english teachers or Beetroot - I need a Shakespeare starter activity for Monday

[roisin]

Cover for two difficult yr9 groups, fairly low ability.

I need to devise a written activity to settle them - an easy quiz (multiple choice answers) works quite well.

They are going to be doing some work on how the play (Much Ado) is performed: this is the type of question they find most difficult.

So ideally I need something to get them thinking about this area.

Does anyone have any ideas?

bump

How long do want to spend?

A good ice-breaker that I use time and again is to write out the words vertically on the board, kids have to think of any word that comes to mind starting with that letter (& related to the play), as in:

M
U
Comedy
H

Acting
Drama
O

etc..

whatever comes to mind.
Can be done as a competition, with 2 teams running to the board, or shout out answers.

might get a bit rowdy tho. can do it on posters if this is a problem.

When the friar is speaking and telling Leonato what to do, you could get the kids to work out where the characters would be on stage. Give them a stage cut-out. when they have done that they need to consider if they are sat, stood etc. Then their body language, facial expression etc. Build up a picure for the audiece. My set loved this. Hope it helps. The plenary then could have them freeze frame it.

Thanks

any one any more ideas?