Analyzing Text

Textual Analysis Tools

The tools below can engage students in textual analysis in a new and interesting way. Studying Shakespeare requires students to devle deeply into the language of a text in order to grasp it's meaning. However, understanding plot or characterization can be enhanced by getting students up out of their seats and talking about what they're reading.

Textual Analysis Activities:

Strut your Status

• Discuss Status and give definition. Discuss cliches and stereotypes so they can be avoided.

• Walking in the space, getting a feeling for your surroundings, don’t look at the floor, look around you, understand the space. No talking

• 1-Low, 10-High. Assign status to the group as a whole, split class, ask them to pick, etc.

Tableaus

• Taking lines and story from parts of R & J create one tableau that tells the story and say the line, as each group finishes, give them another section of the plot and do the same thing. 

• Start with the beginning feud, dividing the class in half, giving them Capulets and Montagues, explaining that they hate each other, having students get into that feeling. Then have people step forward to play the characters. Giving them the lines to say.

  • Talk about the feelings and emotions of the characters within the scene and what is being seen.

• Then each group in number order acts out their tableau and their line.

  • Discussing what is happening after each group, talking about the feelings and emotions of each character as well as performer and audience. Don’t get to the end, leave them hanging and wanting more.

Power Grab

• Red light, green light

• "Flag" to be captured

• Someone in power is the guard

  • Example: This is your grandma, she has a jar of cookies, your goal is to steal a cookie. If she turns around, you have to look sweet and innocent or she can send you back.

• Winner gets prize and power

  • how does this power dynamic change or enhance your understanding of power dynamics in the text?

Prologue Work

• Prologue of R & J: reading it as a group, then facing a partner and saying it really fast, ,then looking at a highlighted version and really stress the highlighted words.

• Then doodle while listening to the prologue, what came up share

• Then take two lines and translate those lines into modern language, use a dictionary if needed. 

• Create a tableau and say both the Shakespearean version and the modern version.

Creating Units

• where are the shifts in tone or intention?

• students can stamp a foot or bang a fist to indicate that they have sensed a shift

• Students can work together (as a class or in groups) to identify these units and then name them. They are naming units in the context of the act, not the entire play.

Off Beat Reading

• Reading while establishing a beat against their chests

  • Can you identify where the beat is off? Mark down the word that doesn't fit.

Physical Punctuation

• Each punctuation mark should have it's own reaction

  • when you see a (.): stop, turn on the spot, continue

  • when you see a (,): turn on the spot

  • when you see other punctuation (-:;): gasp air

First and Last Stomp

• read just the last word of each line accompanied by a stomp

• read just the first word of each line accompanied by a stomp

• After this reading, you can work with students to decipher the significance or pattern of these words and what it might tell you about the play, characters, or plot.

Conscious Alley

• divide students into two separate groups. 

  • group 1 will identify words that strengthen the speaker's message/plans

  • group 2 will identify words that weaken the speaker's message/plans

• Students will line up on opposing sides of a line, the speaker will walk down the aisle and the sides will take turns speaking the words they identified at the speaker

• students will then parrot the words as the speaker reads the speech

Motion Picture Monologue

• cut up a monologue and give students strips

• ask them to pick 4 words from each line to present to their group and see if they can put them in order

  • add a physical motion

  • narrow it down to one word/motion

• read the monologue and have them do their action when you get to their word

Zoom In/Zoom Out

• Close Reading: focusing in on the scene we're reading

  • identify a statement type

  • example questions:

    • Who uses "I/me" statements the most?

    • rank characters in status

    • identify insults/nicknames

    • identify shared lines and think about their significance

• Narrow Discussion: picking a topic to focus on and drill into

  • pick a word to analyze

  • pick a phrase to unpack

  • example questions:

    • What do "I/me" statements show the readers about the relationships between Juliet and her parents?

• Broader Questions: going beyond the scene

  • relate to the play as a whole

  • relate to society

  • example questions:

    • How does this exchange reflect on how adults view the voices of children in society?

    • Why is Capulet so angry? How does this relate to his other behavior in the play?

    • What is the power structure in this society?