Option 1
Choose your own images and quotations from the play and other useful points of information about Hamlet and create a Web page or PowerPoint presentation that traces a theme (message about life, society or human behaviour) in the play. This presentation will consist of two parts:
- First, make an organized list of all of the pieces of information that you will include: headings, images, music, quotations from the play, scholarly quotes, web links, audio clips, video clips,…and anything else that is available to you.
- Second, organize all the images, quotes and analysis into an attractive and creative Web page, Adobe Spark Presentation or PowerPoint presentation.You will need to include a Works Cited page in order to acknowledge where all your bits and pieces came from.
The presentation should be demonstrate your insights/analysis related to a theme (message about life, or society, or human behaviour) that you see running through the play.
Grading Criteria
Your presentation will be graded for its overall effectiveness and its imaginative creativity. These marks will be based on the originality, focus, and unity of your presentation, the care you’ve put into your work, and the coherence of your ideas.
The List:
- List and organize under headings what you are planning to include in your presentation. The purpose of this task is to ensure that you are pre-planning and developing a focus.
- Also with your list, you’ll need to include a few sentences explaining why you’ve chosen particular images or quotes or other items. (12 marks)
| Criteria for a superior, outstanding presentation |
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o Offers fully developed insights into the theme of the play o Provides ideas, analysis, insights that are mature and original o Shows a detailed understanding of the play and the theme o Makes clear the relationship between the various media and the theme o Provides a structure and organization to the presentation that makes it effortless to follow o Includes few, if any, writing errors – only noticeable if really looking for them o Shows evidence of care and effort to engage audience in the presentation
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Option 2
Make a digital anthology of poems supposedly written by Hamlet (discovered in his chambers after his death) or Ophelia (recovered from near her body after her suicide).
For this option, you are to act as both a poet and an editor putting together a collection of poems.
First, as a poet, you will create a series of poems attributed to Hamlet or Ophelia that were discovered after his or her death and give each poem an appropriate title. Try to have at least a dozen poems that should reflect some of the significant moments of Hamlet or Ophelia’s life. For example, (and these examples are only suggestions you might or might not wish to use):
- Hamlet’s innocent life at school before the action of the play begins
- Hamlet’s shock at the news of his mother’s remarriage
- Hamlet’s interaction with the Ghost
- Hamlet’s feelings for Ophelia
- Hamlet’s experience of feigned madness
- Ophelia’s reaction to her brother’s and father’s advice
- Ophelia’s feelings for Hamlet early in the play
- Ophelia’s confusion after Hamlet appears to spurn her
- Ophelia’s descent into madness
- Ophelia’s poetic suicide note
As you see, you have a host of subjects on which to draw, limited only by your imagination.
Second, as an editor, you need to have a creative e-format — an Adobe Spark Presentation, a series of blog posts, a PDF magazine, an e-Book — in which to present the poems: collect the poems, put them in chronological order, write an introduction to the poems, and make a table of contents in which you list the poems by title.
Also, for your creative presentation, design a “front cover” and include any number of graphics or sketches with any of the poems.
Your presentation will be graded for its overall poetic effectiveness (remember all those poetic forms and devices in Module 4?) and its imaginative creativity. These marks will be based on the originality, creativity, focus, and unity of your presentation, the care you’ve put into your work, and the coherence of your creative ideas.
Grading Criteria
To achieve the highest grade possible, you must include the following in your anthology:
- a collection of at least a dozen poems with appropriate titles
- a e-book format of your choosing in which to present the poems
- an introduction to the collection of poems
- a table of contents listing the poems in chronological order and by title
- a front-cover design and interior graphics or sketches with some of the poems
| Criteria for a superior, outstanding poetry collection |
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· Offers imaginative, unique insights into the play through poetry · Provides rich ideas and analysis · Shows a sophisticated ability to use literary devices such as metaphor, simile, hyperbole,oxymoron · Includes rich imagery · Plays with the forms of the poems to great effect · Makes sound devices a feature of the poetry (alliteration, rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, assonance, consonance, cacophony, etc. · Shows evidence of care and effort to engage audience’ s emotional responses · Provides a structure and organization to the e-book that is easy to follow
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Option 3
Assume the role of a clinical psychologist and assess the histrionic Hamlet’s consciousness. You will create answers to Hamlet’s pretend assessments and develop a formal report outlining your findings.
Psychology is a branch of science that seeks to explain why people think and behave as they do. Modern psychology has provided many interesting insights into Shakespeare’s characters’ thoughts and behaviour.
For this option, you are to act as both a psychologist and patient—the world weary Hamlet.
First, as a psychologist, you will select a series of personality tests to put to Hamlet. Try to have at least six tests that reflect some of the significant aspects of Hamlet’s struggles. You can use some of the suggested links below or discover your own tests to assess Hamlet’s mad ways.
