Teaching Shakespeare

Now that I've addressed the issue of helping students enjoy reading, I can discuss some of the reading ideas I would like to incorporate in my classroom.  The first of these is the idea of teaching Shakespeare to high school students.  Many readers of any age or ability balk at the idea of reading Shakespeare.  His language is difficult, and his stories complex, making much of his work difficult to understand.  Shakespeare has a reputation of being a master, but difficult to read, and so students are often afraid to approach his work.  Additionally, Shakespeare wrote years ago, and many students don't expect to find any relevance in reading his work today.  They expect to be frustrated and bored.  Teaching Shakespeare, then, is a tough challenge for any English teacher to face.  However, Shakespeare is an essential part of nearly every high school curriculum, and so we must figure out how to meet this challenge head-on and help students engage with Shakespeare's work.

Unfortunately, Shakespeare is not always taught well in the classroom.  The traditional teaching style seems to involve reading a page aloud, summarizing/discussing what just happened, and then moving on.  This is repeated until the play is finished, then the class will watch a film representation.  BORING.  I experienced a lot of this teaching style myself.  I loved Shakespeare, and persevered, but this method will destroy Shakespeare for most students.  However, I realize that not all teachers do Shakespeare this way (thank goodness) and that several ideas exist for making Shakespeare interesting for students.

We explored one such resource under the guidance of Ms. Danette Long this semester.  Ms. Long spent a few class periods showing us the wonder of Folgers' Shakespeare Set Free.  This program has designed a myriad of lessons focused on teaching Shakespeare to students in a fun, relevant, and engaging manner.  We discussed introducing Shakespeare's language through Shakespearean insults and complements.  We also played around with the importance of teaching students context and subtext, and the way these effect the meaning and interpretation of a text.  Ms. Long guided us through multiple readings of specific passages, practicing close readings and comprehension through acting and directing scenes with our classmates.  Finally, nearly every activity focused on putting Shakespeare on its feet, requiring students to get up, move around, and bring the stories to life.  This makes Shakespeare infinitely more fun and engaging.  We also discussed the importance of highlighting the themes Shakespeare uses which are still relevant in society today (in other words, most of his themes).  This will help students realize they have some connection with the characters and stories of these old texts.

Last week, I had the opportunity to try one of Folgers' lessons myself.  I taught a Folger lesson for Romeo and Juliet with freshman for my practicum placement class.  This particular lesson focused on teaching subtext, and required students to take turns directing their classmates how to read specific lines based on the subtext behind those words.  This lesson was fun to teach and went quite well.  Students learned the importance of subtext, and important plot points for Act 4, all while engaging with each other and the text in a fun manner.  They enjoyed the lesson and found relevance to their own lives; I will call that lesson a success!

These lessons were fun, and certainly an eye-opener for me.  I have always been afraid of teaching Shakespeare to my students, knowing several will not like the texts.  However, these exercises have shown me that Shakespeare can be taught well.  I definitely plan on utilizing the Folgers resource in my future teaching career!