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to, wednesday, follow, october, 2016, how, with, another, game, play, in, class, tomorrow, via, google, on, twitter, subscribe, featured, post, keith, other, blogs, february, 19, 2020, march, 15, 2017, 26, saturday, 22, search, this, blog, addthis, popular, posts, archives, labels, holocaust, picture, books, an, annotated, list, effortlessly, pair, fiction, and, nonfiction, texts, will, words, learning, love, language, william, shakespeare, create, readers, sustained, silent, reading, yet, you, can,

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Text of the page (random words):
d words in playhouses and taverns and on london street corners then he put them in his plays and poems sometimes he was the first to write down a new word sometimes he seems to have made up his own he put all those words together in extraordinary ingenious ways regardless of which activities you choose to try from below i highly recommend will s words as a starting point no matter what grade level but keith what if i don t know a lot about shakespeare and his works what if i hated shakespeare when i was a student in his ted talk titled how not to hate shakespeare actor educator rob crisell explains for most of us in school shakespeare s works were a literary enema but he s the world s most famous author for good reason no writer not homer not dante not cervantes not j k rowling rivals him in terms of his art and influence his characters have become part of our mental landscape and how about his words shakespeare wrote 884 000 of them credited with being the first to use or inventing more than two thousand of them so how can we explore poetry and language in the true spirit of shakespeare i ve provided a few ideas below 1 featured creatures suggested grades 3 and up curious as a cricket happy as a lark slow as a snail see where this is going students enjoy creating simple similes and their vast store of animal knowledge makes these comparisons easy a wonderful mentor text for this activity is shakespeare s zoo volume 1 by laudea martin it was a very old and well loved boxed set of the complete works of william shakespeare which once belonged to laudea s great grandmother that sparked her interest in the richness of shakespeare s written words the author soon discovered that in many of shakespeare s works both famous and obscure the bard employed animal imagery to paint perfect pictures of human passions and pratfalls from the book description shakespeare s brilliance shines through not just in his most famous lines but in every line the tiniest snippet of his work contains fantastic wordplay and depth of imagery this book takes some of his less known bits about various animals and pairs them with laudea martin s unique illustrations assembled from textured layers and like all shakespeare each page will become easier to understand the more you read it the brilliant words of shakespeare are meant to be heard not seen so read the words aloud and listen to the rhythm read them again and again and let your imagination fill in the details of the scene classroom extensions students can search out favorite animals using the concordance at opensourceshakespeare they can illustrate the lines they find or possibly even add to them students can create biographical poems by first selecting adjectives that they feel describe them pretty busy fast etc and then selecting animals that match those adjectives students can pair the adjectives and animals in simile form such as i snore like a lion when i m really really tired and i m busy as a beaver every day when i get home creating a flip book is a fantastic way to show off and illustrate the comparisons described above and the sizes of the books can vary from tiny to huge collect a pile of animal poem books and let students browse them and share their favorites then offer trade books or an assortment of animal pictures and ask students to write a simile poem inspired by a favorite critter perhaps using iambic pentameter to create it the ted ed lesson on why shakespeare loved iambic pentameter is a fun and effective introduction to this poetry form or use this kid friendly handout see image to the right from shakespeare s globe theatre 2 reverse a verse suggested grades 4 and up in echo echo marilyn singer retells greek myths via reverso poems poems that can be read both backward and forward typically revealing new meanings each time when read from top to bottom each poem tells a well known story from a world of heroes and monsters when read in reverse however the very same words convey a whole new point of view from the book flap illustrator josée masse creates dramatically saturated pictures which truly complement the duality of the poems when reading these aloud be sure to assign each poem to a different reader and see where the words lead you classroom extensions after viewing a live production of a shakespeare play challenge students to write a reverso poem on any one of the play s characters have a script handy as students may want to include snippets of a character s lines in their poem older students might enjoy reading jonathan reed s the lost