Exploring Character and Plot
q Name games
These games encourage concentration and turn taking as well as familiarising the students with the characters’ names and giving them the confidence to say them aloud. The activities are intended to be used to introduce characters at the beginning of the study of the play, before the students have been given any information about character or plot.
- Organise students into a circle and allocate each student a card with the name of a character from the chosen play. It doesn’t matter if names are duplicated in order for every student to have a card.
§ One student starts the game by pointing at another student but saying the name that is printed on their own card. The turn then passes to the person who has been pointed at - they must point at another student, saying the name that is on their own card and so the game continues.
§ Continue until most students have been involved in the game.
You can move on from here by adding information about each character. This helps students develop their knowledge of the characters and their relationships and to make some predictions about the nature of the play.
- Allocate the students another card that has printed on it the name of a character, plus some basic information about them.
§ Ask students to take turns around the circle to read out what is written on their card, (a game based on the childhood memory game ‘I went to the shops and bought…’ / ‘I went on holiday and in my suitcase I packed…’). So, the first person in the circle just has to introduce themselves and give one piece of information, the second person has to introduce themselves and give their information and then introduce the first person and repeat their information and so it continues round the circle. It obviously becomes tougher the more the students have to remember but they enjoy this game and it really develops their knowledge of the characters and their relationships.
§ Ask the students how much they can remember about each character – they could tell a partner what they have remembered or students could volunteer to tell the rest of the class what they have learnt about any of the characters.
§ Collect in the character cards. Allocate each of the seven characters to seven students. Ask the rest of the class how these characters could be grouped e.g. men and women, good and evil etc. As students offer suggestions ask the students who have been allocated a character to group themselves accordingly in the middle of the circle.
§ Ask the students what they have learnt about the relationships between the characters and about the plot – what do they think might happen? What do the themes seem to be? Ask what type of play they think it might be – comedy, tragedy? Ask if they have spotted any similarities with any other Shakespeare plays they know.
q Image Game
This activity builds on the knowledge of characters gained by the students from the name games. This activity develops interpretative skills and develops an understanding of symbolism.
§ Organise students into pairs or groups of three.
§ Give out sets of images to represent a number of chosen characters from the play e.g. a sword for Macbeth, a megaphone for Beatrice.
§ Ask students to decide which image represents which character.
§ Ask students to pair up the images and talk about the possible relationships between the characters and points of friction as well as making predictions.
§ Feedback as a whole class ideas about the images and the characters.
q Quotation Challenge
This activity introduces the language of the play and develops knowledge of character. It also encourages students to use their inference and deduction skills to make predictions about the nature of the play.
§ Select some key quotations from the play that will help develop students’ knowledge of each character.
§ Organise students into a circle and give each student a quotation.
§ Allow students time to read their quotation and ask about the pronunciation of any words they are unsure of – try ‘ask three before me’ here where students have to ask other students for help before turning to the teacher.
§ Taking turns around the circle, students then read their quotation to the class.
§ Then show the students how to select a key word from their quotation e.g. ‘love’, ‘blood’, ‘dagger’ and speak it in an appropriate tone, (possibly add a gesture too).
§ Students again take turns to speak around the circle but this time they say only their key word.
§ Students then group themselves according to which character they think their character is about. In their character groups they can then share quotations to check if they agree on every student’s judgement or if they think a student should move groups.
§ Students should then review the quotations and discuss what is revealed about their character. If the resources are available, students could stick their quotations to a sheet of sugar paper and annotate them with their ideas. (This could be developed into PEE work.)
§ Students could then think about who might have spoken each line and what it reveals about the relationships between the characters.
§ Each group should then present their ideas about their character to the rest of the class.
q The Story in 8 Steps
This activity is intended as an introduction to the plot of the play and will familiarise the students with the basic storyline.
§ Produce a boiled down version of the plot – in about 6-8 steps and copy onto OHT.
§ Organise students into groups of 4 or 5 and introduce the conventions of freeze frames / tableaux.
§ Explain to the students that they are going to hear / see the plot of the play in X steps. For each step they must produce a freeze frame for the action occurring in that stage.
§ Reveal each step one at a time. Give the students a few minutes to construct their freeze frame and then tell them to freeze. If possible, take photos of the best ones for use in a classroom display. Ask one or two groups with interesting work to remain ‘frozen’ and tell the rest of the groups to relax and look at the chosen groups and critique the work.
§ This could be extended by inviting students to tap a student in a tableau on the shoulder for them to vocalise their character’s thoughts and feelings at that moment.
§ This learning can be consolidated in a card sort plenary.
q Who Am I?
This is a quick activity that could be used as a starter or plenary to consolidate or revise the students’ knowledge about characters.
§ Organise students into pairs. Put a post-it note (on which is written a character’s name) on each students’ forehead.
