-write it (dialogue and narration) into a modern day play (modern day meaning making it current with our time including current issues and technology). They do not have to follow the play exactly and keep everything the same except for dialogue. For example, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the students could rewrite it so that there were no fairies but instead Wall Street business men, but any changes that are made must be justified and explained and make sense in the context of their re-write. The justifications for the changes that the students make will be written into a one-two page reflection that will be due on the day of presentations. This activity will be a fun closure to reading a play that was hard to work through and allow the students to identify the themes of the plays and apply it to their lives.