Shakespeare and Zoology

The Bard and the Barnyard - a half-day English Language Arts and Science Seminar

A half-day literature and science seminar

for middle schoolers (and precocious 5th graders)

In response to popular demand, I have lengthened this seminar so it is 3+ hours long. This class is essentially a slightly shorter version of our Science and Language Arts class held on Mondays.


ABOUT THE SEMINAR

This 3.25 hour Shakespeare and Zoology class is for middle schoolers (although precocious 5th graders are welcome too.)

Our micro-farm of an acre of orchard and gardens is both the leaping off point for a rigorous study of zoology and animal husbandry as well as our classroom for exploring Shakespeare’s comedies and Greek tragedies.

Students sit under the boughs of our banyan tree for book club and pull up a chair with a bunny or near the miniature cows to work on their essays.

Students rehearsing Antigone at Farm School on Mt. Helix

THE PLAYS

LITERARY ANALYSIS

Students read, analyze and rehearse scenes from Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies as well as Greek tragedies. We read one play per semester.

Possible plays include but are not limited to:

  • Romeo and Juliet

  • Much Ado About Nothing

  • Macbeth

  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream or The Tempest

  • Julius Ceasar

  • Hamlet

  • Antigone (ancient Greek tragedy by Sophocles)

  • Cyrano de Bergerac (19th century French romance by Edmond Rostand)

Students learn to annotate as they look for themes, characterization, and literary devices. Students practice close reading, paying attention to the author’s use of literary devices as well as allusions.

RELEVANT & ACCESSIBLE

We use No Fear Shakespeare editions with the original text in Early Modern English on the left-hand page and a novelized version on the right-hand page so the plot is accessible to all readers without having to jump down to the bottom of a page to read footnotes.

Modern, poetic translations of Greek tragedies make these ancient but relevant plays come alive.

As we read and discuss we look for timeless themes that still resonate with teens in our modern world.

FUN and DEEP

Direct instruction and group work make the words come alive. When studying Romeo and Juliet we learn how to craft a typical Shakespearean insults and then literally hurl them at each other then practice stage sword fighting.

We study one play per semester so we have time to dig into it!

READERS’ THEATER PERFORMANCES OF SELECT SCENES

We stage student directed -reader’s theater performances of just a few select scenes for a student-only audience. Parts are not memorized but students are quite familiar with their lines.

Parents are not invited so that this is a comfortable, intimate performance for shy students who may have never spoken a line on a stage before. There are parts large and small, for all including those who love the stage and others who are hesitant

THE SCIENCE

Zoology and Biology

We examine zoology and biology through the lens of the animals here at Farm School (or those critters who call this ecosystem home).

Zoology becomes real when understanding how the pH of Mango’s rumen is affected by what she eats which shapes which microbes thrive in her belly which impacts how efficiently she can digest hay vs grains and thus what we feed our Dexter miniature mama cow.

Including but not limited to ruminants, lagamorphs, canines, felines, mustelids, poultry, waterfowl, freshwater game and hobby fish & snails, sundry insects, and earthworms.

POSSIBLE ZOOLOGY AND BIOLOGY TOPICS

Exact topics each year depends upon student interest. Each year we cover new material in a three-year cycle so students may take this class multiple times.

  • Cell theory, cell reproduction, and how cells-> tissues-> organs-> systems

    Animal cells: structure and function of organelles

    Introductory genetics

    Warm-blooded (endothermic) vertebrates: 

        Birds -characteristics, behavior, and classification

    Waterfowl anatomy, physiology, and care

    Poultry and local raptors

    Pond visitors:  herons and cranes

    o    Mammals- classification into 21 orders (differences in reproduction, jaw structures and teeth, locomotion)

    Reproduction:  placental mammals or marsupial: Opossum -marsupial

    Ungulates (hoofed mammals)

    Odd toed: Horses, donkeys, zebra, tapir, rhinos

    Even toed:

    single stomach: pigs & peccaries

    three chambered cud chewers: camelids (alpacas, camels, llamas)

    true ruminants:  bovidae (cattle, bison, water buffalo, African buffalo,  antelopes, sheep, goats) & others (deer, giraffe, pronghorn)

