Teacher-researcher, Katherine Macro spent six weeks observing an eleventh-grade Advanced Placement and Composition class at Sunnybrooke Central High School to examine the teacher's use of creative drama to teach Shakespeare. In this article, Macro describes ways the instructor used theater-based instructional strategies, especially a staged…

Teacher lack of knowledge outside British and American literature is a major obstacle in teaching World Literature. This article offers the experiences of three teachers teaching the Bhagavad Gita and suggests ways to overcome lack of teacher knowledge when reading cross-culturally.

Teaching British literature with a traditional curriculum does not offer students exposure to many females at all, either inside or outside of the text. There are female characters within many of the classic texts in the curriculum, but on further examination, we questioned the general picture of womanhood painted by them. So the authors showed…

This article examines how to use performance-related resources to teach research skills. In particular, it focuses on Shakespeare's "Othello" and argues that linking research and performance helps students put their ideas in conversation with other sources to articulate research-based arguments about a text.

In this article Deidre Faughey shares an experimental classroom project that she developed with a diverse group of students in three ninth-grade English Language Arts (ELA) classes. Podcasts provide a unique opportunity for students to embrace experimentation and to take risks with their own voices, explore the school building and community, and…

In Elizabeth A. Dagrosa Harris' high school English classroom, the writing assignment that inspires the most dread in her students is the literary criticism paper, a common assessment usually assigned in the second semester of the British literature curriculum. This assignment is grounded in solid and time-tested standards that describe research…

Performance-based activities and creative projects with technology that focus on Shakespeare's language are powerful developmental tools for students to express and extend thoughts and feelings from their lives. Shakespeare becomes a toy chest and a toolset that allows students to live in situations they never could and to express language they…

Though classroom time is an adventure of its own, it is when working with the Carlisle High School Shakespeare Troupe, an extracurricular acting company, that the author most consistently and happily experiences this illusion of indefinite time. She has been working steadily with the troupe since the fall of 1984, and the troupe has produced a…

In this chapter from his forthcoming book, Tom Romano reflects on the zigzag path that he has followed in making a life for himself in teaching.

Gustave Weltsek, a high school English teacher, has turned to process "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to avoid passing on traditional views and interpretations of the play. He has helped the students to see relevance in William Shakespeare's text by using improvisations to get them talking about issues that are important to them.

Claudia Klein Felske, a high school English teacher, has created a vital dramatic experience in the classroom with the help of a guest workshop leader. The three activities, such as how to read William Shakespeare, Metaphor Theater and character cacophony, which helped students to experience the intensity of language and discover ramifications of…