Name_______________________

FINAL ASSESSMENT

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Analyze how Shakespeare develops a theme, drawing evidence from primary documents, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to reflect on how early modern cultural issues are relevant today.

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Student Name

EIGHTH GRADE ENGLISH STANDARDS ASSESSMENT: WRITING

These essays offer an exceptionally focused and persuasive analysis of how Shakespeare develops a theme, Using apt and specific textual support from primary documents, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, these essays explore the theme’s complexity to reflect on how early modern cultural issues are relevant today. Although not without flaws, these essays make s strong case for their interpretation and discuss the theme with significant insight and understanding. Generally, essays scored in the top range reveal sophisticated analysis of ideas and exceptional control of language, including highly proficient use of vocabulary and stylistic maturity in sentence structure.

(TOP SCORES: 90%-100%)

These essays offer a reasonably focused and persuasive analysis of how Shakespeare develops a theme. Using apt, yet general, textual support from primary documents, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, these essays explore the theme appropriately, but less thoroughly or precisely than those with top scores. Reflections on how early modern culture issues are relevant today may be articulated too generally and without adequate complexity or support. Essays of this caliber contain noticeable language errors, affecting clarity and control in writing but do not completely undermine the ability to express concrete ideas. These essays consistently demonstrate proficient use of appropriate vocabulary and sentence structure.

(UPPER SCORES: 80%-89%)

Essays in this range offer minimal focus and persuasive analysis of how Shakespeare develops a theme. Using superficial or obvious textual support from primary documents, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, these essays explore the theme by summarizing Shakespeare’s ideas or other cultural issues without sufficient reflection on how the early modern period has relevance today. Even though essays of this caliber address the prompt, they contain language errors that weaken the overall analysis, resulting in a thinly developed or weakly organized structure. Vocabulary and writing control is at a minimally effective level.

(MIDDLE SCORES: 70%-79%)

Essays in the below average range offer little to no apparent focus or analysis of how Shakespeare develops a theme. Textual support from primary documents, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is sparse or nonexistent, or essays reveal major misconceptions about how the readings provide evidence for a developing theme. Using emerging vocabulary or simple sentence structure, essays of this caliber reveal unclear, unsubstantial reflections about how early modern issues are relevant today. The overall writing is emerging toward proficiency.

(LOWER SCORES: 60%-69%)

Failing essays demonstrate little competency or effort in analyzing how Shakespeare develops a theme. Although some attempts to analyze or to reflect may be indicated, the writer’s view has little clarity and only slight, if any, textual evidence in its support. Generally these essays are unacceptably brief or ineffectively written.

(LOWEST SCORES: 59% or less)

DOCUMENT 1

Title page from Turberville’s The Noble Art of Venery, or Hunting. The queen is shown with her courtiers, resting in the woods during a day of hunting. A gentleman kneels in front of her gesturing toward the magnificent repast prepared by the serving women, a man fills a chalice, courtiers relax in conversation, and two young male pages disport themselves in the foreground. (caption from Paster and Howard 178)

The noble art of venerie or hunting; wherein is handled and set out the vertues, natures, and properties of fifteene sundry chaces, together with the order and manner of how to hunt and kill euery one of them.

Attributed in error to George turberville. Actually a translation and adaptation of Jacques du Fouilloux’s La Venerie (1573) by George Gascoigne, named as author. Printed by Thomas Purfoot in 1615.

https://archive.org/details/nobleartofveneri00gasc

DOCUMENT 2

The Schoolmaster (1570)

Roger Ascham

Our time is so far from that old discipline and obedience, as now, not only young gentlemen but even very girls dare without all fear, though not without open shame, where they list,[footnoteRef:1] and how they list, marry themselves in spite of father, mother, God, good order, and all. The cause of this evil is, that youth is least looked unto, when they stand [in] most need of good keep and regard… [1: please]

This evil is not common to poor men, as God will have it, but proper to rich and great men’s children, as they deserve it. Indeed, from seven to seventeen, young gentlemen commonly be carefully enough brought up. But from seventeen to seven and twenty (the most dangerous time of all a man’s life, and most slippery to stay well in), they have commonly the rein of all license in their own hand, and specially such as do live in the Court…

