Green Eggs and Hamlet

1. I really don't know anything about Hamlet. There's something about his father dying, I think he has a mother and maybe an uncle, and he has to make decisions. I think of that part of Freaky Friday when the teacher quizzed them on who Hamlet was.
2. Shakespeare. He lived in Victorian England, I believe. All of the pictures that I've seen of him are with the big white collar. He married a young cousin of his, I think. (Update: I've been informed from Alec and Matthew that Edgar Allen Poe was the one who married his cousin.) He made up his own style of writing (not positive) poetry and invented a bunch of words, to fit that exact style, that we still use today, including many names. I am not sure if it's iambic pentameter or not that he wrote in. He wrote a ton of plays and is like the most famous author/poet ever. He writes a lot of funny stuff that you don't always get. I feel like I should know more to write.
3. I think so many kids frown at the sound of his name because they associate it with stories passed down of other bad experiences with hos work. Those probably came from old-school sit and read and figure it out on your own. Shakespeare's work is so, so, so, difficult to understand without someone guiding you along the way! I like Shakespeare because after reading a piece and understanding it, it's true, you feel like you're in this club of people that have something in common. I like his hidden messages and humor. 
4. I think that we need to talk a lot about the text in class to be able to comprehend what's written. This stuff is written hundreds of years ago and hasn't been translated into the vernacular language that we use. The teacher's knowledge of what things mean will be very helpful. I'm not saying that he's going to just tell us what everything means, he's there to guide and assist us on the way to reading this. I think laughter and smiles is important, too, so that we can have positive memories associated with Hamlet, so if we can have fun with it, I'd be ecstatic.