- Jung Typology Test(Links to an external site.) You must read the “blurb” first…
- http://www.personalityassessor.com/ipip300/(Links to an external site.) IPIP Personality test (hold down Ctrl or Comnd and click on the link)
- https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test(Links to an external site.) 16 Personalities (hold down Ctrl or Comnd and click on the link)
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/tests/personality/self-esteem-test(Links to an external site.) Confidence test (hold down Ctrl or Comnd and click on the link)
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/tests/personality/self-esteem-test(Links to an external site.) Hapiness test (hold down Ctrl or Comnd and click on the link)
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/tests/iq/multiple-intelligences-learning-style-test(Links to an external site.) Multiple Intelligence test (hold down Ctrl or Comnd and click on the link)
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/tests/personality/values-profile(Links to an external site.) Values test (hold down Ctrl or Comnd and click on the link)
- http://www.playbuzz.com/gregs/what-are-you-subconsciously-afraid-of(Links to an external site.) Fears test (hold down Ctrl or Comnd and click on the link)
- http://www.testq.com/career/quizzes/290-what-motivates-you(Links to an external site.) Motivation test (hold down Ctrl or Comnd and click on the link)
As you see, you have a host of tests on which to draw, limited only by your willingness to research options.
Second, as Hamlet, you need to answer all the questions to the various tests. You must answer as you think Hamlet would.
Third, again as the psychologist, you must collate all the results in a table and then write a formal report of your findings.
To present the results of your tests and your report, you might want to:
- make a PDF or electronic file of some type with the test results from Hamlet that are typed or printed. Do some research online to help you create a template that looks authentic
- make a computer-generated summary, using a variety of fonts for the different test results and psychologist’s notes, with computer-generated graphics for the cover design and the interior graphics.
Grading Criteria
To achieve the highest grade possible, you must include the following in your anthology:
- a collection of at least six personality tests and results that analyze Hamlet’s psychological background
- a front-cover design for Hamlet’s folder
- a formal summary and assessment of the test results
- include a table summarizing the results and findings and any corresponding evidence/quotations from the actual play—it might look something like the following table
| Criteria for a superior, outstanding psychology report |
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o clearly communicates an understanding of the play by assuming the persona of Hamlet o identifies factors that most significantly impact Hamlet to create a detailed psychological profile o provides rich ideas, insights, analysis into the psychological background of Hamlet o Shows evidence of research, care and effort to create an authentic looking report o Provides a structure and organization to the report that is easy to follow
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Option 4 – The Interview
In your creative project for this option, you will be asked to interview a central character. This project will involve designing at least 15 insightful interview questions and answers, Find questions and answers that show your insights into the play and your analysis of the character. Create a transcript of the interview, and, finally, make an oral recording of the interview (in which you will alter your voice to reflect two distinct personalities, or you have a friend help you).
To burrow into the innermost life of a character, you’ll need to develop the ability to ask the right kind of questions – to get the most useful answers. To help you shape your interview, you might want to pretend to be writing for a particular magazine or newspaper. Here are a few pointers about the interview process.
- The first step is to choose the character you believe to be the most interesting or provocative—the character you hope will reveal a rich amount of detail about his or her life.
- As you think about your character, strike up the kinds of questions that you hope will elicit interesting details. Do your homework first. Gather as much evidence as you can from the play about your character to help you come up with a solid range of questions.
- All interviewers say that it’s important to put the person you’re interviewing at ease. Ask a few chatty questions to get him or her to relax before you ask the more significant questions. These could be questions about interests, or simple factual questions about details of the character’s life.
- Your interview, of course, cannot be conducted with a real person. Where do you get your answers? You will have to go to the text (or the video) to find some of the answers. Some answers will be based on your insightful analysis of the character. However, you should also quote some of the more provocative or colourful statements the character makes in the play.
- You should include a summary of what you’ve come to know about your character.
Main points to consider:
- Are the sentences complete?
- Are spelling and punctuation correct?
- Did you edit your transcript?
- Is the transcript logically organized?
| Criteria for a superior, outstanding interview and recording |
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o Provides a structure and organization to the interview and transcript that is easy to follow o Accurately reveals insights into the life and the personality of the character o Employs more than enough quotes from the play that are smoothly blended into responses o Effectively phrases responses that sound like the character o Uses sufficiently open-ended questions that provoke detailed answers o Shows a sophisticated, thoughtful analysis of the play o Few if any writing errors in the transcript and summary – only noticeable if really looking for them · Technical aspects of audio production: · Provides excellent sound quality · Uses pace, pitch, and volume effectively to deliver ideas · Speaking is clear and fluent throughout |
