About This Lesson
Unit 2, The Tempest, examines the play by William Shakespeare.
This version of The Tempest has been adapted for a modern, school-age audience. Students will identify and analyze the elements of a drama such as characterization, mood, and theme. Students will also analyze dramatic structure, theatrical performance, and how to navigate Shakespearean language.
Shakespeare’s influence on the authors and playwrights that came after him cannot be contested. His plays are considered classics, tried-and-true stories that deal with timeless and universal themes like love, betrayal, friendship, and justice. They do so with great sensitivity, intelligence, and often, humor, which are no less relevant to a modern audience than they were in Shakespeare’s day.
Moreover, Shakespearean language is an invaluable treasure trove of words, puns, phrases, and references that have enriched and enlivened English to this day and will continue to do so for centuries to come. By reading plays like The Tempest, students will realize just how many phrases, references, situations, and storylines date from Shakespeare’s time.
In this unit, students will practice verb tenses and subject-verb agreement, writing paragraphs, and Greek and Roman roots and affixes in the English language.
Students will work on morphology skills involving the Greek and Latin roots bene, celer, chronos, cresco, curro, and jacio, and English words in which they are used. Students will also write a dramatic scene in this unit.
