Senior Honors Project
RUNNING HEADER: Senior Honors Project
Senior Honors Project
The Method of Teaching Shakespeare That Is Most Affective In the AYA English
Classroom
Senior Honors Project
Spring 2012
Charles G Bohnak III
Submitted to:
Dr. Foster
March 29, 2012
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Senior Honors Project
Abstract
Teaching Shakespeare in a junior high or high school classroom may be one of the
toughest tasks that an Adolescent Young Adult (AYA) English teacher will face. Today’s
students see Shakespeare as an outdated, deceased British man, whose writing is archaic,
incomprehensible, and whose themes have no meaning or contemporary value. Old methods of
teaching Shakespeare’s works, like close textual reading and interpretation, do not work with
modern students.
This project analyzes various Shakespeare teaching methodologies, but highlights a reader’s
theater approach to making Shakespeare comprehensible and engaging with students in today’s
classrooms.
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Students’ Opinions of Shakespeare
Chances are that in most English classrooms, the name Shakespeare will not only incite
panic into most students, but the idea of studying the bard is one that most students have come to
dread. A high school student once told me, when I was in junior high, that if I thought my
English classes were difficult now, just wait until I got to Shakespeare. Shakespeare I thought?
How could anything be worse than direct objects, indirect objects, and diagramming sentences?
The little knowledge that I had of Shakespeare was a common perception that is shared by most
adolescents. Shakespeare is seen as an outdated source of torture and anxiety for adolescent
learners. In the article “Teaching Shakespeare: Is There a Method?” (1964), author Louis Marder
states that “…we find that many teachers write articles complaining that their students are bored,
that they find Shakespeare too ancient...” (Marder, 1964, p.4). It has been almost fifty years since
Marder wrote these words, yet, the same can be said of many adolescent learners in the year
2011.
One of the biggest reasons why students seemed to be completely turned off to the idea of
even attempting Shakespeare is that students automatically assume that the language of
Shakespeare is impossible for them to understand. They enter the classroom with a mindset that
they will not be able to succeed, no matter how hard they try. This fear of trying, due to not
having any practice or good past experiences with the material, is what I call the “playground
phenomenon.” Children who have already played certain games, such as kickball, are much more
inclined to join with their classmates and friends in a kickball game, versus those students who
are content to sit and watch because they lack little experience with the game, and the risk of
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being embarrassed is very high. The “playground phenomenon” can be seen in connection with
Shakespeare as well. Students are afraid of the text and the language, so instead of putting
themselves in high risk situations by actually attempting to learn, and possibly failing the first
few times, they would rather preserve their self worth and simply make excuses for not trying at
all. In “Unlocking Shakespeare’s Language” (1989), author Randal Robinson notes this very
occurrence with many students:
“…many students come to believe themselves incapable of ever reading Shakespeare’s
plays well, and thus, being discouraged, they demand that Shakespeare’s works be removed from
the curriculum; or else they look eagerly for summaries, paraphrases, condensations, modernized
editions, and comic-book versions that they can substitute for the true Shakespearean texts”
(Robinson, p. 1).
As if it was not bad enough that the students feel they can’t read these texts, and are
looking for alternate ways of learning Shakespeare, the publishing companies have fou nd big
money by producing texts that water down the works for students. Robinson says that:
“As for publishers, they produce many of the very substitutes that students look for when
they feel pushed to either save face or to save time. A stroll through a well-stocked bookshop or
library shows, for example, a comic-book Othello published by Sidgwick and Jackson; a scene
by scene summary of King Lear in the persistently popular series known as Cliffs Notes; a lineby-line paraphrase of Macbeth prepared by Alan Durband for Hutchinson’s Shakespeare Made
Easy Series; a slightly altered (and heavily publicized) Hamlet prepared by A. L. Rowse for the
Contemporary Shakespeare Series of University Press of America; and a shortened As You Like
It, with bits of paraphrase and commentary and with statements about movement inserted to
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accompany the dialogue, prepared by Diane Davidson for Swan’s Shakespeare on Stage Series”
(Robinson, 1989, p.1).
A student at a school I worked with told me “If Shakespeare is not so difficult, then why
does every book store carry a ton of resources for helping learn his works” (Field Notebook,
p.1). It’s a tough argument to make against statements like these. Some of these self help books
are actually scaring children just by the names they are using such as Sparknotes’ popular series
“No Fear Shakespeare.” A title like this just screams to students that Shakespeare is scary,
horrible, and something to be feared. Like Robinson, I feel that the overwhelming amount of
negative reinforcement that surrounds Shakespeare is affecting the attitudes that our students
form, before they even experience his works. It is much easier for students to simply believe that
it is impossible, and then make excuses for not trying, than to actually risk face and attempt
something new, with an open mind.
