“450 Years Later: Shakespeare Undead”

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Learning Technologies Final Integrative Project

E-moderator: Cecilia Sassone

Group: Lomas de Suipacha

Members:

Aducci, Constanza

Blanco, Pablo

Furlong, Martín

García, Graciana

González, Evelyn

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Lesson Plan Descriptive Details

Title: “450 Years Later: Shakespeare Undead”

Key Words: Shakespeare, literature, technology, England.

Authors: Graciana García, Martin Furlong, Pablo Blanco, Constanza Adduci, Evelyn

González.

School, city, country: Asociación Argentina de Cultura Inglesa, Senior 5 and/or Senior

6 courses, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Topic: Shakespeare’s 450th anniversary (2014)

Time Allotted: one class period (75min aprox.)

Material and Equipment: interactive whiteboard, overhead projector, 4 computers

(laptops or desktop), internet connection, loudspeakers, mobile phones.

Target Group / Learners: teenagers and adults of upper intermediate level, with

capacity to achieve most goals and express themselves on a range of topics (CEFR B2).

No prior knowledge on the Bard is required for the lesson.

ICT Skills needed: typing, searching for information, web browsing.

Lesson Plan

1. Lesson Aims and Objectives: to raise students’ awareness of Shakespeare, his life

and work through the development of students’ ICT skills, plus reading, writing and

listening skills. They will be in charge of creating a timeline as an end-of-the-lesson

presentation after working first individually and then in groups.

2. Activities:

a. Cultural Quiz - As a warm-up task, students work on an online quiz with their mobile

phones. The QR code will be displayed on the IW for students to scan and do a quiz to

check their background knowledge on Shakespeare.

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b. Video – Afterwards, the students will be shown a video on the IW for them to check

their answers of the quiz. Debate: comparing and contrasting, typeform vs. video (whole-

class activity).

c. Listening – After learning the basic Shakespearean facts, students need to learn about the

Elizabethan period because there is no escaping context. The whole class listens to a

recording on the Elizabethan era Shakespeare was born into.

Lead-in: The teacher arouses interest and sets the context by fostering discussion on

what students are going to hear. Prior knowledge is activated and key vocabulary is

elicited and added to the whiteboard.

First listening: Students listen and check predictions. At the same time, they write

down ideas or facts that are important for them. Then, they share their findings in

pairs or groups.

Second listening: This time, students focus on more detailed understanding. They

work on a true or false activity and play a game connected to the topic. (Check tasks

1 and 3 on the webpage).

These activities are carried out on the IWB by the whole class. The teacher encourages

learners to discuss and share their ideas with their classmates, managing turn taking. The

first point of each task is performed by the teacher with the collaboration of the students so

as to exemplify the activity.

d. Timeline – This activity is set up as homework. The class of twelve students is divided

into three groups of four students each and randomly assigned three classic Shakespearean

plays. Making use of a fourth play (http://minimizedshakespeare.com/The-Tempest.html),

the teacher illustrates how to go about the timeline tool (http://shar.es/VaSOP). It is worth

mentioning that the dates of the timelines should be set according to the publication date of

each play for practical purposes. Furthermore, students are provided with links to fetch

public domain images to embellish it (a. http://www.freeimages.co.uk/ b.

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http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/ c. http://www.stockfreeimages.com/ ). The teacher will hand out

copies with the necessary information and links to carry out the task.

Group A: Hamlet (http://minimizedshakespeare.com/Hamlet.html)

Group B: Rome & Juliet (http://minimizedshakespeare.com/Romeo-and-Juliet.html)

Group C: Othello (http://minimizedshakespeare.com/Othello.html)

Students read the minimized versions of the play and are encouraged to look up any new

words on online dictionaries. They will have to present the project to the rest of the class in

the next lesson.

e. Further activities - Students can create modern-day version of a scene from the plays

and the teacher assigns different wiki pages for the groups to start writing (in order to save

time, thebardproject.wikispaces.com has already been created).

Adapt their own versions into a comic strip using

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/

Create a flipbook on http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/ including their pictures

and captions.

3. Implementation considerations and Classroom Atmosphere:

Students will need a mobile phone to deal with the quiz but in case they do not

possess such a device, they will work in pairs or groups. It is very important that the

teacher books the computer room in advance for the delivery of the lesson. In

addition, she will need to check if the internet connection is working properly to be

able to carry out the activities successfully. In case the connection fails, a set of

photocopies with the tapescripts of the audio recordings as well as the minimized

versions of the play and links will be prepared to use. Before the lesson, the teacher

will consider an appropriate search engine and make sure all the filters are set, so

students won’t stumble into unsuitable material.

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As for the use of online pictures, learners will be encouraged to use copyrighted

material from Creative Commons.

As regards seating arrangements, students will be seated one per chair, in a semi-

circle.

Assessment Criteria: The elements to be considered when assessing are:

• Content • Language in use • Use of technologies • Speaking skills • Writing Skills

Copyright and Sources:

Cultural quiz: Typeform http://www.typeform.com/

QR Code Generator: QR Code Generator https://www.the-qrcode-generator.com/

Shakespeare’s video: Bio.com http://www.biography.com/people/william-

shakespeare-9480323#awesm=~oEkMqYODaoBngv

Elizabethan Times Recording: British Council ESOL Nexus

http://esol.britishcouncil.org/life-uk-test/elizabethan-period

Shakespearean plays: Minimized Shakespeare

http://minimizedshakespeare.com/index.html

Timeline: Preceden http://www.preceden.com/

Comic strip: MakeBeliefsComics http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/

Flipbook: Pimpampum http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/

Wiki: Wikispaces http://www.wikispaces.com

Course Participant’s Self-assessment

To start with, we believe that our lesson plan exploits a wide range of aspects from

the different technologies seen throughout the course and these tools have been

integrated successfully. Besides, we consider that this integration has been done in a

safe and engaging manner as potential challenges and group atmosphere have been

taken into consideration. The lesson plan fosters interaction among students and the

final task encourages communication, collaboration and peer learning through the

creation of a piece of writing.