Try using these helpful resources as you review the play.
Please post a comment about how you are reviewing the play, and what resources you have found helpful. Post additional useful resources in your comments as you find them.
Sparknotes: "No Fear Shakespeare" resources for "Hamlet":
Quizlet: Use existing flashcards to review, or make your own:
https://quizlet.com/subject/Hamlet/
Watch this short, funny video to review the play's plot events:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sejE19qL_SM
Full movie production of "Hamlet" courtesy of "The Paramount Vault" by Paramount pictures. Used with permission. Length: 2:14:27. The character "Hamlet" is played by Mel Gibson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkAmMq3i3Hc
I have found various amount of resources to help me thoroughly understand “Hamlet”, the play written by William Shakespeare. The “No fear Shakespeare” resource, on sparknotes.com, helped me understand the not commonly used language of the script. It provided me with the original version alongside the modern version allowing me to make comparisons and interpret what Shakespeare had written. Sparknotes.com helped me figure out the main backgrounds of each of the characters as well. Study tools on quizlet.com helped me define some difficult vocabulary and put all the main key points together. The short video provided above helped me visualize the play and deeply understand the environment of the events. Worksheets provided in class helped me understand the dialogue better by forcing me to look up definitions. The study questions provided helped me analyze the text and deeply understand the cause and effect of each event. Along with what we were provided, I found study questions on shmoop.com which forced me to think deeper about parts I hadn’t thoroughly understood. Overall, many resources helped my build my understanding of the play, increased my vocabulary, and enabled me to deeply analyze the events.
ReplyDeleteFor studying Hamlet, I mostly used Sparknotes. I liked Sparknotes because on one side it had the original version, and on the other side it had the modernized version. I first read the original version of each scene and then I read the modernized version so I can get a better understanding. To work on vocabulary and to learn more about characters, I used Quizlet. Quizlet made it easy to understand the vocabulary because I liked how it had a clear definition and visuals to go with it. Quizlet also had a list of all the characters, and that helped me get a deeper understanding of the characters personalities. Even though I have been provided with all these textual resources, just looking at the text wasn’t enough. To understand the setting and emotions of the characters, I watched a few videos and the short video from the L.A blog. The videos helped me get a even deeper understanding because whatever is happening in the written text, is being acted right infront of me. To understand the videos, I didn’t even need to understand Shakespeare’s language. Out of all these resources, I liked the videos because they gave a visual image of the main plot events and a deeper understanding of the character traits, personalities and motivations.
ReplyDeleteOne of the resources I used while reading Hamlet was the Sparknotes, No Fear Shakespeare. It helped me further my understanding of William Shakespeare’s play, and see how the modern play and the original play differ. I also further understood what some expressions and saying meant. For example in act four scene one Claudius says,” O heavy deed! “ when in the modern text it is translated to,” Oh, this is terrible!” In some cases it is easier to understand the modern text, but one must also read the original text to understand and appreciate Shakespeare's craft and to see how he uses his fabricated words in the play. I also watched the short video explaining Hamlet's plot and Characters. I found it very useful as it explains the story in colloquial english, and gives a very brief overview of the play and characters.
ReplyDeleteTasnim Saada 2/28/16
8A LA
My main resource for understanding the play “Hamlet” written by William Shakespeare was Spark notes “No Fear Shakespeare.” I think most people would agree with me when I say that the language used in the play isn’t always the easiest to understand, so looking up the dialogue in Spark notes helped me understand the play thoroughly. Another good study site was Quizlet.com. I used it when studying for the quizzes and for testing my knowledge on vocabulary, important quotes and characters. Quizlet has a variety of tests and flashcards in which you can test your knowledge, but the one I found most helpful was the Hamlet Review questions. It tests you on your knowledge of vocabulary terms and definitions, and comprehension in a number of ways, like multiple choices, written responses and matching. The short video above was also useful and helped summarize the plot in a funny and simple manner.
ReplyDeleteLA / 8A
2/28/16
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read Hamlet, the Spark notes helped me understand what I was reading since the Shakespearean language was a little difficult to understand. When I took some quizzes on Quizlet, it helped me get a better understanding of who the characters are. The short video helped me understand the main points in Hamlet and the main problem. Lastly, the longer video showed the whole story of Hamlet .
ReplyDeleteNajm Masri
8A LA
2/28/16
Hamlet was one of the really difficult books i have read. It was really hard to understand so i used sparknotes and that made it a lot easier to understand, but but before reading the version on sparknotes i read the original version. when reading the original i used Quizlet so i can understand some of the vocabulary i had never heard of before. I also watched many plays on youtube to help me understand.
ReplyDeleteI'm reviewing the play by reading both the real and the modern versions of the play. I thought that the modern version on http://nfs.sparknotes.com/hamlet/ was very helpful since it was a great way for me to understand the play. Another thing that helped me a lot was the live Hamlet play that we actually got to see. Even if I didn't get some of the dialogue, the emotions and expressions that the actors were portraying really helped me understand the play further.
