Shakespeare Reading Journals: First Macbeth and First Hamlet

The purpose of these journals is to help students read the plays on their own. The text of the play appears in the left panel and questions created to promote careful reading appear in the right panel. Unlike questions on a separate study guide, these questions refer to the lines of the play immediately to the left of the questions. Students know exactly what lines to consider closely to find the answers. The right panel allows for space to write answers and adding some blank paper at the end of the journal allows for longer responses. All questions are labelled A, B, C or D. This allows teachers to assign one fourth of the questions to individual students. Assignments make group work in class easy and effective. In addition, questions that all students should answer are bolded. Vocabulary of general import appears at the start of each scene. Specialized and obscure vocabulary appears to the right of its use. For a fuller description of the purpose and use of the texts, click here.

     
By putting helpful study questions next to the relevant lines, students can figure out for themselves what the characters are saying without the crutch of explanatory notes or simplified language.
 By distributing the questions among students, teachers know which students have thought about the questions before class.
 By having questions for every scene, teachers can, without extra work , assess and test students' comprehension.

Students' Reactions to Using the First Macbeth and First Hamlet Reading Journals -

"Reading Shakespeare is something I hate with a passion, but now I understand it with the help of the journal."

"It makes everything easier. The vocabulary is easily accessible, the questions force better reading, and the end questions reinforce the play by re-reading. Well done!"

"With a regular text, you don't have questions to refer to and it is very easy to get lost."

"The questions kept me involved in the story."

95% of the students believed these editions more effective than the usual editions in making them read carefully.

Benefits for Teachers -

Having used these reading journals with four classes, there are two reasons I would not want to return to a regular text . The first is that the journals allowed me to organize a greater variety of effective classes that keep the focus of attention on the kids' tackling the text on their own. The second is that they provided (without extra work for me) ways to assess the students' work with the text. I had at my disposal a number of different ways I could run a class, and I could decide on the spur of the moment because the organization for all was already done.

On some days, I ran discussions of the assigned portions of the text by asking those kids assigned a specific question to answer. Unlike running a discussion with a normal text, this method assured me that three or four kids in the class had thought about the questions. One of the great advantages of having kids assigned specific assignments is that there is greater participation by everyone in the class. Many kids who would not normally respond to questions thrown at them in class responded well to questions they had time to prepare for. Moreover, since I had a list of which kids were assigned to which questions, I was much better at making sure to call on everyone. I find this almost impossible to do in the middle of a discussion with a normal text. Another very effective way of organizing classes was forming groups with one A, B, C, and D. and having them answer all the questions in a certain scene. The above were the two staples of class discussion. However, I also had some different days that I used when I sensed the class need a respite from the close reading demanded by the questions. On some days I ignored the questions all together. On other days we read an entire scene aloud without stopping, and then I would let anyone respond to any question. After trying out all these variants, my greatest impression was that I had just begun to discover ways of playing with this reading journal.

In addition, the journal provided two new ways to assess the students' work with the texts. I assessed their comprehension by copying a scene they were up to and having them answer all questions in that scene without prior discussion. By reading their responses to the questions, I could judge the accuracy and depth of their reading. I also had a way of accurately judging how much effort students were putting into their homework. Every once in a while, when, for instance, the kids had a vocabulary quiz the next day, I would collect all their reading journals and skim them to see if they were answering all the questions assigned them. I then gave them a grade on their use of the text. Not surprisingly, such checks correlated well with the kids' other work - like their essays.

First Macbeth and First Hamlet are available in PDF format.
Just click on the titles at the top of the page.