ESL etc.

I just read this piece over at McSweeney’s. Basically, it is Hamlet written via Facebook newsfeed messages. A sample:

Hamlet wonders if he should continue to exist. Or not.

Hamlet thinks Ophelia might be happier in a convent.

Ophelia removed “moody princes” from her interests.

Hamlet posted an event: A Play That’s Totally Fictional and In No Way About My Family

The king commented on Hamlet’s play: “What is wrong with you?”

Polonius thinks this curtain looks like a good thing to hide behind.

Polonius is no longer online.

I really like this as an idea for an ESL class. In a novel reading class, students could come up with a Facebook newsfeed version of each chapter. Or, students could tell each other newsfeed versions of famous fairytales. You could even have students use it as a way to write about current events.

It’s a great way to practice summarizing, and I bet students would find it a nice change of pace. Plus, Facebook seems to be very popular among my students, so a lot of the vocabulary would already be familiar to them.