I have the tedious chore tonight of grading Shakespeare packets. The front page of these packets on which my 9th graders were to have taken notes for a whole term contains a timeline of 10 major events in the Bard's life. One of the dates is 1592, which is the date I gave them as when we're sure he'd made it to London, as he was already being discussed critically. I said -- but did not write on the board -- that critic Robert Greene had at that time referred to him as "an upstart crow."
I'm guessing that one kid in my 3B English 9 core class must have misheard that and copied it down wrong -- and then allowed at least one person to copy from her/him.
At any rate, nearly half the packets from that class period have labeled the timeline at 1592 as "Shakespeare writes 1st play, 'The Upset Crow.'"
Obviously, we will have a mini-lesson on the next B-day about how misinformation gets spread. (I really don't want them all telling people, "But Ms. Shafer SAID that was his first play!")
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