Zooming to a brave new world

I have been fairly quiet of late because I have set up my own film production company. In the space of two terms, I have transformed by study into a film studio. I have even bought a new shiny laptop to cope with the space age CGI and demands of increasing audiences on multiple platforms. I have been making video after video for students.

Terrible experiences can create good things. One of the things the lockdown experience has taught me is how we can save ourselves some work in the long run. I have used the time in lockdown to save myself time later in the year.

When the length of lockdown expanded, I had to revise my plan. I had to decide on how to adapt. I also had to think of the future situations.  The result has made me revise how I do some fundamental things and how I use things. All this is done with nothing fancy. I make a PowerPoint. I record the audio and then convert it to a video. Then, upload to YouTube.

The current situation will have a positive impact on how we teach from now on. It has made me think about how we use videos and YouTube effectively. 

Teaching

Year 10 was my priority in the lockdown. Therefore, I tried to think what was best for them. For them, I decided on the poetry. We had six poems left. So, I decided to make a video for each of the poems. Now, I couldn’t just read poem and ask for students responses to the text. Instead, I had to think of a structure to the video. This is the one I used:

[1] Introduce, if necessary, background information for understanding the poem. What is a dramatic monologue? What was the general populace’s opinion of war in WW1?

[2] Get students to think of the idea at the heart of the poem. What is the reality of war? This was to get them thinking of their opinion, before I unleashed the poem on them. A01

[3] Read the poem and show the poem.

[4] Revisit the idea and compare their view of the idea with the writer’s view.

[5] Discuss some of the key images in the poem. A painting. A statue of Neptune taming a wild seahorse. A mule. A02

[6] Explore four key choices in the language. A simple case of present them as quotations and get students to pause the video before I explained them. A02

[7] Explore something about the choices of form and structure. A02.

[8] Discuss the possible messages in the poem and the writer’s reasons. A03

[9] Connections with other poems

[10] Finally, a quick quiz on key bit on the poems. I used my 9 questions I use for each of the poems. These questions are repeated again and again as students go through the year.

Now, it isn’t a normal way I’d go through a poem and, yes, it is quite rigid. But, it gives them a starting point with their understanding of the poem. We will revisit the poem in the classroom later, but at the moment students will feel they know some ideas (A01),  some interesting things about how it is written (A02) and some things about why it was written (A03) that way.  There’s a clear structure of ideas, choices and messages. The kind of way I’d like students to think and write about poems. 

Start with the ideas first and leave language choice as a secondary focus.

After watching the video, students had to complete a multiple choice quiz based on the video and their understanding of the poem.

I have not hidden my jealousy of Maths and their Mr Hegarty. That’s why I used the time to make videos for all the named poems, following this format. I now have a resource I can use again and again with students.

[1] Students missing lessons.

[2] Student not attending schools.

[3] Students moving to a school in Year 11.

[4] Students forgetting the content of the poem.  

We know that the next few years are going to be unsettled but having clear systems to support the learning in lesson. Although English is largely a recursive subject, it is problematic when a student misses a lesson where a poem or an important part of a text is covered. We now have a direction for students. If you don’t know the poem, then go to the YouTube Channel.

Staff have MCQ so they can test if the students have watched the video and made notes.

The videos will form an important part of the revision process.

Concepts

For KS3 we made students complete some creative writing on a regular basis. They were writing part of the story each week. From this, I taught students some concepts like allusion.

We know that there are concepts we regularly visit in English. What if as a department you agreed on way to teach a concept? What if you had a five minute video explaining a concept? As a teacher, you could pull that video up as revision or as a way to teach. You then have that shared language across a department. The teacher is saved the work and endless repetition but there’s some consistency in how concepts are taught. The teacher can then build on the video and build a lesson around it.

What if a teacher noticed there was a problem with students discussing pathetic fallacy? There was large amount of misunderstandings about pathetic fallacy. Say the teacher had access to a number of videos that addressed different concepts. Select, play, discuss. Back to the work.

