Standard:
CCSS RL 9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
Objective:
Students will analyze the characters’ multiple and conflicting motivations in “Hamlet” in order to determine how these interactions drive the plot. Students must have an understanding of internal/external conflict, plot and character traits.
Essential Question:
How do the internal conflicts of certain characters affect the external conflict between other characters in the play and how does this advance the plot?
Opening Activator:
I will open with how internal and external conflicts interact all the time. I’ll give and ask students for examples such as celebrity Twitter mishaps and how an indirect tweet can affect their followers. I’ll ask them how often they’ve put how they were feeling about something personal not directly speaking to anyone on Facebook and had comments that showed that it effected other people.
Quickwrite: How would/did your mom react? Boyfriend/Girlfriend? Friend? Teacher? Etc…
Direct Instruction:
There are a lot of soliloquies in this play and the actions of Hamlet, the new King, his mother, effect how each person reacts.
What if this all played out on Facebook? What would it look like?
I will then show them an example of my “Othello” Facebook profile page complete with status messages and comments from Desdemona, Iago, and Cassis.
Guided Practice:
They will create a Facebook profile page for their character: Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, Laertes, Ophelia, Horatio (some have complete profiles, others are contributors)
Students will be working in groups of 4-5. Each student will have a role:
Scribe: type the information into the template
Researcher: look up quotes for status messages and comments
Translator: will provide the explanations for quotes used (write in “Facebook lingo”)
Presenter: Present the information verbally to class
Designer: Provide pictures for the profile
They will need to have 5 status messages with quotes from the dialogue in the play with their translation of the meaning in “Facebook lingo.” At least 2 pictures should be included with captions, and other information like birth, death, hometown, etc.
Student will present their profiles.
(Self-Evaluation) Student groups will check their work with their checklists
Independent Practice:
Students will write a eulogy for the characters that died in the play based off of what they’ve learned about them and how they’ve interacted with other characters. They can give these eulogies as other characters in the play. They must use evidence from the text (direct quotes).
Example: Laertes gives eulogy for his sister Ophelia.
Count Your Lessons 