§ The students must take it in turns to ask their partner closed questions eliciting just a yes/no response to try to find out who they are.
q Just a Minute!
Again, this is another quick activity, ideally suited to the starter or plenary slot of the lesson.
§ Organise students into pairs and allocate each student a character.
§ Taking it in turns students have to try to talk for one minute on their character, without hesitation or repetition. The winner is the person who manages the task or can speak for longest. Alternatively, this could be done as a whole class activity where one student volunteers to play and the rest of the class listen carefully to spot any errors, with students volunteering to take over if there is a hesitation or repetition.
q Ripple Effect Diagram
This activity allows students to explore the relationships between characters in a visual way.
§ Model the process to the students first.
§ Explain to the students that they are going to examine how some of the characters in the play relate to each other by creating a ‘Ripple Effect’ diagram.
§ Produce a blank diagram with concentric circles and display on the whiteboard using an OHP.
§ Take a chosen character and place him/her in the centre of the diagram. (This can be visually very effective if photos of the characters are available.)
§ Take each character one at a time and ask the students how close they are to the first character and place them in an appropriate place on the diagram. Discuss suggestions and encourage students to challenge and refine thinking.
§ Students then produce diagrams with other characters at the centre. This could be a group activity with students working on OHT and then presenting their diagrams to the rest of the class.
§ It may be interesting to do this activity at different points in the reading of the play to explore how relationships between characters change.
q Character Statements
This activity encourages analysis of character.
§ Prepare some statements about a / a number of characters and produce them on OHT.
§ Reveal each statement one at a time and using mini-whiteboards, ask students to identify which character it refers to. Then ask students to explain / justify their reasoning.
§ This activity can be developed (either orally or as a written task) by asking the students to turn each of the statements into a PEE construction. They do this by taking the statement as their Point and then finding a supporting quotation from the play for their Evidence and providing an Explanation of how the evidence supports the Point.
q Role on the Wall
This also allows students to analyse character and can be reviewed at different points in the reading of the play to consider how audience response to character changes. However, it also makes a nice revision activity to consolidate understanding of character.
§ Draw the outline of the head and shoulders of your chosen character on the flipchart or a large piece of sugar paper stuck to the wall.
§ Ask students to volunteer words that describe the character. The teacher (or TA) writes these down on post-it notes and hands the post-it to the student who suggested the word.
§ Students are then asked to come to the front and place the post-it on the outline in an appropriate place and say their word aloud.
§ Students could then be asked if they would like to move / remove any of the words and explain why.
§ If reviewing character later in the reading the activity can be repeated with different coloured post-its to visually show the change in interpretation of character.
q Directing a Character
This makes the students think about how to direct a character in a given scene and provides a useful model to students of the type of directions they may give to another character in another scene.
§ Prepare some statements about how an actor may deliver his lines, move around the stage etc for a particular scene / speech / dialogue and present these on an OHT as ‘Director’s Notes to the Actor’.
§ Reveal the statements one at a time and allowing 5 seconds wait time, ask students to give a thumbs up or thumbs down to agree / disagree with the Director’s advice.
§ Following this quick test of initial reactions, issue each student with a copy of the Director’s Notes and their task is to find a line reference from the scene to support each piece of guidance they agree with.
§ Students could then have a go at acting out the scene.
Having carried out this activity, the students will be more able to produce their own set of notes for a different character or different section of text. This is useful preparation for ‘Directorial’ style exam questions.
Engaging with Key Scenes
q Translation Game
This allows the students to be introduced to a key scene through a modern context and modern language, therefore removing any barriers the original text may present.
- Divide the class into two halves and ask them to stand in two lines facing each other.
2. Give each student on one half a card with a piece of original text on it – this must be kept in the correct order so the pupils must stand in the sequence of the text.
- Having shuffled the other set of cards [ie the modern translation], give each student on the other line a card with a modern translation.
- Explain the rules below (5 & 6) to the students.
- The student with the first piece of original text will read their section aloud. The students with translations must concentrate hard to see if they have the translation. The student who thinks they have it must read it aloud. Class decide if he/she is right. When the correct translation has been read, the second person with original text reads their section and so it continues.
- Tell students that they will be doing the activity twice through with the aim of doing it faster the second time. The second time round those who have had translated text will have original text and vice versa – and they will have a different part of the scene! This means that the students must listen carefully to the whole scene the first time round because they don’t know what part of the scene they might get the second time and if they have paid attention the first time, they’ll find it easier the second time!
- Run through the activity once as in no.5.
- Collect in the cards being careful to keep the original text cards in the correct order.
- Re-organise the students within their lines.
- Re-issue the cards, giving original text to those who had translation the first time and vice versa.
- Re-run the activity, timing the students to see how quickly they can complete it.
q Annotation Match Up