The Wednesday Wars

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

Activity 1: “Digging into Shakespeare with Holling”

In this activity, students will analyze a work of Shakespeare for its themes about the nature of humanity.

This novel uses the works of Shakespeare to prompt reflections about the meaning of life. Shakespeare’s focus on universal human behaviors and themes is why his work persists even now, more than 400 years later.

Part A - Selection and Review

Select a monologue or a full-length play to read or watch. As you read or watch, take notes on major themes, questions you have, character reflections, thoughts, and inspirations that arise. You will need these notes for Part B.

• Select one of these full-length performances of The Tempest

o “The Tempest: TK Grade 4-6 Student Performance at Singapore Repertory Theatre” from CIS Communications

o “The Tempest by William Shakespeare | University Players’ The Tempest by William Shakespeare” from University Players

o “Curtain Call’s Shakespeare on the Green: The Tempest” from Curtain Call, Inc.

OR

• Select one of these full-length performances of Much Ado About Nothing

o “2017 Fall Festival of Shakespeare Mt. Greylock Regional School - Much Ado About Nothing”

o “Curtain Call’s Shakespeare on the Green: Much Ado About Nothing (2019)”

o “Much Ado About Nothing” from Texas Shakespeare Festival

Teaching Suggestion: Each list of performance options lists a student-led performance to make the activity more accessible and to inspire possibility in young audiences. Teachers might also choose to have students watch or read one of the selections and complete the analysis (outlined below) as a class. Individual choice is written into the activity to increase student engagement.

Part B - Analysis

Analyze the work you selected like Holling would have in his afternoons with Mrs. Baker. Consider the questions below to help craft your analysis. These questions apply whether you selected a play or monologue.

• What are some of the messages or themes of the piece?
• What questions about humanity does the play raise? How does Shakespeare present the answer?
• Are the questions, themes, and answers you identified still relevant today? Why or why not?
• What personal experiences have you had that remind you of the conflicts, emotions, and actions of the characters in these plays or monologues? Based on how the characters act in the play, would you behave or think differently if the same situation happened to you today? Why or why not?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may need to read and/or watch the plays and monologues multiple times to come up with a quality analysis. The sharing options (below) may also require adult support.

Differentiation Suggestions: For students who struggle to access Shakespearean language, consider using graphic organizers and study guides, or placing students into ability-diverse groups to complete this activity. Watching the plays or a film instead of (or alongside) reading the text is also helpful and encouraged, especially with young students. With study guides (available on SuperSummary), students can read summaries of the works, and then return to Shakespeare’s words and access the text more readily.

Activity 2: “Write a Play”

In this activity, students will write a short play that encourages their audience to reflect on the nature of humanity.

Shakespeare’s characters grapple with universal human emotions. It is your turn to do the same. Write a scene (or two) that explores an emotion, a rite of passage, or even an event from your own life. Use the tips and tools below to craft your play.

• Choose the message you might want to convey to the audience. You might not have a message in mind. Instead, you might instead have a question like “what is it like to love for the first time?” Your play can show as many different answers to that question as you’d like.
• Study how plays are written. Plays include lots of dialogue and few stage directions, which means your characters need to convey their inner world verbally or through action. Complete a character sketch for each character that includes motivation and desires.
• Sketch your plot. If you feel stuck, use the standard plot outline: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Ideally, start in the middle of the action.
• Read your work aloud. You might also share it with someone you trust to give you honest and helpful feedback.

When you have completed your play, share it with your class or community by having some friends act it out; you might instead perform a reader’s theater style table read at your local library. See if people can identify your themes based on the conversations they have after reading or hearing your play.

Teaching Suggestion: Students might benefit from support such as peer critique circles during the various stages of the writing process.