Teaching Shakespeare -- how to start?

I was contemplating this very question in the back of my mind somewhere, and I ran across this blog and magazine. Looks interesting...

What's So Great About Shakespeare? by Linda Johnson As a young mother, I wasn’t convinced that Shakespeare was worth studying, at least not by children. After all, his plays had bawdy jokes, frequent love-making and his personal life had some serious flaws. However, over time, as I studied Shakespeare’s plays and researched his influence upon the Englishspeaking world, I began to feel that my children would have quite a gap in their understanding of our world if I neglected Shakespeare. I would have to be careful how I approached it, guarding their little hearts while introducing them to yet another medium that reveals the human condition. Here are Some Reasons Why We Study Shakespeare. He is responsible for adding some 2000 words and phrases to the English language and his plays provide a comprehensive and thoughtful look at the human condition, dealing with the virtues of men as well as their vices - love, faithfulness, greed, honesty, selfishness, mercy, lust, power and justice are just a few. As we study his plays, we understand ourselves better. His plays deal with the consequences of sin and yet Shakespeare is very liberal in showing mercy. I believe this is a very important theme in his works. Macbeth, although one of his darkest plays, reveals the power of unconfessed sin and its ability to destroy not just one, but many lives. It also exposes the dangers of witchcraft. His inspiration comes from historical events, mythological tales, and Biblical passages. He often refers to Christ, His teachings and other Biblical characters and morals. All of these sources are a vital part of our history. His plays provide rich fodder for meaningful discussions. They have intricate plots with many twists and turns, providing an excellent exercise in logic. His poetry is profound. Shakespeare and the sonnet go hand in hand. Lastly, they are thoroughly entertaining and stimulate the imagination. Shakespeare’s plays, however, were obviously not written for young children, so why introduce them to a child? We all know that most high-school-aged students today do not enjoy studying Shakespeare. I believe this is partly due to the fact that teachers expect understanding, enjoyment and analysis to occur in a single lesson. The student did not have enough time to develop an appreciation for the stories and the beautiful language. However, if you introduce children to the plays using expurgated versions in story form adapted especially for children, they will have developed an understanding of the stories and an appreciation for them by the time they are old enough to explore the important themes in greater detail. It is evident that parents and educators from earlier times understood this. If you have read classic children’s literature, you will notice that the authors assumed the child reader was familiar with Shakespeare. Often, the characters named their pets after a person in one of his plays and the children acted out some of the tales in their backyards. Puck of Pooks Hill by Richard Kipling is a good example of this as well as books by Elizabeth Enright. Parents and educators understood the importance of familiarizing the children with the Bard slowly and gently. They were introduced to Shakespeare at an early age with copies of Edith Nesbit’s “Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare” or “Tales from Shakespeare” by Charles and Mary Lamb. Fortunately, these delightful books are regaining popularity among homeschoolers today and can even be found online and free of charge. Some Caveats to Consider Shakespeare does misbehave at times, but fortunately, the Elizabethan English veils such innuendos quite well and they pass unnoticed by the children. For this reason, I recommend that you do not use modern versions of the plays unless you plan to edit. Not all of his works are suitable for young people so you will have to be careful and do a little research. Generally, his comedies are more appropriate for younger children while his tragedies and histories may be saved for older children. It’s helpful to know that ‘lovers’ and ‘love-making’ are frequently used but this did not have the same meaning in the past as it does today. It referred to the attraction between two people and not the act of union, itself. Although the characters are adults, the stories are often unrealistic and very silly. They cause my children to scoff at the nonsense rather than produce an attraction for the opposite sex. In Our Home My children look forward to our weekly Shakespeare sessions. When they are seven or eight years old, I read aloud Nesbit’s “Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare” once a week, taking two weeks to complete a tale. We do this leisurely throughout the year. Shakespeare’s plays often have intricate plots, so in order to keep the characters straight in our minds, I divide a dry erase board into about 8 large grid squares and draw simple stick figures of the main characters as they are introduced. Then I jot down the first name of each character above each figure. My children do the same on their clipboards, dividing a piece of paper into squares and drawing their own stick figures. Young writers only write the first letter of each character’s name in each of their boxes. This simple method is quick and effective in introducing the story. The children get to use their hands while I read and don’t feel pressure to produce an artistic masterpiece. Sometimes, using Charlotte Mason’s narration methods, I let the children retell a portion of the story using paper dolls or popsicle sticks with the characters puttied<> Older children, who are now familiar with the stories, are each given their own personal copy of a play. Together, we read aloud the play to each other, each of us assuming the role of a character or two. This takes several weeks to complete as I only allow about 15 minutes per week for this. Remember, ‘small bites.’ We don’t worry about understanding all the vocabulary but we keep a dictionary nearby. We don’t analyze, just enjoy the play, and of course, spontaneous natural discussions occur too. If I can find an appropriate movie version of the play, then<> By high school, my students are thoroughly acquainted with the story line of several Shakespearean plays and enjoy reading and talking about them. They are now ready to explore the deeper ideas behind the tales. I hand them a copy of “Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide to Six Shakespeare Plays” and over the next few years, they read several tragedies and histories along with Mr. Leithart’s insightful commentary and challenging questions. They may watch one of the recommended movies for older students found at the end of each chapter or attend a local play production. We have found that when we studied Shakespeare’s plays in small, manageable bites, it was not only an easy and enjoyable family exercise but richly rewarding in many ways. Most importantly, it prepared the children for a deeper appreciation of humankind’s common struggles, and only after understanding is attained can wisdom be gained. Well known educator, Charlotte Mason summed up the Bard’s message aptly when she wrote: “Shakespeare was as great a philosopher as he was a poet. That’s what he set out to teach us in every line. His characters ‘Leontes,’ ‘Othello,’ ‘Lear,’ ‘Prospero,’ ‘Brutus,’ demonstrate the same thing: that a man’s reason will try to bring infallible proofs to any notion that a person decides to take up. There’s no shortcut and no way around it; the art of life takes a long time to learn.” Linda Johnson is a former public school teacher who has spent the last 11 years homeschooling her four children while living in the Middle East with her husband, a professional translator. She currently resides in East Texas.

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