Shakespeare, Our Contemporary
The Antony and Cleopatra project is going well. Yesterday, I used the play to help the sixth-grade students make connections to present-day world events. Antony and Cleopatra takes place in the first...
View ArticleGoogleplex – 1/16/11
I subscribe to a service called “SiteMeter” which allows me to see a limited amount of information about my visitors. One thing that I can see is if someone finds my site via a Google search, and what...
View ArticleSalad Days
The sixth-graders I’m working with are studying figurative language now, so we looked at figurative language in a scene from Antony and Cleopatra. They enjoyed the “salad days” metaphor, and the...
View ArticleDigital Shakespeare Update
I met with my middle-school classes on Thursday. They have finished reading the plays, and we were able put together plans for our Digital Shakespeare projects. Plans may change, and who knows what...
View ArticleMay the Fourth…
…be with you. Today is Star Wars Day, and Shakespeare Geek and Bardfilm made sure that Shakespeare got in on the action. For my contribution… No, I’m not going to compare Luke Skywalker to Hamlet, at...
View ArticleConnecting Students with the Language
Just as we make Shakespeare more relevant to our students by drawing modern-day connections to his plots and characters, so too can we use the elements of today’s world to make connections to his...
View ArticleTop Ten Shakespeare Retrochronisms
Don’t worry if you don’t know what a retrochronism is. I just made the word up. But feel free to throw it around at the dinner table and the water cooler; it’s a thing now. Let’s say an author from an...
View ArticleEating Ambrosia on Mount Olympus
As the year is winding down, I’m looking back over the last twelve months of Shakespeare Teacher to prepare for the annual Top Ten Posts list, which will be up tomorrow. I admit that this has not been...
View ArticleShakespeare and the Common Core
Across the United States, education is undergoing a sea-change (into something rich and strange) surrounding the adoption of something called the Common Core State Standards. Standards are simply a...
View ArticleIn the Zone
As we begin implementing the Common Core State Standards this year, many of the schools I advise are having very similar problems with grade-level readiness. This isn’t a new problem, to be sure, but...
View ArticleShakespeare Uncovered Website
I promised to let you know when the Shakespeare Uncovered website was up. It is, and it’s a fantastic resource all Shakespeare teachers should know about. First of all, you can actually watch full...
View ArticleCleopatra’s Facebook
Last night, PBS and the Folger Shakespeare Library hosted a Twitter party, a real-time online conversation about teaching Shakespeare with experts from the Folger and teachers from across the country....
View ArticleThe Wager
The year was 2002. I was teaching an advanced graduate course on Shakespeare, and I chose to give my final exam as a take-home. The questions included true/false, short answer, extended response, and...
View ArticleBook: That Shakespeare Kid by Michael LoMonico
“Why can’t you remember your Shakespeare and forget the third-raters,” James Tyrone asks his son Edmund in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night. “You’ll find what you’re trying to say in him...
View ArticleShakespeare Clickbait
How far should we go to get people to read Shakespeare? I say we do whatever it takes. You may also enjoy these stories: The secret herb that will make women fall for you… INSTANTLY! | The one shocking...
View ArticleA Good Pairing
Last week, I was working with a Shakespeare teacher who was looking for ways to help students better appreciate the language. He liked the idea of using song lyrics, and Usher’s “More” in particular....
View ArticleTeach Along with the Frozen Soundtrack
So, you want to teach your students about literary devices, but they’re too preoccupied with the music from Disney’s Frozen? If so, this post is for you. The Frozen soundtrack is actually full of...
View ArticleFamily Trees for Shakespeare’s Histories
My monthly Shakespeare reading group is gearing up to do the history plays. For the next eight months, starting this Sunday, we’re going to be working our way through the two tetralogies. Shakespeare,...
View ArticleSea Change
The cruise is now nearing the half-way mark. Because we spent our first full day at sea, I’ve already given three of my four talks on Shakespeare. I’ll post more details about those in a later thread....
View ArticleHow NOT To Hate Shakespeare
In this October 2016 TED talk, Shakespearean actor and educator Rob Crisell makes a passionate argument for Shakespeare, for teaching Shakespeare, and for teaching Shakespeare through performance....
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