Rationale: As a participant in the 2000 NEH Summer Institute The Worlds of the Renaissance, I was energized by the heady scholarly atmosphere. I was also reminded of how infrequently teachers-at least teachers in my district-were treated as academics, as curious intellectuals who love being immersed in the world of concepts. Once the year begins, a whirlwind of bookkeeping tasks, essay grading, and required meetings swamps most of us. Consequently it becomes nearly impossible to complete the critical reading that keeps us current in our discipline, increases our confidence as professionals, and lifts the level of our instruction and assignments.
At the end of the Institute we focused on Marvin Lunenfeld's 1492: Discovery, Invasion, Encounter. These discussions echoed concepts that have always fascinated me: metaphor formation and how we come to name the unknown, especially the other. I saw how these themes could fit smoothly into The Tempest, a work I usually present from an entirely different perspective. Lunenfeld's writing also introduced me to Tzvetan Todorov who proved a foundational secondary source. My critical reading has resulted in a unit both theoretical, focusing on teacher enrichment; and practical, providing reading guides and essay topics. The main purpose, however, is the former: to provide the groundwork for, hopefully, a thought-provoking leap into an available text.
For this reason I am not including specific plans for reading the play, checking for comprehension, etc. I am assuming high school teachers who might use this unit will already have favorite strategies for entering into Shakespearean texts with their students and may have already taught The Tempest. This unit is designed for upperclassmen, but I have used some of the reading selections with Honors sophomores with good results. I have provided more than enough material for a month-long unit, assuming that instructors will choose and even rearrange readings to suit their classes.
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