Project 1- SHAKESPEARE IN CYBERSPACE

Project 1 - SHAKESPEARE IN CYBERSPACE

General Information
Project Overview
Curriculum Connections
Resource Connections
Evaluation
Project Summary

General Information

Lead Teacher(s):	R Smith rasmith@stemnet.nf.ca Paul Young (ENGLISH TEACHER) payoung@stemnet.nf.ca
School:	ST. JAMES' REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL BOX 910 PORT AUX BASQUES, NF AOM 1CO (709) 695-3551
Grade Level:	SENIOR HIGH
Number of Students:	APPROX. 90 LITERATURE 3201 STUDENTS
Project Start and Finish Dates:	FEBRUARY 1999 MARCH 1999
Project's URL:

Project Overview

Literature 3201 is a university preparatory course, which in our school is taught mainly to level 11 students, with a few level III students. The various genre are explored through a thematic approach, with a wide selection of textbooks as designated by the Department of Education. One required element is the Shakespearean play, with a choice between Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice. Many students come to the course with preconceived notions about how difficult, boring and irrelevant Shakespearean plays are and such attitudes negatively affect their performance on this segment of the course. We want to take advantage of the high level of interest in computers in general, and in the Internet in particular, using this interest to spark an interest and understanding in the works of Shakespeare. The intent of this project is to have students locate web sites that deal with various aspects of Shakespeare and his works, and share their findings with other students in their classes.

GOALS:

To create interest and excitement about Shakespeare and his plays.
To enable students to see the relevancy of Shakespeare's plays to today's artistic and cultural world, by showing Shakespeare's influence on visual arts, movies, poetry, and books.
To show students how the language of Shakespeare permeates modem day English, and that it contains many words and expressions already familiar to their vocabulary.
To let students see that Shakespearean plays are still performed throughout the world, at a variety of festivals, and that many well-known actors have had experience in acting out such plays.
To help students perform better on the Shakespearean segment of the Literature 3201 course.

Curriculum Connections

SOCIAL STUDIES:
This project has relevance for History 3201 - studies of social life and customs in Elizabethan times, and Geography - mapping the settings of the plays.
LANGUAGE ARTS:
Written reports on findings, letters to characters, comparisons, and other creative writing opportunities abound.
ART & THEATER ARTS:
Scenes from plays, stage sets, examples from the net of how Shakespeare's plays have influenced painters, collages, masks, drawings, paintings, photographs, and character portraits can all be used to evaluate different students of differing abilities and interests.
TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION:
Models of types of theaters, including the Globe theater are possibilities, as well as models of castles, and weaponry used in the various plays.
RATIONALE:
This project can be supplemented by other sources available in the school's resource center, but there is information on the Internet far beyond anything found in the typical school resource center. It is current and ever changing. In addition, there are chat lines where students can exchange reactions to Shakespearean plays with others.

Resource Connections

Evaluation

Project Summary