GREEN EGGS & HAMLET

1. What do you know about Hamlet, the "Melancholy Dane"?
I really don't know much about Hamlet. I know that in 7th grade in Mr. Pawley's world history class he told us we would be watching Hamlet on the last day of school, but instead he put on The Lion King. To this day I still don't understand the connection. There might be witches in it? Maybe? Or is that Macbeth? I'm probably thinking of Macbeth. Clearly I have quite limited knowledge about Hamlet.

2. What do you know about Shakespeare?
Well obviously Shakespeare wrote plays and wrote in iambic pentameter. I think he was also an actor? I know that he added many new words to the English language. High school students around the country are required to read his works, including Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet.

3. Why do so many students involuntarily frown when they hear the name "Shakespeare"?
Personally, there is a little bit of terror when hearing the name "Shakespeare" in school because usually it bodes an upcoming memorization. Teachers make a big deal out of reading Shakespeare and dedicate a lot of time to it so it seems quite intimidating. There's just a stigma that Shakespeare writes in some kind of language that is unable to be deciphered.

4. What can we do to make studying this play an amazing experience we'll never forget?
For me, learning a new subject is really amazing when I actually understand it. Listening to things out loud helps me more than reading them from a book, especially things that are a little harder to understand, like Shakespeare. I also think that group conversations as a class work well to get different interpretations and understand ideas at a different level.