Beispiele aus der Unterrichtspraxis

An dieser Stelle werden Ihnen Beispiele aus der Unterrichtspraxis im Fach Englisch vorgestellt.

Kreativer Zugang zu Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream im Leistungskurs Englisch, 12. Jahrgang
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” Diese und andere Thesen und Fragen sollten uns in unserer Unterrichtseinheit zu Shakespeares Midsummer Night’s Dream beschäftigen. Nach einer theoretischen Phase über den historischen Kontext und das elisabethanische Theater und Weltbild, machte sich der Leistungskurs Englisch des 12. Jahrgangs von Herrn Muth an eine kreative Auseinandersetzung mit dem Shakespeare-Klassiker. „Öde“ Textarbeit wechselte sich mit szenischen Darstellungen, Standbildern oder zeichnerischen Aufgaben ab. An verschiedenen Stellen des Stücks verfassten die Schülerinnen und Schüler kreative Texte, in denen sie die Charaktere in die heutige Zeit versetzten, ihre Gedanken niederschrieben, oder die Zukunft der Hauptfiguren darstellten. Mit viel Elan erarbeiteten die Schülerinnen und Schüler immer wieder sehr gute Ergebnisse, die aus der einfachen Textgrundlage ein buntes und vielfältiges Kunstwerk machten. Die Schüler nahmen jede Aufgabenstellung bereitwillig an und gaben sich mit dem Ergebnis erst dann zufrieden, wenn es auch wirklich ihren (ziemlich hoch gesteckten) Vorstellungen entsprach. So ergab sich eine anschauliche Sammlung von kreativen Ergebnissen, die dennoch nichts an Tiefe vermissen lassen. Hier möchten wir einen kleinen Einblick in unsere Arbeit geben.

D. Sperl

The Great Chain of Being

Helena Sees A Psychatrist

Doctor, I`m so glad to be here. Your company and this giant door shot behind me give me the feeling of beeing safe, for I am followed by two crazy men who pretend all the time to be in love with me! You may think now: Well, how lucky can a girl be? Two men at once who admire her and tell her all the time how charming and beautiful she is. But to tell you the truth, doctor, it is like hell. Even now I`m scared to hear a knocking on the door! And in the night I can`t fall asleep for a minute, because even though I turned my mobile phone and the telephone silent, one of the guys throws little stones at my window or tries to sing under my balcony! No, this definitely isn`t romantic but disgusting, Sir! But the aspect that confuses me most is the fact that these men are so good looking, they could have any girl in the world. No, I haven`t got a minority complex, but I wonder why both of them adore me like mad from one day to the other. This is the strangest thing: Before the morning I`m talking about, one of them was nearly engaged to my best friend and the other one I fancied was in love with her and hated me! I admit that I tried fot ages to convince him that the two of us have got lots of things in common and how I was longing to be with him, but this wouldn`t have changed his mind from one second to another! And it really happened like this. After a party at Hermia`s, my ex-best friend, I wanted to go into the kitchen to get some water and on my way I nearly fell over Lysander, who was lying on the floor, probably totaly drunk. He awoke and in a clear voice he started telling me how beautiful I was and stuff like that. And I swear you doctor, after such a night and without fresh make-up in the face I`m not very adorable. I thought he was making a joke but he went on, even in front of his girlfriend`s eyes. Imagine, he also tried to follow me to the toilet! The only thing I wanted to do was leaving, but he wouldn`t let me. I told Hermia to stop Lysander making a fool of me, but he didn`t and she went on pretending she didn`t know what was going on. If you think this was everything, you`re completely wrong. The disaster went perfect when Demetrius woke up. He looked me in the eyes and started just like Lysander did before. No, there were definitely no drugs in sight. I ran through the door and down the stairs hoping the two of them would stay where they were, but ideed, they followed me. Right on the pavement, in front of Hermia`s flatt, they argued in public about who was allowed to hold my hand or smell on my hair. They behaved like mad. It was emberassing and I thought they were my friends! If this is what stalking´s like, I don`t want to be a superstar...Oh my god, did you hear that? There was someone calling my name in front of the door! Listen. It is Lysander, he is always the first. Do you have got a window which is not too high above the street?

Sandra Günther, LK Mh 12.Jhg

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Freeze Frames

Ten Years Later

Hermia: Helena, Demetrius, is that you?
Demetrius: Hermia! Lysander! Good to see you guys, it’s been some time…How have you been ?
Lysander: We’ve been pretty good, it’s just everything going its usual way-nothing exciting basically, you know how that is. What about yourselves?
Demetrius: Oh sure I do, we’ve been good as well, although there wasn’t anything interesting happening lately, nothing I could tell you now. That’s kind of sad, since we did not speak for that long.
Helena: Wait a second. Actually, there is something I should tell you.
Hermia: Great, what’s it about?
Helena: I don’t think it is that great at all. Some nights ago, I had a dream.
Lysander: A dream? What’s so bad about a dream?
Helena: Well, in that dream I…how should I say…I sort of re-lived what happened something like ten years ago, you know?
Lysander: ehm…ten years ago? What exactly do you meen?
Helena: You don’t remember? Is that what you are trying to tell me?
Lysander: ehm, I guess so.
Helena: Alright then, let me explain. I can’t believe you forgot that you made a fool out of me. You knew exactly I was in love with my Demetrius, didn’t you? And also, it was known pretty well, that there was no love from his side at that point of time. Now think about that for a change! That was just awful. I felt so miserable for that long. And as if that was not enough, you made a fool out of me. How could you?
Demetrius: But Helena…What’s the matter about all that now? That was something like a decade ago, wasn’t it? Calm down dear!
Helena: No, I won’t calm down! Not at all! Just imagine how I felt in that situation. Is if I didn’t have enough to struggle with, you, Lysander, made such a fool out of me!
Lysander: Honestly, I don’t know what you are talking about…
Helena: Oh just wait…I’ll tell you. I was in love with my Demetrius, which seemed kind of senseless at that time. As I said, it was just an awful time. Anyhow, you made fun of me pretending that you were in love with me all the sudden. Very funny…I’m not that stupid, Lysander! How would that work? Fall in love with somebody within a moment. I know exactly that you were just making fun of me.
Lysander: Oh now I see. But Helena, I wasn’t making fun of you. Not at all! Actually, I don’t know how that happened myself. It really seemed as if I fell in love with you within a moment. As silly as it sounds, that’s how it was.
Helena: You right, don’t think you can fool me again !
Lysander: I am not trying to fool you! Trust me!
Helena: Trust you? Why should I?
Demetrius: OkOk, stop that arguing, what is it for anyhow? Who cares about all that now? I don’t, and I don’t think anyone of us should.
Hermia: Exactly, that’s what I was going to say.
Helena: Oh I DO care! You don’t know how I felt at that moment.
Demetrius: Helena! Stop it now. That is now appropriate at all! (to Lysander): I’m sorry, I don’t know why she is behaving like that today…Let’s just see if we can meet at some other time. I think that’d be the best idea.
Hermia: I think so too, you take care, see you whenever.
Demetrius: Come on, Helena, let’s go, you need to calm down. See you!
Jannik Schottler, LK 12

Puck