Outcomes:
Setting description, character descriptions /comparisons, diary entry, dialogue
Main Outcome:
Playscript
Length:
17+ sessions, 3+ weeks
Overview and Outcomes:
This is a 3+ week planning sequence using an abridged version of The Tempest by William Shakespeare. Although you may wish to expose children to a variety of different retellings of the story, it is also important that children have an opportunity to explore a playscript version of the text, and that that have an opportunity to see it being performed, either on film or, ideally, on stage. During this sequence, children have the chance to explore the themes, ideas and characters in the play, as well as writing opportunities, such as character descriptions and comparisons, scene/setting descriptions and diary entries. They also explore the conventions of writing playscripts, including (characterisation through) dialogue, stage directions and how to convey action, as well as some Shakespearean conventions, such as the iambic pentameter. The sequence culminates in children having the opportunity to write their own ‘tempest’ story to be read or performed.
Synopsis of Text:
Real Reads -- the classics retold and beautifully illustrated. Real Reads are a new and exciting way of presenting our literary heritage to a new audience: bright young primary readers, children who have seen the films and now want the books, teenagers who want to read the classics but aren't yet ready for the original, grown-up readers who want a quick fix of their favourite classical author, less confident readers who don't want to be left out of real books, learners of English who want to explore the classics everyone talks about.
Links:
Shakespeare, playscripts, classic literature
