Week 8 (24)

Lesson 1: Finishing Hamlet
Completing the soliloquy presentations

Audience
●
Grade 12 Language Arts
● Quarter 3 / Week 8 (24)
&
Schedule
●
●
●
2 periods
End of Hamlet sub-unit
Continuation of Drama unit

Unit/Lesson Summary
Three teams will present their soliloquy analysis, per Bernard Grebanier's
theory of Shakespeare's use of the soliloquy.
We will watch film versions of the scenes depicting the soliloquies.
This completes the Hamlet portion of the drama unit.

● Hamlet (Collections 12, Coll. 4)
Materials
●
●
The Heart of Hamlet
(Benrard Grebanier, 1967)
Film versions of the play

Essential Questions
Per Bernard Grebanier's theory of Shakespearean use of soliloquy:
How does our soliloquy build off previous action?
How do we interpret/comprehend what Hamlet says in the soliloquies?
How does Hamlet allude to future action at the end of the soliloquies?
(Thought Question) Would the play change dramatically if we removed
Hamlet's seven soliloquies? The Claudius soliloquy?

Lesson Progression

Day 1
90 minutes
●
●
●
Three remaining groups
present their analysis
Class will watch the film
versions and discuss the
portrayal of Hamlet and the
delivery of the soliloquies
Groups will highlight text and
action that helps illustrate
their analysis

Lesson Objectives (Day 1 / 90 minutes)
- Analyze Hamlet soliloquy text
- Explain the soliloquy's role in the drama
How does your soliloquy adhere to the Grebanier theory of Shakespearean
soliloquy usage?
1. We will watch the relevant soliloquies as performed in the 2009 film
2. Teams will ascend the stage and dissect/analyze the soliloquy
3. The following questions will be asked:
a. Which previous text/action is referred to in the soliloquy?
b. How might we interpret the message of the soliloquy?
c. What future action is alluded to at the end of the soliloquy?
4. Follow-up Q/A from teacher/any student

My Macbeth sample follows:

Day 1 Sample Analysis
- Identify dramatic uses of a soliloquy
- Explain soliloquy's dual role in the play text
Does the Lady Macbeth soliloquy at I.v.41-57 adhere to Grebanier's thesis?
1. Watch Act I.v. → Lady Macbeth reads a letter from Macbeth, informing
her that he has been promoted to Thane of Cawdor, and that three weird
sisters/witches have prophesied that Macbeth shall become king:
"...referred me to the coming on of time, with 'Hail, king, that shalt be!' This
have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that
thou mightest not lose the dues of rejoicing…" (I.v.8-12)
2. In Lady Macbeth's soliloquy, she responds to these words from her husband,
and she speaks of her desire to be queen, and how she worries that Macbeth
is not strong enough or ambitious enough to make it happen.

Day 1 Sample Analysis (cont.)
- Identify dramatic uses of a soliloquy
- Explain soliloquy's dual role in the play text
2. In Lady Macbeth's soliloquy, she responds to these words from her husband,
and she speaks of her desire to be queen, and how she worries that Macbeth
is not strong enough or ambitious enough to make it happen:
"...I do fear thy nature; it is too full o' the milk of human kindness." (I.v.16-17)
3. When she delivers her soliloquy in 41-57, she refers to this:
a. "Come, you spirits… and take my milk for gall" (I.v.43…51)
She has no 'milk of human kindness'; and if so, she'll trade it for bitterness.
b. "Stop up the access and passage to remorse!" (I.v.47)
Unlike her husband, she will not allow human compassion to stop her.
c. "No counctious visitings of nature shake my fell purpose" (I.v.48-49)
Again, the compassion that slows Macbeth will not get in her way.

Day 1 Sample Analysis
- Identify dramatic uses of a soliloquy
- Explain soliloquy's dual role in the play text
4. Her soliloquy ends with a nod towards her next act:
"That my keen knife sees not the wound it makes, nor heaven peep through the
blanket of the dark, to cry 'Hold! Hold!'" (I.v.55-57)
She has decided – without consulting Macbeth – to murder King Duncan by
stabbing him to death while he sleeps at their castle, that very night. When
Macbeth arrives at line 58, the begin discussing the assassination:
"Oh, never shall sun that morrow see… leave all the rest to me" (I.v.64…78)
5. As Grebanier claims, Shakespeare's soliloquies not only unpack the thoughts
of the speaker, but they build from the drama and lead back to it, often with
direct reference to dramatic action, both before and after.