It is very sad, but it appears that, to make a large profit, the publishing companies that
produce books we wish our students would read, are actually aiding these same students in the
belief that they are not good enough or intelligent enough to comprehend Shakespeare. With so
many easy to read, and watered down versions of Shakespearean works available, students begin
to feel that they need these in order to succeed. However, the truth is that these simple texts are
actually doing much harm to the learners who are trying to use them. In “Some ‘Basics’ in
Shakespearean Study” (1993), author Gladys V. Veidemanis says that she can see the negative
effects that simplified texts can have on the overall learning and comprehension of the
Shakespeare works. Veidemanis says:
“Every year new advocates of a “simplified Shakespeare” surface, along with
“Shakespeare Made Easy” texts. Led by scholars of the eminence of J. R. Rouse, such advocates
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argue the desirability of a “minimal” translation to simplify complex exposition, dense
stylization, and obscure wording” (Veidemanis, p.5).
However, Veidemanis says that these advocates of simplified and “made easy” texts are
missing the negative effects that these texts are having on students:
“…a close analysis of any “simplified” text reveals, even a “minimal translation is likely
to result in distortion of meaning, destruction of the original meaning and metaphor, elimination
of significant imagery, removal of important connotative meanings, needless rewriting of lines
most readers should be able to understand, and a warped sense of the distinctive speaking styles
of the various characters” (Veidemanis, p. 6).
Not only are “made easy” texts making students feel that they can’t succeed without
them, they are also taking away key elements from the plays that can be used to make the text
readable. The set up of imagery, characterization, metaphor, etc., all help students understand the
plays better, which in turn opens up the language for them. The “made easy” texts are actually
killing the deeper meanings of the plays and the lessons that can be learned, and this destruction
is creating a disconnect between what students should take from the plays, in regards to moral
lessons, life lessons, and the human condition, and what they actually walk away with.
Along with publishing companies, there are other factors that are aiding in the
preconceived negative view our students attribute to Shakespeare. When the actual teaching of
Shakespeare is going on in the classroom, there is a disconnect between the meaning that the
students should be receiving from learning Shakespeare, and the reality of what the learners are
actually taking away from their experience with Shakespeare. In turn these “bad experiences” are
becoming the apriori bias that the next group of students, or next generation of students, are
carrying into the classroom. This bias is not only learned from other students, but also from
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parents. The idea that Shakespeare is both boring and outdated is carried from one generation to
the next, based on the experience of the generation before it.
Last spring I worked with a group of at-risk high school students at a suburban high
school that I will call “Redwheel High School”. The students’ opinions of Shakespeare much
reflected those above. The adolescent learners felt that Shakespeare had nothing to offer except
words they didn’t understand, and tests that they despise. The mission for the “new school”
English teachers must be to make Shakespeare a better experience for the adolescents of today. If
teachers want students to enter their classrooms with a positive preconceived view of
Shakespeare, they must move from the old style to the new style, and use a method other than
reading from the text, to change the way students are learning difficult Shakespearean material.
“Old Style” Methods of Teaching Shakespeare and Why They Have Failed
During my work at RedWheel High School, I was talking with a student about their
experience with Shakespeare, in high school, so far. I was both amazed and astounded by the
response that I received from the student. This student told me that “I hate Shakespeare…our
teacher made us listen to audiotapes of the plays” (Field Notebook, p.1). I could hardly believe
what I was hearing. Can there be anything worse for an adolescent learner than listening to the
complex Shakespearean language in the monotonous drone of an audio book player? No wonder
these students hate Shakespeare.
I imagine that audio book players were used in classrooms before the turn of the century,
and that the students who had the pleasure of listening to them read Shakespeare, all had the
same reaction as the student that I talked with. Trying to teach students the complex language
that is Shakespeare, by having them listen to audiotapes, will never work. There has to be a mix
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of styles that engage learners on many different levels, in order for Shakespeare to begin to make
sense for adolescent learners.
Another method that has failed is reading the plays aloud in scene by scene format.
Taking turns reading through scenes is not necessarily a bad thing. However, this type of activity
has to be used in conjunction with other activities that are much different. What happens when
the students get scene by scene reading is that they forget what has happened three or four scenes
ago. Veidemanis says:
“For most teachers, plot has always seemed the most accessible element of a
Shakespearean play. Even the dullest student seems able to respond to an exciting story and,
later, retell what happens. But too often the tendency is to expend all energy on a passage by
passage elucidation of the text, leaving no time for putting all the parts together. A “basic” task,
then, has to be examination of a play’s overall structure and design once scene by scene study
has been completed” (Veidemanis, p.7).
While I don’t agree that there are any dull students, I do agree that scene by scene reading
aloud does not create the unity that a student needs in order to be able to take ownership of a
work, and fully understand all the characters and emotions. There is a basic unity that is not
apparent when Shakespeare’s works are read aloud scene by scene. The meaning of the play gets
distorted, and what happens is it becomes like the “made easy” books that are for sale at the
bookstore. The students get a washed down, teacher translated version of a play that means
nothing to them except that it will appear on their test. The students miss the emotions of the
characters, the ownership of the text and the language, and the connections to the life they live,
that Shakespeare is so good at making. Whether it is the monotonous drone of the audio book
player, or the undeniably boring read aloud sessions every day, these methods are not the
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methods that are going to make students appreciate Shakespeare. These are the methods that
create the horror and the fear that is passed down to the future generations. These are the
activities that create the attitude that students carry with them when it comes to Shakespeare.
