“Why do you start; and seem to fear things that do sound so fair?”
Sixth graders in theater class are engaging with Shakespeare. Inspired by a line of text from one of Shakespeare’s plays, small groups developed a series of tableaux to tell a story. The class was then given a list of Shakespearean insults and compliments. They looked up the meaning of intriguing words on the list such as bawcock (a fine fellow), then wrote their own insults and compliments and used them in an original scene. Discussion followed around the power of words and how they can be used to do harm or good. The class will next read and discuss a summary of Macbeth and begin work on an adapted scene from the play. Their performance of the scene is a culmination of the skills they have learned this term.