After students finish reading, it's helpful for them to summarize the story both as a way to assess comprehension but also to help them remember important plot points for later projects or papers. Students can create a storyboard that breaks A Midsummer Night's Dream down using the Five Act Structure like the example above. Because Shakespeare's plays include prologues, the first of the six cells can be used for the prologue or exposition and the second will be used to set up the conflict.
For each cell, have students describe what happens in the act and create a scene that follows the acts in order: Prologue, Conflict, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Denouement. Scaffold the project if desired (for example, by providing partially completed cells or descriptions).
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Student Instructions
Create a visual plot diagram of A Midsummer Night’s Dream using the five act structure.
(You can also create your own on Quick Rubric.)
| Proficient | Emerging | Beginning | Try Again | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Descriptive and Visual Elements | Cells have many descriptive elements, and provide the reader with a vivid representation. | Cells have many descriptive elements, but flow of cells may have been hard to understand. | Cells have few descriptive elements, or have visuals that make the work confusing. | Cells have few or no descriptive elements. |
| Grammar/Spelling | Textables have three or fewer spelling/grammar errors. | Textables have four or fewer spelling/grammar errors. | Textables have five or fewer spelling/grammar errors. | Textables have six or more spelling/grammar errors. |
| Evidence of Effort | Work is well written and carefully thought out. Student has done both peer and teacher editing. | Work is well written and carefully thought out. Student has either teacher or peer editing, but not both. | Student has done neither peer, nor teacher editing. | Work shows no evidence of any effort. |
| Plot | All parts of the plot are included in the diagram. | All parts of the plot are included in the diagram, but one or more is confusing. | Parts of the plot are missing from the diagram, and/or some aspects of the diagram make the plot difficult to follow. | Almost all of the parts of the plot are missing from the diagram, and/or some aspects of the diagram make the plot very difficult to follow. |
Begin with a full class discussion about how the acts relate to the narrative arc. Students will learn best with a visual of the prologue and conflict going up the mountain, the climax at the top, and the falling action and resolution at the bottom. Once they understand these concepts they can move on.
Some students will easily understand concept of the narrative arc and the plot elements, while others will need more help to get the details of each act where they belong. Scaffold as needed.
Even older students love to draw things out, and creating a storyboard with pictures and descriptions of each act will help cement the learning for students.
A prologue is a separate section in a Shakespearian play that serves as an introduction and comes at the very beginning. It gives background information and other ideas that will help readers more easily understand the play.
Understanding the elements of the narrative arc, or plot line, will help students understand what is going on in the play. When a student expects the climax to take place in Act III, for instance, that is where they will look for it, and this will help them to be more successful.
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