There is a method that works. In order for students to love Shakespeare, teachers must bring to
life plays that were meant to be brought to life. There is a process that has been working, and this
method is the one that will save Shakespeare for future generations.
What Method Can Work
In today’s teacher education classrooms, future teachers are taught that there are many
types of learners, and that teachers need to be able to create lesson plans that will engage all of
the students. Teachers are taught that getting students to think critically is one of the most
important lessons that can be taught in 21 st century classrooms. Teachers should be working to
push students to higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. If this is the goal that teachers are to aim
for, then having students listen to audio book recordings of Shakespeare plays will never work.
The 21st century learner needs more than one style in order to be able to make progress and to
comprehend Shakespeare.
Randal Robinson uses a method that moves students from discussing the language and
working in small peer groups, to students actually performing on stage, using their knowledge of
the Shakespearean language as a basis for their actions (Robisnon, 1989, p.6). Robinson first has
students create compositions based on their study of Shakespearean knowledge. Then, Robinson
has the students get into small groups and share their ideas with their peers. After the students
discuss the language, Robinson has the students do a character analysis. The students try to make
connections between the characters, and the people in their lives that remind them of these
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characters. Students then begin to participate in rehearsal activities and theatrical games that
open up the psychomotor domain. Lastly, students use their knowledge of the language and
characters that they have gained in the performance of scenes from the play they are working
with (Robinson, 1989, p. 6). The methods that seem to work best are those that, like Robinson’s,
incorporate a mixture of cognitive domain reading and comprehension mixed with psychomotor
activities that aid in, and promote, comprehension through body movement and expression. In
simple terms this method would be a mix of small group reading, whole group reading/
activities, and a method known as reader’s theatre.
The method that I feel works best is a method that is much like that of Robinson, and is
endorsed by some of the best teachers of Shakespeare that I know. The important thing to note
about this method is that it is a process. Each step in the process plays a role in building a bridge
from where the students are at the beginning of the Shakespeare unit and where they will be at
the end. Each step builds on the lessons that are learned and the new knowledge that is gained, in
the previous step and moves students toward the end goal of mastery of the text.
The teachers I have worked with consistently have positive results when using methods
like the one I will describe, and like Robinson’s method, the most important aspect of the method
is what happens first. The students are exposed to the language in a way that will make them
comfortable with it and the fear they have is crushed. The first activities that are done are the key
activities, because these activities are erasing all of the fear, negativity and preconceived biases
that the students bring to Shakespeare and associate with learning Shakespeare. It is the language
that scares the students. It is their belief that they can’t be successful, because they can’t
understand the language that is the foundation for their fears and their unwillingness to try. It is
the destruction of this fear and this negative belief that must happen first.
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After the fear of the language has been eliminated the teacher must then move into
making the students comfortable with using the language around their peers, and connections
must be made between the students and the text. Finding a way to give students ownership of a
difficult text, like Shakespeare, is a key to avoiding the disconnect that can happen. Once the
students can relate to the work and make the connections that will give them ownership, the
language will open up even more. Once students have taken ownership of the text and they have
confidence in their ability to understand the language, the real fun begins. Students can become
engulfed in the world of their characters, and will enjoy acting out scenes from the play as they
make the final connections that bridge the gap.
Whole Group Reading and Activities
In my experiences at The University of Akron, and at Redwheel High School, the most
important first step when working with Shakespeare in an AYA classroom is to expose the
students to the language of Shakespeare in a way that is both fun and low risk for the students.
This very basic introductory activity has had great success; this method was used at Redwheel
High School and, in my opinion, this activity is the best way to open students up to both
Shakespeare and his language. In America’s Unseen Kids (2008), Dr. Foster informs the reader
of how this basic introductory activity took its roots. Megan Nosol, now an accomplished
English teacher, was placed in the Shakespeare unit at Galway High School’s version of my own
experiences at Redwheel High School. Megan had horrible experiences with Shakespeare in the
past, and wanted to give her students the experience with Shakespeare that she had never had.
Dr. Foster says that Megan was in charge of introducing Shakespeare in an exciting and
captivating way, a way in which students would want to learn Shakespeare (Foster, 2008, p.77).
Dr. Foster reflects on Megan’s activity and how it came to be the most influential and amazing
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ice breaker and is used in the Shakespeare unit as a way to get students comfortable with the
Shakespearean language:
The year Megan participated in the project, she taught the first lesson in the Shakespeare
unit. She needed to introduce A Midsummer Night’s Dream captivatingly enough for the
kids to want to learn more. These eleventh graders had already been exposed to
Shakespeare and his plays. Chances were they loathed reading them, just as Megan had in
high school. So she wanted to give them a light-hearted, comical introduction that dealt
with the language and humor of the play and instantly sparked interest, enthusiasm, and
motivation. Taking ideas from Peggy O’ Brien, author of Shakespeare Set Free (1993),
and adapting O’Brien’s lessons to her own teaching style, Megan turned her fist lesson
into an Insult Improv game as a way to familiarize kids with the language and ease their
fears about standing up in front of an audience and reading difficult lines. (Foster, 2008,
77-78).
