Major Assessment: Hamlet Recitation

Major Assessment: Hamlet Recitation

As part of our study of verse, we will commit to memory a passage made famous in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The point of this exercise is to attain comprehension of a passage written in 17th century Elizabethan verse.

Passage: You will be asked to memorize Hamlet’s soliloquy from Act 3, Scene 1, “To be, or not to be….” It is presented on back of this sheet.

You have until Monday, September12thto recite to Ms. Elliott. You do not have to perform it in front of other students. You are welcome to come before/after school or during lunch to recite. There will class time available for independent work in which you can come up to my desk and recite your poem privately.

Rubric for Recitation:

Rating Scale / Inadequate / Adequate / Effective
Content Committed to Memory / Student requires the teacher to prompt them more times than they are able to recall text on their own. It is clear student has spent little time working on memorization. / Student requires the teacher to prompt them occasionally. Student is able to recall most of the text on their own, with occasional pauses or hesitations. Errors are minor. / Student requires little to no prompting from the teacher. Student is able to recall most of the text on their own, with occasional pauses or hesitations. Virtually error-free.
Pronunciation & Enunciation / Student struggles to enunciate or pronounce words in Elizabethan English according to the way they were modeled. Student often substitutes nonsense sounds for actual text. / Student has occasional lapses in enunciation or pronunciation of words in Elizabethan English according to the way they were modeled. Student may occasionally substitute nonsense sounds for actual text. / Student mostly enunciates and pronounces words in Elizabethan English according to the way they were modeled. Student may mispronounce certain words, but it is clear they understand the meaning of the text.
Length of Content Committed to Memory / Student struggles to recite the majority of the lines, often skips lines or passages even with prompting. / Student recites the majority of the lines, may skip certain words or phrases, but recites the bulk of the assigned text, even with occasional prompting. / Student recites the majority of the lines, omitting no words or phrases from the assigned text.

Tips for Memorization:

Write out a gloss of what the words actually sound like, and memorize the sounds.

Memorize chunks at a time—try committing 2-3 lines to memory at a time and not moving on until you have perfected those lines.

Listen to a recording of yourself reading it, while following along with the text.

Remember that it has a rhythm. Rely on patterns of rhythm when memorizing.

HAMLET

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ʼtis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;5
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ʼtis a consummation
Devoutly to be wishʼd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, thereʼs the rub;10
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: thereʼs the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,15
The oppressorʼs wrong, the proud manʼs contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the lawʼs delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make20
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscoverʼd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will25
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sickliedoʼer with the pale cast of thought,30
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.