Tempest+Group+Part+1

= Pairing Project, Part One = Allison Lemley, Sarah Donaldson, Chad Westmaas, Tom Wachtel

= The Tempest = [|The Tempest Trailer] [|GVSU Page Summons: "The Tempest: Theme and Structure" by Gohn, Ernest] [|"Understanding 'The Tempest'" by Robert B. Pierce] [|"A Tempest project: Shakespeare and critical conflicts" by Thomas McCann and Joseph Flanagan] "Royal Shakespeare Company: Themes in The Tempest"
 * Basics: ** //The Tempest,// Shakespeare Online
 * Links ** : [|The Tempest Online]

**Possible Connections**:

 Shakespeare’s //The Tempest// focuses on the common human conflicts of betrayal and revenge within a fantastical and magical environment. Adolescents often struggle to translate the dense language in Shakespeare’s plays, but when paired with a more direct young adult-friendly writing style, students can better see the universal and timeless characters and themes that Elizabethan language might mask. At the start of the play, Prospero seeks vengeance against his usurping brother Antonio and holds captive two supernatural islanders with the powers to help in his mission. By the end of the last act, Prospero decides to forgive those who’ve trespassed against him and to free his captives, Caliban and Ariel.

 The fantastical setting opens up many options in looking for a potential pairing YA text. The themes would fit well with any text that spans over a length of time that involves grudges. It would be interesting to incorporate performance (a motif throughout The Tempest) into a prose-based work of YA fiction. Students could navigate the formatting to create scripts and discuss the translation between a novel to a play. This opens up discussion for how to bring to light internal dialogue.

 Even the love story, although it seems to be a secondary concern throughout much of the play, can be used to connect to other works. Not only does it provide for a relatable interest with many young adult readers, it can bring up discussions of how love can prosper in difficult situations. Also, because of Prospero's conditions with Ferdinand, students can have a discussion about virtue and honor.

If we wanted to avoid pairing based only on themes, //The Tempest// offers a great resource in Prospero's use of magic to try and pair it that way. With the huge magic craze that seems to have struck young adult literature over the past few years there would be no shortage of books that involve wizards or spirits or magic of any kind. Even the concept of being stranded somewhere and not knowing how to get away is a popular book idea. What's great about this as well is that the themes discussed throughout //The Tempest// are universal to almost any book. Really, no matter where you look, you can find works about betrayal and forgiveness.

What would be especially interesting though would be to find a book that has a main character as dynamic as Prospero. In the beginning of the play he seems to be motivated by evil in his search for vengeance, but throughout the play readers can see him grow and begin to move towards forgiveness rather than revenge. Even the act of giving his daughter away to Ferdinand shows how much he grows as a character. It would be great to find a YA text that would allow us to set up a dialogue between the new characters. Students would be able to ask questions of Prospero's motivations and discuss the concepts of anger and forgiveness and how characters move from one to the other.

YA texts could even be found that discuss Caliban's and Ariel's situation as Prospero's slaves. While the dynamic between Prospero and each character is different, they are still under Prospero's control. //The Tempest//, though Caliban, also deals with issues of colonization and dealing with colonized people. Other characters are servants, Trinculo and Stephano, and their storyline deals with similar problems of being under the control of a "master."

One young adult text which might pair well with Shakespeare’s //The Tempest// is Michael Gerard Bauer’s //Don’t Call Me Ishmael.// Both texts end with the main character choosing to forgive those who betrayed and bullied them rather than taking their revenge. Another recent release, //Tempestuous// by Kim Askew and Amy Helmes, might also pair well with //The Tempest//. It's based directly on //The Tempest//, but with a modern setting. The Prospero character is a teenage girl, Miranda, who gets revenge on the popular girls during a snow storm. Other matches include //The Wednesday Wars// and //Caliban's Hour.//

= Research Focus: Pairing Classics with Young Adult Works =

[|"Pairing Adolescent Fiction with Books from the Canon"]

By Janice Mori Gallagher

Gallagher, Janice Mori. "Pairing Adolescent Fiction with Books from the Canon." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 39.1 (1995): 8-14. Web.

In this article Janice Gallagher analyzes the benefits of pairing young adult literature with works from the canon. She claims that pairing books in this manner will build students comprehension when reading books from the canon because it will allow them to have a reference point to work from when reading harder books. By asking them to read a young adult work that shares elements of style or theme with a work from the canon the students will have something to compare the more difficult works to. She then goes on to suggest pairing books based on theme, and offers some pairings of her own based on topics like love, acceptance, loneliness, and female characters.

[|"Young Adult Literature in the Classroom-- Or Is It?"]

By John H. Bushman

Bushman, John H. "Young Adult Literature in the Classroom-- Or Is It?" //The English Journal// 86.3 (1997): 35-40. Web.

John Bushman discusses what kinds of books students are choosing to read outside of class for pleasure or free-choice book reports and how teachers are or are not integrating more young adult literature into their classrooms. He also discusses teacher's intentions to make students into life-long readers is either supported or undermined by the books teachers give their students. Bushman sees student's free reading decrease from Freshman to Senior year in high school because of not only the books being read but also the number of books: students simply don't have time for pleasure reading. He advocates the use of more young adult literature in classrooms because it is more accessible to students.

[|Teacher to Teacher: What Young Adult Books Have You Used Successfully to Teach the Classics?]

By Vivian M. Axiotis, James R. Harstad, Katharine J. Heintschel and Bonnie Molnar

Axiotis, Vivian M., et al. "Teacher to Teacher: What Young Adult Books have You used Successfully to Teach the Classics?" The English Journal 88.3, Genderizing the Curriculum (1999): 27-8. Web.

This article is a compilation of writings from a group of teaching discussing the merits of teaching young adult literature in the classroom. While not all of them seem to pair young adult literature with the cannon they all express the joys of their students at having a chance to read literature they enjoy. Each of the teachers writes about students who make real and meaningful connections to the text because they can relate to the characters or the stories. Most useful to the topic of pairing are the entries of James Harstad and Katharine Heintschel. They both discuss pairings they make in class and ways in which they involve the students in making connections between the young adult works and the classics.

= **Process** = From here we'd like to proceed similarly to how we have so far. We have yet to finalize our selection of a YA text so that will be done by the end of the week for sure. After we all read our selected text we will probably finish the second part of the project in much the same manner as we did the first. Each of us will hopefully be able to take one section of the wiki and complete it individually. We can then review it as a group to make sure we are happy with the results. Hopefully we will have finished the book within the next two weeks and can start the wiki shortly thereafter.