The activity that has resulted from this planning, looks like what is described in the
following: Students divide into two groups and stand on opposite sides of the classroom. Each
student is given a handout that has a list of Shakespearean insults on it. The two groups take
turns yelling Shakespearean insults at each other, and there is no risk involved in compromising
the adolescent’s self-esteem in front of their peers. This activity benefits the students because it
opens them up to the language that they “fear,” and it does so in a way that will not create
anxiety for the learner. The students at Redwheel High School seemed to really enjoy this
activity, and many of the students who were, for the most part, hesitant about attempting
Shakespeare seemed ready to at least give him a chance (Field Notebook, p.1). This activity can
even be used as a type of game in which the two sides are competing against each other. It is
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probably a good idea to notify surrounding teachers of the activity that will be occurring in the
classroom, if a competition type game is planned. At Redwheel High School the students
participated in the competition. Although most AYA students may not care about screaming
Shakespearean insults, they do enjoy screaming them at each other, such is the mindset of an
adolescent and it is the teacher’s job to keep the activity under control and to make sure that no
students self worth is compromised. Careful monitoring of the situation, as well as teacher
participation, makes the activity safe for all participants. I have never seen this activity go wrong
if monitored correctly.
The brilliant thing about this activity is that the students don’t realize they are being
exposed to something they have been told to fear. Half the battle in teaching Shakespeare is to
get past this first initial bias, and this activity is the most-student centered way of making this
first step happen. Reluctant students are shown right off the bat that Shakespeare is not all
serious and boring and that it can actually be very fun. Once the idea of fun and Shakespeare are
put together inside a student’s brain, the wheels begin to turn and Shakespeare can suddenly
become very interesting for AYA learners. Now that students are open to the idea and language
of Shakespeare, it’s time to get them to work in small groups to further develop language skills
and work on making characterization and connections.
Setting the Stage
What happens after the insult activity is absolutely crucial in the success or failure of the
teaching of Shakespeare, using this method, as a whole. Understanding main characters in a
Shakespearean work, is a critical part of understanding everything else that is going on in the
play. Dr. Foster had labeled a section is his book Americas Unseen Kids, as “Helping Kids
Access the Play.” This section details the activity that absolutely must take place after the insult
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improv in order for there to be success. There is a four step process that is the basis for this
section. Setting the stage for the students is absolutely a critical component. Dr. Foster describes
these four steps as:
1. Design bold, colorful nametags for each character, and ask students to wear a
character’s nametag (character assignments are determined in advance).
2. Divide the class into the major character groups in the play.
3. Explain how these groups interact in the play.
4. Tell the story while physically manipulating the characters.
Lead discussions about the major themes in the play, and work to establish early connections
between the themes of the play, and the student’s lives. (Foster, 2008, p. 83-84). By placing the
characters in front of the room, and by manipulating them as you tell the story, the auditory and
visual realms of learning are being ignited. Students can begin to visualize the relationships
between characters, and the characterization. This activity lays the foundation for the rest of the
unit, and helps the students create a solid foundation to build on. Once this foundation has been
laid, it is time to move on to the meat and potatoes of this unit.
Whole Group Reading
Whole group reading is exactly what it sounds like. The class, along with the teacher,
reads a section of the play and talks about it. For particularly difficult sections or acts, this
activity is a great way of making sure the students understand the plot and are following it. No
teacher wants any students falling off the boat due to a rather difficult scene to comprehend.
At Redwheel High School, whole group reading was used as a way of introducing the
play. After the “setting the stage activity,” the students read along with the teacher for the first
key scenes of act one. As it may appear, this part of the whole group reading is actually a hybrid
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between “whole group reading”, and “setting the stage.” This activity helped to take what the
students had just learned about the main characters, and put it into focus as the play begins. The
whole group reading also gives the teacher a chance to clear up any confusion that may still be
lingering on the part of the students.
Aside from using whole group reading as a means to build a bridge from the setting the
stage to the small group reading, it is also a good way to mix up the lesson and differentiate
instruction. Whole group reading is a good method to use in order to mix it up a bit. Giving
students the night off from reading, and taking care of it during class the next day is a good way
to give students that break that they sometimes need from reading homework. Also, whole group
reading lets the teacher know that all of the students are practicing and understanding the
language of the play that is being worked on. If the teacher is still unsure of the comfort level of
the students with the language, they may opt to have the class read aloud together for a few
sections. This should provide the final leap necessary to gets students reading Shakespeare aloud
in front of their peers. Now that the foundation has been laid, it is time to build the bridge that
will connect the students’ new found knowledge of Shakespearean language with the plot, the
characters, and their lives.
Next Step: Small Group Reading/ Character Building
Small group reading is the next step in the method that has good results when
used with Shakespeare. However, small group reading can’t be overused or it will become very
boring for students. This activity works best if used immediately following whole group readings
as a means to scaffold or as a break during the unit from whatever other methods are being used
in collaboration with whole group reading (Field Notebook, p.1).
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Before using small group reading, it is important to tell students that Shakespearean
language is very difficult and that stumbling over words is “OK.” Some students will be hesitant
to begin the activity, but this step is a very important step toward increasing students’ comfort
level with the difficult Shakespearean language. Students are broken up into small groups and
practice reading a very small section of the play. The teacher, who should know their students
best, will have a good idea of how to jigsaw groups so that there is a good mix of all levels and
types of learners in each small group. These groups that the students have been divided into will
serve as the groups they will stay in. Each group is assigned a specific act, and when the time
comes, and these acts are performed, it will be these groups that will be acting them out.
