A Midsummer Night’s Dream

May 5, 2026 - Week 1 of 4

Homework

1. Finish reading the novelized version of the entire play. Our edition is No Fear Shakespeare Edition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

2. Go back to Acts 1 & 2 and read the original text of at least 10 passages from the “CLOSE READING” Chart handout or other passages which you thought were really important or funny from your first reading of Act 1 & 2 (when you read the novelized version before the start of this class.) Dig into Shakespeare’s language. Use the novelized version to help you understand those passages.

3. Create a comic strip: Select ONE passage (could be an entire scene or several key lines from a scene) and make a comic strip of it. We will share these using the document camera next week. Criteria:

   • What is this scene about? Show that you understand what is going on and include summaries that help the reader understand what is happening.

   • Include original text in it. If you use narration that isn’t Shakespeare’s words, come up with a way to distinguish between Shakespeare’s writing and your summary

   • Illustrations need to contribute to the meaning too.

   • Use color

   • Be prepared to explain WHY you chose this scene/these lines to illustrate. Is it because this scene is funny? Important to the topics the play is dealing with? Relevant to our lives today?

   • Note: here’s an online version of the play if you ever need cut and paste excerpts

Classwork Summary

• Getting to know each other: we are a mix of students from all of my classes. Talked about what our experience on a stage (including sports) is and how comfortable we are with a speaking role in a performance or if we prefer puppet show parts. (This varies from student to student.)

• Actor’s Circle: three acting companies rehearsed and read for us the scene in which Peter Quince and Nick Bottom and the other “rude mechanicals” decide who gets which parts in Pyramus and Thisbe.‍ ‍

  • We LISTENED (did not read along) as each company performed the same scene. This repetition helps us uncover new things each time we hear it. We modelled how to read closely, how to read the same passage multiple times, how to ask questions about possible ways to think about the relationships between characters. We focused on how a play is meant to be heard and seen, not just read.

  • We asked questions about possible settings, character relationships, motivation and traits. We used lines from the text to support our interpretations. This scene served as our way into the play. We modelled how to read closely, how to read the same passage multiple times, how to ask questions about possible ways to think about the relationships between characters.

• Getting Organized - setting up a table of contents (see right)

• Contemporary themes in old writing: This play is over 400 years old but is still performed hundreds of times a year around the globe! Why? Journal prompts about relationship problems: friendships, parent-child relationships, romantic relationships.

• Plot Overview of Act 1 & Act 2 - comic strip introduction (and a model of how to make a comic strip which uses both summary and original text)

• Close Reading Practice Act 1 Scene 1 - paying careful attention to word choice and meaning in key passages from Act 1 Scene 1. We looked at LITERARY DEVICES such as parallel structure (in the first set of lines), alliteration (second set of lines) and the humor as well as important issues and conflicts raised immediately. We are learning to ask ourselves: why are these funny and/or thematically important lines? Or what literary devices are employed here?

  • With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.

  • This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child;
    Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes

  • With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,
    Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,
    To stubborn harshness