This is a capstone English Language Arts module that involves reading the entire play but with a focus on two short, profound excerpts: Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act III, Scene 1 (“To be or not to be...”) compared with his soliloquy in Act IV, Scene 4 (“How all occasions do inform against me...”).
This module can be taught either through a reading of the entire play (with a seminar and writing focus on the two soliloquies) or by a close reading of just these two passages.
The module as it is written contains reading strategies for attacking the entire play, as well as more detailed strategies for a close reading of these two excerpts.
In either case, the seminar text for this module consists of these two soliloquies, and the writing task asks students for a closely reasoned comparison of the two.
NOTE: This module is designed to teach and assess the Core Content College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards identified in the LDC standards as well as those for “Speaking and Listening” including a formal and rigorous dialogue about concepts and ideas. Common Core “Reading” and “Writing” standards are practiced and assessed around the Paideia Seminar discussion. If you are not trained in leading Paideia (Socratic) Seminars, you can still teach this module by replacing the Seminar in Cluster 3 with another discussion-based strategy. In addition to this module, you will need the LDC/Paideia Packet.
The focus standards for this module are:
1: SL11-12:1 Participate in discussions building on other's ideas and presenting their own.
2: RL11-12:3 Analyze and explain how specific characters develop over the course of a text. 3. W11-12:2 Write explanatory texts.