The role of the teacher during the small group activity is crucial. The teacher must be
actively involved, and must be assessing the progress of the individual groups as the activity is
taking place. This is the midway activity in bringing the fear out of adolescent learners in their
use of the language of Shakespeare. It is absolutely necessary that each student, in each of the
small groups, practices the language of Shakespeare in front of their small group. It is the job of
the teacher, not the individual students, to ensure that everyone in the small groups is equally
engaged and working. Once students have worked with the language in their small groups, there
will be much less anxiety about working as a whole class with the material.
Character Development
Character development is a very important part of this process. In the next step, students
will be broken off into groups where they will be acting as a group or in front of the class.
Therefore, the final step before this mastery and performance is the students have to make
connections to the characters. By this point the students have a good grasp on the language and
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have, for the most part, taken ownership of it. Ownership of the text is the last step to making the
connection that teachers want to see between their students and the text. The students have to be
able to find something from the text that is relevant to their lives in order to be able to make this
final, and possibly most important, connection.
There is a character from Shakespeare in all of us. We have all loved and lost, betrayed a
friend or been betrayed, felt wronged, or tricked, and it is these human conditions that we
connect with, and it is these connections that bring Shakespeare to life. Helping students find the
relation between themselves and a character, or characters, in a text can be the most important
step in bringing the play to life.
There are a number of different activities that I have seen work when helping students
make connections with their characters. Robinson uses an activity that helps students make
connections with the characters in the scenes they are studying by comparing them to people in
their lives. Robinson says that he lets the students “…discuss the motives of the characters who
appear in those scenes, and they can compare those characters with real people who are
important to their everyday lives” (Robinson, 1989, p. 6).
Getting students to connect characters to themselves or to people in their own lives is, in
my opinion, the most crucial aspect of getting students to connect with the plays. There are a
wide variety of activities that can be used to help students make this connection. The first
activity that works extremely well with students is to have them make a character poster. The
second activity is to actually have the students pick out props and dress up like a character that
they feel they relate to. The last activity is to have students write about a new character that they
or the class has come across in that day’s reading or activities.
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Character posters are an amazing way to get students visualizing the characters that they
connect with or enjoy. The teacher primes this lesson by stating that each time one of
Shakespeare’s plays is read, the characters are brought to life in a new way by each person who
reads the play. The teacher can then show an example of this by showing the students a few
different variations of dress and look of one specific character through a few different
productions of that play. After priming the students in this way, the students are more open to
being creative with their character posters. Students then make posters with a self drawn picture
of the character, and a description of why they character looks the way they do. At Redwheel
High School, the results of this activity were not only amazing from an activity standpoint, but
the students made all of the teachers laugh with their modern or silly interpretations of the
characters they liked or connected with in some way. The activity itself serves the point of
getting the students engaged in the world of Shakespeare, connecting them with the text, and
providing motivation for the enjoyment of the work by letting them have fun with Shakespeare.
Sometimes all it takes is an activity like this for reluctant students to give Shakespeare a chance.
Writing about characters is a great way to get students connecting with the
Shakespearean work and characters they are working with. In “Decentering the Instructor in
Large Classes” (1993), Robert Carl Johnson says that he lets students do one minute papers at
the end of a lesson where they can “offer an interpretation of a scene or character from a play we
have just started to read” (Johnson, p. 191). Johnsons’ idea is to get students reflecting on the
work and the characters. Students can make connections when they are writing and they are
applying the scenes and characters to the world they live in. When this activity was being done at
Redwheel High School I remember a student saying “Oh this character reminds me of my
brother.” Once that connection is made the play and character comes to life for the students.
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Shakespeare’s characters are universal and everyone will connect with one of them in some way.
Using this writing activity as a way to help make this connection should be an essential tool in
developing characters as the unit progresses.
Props Activity
The props activity is an amazing activity, and can be done as a precursor to the
Shakespeare performance. The activity can be done during the lesson when scenes are being
acted out, or it can be done on a random day when students really need a spark. Every teacher
needs to understand that Shakespeare is a play, and therefore, should be acted out at parts or as a
whole. Teachers should be well prepared with a box, or in the case at Redwheel, a trunk, some
boxes, and tons of bags, filled with props. The students have already acted out some scenes in
class, and are working toward the big performance that can be put on at the end of the unit in
order to tie everything together. Students have already developed an interest in a specific
character or two by this point or have been assigned a character and have worked with this
character in some way to make a connection. The students are placed into small jigsaw groups
with like characters or in groups with the scenes they will be acting out. Each group is allowed to
come and look through the props and find out what props they feel best suit their characters, or
the character that they connect with. This activity was done at Redwheel High School, and I have
never seen such excitement displayed by students toward an activity related to Shakespeare. The
students are excited; they are up and active; and, they are using their creativity to connect
Shakespeare’s characters to themselves and their lives.
