A Midsummer Nights Dream Lesson 11: Creating Comedy - PowerPoint

In an engaging lesson centred around Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," students delve into the art of creating comedy within the play. The lesson's objectives are straightforward: to read and discuss Act 5, and to explore the various comedic techniques Shakespeare employs. The lesson encourages students to think critically about the characters, plot, and themes, and to consider how these elements work together to elicit laughter from the audience. By using specific evidence from the text, students are guided to form and back up their opinions on the comedic aspects of the play.

The lesson places a strong emphasis on analysing the comedic devices used by Shakespeare. Students are tasked with completing a table that breaks down the play's comedy into four categories: characters, events, language, and stagecraft. For each technique, they must identify the effect it has on the audience. To deepen their understanding, students are then prompted to write a paragraph explaining how Shakespeare creates humour in the play. Sentence starters are provided to help scaffold their responses, prompting them to consider how events, characterisation, language, and stagecraft all contribute to the comedic experience of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."