---Ashland, Here We Come!

It has been a busy month in the ninth grade English classroom, with sights set on our every-other year visit to Ashland, Oregon, and its magnificent Shakespeare Festival. Our visit to the festival takes place over the last two days of our End of the Year Expedition, which takes us from the Deschutes River outside of Bend and deposits us in the beautiful theaters of Ashland. In Ashland we will attend two plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Othello...and we will be attending two workshops which will help the students build on what they already know about the plays.

So, what have we been doing to get the kids ready for their Ashland experience, and how has that been integrated into a regular English curriculum?

First of all, the students have read “Othello” in its entirety in class; each student has had many opportunities to read the parts of different characters aloud. Discussions originated from the reading, and revolved around basic interpretation of the plot to more complicated matters as theme, style, character development, and “the Shakespearian language.” There have been a number of half-page to one page in-class writing assignments, and the students are now almost halfway through a five essay assignment…where a one page essay is due each week. The purpose of these essays is to not only get the students to think critically about the play, but also to reinforce expository writing skills learned over the course of this year. The remaining essay deadlines are 5/8, 5/14, and 5/21.

This morning we began our journey into “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, as it will be the first play we will see in Ashland. We will be approaching this play differently. After all, this will be the fourth play by Shakespeare that the students have read in the last twelve months (how many other ninth graders do you know that can say they are on their fourth Shakespearian play in the last year?!) and they do not need as much “hand holding” as they have been used to. Students will be asked to read much of the play on their own, and will be responsible for interpretation as well as an understanding of theme, character development, and plot. Of course, we will have daily readings and discussions. There will not be as much writing with this play….the students, after all, are still involved with their “Othello” essays and are also working concurrently on….

….their Honoring Letters and final college admissions essay! With only three weeks left, there is plenty to do!

Incidentally, the first drafts of the two page admissions essays are due Tuesday May 6, and the final drafts are due Tuesday, May 20th. It’s a great idea to ask your student about these essays, and also a great idea to ask them to tell you about our tradition of Honoring Letters….you’ll see that much is going on in the areas of reading, writing, and Shakespeare!

-Dave