This Unit at a Glance:

Grade Band:

Grades 5-8
 

Integrated Subjects:
(click to view more lessons in these areas)

 

Targeted Standards:

The National Standards For Arts Education:

Dance (5-8)
Standard 1: Identifying and demonstrating movement elements and skills in performing dance

Dance (5-8)
Standard 2: Understanding choreographic principles, processes, and structures

Theater (5-8)
Standard 1: Script writing by the creation of improvisations and scripted scenes based on personal experience and heritage, imagination, literature, and history

Theater (5-8)
Standard 2: Acting by developing basic acting skills to portray characters who interact in improvised and scripted scenes

Theater (5-8)
Standard 5: Researching by using cultural and historical information to support improvised and scripted scenes

Theater (5-8)
Standard 6: Comparing and incorporating art forms by analyzing methods of presentation and audience response for theatre, dramatic media (such as film, television, and electronic media), and other art forms

Visual Arts (5-8)
Standard 3: Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas

 

Other National Standards:

Historical Understanding III (7-8) Standard 2: Understands the historical perspective

Language Arts III (6-8) Standard 1: Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process

Language Arts III (6-8) Standard 2: Uses the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing

Language Arts III (6-8) Standard 4: Gathers and uses information for research purposes

Language Arts III (6-8) Standard 5: Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process

Mathematics III (6-8) Standard 1: Uses a variety of strategies in the problem-solving process

Mathematics III (6-8) Standard 9: Understands the general nature and uses of mathematics

Physical Education III (7-8) Standard 1: Uses a variety of basic and advanced movement forms

World History III (7-8) Standard 31: Understands major global trends from 1450 to 1770

 

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Shakespeare Stealer

 
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Unit Overview:

This five-lesson unit centers around the play The Shakespeare Stealer, and the book of the same name. Students learn the intricacy of set design, discover fencing through the use of ballet movements, explore Shakespeare’s use of invented language, puns, and word play, and create “life boxes” to gain a deeper understanding of the characters in the play.

 

Lesson Overviews:

Fancy Fencing

This lesson introduces students to the art of stage fighting.

 

Playing with Puns

Students will compare puns and wordplay in The Shakespeare Stealer and Twelfth Night.

 

A Way with Words or Say What?

Students use drawing and pantomime to analyze words and phrases invented by Shakespeare.

 

A Character Lifebox

Students create a "life box" for a character in the play Shakespeare Stealer, based on the book (and Kennedy Center play) of the same name.

 
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