generation arguably the most well known reverso poem genius com does a painstakingly thorough job of breaking down this poem after discussion challenge students to write their own reverso poems using characters from popular culture contemporary novels and of course shakespearean plays after studying animals for a research project students can use that same animal as the subject of a reverso poem in my class i purposely assigned students those animals traditionally considered pests as the poem is read forward the lines recount the pest s nasty reputation but read backward the lines vindicate the pest for what good it may do this slides presentation offers a template plus two examples 3 write a sonnet upon it suggested grades 4 and up for this activity i show my students actor matthew macfadyen s version of sonnet 29 upon first playing however i leave the volume off i then ask students to interpret what took place i then play it again with the volume up and again ask students to interpret first verbally and then by rewriting the sonnet in their own words classroom extensions have students write their own sonnet based on sonnet 29 they can write it from one character to another using a recent novel or play for inspiration or they can write it to someone who has been meaningful in their life this google slides presentation includes examples of both feel free to copy and adapt this for your own uses a similar exercise could be done with sonnet 18 shall i compare thee to a summer s day which is likely more familiar to students both sonnet 29 and 18 can be found here in a printable version if you want students to examine this in more detail before writing on their own check out this annotated version depending upon your students tech sophistication they may like the idea of putting sonnets to film in this version of sonnet 18 the poem is read by peter o toole the film footage is sourced from no country for old men and the american and music is by james newton howard students are familiar with such mash ups and they might enjoy a similar challenge if needed begin with a more contemporary sonnet that uses familiar language this lesson plan from the folger library using edna st vincent millay s what lips my lips have kissed and where and why provides a comfortable starting place 4 language loopholes suggested grades 3 and up when i taught fourth grade i overheard one student complaining that spanish class was aggronizing is that a real word i asked he replied that of course it was since it combined agonizing and aggravating just a week or two later one of my students paused by the door before leaving is something wrong i asked no she responded i m just waiting for the eighth graders to pass i don t want to get stampled stampled yeah it s a portmanteau i invented it s when you get trampled by a stampede you can use it if you want and off she went it s true that shakespeare coined many new words and recorded many others for the first time but students are often surprised to discover that new words are entering our lexicon all the time sometimes students are even inventing their own language isn t static like any other discipline it continues to evolve one case in point is the july 2009 announcement from merriam webster regarding the addition of new words to its dictionary hardworking word lovers everywhere can now learn the meaning of the word staycation a vacation spent at home or nearby along with nearly 100 other new words and senses added to merriam webster s collegiate dictionary eleventh edition america s best selling dictionary offers its new 2009 entries in its updated print edition and online at merriam webster com our language evolves in many ways said john morse president and publisher of merriam webster inc as we ve seen from our open dictionary feature on merriam webster com people enjoy blending existing words like combining stay and vacation to make staycation staycation is a good example of a word meeting a need and establishing itself in the language very quickly our earliest record of use is from 2005 but it seems to have exploded into popular use in 2007 classroom extensions many of shakespeare s original words are simple compounds such as bedroom bloodstained and moonbeam give students time to play around with their own original compound creations allow students to create portmanteau words to express those ideas for which no words exist a portmanteau word is two words jammed together to make a new one such as smog staycation emoticon administrivia and brunch it differs from a compound word where no letters are lost and a contraction where an apostrophe denotes removed letters start off by giving students a list of portmanteaus to dissect and then allow them to create their own challenge students to define some of the latest entries to word spy the word lover s guide to new words word spy is a wonderful resource for neologisms or newly coined words wordspy takes on a recent word such as vegangelical and not only defines and parses it n an extremely zealous vegan who is eager to make other people believe in and convert to veganism blend of vegan and evangelical but also traces it to its earliest citation in this case