Literature - Henry IV Part1

As the seminars continue the students will become more and more sure of themselves (and have a lot more fun).  You always need to make sure that they are prepared the day before -- giving the next group their focus not only accomplishes that -- but gets the seminar leader focused as well.  These seminars, among other things, cover Hals relationship with his father, with Hotspur, and the honor or lack thereof with Falstaff.  As always the teacher supplies half of the class period's focus -- the seminar leader the rest.

These are the instructions for the final day of the Henry IV Seminars.  By the 7th day, I usually find that students are surprised: 1) They can understand this "stuff" without much help from me  2) They enjoy teaching.  In fact, it is often difficult (for logistical reasons and for abundance of riches reasons) to choose who will be the seminar leaders on this last day.  It is important that the first chance be given to those students who really shone during their required leadership slot.  It's important for a couple of reasons. 

This Illuminated Text by Debra Chin, is a close study of "honor" as it appears in William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1.  Specifically, it focuses on Falstaff's view of that word -- and as such, she does an incredible job of conveying the words and ideas of the play.  I have said before that writing a good Illuminated Text shares many of the same qualities as writing a good essay -- and this presentation bears that idea out.  First, the student had to find all of the appropriate lines and then she had to find a way of putting them together in a way that shows a "bigger truth."  And that is exactly what she does - the background images of ancient battles and death play behind Falstaff's timeless words on the meaning of honor and death.

In my British Literature classroom we read three plays - these are generally (though not always): Macbeth, The Tempest, and Henry IV Part 1, part of the reasoning is to read a tragedy, a comedy, and a history.  Perhaps a bigger goal, though, is to approach the texts from three different points of view.  With Macbeth we do a lot of active, up on our feet, Folger Library type activities -- andt the students end up producing and putting on a scene from the play.  With The Tempest, we spend more time looking at literary approaches to the play -- built around an 8 day unit on Literary Criticism.