Identifying Who Awakes in Act IV of MidSummer Nightâs Dream

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SWBAT draw inferences on the reaction of characters who awaken in a play, determine how to actions of Oberon moves characters to make decisions about love, and explore a possible theme in relation the characters, setting, and plot of the play.

Big Idea

Is this a dream? Or am I alive in a fantasy?

Bellringer: It's All About Naps

10 minutes

At this time in the play, characters are starting to awaken which introduces more suspense and conflicts to readers. Prior to reading about the lovers, students respond to the following question in their notebooks

How do you feel after a good nap/sleep?

I want students to connect to the feelings of the lovers as they are decide to go to sleep. Students naturally would not think that falling asleep in this story is a big deal but its timing in this act creates a life-changing event once each character awakens. Just as the lovers in the play experience newness as they awaken, so do humans when changes occur during or after their rest. Students will share their student response to nap with a shoulder buddy. To end the discussion, one volunteer will read their response to conclude this activity with the class.

Guided Practice: Effects & Reactions

10 minutes

Can effects to causes by similar to reactions? To understand this concept more, students will work on a handout entitled, Cause & Reaction Paragraphs. I will give students the number 1 or 2. From here students will work in pairs to understand causes, effects, and reactions.

Once pairs are done, students will share out their example with the class. Here we will determine if causes in Act IV develops positive or negative effects/reactions for characters who awaken from their sleep.

Independent Practice: Stations

30 minutes

Students will listen to the audio version of Act IV to understand what happens to the characters as they awaken from their sleep. Once students finish listening to the play, they will work on the following


I will facilitate the learning in the active reading center while the other center is done independently by students. From students’ answers done in these stations, a theme can be developed based on the literary elements of characters and symbols in the play. The impact of learning from the activities are all explained in my reflection of awaken handout video.

Exit Ticket

5 minutes

Now that we have read four acts of the play, students should be able to use textual evidences to determine a theme. Students will begin formulating opinions of a theme based on the following question

As a reader, what lesson is learned at this point in the play? Could this be a possible theme of the overall play? Why or why not?

Students will share these responses at the beginning of the next class period. However read a student response to see how responses were gathered for this question!