A Midsummer Night's Dream, Helena/Hermia cut to 1 1/2 pages

This, and my other cut scenes, use Shakespeare's words. They've been cut so my 4th & 5th grade classes can perform several during one 50 minute class.

I've been teaching Shakespeare to my 800+ K-5 students for four years now. After taking classes from the Folger Shakespeare Library and receiving an NEH grant to study in Stratford-upon-Avon, I believe that even my five-year-olds should use HIS words. I explain what the words/scenes mean in modern in modern language, but they use and learn it the way he wrote it.

I’m going to be putting up the activities as I teach them one by one, but will eventually sell in bundles by grade level and play.

My fourth and fifth graders are introduced to six of the comedies. They each choose the play/scene/character they want to perform. As much as possible, that is what they get. As each class usually has at least six scenes, I had to do some drastic cutting so we could complete them all in a 50 minute class period. Except for a couple of swear words (noted), I use Shakespeare’s words, though sometimes, to try and keep the iambic pentameter, I cut some words.

Each scene took much longer than I expected as I didn’t want to leave out as much as I had to. Going back to try and get as much as possible in iambic pentameter and possibly in rhyme, adding more time. I also had to look at how many students were doing the scene.

Probably the favorite for girls is the Helena/Hermia scene from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”