A lot of my time planning is spent thinking about introducing or teaching concepts. What if you had a video explaining antithesis which included step by step instructions and examples?

Knowledge of Literature

The history of literature can be easily neglected because other things dominate in English. One of the things I have been working on more 5 minute videos, but this time exploring the history of literature and history,

In Year 7, we look at villains in Dickens’s novels. However, it is important that students understand that the way Dickens writes is a reflection of his writing context. Therefore, I have created a video explaining in 5 minutes how Dickens wrote and what impacted his decisions. That video can be used again and again as students study ‘Great Expectations’ in Year 8 and ‘A Christmas Carol’ in Year 10.

This has scope for lots of areas in English. I have just made one on the history of gothic fiction.

The richness of English is great, but how do we know that everybody is ‘on message’ about what to cover. Over time, we might agree on changes and additions, but surely having a bank of readymade videos to explain things quickly and succinctly is much better than a poke in the eye.

Vocabulary

One of the really surprising thing in the lockdown was student engagement with our vocabulary work. I’d have a ten minute video of matching words to their definitions. Students would pause the video and write the word and definitions down. At the end, they’d have a MCQ on the words and definitions.

This, as a task, was very low risk, but it was the area where students of all levels of ability engaged. We had some exceptionally success and high results for students who often struggled in English.

This taught me how we undervalue systematic processes in learning. We repeated this process weekly with students and there was very little dipping in numbers. The process was clear, defined and ‘doable’. We are going to do the same next year.

Each term, we have a set number of words we explicitly teach. We are just going to make a video helping students learn those words. We know time is precious, but we also know students aren’t always the best at revising. Therefore, we are going to make a video to help revise and learn those words.

Interventions

Intervention has been warped out of all sense of understanding and meaning. Largely, it means extra work for the teacher with very little gain. One of the things I have noticed is how intervention can take a number of forms and I think a series of videos explaining how to do something in English is one of them.

We never have enough time. Where can we fit things in? What interventions are you doing for X?

Last year, I ran sessions for students struggling to develop explanations. I ran three after school sessions. Not every student could attend so I had to run another few sessions. What if I recorded those lessons? What if I had a bank of these intervention lessons? I could then direct students to complete them and show me the work. Yes, it would take time, but wouldn’t save us time in the long run.

Parents worry about their child’s progress and we know there are key areas in English where students struggle. What if we address the two together? Make a video for these key areas. Publicise it to parents so they knew how they could help with things. Time saving intervention. The focus can be on making the intervention good rather than just on using up all the teacher's time and good will. 

Be clear, I am using these along side other things. These are there to support and help. Nothing is going to replace the teacher being in the class with the student. The ideas here are largely based on saving teachers time in the long run. Plus, it will allow teachers to do more of the stuff they want to. 

My videos are not for public consumption. Like resources, I don’t actively share. The reason for that is partly because I haven’t got the time to share through email, dropbox and so on. Plus, I have no desire to be the next Mr Bruff. I happy doing what I am doing.

Back to the film studio. Our next film is 'Teachers Assembled'.  A Geography teacher, a Maths teacher, a Science teacher (not Barbara) and an English teacher fight a common enemy.

Thanks for reading,

Xris

Romeo and Juliet, are you having a laugh?

At the Team English conference, I talked about audience identification in Shakespeare’s plays and how important it is when exploring the plays. You can see the full talk here. One of the things that’s caught my interest is the use of comedy. And, in particular, Commedia dell’arte in Shakespeare’s plays.

Currently, I am rewriting my schemes of work and I have change my Year 9 scheme to address comedy in Shakespeare’s plays and more importantly the theatre form of Commedia dell’arte. Below is a small summary I have drafted for students. Note I have simplified and reduced some elements.

