Posted on Fri, Apr 26, 2013
In honor of Shakespeare’s birthday this week, I thought it would be fun to have my students create Shakespeare-like insults, but with vocabulary!
I shared with my students a few of my favorite Shakespeare insults (see my downloadable handout for examples); you can also find many websites devoted to Shakespearean insult generation if you search for them online.
Students laughed at the specific and detailed insults that truly captured a humorous, if scathing, tone. Once students understood how Shakespeare formed many of his insults-either with the “adjective, adjective, noun” formation or with a more metaphorical turn of phrase, they had a sense of how to write their own
Next, I had them go through their vocabulary books and make a list of insulting vocabulary words from all of our units so far. This part of the activity you can do in groups, individually or as a class. Using these words, they started to string together truly lovely phrases including “Thou scurrilous, callow hugger-mugger,” and “Thou motley, squalid turnip!”
Finally, for students who wanted a challenge, I encouraged them to use any word-not just the ones that were originally negative-to come up with a great phrase. The results have been awesome, including ““thou art a bovine in visage!” and others.
What’s great is that this is a silly activity designed to get students to feel more comfortable with Shakespeare’s language, but I have adapted it to also demonstrate to students how they too can coin phrases to make erudite, if vitriolic, points. This activity really works with most age groups as students can quickly catch on to form and meaning, and use the words they have studied to create their insults.
I will note that I stressed with students that these were insults directed at no one in particular, and they were not to be used in any negative manner towards a peer (it also notes that on the downloadable).
In the end, my students had a great time crafting their phrases, and many students were quite proud of their end results-especially students who do not always find vocabulary rewarding.
I would love to hear some of your students’ best examples or how you might have modified this activity-made them positive phrases rather than insults, ask for a quick written dialogue to provide context for the situation, etc. Go forth and create (insults)!
Check out some of the insults my students created:
-Thou corpulent, bovine abomination!
-Thou art crass in thy speech, bovine in thy thoughts, vitriolic in thy stench, and corpulent in thy body.
-Thou cadaverous, vapid devil-monk.
-Thou art nominal in speech, corpulent in stature, and crass in nature. With your megalomaniac ways, thou speakest scathing drivel, thereby debasing you to the level of a bovine.
-For fun-Your mother is so excessively corpulent, she sits next to everyone in the theatre.
Common Core Standards:
Language Standard 3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts.
Language Standard 4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown words
Language Standard 5. Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meaning.
Language Standard 6. Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge
Reading Literature/Informational Text Standard 4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text
Reading Literature/Informational Text Standard10. Read and comprehend complex literary texts
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Posted on Thu, Apr 18, 2013
I love the word bowdlerize-not because I love censoring (to bowdlerize is to censor/expurgate materials), but because I love the story behind this word’s origin.
The word bowdlerize comes from the man Thomas Bowdler, who, in the early 1800’s, found Shakespeare’s ribald innuendos so appalling that he published The Family Shakespeare –a censored version of Shakespeare’s plays more appropriate for women and children. He later did the same with The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (“Thomas Bowdler”). While I disapprove of Bowdler’s actions, I am fascinated by the fact that there is a vocabulary word based on his actions!
I joke with my students about what it would mean to “Resslerize” a text (I go by Ms. Ressler in the classroom). I tease that I would simply add extra vocabulary to a text rather than take words away.
So this week I challenge you to have your students “-ize” a text according to their favorite vocabulary words and their own similes.
First, have all students pick their top five vocabulary words from the year. Then, have them think about what makes someone lovely or ugly and write down three similes for pretty and three for ugly. Then give every student a copy of one or both of the downloadable Shakespearean sonnets (in honor of both Bowdler and April as poetry month) and use their similes and their favorite vocabulary words to rewrite Shakespeare’s sentiments as their own, then call their work the “_________(last name)-ized” version of the texts.
This method can work with any text-fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose, and kids will definitely buy in because they are personalizing tough texts. You can appreciate that your students are expressing complex thoughts in new and interesting ways.
Common Core Standards:
Reading Literature/Informational Text Standard 4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text
Reading Literature/Informational Text Standard 5. Analyze the structure of texts
Reading Literature/Informational Text Standard 6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes a text
Reading Literature/Informational Text Standard 10. Read and comprehend complex literary texts
Language Standard 3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts
Language Standard 5. Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meaning
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photo © iStockphoto
Posted on Thu, Apr 04, 2013
My friend Ariel Uppstrom is guest posting again this week about her version of daily vocabulary review. This is similar to what I do, but she has her own spin that I think is helpful-enjoy!
One of the plethora of tools I use to get my kids to remember and practice vocabulary is a vocab sheet for the week. Since my students lose things like nobody’s business and I like them to easily keep track of vocabulary words that will be on their weekly quizzes, I made up this vocab sheet (an adaption from any others you can find out there) as a quick reference tool, organizer, and memory stimulator.
Each day I have them learn two vocabulary words in context. Since the weekly quizzes are on Fridays, I give it to them on Friday and the words that are on the quiz run from Friday to the following Thursday, are all on the same sheet, and have all the items they will need to learn the word. Here’s the basic run through:
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Project the sentence with the vocabulary word in context on the board when they come in the room. They know to take out their sheet and copy the word in context in that column.
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Once class starts, I read the sentence and ask them to identify the part of speech (it’s shocking how much trouble they have with this and it’s very useful so that they use the word correctly in a sentence).
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Then I have them pull out parts of the word we recognize (prefix, suffix, roots, words that have similar parts).
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I then call on someone to give me a guess at the word definition. We discuss it as a class and then I show them the slide with the formal definition.
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The most helpful part is what comes next. I make them develop a way to remember it. Many of my students are visual learners. They need word tricks to refresh their memory. Since the kids develop it, it is more realistic, but I have been known to share my absurd ways of remembering vocabulary words, too.
Here’s an example of my bizarre memory tricks that students claim help them:
The lawyers scrutinized the contract in order to catch any problems for their client.
“This word sounds like it starts with ‘screw,’ which is what I do with my eyes when I’m looking closely at something. Plus, it has what sounds like ‘eyes’ in it so it has parts to refresh my memory. I screw up my eyes when I scrutinize.” Yeah, it works. Then my visual learners will draw eyes around the word scrutinize in the box and on their flashcards and it helps them remember.
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Common Core Standards:
Language Standard 3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts.
Language Standard 4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown words
Language Standard 5. Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meaning.
Language Standard 6. Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge