Infusing Renaissance Studies

Lesson Plan
Support lessons study of OTHELLO by William Shakespeare

Essential Question

How do the complex relationships in Othello represented in Act I Scene iii illuminate the concepts of love, loyalty, betrayal, rejection, family, and the issue of value versus usefulness?

Students will:

• Understand and analyze a play by William Shakespeare
• Interpret language and Shakespeare text
• Express understanding in a variety of integrated projects
• Explore the play focusing on issues addressed in the essential question.

In order to:

1. Demonstrate the ability to respond to a text by employing personal experience and critical analysis.
2. Demonstrate the ability to compose in a variety of modes by developing content, employing specific forms, and selecting language appropriate for a particular audience and purpose.
3. Demonstrate the ability to control language by applying the conventions of Shakespearean English in writing and speaking.
4. Demonstrate the ability to evaluate the content, organization, and language in use of texts.
5. Develop understandings of dramatic techniques, elements and conventions, and
   their ability to apply these in a variety of dramatic contexts.

Using the art of the Renaissance is an excellent tool for designing lessons in a variety of subjects. This unit plan will focus on the study of Shakespeare’s Othello, specifically Act I, Scene iii.

INTRODUCTION:

This next unit requires a complete reading of OTHELLO. Focus on reading lines 45-170 for this part.

Ask the students to write down what they think is going on.

Though the discussion the students get the general view that:

• Brabantio is accusing Othello of seducing his daughter by way of drug and witchcraft.
• Othello is an outsider
• Othello is a person of color
• Othello is useful to the state
• Venice is a racist state
• The ruling council needs Othello to fight its wars
• Othello is exotic and captivating as he tells the exciting episodes of his life
• Desdemona, Othello’s wife and Brabantio’s daughter, is infatuated with Othello and defies her father in marrying him.
• The council wants to defend Brabantio, but they need Othello more.

  There could be a great deal more statements that can lead to even more questions. Anything the students see in the script is valid.

The following is a list of projects that should demonstrate understanding of the play.

Othello Box

This is a collection project that calls for the understanding of Othello.

Take a 9x12 picture frame and fill it with found objects. Found objects are everyday objects that do not by themselves necessarily mean much, but taken together will have resonance and penetration into the theme and metaphor of the play.

Items that the students might include:

1. Handkerchief
2. Sword
3. Turban/ Hair Comb
4. Mirror
5. Wedding Ring
6. Official proclamation
7. Flag of Venice
8. Brabantio’s Coat of Arms
9. Picture/Statue of anthropophagi (ape)
10. Battle Barge (ship)
11. Silk Material
12. Pillow
13. African American/Long Blonde Hair
14. Cross
15. Muslim star and crescent
16. Background (Elizabethan map of the world, coat of arms, map of Africa, picture of a Moor, Shakespeare)

Othello Journal

This Journal is a joint language arts/writing/art activity that fosters extended learning and demonstrates understanding and critical thinking.

Materials

• Acid free Xerox paper
• Othello by Shakespeare
• Blender
• Ink pen
• Two empty coffee cans
• Screen window material
• Wooden blotter

I. Paper Making—This is very simple.

• Shred ample amounts of Xerox paper and put it into the blender with water. Whip the mixture until the paper is thick pulp.
• Make sure one of the coffee cans has the top and the bottom removed. Place the can with the bottom on the table, the screen on top of the can and then the can with both top and bottom missed on the top.
• Now pour the mixture into the can until the screened bottom is completely covered with pulp. Let the water drain completely through the screen.
• Remove the top can and place another piece of screen on top of the one with the pulp. Squeeze gently until all excess moisture is removed.
• Gently removed the top screen and place the pulp face down on a wooden blotter. Let dry and you have a round piece of homemade paper.
• Make 6 sheets of paper

II. Journal Writing:

• Pick a character from the play, OTHELLO, or make up a fictitious Elizabethan character
• As your character, writing in your journal your impressions of the events in the play. Chronicle the events in the play as a witness.
• Take a pose. You could be Desdemona’s best friend, Othello’s family, Iago’s mother. The character you choose will dictate the way you write in your journal.
• Use an ink pen and be as creative as possible.
• Fasten the pages together in order.
• Include pictures/designs

Othello Wax Museum

To again facilitate understanding, have the students create a wax museum peopled with the character from OTHELLO

Procedure

1. Students with choose a character to embody
2. As best you can, have the students dress as their character, or at least create some costume prop to represent the character
3. Write a short biography of the character
4. Choose a small portion of the dialogue
5. Memorize both the short bio and portion of dialogue
6. Position the students in various poses in different parts of the room.

Invite other classes into your room to see the OTHELLO WAX MUSEUM. Instruct your visitors that if they taop the right shoulder they will get a short monologue and if they tap the left they will hear a short bio of the character

Othello Rap—Shrink Poem

Inside every fat play is a Skinny play trying to get out, struggling to cut through the mummy-like wrapping of long-winded descriptions, superfluous characters, and endless conversations. Our literary salvation depends on our making less and less of more and more—With that in mind literature can undergo a SHRINKING process which boils out the fat and renders the meat into verse.
---Maurice Sagoff

Directions for the OTHELLO RAP—SHRINK POEM

1. Review notes/study questions on OTHELLO
2. Create a shrink poem about OTHELLO
3. Your poem must be a minimum of three (3) stanzas of 6 lines each plus one couplet for a total of 20 lines
4. Your lines must rhyme! Can you make a RAP POEM?
5. Remember to include the following elements in your shrink poem:
   • Setting
   • Plot
   • Characters
   • Theme
6. Decorate your poem with significant images and motifs from the play. Be Creative!