How to Read Shakespeare Like A Pro (Day 3 of 3)

Now that we have read two speeches through a similar lens, I will give some instruction on how to write about what you read. This will hopefully bring the overlapping standards (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.9 and CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1) of citing textual evidence together and help me to assess if students are actually able to read and do something with Shakespeare's text.

One big shift I have seen in the standards is the push towards being able to do something with what you read. I think many English teachers were doing this, but now that the standards require it, I think we have a much stronger outcome for our study of literature and informational text.

For me, I really want them to be able to contextualize their textual support through some specific writing structures. I am using the text "They Say/I Say": The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing as a basis for my thinking and really encourage writing teachers to check it out.

This is going to be a little bit of an experiment. I am going to ask the students to write a constructed response (body paragraph for an essay) with me in class. I will write what they tell me and let them see me word-smith/revise as we go along. I will ask them to locate textual support for our paragraph and let them write along with me. This will provide them with a model text for their own writing, which will be due later this week.

Once we finish writing the constructed response as a class, I will hand out a dialogue from act III, scene iii and instruct them to read and analyze it through writing for later in the week. I will also provide a writing/drafting sheet to help them plan their work.

These paragraphs will be due on Wednesday (two days from now). Hopefully there will be enough time for questions, but I will also invite students to join me in our intervention period on Wednesday morning if they have questions or want extra help.