Shakespeare's Hamlet

(A Web-quest)

Designed By: Katherine Koch, Phil Shill, and James Valentine

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Introduction

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Teacher PageWell, that is a very deep question. You read Shakespeare’s "Hamlet," but

did you really understand the material? Hamlet’s world becomes complicated simply based on the wording Shakespeare uses and the style in which he writes. Did you read the play and really get a grasp of what was going on? Did you say to yourself "I have absolutely no Idea what just happened!"?

If you did, this webquest should highlight important plot twists and themes and can be used as a study tool to make the tragedy of “Hamlet” more memorable. The links posted on the task page range from a deeper explanation of the themes in “Hamlet”, to comedic spins on the play itself. After viewing the links there will be a series of questions pertaining to the play. These questions are going to be similar to the caliber of questions that will be on the upcoming test.

There will be a link that will list the characters to re-familiarize the role of each member. The credit for the success of Shakespeare's tragedies not only goes to the plot, but also to his characters. The characters in Shakespeare's plays are human, and react to situations in the way people would behave in certain situations, even in real life. The protagonists in his tragic plays have superior characteristics that make them great and powerful, but they have one flaw in their character which leads them to their tragedy. It is the same in the case of prince Hamlet. Hamlet is a complex play and understanding its characters is not a simple task. Each character has different layers and are rounded characters as seen in most plays of Shakespeare. He never portrayed characters as black and white because he believed that human beings have a mixture of good virtues as well as bad.

"To be or not to be?"

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Task

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Teacher Page Your task begins now, and you will have two in-class days to complete it.

TASK: View the links on the process page, take time to read and think about the information, and then apply what you have learned to answer questions.

After completing the activities, you will be able to summarize, analyze, and demonstrate an overall understanding of Shakespeare's play, "Hamlet".

You will need access to the Web in order to work through this task.

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Teacher Page 1. Why is Hamlet bitter and Hateful towards his uncle and mother?2. What do you believe the ghost represents? Should Hamlet be wary of listening to this ghost?3. What series of events led Hamlet to believe that Claudius had murdered his father? And why does Hamlet reconsider killing his uncle

after he has his “proof” that his uncle committed the murder?4. When Hamlet accidently killed Polonius what series of events took place to lead to the deaths of 5 others?5. After reading the summary what are your thoughts on how Hamlet acted? Would you behave in the same manner if the same series of

events had happened to you?6. Did you find the videos to be helpful? Did the comedic relief add any value or entertainment to the summaries of Hamlet?7. What are some of the scenes that the 5 minute videos left out that you feel were too important to leave out? If there were none then

explain why the left out scenes are not needed.8. Is there anything you can take from this play and apply to your life? 9. Which theme do you think has the most value in today’s world? Which has the least?

Even though this is a group assignment, all students must answer their own questions on separate pieces of paper.

Answer the following questions in a word document using the links listed below.

Now that you have read over the task and the questions it would be a good time to look over a character list for hamlet so that you can get familiarized with the characters.

http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/characters.html Follow the above link to see some short descriptions of the characters. The link also has more in-depth analysis of the major characters if you are interested in learning more. This link will help you

to answer many of the questions in the task especially questions 1 and 2.

This link is a plot overview of hamlet. This will help you answer specifically questions 3-5 http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/summary.html

Now that you are familiar with the characters there are a couple of 5 minute Shakespeare videos Now that you are familiar with the characters there are a couple of 5 minute Shakespeare videos that will help you answer the questions above. In the first link the characters do not speak but there that will help you answer the questions above. In the first link the characters do not speak but there are descriptions of what is happening. The second link is done by high school students who had to are descriptions of what is happening. The second link is done by high school students who had to make a “Hamlet” video for their English class. Both videos are relatively short and will help you to make a “Hamlet” video for their English class. Both videos are relatively short and will help you to

complete questions 7 and 8.complete questions 7 and 8.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybsD5FHe-Oc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afd_gL9F7Q0

This last link is a list of the themes that appear throughout the play. Use this link to answer questions 8 and 9.

http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/themes.html

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Evaluation

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Student Page

Teacher PageCriteria Beginning

1Developing

2Accomplished

3Exemplary

4

Critical Thinking

None of the questions are answered correctly and little work is shown towards analyzing the material. Also if the student made no effort to complete the task.

Some of the questions are answered correctly and the student shows an understanding of the material.

Most of the questions are answered correctly and the student shows that they have read the material and have attempted to analyze the material.

All of the questions are answered correctly and thoroughly. The answers show that the student has read through and attempted to analyze the material.

Directions None of the directions are followed. Also if the student made no effort to complete the task.

Some of the directions are followed.

Most of the directions are followed.

All of the directions are followed.

Mechanics The student has many spelling and grammar errors. (15+)

The student has some spelling and grammar errors. (10-15)

The student has barely any spelling or grammar errors in the question responses. (5-10)

The student does not have any spelling or grammar errors.

Fluency The student has difficulty forming proper sentences, lacks fluency of ideas, and fails to answer all of the questions completely.

The student has some difficulty forming proper sentences and lacks fluency of ideas, and fails to answer some of the questions completely.

The student demonstrates the ability to form proper sentences, but lacks some fluency of ideas.

The student demonstrates the ability to form proper sentences and to easily express thoughts and opinions.

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You have hopefully learned a little bit about a big part of writing history. Shakespeare was a fantastic writer and to this day is considered one of

the greatest. Some of the lessons and themes that he writes about relate to our everyday lives. If you would like to learn more about

Shakespeare feel free to ask me and I will be happy to share more of his plays with you and answer any questions that you may still have.