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Learning through Doing-Reader’s Theatre
The last step of creating student understanding and comprehension of difficult
Shakespearean texts, comes from a very fun activity that gets students not only thinking, but
doing. In high school, my teacher Mr. Rock used a form of this method, which he and I both
learned from Dr. Harold Foster, at The University of Akron. Reader’s Theatre, or methods like
Reader’s Theatre, allow the students to act out Shakespeare’s plays, or parts of those plays, that
are crucial for students to fully grasp a complete understanding of the plays. In his book
Crossing Over: Teaching Meaning-Centered Secondary English Language Arts (2002), Dr.
Harold Foster notes that the idea for reader’s theatre came to him as a last ditch effort:
I called it an in-school field trip, taking my ninth graders to the cavernous and empty
school auditorium. I was a new teacher, and I had just about lost all hope of doing
anything worthwhile with Julius Caesar (sic.). I tried everything I could think of from
class readings, to text explications, to history lectures. Whatever I did with the play fell
flat on my docile students. This was it—my last effort. My students were given a chance
to put on the play, performing scenes for each other on a large stage in an empty
auditorium.
After much reticence, my students started getting into it. They were enjoying themselves,
I noticed, hesitant to get too excited. Furthermore, they seemed to understand what they
were doing. With some help from me, the words of Shakespeare were making sense to
them. It turned out to be a great day for me, one of the first successes I had as a new
teacher. I had found the power of teaching drama through performance. (Foster, 2002,
p.99)
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The idea was raw in its beginning, but it has now evolved to include all of the
components that were listed above. What started off as a last ditch effort has now reached the
point of near perfection in its practice. The idea of having students act out Shakespeare was
probably imagined even before the epiphany of Dr. Foster. However, it takes daring and creative
teachers to make this vision a reality. What happened that day in that empty school auditorium
had opened the door for a new take on the instruction of Shakespeare.
Reader’s Theatre, or activities like it, are done in the middle of lectures, or as a whole
performance at the end of a Shakespeare unit, as a means of clarifying the material. Students who
are not “actors” follow along in their books. Students who are engaged both in the cognitive
domain and in the psychomotor domain will have a much better understanding of the play they
are acting out, and the students that are watching are visually engaged by what they see, and they
are cognitively engaged as they process and make connections with what they are reading.
When done as a whole class experience, the performance at the end of the unit is an
amazing thing to see. The whole class is piled into an auditorium or gym, and the groups ae up in
front of the class acting out their individual scenes. Parents, administrators, younger classes, and
even other teachers attend the performance. At Redwheel, the experience was extremely positive,
and even after a few speed bumps on the day of, the performance was a huge success, and the
students made the connections. It was evident in the way they acted out their scenes, portrayed
their characters, and took the scenes, the characters, and the play, and made it their own.
Joseph Rock is a high school English teacher, at a small private high school, in the
suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. In Mr. Rock’s classroom he uses props and reader’s theatre as well.
Mr. Rock does not have students perform a large scale performance, but every day that
Shakespeare is being taught, he has props ready so that the scenes can be acted out in front of the
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class (Field Notebook, p.1). Mr. Rock feels that the props help to set the scene, and it gets the
students more excited about the characters and about the play. Props can also be used to set the
mood. Mr. Rock will bring in his fog machine for the opening scene of Macbeth. As the students
actors are walking toward the witches, the lights are off or flashing in the classroom, and the fog
machine is going. This type of scene setting helps all of the students to visualize and understand
what is really going on, the mood is set, the characters are right in front of them, and the students
love it.
Mr. Rock has had great success with this method. Mr. Rock says that he believes “…they
remember it more; it’s not meant to be read; it’s meant to be seen” (Field Notebook, p. 2). Mr.
Rock has seen how this type of method leaves a strong imprint in the learner’s mind and the
connections that the students make with the plays are strong enough that they stick and the
students’ performance on formal and informal assessments are excellent.
David Kennedy Sauer and Evelyn Tribble believe that teaching Shakespeare in a
performance-based style has very real advantages for students. In their article “Shakespeare in
Performance: Theory in Practice and Practice in Theory”(1999), Sauer and Tribble make it clear
that they feel that there is a very important part of Shakespeare that can be missed if not
performed: “At its most basic, performance theory insists on the primacy of the stage; the
Shakespearean text is not a poem to be interrogated for its themes, its symbolism, its imagery,
but a script…” (Sauer and Tribble, p. 35).
In the times of Shakespeare, his plays were put on at the Globe Theatre. There were live
actors who played out the roles in his plays. Could the people of that time understand
Shakespeare’s plays if they didn’t see them, but instead were only able to read them? The
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answer to this question would first have to take into effect whether or not the people could
actually read, and were educated. However, the people at the time that Shakespeare was alive
would probably have a very hard time visualizing the plays. If people over four hundred years
ago would struggle trying to explicate these plays through reading, then how can we expect the
students in our classrooms today to even begin to be able to do this? Teachers seem to forget
that Shakespeare’s works are indeed plays, and that bringing a play to life, is the most effective
way to get students motivated, interested, and comprehending. Sauer and Tribble said that the
performance of acts and whole Shakespearean plays “…allows one both to externalize character
and to see the character not as a problem but as a series of words and gestures to which
coherence is given based on a preexisting set of assumptions. As the students become aware of
that, they will be able to see interpretations as a contingent yet not arbitrary enterprise” (Sauer
and Tribble, 45). Sauer and Tribble are noting that once students make connections with
characters, the play begins to open up and interpret itself for the students. The benefit of the
performance-based process, is that the students see the characters they have been visualizing,
they are able to be the characters they have been visualizing, and they develop connections to the
characters that bring Shakespeare into their lives. Once this process is at work, the text opens up
for the students and the students actually begin to enjoy Shakespeare. Reader’s theatre is the
ultimate activity for providing this “real life” visual of the characters, plot, and the themes that
the students will connect with.