    Rodent-like mammals (including Lagamorphs -rabbits and pikas) anatomy, physiology, and care and DNA & heredity

    Rodents (rats, kangaroo rats etc)

    Carnivores:

    canines (dogs, wolves, coyotes, foxes),

    Felines (cats, bobcats)

    raccoons,

    mustelids (skunks, weasels, badgers, otters, wolverines)

    4. Cold -blooded (exothermic) Vertebrates:  Fish, amphibians, reptiles,

    o    Fresh water fish:  catfish, koi, blue gill, guppies, mosquito eaters,

    o    Amphibians - local

    o    Reptiles -local

    5.  Invertebrates – including insect orders

    6.  Pond microscopic organisms

THE NOVELS & NONFICTION

Historical Fiction, Sci-Fi, Realistic Fiction, Dystopia, Fantasy, Memoir and Popular Science non-fiction

BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS

To kick off each semester, Ms. Lisa selects an engaging first novel or non-fiction book that all students read together. Then she presents options for the class to vote on so that the rest of the semester’s books reflect student interest.

We read different novels/non-fiction every year in a four-year cycle so students may take this class multiple times. Most students stay in the class for 2-4 years! They deepen their friendships and strengthen their literary analysis and writing chops with each year’s new assignments.

  • Students learn how to analyze the novels we read. They learn to look for literary devices, answer questions citing textual evidence to support their claims, and how to have civil, thoughtful conversations with peers about complicated topics. In addition to book club conversations and written analysis, they also do culminating projects on some of their books.

    Past book club books have included How We Got to Now, Irresistible, Long Walk to Water, Boys on the Boat (HS edition), Code Name Verity, The Graveyard Book, Elephant Whisperer, Hatchet, Johnny Tremain, The Book Thief, Fahrenheit 451, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Steelheart, Artemis Fowl, The Green Glass Sea. When we read a more challenging 9th grade book, such as Fahrenheit 451, we usually also have a less intense and complicated option for our readers who want a less demanding novel, such as Johnny Tremain.

Public Speaking: Student presentations 2023 on science topics

Culminating project presentation on fantasy novel Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians

WRITING LAB

Students work on perfecting their paragraphs then writing outstanding essays.

Ms. Lisa takes students wherever they are and coaches them with explicit whole class instruction which includes professional and student models. Student also use customized paragraph and essay templates Ms. Lisa has create so student writers learn the intellectual and rhetorical moves that successful writers use to communicate effectively. Then each student gets one-on-one writing conferences and detailed feedback so they can improve to get to the next level of writing.

The vast majority of writing is done IN CLASS. Students take their writing home to type it up.

  • Writing genres may include

    persuasive - argumentative, policy proposal, and op-ed style

    response to literature,

    expository,

    summary,

    letters to the editor,

    letters to a political representative,

    poetry

    Students start their essays from the brainstorming stage and move through the full writing process all the way through to polished final drafts and learn MLA parenthetical citation formatting. We also work on shorter one-shot timed in class paragraphs and essays.

Students reviewing each other’s essays and giving thempositive feedback on a winter day.

Prerequisites, Homework, and Pricing

IMG_20200302_102137242.jpg
  • 5th through 8th grade

  • READING

    Students should be reading fluently at a 6th grade level at the very least and be willing to tackle more complicated works.

    I use cursive in my as I write on the document camera so students should be able to read a combination of cursive and printing.

    WRITING

    Students should be writing cogent paragraphs.

    Students need to be able to take notes during science lectures.

    MATURITY AND SELF-REGULATION

    Students should have the maturity and self-regulation to safely participate in an outdoor learning and to discuss the mature themes found in Shakespeare.

  • $675 per semester

  • Private funds: cash or check payable to Lisa Clark-Burnell. Private payment may be divided into 3 installments due August 1st, September 1st & October 1st for fall semester and December 1st, January 1st, and February, 1st for spring semester.