The fault is in yourselves, ye noble men’s sons, and therefore ye deserve the greater blame, that commonly the meaner[footnoteRef:2] men’s children come to be the wisest counselors and greatest doers in the weighty affairs of this Realm. And why? For God will have it so, of his providence: because he will have it no otherwise, by your negligence… [2: poorer]

But error and fantasy do commonly occupy the place of truth and judgment. For if a young gentleman be demure and still of nature, they say he is simple and lacketh wit. If he be bashful, and will soon blush, they call him a babyish and ill-brought-up thing. If he be innocent and ignorant of ill, they say he is rude[footnoteRef:3] and hath no grace… [3: uncultivated or uncultured]

The remedy of this doth not stand only in making good common laws for the whole realm, but also in observing private discipline, every man carefully in his own house. And namely, if special regard be had to youth, and that no so much in teaching them what is good as in keeping them from that that is ill…

Therefore, if wise fathers be not as well ware in weeding from their children ill things and ill company, as they were before, in grafting them learning, and providing for them good schoolmasters, what fruit they shall reap of all their cost and care, common experience doth tell.

(Reprod. in Paster and Howard 174-177)

Ascham, Roger. The scholemaster, or plaine and perfite way of teaching children…EEBO. STC (2nd ed.) 832, copy from Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery.

DOCUMENT 3

In Act III of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet pleads with her father, Lord Capulet, not to force her into marriage with Paris. Capulet does not know that his daughter is secretly married to Romeo, so he believes her to be an ungrateful daughter. In the following excerpt, the relationship between a daughter and father in the sixteenth century is illuminated. The nurse, who tries to defend Juliet, has been her “nanny” since we was very young.

JULIET

Good father, I beseech you on my knees,

Hear me with patience but to speak a word.

CAPULET

Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!

I tell thee what: get thee to church o’Thursday

Or never after look me in the face.

Speak not, reply not, do not answer me!

My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest

That God had lent us but this only child;

But now I see this one is one too much,

And that we have a curse in having her.

Out on her, hilding![footnoteRef:4] [4: baggage]

NURSE

God in heaven bless her!

You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.

CAPULET

And why, my Lady Wisdom? Hold your tongue,

Good prudence. Smatter with your gossips, go…

WIFE

You are too hot.

CAPULET

God’s bread, it makes me mad!

Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,

Alone, in company, still my care hath been

To have her matched. And having now provided

A gentleman of noble parentage,

Of fair demesnes,[footnoteRef:5] youthful, and nobly liened, [5: estates]

Stuffed as they say, with honorable parts,

Proportioned as one’s thought would wish a man –

And then to have a wretched puling[footnoteRef:6] fool [6: whining]

A whining mammet,[footnoteRef:7] in her fortune’s tender, [7: doll]

To answer, “I’ll not wed, I cannot love,

I am too young; I pray you, pardon me.”

But, an you will not wed, I’ll pardon you.

Graze where you will, you shall not house with me.

Look to’t, think on’t. I do not use to jest.

Thursday is near. Lay hand on heart; advise.

An you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend;

An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,

For, by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee,

Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.

Trust to’t, bethink you. I’ll not be forsworn.Exit.

JULIET

Is there no pity sitting in the clouds

That sees into the bottom of my grief?

O sweet my mother, cast me not away!

Delay this marriage for a month, a week;

Or if you do not, make the bridal bed

In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.

WIFE

Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.

Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.Exit.(3.5.158-204)

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Eds. David

Bevington and David Scott Kastan, Bantam, 2007.

Analyze how Shakespeare develops a theme, drawing evidence from primary documents, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to reflect on how early modern cultural issues are relevant today.

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Assessment Checkpoints

· Develops clear, strong thesis

· Supports thesis with relevant, well-developed examples from primary documents, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream

· Critically analyses texts as evidenced by close reading

· Includes quotes from primary documents

· Maintains focus of topic and control of writing

· Uses literary present tense