Though beautiful, William Shakespeare's prose can be inhibiting for learners who are new to his works. A instructional activity based on The Tempest guides high schoolers through the paraphrasing process, including noting the subjects and verbs to align a modern retelling to a selected passage.

Concepts

Grammar, william shakespeare, the tempest, subjects, paraphrasing

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Assign additional passages to pairs or groups, and have them compare their paraphrasing results to each other
• Project the passage onto a whiteboard or SMART Board, and note the parts of speech for your class to see in order to model the activity

Classroom Considerations

• Slide referenced in the lesson is not available; you'll need to create your own
• Struggling readers may need additional help with the activity, as it is guided but still difficult for learners who are unfamiliar with Shakespearean prose or who need help with parts of speech

Pros

• Helpful for any of Shakespeare'e works, or with other literature with similar writing styles
• Guides kids through a process that they can use with different subjects and classes

Cons

• None

Common Core

RL.9-10.4 RL.11-12.4 L.9-10.1.a L.11-12.1.a