    Charter School Enrichment orders are accepted. EOs are should be placed by August 1st (exceptions for DCS which starts its school year later).

    Vendor: I am a vendor with Pacific Coast Academy, Mission Vista Academy, Cabrillo Point Academy and Dimensions Collaborative School, Freedom Academy of Literacy First Charter School, and SoCal Scholars Academy.

  • Relevant Education and Experience

    I have a BA in English and Political from UC Santa Barabara.  While an undergraduate, I served as writing tutor for graduate and undergraduate students assisting them with writing assignments in all disciplines. Upon graduating with highest honors and being recognized as one of the top three women in the humanities at UCSB, I then earned a CLAD multiple subject teaching credential with supplementary authorization in Social Studies and Language Arts from San Jose State University.  In 1996 I began teaching mostly middle schoolers (but some high school students during the summers when I taught algebra at The Menlo School) language arts, history, and math first in Cupertino and Sunnyvale in the Bay area and then in Carmel Valley at San Dieguito Union High School District. I was the 6th grade GATE teacher as well as partnered closely with our SPED resource teacher for my 8th grade core classes. I was invited to participate in the San Jose Writing Project and while at these middles schools concentrated on designing language arts and history curriculum. 

    In 2005 I took a hiatus from teaching middle school to stay home with my children.  During that period, I co-founded and directed Salem Harvest, a non-profit that connects farmers and backyard growers with volunteer pickers to harvest fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste in an effort to end hunger. I also began building on my childhood experiences growing up on a micro-farm, honing my organic gardening expertise and animal husbandry skills and diving deep into permaculture. In 2012 I returned to teaching but this time as a homeschooling parent.

    In 2019, at the request of my own kids and other parents, I started teaching classes in my areas of expertise for other homeschool students. 

    For more information about Farm School and its orgins, see the About page.

Hands on zoology: Rabbit Coat Color Genetics

What better way to learn about heredity and Mendelian genetics than to breed Holland Lops? Punnett squares are much more interesting when you’re talking about alleles of Maude the chinchilla dam and Sabretache Von Moustache the broken black tort sire. Besides, these are offspring you can cuddle. Mendel’s peas or fruit flies can’t compete.

How is Shakespeare and Zoology different from the Science & English Language Arts class?

SHAKESPEARE & ZOOLOGY is a slightly shorter version of Science & Language Arts.

Both classes share the following features:

LITERATURE Novels, memoir/autobiography/biography, and non-fiction

  • Weekly reading HW of 50-80 pages

  • Book club- we study one book every 4-5 weeks.

  • 4-6 written discussion questions or annotations

  • WRITING FOCUS: Powerful paragraphs and full essays with MLA parenthetical citations

  •  FARM CHORES: Weekly farm work –in partners

  • SCIENCE

    • Zoology activities

    • In-depth lectures with note taking

    • 7-8th grade and above science content

    • Review games and quizzes

    • Hands-on activities. Examples: building model of cells, if studying ruminant anatomy, then feeding the cattle and handling them to understand physiological adaptations to natural diet and impact on animal health of different feeds in captivity.

Differences

  • Sci-LA is longer — 4.5 hours, whereas Shakespeare and Zoology is 3.25 hours

  • Age Sci-LA is for slightly older kids (6-9th graders vs. 5-8th)

  • Novel options include books that are suitable for 9th graders (and meet some 9th grade PCA unit requirements), potentially including an adult non-fiction text adapted for HS readers

  • Sci-LA includes WORD ANALYSIS while Shakespeare and Zoology does not

    • Latin and Greek Stems index cards as homework then games and review in class

    • Analogies:  Challenging WordMasters national competitions or vocabulary lists from our novels and plays

  • Sci-LA includes POETRY ANALYSIS while Shakespeare and Zoology does not

  • Sci-LA includes PROJECT TIME & D.E.W/D.O. Time (writing and observation time) alternating semesters while Shakespeare and Zoology does not

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