In reader’s theatre, the students are up, they are channeling the built up energy from
sitting in a desk all day, and they are learning at the same time. The great thing about reader’s
theatre, when done as part of the lesson, is that it allows the students who are not comfortable in
front of their peers to watch and read along, and it allows those students who can’t stand to be in
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a desk for another second, an opportunity to get some of that energy out in a way that benefits
themselves and their classmates. As is noted in Crossing Over (2002), a learning environment
that is inclusive of all learning types and needs is created in this method and the results that I
have seen, as well as those that Mr. Rock and Dr. Foster have seen, are a testament to the success
of this method. It is working!
Theory in Practice: A Second Example
Each May, Dr. Foster takes a group of daring University of Akron students to a suburban
middle school in an effort to teach the Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night’s Dream using
reader’s theatre. What is different about this experience, as compared to the Redwheel High
School experience is the rigor of the program. At Redwheel High School, the Shakespeare
reader’s theatre takes place as unit. The unit covers a span of about two weeks, with daily
activities and line rehearsal leading up to the culminating performance on the final day. What
happens in May at the suburban middle school is a totally different story.
I will call the suburban middle school East Middle School for purposes of this
explanation. East has students that are well prepared for the reader’s theatre activity, and the
students must write and convince a teacher that they are both prepared and able to handle the
rigor, effort, and maturity needed to achieve the goal. East Middle School students will take part
in all the activities found in the normal Shakespeare unit (introduction to the play and characters,
breaking into groups, learning the play, and then performing the play). All of this will take place
in one single school day! Although it may sound impossible, it is not, and it works.
The argument here is for the validity and practicality of the reader’s theatre method. If a
group of well-prepared middle school students can successfully perform all aspects of the
reader’s theatre for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in one day, then, learners at any
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level should be able to successfully participate in a unit based reader’s theatre which would
cover a span of weeks.
What is most important about the success of the reader’s theatre Shakespeare unit, is not
that the students are fluent in Shakespearean language coming into the unit (surely this is not
possible in most, if not all cases). What is most important is that the students are well prepared
and that the lessons and mini lesson are well thought out and are focused to bridge the gap in the
zone of proximal development (ZPD) for the students. The project is risky, and this is why it
takes a daring teacher and a well prepared teacher to undertake the task. Teachers must be able to
bridge the gap at the beginning of the unit or the unit will flop.
In Crossing Over (2002), Dr. Foster does a case study with a teacher named Anne
Jackson. Anne Jackson teaches the reader’s theatre to her 12 th grade class, and Dr. Foster quotes
her reflection of the reader’s theatre Shakespeare unit:
There is no question that this is a difficult and risky project. But the rewards are
immense. Although Anne believes she could fail with this, it has never happened. Anne
knows that any student-centered activity has the potential to fail because students have so
much power over the activity. But the alternative is bleak—teacher centered learning, an
oxymoron in Anne’s mind.
“I create a structure at the beginning of this project which serves as a bridge for my
students to get them over their initial fear and confusion with a complex work like A
Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Anne says. “The beginning of this project is very
controlled, but my students will soon be released to interpret the play any way they wish.
But had I said at the beginning, ‘Put the play on. You’re on your own,’ my students
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would have floundered. Most need the initial teacher direction into the student centered
part.”
“Students are empowered to create their own interpretations. My structure at the
beginning is to make the empowerment possible. As they state in their writings to me, my
students have an ownership of this work by the end of this project,” Anne says proudly.
(Foster, 2002, p. 111-116)
Anne’s reflection states what is most critical about this project. The teacher must
be able to make the connections that the students need at the very beginning of this project; the
teacher has to be able to eliminate that fear and the bias that students have toward Shakespeare.
The only effective way of doing this is to prepare in an appropriate manner. There is a reason for
the Shakespearean insult activity and there is a reason for the “setting the stage activity.” These
activities are scaffolding techniques intricately and surgically placed into the project to occur at
the specific times that they do. These activities eliminate fear, quell confusion, and give students
the confidence that they can do this, that this is not an impossible task and that they can make
connections with a play that is hundreds of years old. “Anne did not demand one interpretation,
or one set, or one meaning. She challenged them by using a difficult text and helped them
overcome language problems, but she allowed them their collective transactions. They created
this text, and this text became part of their lives” (Foster, 2002, p. 119).
