Today is one of those days where I have the delightful problem of having too many things I want to post about.
So today, I think I will share my fifth graders’ work with Shakespeare. They spent last week learning about the guy and all of his weirdness, even coming up with their own favorite fact videos.
This week, we ventured into compliment and insult territory. I always like teaching from this direction because…let’s face it: Shakespeare loved to play with language! Even better, Shakespeare was not above a rotten or inappropriate joke. Tell me what fifth grader isn’t going to giggle at the thought!
And in what can best be described as a sneaky move on my part, I taught a lesson on pronouns before we began so that kids could understand the difference between “thee” and “thou.” Don’t tell them, but I also used the lesson to teach a trick for why first, second, and third person narration are named as they are. Oh, the sacrifices I make…
Once they built that understanding, it was off on a choose-your-own-adventure compliment and insult fest.
And while I have the stage, just take a look at the paragraph above. All of those hyphens to create an adjective? I don’t know if you started them or popularized them, but thanks for those, Shakespeare!
Bottom line: Word play is fun, and Shakespeare was a master at it. Catch these kids:
Next up? The kids are going to make videos of themselves doing compliments or insults, and classmates are going to vote on “Shakey awards” for creativity and craft.
Shakespeare may be old-timey, but fun is NOT!
Soapbox: The Way I see Things 
With all of the sacrifices you make for your students I will recommend you be canonized. I agree that Bill’s word play is fun.
I did listen and enjoyed the giggles! Also the expressive reading! A great intro to the bard, and one I’m sure he would approve.
“They spent last week learning about the guy and all of his weirdness…” – LOVE.
This Slice, methinks, is utter hilarity from start to finish! The clip, absolute fun…this is exactly the kind of learning experience I’d have loved as a child. When I was in my teens, I worked for a theme park and performed fractured Shakespearean plays in a “Renaissance Faire”… a few lines were, um, bawdy…but the language, incredible. I will be writing a bit about the Bard later in the week in this regard. These students, they know not how blessed they are to have thee.
What a wonderful introduction to Shakespeare for your little scholars! I always made sure to teach my students how to insult with abandon in Elizabethan English when we did the plays of the Bard in my high school English classes.
‘Old-timey’ made me wonder about the different hyphenated adjectives out there, thanks for making me aware. Gonna see if I can make myself notice them more often. Love this share and your students clearly love learning with you! 🙂