How teachers can use such materials as parallel-text editions, graphic novels, and film adaptations to increase students' understanding of and interest in Shakespeare was the impetus for a classroom action research project that examined the effects of teaching methods on student comprehension and engagement. The author of this article…

Argues that the 1996 film of "Romeo and Juliet" (starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Claire Danes, and transposed to inner-city gang culture) is a gripping presentation of Shakespeare's story of star-crossed lovers in an impulsive, hot-headed, violent world. Suggests that the film is practically guaranteed to make students love Shakespeare.…

Gives responses of 12 practicing teachers to the question, "What is your favorite modern transformation of a literary classic?" Provides citations, summaries, and overviews of the works. (HB)

Contrasts the complaints of a class of gifted students about Dickens' novel "A Tale of Two Cities" with their teacher's discomfort at sitting through the long and tedious movie "Brazil." (NKA)

Shows how to help students fill in textual "gaps" to interact more fully with contemporary texts, classics, and myths. Presents examples of this approach for studying (1) Shakespeare's "Hamlet" with Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"; and (2) George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" with the…