A Midsummer Night's Dream teaching pack

This example shows suggested main activities for the third week of the teaching pack focusing on Act 2, Scenes 1 and 2. 

Reading:

Working in small groups, give students a small section of Act 2, Scene 1, or a specific character’s speech to explain in their own words.  Ask students to highlight any patterns of words in their section (words associated with some of the following ideas: nature; the moon and stars; the sea; anger or jealousy; jests and fun etc.) and to identify any words they don’t understand or want to know more about.  Students should then feedback their ideas to the class.  

Differentiation: You may need to offer more support in ‘translating’ the text to certain groups.  Encourage more able students to explore why Shakespeare might use the language he does – symbolism/connotations etc. 

Role play:

If Oberon were to take Titania to court over custody of the changeling boy, who would win?  Summarise the main reasons for their disagreement on the whiteboard first, looking closely at the text (Act 2, Scene 1 lines 18–45) and eliciting ideas from students.  Next, using the Custody battle (13679) resource to help with their planning, students should conduct the court case, with members of the class taking the parts of the judge, the lawyers and the jury who will decide the outcome of the case. 

Differentiation: It’s a fairly challenging activity so organise students into mixed ability groups, and suggest that the group who works most collaboratively/supportively will be given a ‘special prize’ (packing up five minutes early; earning a reward or certificate; choosing next week’s homework etc.).   

Lovers’ tiffs:

Read Oberon’s plan in Act 2, Scene 1 (lines 146–87 and 244–268) and create a storyboard (14823) for these sections of the scene.  If you have time, look briefly at Helena and Demetrius’s speeches in Act 2, Scene 1 lines 188–244, and ask students to summarise what each character says in five bullet points.  Do the same for Act 2, Scene 2, looking at Lysander and Hermia’s speeches before and after they go to sleep (and Puck works his magic).

Differentiation: Give out a differentiated version of the storyboard for Act 2, Scene 1, with captions or key quotes already added. 

Fairy tales:

Select one of the engaging drama activities in Presenting the fairies (22613), and encourage students to look closely at the language and characters of the fairies in Act 2, Scene 1 and/or the beginning of Act 2, Scene 2.  Encourage students to perform their work to the class, to the soundtrack of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’.

Differentiation: Direct less able students to explore particular lines or sections of the text (for example Act 2, Scene 2), and specify which drama activity they should complete, as some require a greater level of textual engagement and understanding.