Shakespeare and His Archetypes

Introduction

Aisham Khan - English - 9th Gr.

Are you ready to delve into the world of storytelling? 

Through the help of this WebQuest, students will complete an activity in a group on the characters in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. They will approach this learning experience with what knowledge they have acquired from reading Shakespeare's play beforehand, including knowledge of the characters, their motives, and the journey each of them endures.

Students will also use a Jungian fairytale archetypes list provided to them beforehand, which will briefly explain each archetype, its goals, its weaknesses, and its most common personality traits. The purpose of this activity is to encourage group discussions and collaborations with peers. This activity's objective is also to deepen my students' understanding of not only characterization, but also the roles each character plays, how Shakespeare uses them to manipulate the story and other characters, and how these characters fit specific archetypes that are pertinent to the grander scheme of storytelling.

 

Learning Objectives

★ Students will be able to collaborate with peers, discussing the activity, sharing opinions, and addressing disagreements.

★ Students will utilize digital tools with peers, exploring features and functions of each, in order to successfully convey and discuss findings from their research.

 

ELA Standards

★ 9-10SL1c: Pose and respond to questions that relate the discussion to broader themes or ideas; actively incorporate others into the discussion; and clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions.

★ 9-10SL5: Make strategic use of digital media and/or visual displays in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence, and to add elements of interest to engage the audience.

 

ISTE Standards

★ 4b Collaborate and co-learn with students to discover and use new digital resources and diagnose and troubleshoot technology issues.

★ 5b Design authentic learning activities that align with content area standards and use digital tools and resources to maximize active, deep learning.

Task

Where do we begin?

This will be a collaborative group activity with a twist. I will provide you with information and steps to take. I will also provide you with tools you must utilize during this assignment. However, I will withhold a vital piece of information. Please read the following starter tasks:

Task 1: Students will draw a Midsummer character from a bag. Every student must choose one character.

Task 2: When your character is chosen, I will place each student into groups of three. Each group will fall under one of the three categories: Antagonist, Protagonist, or Minor Character. This is where I withhold information - I will not tell you what your group's category is.

Task 3: Sit with you group and familiarize yourself with your characters. Then, look through your Jungian archetype list. Every character should be given a different archetype. Choose three that you believe best fit your three characters. 

Task 4: Once your group has settled on an archetype, you will now begin to determine the category your group was placed in, and begin working on finding and presenting your evidence. Please continue to the Process tab.

Process

Follow along carefully.

When assigned a character and placed in your groups:

★ Begin considering what you know about this character. You may refer to your notes and the text while you do so, but these notes must be taken in a Google Doc.

★ Share your findings on and initial impressions of your characters with your group. Everyone must have access to this information on the Google Doc. Please compile your answers to at least the following questions: 

            How did every character in each role behave? What and how much did they contribute to the story? What were their motives? Were their behaviors ill-intended? Were they justified?

★ Now you must choose and write the three archetypes that you believe best fit your three characters. Do the answers about your character align with the answers to the following questions about your archetypes: 

            What are your character's personality traits? What are their desires? What are their strategies to  reach their goals? Are the obstacles they endure fair or unjust?

★ When the information is agreed upon, discuss with your group about which category your believe best fits your characters based on their archetypes. List the category and the reasons why.

★ Now, begin providing your evidence. Evidence to support your claim must come directly from the text. When this evidence is agreed upon, you may move onto the presentation portion of the activity.

★ Using ZoHo Show, your group will present your findings to the class. This presentation must include the following information:

            - The three characters you were assigned to analyze.

            - What your agreed upon category is and what the defining attributes of that category are.

            - Each character and the archetype they were paired with. (With evidence from the text.)

            - Why these archetypes fit into your agreed upon category.

            - A reflection about the activity (see Conclusion) along with any additional sources used.

★ Keep your presentations no longer than seven minutes!

★ Classmates will be encouraged to utilize Padlet to determine if they agree with your choice of category and archetypes. If not, they will suggest alternatives and spend a few minutes explaining why.

Evaluation

Keep this in mind.

Content:

- Showcase knowledge by answering all class questions with explanations and elaboration; demonstrate understanding of content and provide evidence to support claims; argument is clear and concise. (5)

- Struggle to answer questions with depth and clarity; showcase some knowledge or familiarity with subject; provide adequate amount of evidence to support claims; argument is acceptable. (3)

- Do not clearly explain, nor define information presented; content understanding is unclear; evidence to support claims is not pertinent to the claim or is underdeveloped; argument needs further development. (1)

Organization: 

- Display of information is clear and well constructed; students use media, images, etc.; students are familiar with how to utilize tools; there is clear evidence and a list of references. (5)

- Information meets standards and is mostly comprehendible; students use vague, but pertinent images and media to convey argument; students have an acceptable understanding of tools used; sources listed. (3)

- Construction of content and comprehension does not meet standards; students' use of media and visual aids is too vague; students need more experience with tools; sources are not listed. (1)

Conclusion

What did you learn?

★ At the end of your presentations, you will be asked to reflect on your takeaways from the activity and the content you explored. Consider the following questions:

            - Which archetype felt the most vital? Which do you see commonly or don’t see many of? What do you think archetypes and categories contribute to a story? What does an antagonist bring to the story that a minor character or a protagonist doesn’t, and vice versa?

★ When you complete your presentations, meet with your groups once more to write a reflective piece on your experiences. These must be completed separately by each student, but you may work together.

★ Finish your reflective essays and have them handed in at the end of the week!