Focus on "Henry V":

Navigating Digital Text, Performance, & Historical Resources

Eighth Grade Lesson Plan

Materials 

ELAGSE8RL7 Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors. 

For the beginning of the unit, choose a scene for the students to closely study through text. For the purpose of this lesson plan, we will use Act 1.2 of Shakespeare’s Henry V as an example. To begin, give a brief background of the play and Shakespeare’s life. Here is a list of helpful resources to show your students or use as guidance when explaining this history: 

 After this brief introduction, print out copies of 1.2 and distribute them among your students. Have students read aloud in groups for the class. As they read, encourage them to highlight, circle, or underline words they don’t understand. At this point, you can ask a number of them to perform the scene or you can move onto discussion.  

After the reading or acting has concluded, ask them questions to spark discussion. Such questioning will get them thinking about the play, helping them digest what they have just read or acted. Make sure they have a clear understanding of the scene’s theme and tone before moving on, even if they don’t quite understand everything being said. 

Sample Questions: 

Once the class has a clearer understanding of the scene, play different clips of the “tennis ball” scene from different adaptations. The two adaptations we will be using in this lesson plan will be The Hollow Crown: Henry V and Branagh’s Henry V. While playing the clips, have students write notes on a sheet of paper or a worksheet to note what they find interesting. 

While playing The Hollow Crown clip, tell them to pay close attention to the actors’ body language and tone of voice, with close emphasis on Henry. After playing the scene, have them explain what they thought of the clip, the characters, and the themes. Ask them how they think Henry feels when responding to the French’s gesture – angry? Annoyed? Is he a stern and just king?  

Then, have them explain how they came to that conclusion – “What made you think that?” Encourage them to look back at their notes and prod them with more questions if they have trouble. Write their answers on the board in one column, saving the other column for the next clip. 

After this, play the scene from Branagh’s Henry V. Remind them to focus on the body language and cinematic details of the performance. Once the clip finishes playing, have them tell you differences between the two. An example of a difference could be the shift to such dark lighting and how the camera focuses on Henry’s face often.  

Next, narrow their focus to Henry’s character. How does this Henry seem? Angry? Hungry for revenge on the French for mocking them? Intimidating? Have them explain to you why they think that, using body language and other cinematic details as their textual evidence. Write their answers on the board in the second column. 

To bring everything together, lead a discussion where you ask them to ponder why they think the director/actors chose to include these details. You can have them write a journal assignment discussing this or cover it in class discussion.  

How do the adaptations differ from the original scene they read or acted? How do these separate portrayals affect their understanding of Henry V’s character? This will serve as a great basis for when they compare Shakespeare’s version of history with his sources.  

ELAGSE8RI9 Analyze a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation.  

After studying the different adaptations, introduce students to The Holinshed Project. This database serves as a representation of the sources Shakespeare used when writing his history plays, including Henry V. 

To begin, search “Henry” in the “search the texts” search box. Afterwards, the documents that have any mention of “Henry” will appear on your screen. When you click on one, several names will appear, including multiple “Henry’s.” Use the ctrl+F function (command+F on Macs) on your keyboard and narrow results to “Henry V.” Doing so will provide you with only the mentions of Henry V.  

Looking through these documents will show you the source text Shakespeare used when writing Henry V.  For each page, you can use the blue box on the righthand side to compare between the 1577 and 1587 edition of Holinshed. To better fit our needs of comparing the play and the source material, I recommend finding the source text of the “tennis ball” scene and placing it side by side with the Folger edition of 1.2.  

Once you feel comfortable with navigating Holinshed, lead your own students through the process of finding the work online. Spend a considerable amount of time having students follow along with you on their own laptops or computers in your school’s lab. Make sure your students understand that the play is based off a real event and historical figure. You can do this through a worksheet assignment or through lecture. They will struggle with the transcription of Holinshed; however, reading it aloud for them will help ease their confusion. 

Compare 1.2’s events to those described in Holinshed. Discuss how Shakespeare uses this as his source and reimagines historical events to create an engaging, interesting, and thought-provoking interpretation of a real figure of history. Have students glimpse through the database and compare Shakespeare’s adaptation of his source to the film adaptations of Shakespeare’s play. Highlight how they’re all, in some way, reimaginings of each other, changed to express the idea the author/director wants audiences to pay special attention to. 

Optional Assignment 

After guiding the students through this research process, you may decide to end the unit with a research assignment. Have your students use the databases your school has access to in order to create a project on a historical figure. After having them research a figure of their choice (or from a list that you give them), have them write a short story of their own adapting the history of their figure. 

Encourage them to pick a purpose for their story (To highlight the good the person has done, to tell a story that many may not know about this person, etc.). You can have them read the story aloud and present it to their peers to strengthen their presentation skills, as well. 

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