Favorite lit guides for works by Shakespeare? Looking for a guide for A Midsummer's Night Dream and Twelfth Night.

[jjeepa]

Plus, we'll be studying Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet next year so looking for guides for those too. I tried searching the forums for information, but didn't find much. Thanks for your help!

[SilverMoon]

Glencoe has Midsummer and Hamlet.  Holt has Midsummer, Hamlet, and R&J. Penguin has all of those. All are free.

 

You can watch the David Tennant version of Hamlet on PBS.org for free. You can also watch his episode from Shakespeare Uncovered there. This one has behind the scenes information and Tennant preparing to play Hamlet.

[serendipitous journey]

PinkMonkey notes, highly rec'd by SWB, has a free Romeo and Juliet study. 

 

These are not lit guides, but things I like for reading Shakespeare:

 

No Fear Shakespeare has contemporary English side-by-side with Shakespeare English.  Here is Romeo and Juliet. 

 

Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare is terrific.  It gives a good deal of background that most lit guides don't cover, and doesn't give the more usual plot-summary that lit guides do. 

 

DK's The Shakespeare Book is a great general reference and interest-builder for late middle school/high school (and grown-ups, too). 

Edited May 14, 2016 by serendipitous journey

[Lori D.]

In my Lit. & Comp class we just finished Macbeth. I wrote a lot of our lessons myself, but used a lot of questions and background info from the Parallel Shakespeare teacher guide and student workbook, and found that to be great for beginning Shakespeare exposure (the material is written for grades 7-12+).

 

For your play choices, there are some Parallel Shakespeare materials available -- the "text" is the side-by-side original language and modern translation:

Romeo & Juliet - Parallel Shakespeare text, workbook, teacher guide

Hamlet - text, teacher guide

Midsummer's Night Dream - text, teacher guide

 

For your students, Sparknotes has No Fear Shakespeare, a parallel side-by-side original text and modern translation that can be read for free online:

Romeo and Juliet

Hamlet

Midsummer's Night Dream

Twelfth Night

 

Absolute Shakespeare has a plot summary (overview of each Act), commentary (explanation of each scene and key quotations), and character list and character analysis for 3 of your 4 plays:

Romeo and Juliet

Hamlet

Twelfth Night

 

My students found it very helpful that we first watched the 25-minute Animated Shakespeare in class, which uses all lines from the original text for an abridged telling of the story, before they attempted reading the play at home. The box set of DVDs is not cheap, BUT it contains 12 tales -- including all 4 of your play choices.

 

I also linked the students to a good full version to watch first, if possible, and then read (so they would have heard the language simultaneous with the performance to really *get* what is happening, before attempting to just read. And I also linked them to a free audio version they could listen to while following along in their text.

 

The other thing that the students said that they found very helpful was the Act/scene summaries document I created for them to help them know what key thing(s) were going on in each scene, so they wouldn't have to both struggle with the language AND figure out what was going on. You could use the Absolute Shakespeare commentary instead of creating one from scratch. ;)

 

One strategy that seemed to work well in our class was to do short sections of key scenes that the students had read earlier in the week, and then in class we did those scenes as a "reader's theater" and discussed what was going on in the play at that point, and any key images, language, character choices, themes, etc.

 

 

Enjoy your Shakespeare study! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

Edited May 14, 2016 by Lori D.

[SilverMoon]

I've spent a lot of time today with my nose stuck in random guides/versions and having discussions with a DD about them. Half Price Books puts up with me and even encourages this habit, so....

 

No Fear Shakespeare Lori D mentioned can also be found in inexpensive paperback editions. Another one is Barron's Shakespeare the Easy Way. These both have Shakespeare's words on one side and the modern English on the other. This bothers my older eyeballs, but DD doesn't mind in the slightest. You could just read down the Shakespeare side until you need/want some clarification and then glance over to the modern side.

 

The Oxford versions were my personal favorites. The appearance was clean and uncluttered. The annotations for difficult passages, phrases, or words were off in a margin and don't derail your eyes as you read through.

 

DD liked the Cambridge guides best. These didn't have much for annotations and helps in that regard, but lots of discussion assignments aimed at a classroom. These have not been as plentiful locally, but they're inexpensive in the used section on Amazon. I'll probably pick one up for the plays we don't already have in an annotated version.

 

The Amsco ones had annotations, though not as well done as the Oxford I think, and lots of section by section questions and guided analysis in the back.

 

Not really a guide, but delicious annotated versions, some Signature Shakespeare came home with us today. Because gorgeous book. And marked down to $5 for new editions. I think we'll end up with a No Fear or Barron's for each play for the kid's main copy, and a random collection of annotated, Cambridge, or Oxford for my copy.