Help with A Midsummer Nights Dream

[HopeSpringsEternal2017]

Posting here for traffic. My 12 year old has been assessed as having a reading comprehension age of a 7 year old. She has muddled through other books but now has to read a midsummer's nights dream and she just does not get it.

She has fallen behind on the homework because of it and despite talking to the teacher and explain she doesn't get it the teacher is punishing her for not handing in homework and as yet has been unable to offer any suggestions to help her understand it.

Can anyone help? I have tried reading with her to no success.

What's the homework?

Is she reading a story book version of the play or the actual play?

There's a great comic strip version, will try to find you the link.
Is her problem with the language or the plot? If the plot, can you break it down for her into subplots so you explain the lovers stuff separately from the mechanicals?

Can you watch a film, then watch it again while following along in the story?

BBC bitesize used to have a breakdown of midsummer night's dream that my DS found helpful

Actually, this would be better than the comic strip - it's perfect for that reading age www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B006L9G5EO/ref=mp_s_a_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1498496280&sr=8-16&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=midsummer+nights+dream&tag=mumsnetforum-21

Try no fear Shakespeare facing "translations" - m.sparknotes.com/nfs/msnd/

I study Shakespeare as a part my English Lit degree. As my lecturer drills into us often, Shakespeares plays were written to be WATCHED not READ. Find a version to watch with her first. They'll help with comprehension of the story and understanding of the language. When you read a line of Shakespeare and literally don't understand it, hearing it voiced out loud help with understanding because then you can hear if it's an angry line or a happy line etc etc.

Could CBeebies help?

They did a version of Midsummer Night's Dream fairly recently. It's probably on iPlayer. They used lots of original script, but explained it to make it much more accessible.

I don't understand Shakespeare at all, and I now know what Midsummer Night's Dream is actually about.

If the teacher has set the full text of MSND for a class of 12 year olds with no support on understanding the plot/language I would take it up with the school to be honest, that sounds like very poor teaching!

In terms of helping your DD with the basics of the plot, you could do worse than a copy of the BBC children's Shakespeare animations. They're 30 mind long, use original text but make it fairly accessible.

Aw, poor girl. Have you watched the film with her? There's a great version with Michelle pieffer (?) in it.

There's a great comic strip version

Are you thinking of the ones by Marcia Williams? If so, they are excellent.

The problem with the way that Shakespeare is taught is that they plod through, line by line. And they are plays, meant to be watched. And the story is very lighthearted and funny - it's just the language is arcane because it was written 400 plus years ago. Get a DVD and watch it - the Globe productions are usually fun. Or - and here's a radical suggestion - get a DVD of one of the ballet versions. This takes out the language and will allow your daughter just to get a sense of the fun and the story. You can often get these DVDs quite cheaply on Amazon/eBay etc as people sell their used copies.

*mins, not mind!

This is actually making me cross the more I think about it. This is my professional area, I regularly introduce nursery age kids to Shakespeare! There are a ton of active and accessible teaching approaches out there now, there really is no excuse for teachers continuing to make Shakespeare feel like some punishing, alien language!! Grr....

Could CBeebies help?

Ooh - that's a good idea. We haven't seen that one, but a couple of people I know said it was excellent. Again - gives a sense of the story without too much focus on the language.

Contributing as an actor (funnily enough working on a production of Dream at the mo) she needs to see it brought to life first in order to understand. The CBeebies recent one was great, the original text, heavily cut to basics, with little explanations between.

Are there any Shakespeare in the Park productions of it near you just now?

Alternatively a DVD. Watching the play really really helps!

You are all amazing thank you! I will try cbeebies then a Dvd followed by LockedOutOfMN link which looks fab or the comic strips.

It seems to be the language stopping her from understanding the plot. I am cross with the school and have askes to meet with thw teacher but in the meantime I have just been trying to help dd. The homework is things like character analysis and plot complexity so not for the faint hearted.

The very basic plot is -

• there are 4 young people -

Hermia and Lysander who are in love but Hermia's dad wants her to marry another man, Demetrius. Helena, another girl, is in love with Demetrius but Demetrius loves Hermia.

• Hermia and Lysander decide to elope so they can be together. Hermia tells her friend Helena of her plan but Helena tells Demetrius (hoping to get in his good books). They all end up in a wood outside Athens and have a fight about it.

• meanwhile there are some fairies that live in the woods who are arguing. Oberon, king of fairies wants an Indian boy to be his henchman (I think) but his queen, Titania, disagrees. Oberon decides to play a trick on Titania by asking his servant, Puck to find a magic flower, where the juice from it makes someone fall in love with the next person they see.

• also meanwhile there are some local men who are rehearsing a play for the duke's wedding. Puck cases a spell on one of them (Bottom) so he is half donkey half man. He then puts the magic flower juice in the eye of titania when Bottom is near so she wakes up and falls in love with this donkey-man, which makes a fool of her.

-meanwhile Oberon also tells Puck to help resolve the fight that is happening between the young lovers, and asks puck to put the magic juice in the eyes of Demetrius so he falls on love with Helena. But he gets mixed up and puts them in Lysanders eye by mistake, so Lysander falls in love with Helena, leaving Hermia upset and angry with Helena.

• realising his mistake, Puck then annoints the eyes of Demetrius as well so he falls in love with Helena too, so both men are now in love with Helena (not Hermia as they originally were). To stop them from fighting Pick separates them but fooling them by pretending to be them.

Eventually they fall asleep and puck undoes his mistake so Lysander loves Hermia again. Once the Indian boy is taken from titania by Oberon, again this spell on her and Bottom is undone.

In the morning the Duke finds the lovers and persuades Hermias dad that she should marry Lysander and Demetrius marry Helena. The local men perform their play and all live happily ever after.

That's the very basic gist of it. Others may point out errors, I did it for A level, which is a long time ago now!

I think if your daughter is behind with her reading ability, Shakespeare is Alot to ask if she's not getting any help. Good luck

Can you photograph or relate the h/w? Can you tell we're itching to help dd?

Shmoop is a good resource too. I use it with older students but your dd might find it useful and you would too.

I have an .MA in Shakespeare -if you can be more specific about what she needs help with I'd be happy to help. Essentially AMND is a daft comedy with some very beautiful speeches thrown in. Much of the philosophy of these speeches would be completely inaccessible to a 12yo -take them at face value rather than digging at them. Check out handlebards.com -they are a travelling troupe who are currently touring the country with AMND. The production is BEYOND hilarious and very accessible (my Shakespeare phobic 13yo loved it -and my 6yo took it on her level) Also take a look at the RSC's website -they have some excellent educational resources.

I second the marcia williams books. Dd got the full set for christmas and she thoroughly enjoyed them. Easy to follow, with bits of original text in.

Shakespeare Animated Tales DVD is bloody brilliant. My kids understood the plot at 8 and 6 thanks to that (they struggle with reading comprehension so the simplified books weren't quite enough). I'm going to invest in it so we can do the other plays.

Thanks for the tip about the plays being meant to be watched not read. That is such a good point! I always worry that it's 'cheating'

I've used this text with Y3 before it's super for understanding the characters and the plot without dealing with Shakespearean language. Excellent as a way into the play.

It's about £4 on Amazon x