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…

For the last several years, teacher-researchers Jessica Jasper, Laura Dvorak, Steven Athanases, and Sergio Sanchez have partnered with a program called Globe Education, Shakespeare's Globe London. Practitioners in the program use teaching practices that engage learners with Shakespeare's works and other complex texts through drama practices. Jess…

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 scouring the earliest editions of "English Journal," one of the most fascinating details one uncovers is that the issues facing Shakespeare teachers today are similar to those issues that faced Shakespeare teachers 100 years ago. The earliest contributors to "English Journal" were far more in line with contemporary educational scholars than one…

Shakespeare molded language to meet his needs. Can students learn from his example? In this article, the author suggests studying Shakespeare's creative use of functional shift, spelling, and vocabulary to help students develop greater control of their own writing. The author is advocating that teachers approach Shakespeare as descriptive…

In this article, the author shows that Shakespeare exhibits artistic mastery in the way he cleverly interweaves rhyme throughout his plays, effectively manipulating how audiences view the action onstage. She also demonstrates how educators need to help students discover the intricacies of rhyme in the plays to learn to navigate through…

While it may be true that different interpretations of Shakespeare's words elicit varied responses, Shakespeare's popularity in Renaissance England was due in large part to his ability to appeal to a socially and educationally diverse audience. Shakespeare knew what it took to fill the seats. To encourage appreciation of Shakespeare's universal…

One way of understanding the impact of the (re)emergence of a performance approach to teaching Shakespeare's plays that was, in part, initiated by the "Shakespeare Set Free" program and the books its creators composed is to say that for many teachers their work initiated the process of making performance activities central in English classrooms.…

In this article, three students share how performing in Shakespearean plays have helped them appreciate his work. Orubba Almansouri describes how acting out the play "Romeo and Juliet" allowed him to understand the whole story better. While rehearsing and performing "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Aram S. Balian became a true Shakespeare fan,…

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…

The author does not really like "Hamlet." He loves the play, the language, and the characters, but always finds it difficult to teach. Part of this is because he prefers to assign students scenes to perform as they read a Shakespeare text, but Hamlet does not divide nicely into manageable scenes, and he usually does not have enough teenage Ken…

In 2006, the author returned to school after completing the Teaching Shakespeare Institute at the Folger Library inspired with new performance-based ideas for teaching the plays. The author began to wonder about using Shakespeare as a vehicle for investigating "rich and strange" language with English Language Learners (ELLs). The author began by…

Dan recently turned 13; Nick will soon be 12. Both boys are smart and fun; both are loving, write like angels, like to learn, and want friends; both are autistic and hope to learn to speak. They find it challenging to relate to and function in this world, and they work hard to improve their abilities to do so. Last fall, Nick and Dan became…

Author gives specific suggestions to high school teachers; he feels that pairing the two plays offers additional valuable insights into each. (Author/SP)