Lesson 2: Chat GPT
This is an impromptu lesson, given the recent conversations
the school faculty is having regarding this A.I. tool

Audience
●
Grade 12 Language Arts
&
● Quarter 3 / Week 8 (24)
Schedule
●
1 period

Unit/Lesson Summary
Since many students claim not to know the capabilities of ChatGPT, I felt it
useful to use the A.I. tool as a lesson on how to consider the ethics and the
temptations of this website. An open discussion provides us with the chance
to stay in conversation with students, letting them know that we are aware of
the temptations they face, and we are aware of the ethical concerns that we
are not yet prepared to answer confidently. Involving the students in this new
conversation gives them, I think, a sense of belonging rather than a sense of
exclusion from the process of defining this A.I.'s role in education.

Materials
●
●
My ChatGPT account
Classroom computer and
whiteboard

Essential Questions
What can ChatGPT do, regarding academic and non-academic projects?
How might it be useful to students and teachers?
What are its potential misuses?
What are its potential benefits to scholarship?
What rules might we enact regarding ChatGPT?

Lesson Objectives (45 minutes)
- Observe and test ChatGPT's capabilities
- Discuss the ethical concerns of using it
How might ChatGPT be used to enhance scholarship?
1. Students will give me a random set of characteristics for a typical high
school student.
2. I'll plug in those characteristics and ask ChatGPT to write a college
application essay using them.
3. We'll watch the essay being composed in real time.
4. We'll try other creative commands and some academic ones.
5. We'll discuss the uses of ChatGPT in an open-forum discussion.
6. We'll ask questions regarding the ethics and uses of ChatGPT

Lesson 3: Lorraine Hansberry
We'll continue with our 3rd Quarter drama unit by reading
and watching 'A Raisin in the Sun' & 'The Drinking Gourd.'
We'll discuss Hansberry's motivation for each script, as
we approach script-writing in our quarter project phase.

Audience
●
Grade 12 Language Arts
&
● Quarter 3 / Week 8 (24)
Schedule
●
2 periods / 90 minutes

Unit/Lesson Summary
Lorraine Hansberry wrote two plays that use themes of social injustice and
systemic racism as their springboards for conflict and drama. As the seniors
approach the script-writing phase of the quarter project, they need to see the
genesis of script ideas. We'll take an inventory of Hansberry's life and discuss
how her biographical factors influenced her choice of themes.
We'll also discuss the social factors that influenced the substance and text of
the script.

Materials
●
●
●
Plays by L. Hansberry: (A Raisin
in the Sun; The Drinking Gourd)
1960 film version of A Raisin in
the Sun
Discussion questions (can be
found in this slide deck)

Essential Questions
What biographical factors influenced Hansberry's scriptwriting?
What social factors influenced Hansberry's scriptwriting?
How does her text reflect those factors, thematically/dramatically?
Which conflicts are present in her scripts? How are they resolved?
What social/biographical factors influence us as playwrights in this unit?

Lesson Objectives (90 minutes)
- Find the theme-centered language in the text
- Identify theme-centered action in the script
Where does the play first center on Hansberry's theme?
1. Students watch the Hansberry slidedeck presentation
2. Students read The Drinking Gourd and look for the text that relates to
Hansberry's theme for the play, on p. 175 and p. 185.
3. We answer the following questions:
a. What theme is implied in that dialogue?
b. What implied messages about the setting of the play emerge?
c. How does this dialogue inform the rest of the play?
4. We listen to the Hansberry interview, and the naturalism/realism excerpt
(cont. on next slide)

Lesson Objectives (90 minutes)
- Find the theme-centered language in the text
- Identify theme-centered action in the script
Where does the play first center on Hansberry's theme?
(cont. from previous slide)
5. Students read Act two of The Drinking Gourd, in class.
(Half of the class will be absent this period, to have their yearbook photos
taken. The in-class reading is intended to fill the time.)

Homework
None