Guidelines for Understanding Shakespeare

Now we will be immersing ourselves in a legendary English writer, William Shakespeare. We will be reading some of his sonnets then reading Romeo and Juliet.

I would recommend purchasing your own copy of Romeo and Juliet, the Folger Shakespeare Library edition edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. The benefit of this is being able to annotate the text.

To help you understand Shakespearean English, follow the guidelines on this older post: http://msgalangenglish.blogspot.com/2011/02/guidelines-for-understanding.html

Class Activity:

1. Read Sonnet 130 and paraphrase as a class
2. In groups, you will be assigned a sonnet. For this sonnet:

• read and annotate several times
• look up unfamiliar words or phrases in an online or in print dictionary
• write a paraphrase of each line; you can try to stick to the sonnet structure
• list observations: general details and literary devices you noticed
• list inferences: what do the details mean?
• explain your interpretation: what is the main idea of the poem? what is the speaker expressing?
• explain your extension: what does this sonnet make you think, feel, or know? what does it remind you of? how does it connect to your self, the world, and/or other texts?
• do research to deepen your understanding of the text; see online resources above
• finally, prepare a dramatic, choral reading of the text to present to class