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Images:Introduction Image: http://iteachicoachiblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/shakespeare-common-core-style.html

Conclusion Image:http://jokespeare.tumblr.com/

Background Image:http://www.freeppt.net/download/stage-powerpoint-239.html

A special thanks to SparkNotes and the creators of the “Hamlet in 5

Minutes” videos.

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Introduction

Task

Process

Evaluation

Conclusion

Student Page

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Teacher Process

1. Why is Hamlet bitter and Hateful towards his uncle and mother?2. What do you believe the ghost represents? Should Hamlet be wary of listening to this ghost?3. What series of events led Hamlet to believe that Claudius had murdered his father? And why does Hamlet reconsider killing his uncle

after he has his “proof” that his uncle committed the murder?4. When Hamlet accidently killed Polonius what series of events took place to lead to the deaths of 5 others?5. After reading the summary what are your thoughts on how Hamlet acted? Would you behave in the same manner if the same series of

events had happened to you?6. Did you find the videos to be helpful? Did the comedic relief add any value or entertainment to the summaries of Hamlet?7. What are some of the scenes that the 5 minute videos left out that you feel were too important to leave out? If there were none then

explain why the left out scenes are not needed.8. Is there anything you can take from this play and apply to your life? 9. Which theme do you think has the most value in today’s world? Which has the least?

You will be assigned into a group of 3-4 students. Answer the following questions in a word document using the links listed below.

Now that you have read over the task and the questions it would be a good time to look over a character list for hamlet so that you can get familiarized with the characters. http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/characters.html

Follow the above link to see some short descriptions of the characters. The link also has more in-depth analysis of the major characters if you are interested in learning more. This link will help you to answer many of the questions in the task

especially questions 1 and 2.

This link is a plot overview of hamlet. This will help you answer specifically questions 3-5 http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/summary.html

Now that you are familiar with the characters there are a couple of 5 minute Shakespeare videos that will help you answer Now that you are familiar with the characters there are a couple of 5 minute Shakespeare videos that will help you answer the questions above. In the first link the characters do not speak but there are descriptions of what is happening. The the questions above. In the first link the characters do not speak but there are descriptions of what is happening. The second link is done by high school students who had to make a “Hamlet” video for their English class. Both videos are second link is done by high school students who had to make a “Hamlet” video for their English class. Both videos are

relatively short and will help you to complete questions 7 and 8.relatively short and will help you to complete questions 7 and 8.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybsD5FHe-Oc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afd_gL9F7Q0

This last link is a list of the themes that appear throughout the play. Use this link to answer questions 8 and 9. This last link is a list of the themes that appear throughout the play. Use this link to answer questions 8 and 9. http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/themes.html

--> This lesson will most likely take 2 class periods for the students to watch the videos, read the summaries and to answer the questions. The students can either be put into groups by the teacher of they can pick groups their selves. Hopefully the group work will spark some conversation on a few of the more in-depth questions. This can be done by a novice teacher and does not require much more than having computers for the students to use and the teacher to help them if help is needed. The

students should answer the questions on their own separate pieces of paper to turn in.

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The only thing that you will really need to teach this lesson will be computers wish sound for the students to use. This is a web based activity that the students will have

to watch videos and read character descriptions and a summary. This lesson will have extensive use of a few websites.

This is the website for the character list and descriptions. http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/characters.html

This is the video of Hamlet in 5 minutes using plastic spoons and knives for the acting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybsD5FHe-Oc

This is the video of Hamlet that is about 9 minutes long. It is a group of high school kids who had to make this for their English class. Has some humor in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afd_gL9F7Q0

This is the summary of Hamlet to wrap up any questions the students might have. http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/summary.html

This assignment can be done by one teacher. The assignment will be mostly done by the students working together. The only thing that the teacher will need to do is to supply their students with this webquest and with a computer to view the links. From there you will just have to answer any questions they might have and to help them

along if needed.

Teacher Resources Student Page

Teacher Page

Process

Resources

Evaluation

Credits

Criteria Beginning1

Developing2

Accomplished3

Exemplary4

Critical Thinking

None of the questions are answered correctly and little work is shown towards analyzing the material. Also if the student made no effort to complete the task.

Some of the questions are answered correctly and the student shows an understanding of the material.

Most of the questions are answered correctly and the student shows that they have read the material and have attempted to analyze the material.

All of the questions are answered correctly and thoroughly. The answers show that the student has read through and attempted to analyze the material.

Directions None of the directions are followed. Also if the student made no effort to complete the task.

Some of the directions are followed.

Most of the directions are followed.

All of the directions are followed.

Mechanics The student has many spelling and grammar errors. (15+)

The student has some spelling and grammar errors. (10-15)

The student has barely any spelling or grammar errors in the question responses. (5-10)

The student does not have any spelling or grammar errors.

Fluency The student has difficulty forming proper sentences, lacks fluency of ideas, and fails to answer all of the questions completely.

The student has some difficulty forming proper sentences and lacks fluency of ideas, and fails to answer some of the questions completely.

The student demonstrates the ability to form proper sentences, but lacks some fluency of ideas.

The student demonstrates the ability to form proper sentences and to easily express thoughts and opinions.

Teacher Evaluation

You will know that this lesson was successful if the students answered the questions correctly and if their answers showed some signs of critical thinking. The main thing that should be looked for is if the students can do more then just

answer the question. You will want to see if the student can relate something from this assignment to their every day lives.

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