to the blog the smoking vegans in 2005 wordspy is a fun site to browse and readers are welcome to comment on entries and suggest new words as well its biggest strength is that it offers citations for all the words it lists it isn t entirely g rated however so it s best left to the teacher to explore ask the question just because someone uses a word does it become a word to put it another way are all neologisms created equal sure shakespeare dr seuss and lewis carroll coined words all the time but do the rest of us carry enough clout to do the same 5 acting out suggested grades 3 and up in his ted talk titled how not to hate shakespeare educator actor rob crisel asks the audience were his plays meant to be read silently or aloud and then answers trick question his plays weren t meant to be read at all they were meant to be heard and watched and acted they were meant to be experienced he likens most students classroom experiences with shakespeare to trying to appreciate a musician by studying their lyrics but never hearing their songs if you think your students may struggle with original versions of shakespeare or if you face time constraints dozens of adapted scripts are readily available online such as the macbeth adaptation pictured here classroom extensions whenever possible use the full scripts in the same way that we do close reading with other texts do close acting with selected passages if students struggle consider using excerpts from films that portray actors speaking the lines in context if students plan to act out lines written in iambic pentameter then definitely check out this lesson on living iambic pentameter if your students struggle with full texts of shakespeare s plays use a resource such as shakespeare with children six scripts for young players that uses original lines from the plays but in shorter abridged versions these can be performed successfully in the classroom as readers theater if time doesn t allow for students to memorize lines challenge students to use soliloquys or scenes in an original interpretation this levi s 501 commercial for example uses line from midsummer night s dream act 3 scene 1 in an innovative way 6 pop sonnets suggested grades 6 and up in pop sonnets author erik didriksen has rewritten dozens of pop songs as shakespearean sonnets works by artists such as bruno mars taylor swift katy perry lorde and the backstreet boys have been cleverly reimagined and reworked in sonnets such as these what thou requir st i harbor deep inside i too possess the things for which thou yearn st so if thou want st these hungers slak d my pride should not be injur d fast when thou return st i shall not cuckold thee or break thy trust my wish is not to leave my lover spurn d but if i will not satiate my lust i should be shown the deep regard i ve earn d tis true thy kisses are like honey sweet but so s the gold that doth my coffers fill i have no need to once again entreat thee to be shown a shred of thy good will and so good sir do not my heart neglect when thou com st home pray show me some respect aretha franklin respect a lonely maiden from a hamlet small a boy within a woeful city rear d they both at midnight left their ports of call t ward any destination volunteer d a public house is where their journeys end where patrons pipes burn long and minstrels play the darken d hours have made them more than friends the other s smile inviting each to stay look ye on those who wander through the streets beneath the lamplight searching for a soul they comb the darken d night in hope to meet the sweet companion that shall make them whole ensure thy heart won t let their spirit leave tis most important thou dost e er believe journey don t stop believin can you still sing along with them surprisingly yes some of them anyway give it a try and then consider these additional ideas for using pop sonnets in your classroom classroom extensions as a warm up to each class post one of erik didriksen s sonnets on the whiteboard challenge students perhaps working in pairs or groups to identify the modern song which inspired it challenge students to rewrite their own favorite songs in the form of a sonnet use the ted ed lesson on why shakespeare loved iambic pentameter and the handout writing like shakespeare iambic pentameter to get students feeling the rhythm of the sonnets rather than the rhythm of the song they ve chosen lay down the gauntlet for your class musicians now that you ve rewritten the lyrics can they be put to music that keeps the sonnet lines intact while restoring the spirit of the original song check out the ideas for hip hop or shakespeare below 7 language lost suggested grades 5 and up in the word museum the most remarkable english words ever forgotten jeffrey kacirk shares hundreds of fascinating archaic words and phrases in the introduction kacirk explains the english language as the largest and most dynamic collection of words and phrases ever assembled continues to expand absorbing hundreds of words annually into its official and unofficial rolls but not without a simultaneous yet imperceptible sacrifice of terms along the way fortunately before they re quiet disappearance many of the...