Wednesday, September 3, 2008

3WW: Awry, blame, Hiatus

Awry Blame Hiatus
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It’s fourth block.
The kids and I
are tired from a day
at school.

We are studying Hamletand his “to be or not to be” speech
is scheduled.

I have separated the parts
of the speech
to simulate
Hamlet’s dilemma
and run off copies
for them.

I divide the class
in two with desks
facing each other,
and have offered them
a challenge
to read the speech
in two voices.
The side with the loudest voices
wins an extra hundred
on their next quiz.

To make it fun
I have a tape recorder
ready to go.

First, we practice
and they mangle
most of the words,
especially the ending
where it says,

“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.”
They trip over “sicklied”
saying sickled, instead,
but after a little practicing
they get it.

And then comes “awry”
and they all want to say “aw´ ree”
over and over again!

So, I tape them
and play it back
and we laugh
and they never get it right.

Finally, I give up
and can’t blame them
for hating Shakespeare,

especially at the end
of a long day
when we are all too tired
to sympathize
with Hamlet
and all they can think
about is the bell ringing
a hiatus
from learning.

8 comments:

Tumblewords: said...

Nice use of the prompt words - they work well with Shakespeare!

Giggles said...

Nice little journal piece for the start of the year! Great use of the words!

Hugs Giggles

Anonymous said...

Hello, Linda. I liked the poem within a poem as well as the way the reader can see Shakespeare through your students' eyes! We can all remember such classes, but I'm not so sure all your students hate Shakespeare, despite their troubles with pronunciation. What a wonderful commentary on this week's political theater as well.
Thank you also for commenting on my poem; I revised it for clarity . . . I hope. And now to check out three word Wednesday!

anthonynorth said...

I bet you don't replay the tape at full volume :-)
Enjoyable poem.

paisley said...

i will be the first one to admit,, i would rather read cliff notes than Shakespeare on any given occasion.....

TC said...

This was so cute! :)

I have never read Hamlet. The only thing of Shakespeare's I have ever read is A Midsummer Night's Dream. And we unindated with that my senior year of high school. We read it, we went to it, our drama club performed it... and then one of my forensics teammates did a solo from it. Too much :)

I love the word awry. It's so much fun to say!

susan said...

You consistently share good stories. Thanks for the read.

Jade said...

Awesome. I will be facing this
same challenge sooner than expected
so your words on teaching will
be helpful to this rookie.

Linda's Poems