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Henry the Fifth: Swearing Shakespeare

Student Outcome Statement: Arts Ideas - Level 2 – Uses own ideas, experiences and observations in the making of arts works through structured activities.

Teaching/Learning Purposes/Objectives: To enable students to:

Major Purpose: To examine the masculine aspects of Henry the Fifth

Key Question: How does language change a scene

Inspiration: Conversation with Rohan.

The Hook: Imagine you’re directing a production of Henry the Fifth

- What’s happening? You’re replicating characteristics for your actors in Henry the Fifth.

- Who’s it happening to? Yourself, as an experienced director

- Where is it happening? In a school play

- When is it happening? During rehearsals

- What’s at stake? You must communicate to your audience the ‘subdued rebelliousness’ and ‘aggressive masculinity’ of Henry the Fifth

- Space Jumps – Begin the class(es) by having the students act in Space Jumps, however intermittently calling out Shakespearean insults.

- Class Discussion - Identify how the insults changed the scene, how did the actors respond to the person ‘swearing’

- Identify Henry the Fifth themes – Identify key elements of the text and illustrate a linkage with current social issues

- Introduce ‘the Hook’ – In a small groups, ask students to brainstorm and perform a scene from Henry the Fifth. Highlight the important themes and issues of ‘Good King’, ‘subdued rebelliousness’ and ‘aggressive masculinity’

- Project Development – The class could eventually go on to perform the entire production; obviously increasing the Arts Ideas level to more specific detail.

- Conclusion – This could easily be a single lesson on Shakespearean swearing, or a five-week rehearsal and production. One important point must be made; Space Jumps should only be reused in the same classroom if the reason for doing so changes. Repeating the same activity over and over does not increase or develop a student’s learning.

Some parts modelled upon ‘The Giant who threw Tantrums’ in John O’Toole and Julie Dunn (2002) Pretending to Learn: Helping Children learn through Drama, Longman French’s Forrest.