Overview / Description:  In this first section/unit, students will begin by studying the universal appeal of Shakespeare’s works along with the intriguing question of the authorship of Shakespeare. Students will read informational texts and analyze them for the author’s craft of forming and supporting an argument, as well as how the author structured the text. For the mid-unit assessment, students will read and analyze a complex informational text about the authorship controversy. Students will then begin reading the central text of the module, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream.  As they dive into the text, they will begin to build background knowledge about Shakespeare’s craft and unique use of language. As they read Acts 1, 2, and some of 3 of the play, students will begin to address this module’s overarching thematic concept of “control” by exploring various characters’ motives for trying to manipulate others. In addition, students will support and enhance their reading of the play by analyzing several film clips of the play. For the end of unit assessment, students will analyze differences between a film version of the play and the play itself.

In the second section/unit, students will read and finish the play while they continue to follow the theme of control in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. They continue to trace which characters wish to control or manipulate others, how they attempt to exercise this control, and whether or not they are successful. Students will study how Shakespeare drew upon Greek mythology for the play within the play as they study “Pyramus and Thisbe.” They will study how Shakespeare rendered the story new, and how the texts relate to the theme of control. 

In the third section/unit, and after studying the thematic concept of control throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream, students will write a narrative that will act as a “confessional,” where a character from the play explains his or her attempts to control or manipulate someone else in the play. This writing piece will meet the criteria for an effective narrative, including a logical introduction, event sequence, and reflective conclusion; narrative techniques; transitions; description; and correct grammar. Students’ character confessionals will answer three guiding questions: “Why did you want to control someone else’s actions?”, “How did you try to control someone else’s actions?”, and “What were the results of your trying to 

control someone else’s actions?” 

Learning goals/objectives:

After completing this activity, students should be able to . . .

• evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different media to present an idea
• cite the evidence that provides the strongest support for an analysis of literary text
• determine an author's point of view or purpose in informational text
• analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints
• analyze the development of a central idea throughout the text (including its relationship to supporting ideas)
• objectively summarize informational text
• identify the argument and specific claims in a text
• evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text
• analyze thee structure of a specific paragraph in a text
• analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints
• cite text-based evidence that provides the strongest support for an analysis of literary text
• analyze the main characters, conflict, and settings in A Midsummer Night's Dream
• analyze how specific dialogue or incidents in a plot propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision
• determine the meanings of words and phrases in literary text
• determine the central theme or ideas of a literary text
• analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production follows the text or script of the same literary text

Workplace Readiness Skill: 

Content Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

Craft and Structure:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.7

Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.2
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.3
Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.8
Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.1.A
Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.1.B
Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly, supplying data and evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both claim(s) and counterclaims in a discipline-appropriate form and in a manner that anticipates the audience's knowledge level and concerns.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.1.C
Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.

Materials: 

All necessary materials are contained within each day's lesson plan. Includes the following mentor texts:

• A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
• "Top Ten Reasons Shakespeare Did Not Write Shakespeare" by Keir Cutler
• "The Shakespeare Shakedown" by Simon Schama
• "The Lure of Shakespeare" by Robert W. Butler
• "Shakespeare's Universal Appeal Examined" by Jonathan Bate
• A Midsummer Night's Dream film directed by Micheal Hoffman

Learning Activities:

Assessment: 

Section/Unit 1:

• Interim Assessment - Analyzing an Author's Argument and Text Structure (Day 6)
• Summative Assessment - Text to Film Comparison (Day 18)

Section/Unit 2:

• In the two-part mid-unit assessment, students will first read another myth similar to “Pyramus and Thisbe”; they will then summarize the myth and analyze the narrative structure.
  
• In the second part of the assessment, students will read a passage from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and analyze Shakespeare’s craft as an author in terms of word choice and structure. They will then compare this excerpt from the play with the story “Pyramus and Thisbe” as they engage in a deeper analysis of how the structure of each contributes to the meaning. For the end of unit assessment, students will write an argument essay in which they use the strongest evidence from the play to make a claim about whether Shakespeare makes the case that it is possible to control another person’s actions or not.
  

Section/Unit 3:

• For the mid-unit assessment, students will write a short justification that explains why they chose the character and scenes from the play that they did, and how the confessional develops the theme of control. 
• For the end of unit assessment, students will write a commentary on how their narrative is a response to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and how it connects to and diverges from the play. Finally, students will share their narratives with a small group of peers. 
  

Extension Activity (for intervention or enrichment):

With the library media specialist, provide opportunities for students to research other aspects of Elizabethan England, the Globe Theatre, Shakespeare’s background, the authorship of Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s contemporaries, etc.