Shakespeare's Birthday: What A Piece Of Work Is Man!

Today, 18th April, is Shakespeare's Birthday, and it is celebrated at The Globe, the reconstruction of the theatre built for his company, although this one is not in the exact location of the original. Click on the picture on the right to read about its history.

References to Shakespeare and his works my appear anywhere and at any moment in the English speaking culture. An example:

In the the musical "Hair", at the moment in London, also a film, one of the songs is "What A Piece Of Work Is Man" and the lyrics come from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Act II, Scene II). It is a beauftiful although not very uplifiting passage (Hamlet is a tragedy and this quotation summarises Hamlet's melancholic mood at a certain point).

The song is also beautiful and it is sung at a critical moment in the musical.

The lyrics

What a piece of work is man!

How noble in reason!
How infinite in faculties!

In form and moving how express and admirable!

In action how like an angel!
In apprehension how like a god!

The beauty of the world!

The paragon of animals!

...

I have of late--but wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth,

This goodly frame, the
Earth, seems to me a sterile promontory,

This most excellent canopy, the air, you,

This brave o'erhanging firmament,

This majestical roof fretted with golden fire,

Why, it appears no other thing to me

Than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
...

What a piece of work is man!

How noble in reason!

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Act II, Scene II)

HAMLET

I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king
and queen moult no feather. I have of late--but
wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all
custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily
with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most
excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted
with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to
me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.

What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling
you seem to say so.


If you want to read Shakespeare's works, this is an excellent site:

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Giving Directions: Some useful authentic material

Here is some material which can be useful for a lesson on giving directions. It is based on real information provided by Transport for London .

The picture on the right has been taken at Russell Square underground station and in it you can see a poster with a list of places of interest in the area and "how to get there". You can click on it for a closer look.

The indications include all the basic expressions and landmarks frequently used for giving directions, although some verbs, like "take" or "turn" have been omitted (to save some room, I guess).


The idea is to create an exercise by reproducing the information in the poster except for the names of the places, which the students will have to identify in a map after following the directions.

Here we have some more help from Transport for London , as they have also created some maps with places of interest in the area surrounding some underground stations. They are distributed for free at the stations but they can also be downloaded from their web (and easily printed and laminated for use in class). The one for Russell Square is this (the most useful part for this exercise is page two):

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/Download/EnvMaps/tfl/TK_russellsquare.pdf

As the last stage, if we want to work on this topic as a task, we can ask the students to create a similar poster for the area where they live which might be of help for visitors. They can take as reference their own school or any other relevant landmark. Depending on the level of autonomy of the students, maps could be provided by the teacher or by the students themselves as part of the task.

Note for tourists:

If you are visiting London, you might find these maps a good way of exploring different areas starting from an underground station. Unfortunately, it does not replace guides for further information and also pubs, restaurants and some other places of interest will not be listed, but it can always be fun to find these places by pure chance.

Teachable: help for CAL teachers.

Browsing through the pages of the Education section in the Times Online I came across this website which offers quality materials for teachers of different subjects. It's worth giving it a try.

Click on the picture and watch the video, although you might get the impression this is like the "Lazy guy's corner" (El rincón del vago), this time for teachers (it was about time, though!).

Then try with some of the subjects below. They are nicely organised not only by subject but also attending to age groups (in the British system) and then again by rating / date / title / contributor.

I hope you find it useful. I have created a new entry under "useful links" on the right for easy access from this blog in the future.