ReplyDeleteAfter trying to read the book, I read the modern version on Sparknotes. This was really helpful because I was able to understand the story better and actually know what events occurred in the story. I also felt that the play we watched on Friday helped me understand it better since it left a thorough image in my mind of how the play actually was. Due to reading the play in the modern text in the first place, I was able to understand the play with the visuals even though I couldn't understand what the actors were saying in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI reviewed Hamlet by using Spark notes, Quizlet, and websites that provided an analysis of each act. I found Spark Notes the most useful because it gave you the modern version alongside the original text. I did try to read the original text from the book, and I searched up vocabulary words. One of the most helpful things was the Hamlet play. It made me understand more about what the characters were going through, through their emotions, actions, and thoughts that they portrayed. To understand how to read the original text, I annotated my book and wrote down words that showed up repetitively. I really appreciate the opportunity to read Hamlet, because it allowed me to profoundly analyze the text, expand my vocabulary, and realize what a fascinating writer William Shakespeare is.
ReplyDeleteI used Sparknotes and Quizlet to review, I also enjoyed the short video on Youtube. I used sparknotes the most because it helped understand the text more and I used it to help me annotate the book. I also used Quizlet to practice the vocab words and learn them better. All these resources helped me fully understand the book and to use that to my advantage.
ReplyDeleteShakespearean, the language William Shakespeare used to write his books, is language that isn't commonly used in terms of speaking in this day and age. A website I used to understand Shakespearean was Shmoop Shakespearean Translator. It allows you to translate a phrase like "Whoa, dude, pass that pizza over here. I'm going to starve." into Shakespearean, which would be"Heigh-ho, broth'r, passeth that 'zza ov'r hither. lest I waste away." It is useful for understanding certain words while reading, and for if writing play for the Hamlet project. Additionally, it is easier to analyze the way English has evolved from the 1600s to the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteSameeha Salman
8A LA
3/1/16
I used Sparknotes to help me understand Hamlet better. Sparknotes helped me because when I tried to read Hamlet I could not understand anything.Sparknotes gave me a better understanding of what was going on in the play.Reading the modern version helped me, but seeing the actors perform was better. Seeing the play visually was helpful because I could see emotion of characters and understand character traits.
ReplyDeleteAfter attempting to read Hamlet, I used Spark notes a my first resource because it had the original text, and the modern text. The main reason I used Spark notes for Hamlet was because of the Shakespearean language. Shakespearean language consisted of terms commonly used in their day. The second source I used was Quizlet. Quizlet helped with understanding the characters because they provided a list of all the characters, and their traits. It also helped because it provided questions to answer about the play, which helped us review after we read each act. The last source that I used was the video of the plot events. I thought this was very helpful because they acted out the scenes to give you an understanding of how it would be if it actually happened. It also helped because it also gave a good interpretation of the character's personalities and traits.
ReplyDeleteWhile studying Hamlet, I found Spark Notes very helpful. It translated complex Shakespearean language into modern everyday words, which helped me better my understanding the plot of Hamlet. I also found the short video summaries useful because it explained the all five acts in less then ten minutes and gave me a breakdown of what happened in the story. The play we watched was also very beneficial because it really brought Hamlet to life and I was able to appreciate Shakespeare's words more now that they were expressed vocally.
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ReplyDeleteDeemed the world’s greatest English writer, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is considered one of his greatest pieces of work. An intricate play, Hamlet is difficult to analyze and comprehend due to it’s Shakespearian language and complex vocab. The Shmoop Translator helped me fathom the Old English content the book is comprised of. Annotating the book helped gain deeper knowledge of the literary devices The Bard integrated into his writing, such as motifs and allusions, as well as identify key themes throughout the book.
Mariam Mustafa 8ALA
March.4.2016
As almost every person has stated, SparkNotes helped much more than it should have! I also used YouTube channels, such as Shakespeare Dude, as he explains every scene with every detail in it(modern language). Also, the resources online that had practice tests helped also, since they were the same exact questions on the quiz.
ReplyDeleteI thought that quizlet was helpful because it prepared me for the quizes and the test on Hamlet. It helped me improve my comprehension for Hamlet too. I also learned many things about Hamlet through the question and got to understand many parts that i didn't pay attention to that much while i was reading the play. I also thought that the plot video helped me in learning how the plot structure was in the play Hamlet itself.
ReplyDeleteI watched some of the full movie and I feel like that one helped me understand how the characters acted. It also helped me understand the main events in a better fashion. After I watched about 1 hour of the movie I went to quizlet and answered many of the questions. The video also helped me understand parts of the plot that i didn't understand,And to make sure I understood it i went on quizlet and tested my self on the main characters and plot of hamlet.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to reading the original version of Hamlet, I also accessed Sparknotes and watched the summary video as well as the scene summaries and the modern text. Sparknotes and Cliffnotes helped me better understand the meaning of a lot of the complex text. It summarized very well, and the transfer of complicated Shakespearean language to modern text made it a lot easier for me to understand the story. I also went and watched the full length 2009 Hamlet movie, and this helped me visualize the characters and the events. I went on youtube and there were many helpful channels with videos analyzing scenes and events of Hamlet. Quizlet was very helpful as well, as I tested myself with their quizzes to prepare for upcoming Hamlet tests and quizzes. A lot of the vocabulary included in the text is rather complex and it is quite hard to understand in the context of this Shakespearean language. I used a dictionary to search up words I didn't understand from the story, and this helped me remember some of the terminology and vocabulary in Hamlet. All of these online additional sources helped me in understanding Hamlet better.
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