Commedia dell’arte

An improvised comedic theatre form that flourished in Italy in the 1500s. Comedy tends to include elements of this form of theatre. Characters have a clear type and behaviour or actions (lazzi) in a story. There are three types of character – servants / masters / lovers. The comedy stems from the situation or how a character behaves in a situation. The comedy was also physical and characters carried a slapstick to hit people with. 

Arlecchino – a witty joker and prankster. He is often a servant who uses agility and acrobatics to get out of a situation.

Brighella – a coarse and scheming merchant. He steals and is often violent – especially to characters with a lower status than him.

Columbina – a female servant character who is employed  by the inamorati to persuade their parents that they should marry each other. Sometimes she is romantically linked to Arlecchino.

Il Capitano – (The Captain) An arrogant and boastful man who likes to think he is braver than he actual is

Il Dottore – (The Doctor) A pompous neighbour who likes to think he is really educated but knows nothing. Jealous of Pantalone’s success.  Sometimes he is the father of the lovers.

Inamorati – (The Young Lovers) They are often the sons / daughters of the vecchi. They are the dilemma of the play. Do they follow their hearts or listen to their parents?

Pantalone – (The Master) Old and wealthy man who attempts to control his daughter and protect his money.

Pulcinella – is a ridiculous character and often makes fun of a servant or worker like a baker. 

Vecchi – master characters or noblemen

Zanni – servant characters

At university, I was obsessed with Shakespeare’s history plays and at school I dwelled on the tragedies, but as I age, I am finding the comedies even more interesting. I have only been teaching for ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for a few years but I am starting to appreciate the complexity of it. Yes, the use of sonnet is clever and so on, but I am more interested in the structuring of it and how that structure appeals to the Elizabethan audience or audiences in general.

For years, I have always struggled with the tragedy of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ or should that be ‘The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Romeo and Juliet’. Yes, we are told it is a tragedy, but as an audience member I have never really felt it, and boy have I tried. I even tried watching it whilst peeling onions. Nothing. Not even a tear. I have tried stabbing my leg with a pin. Nothing. Not even a slight eye dribble. For me, it is a comedy that just is missing an end scene undoing the chaos of the previous acts. Look at Much Ado About Nothing. Visit a tomb and then you can fix things.

‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a gag a line and the number of jokes a scene gives some of Shakespeare’s official comedies a run for its money. Oh and it is filthy humour too. Over the years, I think the play has shifted towards the tragedy rather than comedy. Admittedly, that’s the beauty of Shakespeare: a play can straddle two genres. I am not alone in thinking that ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is more comedy than tragedy, even though the source material is clearly a tragedy.

Shakespeare was interested in Italy and Italian theatre. When you look at ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and Shakespeare’s other plays through the Commedia dell’arte , you see lots of comic tropes that Shakespeare employs in his stories.  Below are my ideas and I have seen others try to define the characters into stock types. Some the agree with me and some don’t. All down to interpretation.

We have the inamorati in the form of Romeo and Juliet. Interestingly, Shakespeare tends to have two sets of inamorati in his comedies. In ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ we have Beatrice/Benedict and Hero/Claudio. This doubles the complexity of the play and double the dilemma and chaos of the story.

Then we have Pantalone who is clearly Capulet. A controlling father which is a running theme in Shakespeare’s plays. Like Shylock in ‘The Merchant of Venice’, we have a father controlling who a daughter should love or marry. However, ‘The Merchant of Venice’ melds the Pantalone with Brighella, possibly highlighting the divided nature of the play and the presentation of Shylock. We can empathise with a father, but we cannot empathise with a greedy merchant.

The nurse is Columbina. Originally, the character was a largely silent role, but over time the character became quite buxom and a talker. She was largely an earthy character whose main role was to carry messages and support the plight of the inamorati. The tradition goes that Columbina loves Arlecchino, which makes the Act 2 Scene 4 interesting as in theory the nurse and Mercutio are flirting.          

