This week I chose to read two articles/chapters from the Teaching Shakespeare Today text. I wanted to get two ideas of how different teachers tackle such a difficult text in a classroom. For me, I hated Shakespeare (I know and I'm an English Major... shame on me). I like the ideas of his plays, but hate how outdated they are. I know that most of our movies are based of some sort of Shakespeare play, but I always wished we could learn from them rather than from the original language. That's why I loved reading Manga! I thought it was so refreshing to read Romeo and Juliet in another medium but kept the language that it's known for.
The first chapter I read was called, "Getting to know a play 5 ways." In this chapter Rozett had many awesome ideas on how to bring Shakespeare into a classroom creatively. Three that I especially liked was the props manager, bringing it to Broadway, and hiring actors in the 1600's. In the props manager role, the students had to go through the entire play and make a list of all the props used ON STAGE not off, and write an essay about which were significant part in the play both visually and symbolically. The second idea, hiring, challenged the student to hire as little actors as possible (all men of course and boys) and made them describe how they would play more than one part successfully. Lastly, my favorite idea was bringing a Shakespeare show to Broadway. It allows the student to modernize the play, use recent language, and keep the same elements. For the teacher, these projects allow for different assessments other than a typical essay. These ideas are unconventional and have a little fun factor to them. All of the above make the students read every line closely and understand stage directions.
The second I read was called, "Introducing Shakespeare with First Folio Advertisements." This talked mainly about a starter to teaching Shakespeare. It encouraged educators to use background information to introduce such intimidating topics to students. I think that this is a very good idea because a lot of students ARE INTIMIDATED! It might make them feel better if we ease them into Shakespeare rather than just throwing it at them in the middle of the year for a unit. Another good point Pinti had was using visual aids while introducing Shakespeare, and how his picture is very recognizable. The arts create a positive public image, and using advertisments in this way with Shakespeare's quotes and picture justifiy this.
"I think that this is a very good idea because a lot of students ARE INTIMIDATED! It might make them feel better if we ease them into Shakespeare rather than just throwing it at them in the middle of the year for a unit. "
ReplyDeleteWhat types of background info would you present? How would you get your students involved in this process? (Maybe have them look background info up, then present it to the class?). Also, the same question for the arts/pictures: How would you get your students involved in this process?
I definitely think that background information is beneficial, but many times I have seen teachers just lecturing about this. Not that that's wrong to occasionally (it's some teacher's style) but maybe not all the time, or even most of the time.
I also read "Getting to know a play 5 ways." I found it extremely fascinating as well. Being able to use different methods (like the "projects" in this chapter) to assess student knowledge is awesome!
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I believe that adaptations help almost everyone in regards to Shakespeare, whether it be film, live performance, or manga/graphic novel versions of the original plays. I don't think that we, as teachers, should be afraid to use these adaptations or alternative assessment methods in our classrooms.
I also enjoyed the article "Getting to know a play 5 ways," because Shakespeare is one of those units we will all most likely have to teach, but one that often lacks creativity. I hate Shakespeare, but I don't want my students to hate Shakespeare when I'm the one teaching it!
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