Teaching Shakespeare – tips?

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  • January 13, 2015 at 6:48 am
    Karen
    Participant

    How funny that there would be a thread yesterday and a few days ago about Shakespeare! I just borrowed Lamb’s book from our library and have been reading through it, trying to think how to “Teach” Shakespeare to our daughters.

    Our girls are 10yo, 8yo, 7yo, and 5yo.  I was thinking that I’d like to start studying Shakespeare next year, when our oldest will be in 6th grade (which seems a good age to start) and it will tie in nicely with our history studies next year.

    My bare-bones plan is as follows: throughout the school year, read two (or three) of the Lamb’s tales and the corresponding actual plays, then try to find a play to attend or movie of a play of those plays we’ve read, have each girl memorize a passage from the play we’re studying.

    My questions: Where does one find the plays to read? The library?

    And I would assume that you hand out parts and everyone reads a part or two……so where to find the extra copies?

    What would you advise for dealing with a reluctant reader? My 2nd daughter, the 8yo, has dyslexia – she’s making GREAT improvement, but I’m not sure that reading Shakespeare will be feasible next year.  Also, I doubt the 7yo will want to read it aloud…..and the 5yo won’t be up to it.  Your advice?

    I would like to have popsicle puppets or something like that to “Act out” the play while we’re reading aloud….or pictures to hold up to help the girls visualize who is speaking and what’s going on.  (Since there are lots of strange names and lots of characters.)  What are your suggestions for visual aids?

    Thanks!

    January 13, 2015 at 9:40 am
    Sue
    Participant

    I will also be following this thread.  I may be teaching a class introducing Shakespeare to 9-12 year old students in a co-op next year, and I am wondering which play(s) or stories from Lamb’s would be best to start with for this age group.

    January 13, 2015 at 9:49 am
    Laurie
    Participant

    And how to teach to a single. I find that almost harder sometimes because everyone has great ides to teach for multiples, like the shared reading in parts as kids are able.

    January 13, 2015 at 2:20 pm
    Bookworm
    Participant

    You can get the plays at the library, but you’ll have a limited time to keep them.  We simply get everyone a copy on paperbackswap (then swap them out for the next play).  The plays are also all available as digital downloads.

    You don’t need a huge cast to read the plays.  We are down to three.  Yes, sometimes we each have to read multiple parts, but that is part of the fun (Come on, Dad, you’re Petruchio!!!)

    Beware of the movies.  Check ratings/guides.  Some, um, emphasize the bawdier aspects.  We have been much more pleased with actual performances, although where we live those are few and far between and we rarely have seen one right when we read the play.

    For confusing plays (esp. Midsummer Night’s Dream and Comedy of Errors) paper dolls can work well.  I didn’t do anything fancy, just printed some out.  We didn’t color them much (all boys!) but wrote their name (s) on them and pulled them out.  We also used pink and blue strings to keep track of who was in love with whom in MND.

    Good plays to start with are non-history plays that have children’s retellings.  You’ll notice that, say, The Merry Wives of Windsor are not in all the children’s retellings.  There is a reason for that.  🙂  Do not start there.  Start with the ones you have heard of most/are most familiar with–our family’s favorites at all ages have included  Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Comedy of Errors.  Move on to the major tragedies by high school (Julius Caesar is pretty easy to read before high school when you need another one)

    I really think a critical thing here is just to dive in and do it.  🙂  It won’t be perfect.  There will be words you do not know.  (Sometimes this is GOOD!)  You will be confused sometimes.  Your kids will have no idea what that person just said, or how to pronounce that weird word or name.  Just go with it.  It doesn’t really matter.  Someday maybe you can teach how to read iambic pentameter properly, and work on proper pronunciation so you don’t throw off your scanning—-in elementary school or at first, this just does not matter.  Each time will be better and better, the more you do the better it will be.

    January 13, 2015 at 2:54 pm
    sheraz
    Participant

    Lots of his plays have been recorded and are free on librivox.org.  You can also download them free from Amazon for Kindles.

     

    January 13, 2015 at 3:31 pm
    Karen
    Participant

    Thank you, Bookworm!  I’ve really enjoyed the retelling of the Tempest and have started reading Much Ado.  I never realized how accessible the story lines of Shakespeare could be – I’m a typical public-schooled girl who was tortured with Shakespeare and the 50 (or however many) lines we had to memorize……Yet here, Laertes, aboard! aboard!…..the wind sets in the shoulder of your sales and you are stayed for……or whatever! *L*

    And I hadn’t thought to look on librivox.  Thanks for the reminder!

    January 16, 2015 at 9:13 pm
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hello,

    Just some quick input.  You can go to http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com and click on Shakespeare under the TOPIC column.  Linda Fay describes in detail how she taught Shakespeare to her girls.  She gives list of movie verisons, you tube verisons, animated versions, etc.  Really helpful!

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