Arlecchino is possibly Mercutio.  A character that does not stop talking. Unlike the tradition of having Arlecchino as a servant we have Mercutio as vecchi and not zanni. The character was a reactive character rather than a proactive character which is largely what we see in the play. He was know for carrying a stick around with him. Doesn’t take much to transform that stick into a sword. Plus, characters are associated with animal and Arlecchino’s animal is a cat or monkey. It can be disputed that Capitano is better match for Mercutio because of his male bravado and boastful nature.

Il Dottore could be viewed as Friar John. A figure that seems to be knowledgeable and experienced. He is figure that tries to get people to take potions and spends much of the action trying to cure people.

Commedia dell’arte is a physical style of theatre. Each character has a set movement, style, costume, mask, action and way of speaking. They are meant to be instantly recognisable. Not a naturalistic style of theatre but a pantomime style of theatre with clear roles and idea about class, relationships between parents and child and so on.  Easily identifiable and recognisable tropes for the audience. Stock characters are used to create humour through improvised scenarios. But, interestingly, in Commedia dell’arte each character has a particular relationship with the audience.

Commedia dell’arte	Relationship with the audience*	Romeo and Juliet
Inamorati	seek sympathy for their plight	Romeo and Juliet
Pantalone	unaware of the audience	Capulet
Columbina	strong relationship with the audience – confidential and might flirt	The Nurse
Arlecchino	asides to the audience and aware of the audience	Mercutio
Capitano	the whole world is the audience	Mercutio
Il Dottore	no real relationship unless there is a context for doing so – a speech	Friar John

* Source : http://www.tim-shane.com/Commedia-Columbina.htm

The relationship a character has with an audience is incredibly important. Hamlet’s and Macbeth’s weaknesses help me, as an audience member, to empathise with them. I have weaknesses too. My problem with ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is that they seek sympathy for their plight and that’s what rankles me. It is their plight rather than their characters that we are to empathise with.

Romeo and Juliet is a tale of two halves. The play is loosely Commedia dell’arte for the first three acts and then a tragedy for the last two acts – the weakest of the two. Yes, I am a making sound like the play is one of those ‘cut-and-shut’ jobs. Now, I am not suggesting that Shakespeare has written a dud. Far from it. Take a chill pill. We know Shakespeare played around and parodied stories.  ‘The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe’ is a classic example of this. Would it be too obvious to turn a well-know tragedy into a tragedy? Has Shakespeare done something different with a tragedy? A play where the comedy disappears as a result of one event. Mercutio’s death. Comedy dies too. The tragedy that had been hiding in the shadows steps out and takes over. This is largely structurally different with tragedy as comedy is usually a thread in the story. Even in the dark moments, there’s an opportunity. Italian tragedy hangs on one event.

For years, I have seen people go on about teaching the conventions of tragedy. In fact, I bet there is a teacher out there who probably have the conventions tattooed on their arm as a sleeve. I think we need to start looking at comedy more. Tragedy sounds good but doesn’t really get us far. Oh, tragedy! Oh, tragic flaw! Oh, hamartia! Bit tragic, isn’t it? Let’s look at humour. Shakespeare uses humour in such an interesting way. For a start, it gets us to connect to and with characters. Why is it I find Mercutio’s death more effective than Romeo’s demise? It's because of the humour and the way we interact with the character. Look at how Shakespeare uses humour with 'Hamlet'. We identify with Hamlet and not just because he is flawed but because he shares jokes with us. We are in on the joke. 

Killing Mercutio makes the play a double tragedy. Tragedy 1: the death of Mercutio - a character the audience identifies with and likes. He certainly does light up the stage. Tragedy 2: the death of Romeo and Juliet - the lovers. For the first tragedy to take place, we need the comedy. 

Let's get thinking more about the comedy in Shakespeare. 

Thanks for reading,

Xris  

  

If you want to read more:

https://artsci.wustl.edu/ampersand/commedia-dellarte-tragicomedy-shakespeares-italian-influences

http://www.tim-shane.com/commedia-history.htm