By effectively presenting the opening of the play Anne set the stage for the students to
make the connections, and to grab hold of the text. Each student brings their own experiences
and background to the text and recreates it for themselves. As they read the text, the students
became one with the scenes, the characters, and the themes. The students took this work and
made it a part of their lives.
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Yes, there are risks in this type of project, and yes, the risk is worth taking. To open up
the future generations to the timeless works of Shakespeare, the risk will always be worth taking.
To create a love and passion for a hundred year old playwright, to connect to characters and
themes that have become timeless, and to take a little piece of knowledge, and to add it to the
hearts of students, making them better people just by reading a play…that’s what it’s about. This
is the aim of this project, and when this project is done the correct way, that is what is given to
students.
Conclusion
The research done on this project, and the observations made over the course of a year,
has allowed me to make the definitive statement that this is the best method for teaching
Shakespeare to AYA students. Old methods such as listening to recordings, or simply reading
aloud, or reading along as the teacher reads aloud, are what created the negative opinions and
biases that our students greet Shakespeare with when they encounter him in their learning. By
using a new method that incorporates some of the old with much more interactive instructional
techniques, teachers can work to change the idea of Shakespeare among our youth. Each group
that has a positive experience due to this method will help to change the view of the students
following them, and in future generations.
The basis of the method described is to mix the old and the new. Keep reading in large
groups; keep listening to the occasional audio player (it could be fun…maybe once); but mix in
the character development activities; mix in the language learning at the beginning; make sure to
introduce the plays and “set the stage” so that students can visualize the relationships between
characters; and, let the students do what they do best and channel their energy in performance.
The key to getting students to want to learn Shakespeare is to take away the fear. Moving from
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language development to characterization, and then on to performance helps the students develop
the connections needed to understand Shakespeare in their lives. Once this happens, the students
see why Shakespeare matters to them today, and then the battle can be won.
Slowly but surely, English teachers can help to change the image that has made
Shakespeare a feared and dreaded experience for most AYA learners, by using the reader’s
theatre methods and other methods found effective in this research for building educational
bridges, as they pertain to Shakespeare. Once this bias has been eliminated, teachers will have a
much easier time focusing more on the timeless themes of Shakespeare with students who are
excited and engaged in what they are learning. This is how all learning should be, and with this
method, Shakespeare can be exciting as well.
Will this method always work? I don’t know. There are always differences in the learning
style and background of student that may affect the outcome of an attempt with this method. Do I
believe that, if done correctly, this method can work at any school? Yes. I have seen enough to
know that there is a universal trend that is engrained in the instruction of this method that will
make it successful. That universal trend is that this method is as student-centered as you can
possibly get with Shakespeare instruction while still having a hold of what the students are doing
and being able to monitor their progress, comprehension, and overall experience. As long as a
unit like this is student-centered the probability for success will always be great.
Like those behind us, and those in front of us along the educational timeline, we must be
willing to change. There will be new adaptations to this method, new ideas that will be presented
to make this instructional method even more successful. What matters is that these changes
remain within the spectrum of doing the most for the students. As long as the connections are
made between the work and the students, as long co-creation exists, and ownership is taken, it
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does not matter how much this method changes; what matters is that the students will always
find a relevance in the works, and a deeper meaning for their lives. With this goal always in
mind, Shakespeare will become a loved aspect of the educational process. With teachers like Dr.
Foster, Joseph Rock, Megan Nosol, and those up-and-coming teachers who are bold enough to
try, the possibilities of what this method can do in the classroom is endless. This method will
become a successful script played out over and over again, to a room of students from a teacher
who wants to make a difference. Indeed, the entire world will be like a stage and the teachers and
students but actors in a larger process, working toward a greater success and understanding of the
works of Shakespeare and the relevance to the life we all live.
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Reference
Bohnak, C. (2011). Field Notebook.
Davis, J.E., & Salamone, R.E. (Eds.). (1993). Teaching Shakespeare Today: Practical
Approaches and Productive Strategies. Illinois: National Council Teachers of
English.
Foster, Dr. H. & Nosol, M. (2008). America’s Useen Kids. New Hampshire: Heinemann.
Foster, Dr. H. (2002). Crossing Over: Teaching Meaning-Centered Secondary English
Language Arts. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Johnson, R. C. (1993). “Decentering the Instructor in Large Classes.” In Davis, J.E., &
Salamone, R.E. (Eds.). (1993). Teaching Shakespeare Today: Practical
Approaches and Productive Strategies (pp190-196). Illinois: National Council
Teachers of English.
Marder, L. (1964, April). “Teaching Shakespeare: Is There a Method?” College English,
25(7), 479-487.
Riggio, M.C. (Ed.). (1999). Teaching Shakespeare through Performance. New York:
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Robinson, R. (1989). Unlocking Shakespeare’s Language: Help for the Teacher and
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Sauer, D.A., & Tribble, E. (1999). “Shakespeare in Performance: Theory in Practice and
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through Performance (pp.33-47). New York: Modern Language Association of
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Veidemanis, G. V. “Some ‘Basics’ in Shakespearean Study.” In J. E. Davis & R.E.
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Salamone (Eds.), Teaching Shakespeare Today: Practical Approaches and
Productive Strategies (pp. 3-13). Illinois: National Council Teachers of English.