After reading through Act II of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, take some time to discuss the references to death in the play. For this fishbowl discussion, learners prepare questions, practice answering individually and with partners, and then participate in the whole-class version, tapping into the inner circle when they have relevant comments.

Concepts

dramatic plays, group discussions, death, preparing for discussions, rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead, existentialism, tom stoppard

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Assist learners with commenting during the fishbowl discussion by providing a list of sentence starters for discussion; they can use this list to draft a few points beforehand or to help them come up with well-formed sentences on the spot

Classroom Considerations

• The lesson assumes that learners will be able to come up with higher-level questions by looking at a few models; you may need to provide more support in this area
• The format described here requires learners to tap into the discussion when they have ideas, which may be stressful for shy individuals; perhaps set up a different protocol so that everyone does get a chance to talk

Pros

• Includes a note-taking page for pupils to use during the discussion and turn in to show accountability
• See the materials tab for a page of quotes that learners can use as inspiration when writing questions

Cons

• None

Common Core

SL.9-10.1.a SL.9-10.1.c SL.9-10.1.d SL.11-12.1.a SL.11-12.1.c SL.11-12.1.d